This past weekend was definitely one of the absolute best I’ve had in a while. To be honest, the week before was probably the most stressful in student teaching that I’ve had yet – I literally cried twice. I needed the break, and I can’t tell you just how perfect the weekend ended up being.
We started out Friday seeing Hamilton with Jake’s family. I posted about this a couple times on Instagram, and I need to reiterate how grateful I am to have been able to see the show. It was beyond anything I could have ever imagined, and I’ve been listening to the soundtrack non-stop. It’s certainly known that it’s the best show Broadway has ever had but, as someone who has seen a lot of shows over the years, I have to tell you I have never seen anything that comes close. This was an unbelievably special experience.
I started out my time at New York University as a musical theater major – so Hamilton really reminded me of my love for theater. However, I’m also a huge history buff, so it was honestly incredible to see how Lin-Manuel Miranda incorporated these people into the show. It was so fun to see it with the Peterson’s, and I can’t stop pinching myself that I was able to experience it. I’ve been very much feeling the whole #Imnotgivingawaymyshot !
Jake and I drove back to Connecticut after the show, and my family and I threw a surprise party for my Grammy’s 90th birthday. It was beyond successful. It’s always nice to spend the day with my whole extended family, and it felt just as fun as Christmas always does with them. My Grammy had no idea that we would all be together, and she was so happy the entire day.
My Grammy is honestly the best grandparent in the world, and I am so lucky that I’ve been able to grow up down the street from her. I put together a slide show of photos from her life, and she watched it over and over. I think she was surprised – especially when she found out I put a Shutterfly book together for her with all of those photos. It ended up being over a hundred pages, and a lot of scanned photos, but it was so worth it. I included just a few of them in this post, but it was thrilling for me to see how old some of these photos were (you know I love history!) She was so happy, and had the most perfect day. It was wonderful being able to celebrate my Grammy that way with my whole family.
On Sunday, we spent the day with some of our friends and drove to Yankee Candle. If you’ve never been, it’s such a fun way to kick off the “holiday” season. There’s beautiful Christmas ornaments and candles galore. We all just enjoyed our time picking out candles and taking in the seasonal decorations in the store. Christmas is very important to me. I think it always goes back to family, and generosity, and I view my tree as a representation of family memories throughout the years. We have ornaments from my great-grandmother, and always have a revolving Christmas tree stand so we can take in all the ornaments all season long. Jake and I picked out a few ornaments together while we were there that we know we will, eventually, want to put on our own Christmas tree.
Also, if you love candles, and can’t decide which scent you want, my friend Pj literally went around and grabbed a small sample size of each one. Yankee Candle has containers you can fill where you can choose 12 and get them all for only 15 dollars. It’s a great way to figure out which ones you love before spending $30 on a large one! He does it every year so he can have a variety of seasonal scents. I’m partial to the milder scents, but I love this one for fall. However, my all time favorite is Pink Sands. Jake is partial to more pine/evergreen scents, which I absolutely love for Christmas time!
Jacket is the L.L. Bean Barn Coat – one of my fall favorites. This scarf is old Madewell – I wish they still carried it because it has every NYC borough on it. I found it for sale on Tradesy.
What did you do this past weekend?
You are a star in our families crown! Your radiant love for family warms up the whole family!❣️