Blogmas Day One: DITL Nutcracker Ballet and Christmas Shopping

It's officially December 1st guys, and that means that Blogmas 2016 has begun!

Christmas is always my favorite time of the year, and I'm excited to get to spend the Christmas season with all of you guys this year.

As well, while books are my ultimate passion in life, I'm also excited to get to share some other things I love with all of you this year like cooking, baking, and outfit of the day posts.

I'm excited to kick off Blogmas 2016, and so for Blogmas Day One I'm here to share a DITL post from the recent weekend trip Neil and I took to do some Christmas shopping and to finally see The Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker for the very first time!

November 19th and 20th, 2016:

I'd been anxiously wanting to see the Nutcracker ballet for as long as I can remember. While several different productions have come close to us in the last few years, something was always happening the weekend the performances were that made us unable to go.

This year was my first time seeing the Nutcracker and I couldn't have been more excited!

Our day started out with a road trip, as the ballet was two hours away. We stopped along the way at our favorite ever coffee shop, and I was a happy girl sipping on my strawberry smoothie:

We had planned to stop at another city along the way to do some Christmas shopping, but it was so cold and the stores I wanted to go to are the type that you have to park a long ways away a couple of streets over and walk back, so we decided just to forego it, and save shopping for after the ballet. 

Since we didn't end up making our planned shopping stop, and our hotel room wasn't quite ready when we got to the city, we decided to go across the street from the hotel to a Ricki's All Day Grill and have some breakfast. The hotel had said the room wouldn't be too much longer, and so we didn't want to drive too far away as we wanted to get into our room as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, this restaurant ended up being a really bad decision as my eggs and hash browns were ice cold when I got them, and completely tasteless, and Neil's pancakes were completely burnt, and were so salty that he couldn't even eat them. We both also ended up feeling pretty awful after this, and neither of us are honestly that fussy when it comes to food. Sorry to say it, but I don't think this restaurant will be a repeat for either of us anytime soon.

Our room was ready afterwards though, and we had enough time to unpack quickly before the ballet. I had planned on doing an OOTD post for another day of Blogmas from this day, but the pictures didn't turn out too well, so I figured I would just include it here instead.

I completely loved this dress from Eclipse that I purchased specifically for this day, and as it was warm and comfy and it was freezing outside, I thought it was a good choice.

Find it here

Our room was spacious and clean, and we both enjoyed getting to spend a night away from home and work.

I wore my Alex and Ani bracelets for my jewelry, and I really liked how this picture turned out. 

Soon enough it was time to head to the theater, and I was beyond belief excited. We were super early, but we enjoyed browsing at the merchandise booth before the doors opened, although we didn't end up buying anything. 

Soon enough it was time for the performance, and it was everything I'd been hoping for. I completely understand why photos and videos are not allowed, as I can't even imagine how distracting that would be to the dancers, but oh there were certain moments that I wish I could have captured, like the beautiful snowflake scene. This was such a great experience, and I can for sure say that we will be returning to see it again another year.

After the performance, we headed to Cabella's, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Marshalls to do some Christmas shopping for our family, and to Chapters to Christmas shop for each other and my TBTBSanta. 

We had such a fun evening, and both were extremely happy with our purchases.

I'm not going to share anything that I purchased just yet though, because I don't want anyone to have their gifts spoiled. But I do plan on doing some posts about what gifts I'm giving in future Blogmas posts.

Our plan all day had been to order takeout from Swiss Chalet for dinner, and take it back to the hotel after we had finished our shopping.

Unfortunately, this was just not a good day for us with food choices as Swiss Chalet was going to be an hour and a half wait, and neither of us felt like hanging around and waiting that long.

So we headed back to the room, and decided to order dinner from a takeout menu our hotel had in the room. 

Unfortunately, this was the worst experience the entire day. 

When we ordered we were told the order would be about twenty minutes which was fine with us. We simply ordered a veggie burger combo for me, and a popcorn chicken meal for Neil, and it would be about thirty five dollars with delivery fees and taxes.

That was all fine and dandy, and we sat down to watch TV until the food got there.

Now after we'd been waiting for over an hour, Neil called back as they had said simply twenty minutes. They said it was just leaving now and should be there shortly.

Half an hour later the food finally arrived, and we sat down to eat. Only to discover ice cold food that was so greasy that it had soaked right through not only the containers, but also the paper bag it was being served in. Also, their "veggie" burger was a deep fried rice patty that was swarmed in so much mayo the vegetables were unrecognizable, and all in all, the food was completely inedible. 

We could have called back and complained, but at this point, we were both just kind of over it and decided to walk to a taco place that was close to the hotel instead.

After two horrible experiences with restaurants today, I'm happy to say this was a pleasant experience, and my salad was delicious.

We finished the night by watching The Holiday and Santa Baby while playing Monopoly Deal, and went to bed happily looking forward to a few more hours of Christmas shopping in the morning before we headed home.


Sunday morning we woke up and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel before packing up and checking out.

We made another trip to Marshalls, Chapters, and The Dollar Tree before heading to the big mall to hit up Sephora, Bath and Body Works, American Eagle, and The Bay.

The Tree at the mall was gorgeous, and I posted this pic to Instagram.


With our shopping complete, we headed for home, stopping at our favorite coffee shop and Subway along the way, and made it home in the early afternoon.

We unpacked all of our shopping, and just enjoyed the fact that we'd got to spend this lovely weekend together.

Thanks so much for reading guys, and I'll see you all tomorrow for Blogmas Day Two!

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