January Date:

So Nick had Monday off for work and we decided to make the most out of the free day. We planned out a schedule for the day, including some errands, and had a blast!

First we started off at Rialto for lunch.

We got our sandwiches from our wedding catered here!

Then we headed to Nickel Nickel, an arcade where the games are all a nickel! Well, some games are more like, 3-5 nickels. But it's still fun and totally brings back memories when I was a kid and my mom would take us to arcades. We played some ticket games and some shooting games.

Nick was playing like a champ. He won the jackpot on "Deal or No Deal" game, the case he picked had 200 tickets and then he hit the jackpot on skeeball! It was a proud moment ;)

Then we headed to this antique store I read about on Yelp. I grew up around this area and never had been! It was huge! They claim to be the largest antique store in California. Nick was hesitant to go because we really don't need to buy anything else. But I assured him I would only browse and not buy anything. Probably shouldn't have promised.

Okay, so just as we were about to leave, I was going on about how cool it'd be to get a vintage register that works. When we were in Missouri, an antique shop had a vintage cash register that she used and it was the coolest ever! So we turn the corner and I see this beautiful cash register.

Yea, it's on the dolly cause we bought it. Oh, I'm not sure if I mentioned to you that I am planning (well, hoping) to open a retail store this year. So that's what this is for. I don't normally just buy random antique pieces. But I do buy things with the best intention for later use ;)

SO excited about this purchase. I just felt like we couldn't pass it up. It worked, it was in great condition, and a really decent price.

Our last stop was borders, to check out the January issue of Real Simple Weddings - our wedding invite got printed in the invitation section! I was questioning our invite because it took so long to make and I recently helped my friend with hers and we got all 250 envelopes stuffed in less than 40 minutes. She just went with a simple enclosure, her mom said they are sort of 'throw away' things anyway, which I guess it true. What do you think? But whew, all that hard work we put into our invites got published so that was exciting :)

So that was our Monday, just had to share because even though it was some random ordinary things like antique shopping and arcades, we had a lot of fun. I love spending time with my husband.

Christmas recap:

I wanted to post some pics from our Christmas with friends & family .. We Christmas at my mom's house. We have a lot of family, so this year my mom and her husband had a thought to have Christmas dinner in the garage!

So they strung it with lights and set up the tables and it ended up working out! I'll admit, I totally doubted the whole thing and thought it was a little weird. But it was cozy & warm and in case you're questioning the garage: it's actually carpeted and my mom's husband keeps it super clean. He's really organized.. and clean. Carpet garage? A little random. Does anyone else have their garage carpeted? ;)

My beautiful mom, do you like the sweater I got her for Christmas?

I really wanted to get it for myself but it's nice to give instead of receive :)

(maybe I'll get it if it goes on sale!)

Our yearly white elephant gift exchange, filled with random presents and lots of laughs.

Aunt Jerry explaining the exchange and Daniel with a random gift. My brother ended up with the best gift: a energy drink, box of cigarettes with a $100 bill inside! (courtesy of our Uncle Art)

I love my cousins. I love big families. Even though we're all technically 'grown ups', we still exchange gifts and get presents from our awesome Aunts + Uncles. We all agree we never really will feel like grown ups..

The day after Christmas we headed to Missouri, to visit Nick's family. We drove out to Lexington and saw this courthouse with a cannonball still in the pillar from the Battle of Lexington! So legit.

Saw that this shop was located in Missouri so we stopped at her studio and it was so lovely! We also got to meet up with Sandy too, a dear blog friend. Waited an hour to eat at Oklahoma Joe's! Actually ate lot's of good BBQ, my favorite!

Random pictures from the airport.. I must say airport's are full of such cool things. I thought it was pretty awesome that this airport in Texas had a BBQ place. yum. I wish California was more into BBQ!

This was a really cool interactive ad, you just touched the door and it would open with something random behind it. I thought it was cool ;)

To end our very fun travels, we arrived back home and got to see Dionne, as she was hosting her annual blogger meet up. She always throws the best get together's. It was held at Cafe Aroma, a charming little cafe in LA.

& now, I am busy packing orders from my shop, waiting for the sun to come out so I can take pictures of new products, packaging, and my studio to share with you! Soon, hopefully.

How was your Holiday? Have any good memories to share?