32 posts tagged “holidays”

• recently my friend paulie took me to the coldplay concert in anaheim.  we had a great time and the show was beyond amazing.  i would see them again in a heartbeat.  i loved the laser lights and it was all very visual and made the music come to life.

i spent most of saturday morning putting some of the xmas stuff away.  i started with one room at a time because i didn't want to overwhelm myself.  hubby went for a hike so it was just me and roxy.  after a couple hours and organizing and cleaning i laid down and fell right to sleep, i think "under the tuscan sun" helped A LOT!

dinner at dal rae was nice that evening.  there was a little bit of drama with one of the couples, our waitress sucked and messed up our order but overall we had a nice dinner.  at the show we didn't have our seats together because i got the tickets after they did but nevertheless we enjoyed it very much.  i was laughing so hard that my stomach was aching.  george lopez is one of the funniest comics and i'm so glad we decided to get tickets at the last minute.  the money we spent was well worth it. 

the show ended at 10:40ish and we rushed to the airport right after to pick up my family.  the airport was packed but luckily we got there as soon as they were done picking up their bags.  we were all happy to see each other and couldn't wait to yak it up. : )

this morning my brother raymond came over to show me his pics and tell us about the trip.  he's got plans to return next year since he loved it so much.  mom and my other brother frank came over afterwards.  they all brought us some nice gifts and tomorrow we plan to see "i am legend" at an imax theater...

after a quick bite this afternoon we decided it was time to purchase an artificial xmas tree.  we had such a hard time with this years tree that our decision to stop buying fresh trees was a quick one.  and guess what?  we scored!  we found a 7.5' lovely tree for $120, retail $279, now is that a sale or what?!!!

life is good.

 

How are you spending Christmas Day?

Well I posted this video on Christmas morning.  Hubby always makes a killer breakfast then we open gifts around noon. 

This year we decided since my family was going to Mexico for my cousins wedding during Christmas we were not going to exchange gifts with them.  So hubby and I decided to get each other a couple things, nothing big.  Instead we splurged on some good restaurants, hung out with friends more, get tickets to the 12-29-07 George Lopez show with our friends and tickets to  Wicked, The Musical on 1-26-08.  I am so excited about that!!! 

We had a pretty good month so I can't complain and it's still not over!  Yes, I was feeling a bit sad for various reasons but what can you do?  We all have to move forward. Now on to gifts...

I got T a personalized calendar which he loved, two nice "going out" shirts, a book, and treats in his stocking.

T kept dropping hints about this book and I kept telling him I could not find it.

T got me some cookbooks which I had listed on my Amazon wish list.  I got another one from my sis in law and a Jill Scott and Michael Buble cd.  My sis sent me a perfume set and she got T a wallet.  We scored!
We splurged on mimosas all morning then watched "It's a wonderful life".  Roxy scored too, he got lots of rawhide and he's been gassing us ever since!
T got a honey baked Ham from work so I made home made gravy, sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes.  I wanted to make veggies but I forgot to pick up?!

We went for a walk later as we always do every Christmas day after everyone leaves but this time I took my camera.  This is some of what we saw in our neighborhood...

Here's another video I'm brave enough to show you guys from my holiday party earlier this month.  This time my cousin Laura and I are singing.

Nicely done...NOT!

on christmas eve i woke up pretty happy.  we even had some time to sit on the front porch and enjoy a cup of coffee with roxy at our feet.  i told rosie i'd meet her at target to pick up the pj's she picked up for me (she works there).  after we met i walked around target just to kill some time.  i could not believe they already had valentine's things for sale and some of the items were sold out!

i made it back home starved around noon and watched some tv.  by this time i started to feel sick and a little on the melancholy side.  everything i watched on tv whether it was christmas related or not made me cry.  what the hell is wrong with me?

anyway, after a while i got tired of watching tv and decided to make myself a holiday cocktail and read my holiday book.  i made us a peppermint patty with a shot of the following, creme de cacao, peppermint shnapps, vodka and half and half shaken with ice then stirred in a martini glass with a little drop of grenadine and a candy cane on the rim. 

nice right? 

we made reservations for dinner at dal rae for 7:30pm.  we left around 6:30pm and hung out at the bar.  and just our luck, we had the worst waitress that took forever to get our drinks.  we got so tired of waiting that t went up to the bar.  can you believe this chick had the oddasity to tell t she had placed the order already AND gave him attitude?!  we saw her filling other orders so i'm sure she forgot about us.  t says to her "well cancel it".  you can tell she was pist...what a bitch!

anyway, dinner was awesome.  we went all out.  we had a delicious shrimp cocktail, the best ceasar salad, i had fillet mignon with shitake mushrooms and garlic mashed potatoes, and t had white fish with a chipotle cream sauce.  i thought i would not have room for dessert but i stopped eating early just to make sure i left room and the tiramisu was worth it!

we tried again, including roxy, to see griffith park's light display but it was closed.  i guess it was not meant to be!

good morning and merry christmas to all! 

we haven't opened our gifts yet nor had breakfast so i'm taking some time to blog and catch up with my buddies.

here are some pics i took on sunday night @ hastings ranch in pasadena, ca for your enjoyment.

sunday morning we had breakfast at the pantry.  we thought we would be waiting around forever but the counter wait was not very long.  our waiter was there, jim i think his name is.  i was looking forward to their pancakes which are my favorite but i was disappointed that the flavor was not the same.  but at least we got to see some on downtown la during the day without traffic.  we went over to check out the tree at city hall and were surprised to see an old model police car that reminded me of the old police show, what was the name?  the only thing i could remember is that whenever they were called on the radio they said "1 adam 12".

does anyone remember that line?  no?  how about this one? 

"There's nothing wrong with letting the girls know that you're money and that you want to party"  

give up?  SWINGERS!!! if you haven't watched it, watch it!  i dvr'd it the other night and watched it saturday morning.  i've always wanted to check out the filming locations and even thought about googleing them later. 

we had plans to meet for dinner with our friends millie and e that same night.  when they picked us up we didn't know where we were going to eat.  we almost always leave it up to e because he knows lots of cool places.  well, low and behold he took us to the dresden.  he didn't mean to take us there but since it was right next door to where he meant to take us, we went.  what a coincidence!

the restaurants is so "money" (LOL) and sooo old school, which is right up my alley.  we had a great meal and had their signature cocktail called the "blood and sand". 
we exchanged gifts before dinner and we looked like we just hit the lottery...too funny
 
after dinner we made our way to the bar next door to check out the lounge act.  i think they've been there as long as i've been alive, 34 years.  LOL!  they were very entertaining and we had a blast.
i'm sure we will be returning soon!  but before that we are going to check out the other place the filmed at, "the derby" which is in the same area.  can't wait to check out the swing dancing...

and here's one last line...

"Look, we're gonna spend half the night driving around the hills looking for this one party and you're going to say it sucks and we're all gonna leave and then we're gonna go look for this other party. But all the parties and all the bars, they all suck. I spend half the night talking to some girl who's looking around the room to see if there's somebody else who's more important she should be talking to."

hubby didn't get home until almost noon yesterday.  i hoped he didn't have to work so he'd get some rest, plus i had the day off but there was a meeting he had to attend.  we had honey baked ham and left overs for lunch and then got ready for disney.

the drive was a slow one because no matter what day it is there's always traffic in LA.  and just as i thought, disney was packed!  

we broke our tradition and instead of going to new orleans square we went to toon town.  we wanted to check out the decorations we missed on our trip earlier this month.  on our way there we stopped to check out a show that had just started.  and guess who what there?  mary poppins!

the other night one of my girlfriends from high school came over with her family.  ever since we reconnected about 2 years ago we get together every once in a while and during the holidays.  this time her hubby wasn't working so we got to catch up with him too.  here are a few pics..

last night we got together with my other high school girlfriend mari and my god-daughter clarissa that i haven't seen since summer.  she is growing so quickly!  i think she can pass as my daughter. =)
here she is opening her gifts. is she a ham or what? LOL
when mari and i were in high school everyone used to think we were sisters.  we always played along and said we had different dads.

after they left i went to the mall to pick up one last gift for hubby.  the parking lots were packed but i lucked out right away.  i found myself a jacket and some stuff for hubby.  i left at 9pm and once i got home i pigged out on a slice of pumpkin pie.  ah, what the heck, it's the holidays.  LOL!

today i am home waiting on hubby and wondering what we should do tonight...we had plans to go to disney but i think we might meet up with friends instead....