CHRISTMAS SHENANIGANS

Hi everyone! The holidays have passed now, but I was so busy at the time I never got to blog about what I did on Christmas and beyond! As you know, I spent this Christmas with my boyfriend Mike and his family in England. The whole clan ventured to a place called Warmwell, which is about 2 and a half hours south of London on the coast. We stayed in cabins at a holiday park (hard to explain to someone who has never been to one before, if i had to compare it to something in america i would say it's like a campground but with cheesy entertainment, games, and a bar) for 5 days and we all had a lovely time! Mike's mum and her sisters cooked Christmas dinner for all 15 of us and it was absolutely delicious. We had turkey (strange for Christmas as I'm used to turkey on Thanksgiving but I was more than happy to eat it again), gammon (ham), chicken, stuffing, potatoes, carrots, peas, and of course Yorkshire puddings! Yum :)

i don't know what the face is for, everything tasted amazing :)

We ate our lovely meal and pulled open our Christmas crackers which is where we got our fashionable crowns from ;) Oh, and in case you were wondering I ended up wearing the black and green dress that I bought from Francesca's!

sunset over the lake near our cabin

We went to Weymouth a few times, which is a nearby city that is right on the sea. Mike and I had a nice cream tea (a pot of really nice tea, a scone, and some clotted cream and jam to go with it) at a little shop on the high street.

And then we headed to the beach!

After our trip to Warmwell, Mike and I went out one night to a pub with about 10 of his best friends! Some of them he hadn't seen in a long time and some of them I had never met before, so it was fun for both of us :)

this is mike's best friend's girlfriend, her name is shannon too!

Mike and I also went ice skating at Hampton Court Palace and it was so much fun! Well, I may have enjoyed myself a bit more than Mike did because I actually like ice skating ;) The rink was small and there were loads of people but somehow we managed to maneuver our way through them and not fall!

my favorite picture of mike and i so far :)

until next time,

(HEY NOW, HEY NOW) THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF

Hi everyone! Wow, it's been way too long since I last blogged, it feels so good to be back :) I spent last weekend in Rome (I had to keep telling myself it was December, it was so warm it felt like summer!) and I wanted to share some of my pictures with you all! (I don't know about you, but ever since I saw The Lizzie McGuire movie when I was younger I've always wanted to go to Rome!) We managed to see most (if not all) of the famous sites in the city like the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Vatican (and the Sistine Chapel, but sadly I couldn't take any pictures in there, boo) I was extremely disappointed to discover that the Trevi Fountain is still under construction and it has ugly scaffolding all over it! That was one of the things I was really looking forward to seeing, but it was kind of cool that we were able to walk through it since there is no water in it. Oh, and I ate some really delicious food. A lot of delicious food. Definitely a highlight of my trip! Well enough blabbing, let's get into the pictures!

i got a heart in my cappuccino!

when in rome. am i right?

my amazing porcini mushroom fettuccine

mike's giant calzone

tiramisu...yum

cannolis are life

mike and i our first night in rome

just chillin at the colosseum

not a white christmas, but still beautiful for sure!

be adventurous

this lovely building (the pantheon) was a two minute walk from our hotel!

a view of the roman forum

the vatican

cathedrals are abundant in europe and they are all gorgeous 

until next time,

       

WHO DOESN'T LOVE SNACKS?!: OCTOBER GRAZE BOX

Hi everyone! This week I received my first Graze box in the mail, and I wanted to show you the goodies that I got. Graze is a subscription service that sends you snacks once a month in a cute little box! (Which is made out of recyclable materials, I might add!) The box that I got this month is called the Nibblebox, which is basically a starter box with four different snacks in it. Keep on reading to see the snacks that I tried and for a chance to get a free Graze box to try yourself! :)

The box even comes with this little pamphlet that includes info and ingredients!

Snack 1 of 4: Brooklyn Bites. Components = poppyseed pretzels (poppyseed bagels, anyone?), cheese flavored cashews (i love both cheese and cashews, so love), and roasted pumpkin seeds (october appropriate!)

Overall Score: 6.5/10. I liked it but I don't know if I could eat a whole bag of it!

Snack 2 of 4: Strawberry Shortcake. Components = raw pistachio kernels, strawberry drops, yogurt coated strawberry pieces, sponge pieces (sounds strange, but they're like little pieces of sponge cake...but crunchy)

Overall Score: 8/10. When you eat everything together, it really does tastes like strawberry shortcake! :) Quite tasty, in my opinion!

Snack 3 of 4: Apple and Cinnamon Flapjack. (I know, it's not a pancake. I'll explain in a minute) Components = all you need to know is that it's made of DELICIOUSNESS

Overall Score: 100/10. Yeah, it's that good. I ate a lot of flapjacks while I was in England, they are kinda like a thick, giant, scrumptious granola bar. On steroids. I already ate it and I wish I had more :(

Snack 4 of 4: Toffee Apple. Components = soft apple wedges, toffee sauce

Overall Score: 2/10. This is a matter of personal taste, I'm sure most people would love this! I don't really like dried fruit, so I wasn't a huge fan. But the toffee sauce was yummy :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing the contents of my Graze box! What do you think about subscription boxes? Worth it? Waste? What snack do you think looks the tastiest? The first four people to comment down below will receive a code for a free Graze box! :)

www.graze.com

until next time,