Owning Our Glow: Spiritually Cleansing Our Home as a Family for the New Year

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission for any purchases made. This is not a sponsored post and Opinions expressed are 100% our own

Tackling all the laundry before the New Year just wasn't going to happen but for the three full bags of linens and clothes that did get washed, we managed to fold and put them away. Moving all the bins down to storage wasn't accomplished either but we successfully purged our closets, donated items from every room and started to re-organize drawers, shelves and cabinets. What I did not want was to stress cleaning the house top to bottom before the start of the year, we took care of what we could and enjoyed our time playing tourists in the city with out-of-town family from the West coast. One thing we knew was an absolute must do for the start of 2018 was to cleanse our home spiritually by Smudging as a family for the first time. It had been a purification process that quite a few people had recommended to us & I thought it would be perfect to use wellness & lifestyle expert and author Latham Thomas's new book "Own Your Glow" as a guide. 

Pups New Year w/ Miranda Lambert for MuttNation, DreamBone and Hear Doggy #Giveaway

Did you get that new puppy you asked for this year or were your Pups well behaved and gifted lots of treats? Where our old man doggy Sonic the terrier has been pretty good this year, his crazy roommate Nutella the Bully has had some very questionable moments - like sneaking into bed with the kids, stashing away snacks and getting caught in the kitchen and destroying my stash of lifestyle magazines while we were out. Yet and still even when they are at their worst, they are just too cute and we figured our two pooches deserve to start their new year off with some new goodies and yours do too! So to celebrate the holiday season and welcome the New Year we're hosting a giveaway of fun products from Miranda Lambert's collection with MuttNation, Yummy treats from DreamBone and fun toys to keep your doggies busy from Hear Doggy. 

Disclosure: We were provided samples to facilitate this giveaway and any opinions expressed are 100% our own. 

Lift Your Spirits into the New Year with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Disclosure: Opinions expressed are 100% our own. We were provided tickets to facilitate this review. 

Gifting an experience seems so much cooler to me than new pajamas, a glitzy piece of jewelry or a gadget that will end up being not as trendy in just a year. In a world where we seem so caught up in who has what new hot item, creating long lasting cherished memories with loved ones is truly what the holiday season should be about. Dance is such a beautifully uniting art form that doesn't isolate or exclude, it pulls you in and captivates your spirit and mind and to me that's such a priceless gift to give and receive. You'll witness such stunning bodies of art, gracefully tell culturally rich stories to the audience of an Alvin Ailey Dance Theater performance, in a way unlike any other show you've seen. The new repertoires of work led by artistic director Robert Battle effortlessly evoke the feeling of Ailey's dictum that "dance is for everybody" as theater goers from all over witness refreshing works.

In Pursuit of Magic: Reflecting on Reasons to Live in the Moment During the Holidays

I'm having a moment...With all that's going on in the world today, from attacks on everyday freedoms and innocent children, to just dealing with the struggles of the day to day I'll be the first to admit I believe in and seek out the magic of the holidays. During that time of year I put blinders on and sift through all the negativity to make sure my kids enjoy the holidays, and by no means does it mean by just anticipating the presents left under the tree from the Jolly man above but to truly revel in all the moments spent with loved ones and to count our blessings one by one before the year is out. Living in NYC what's not to love about that time of year? The lights, the stunning holiday window displays, skating under the Rockefeller Tree and of course standing on those insanely long lines to meet Santa. I live for those moments!

I must apologize for just sort of disappearing before wishing you all a Happy Holiday and a joyous New Year but the weeks leading up to Christmas were actually way more stressful than I could have imagined and I just never really got the chance to sit down in front of the computer to fill you all in.  But if you follow me on Instagram I tend to post little intimate blurbs from time to time as a quick way to get it all out. All of December I tried my darndest to keep up with the magic of the season even though I just wasn't feeling it, maybe it was the unseasonably warm weather (70 degrees in NYC on Christmas eve was just crazy), maybe it was just me coming down from a year of running around & 6 months of back to back event planning. A time out was needed and I just took it and ran.

Of course because of the stress ultimately a Crohns disease related flare up snuck up on me and has been kicking my butt since the start of the new year. But today something clicked and I decided to muster up some energy and to get back to writing but not before sharing my pursuit to keep the magic alive. Warning - this post will be lengthy, maybe a bit wordy but bare with me o.k, It's a rarity. 

The Accident that Put it all in Perspective:

On the 11th, an unassumingly normal Friday, I kissed the hubby and my 5 year old lil' monster goodbye as they headed off to school. Only to receive an anxiety inducing phone call from my husband to say that they were in a car accident just a block away from the main entrance for morning dropoff. Despite my husbands assurance that he and Tristan were fine, it was one of the most gut-wrenching pangs I'd ever felt and I was literally frozen in fear. You have to love the resilience of children because the only thing that was on Tristan's mind was that he got to ride to the hospital in a cool ambulance and during our brief conversation he said to me "We're OK mommy, but we definitely broke the car". 

What was even scarier to me was that I think I had a premonition about the incident the day before when I decided not to post a picture of Tristan in front of the car. He was beyond excited about showing his friends the red Mazda 6 we had on loaner to review and couldn't wait to show his friends how his new favorite sweatpants matched the cherry red new car. I was going to put a little anecdote after noticing the sticker highlighting the car's award for safety in the rear window about how most car accidents happen only within a few blocks from home, but for whatever reason didn't. All though both cars were pretty banged up we are all truly blessed that the other driver and my boys could walk away to tell the story. 

After that car accident my mission to revel in the whimsy of the "most wonderful time of the year" commenced full throttle, well slowly..... I'll admit we didn't put up our tree until the week before Christmas and it remained up as the first week of January rolled on by. Don't judge me! And some how I found myself wandering the aisles of Target one by one for last minute gifts the night before Christmas eve. All I knew was that this Christmas could have played out so differently had the accident been worse than what it was and I was just thankful that the hubby and his mini me walked away (the hubby a bit more shaken up then I'd ever seen him) without so much as a scratch.

Stop Knocking Santa - Go Ahead and Believe:

Imagine my frustration trying to be all jolly while my tween CJ starts tossing around skeptical questions about the "realness" of Santa. As the years pass I can see the idea of Santa slowly diminishing, it's not the first time he's questioned St. Nick and certainly won't be his last, until the truth comes out. I nearly went off on one of the hubby's co-workers who took it upon himself by whispering to CJ "the real deal" on Santa by having him question how Santa really gets in our NYC apartment without a chimney - but everybody knows Santa just takes the stairs from the roof, C'mon! 

Instead of answering him directly I've decided to tell him that believing in Santa is a personal choice and asked him "Do you want to believe in him?" I've read tons of blog posts and comments on FB where parents have gotten upset that their kids give all the credit to Santa for the cool presents under the tree, or the debates on whether the Santa their kids believe in is black or white and I just don't get the big deal. And you may not agree and that's fine, but to me Santa is just a symbol of childhood innocence and with everything our kids could be caught up in, the idea of this magical person bringing them presents at the end of the year is the last thing I'm going to be up in arms about. But you better believe mom and dad score points for awesome presents too!

This year I knew I wanted to skip the Santa Land maze at Macy's since CJ questioned why multiple families could go into those little houses within seconds of each other to see the "real" Santa. So I remembered seeing my blogger friend Kristin of My Strange Family posting yearly about visiting the Santa at ABC Carpet and Home and knew we had to see him because he was the most beautiful, authentic looking Claus I'd ever seen. So majestic with the rosiest red cheeks and a beard that looked so cottony soft it would make you shut your mouth for ever doubting he really existed. When I showed CJ the post he even said "Wow, mommy it's really him!" 

Another Trip to the ER Means Bring on the Holiday Lights and Hot Coco

 A mere week after the car accident, another premonition, this time owned by mother thanks to a Lifetime movie (that told the story of a family's loss of a child due to secondary drowning in his sleep) led us back to the E.R with our 5 year old. Tristan a completely fearless but novice swimmer, guzzled way too much pool water for comfort during his last swimming class. You couldn't tell him for one second that he wasn't an Olympic swimmer with that shiny medal swinging from his neck. But he also ended up with some what of a wheezy cough, that caused the hubby to wake out of his sleep as he ran to his bed one night. Top that with a slight fever that occurred earlier in the week and we ended up skipping our plans to attend a family holiday party and while dressed to the nines we drove off to the E.R. Completely amused by the irony Tristan smiled at the fact that he ended up sitting in the same bed from the week before and giggled while putting on a tiny gown that instantly made those pangs in my heart re-appear. How could I not have taken his coughs more seriously, what if something truly was wrong? But yet again my trooper, the little monster was perfectly fine and once cleared to go ended up having a melt down because we missed the party.

Remembering that our vlogger friend Betsy from ThatsBetsyV told us to check out a festive house in Jamaica Estates we hopped in the car in hopes that this fully decorated house would instantly make the boy's eyes light up! We're huge fans of the Holiday Light Fight show and this house that's only a ten minute drive from home was once a winner. And well deserving because it saved our night. 

By the time we finished watching the toy trains in the window and the toy soldiers dancing on the fences we were starved and headed to IHOP for hot chocolate that was bigger than the boys faces and of course they loved chowing down on breakfast for dinner!

Christmas Eve Service & Last Minute Guests Means a Clean House Full of Love:

It's been an entire year since we've had guests over to our tiny apartment, a whole freaking year. Nope, my husband's long time childhood friend Ty and my brother don't count because they could care less that our place was busting from the seams with boxes of products to review and seasonal clothes we hadn't had the chance to bring to storage. So Imagine how I nearly lost it when my parents decided they wanted to spend Christmas day with us. I mean I was thrilled but I had some major cleaning to do, deep cleaning that required washing walls, rubbing stains out of the couches and scrubbing toilets. I'm so thankful for their visit because it gave us just the push we needed to start of the New Year. We still have a ton of laundry to catch up on, which is supposedly bad luck to entire the New Year, well that's just fantastic isn't it? We can never get a handle on laundry so what will be will be. 

Attending church on Christmas Eve was all that my daddy wanted as a gift and it was probably the first time we'd all gone to a service as a family since we were kids other than for someone passing away. The evening's message was simply beautiful and resonated with all that was going on during the month "Out of darkness there will always be light." Celebrating being together, health and a new baby on the way (my nephew baby Quentin) was all worth praising. 

Having been so caught up with all that was going on the weeks leading up to the holiday, long hours at work and the kids in school, our tree ended up not being adorned with our star until literally Christmas morning because it's tradition that they do it with their daddy. 
The hubby whipped up homemade Belgium waffles while the lil' monsters opened their presents and us millennial children cracked jokes on the new generation of grandparents who gifted each other with gadgets and gizmos but couldn't figure out how to use them. 

 

Ringing in the New Year

With no desire to be among crowds of folks that were ready to welcome in the New Year, we just headed to a local Applebees and then finally made it to Dyker Heights to see the last remaining holiday decorated houses before heading home round 11pm. Did you catch the show on Fox 5? Well it was full of old school tunes that had the hubby and I dancing as cheesy as we remember our parents doing back in the day. New Years day was only a week before our grandmothers 83rd birthday and she was all smiles from our visit as she cracked herself up while taking selfies for the first time.

Year after year what always seems to ring true is the much needed time spent with loved ones and I'm blessed upon blessed to have been able to bid farewell to 2015 and to welcome 2016 with my family. Can't wait to see what the new year has in store, how did you live in the moment over the holidays?

Celebrating an Amazing Year of Lived in Moments with Minted Holiday Cards #HelloScout

This year we are breaking tradition and spreading a little holiday cheer with Minted.com who thanks to Savvysassymoms helped us create our beautiful holiday cards. Unlike previous years our cards will actually arrive at the homes of our loved ones well before Christmas, instead of to ring in the New Year. I swear during this time of year, typically time seems to escape me and I end up ordering flat photo-cards and picking them up at our local Walgreens, so I'm beyond thrilled that everyone will get them way earlier.

With such a vast selection to choose from, I must admit I was totally overwhelmed by Minted's selection of cards that are freshly sourced from their community of independent artists and curated through competitions.

What I love about the site is that there are so many unique ways to customize your card: from the thickness of the paper to changing the color & text, or choosing 1 of 9 borders & adding additional photos - the choices are endless! You can even take your child's drawing and create a foiled version of it for your card, which is a really special touch.

Luckily the hubby and I are were on the same page for the type of card we wanted this year. Not that anything's wrong with it but after playing around with layouts we were both kind of opposed to the family pics with Santa and the matchy- matchy dressed up outfits because that's usually what we do year after year. 

This time we wanted something that was bit more casual & cheerful. Ultimately the design had to convey how much we enjoyed living in the moments of 2015 as a family, especially since both the hubby and I work such crazy hours and the boys and I only have two nights with him a week. There must be thousand of photos on all of our cellphones so it was nice to scroll through them to find pics to use for our card to share opposed to letting them live only on our phones until it was time to upgrade to a new one. We played around with a few designs and make sure you stop by Christmas Eve to see which design we chose.

Have you started sending out your holiday cards yet? If you haven't no need to worry there's still time but jump on it asap! Get your cards by 12/18 with free expedited shipping. Code: SHIP | Not in a hurry? Enjoy 15% off holiday cards. Code: WINTER15 and save time with their FREE matching envelope designs with recipient addressing for a limited time.

Note: We were provided with a credit to purchase holiday cards to review, all opinions expressed are 100%  our own and no other compensation was received for this post.