Still in the season

  This has been a busy and emotional holiday season. After what happened in Newtown CT my heart has had a hard time with cheer and celebration. I've also been missing my sweet boy Nicholas. He spent Christmas down south with Morgan and her family. They had a great time, and her family was so sweet to him {thank you!} but it just isn't the same without him. 

  Christmas Eve dawned with a last minute rush first thing in the morning. By mid afternoon life had settled down and I was looking forward to our evening candlelight service at church. 

 For as long as I can remember, my family has held the tradition of seafood on Christmas Eve. This year I took the easy road and prepared a seafood stew. Not only was it simple to prep and prepare, it was delicious! We will be revisiting this recipe again for sure! I'll share the recipe.

As we were about to walk out the door I realized that I had just shared at dinner that I've been slacking on photos and would like to get a shot or two of us before we left for church.



Christmas Eve service was beautiful! It was just what my soul needed to put the perspective back in place. Our pastor touched upon the families that are hurting as they deal with their losses as well as reminding us of the true reason and celebration of the season.

After we returned home, with a quiet and calm heart, I put the finishing details on our Christmas so that we could relax and enjoy a slow paced Christmas morning.

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Change Of Plans

Our weekend calendar was packed full of fun as of Friday night. 

Saturday morning arrived and wiped it clean.

~Beach and boating were cancelled~
~Sailing slipped away~

~Golf with friends was minus one~

~Dinner at friends home postponed~

~Labor Day cookout put on the back burner~

I headed off to our local market to join the holiday shoppers. My cart items definitely weren't like the others! 

One of us {husband} is celebrating the long weekend with a nasty case of stomach flu. 

Poor guy!

While I'm a little disappointed that we are missing the last few days of summer fun, I'm taking full advantage of the time to work a few projects. 

I stayed up way too late last night to finish The Kitchen House. 
It was a great read!

Happy Labor Day!

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My Sweet Valentine

This is one my favorite days of the whole year!

It has nothing to do with chocolates or flowers {not that I don't love getting them} that are a highlight of the special day.

On this special day, I'm given one of the greatest gifts ... a home cooked meal by my husband.

This is true love!

He creates a fabulous menu, shops for all the ingredients, cooks, and cleans the entire kitchen {this is a gift in and of itself!} while I sit back with a glass of wine and enjoy the show.









Our menu ~

Porterhouse steak with green peppercorn, garlic, and sun dried tomato butter

Lobster tails

Goat cheese mashed potatoes

Fresh green beans

Spinach salad with strawberries and a homemade vinaigrette







How can you not love a man who turns your strawberries into hearts?!




For dessert {as if dinner wasn't enough} we had Ina's brownie pudding with salted caramel gellato ... yum!



It was all amazing.


I'm a very lucky lady to have such a sweet hubby!




*I made a delicious salad for lunch today with some of my leftovers :)

The greatest gifts are given from the heart ~ these are the ones that are priceless and will last a life time!

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Memorial Day Weekend

{hubby tackling his lobster ~ not easy with plastic silverware}

Our holiday weekend was filled with activities, outings, and projects. I was able to check off several items from my list and spend some quality time with my husband. We even managed to get together with many of our friends through the course of the long weekend.

One of our standing traditions since we've moved to Connecticut is to enjoy the first lobster of the season on Memorial Day. It's the official kick off to the summer season for our family. Memorial Monday was a beautiful day and the lobster and cold Mystic Pale Ale made it even better!

It was ever so hard to get out of bed this morning. Why is it that when I wake up at 6am on a weekend morning I have tons of energy but during the week when the alarm goes off I feel like I've been hit by a semi and can't move?

Only 10 more days of schools ... if your counting ... I SO am! ;)

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend.

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Winter

With the holidays coming to completion,

I'm ready to snuggle in, and enjoy the winter season.

I'm looking forward to roaring fires,

homemade soups, and curling up with a good book.

We have some changes coming our way in the new year

I'll share more on that later.

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