New Year! Happy 2016!

Christopher and I had a wonderful New Year celebrations together. On New Year's Eve, we went to the Tux and Pucks Sabres game all dressed up. Christopher looked so handsome in his tuxedo. He wore a new bow tie he received at Christmas. I wore a new dress (Christopher LOVED it) and got to wear my fun pair of heels I wore for my cousin Lindsay's wedding. The Sabres may have lost, but we still had a great time!

We then came home and took our time making our surf and turf dinner with all of the sides. Christopher really cooked dinner, and I just put together the side dishes. Everything was delicious. We then put our pajamas on, sipped on champagne and watched some How I Met Your Mother episodes before midnight.

Then New Year's Day we invited our parents over for brunch. It was really nice to see them and hear about what they did on New Year's Eve. We also talked about resolutions for 2016.

In 2016, I would really like to read 26 books this year. To kick off this, I started to read The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen. I think I will try to read a bunch of different genres, but just have with it.

I would also like to get back on track with eating healthier. To do that I am kicking of my 3rd TLS detox as part of their 21 day program. Very excited to start (Day 1 is today!).

Overall, this is a very exciting year for Christopher and I. Christopher is starting a new job, we are both turning 30, continuing work on our house, and our 2nd honeymoon and vow renewal in Hawaii. So I want to sit back and enjoy this year together as much as possible!

Holiday Plan 2015: Week 2

Week of September 6th:
- Start to buy extra baking ingredients like sugar, butter, flour, etc; this way, you have the necessary ingredients when it is time to start baking AND you do not have to buy it all at once making your wallet hurt a little
- Make two crock pot meals - one to eat this week and one to freeze for a later date; I don't know about all of you, but things get really hectic in the Fall and it is great to have a supply of frozen crock pot meals handy. This week, I am hoping to put together a make ahead Greek chicken recipe!
- Divide some of the gift responsibilities with Christopher; our first year we were married we did not communicate this well and ended up buying triplicate gifts for some people. We love being generous, but we also have to be conscious of our budget
- Discuss with Christopher our holiday traditions and expectations for this year; we use this time to re-cap last years holidays - what went well, what could be improved, etc. We also start talking where we will celebrate each holiday
- Deep cleaning area this week: Living/Family room - after entering our freshly cleaned porch, I want to wow guests with a shiny living room (at least that is the hope!)

Good luck to those following along!

Holiday Plan 2015: Week 1

It is the kick off week to my holiday planning and super checklist. What I tried to do is break down each task into manageable pieces in order to prepare for Halloween (we don't really celebrate, but I do decorate and hand out candy!), Thanksgiving (we host) and Christmas.

I am sharing with you my personal to-do list (or checklist). I created this around our values, schedules and our preferences for each of the holidays. If you want to follow along, please adapt for your families needs. And let me know what you add/subtract from the list - I am always looking for ways to do things more efficiently!

Week of August 30th:
- create and put together my Christmas notebook; nothing to really put in it yet, but I usually designate an old binder for this task
- Draft a gift list with budget; I create a list of everyone who we give gifts to and jot down ideas on what we should give. I also create a budget specifically related to gift giving and try to stick to that as much as possible
- Review my Christmas card list; I have a pre-made Christmas Card address book and organizer (I know - old fashioned) that I review and see if I need to reach out to people who moved, add new friends, etc.
- Start drafting menus for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas
- Create a gifts to make list; I love crafting, so I usually will try to make 2-3 Christmas gifts each year
- After creating a potential menu, jot down long-term grocery shopping items. Most of my menu items are not unique and can be easily found. Some exceptions are ingredients or decorations for my Christmas cookies. It is always good to keep these items in the back of your head when the holiday items start getting put out
- Create a Christmas Cookie list & ingredients; I also throw in any desserts for Halloween and Thanksgiving too
- Order/replace any gift wrap, tape, bags, etc; I make sure I have everything I need on hand before I start wrapping (my least favorite Christmas task)
- Deep clean one area of our house; I think this week I will start with our front porch and entry. I love putting out mums, pumpkins, etc on our steps, so I think this makes the most sense to do first

And there you have it! Week 1 isn't so bad, right? Let me know if you are following along!

Holiday Planning 3.0

So last year I posted just about weekly on holiday plan to get everything done. This worked out so well, especially since we were hosting Thanksgiving and had planned a trip to WDW right before Christmas. I have to say we had very little holiday stress because we prepped and prepared for all of the holidays over 18 weeks.

This year I am going to try and re-share what we are doing in order to prepare for the holidays again. This year we are still hosting Thanksgiving, but we do not have a Disney trip in the works (that could always change...) so we will have more time to get the stuff done!

Follow along with us as we get ready for the 2015 holiday season!

Easter Sunday

Christopher and I had a fun Easter Sunday. We continued our tradition of having Easter breakfast at home with the little boys. The pups got a wet breakfast and we had our traditional smoked polish sausage with homemade hash browns. Delicious. 

The Easter bunny also came to our house. He hid Christopher's basket but he left me a scavenger hunt with lots of fun riddles. We must have been good this year ;) After finding our baskets, we went to Easter Sunday mass at St. Mark's and braved the SNOW! Go figure we would have a white Easter and not Christmas!

 We then met the Leutze clan for Easter Brunch at Rizzo's Banchetti's. The food was scrumptious but the company was even better.

We then had dinner with the Musialowski's. Dinner was absolutely fantastic. We had an Easter ham, turkey breast, cheesy potatoes, veggies, dinner rolls, etc. We were so full after both delicious meals. Jonathan was home and my mom and the Kolesnick's joined us this year too. It was an excellent day!

St. Patrick's Day & Easter Wreaths are up for sale!

So excited to share that I have posted four different types of wreaths available for purchase on my Ellegant Decor Etsy Page.

St. Patrick's Day - Single ring metal form wreath 

St. Patrick's Day - Triple fringe metal form wreath

Easter - Single ring metal form wreath

Easter - Quadruple fringe metal form wreath (the fullest wreath available - over 16"!)

Please pass along my store link and information to anyone who is looking for a wreath to jazz up their door or home decor for the Spring! All wreaths are reasonable priced and ready to ship!

New Decor going up on Ellegant Decor's Etsy page

I am so excited to tell you all that I finished some St. Patrick's Day and Easter wreaths! I made two different kinds - a simple circle wreath with frayed fabric and then a much more complex wreath with lots of fringing. I love how both turned out! I am just confirming shipping costs and then up on the site they will go!

Valentine's Day Shenanigans

Valentine's Day would not be complete without some yummy treats! We made some heart-shaped cinnamon bun treats to give to our parents and bring to Jonathan for our visit.

I found a recipe for "Breakfast" cookies and I thought - why not! Basically a chocolate chip cookie made with banana, applesauce, oats, almond milk, vanilla and the chocolate. They were pretty yummy, but not as good as the real thing.

We received some Valentine's from our parents. The M's sent us some chocolate covered strawberries and my parents gave us our favorite chocolate - Reese's peanut butter cups and Dove milk chocolate. Boy are we loved or what!

Our little lovies :)

On Valentine's day we left super early in the morning for Kingston to visit J! We made it out as the snow storm moved into Buffalo and we are so glad we made the decision to leave early and spend the night. A HUGE thank you to my parents for watching our little Valentine's (see pictures above). Marv and Jameson got to spend some great time with Grandma and Grandpa and of course Buddy! And to Christopher's parents for booking us the hotel room so we could stay and make it back the next day.

We had a great visit with Jonathan. We played card games, went to the mall, saw the movie "The Kingsman" and had a great dinner at Olive Garden. It was so great to see him and hang out. Hopefully he will be sending me more pictures that I can post. J took along his camera and got some excellent shots during dinner. We also celebrated J's birthday and ordered TWO desserts (I know - we are getting crazy). It was a great time.

And of course there is my favorite Valentine - Christopher. We relaxed on Sunday, enjoyed a bottle of wine and each others company. It was a great Valentine's day weekend!

Our Disney December Trip - Day 6 (Last Day)

Our last day in the Kingdom :( Christopher made breakfast reservations at the Grand Floridian Cafe for breakfast so he could get in his last steak and eggs there. He is STILL talking about breakfast there and I will have to get on it to make breakfast reservations for our May trip. 

With excellent planning of our trip, we were able to snag Fast Passes to meet Elsa & Anna!!! It was an awesome experience to meet them. They spent a good amount of time with each party and posed for lots of pictures and signed our picture mat.

We also got on some of our favorite rides too - like Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.

We were sad to go! But we know we will be back in less than 5 months!

Our Disney December Trip - Day 5

Day 5 of our trip, we did a "resort" tour to catch a bunch of the Christmas decorations and exhibits that were up. We decided to take the monorail to Epcot and then walk through Epcot to get to the Crescent Lake resort area. I tried to tempt Christopher with a cronut, but he was being good. 

Our first stop was Beach Club. It was a lovely warm day and by the time we got to the resort area - no jackets were necessary!

Inside the Beach Club, they had many decorated Christmas trees and a lifesize carousel made out of gingerbread! It was even spinning too!

We then walked over to the Yacht Club. This resort also had a lot of Christmas trees decorated, but their centerpiece was a model train village. It was huge and beautiful. This inspired Christopher to set up our train sets when we got home from the trip. 

Then we walked over to the Boardwalk Resort - one of our favorite resorts (and staying here in May!) The poinsettia garden was beautiful! Wish it was warm enough in Buffalo to do this.

Inside the Boardwalk Resort they had a classic stand for some cones! Made out of...you guessed it - Gingerbread!

We then took a bus over to the Magic Kingdom and walked to the Contemporary resort. Their gingerbread exhibit was themed for Frozen. And instead of Hidden Mickeys - they did Hidden Olaf's - how cute!

We then took to the monorail over to the Poly to relax and catch some football. Unfortunately they did not show the Buffalo Bills game. But we still sat at the bar - ordered our Lapu Lapu's and Christopher received play by play updates through his dad, brother Mike, friends and ESPN.

After relaxing and finishing our drinks at the Poly, we headed back to our home resort and grabbed lunch out on the beach/pool area. Christopher was in a good mood, despite missing the Bills game.

We then headed back to our rooms to change for dinner! Our last night, we did dinner at Citricos inside the Grand. Before dinner, we got some more pictures in front of the HUGE tree inside the Grand, did a little last minute shopping and then headed to the lounge for some pre-dinner drinks. 

We relaxed at the lounge and listened to the live band that was playing. It was truly an exception experience and we will definitely be doing that again. (Side note: you are warned - service at the lounge is very slow).

Citricos is our new favorite restaurant! The service is incredible and the food is absolutely out of this world. We ordered a bottle of wine and started with some appetizers. Christopher ordered the arancini and I had the cheese course. For our entrees Christopher had the Swordfish and I had the veal chop. Both were AMAZING and I still think about that meal.

Although we really did not have any room left for dessert, I wanted to get the warm chocolate torte just so I could get the chocolate crown. Our table was near the dessert station and I caught the pastry chefs making the crowns while we were there.

Christopher ordered the gelato sampler - and it was so cute. They served it in three mini ice cream cones in this cute stand.

We then ran down to the dock after dinner (more like waddled) to catch Wishes over Magic Kingdom. It was so romantic and a great way to end our Christmas vacation at Disney.