Christmas Movie List + A Fun Tradition

December 4, 2017

Thermal Graphic Tee (mine is sold out, but there are tons of other styles // Patterned Thermal Sleep Leggings // Iceland Bear Bootie Slippers (so cute!!) // Mrs. Santa Hat Mug // Mr. Santa Hat Mug

Happy Monday friends!!! I hope y’all had a lovely weekend!! If you follow me on insta’, you saw we had a pretty eventful weekend!! Stay tuned, I am hoping to do a whole post about it. Today, I am sharing two fun things that B and I do every year that we absolutely LOVEEEEE! The first is our annual Christmas Movie tradition. Each year, starting the night after Thanksgiving, we watch a Christmas movie (at least 1, sometimes MORE depending on the night) each night until Christmas. I seriously get so excited to come home from work each night because I can’t wait to watch a movie. We are VERY serious about our Christmas movie watching. We stock up on all different kinds of hot cocoa, candy canes, and Christmas candies to enjoy while watching. We even go so far as to each have our own snuggly blanket that we cuddle up with while watching! Mine of course, is ridiculously snuggly faux fur one!! B’s is his Binary blanket….a blanket with binary code all over it #computernerd lolllll!!! I even go so far to list out the movies and try to vary the type of movie week. For example: Monday: Rudolph (claymation movie), Tuesday: Four Christmases (funny movie) Wednesday: Frosty the Snowman (cartoon movie), Thursday: Die Hard (action movie). Sometimes we also fit two short movies into one night!! Here is my list below of the movies we are watching each night until Christmas! Scroll down to see our other yearly favorite tradition!!

A Movie A Day Til’ Christmas

Elf

A Christmas Carol

Mickey’s Christmas Carol/Frosty the Snowman

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Family Man

Christmas With the Kranks

Jingle All The Way

Scrooged

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey Version)

The Polar Express

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Office Christmas Party

The Santa Claus

Bad Santa

Fred Claus

Jack Frost

Miracle on 34th Street

Gremlins

Four Christmases

Die Hard

Home Alone

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

A Christmas Story

It’s a Wonderful Life

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

As stated above, B and I just love the holidays!! In addition to our Christmas movie tradition, we also have an ornament tradition. As if B wasn’t the perfect match for me already, when we got to talking on our first Christmas together, we discovered that both of our moms (who have the same birthday, BTW, just one year apart! So many weird coincidences!!) bought us each a special ornament every year from birth!! So, we decided to continue the tradition!! Our first year, we bought ornaments for each other! The second Christmas we had just gotten engaged, and our third we had just gotten married! Check out the pics below to see some of our ornaments that we have collected over the years! This year is definitely bittersweet because it is our last Christmas in our little townhouse where we made our first memories together! We decided to honor that and make our tree all of our special ornaments! Next Christmas, when we are in our new home, we plan on having two trees! One that is very styled and classic and the other will be all of the ornaments we’ve collected over the years! I will say that we get a huge kick out of looking at the ornaments each year. It’s so much fun to reminisce on our memories and tell stories of our childhood ornaments!!

Check out some of our faves below!

Do you have any special Christmas traditions?? I’d love to hear them! We are always looking for new and interesting things to try together. Drop me a comment below.

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8 Things to Do in Philly at Christmas

December 1, 2017

Long Black Ribbed Cardigan (on sale, only $29) // White Boyfriend Tee // Black Distressed Skinnies // Free People Red Scarf // Gold Stud Earrings // North Face Parka // Boots, Koolaburra for Uggs (on sale, $10 off) // Quay Aviators

Happy Friday Friends!!! I can’t believe that it’s already December 1st!! I am obsessed with the holiday season, so naturally, I had to round up all of our favorite things to do in the Philadelphia area. There are sooooo many of them! B and I always choose something fun to do each as part of our gift to each other. We plan it all out and make a whole day of it and it so much fun. It’s become one of the things we look forward to most each year. Since, B was off over the Thanksgiving break, we decided to forgo going to stores for Black Friday, and head down to Philly instead. This year, we hit up the Dilworthtown Winter Garden, Christmas Village, Macy’s Light show and had festive cocktails and brick oven pizza at one our fave places…Vino. It was an awesome day!! If you are in the Philly area during the holidays, read on to find out all of the BEST and MOST FESTIVE things to do to get you in a jolly holiday mood!!

About the outfit: I absolutely love how festive this bright red scarf is!! It was the perfect accessory to keep warm while walking around. The long cardi helped to keep me warm as well, plus my Koolaburra For Ugg boots are a must when trying to warm while doing tons of walking downtown!!

Things to Do in Philly at Christmas

Dilworth Park Winter Garden and Holidays at City Hall Complete with an ice rink, it’s own “Deck the Halls” light show and beer garden, you don’t want to miss it! It’s also the home to Philly’s official Christmas tree! There are tons of local vendors to shop, a maze for the kids, and places to warm up with a cocktail or hot drink!

Macy’s Light Show Held in the historic Wanamaker building, this spectacular light show has been going since 1956. It’s a free event and goes on every two hours during store hours. It’s such a fun tradition and a must see!

Christmas Village in LOVE Park This place is setup up like tradition German market complete with about 80 festive wooden booths. Vendors sell everything from food, to artwork, to hand painted ornaments. Make a stop at the Chaddsford Winery booth to grab some hot spiked to stroll around with! B and I like to buy ornaments here each year to symbolize a memory we made that year.

Comcast Holiday Spectacular Located in the lobby of the Comcast building, this huge LED display is one of my favorite newer traditions! It’s about 15 minutes long and FREE, every hour on the hour (10 am – 8pm, but excluding 5 pm on weekdays) Def check it out!!

Blue Cross RiverRink Winterfest Love this place!! Located at Penn’s Landing, this area is transformed into a Winter Wonderland. There are fire pits, an ice skating rink, a chalet-style lodge for food and cocktails, and they EVEN show 12 nights of Christmas movies. The total bonus though is the unbelievable view of the Ben Franklin Bridge.

Holiday Light Show at ShadyBrook Farm This tradition is top on our list! Tons and tons and tons of awesome light displays that can all be enjoyed from the warmth of your car!! Each year we try to take a trip over on a weeknight when it is less crowded. You can bring a whole car full of people and take a lovely, leisurely drive through the miraculous display. If you plan right, you can also have a nice dinner a nearby place called Bella Tori Mansion. The food is wonderful and if you lucky you will be seated near the gorgeous fireplace!

Christmas in Peddler’s Village If you have been following along for a while, y’all know how much I LOVE LOVE Peddler’s Village. During Christmas, the Village transforms into a magical area filler with lights and gingerbread displays!! We love to hit up HEWN spirits for a warm, festive cocktail to carry around with us! Plus, you can also even go to a holiday-themed Murder Mystery Dinner at the Cock N’ Bull restaurant. We went last year and it was hysterical and the food was amazing!!! So much fun!!

Longwood Gardens The best way to describe this place is ABSOLUTELY BREATHTAKING. The gardens are transformed into a beautiful holiday wonderland. Tons of poinsettias, bows, and and thousand of twinkling lights are on display. It is quite the sight to see! There is even a dancing fountain light show set to the tune of Christmas music. You will love it!!

Have you ever been to Philly at the holidays? What’s your favorite thing to do or which one are hoping to go to this year? I’d love to hear your thoughts!! Drop me a comment below!

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Holiday Cocktail Recipe

November 29, 2017

Barware: Kate Spade Pitcher // Kate Spade LowBall Glasses

What I’m Wearing: Lush Tunic // Monogram Necklace // Gold Stud Earrings

Happy Wednesday friends!! It’s here! It’s here! The holidays are here! I am super pumped bc I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the holiday season!! A little background about our family…We seriously LOVE the holidays and get really into it. My mom puts on a huge spread for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’re talking 20+ appetizers and dinner complete with catering sternos…yeah I know, it’s a TON of food…but it is so much fun!! (I’m always needing to get my fat pants ready bc I can’t stop myself from eating so much!!). My mom and I area very close…#besties…so each year we have so much fun planning out the menu of apps etc. that we have people bring to make each holiday a little special and unique. One thing that we started doing the past few years is adding a signature drink to the menu. Each year we try something slightly different and see how everyone likes it! Usually, I’ll test the recipe out a few days before to make sure it’s tasty and then we go ahead and make a huge batch the day before or sometimes even on the day of. It’s a fun little addition to our holidays and the fam always loves to see what our signature drink will be each year! This year we decided to go with a holiday sangria! Let me just say….this recipe is so yum!! I wanted something super “festive”, so I thought the idea of adding apple cider to the mix would give it that extra holiday spice. Try it out and let me know what you think!!

Cran-Apple Sangria

Ingredients

1 750 ml bottle of red wine

3 cups apple cider

1 cup Cran-Raspberry Juice

½ cup triple sec

1 cup fresh cranberries

1 cup red or green apple

Sparkling water to top off (optional)

Cinnamon sticks for garnish

Directions

*You can either make this a single batch or in a punch bowl like we did on the actual holiday. The pics above were my “test” session for the cocktail. When I make this I actually triple it and then it fills our punch bowl. To keep it cold, we make an ice ring out of the same ingredients as above and this keeps it from getting watered down.

Mix all ingredients into pitcher or punch bowl except cinnamon sticks, sparkling water, and fruit.

Once mixed thoroughly, stir in fruit and pour into festive glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and top with sparkling water if you would like it to be a little bubbly!

What’s your fave holiday cocktail recipe? I am always looking for new ones to try. I’d love to hear from you. Drop me a comment below.