Tacky Light Tour!

One of my favorite things about Richmond is that many of the residents enjoy Christmas almost as much as I do. How do I know this? Well, the Tacky Light Tour of course! If you are ever passing through Richmond for the holidays, this is a must do! These homeowners have not only been recognized throughout the city, but in national news as well!

One of the Incredible Houses!

Two weeks ago a group of us put on our best tacky Christmas outfits and boarded a limo to embark on our guided tour of some of these houses. It. was. incredible. Blasting Christmas music in a limo full of your friends, looking at incredible light displays, while enjoying a few adult beverages....seriously, what Christmas lover wouldn't like that?

Our group in front of two of the houses

We booked our excursion with Love Limousine (which I HIGHLY recommend), but there are multiple companies in Richmond which offer the tour. One word of advice: you may stop at the Jefferson at the end of your tour. Make up fake names if you are dressed in tacky gear, or just happen to be as crazy festive as our group.

Jon and I in the limo

Our group in front of the Jefferson

 Here I was in one of the nicest hotels in Richmond, dressed in Santa boxers and booties! I was having such an amazing time that I failed to notice the people dressed in their top designer duds. Instead, I decided to strut around the hotel in my tacky gear as if Alexander McQueen had designed it himself. Hey, that's what the tacky light tour is about! 

In front of the Jefferson's tree!

I hope you all have a very tacky merry holiday!!

Let the Holidays Begin!

Well it is certainly that time of year again and this afternoon I will be jetting off to Atlanta! My mother's side of the family always meets the weekend before Christmas to catch up, eat Nama's Christmas cookies, and exchange gifts. It is something I always look forward to, and I am so excited to get there and spend time with them!!

I have been really getting into the holiday spirit here in Richmond and cannot wait to share tales of our family filled weekend, tacky light tour, and a trip to Lewis Ginter when I return. I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays as much as I am! Have a great weekend!

Christmas Time in the City, Part 3

Well Sunday sadly came and we woke up knowing it was our last day in NYC. Luckily we had the whole day to run around the city since our planes weren't leaving until 9PM!

After breakfast we met up with the rest of Mom's friends who would be joining her on the remainder of the girls trip (they were all staying until Wed), and headed over to Christie's Auction House. Christie's is currently doing a 2 week exhibit of Elizabeth Taylor's possessions and then auctioning them off to the public for charity. Mom somehow found out about this and we were lucky enough to get tickets to see one of the most iconic jewelry collections in the world! It was truly extravagant. Even her clothes were unbelievably beautiful. I spent the majority of the exhibit trying to fathom how one women was fortunate enough to have all of these beautiful things, and then kind enough to use them to raise money after her passing.

Elizabeth Taylor Exhibit

In front of Christie's

All of those beautiful things must have gotten us into a shopping mood because afterwards we headed to Bloomingdales to brave the crowds and take advantage of their last day of sales. We once again shopped until we dropped and then headed towards Bergdorf's to make our last dinner reservation.

As we were eating dinner we were lucky enough to see Rachel Zoe, Rodger, and her beautiful baby boy walk past us out of the restaurant. For as much as people criticize, she is absolutely gorgeous in person. She also seems incredibly down to earth. We were totally star struck and somehow ran into her two more times before leaving the store. 

We stood in awe as she walked past us once again, smiled, and called "hey babe" to Rodger right before we headed back to the hotel and packed our bags in a taxi.

In the cab to the airport

Hows that for a great ending to an amazing weekend?

Flying back to Richmond :(

Christmas Time in the City, Part 2

On Saturday we woke up bright and early, ate some breakfast, and got dressed for the day. We had one goal for the morning and afternoon: shop til we drop - and we certainly accomplished it.


We started off by walking down Madison Ave and stopping in some of the boutiques like Tory Burch, Dolce and Gabbana, and J Crew - as well as doing some major window shopping. Each boutique was more elegant than the next and, in some cases, made you feel like you were walking straight into the designer's home.

Outside of Tory Burch (Mom likes to zoom in)

Another thing we wanted to do was stop by some of the designer consignment shops in the city. We found the ones that were walkable from Madison Ave and headed to Michael's Consignment Shop for Women and Second Time Around. Man did we hit the jackpot! Over the course of two stores and three hours Concetta and I came out with: two dresses, two tops, 6 pairs of shoes, and one clutch!! The deals were incredible, and we were beyond excited for our new additions!

Our Finds!

Tory Burch, Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik, Cole Haan, Christian Louboutin and an Oscar de la Renta Clutch!

After all of that shopping we had managed to walked about 5 miles and were dying for some food. We decided to stop at Serafina on Madison Ave., which has been frequented by celebrities like Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, and the Kardashians. It. was. delicious. If you are looking for Italian food on Madision Ave, you must try Serafina.   

Serafina on Madison

Mom, Christie, Concetta and I stopped by a few more stores after lunch, and then headed to the hotel to shower, rest our feet, and get ready for another fun night.

In our secret elevator, ready for a night on the town

That night we had another delicious dinner, this time at Firebird Restaurant (try the salmon!), and then walked through Times Square to our broadway show, "Anything Goes". I now know why "Anything Goes" won a Tony for Best Musical. It is the perfect combination of great music, stellar acting/dancing/singing, and a beautiful set. Plus I don't think 5 minutes went by without another laugh, and who doesn't want a broadway show to make you happy?!

All of the girls at Firebirds!
  

Concetta and I in Times Square

Scene from "Anything Goes"

We left smiling ear to ear and headed towards Rockefeller Center to end the night taking pictures in front of the tree. I. was. in. heaven. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

The tree!



Momma and I in front of the tree

Christmas Time in the City, Part 1

Every year my mother and I spend the first weekend of December in NYC, and it is by far my favorite tradition we share! There is nothing better than 5th Avenue windows, the Rockefeller tree and a good broadway show to put you in the Christmas spirit!

This year Concetta and Christie decided to once again joined us on our mother - daughter weekend. The second I stepped off the plane on Friday, I immediately felt a sense of relief. The stress of work and life have seemed to build up over the past month so a weekend in the city with my mom, best friend, and her mom was exactly what I needed.

After juggling two bags, a purse, and two jackets, I hobbled over to the cab stand, caught a cab to our hotel (the same one my mom has been staying in for over 20 years on her annual trip), dropped off my bags, and jetted off to Bergdorf's for some shopping R&R. The sheer beauty of BG's always seems to amaze me, and not having to navigate through hundreds of people always seems to make it more enjoyable. I had a few hours before I had to meet mom and Christie at Saks, so I walked around the store in awe and made sure to leave with enough time to take in a few christmas windows and get a glimpse of Rockefeller center before our set lunch date.

Bergdorf Window

Tiffany Windows

Concetta arrived around 3 o'clock so, in order to get ready for our night out, we all met her back at the hotel. When Concetta and I were younger we used to take this trip with two other mother daughter couples and sometimes, when we got annoyed with everyone else, would choose to make a bed and sleep in the closet. My mother has stayed in the same room every year since our closet beds, so we decided we would test our old space out the second we stepped in our room.

We still fit!

Ten two outfit changes and a little hair straightening later, we were finally ready to start our night.

We started off by visiting the new 9/11 memorial. Tickets to the memorial are free to the public, but must be booked in advance. I booked ours back in October and chose 5:30PM, in order to insure we would see the memorial lit up. It was truly an incredible, emotional, and surreal moment to be surrounded by so many names of those who had lost their lives, and many who had sacrificed theirs to save others.

9/11 Memorial

9/11 Memorial

We finished the memorial a little earlier than expect and deceided to head somewhere nearby, with a view of the memorial, before catching a cab to dinner. The W hotel was only a block away and, after Jon and my great experience in LA, I was ready to give the NYC location a try. What a perfect choice! One delicious drink later we were on our way to dinner at The Spice Market.



Concetta and I at the W

Mom had booked our dinner reservations over 3 months ago, and was able to reserve a private room for us to eat, drink and be merry :). We had a wonderful time sharing stories and trying so many delicious dishes. Lentil chips from The Spice Market? divine. We were not quite ready for the fun to end so we walked around the meat packing district, peered in Alexander McQueens storefront and had post dinner drinks at Buddakan before calling it a night.

Our table at The Spice Market

It was, for sure, another amazing first day in the Big Apple.

Happy Birthday, Jon!!

Not only it is the start of a new month (the month of Christmas no less!!!!), but it is also, more importantly, Jon's 24th birthday!!!!! Today and tonight will be filled with lots of celebrations, and I absolutely cannot wait! 

Happy birthday, Jon!!! I hope this is the best birthday yet, and that this next year will bring more incredible adventures together, many laughs, and lots of happiness. I love you.

Thanksgiving 2011

In the blink of an eye Thanksgiving is over and the joyful sounds of Christmas are already playing on repeat in my car surrounding us. I must admit, I am thrilled this is the case, but that did not keep me from enjoying the wonderful Turkey Day this year.

This year my Thanksgiving consisted of a whole lot of driving. I started the morning in Gloucester with Jon's family, headed to Hampton to see my family, went Black Friday shopping with mom and Katie in Norfolk, back to Hampton, Up to Williamsburg to Christmas Town, back to Hampton, home to Richmond, down to Williamsburg to see some friends, and finally back to Richmond for good. Whew, I am tired just writing it. Every single part of it was wonderful though, and I am so thankful I got to spend it with so many loved ones.

This year I received a special Thanksgiving present from Papa, making me determined to find those Walhalla genes somewhere in me and learn how to fry things! I am 100 percent sure my shrimp will never be as good as his, but its worth a shot.

Watch out Fry Daddy, here i come!

I also got to spend the weekend waking up to this every morning:

Man I miss that.  

All in all Thanksgiving weekend was filled with spending lots of time with those I love, blasting Christmas music at 8AM the morning after T-day, Teaming up with Concetta to beat Jon and some others at Cranium, Papa's fried shrimp/some wonderful time with him and Nama, Multiple phone calls to Dad about the UVA/VT game (GO HOKIES!!!!!), visiting Reavis, Sarah, Emily and David in Williamsburg and did I mention some driving? All of which made the weekend a little more special.

This weekend will prove to be just as exciting as I head off to NYC with Concetta and our Moms. And nothing is better than Christmas time in THE city.

Oh, and stay tuned for another special event happening this week :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Katie!

Since my sister's 20th birthday fell the day after Thanksgiving, I was too busy spending time with her and the family to whip up a blog post about her big day.  So, I wanted to take the time now to wish her a very happy (belated) 20th birthday!!!

Katie's Birthday Balloons

Boo Bop, I seriously cannot beleive you are 20. Really. It is crazy. I love you so much and am so blessed have you as my little sister. I hope the next 20 years are just as amazing as the first 20 were, and I cant wait to watch you continue to navigate them so successfully!

Lovin from the bday girl, and trying to make a 20.

Next year, instead of laying in your bed watching Grey's at midnight, we will be having celebratory drinks! And that, for sure, makes me feel old. I LOVE YOU!!!

10 Things I am Thankful For

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I wanted to share a few things I am thankful for:

• My family. For always supporting me in everything I do and letting me make the mistakes I needed to, just to learn from them. For helping me find my footing after I had made those mistakes and always, always loving me no matter what.
• CCW and JEF. Yea, yea - y'all are special. And since you both hate mushy gushy, just keep the laughs a comin'. <3
• My amazing friends. The best in the world. period.
• Microwaves. Because seriously, how else would I eat?
• Hokies!!! (National Championship perhaps???? (Oh and a little Thanksgiving prayer too: PLEASE GOD beat UVA!!!!))
• My Job.
• Traveling! One of the things I am so lucky to get to experience, and so thankful for it.
• Christmas time!!! (should probably be higher on the list). Sorry Thanksgiving but as much as I enjoy this thankful post, I love Christmas time 100000000 times more. It is TRULY the most wonderful time of the year.
• Growing up on the water. Such an amazing thing to wake up to, and something I miss everyday in Richmond
• YOU! For reading this blog, and (hopefully) enjoying it!

Happy (almost) Turkey Day everyone!!!

Los Angeles, Day 3 and 4

Sunday morning we woke up and treated ourselves to massages at the Bliss Spa inside the W. I think Jon was just excited about spending an hour and a half that morning without me jabbering on  relaxing, and I was certainly ready to be pampered!

After the star treatment, we headed to the Hollywood Farmer's. Lucky for us this market only opens on Sundays, and was directly behind our hotel! We spent about an hour admiring the beautiful flowers, fruits, veggies, and gift, and even picked up some lunch to enjoy in our hotel room. Gaucamole in LA = yummy.

Jon standing in the middle of the Hollywood Farmer's Market

That afternoon, after some strong convincing on my part, we boarded a celebrity homes tour. Ok, classy? Maybe not. But interesting? for sure. We spent the next 2 and a half hours dreaming about our future millionaire lives in Beverly Hills. Watch out LA, here we come.

Michael Jackson's gate where Conrad Murray called the police. RIP MJ.

Over the course of day 3 we also racked up the most celebrity sightings. So many that we had to develop a code so the other person would notice ("I have a headache" really where? "right side" or "left side"). Yea we are those people.

Those celebrities included Kevin Alejandro (True Blood), Nick Swardson, some Basketball Player - all within an arm's reach of us (and most just walking down the street, so keep your eyes peeled!).

That night we had dinner at Fig & Olive and headed to back early to pack and savor every last minute we had at our new favorite hotel, the W Hollywood.

Monday morning came all too quickly and we deceided to walk down Hollywood Boulevard before heading to LAX. I was so sad to leave but happy we got to see Hollywood & Highland, The Kodak Theatre and, of course, Dumbledore one last time.



One last picture under the Kodak Sign!

 As we boarded the plane all we kept saying was "we must come back soon!" And that was the end of our amazing vacation!

Last picture in our room before we left

Los Angeles, Day 2

Friday quickly came and went so we were on to our Saturday plans! That morning we rolled out of bed and got ready to head over to The Grove/Farmer's Market. From the moment I saw the famed Farmer's Market on Entourage, I knew it was a definite must for our trip. I have never had such a hard time choosing lunch in my life!

After a little shopping at The Grove and a delicious lunch at the Farmer's Market we jetted off to Rodeo Drive. Holy Housewives of Beverly Hills, what a shopping mecca! About ten seconds into exploring Jon regretted his decision to get out of our cab. A few hundred "oh my god, one day!"'s and 45 minutes of browsing later, our credit cards were safely on their way back to the W...for the most part. :)

In front of the Via Rodeo sign!

Since Jon was recovering from his minor heart attack after seeing the prices on Rodeo, we decided to spend the next hour at the hotel resting and getting ready for our most unique dinner of the trip! For my birthday my godmother, Pam, had graciously sent me a gift card to use at a dinner of choice, so we decided to visit the most talked about one in LA: The Bazaar by Jose Andres!

This restaurant was everything I could have hoped for and more, and by far one of the best, most amazing restaurants I have ever been to in my life. The whole restaurant focuses on a contemporary vs. modern theme and everything on their tapas menu is to.die.for. We ordered about 6 items, which included us getting to meet the chef and our poor prawn he would be cooking...before it met its untimely end. The food was truly extraordinary, and Jose Andres is an exceptional visionary. Don't believe me? Just look at the way our "tortillas" were served:

Tortillas by The Bazaar!

After stuffing ourselves, we headed back to the W for a night in the "living room" (the surprisingly popular bar downstairs). Around midnight Jon told me he wanted to close our tab and he disappeared to the bar. When I heard the 6 girls beyond us begin their choir of "awww"s, I immediately turned around and saw Jon holding a glass of strawberries and champagne to mark our 9 month-iversary and beginning of our last full day in paradise. Yes, we are one of those annoying wonderful couples that believe in month-iversarys. I guess he is a keeper. :)

Strawberries and Champagne!

Still have a day and 1/2 of recaps left, so stay tuned!!

Los Angeles, Day 1

One month ago today Jon and I were just begining our first big trip together. That was not the only reason it was significant though, it was also the first time he had been past Tennessee!

We arrived in LA at 12 AM on Thursday, and headed straight to a Holiday Inn near the airport to get some sleep and adjust to the time change. The next morning we anxiously woke up at 8AM and hailed a cab to the W Hollywood, where we would be living the remainder of our trip.

After checking in and admiring our amazing hotel room, we headed down Hollywood Boulevard to kill some time before our Warner Brothers tour at 11. Let me tell you, Hollywood Boulevard is quite the sight. So much hollywood history, mixed with so many weirdos.

Spiderman shooting people with his fake gun

Two spiderman spottings and one Dumbledore later, it was finally time to head to Warner Brothers. This was such a hightlight for us. Not only did we get to go behind the scenes of Warner Brothers, but we even got to sit on some history and take a picture in Central Perk! Not to mention, pass Ashton Kutcher on the way out.

That afternoon Jon wanted a nap so I headed off to Robertson Blvd do so some shopping. Imagine my suprise when I received a call from Jon to tell me the manager of the W had sent us a welcoming gift: wine, fruit, chocolate cake and a nice note! If I hadnt already fallen in love with the W Hollywood, that certainly sealed the deal.

I returned to our temporary home to see our gift and get ready for dinner at Katsuya. Oh.My.God. Talk about delicious. Seriously, go there.

After two cucumber watermelon mojitos and delicious sushi, we headed off to the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre to see a improv comedy show. This was something a friend of mine had suggested, and another highlight for us. For about 20 dollars we both got tickets on the stage, and enjoyed over an hour of hilarious improv. Another nice part about this is they sometimes have celebritys show up, and we were lucky enough to be there when one of the actors from "The League" was preforming.

We walked home that night and crawled into bed after a successful first day in LA, stay tuned for day 2 later today!

A Good Excuse

Not only have I slacked on the blogging, but I even forgot Thursday Top Three last week. Why? I was too busy singing at the top of my lungs to T-Swift with Jon and Concetta!

If you would like to hear more about our "enchanted" Thursday night, head on over to Concetta's blog!

Thursday Top Three

Ok, I know. Enough of these top three things, time for a real post. BUT I promise I am working on that. In the meantime I figured I should at least keep up the new tradition!

1. Wine glasses with built in straws

Picture via Pinterest

Some more sophisticated wine lovers will look at these and know they are for delicately sipping port wine, but I see them as a great way to maintain your pearly whites during a wine night. No more purple mouth in pictures?  Count me in. That is certainly worth 20 dollars!

2. Braclets that give back

Picture via Same Sky - Deck the Halls Braclet

Everyone who reads this blog knows I feel a connection to Africa, so when I saw this website I knew I had to include it in the Top Three. All of these braclets are made by African women, and the proceeds help support them. Not only do they help a women in need, but they are cute! What a perfect stocking stuffer! 

3. An impressive Hokies win!!!!

So this one, much like the the Humor one last week, does not really qualify of a material thing but I know it would make so many people happy tonight! I hope everyone plans on cheering on the Hokies tonight as they take on Ga. Tech! Let's Go!!!