Ringing In a New Year

Well, a BIG and happy hello to all of you in 2014! I still cannot believe it is a new calendar year. Just like that. Crazy!

Did you all enjoy ringing it in? Scott and I go back and forth on what to do at midnight every year, and looking back at the last six of them, this was our most eventful one yet. To be honest, I would be a-okay with hanging in our pajamas with a simple toast at home at midnight. My husband, on the other hand, likes to get dressed up and celebrate in a unique way.

I can’t blame him for making things a little more interesting!

But we’ll get to that in a minute… first I want to share our afternoon with my mom in Downtown Rochester!

She caught a glimpse of Main Street last year when we took her to see the downtown lights. They don’t come on during the daytime, but we took a quick stroll down the street anyways. And I say quick because it’s pretty chilly out this week. These Floridians were shaking in their boots for sure!

Lunch at Penny Black’s

We walked a few blocks over to Penny Black’s, a restaurant that Scott and I have been eyeing for a while. I’m so glad we finally got to stop in and try their food because it was incredible. Seriously. SO good!

We started by splitting their Fried Green Tomatoes for an appetizer that were out of this world. Then Scott and I split two meals: Texas tacos (pork, chicken, and brisket) with a chipotle lime rice and a meatloaf dinner with mashed potatoes and green beans.

We were very happy with our choices and also bummed that we didn’t have room for dessert. They have some unique ones like Yates Cider Mill donut bread pudding for instance. I mean, really… that just sounds dreamy.

We decided to rain check on that and stopped into a bakery called Cupcake Station for indulgences later on instead.

See that dog bone shaped one on the right? That pupcake was for Roadie, since he would be keeping my mom company during the ball drop. I thought they were so cute!

Ringing In a New Year

We had plans to go out with our friends Alex and Casey, and they arrived at our house around 8:30 p.m for a quick toast with my mom.

We picked up a few nice bottles of champagne from Paris, since they are so much cheaper over there! Don’t mind if we do.

Happy New Year! (Three hours early.) 

Ready for a fun celebration, we all packed in the car en route to Royal Oak.

Alex attended a New Year’s celebration at Royal Oak Music Theatre last year and said it was a blast, so we gave it a shot! The first thing we came across inside were these (not so) awesome hats that made us giggle.

Once we got inside, we found the cute ones.

And a live band!

For arriving around 9 p.m. I was pretty impressed by the turn out. The venue was perfect for anyone our age, younger, and older to celebrate and everyone there seemed to have a great time!

We certainly cut a rug or two and got a conffetti drop surprise at midnight!

3… 2… 1…

Happy New Year!!!

New Years Day

Our celebrations were fun, but I would be lying if I said we weren’t dragging a little today. I think our trip overseas is finally setting in, so we have been enjoying lounging inside for today.

I made my go-to breakfast of gluten-free waffles topped in Greek yogurt and fresh berries.

And my mom made a traditional ham and black bean crockpot dinner that’s alllmost ready to dig into.

We plan to eat up, then finally get bundled up to head outside and explore Downtown Detroit with her. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your day. Oh, and before I forget: Happy Six Year Date-iversary to you, my love!

Thank you all for making it possible to share my adventures with you on this blog! 2013 was a great year, and I am looking forward to see what 2014 has in store. Wishing you all a very happy start to the new year!