Following a date night on Friday night, Ryan and I made the drive to Florida on Saturday morning to kick off the holiday week with my family. Our Friday night date night took us out to Epic Chophouse in downtown Mooresville.
I dubbed our night out “Fantasy Football Date Night” since it was basically sponsored by Ryan’s fantasy football winnings. One Sunday, when Ryan was watching some random football game because it was important for his fantasy football standings, I floated the idea of an awesome date night if he ended up winning some money through his fantasy football league and he was all about it. He actually ended up winning his work league, so a delicious date night at Epic Chophouse followed.
It was a great way to kick off a week of holiday fun!
The majority of our day on Saturday was spent in the car as we made the six hour drive from Charlotte to Jacksonville. It ended up taking us an hour longer than usual thanks to lots of holiday traffic on the roads (we saw a ton of Canadian license plates which was kind of cool!) and we didn’t arrive in town until dinnertime.
While we waited for my sister and her husband to arrive at my parents’ place, we enjoyed happy hour with my parents before everyone sat down to a delicious ham dinner with fresh bread, sweet potatoes and peas.
Sunday marked our first full day in Jacksonville and we took advantage of every free minute. After breakfast, my mom, sister and I attended a morning Jazzercise class which was a lot of fun because the energetic teacher brought chili and homemade coconut cake for everyone to enjoy after class for a mini holiday celebration. The cake was fantastic and I think we all left in a bit of a sugar coma! (Apparently she followed this recipe from Ina Garten and it was fabulous.)
We didn’t have much time to get ready for the day once we arrived back home and had to quickly shower and head back out the door in 20 minutes because we had plans to see The Grinch, a musical production offered for free to anyone by Celebration Church.
The musical was wonderful and the lighting and set was so impressive. And the actor who played The Grinch was incredible! I swear he gave Jim Carey’s movie version of The Grinch a run for its money. He did such a great job and absolutely nailed The Grinch’s quirky, slimy personality in the most humorous way.
After The Grinch, my family and I went out to a late lunch at First Watch and then had about two hours to relax at home before our next holiday adventure.
Our next stop took us to a holiday party at my parents’ good friends’ house.
Every year since Joey and Daniel moved into their home, they’ve hosted an open house party with lots of great food, drinks and holiday cheer! The day of their party coincides with the Avondale community Christmas parade, so guests come and go as they mingle and check out the parade.
We spent a few hours at the holiday party and had a great time nibbling on some mini sandwiches, cookies, crackers and dip before walking a few blocks to check out the parade.
The parade appeared to be open to anyone who wanted to drive through it and the best part was the massive ongoing marshmallow fight! Nearly every car had bags of marshmallows on hand that they would throw at everyone watching the parade and we’d throw the marshmallows right back at the cars. It was a riot and we had the best time!!
We couldn’t stop laughing when Ryan absolutely nailed a girl shooting marshmallows out of a sling shot out of her family van’s sunroof. I was particularly proud of my shot right in the belly of a kid dressed head-to-toe in camo. He meant business so I had to put him in his place. Can you tell we got really into the marshmallow fight!? It was way too fun!!
Now I’m off to Jazzercise with my mom and sister again, but I’ll be sure to pop in around lunchtime. Hope you guys had a great weekend!
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I have never heard of a marshmallow fight during a parade – that sounds so fun! Also the set of that play looks beautiful!
A marshmallow fight sounds awesome! How funny, I bet everyone has so much fun with that! The Grinch play looks so cool! Its awesome is it that it’s free to the community! Love it!
Sounds like you had a great weekend!! Merry Christmas to you and your entire family! I just had to pop by and say this weekend I made two batches of your Mimi’s sugar cookies. They were amazing and well liked by my entire family(My nieces and nephews call my Mom Mimi0. Since I am new to the condo complex that I live in I made bags of cookies for all my neighbors there, brought some into work today, and even made a tin for my bus driver (Yes I feel like a little kid, but I do have a bus driver who takes me to work everyday…thank goodness for a regular commuter line into Baltimore!) Have a wonderful Christmas with your family!
~Katie
aw, this makes me so, so happy! i will pass along your sweet words to my grandma!! 🙂 and i hope you have a very merry Christmas, Katie!
I’ve been wanting to see the grinch on stage for so long!!! SOO fun! Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas!
Looks like a really fun weekend! I have been wanting to see the Grinch on stage for a while. Hope you have a wonderful week with your family. 🙂
my family went to 801 chophouse in st louis – i wonder if the chophouses are related? 801 was AMAZING!
Looks like you guys had a great weekend! I’ve never heard of a marshmallow fight at a parade, but it looks like fun!
Sounds like your Christmas week is off to a great start! So glad you’re able to be with family. Enjoy every bit! 🙂
I love this post!! It’s so, so full of Christmas!! Sounds like you guys had a fantastic weekend!!! 🙂 I would *love* to be a part of a marshmellow battle!!
Congrats to Ryan on his win… it’s looking like my husband and I are going to be facing each other in our fantasy playoffs… win win 🙂 (Except that I want those bragging rights!) I would LOVE to see a live version of The Grinch, that is awesome!
that’s awesome you guys are both in the playoffs! i bet that’s making for some good trash talk in your house right now! 🙂
Looks like you had such an amazing and holiday filled weekend!!
Love the marshmallow fight but I would hate to be on clean up duty.
Have a great time at jazzercise!
This just made my heart so warm and fuzzy! Nothing is better than Christmas with the family! 🙂
Looks like you packed a lot in there, and it all looks so fun!
Marshmallow fight sounds so fun! What a strange tradition… I’m jealous!!
Nothing beats food and family!!!!
FUN with fam. Enjoy the week! <3
Love your handbag! Where is it from? 🙂
It’s Marc Jacobs and Ryan got it for me for Christmas last year from Nordstrom. 🙂
You should play licence plate bingo or some form of that game given the amount of time you spend on the road… see how many different states and provinces you can get in the course of a year.
Merry CHRISTmas to you and your family … love to Sadie, too.
That is awesome that you guys have a marshmellow fight! I would love to do that! And that Grinch show looks like so much fun, that is my favorite movie for the holiday season!
hahah that marshmallow fight sounds hilarious! I have never heard of that at a parade- so funny! also, your parents friends’ house looks GORGEOUS!
That marshmallow fight sounds really fun! I love this time of year. 🙂 You and your family look great! Happy holidays!
Woohoo Canada!!! A lot of people definitely escape the cold for a week or some go to Florida for the whole winter!
The marshmallow fight sounds like it would have been awesome!
Marshmellow fights are so fun! Sounds like a great start to your holiday! I won my fantasy football league this year too! The finals were yesterday. I should use my winnings for a fun night out! 🙂
Lots of holiday fun!!! Love the idea of the parade!
Marshmallow fight sounds awesome 🙂
So much holiday fun! The play looks fantastic!
HAY GIRL, lovin’ your Pure Barre soul scarf! <3 😉
haha! thanks!!! i wear it basically every day…
My husband is really into Fantasy Football. A few years ago he entered this league that the pot was up to $2500 and he won! He ended up putting that money towards my engagement ring so I was a happy girl 🙂
whoa! that’s amazing! ryan won $300 and we were psyched! 🙂
I just love your scarf! Happy Christmas week to you and your family!
I’ve never heard of a marshmallow fight, but it sure sounds found!
Looks like youre having a great time! Hope you enjoy the time with family and friends during the holidays 🙂
I love the marshmallow fight idea! So fun!!! Great memories
What a fun and fabulous weekend! Here in Australia (visiting in-laws), Christmas is during the summer, so the treats are mostly warm weather food, like salads and cold meats. However, the sweets are a Christmas treat world-over, although for my in-laws, it’s more about the balls – rum balls, apricot balls, sultana (raisin) balls, and truffles. I love the idea of the marshmellow fight, but they’d melt before you could throw them here!
What a great way to start off your holiday week with family!! I hope everyone has an amazing holidays!
I love First Watch!!
I have made that coconut cake before – delicious!!! It’s my mother’s favorite – I always make it for her birthday 🙂
I live in Avondale! We went to the lights show last night too! A lot less people turned out this year because of the rain, but it was still fun!
This looks like such a blast! The grinch is always one of my favorites around christmas time!
You have the most amazing style!! I love your bag here, can I ask what brand it is? Happy Holidays!!