No it's not, where's the snow?

I love Christmas time in Seattle! The lights, Macy's ginormous tree, the carousel, Santa's Lane at Nordstrom...everything's so festive. This year, Clint and I spent a night enjoying some of the holiday traditions the city has to offer by buying ourselves tickets to the 5th Avenue Theater's Elf which is our all time favorite Christmas movie (maybe even favorite movie...period)! We also used a gift certificate my mom had given me for a free night's stay in a suite at the Alexis hotel, so fancy. It was a night I was really looking forward to.

That day, Clint and I headed down to the Alexis with our overnight bags packed for our staycation. It's always fun to stay in a hotel in the city you live in and pretend you're from out of town. Our room wasn't quite ready to check into yet, so we met up with a friend of Clint's in town from San Diego at Cactus for some drinks. 

Christmas time at the Alexis

Pickles the goldfish

pretty tree

fun idea, bikes available to tour the town

the hotel lobby was so pretty with the holiday decor 

Clint checking out some artwork

We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night, but unfortunately the room was still not ready for us. Since we needed to get dinner before the show, they had us use their steam room to get ready in. I assured Clint this wasn't the same thing as a boiler room, but it still wasn't the luxury suite we had hoped for. Once we were ready, so was our room. We dropped off our bags, took a quick look around, then were out the door.

our dining room

huge living room with a dance floor

this place was huge!

We walked up a couple blocks for dinner at Sazerac, the restaurant at Hotel Monaco, and lucked out that it was happy hour. After not being able to decide on what to get, we went with a bunch of small plates to share...and of course a wood fire oven pizza. Everything was delicious with the exception of the steak tartare. Neither of us have had it before, but we thought how could we go wrong with a fried egg on top! When it arrived, it resembled an uncooked hamburger patty, and we just couldn't get over the fact that it seemed wrong to be eating it. But of course, the pizza made up for it.

bacon chandeliers, yum!

suspect steak tartare

deep fried potato truffles

noms

After dinner, we still had some time before the show and decided to stop in at the Capital Grille for some drinks. We lucked out with the last two coveted seats at the bar, and ordered some cocktails. I quickly made friends with the bartender after she asked Clint if he tells me everyday how gorgeous I am (she got a good tip). I also loved the atmosphere in there. The dark wood, leather upholstered bar stools...felt very classy. Definitely a step above Ozzie's.

We finished our drinks, and were off to the theater! We had a few minutes before it started, so we got to look around before heading to our seats.

big crowds

not the best, but the only photo of us from the night

The lights flashed which meant we needed to head to our seats. We were in a great spot, first row of the upper balcony.

beautiful ceiling

programs

The show itself was well done and entertaining...but there's just no way anyone can compare to Will Ferrell. A few things were different from the movie, like a few more songs (this being a musical and all), but for the most part it stuck pretty close. We both enjoyed ourselves and would recommend seeing it if you get the chance. We ended up having a great time on our night out on the town!

final number

Liberty Mutual holiday party

For the past few years, I've lucked out to be my mom's date to her holiday work dinner. I've scored some pretty delicious meals...Capitol Grill, the Waterfront, Ruth's Chris, and this year at Salty's. All of her coworkers and their spouses are such a fun time (okay, almost all of them), so it's been great to get a chance to see them and celebrate the holidays.

This year, mom picked me up from my place after work, and we made the short drive down the hill to Salty's. We met Jennifer and her husband in the bar to have a couple drinks before heading down to our banquet room where dinner would be held.

Once we were all there, we ordered some appetizers to pass around...calamari, crab cakes, bruschetta, prawns...I basically filled myself up before my steak dinner arrived. Luckily I was able to take the rest home and enjoy it the next day. And since there's always room for dessert, I just had to order the ooey gooey chocolate brownie which was so yummy.

Despite having our iPhones out after dinner, none of us got any pictures taken (we were too busy taking and failing the moron test...), so I have nothing to show for it. Dinner was still great, and I had a fun time as Mom's date again. Here's hoping for next year!

XO Cookie Exchange

A few weekends ago, me and my Chi O girls had our annual Christmas cookie exchange party. Everyone brings a few dozen for trading (enough for each of us to take home 2 or 3) and the rules are they must be a holiday cookie, and they must be homemade.

This year I turned to Pinterest to find something fun that I hadn't made before. I found this recipe and thought they looked and sounded delicious...red velvet, shortbread, and pistachios? Sold!

Since I'm not the most skilled baker, these took some time to actually make. It was a good thing I got a head start. I made the dough Friday night, then baked and finished them Saturday night in time for the party on Sunday. Decorating was the most time consuming. I had to melt the white chocolate, dip each cookie, crush up pistachios (with my Corona bottle), then sprinkle them on each. I ended up burning the white chocolate at one point, but luckily I had some more chips to melt. Then I went and burnt that too, ugh! With only half the cookies done, I decided to go to the store at 10pm to get more so I could finish them that night so they would set by morning. Regardless, they were fun to make and turned out alright, but not exactly my favorite. For all the work they were, I probably wouldn't make them again

mixing the ingredients, surprised this turned into dough!

maybe this is when my white chocolate burned

 

finished product!

Jessica graciously hosted us this year so that we could all see her (beautiful!) new home. Her, her husband, and their one-year old moved in a few months ago, and the place is perfect for entertaining. It's so open and inviting, I loved it! They also spent the day preparing some delicious treats for us.
 

pumpkin pie whip!

pesto meatballs that I inhaled

Honeycrisp Apple Sangria

Jessica also had me bring my jewels along in case anyone wanted to do some holiday shopping, so we had fun time trying on some bling, catching up, and of course eating. Some of the girls also brought their kiddos, including Becca's sweet new baby Owen.

Mommy and new baby

Char, Maeve, Weiner, Jingle, Jecca, Brenna, Becca & Owen

Rachel, me, Colleen, Sarah, and Kylee

 

Rachel - the designated babysitter

 

kids love her

 

our loot, so many cookies!

 

would I have ugly friends?

So much fun girls, can't wait to see you all again...hopefully soon!

Cabo: Part 4

Our last full day in Mexico.

All Clint wanted to do on this trip was surf...however that didn't pan out too well. He was fighting a sinus/ear infection since we arrived, so he was waiting for that to pass. With our last full day here, the plan was to drive to Cerritos Beach (on the Pacific side of Cabo) where the surf was better. The surf report that morning changed our plans, so we set out to do some more snorkeling (yay!).

We headed east and pulled off the freeway when we saw the first beach sign. The road to the ocean was extremely bumpy, we were sure glad we opted for the Jeep over the sedan. We finally reached Playa Vuido, and practically had the place to ourselves. This was our favorite beach of the trip, the water and sand looked so pretty.

We set up our towels, grabbed the cooler from the car, and soaked up the sun. We enjoyed the nice day drinking beers on the beach and going for a swim.

Pacificos on the Pacific

Since the water was a little rough for snorkeling, we packed up and headed a little further down to Santa Maria, which is a well-known bay that is a little calmer. As soon as we got there, there were a couple snorkel cruise boats anchored and quite a few people out in the water. The beach was more crowded as well, and the Mexican vendors were out.

We found a good spot, and I headed to the water with my snorkel gear. Plans changed when I crushed my toe into a rock on the beach. It wasn't even a big rock. I noticed right away that I gouged it pretty good and it was starting to bleed. There was even remnants of my pink toe nail polish still on the rock. I hobbled back to my towel and pouted while Clint took the snorkel gear and left me.

first look - not so bad

I drug myself to the shore and soaked my toe in the cool salt water. It was starting to feel better and not bleed anymore. When Clint got back, I decided I wasn't gonna miss out and joined the rest of the snorkelers. I'm glad I did, because this was the best underwater scenery ever! So many fish, and so many different colors. One guy even had some Doritos that he was sprinkling in the water and the fish were practically attacking him. They were everywhere! Very cool. 

With my toe throbbing at this point, we thought it was best to go back. Once at the condo, my toe was getting a little worse so I covered it with a bandaid. We then made a pitcher of margaritas and took them down to our beach. I sat in the shade (had gotten a little sunburnt) while Clint grabbed every last bit of Vitamin D he could before we were completely shaded.

don't waste the sunlight!

I started to notice that there were tiny shells in the sand where I was sitting, and started a little collection on the corner of my towel.

Then I got possessed! The shells were everywhere once you started looking, and I couldn't stop collecting them. I limped around the beach with my bum toe collecting handfuls at a time. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with all of them (yes, I brought them home), but I was pretty sure at the time I needed to have them.

a little overboard

me and all my hard work

The sun was setting, so we packed up and I took my treasures back to the condo. I had received an email from the owner saying he had one of his other units available for us to look at if we wanted. The renters had just left, and the cleaners hadn't come yet, but he gave us the lockbox code to check it out. It was on the top floor and had an even more amazing view than ours. The condo itself was quite a bit smaller, so I think we decided we liked ours the best (in case we come back). 

view from the top floor condo

Back at our place, I noticed my toe feeling a little worse. I pulled off the bandaid and was shocked. It was completely swollen and turned purple! I was convinced it was broken (Clint was too), but there's not much you can do for that. Luckily, over the next couple days it started to look better, and even now it's only a little sore when I try to move it.

beginning to bruise, it got worse

We heated up some taco leftovers for dinner. We also tried to finish off the rest of the food we had gotten for the week since we would be leaving in the morning. Clint stomached some more meatloaf and potatoes (not sure why or how), and the tub of ice cream was gone pretty quick too. That night was a double feature (oh boy!), King Arthur and Geronimo...again, not my favorites, but entertaining enough.

The next morning we begrudgingly got out of bed knowing we'd have to check out and head home. I made us some more breakfast burritos using up the last of our food, and packed some snacks for the flight home. We got the condo cleaned up, our bags packed, and said goodbye to our home for the past week.

We loaded up the Jeep and drove to San Jose again. We stopped at a little market to pick up some trinkets and souvenirs, and probably paid way too much for them, oh well. Next we drove around the back roads and found a couple torillarias. The first to get corn, and then a second for flour. We watched them making the tortillas right there, and the bags we took with us were still warm. They were even still warm when I unpacked them at home that night!

We then drove out towards the airport, but made one last stop for lunch. We found a little hole in the wall restaurant run by a husband, wife, and their two daughters. The food was pretty delicious, but we were a little worried about getting sick. At least we'd be home once it hit. Fortunately, us gringos lucked out.

After lunch, we returned the rental car, headed to the airport, and said goodbye to Cabo. We had such an amazing time, I'm already looking forward to going back!