Tag: dinner

Flanagans on a Friday…

It has been way too long since we’ve been to Flanagan’s Irish Pub in Dunedin. As in a couple years too long. So when my sister-in-law Jenna mentioned it on Facebook Friday morning, I called her and said we’re in if you go. Didn’t have to ask us twice! It ended up being Nick, Jenna, Autumn, me, hubby, and my mom. Family fun!

I highly recommend the cream of potato soup and the fish and chips, and get the lunch option because the dinner serving is HUGE!! I love to have malt vinegar on mine. Paired with a pint of Guinness and you are all set for a great night!

And we were in luck Friday night because Noel Cooney was there singing Christmas songs and Irish tunes. We have seen him twice before and he’s always entertaining. I highly recommend making a reservation if you go on a night when he is there – you can make reservations for parties of 6 or more.

The rainy Friday night in Dunedin was a great time! Oh and did I mention that before we went to Flanagan’s, hubby and I ran into Stirling Tropical Wines right next door for a quick wine tasting. I left with a bottle of Mango Mamma wine after tasting it. If you like mango, you will love this wine which is nice and sweet.

Here is our night in pictures…

 

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Do you have a local pub that you like to go to?

Christmas Day FUN!!

After a very nice Christmas Eve, our Christmas Day was a perfect wrap-up to the long holiday weekend. Another Christmas has come and gone… It seems like I blink and it’s over. It was just Thanksgiving and now we are quickly approaching 2013. I was at Publix yesterday and they already had Valentine cards out. We all seriously need to slow down…. Like Blue! He knows how to relax….

 

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But now, I want to share our fantastic Christmas Day! After a quiet morning at home with hubby and Blue and Ozzie, we headed over to Nick & Jenna’s for the afternoon and a FANTASTIC dinner. Of course much of the afternoon was all about Autumn, as it should be. I cannot get enough of her silliness and laughter. And the older she gets, the sillier she gets. Having a bad day? Listen to Autumn for a few minutes and you will forget every single problem you are facing. I wish she could follow me everywhere.

Anyhow, little miss Autumn got a pink BB gun for Christmas after showing interest in Nick’s which he recently bought to shoot in the backyard. And before you go all “you’ll shoot your eye out” on them, you have to know that it is safety first. Not to mention Autumn is an ace shot. Water bottles and soda cans were being shot with unbelievable precision – by Autumn. No need to worry about her and boys, that’s for sure.

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Nick, Jenna, and Jenni also had fun with the BB guns. Not sure why I didn’t shoot it… Oh I know, I was too busy taking pictures! You can’t really tell in this picture, but hubby is holding Autumn’s pink gun.

 

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There was also swinging and backyard fun. Thank goodness she tolerates all my picture taking and is quite the little poser, both with me and hubby.

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Then it was time to open presents! Autumn very much loved the My Little Pony set we got her. A girl can never have too many ponies, just ask Autumn.

 

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And then there were gifts from Grandmommy and Jenni too. Silly girl asked why everyone likes to give her so many presents and we told her because we love you!!!

 

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Scarlett had to get in on the action too… After presents, it was time for Scrabble. If it’s a holiday and we have time, there is a Scrabble game. It’s genetic in this family. Unfortunately this game did not go my way and I kept trying to sell my vowels…

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For dinner, Nick made a deep fried turkey. If you haven’t had one, you should definitely try one. It is so juicy and tender. So yummy!!

 

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While we waited for dinner to be ready, Jenni and I went outside with Autumn so she could ride her new bike and wear her fabulous helmet and cute gloves.

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Autumn’s Christmas!

 

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I couldn’t let the day pass without a picture of me and my honey… The weather was nice, so we sat out on the patio while the turkey cooked and Autumn played on her swing. And because you can never watch it too much, A Christmas Story was on all day. That movie never gets old.

 

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Time to eat! Along with the fried turkey, there were also mashed potatoes, rolls, pasta salad, corn, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli casserole. I’m full again just thinking about it. Thank you for the delicious dinner Nick and Jenna!

 

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After dinner and dessert and we were all stuffed (and discussing how awesome stretchy pants are), we went outside to watch Nick and his new interest, slacklining. Every heard of it? I wanted to try it but I imagined myself throwing out my back and that just would not have been cool.

 

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It was such a wonderful day. Good company, good food, and lots of laughter. My kind of day…. On the way home, we saw a beautiful sunset. I thought of Daddy all day long, wishing he was with us, having a hard time believing that this was our third Christmas without him, and seeing this sunset reminded me that he is with us, always.

 

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How did you spend your Christmas? Do you celebrate any special traditions?

Christmas Eve Magic

Merry Christmas everyone! As I type this, A Christmas Story is on TV, I’m drinking a hot soy latte, and thinking about the pumpkin pie bars and pasta salad I still need to make for later.

Last night, we all celebrated Christmas Eve at Joey and Devon’s house, my brother and sister-in-law, with their boys Cooper and Cole. The kiddos were in full playtime mode and the sound of laughter and giggling filled the house. There was food, fun, and presents! It was a very nice night. Funniest moment of the night – when Cole went to tell Simon (the Elf, currently perched on the tree) that Cooper wasn’t being good. Classic!

I took so many photos – and a fun video – so I better get to it!

 

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Cole (left), Cooper (right), and Autumn!

 

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Today we will have Christmas dinner at Nick and Jenna’s house and give Autumn her gift! Can’t wait to see her face when we give it to her. (hint, ponies!!!!) Today, as always, I am thankful for wonderful family times!

 

Merry Christmas to you all!

I love holiday weekends!

I am trying not to think about the fact that tomorrow is Monday. It has been such a great holiday weekend, full of family fun.

On Friday, after coming out of our Thanksgiving food coma, hubby and I took my mom to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. We go a couple times a year and enjoy feeding the slot machines our hard-earned money. All joking aside, we only take a little bit and when it’s gone, it’s gone. I once hit $350 on the Lil’ Ladybug slot machines there and they have been my favorite machines ever since. But this time, I found a new one that I love – Grease! – and I hit $185 on it! It was nice to come home with some money.

 

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We had lunch at the Hard Rock Café while we were there and I enjoyed the Christmas decorations throughout the casino. They had a beautiful poinsettia tree, it was very festive. We had such a nice time, enjoying a day much needed day off from work.

 

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Yesterday, I went to see Breaking Dawn Part 2 with my sister Jenni and sister-in-law Jenna. Jenna and I have seen all of the Twilight movies together, so it was only fitting that we saw the last one together. It was a great end to the series. I knew there was a twist going into it, having read several posts and FB updates about it, and even though Jenna told me what she thought it was, I was still surprised. Well played, Twilight, well played.

 

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After a trip to Barnes & Noble, Old Navy (where I scored a jacket and shirt for $18!), and Bed Bath & Beyond, we ended the day at Nick & Jenna’s. My brother Nick is a grill master and when he invited us over for pulled pork, I knew we couldn’t miss it. He made a fantastic dinner, Thanksgiving 2.0 as Jenna called it. I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the feast he made. Bad blogger!

As the holiday weekend comes to an end (nooooo!), hubby and I will spend the day at home. I plan on putting up our Christmas tree, catching up on some blogging, and hopefully some reading. I had plans to read a lot this weekend and I have yet to pick up a book with all the fun we’ve been having.

 

What did you do this holiday weekend? Did you decorate for Christmas yet?

Thanksgiving Fun 2012

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. A day full of fun, food, laughter, food, family, and more food. This year we finally took part in the Tampa Bay Times Turkey Trot here in Clearwater. For years we’ve been saying we should do it, and this was finally the year. Even more exciting? My mom joined us, her first official walk!

 

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It was a nice crisp morning and made for a chilly wait for the 7:30am start time, but I like to be early. It was fun to see all the people there so early on a holiday. We saw people in funny turkey hats, and saw one guy in just shorts and a knit cap, no shirt. Crazy. And isn’t this cool….

 

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Before we headed to the start line, I was standing in line for the port-o-potty and I saw Caroline from My Fascinating Life and a Tampa Bay Lady Blogger. he had her hubby take a picture of us, so there is now proof that I was in line for the port-o-potty. (Hopefully Caroline won’t be mad that I borrowed her picture….)

 

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Heading to the start line, I kept my eyes open for Steph from Kitchen Kilometers, also a Tampa Bay Lady Blogger. She is one of the reasons I  wanted to do the Turkey Trot this year after she created an event for it on Facebook. She was there with her boyfriend. he is such a good guy for getting up early on a cold Thanksgiving to walk with her.

 

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While we were waiting for the walk to start, I spotted a turkey that I had to have my picture taken with. It wouldn’t make sense any other day to have my picture taken with one, today was the perfect day. Gobble gobble!

 

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And finally, we were off! I knew there were a lot of people there, but when the walk actually started, I couldn’t believe just how many people there were. The walk started on Keene Rd., a 5 lane road and the crown spanned the entire road. It was amazing. I tried to get photos of the crowd, but since I’m so short, it didn’t really work. We were in a sea of orange for miles. I later heard that 17,700 people participated. Wow!

 

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The 5K took us a little over an hour, just from the number of people alone. But, it was a great walk and I am sure that we have started a new tradition. Yay for new traditions! You can also read hubby’s post on his blog….

 

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After the walk and a quick trip to Starbucks with Blue and Ozzie (spoiled Aussies that they are…), we got ready for the rest of the day, which would be spent at my mom’s. She was cooking her traditional Thanksgiving dinner and I was in charge of putting up her Christmas tree and decorating it. As long as I can remember, since I was old enough to do it, I have been the one to decorate. While my mom did her amazing cooking in the kitchen, I did this….

 

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My sister Jenni was there and after lunch, my brother Nick, his wife Jenna, and cutie-pie Autumn came over. It was a very nice day together. As I knew there would be, there was laughter and fun and silliness and eating and more. Our traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes turkey, stuffing with Italian sausage, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, shrimp cocktail, “crab cakes” (actually fried stuffing, no crab), and pumpkin pie. We also had yummy brownies.

 

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Yes, it was a wonderful day all around! Now I am looking forward to another 3 days off from work There will be walking, relaxing, the movies, and more!

 

How did you spend your Thanksgiving?