Workin' It: Planning for the Holidays

Hey ladies!

It's a Workin' It Wednesday today with Erika and Shay. 

The second Wednesday of each month these ladies share a new topic. 

If you're interested in the topics so far this year or ones to comes, check out the graphic below.

This month we're sharing: 

Planning for the holidays!

I try to make Christmas as stress-free as I can, so I plan all throughout the year. 

It's sounds crazy, but I'm that weird person thinking about Christmas in every single month that leads up to it. 

With that being said, there are a few things that I like to do to help be organized and ready to go come December. 

Christmas Club

 There's a Christmas Club at one of our local banks, so I save money all throughout the year, and then I get a check at the end of October to buy Christmas presents. 

My mom started this for my brother and I way back when we were young. 

We had to save like $2 a week and then got $100 to spend on family for Christmas. 

It really taught me a lot about money, saving and buying for others. 

I truly enjoy buying and watching my family members open their gifts more than I enjoy opening gifts myself. 

There was always so much planning involved in getting just the right gift that I still feel that way to this day. 

The Christmas Club account helps me not feel like I'm stressed for money come December, and it allows me to stick to a budget. 

I only buy as much as I have available in the check I receive from my Christmas Club. 

My gifts are meaningful and not over the top. 

If I want to spend more $ here, then I spend less $ over here.

 Christmas List

I keep a Christmas List with gift ideas for everyone on my phone all throughout the year. 

That way when I hear something that someone likes I jot it down and have the idea ready to buy come October/November/December. 

Keeping a Christmas List all year helps me be better prepared to buy a meaningful gift. 

I'm not quick on my toes, so I need lots of time to think and plan and that running Christmas list allows me just that. 

 Menu Planning

Along with my running Christmas List on my phone throughout the year, I also keep a menu for our Christmas dinner. 

Last year was our first year to host Christmas dinner. 

It was an enjoyable time with family but also a ton of work, especially since we went to two places on Christmas Day before coming home and trying to prepare a meal for 18 people. 

I started way back in June with planning out our menu for this year. 

I cut out some things because we just don't need as much food as we had, and I was intentional on the menu items that I added. 

Some items will be quick that we can make the day of, and others will be made ahead of time. 

I love a home cooked meal, but I need to make something that's do-able come Christmas Day. 

I don't want to be hosting a meal when I dread all of the preparation. 

To this day I'm still fine tuning the menu, but for the most part it is set, and I'm already mentally preparing for when I will make the dishes that I need to make ahead of time. 

Christmas Cards

I tried to get some pictures of Alex and I throughout the year to use on our Christmas cards. 

Last year we used wedding pictures, so that made it super easy, but this year I wanted to use pictures from various vacations. 

I've put my request in for our cards to be made and am just awaiting a reply. 

I like to send cards out during the first week of December to get them done and out of the way. 

Christmas Games

I'm still in need of some help with a fun gift card game to play on Christmas evening. 

In the past I started a little tradition of buying various gift cards, covering up the $ amount with a sticker and then wrapping them up. 

So a person would choose a wrapped gift card, unwrap it and then it would move on to the next person.

 I did it where each person chose a card, and after the first person chose their card, anyone could steal a card that was previously taken or unwrap a new one. 

We waited until everyone went and then they got to uncover the sticker covering the amount of the card. 

This game was fun, but this year I've decided to discontinue that and instead am including a little blurb on our Christmas dinner invitation about bringing a gift card of your choice if you want to be included in the gift card game. 

Any ideas on a neat game to play with gift cards?

I'm all about organization and planning, so when it comes to planning and being organized for the holidays, I'm even more about it. 

I can't wait to read everyone else's fun tips!

Friday Favorites: Live with Kelly, D.C., Hallmark Christmas Movies, Amazon Scarves

It's Friday, Friday!
So glad to see Fri-Yay!
Last week I spent three days with 100+ kids in D.C. so a whole week back in the classroom has me needing a Friday!

As always, I'm linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea. 

We're sharing our favorites from the week.

Grab their graphic and linkup with your favorites from the week, too.

Washington D.C.

Like I mentioned above, last week we had our 8th grade trip to Washington D.C.
My students look forward to this trip with so much anticipation!
I teach in an extremely rural area, so some of these kids have never been outside of the state, let alone to a city!


It is so neat to see a new city through their eyes.
They were beyond enthused to be riding a charter bus not a school bus and to get to stay in a hotel.
One new addition we randomly added in this time was the Capitol.
So fun seeing the high officials go in and out as we stood outside.

I always love our night tour!

This is my favorite view of the Washington Monument!

We eat dinner at Medieval Times one night. 

Here I am with some of my favorite co-workers!

NYC

Earlier in the week I shared two posts about our recent trip to the Big Apple!

We ate breakfast at an entertaining dinner and had free humongous desserts!

To see more about our trip, click here. 

Then, on a Monday, specifically October 2, Kelly Ripa's birthday, we visited the Live with Kelly and Ryan show!
It was fantastic.
Waiting in line for 3 hours was totally worth it!
See all of my fun pictures here.

I cannot write this post without thinking about those friends and families of the people whose lives were innocently taken in Manhattan earlier in the week.
Alex and I strolled on that exact bike path a month ago.
I even told him if we had to live in NYC that that area is where I would want to live.
It was so clean, unlike many other spots in the city.
People were blowing leaves off the sidewalk, kids were playing soccer, so many people were running and nearby families were playing at a park.
We walked and sat for hours in that exact area.
I was shocked to find out that was the exact spot where the terrorist took so many lives.
This life is so short, and I hope we all cherish every moment we are given!

Hallmark Christmas Movies

It was a coldy and rainy weekend, so I spent time watching CHRISTMAS movies!
Yes! Christmas movies!
One of Alex's friends came over and said "Are you really watching Christmas movies?"

Why yes, yes I am!

My new favorite Hallmark movie is Marry Me at Christmas!

Amazon Scarves

These awesome scarves come in 19 different colors and are only $12. 

I haven't decided which colors are my favorite, but there are so many great color combinations!

Lots of favorites for the week!

I'm hoping to get a lot of cleaning done, along with finish a current book this weekend.

I hope to even add in a few more Hallmark Christmas movies!

Enjoy your weekend!

How many more days until Christmas?!

NYC 2017-Live with Kelly!

I love me some Kelly Ripa!

She just makes me laugh. 

I loved Regis, was a huge fan of Michael Strahan, and now have grown to enjoy Ryan Seacrest as well!

This has been a Bucket List item of mine for some time, and this summer I made it a priority to watch for tickets, so that I could request them during the right time to hopefully make it on the show during our Fall Break. 

Luckily enough I was sitting in my travel agency classes when I pulled up the ticket schedule and saw that the date during Fall Break was current accepting ticket requests!

Yay!

I immediately requested them, and within an hour they had been confirmed!!

Woot! Woot!

We stayed in Staten Island, so it was a bit of a trek for us to make it clear up to the upper west side by 6 am. 

We made it nonetheless!

Here we are waiting in line. 

We were #5 and 6. 

It wasn't too chilly outside, so we enjoyed watching people walk/run by and kept our eyes glued inside. 

The balloon man showed up. 

We came to find out that this day was Kelly's Birthday!

They couldn't even fit all of the balloons in the elevator, so they had to take them a different route on the stairs.

Around 8 we went inside, and from there we waited until 8:30 to go into the studio.

I was expecting the studio to be small, but it seemed a lot smaller than I really expected. 

We were fortunate enough to get to sit down front; however, I expected that the first in line would get the best seats and that wasn't the case. 

Our seats were good, but there were people we came in after us who got to sit in front of us. 

Checking out the wheel before the big spin during trivia time!

All of the above photos were before the show started. 

They shared with us when to clap and when not and what to expect during the show. 

This morning was the morning after the Las Vegas shooting. 

The show started our extremely somber. 

I can't even imagine having to host a show on Live TV when 58 people were just innocently killed at a concert. 

The hosts did a great job, and at the end of the show Ryan left the studio running because he had to broadcast some interviews of people at the concert on the radio.

Kelly seemed like the same person in person as on TV. 

Like I said it was her birthday and lots of people brought her gifts. 

If only I had known, I would have brought her something, and then I'm pretty sure I would have been able to give it to her and get a picture taken with her. 

Most of the people who brought a little gift gave them to her and took pictures with her during commercial breaks. 

Ironically enough, the trivia caller for that day was from Morrow, Ohio. 

When Kelly announced the trivia caller was from Morrow, Ohio I yell "Wooo!!" 

I sat nearly directly in eye contact with Kelly. 

She heard me yell, and looked right at me and said "Are you from Morrow, Ohio?"

Of which I was star struck and didn't say anything, and then said "No, just Ohio!"

My parents were watching the show at home and my dad actually texted me to see if I was the one who yelled. 

And it sure was!!

After the regular show they taped another segment and then recorded Kelly. 

Kelly said goodbye and that was a wrap. 

The show went crazy fast!

Kelly and Ryan talked to people during the commercials. 

I was even more surprised at how fast the commercials went. 

They would start counting down, so that Kelly and Ryan knew when to make it back to their seats, and I swear Kelly made it back to her seat every time just when they were saying 3-2-1.

I'm so glad Alex and I had the opportunity to go, and I would definitely go back again!

We headed back to Central Park for a final stroll and then to Carmine's for lunch before heading home. 

Stuffed mushrooms!

Yum!

Have a great Tuesday!

I hope it is as great as my Monday at Live with Kelly!

NYC Fall 2017-Part One

On Friday night/Saturday morning I got back from three days in Washington D.C. 

It's always so fun to see the city through my students' eyes. 

I teach in a super rural area, so some of these students have never been outside of the state. 

They were thrilled to be away from home for three days and have the opportunity to see what life is like in the city. 

While D.C. was a blast, today I'm sharing my fall trip to New York City!

About a month ago Alex and I headed to the Big Apple for a few days. 

We had a packed agenda to start, but we actually ended up with a lot of free time. 

It was slightly rainy on our way, and we caught a glimpse of this beautiful rainbow!

We arrived at our hotel around midnight and were up in only a few hours to head to the Today Show. 

I RSVP'd ahead of time, and the Today Show website even had a countdown when I logged into my account. 

We made it outside of Studio 1A right before 7 am to find an EMPTY studio!!!

There were other people with signs, and we were all asking the security guard nearby where the Today Show was. 

He said they didn't show up today.

Booo!!!

My dad had told me that there was a big golf tournament that weekend and they wouldn't be airing the Today Show on TV, but I never expected it would be cancelled completely, especially since the website still had our countdown to arrival. 

So, we walked around and decided we wouldn't let this dampen our morning and headed towards Times Square.

We stopped at Ellen's Stardust Diner. 

There was no line; we walked right in, got a table and ordered our food. 

It's a diner with live entertainment. 

The staff sings Broadway songs and even climb up on the tables to strut their stuff and belt out their tunes. 

The tables are crazy close together, but they do a great job of pulling the table out when they seat you, so that you have enough room to squeeze through and sit down. 

We left and headed up to Central Park. 

The service is ridiculously fast at Ellen's Stardust Diner. 

We were only inside eating for maybe 30 minutes. 

By the time we came out there was a line to be seated. 

They don't take reservations, so it's first come, first serve.

We had a ton of time to walk around and explore. 

I love Central Park so much!

We walked around a little bit, it started to rain, so we ducked into Starbucks and then came back out to explore some more!

Here we are exploring!

We left Central Park in the afternoon to head over to see Alex's sister and her boyfriend in Brooklyn. 

We hung out at their place for a while and then left for Little Italy to grab dinner. 

We've eaten at some great places in Little Italy, but I wanted to try someplace new, and unfortunately, we left disappointed. 

We fell into a trap of the salesman luring us in.

It looked good, so we thought we'd try it out, but I wasn't a fan of my Fettuccine Alfredo at all. 

We won't go back, and hopefully next time we will find a better new place.

We left dinner in just enough time to make it to see a comedy show with Alex's sister and her boyfriend. 

It was one long day. 

The picture is blurry, but here we are at 33,559 steps when we got back to the hotel. 

The next day we were going to go to a Broadway show, and I was going to run in Central Park; however, Alex woke up with a migraine, so he went back to bed, and we got a late start heading out. 

We first stopped by to see Dylan Dreher from the Today Show's apartment complex. 

Amazing!

If I had to live in NYC I think I would choose to live in the Financial District near where she does. 

It's SO clean, unlike the rest of NYC!

There are so many families with little ones and everyone is exercising!

Freedom Tower!

We headed north on the subway, hopped off to take a stroll past Kelly Ripa's town home. 

Gorgeous like always. 

There was a lady walking her dog across the street, so I didn't stop and take a picture; although I'm sure she knew we were tourists!

We raced down to Serendipity!

Alex's sister and boyfriend met us for dinner at the one and only Serendipity. 

Such a cute quaint place. 

They have the largest menu's I've ever seen!!!

I ordered one of their well known frozen hot chocolates!

Yum!!

Unfortunately, our order got lost in what I believe was a mix up of waiters/waitresses changing in and out. 

People came and left and we were still sitting there without our food. 

They really apologized and gave us dessert on the house. 

I got the apple pie sundae!

Alex wanted you to see just how big this sundae was, so he put his fist beside it. 

The sundae makes his hand look tiny!

Alex got the Strawberry Shortcake Sundae!

After dinner we enjoy a little bit of Times Square at night before heading back to our hotel. 

Beautiful night view of the city!

We needed to make it to bed early because the next day we would head to Live with Kelly and Ryan!

My goal was to be in line by 6 am, and I will be back tomorrow to let you know how that worked out!

Stay tuned for Live with Kelly tomorrow!