Our New Year’s Vacation Tradition

Over the years, I’ve come to dread New Year’s Eve more than any other holiday. In college, most of my close friends were in Atlanta while I was down in Savannah, wishing I could be with them to celebrate and party but not wanting to cut my vacation with my family short. When I moved to Philadelphia, each year we’d try something different, whether that meant hanging in and cooking a romantic meal together or doing the hotel party thing with friends. But, three years ago, our first New Years Eve in New York City, we experienced New Years Eve in a way that we’d never be able to top. Our friend Liz worked for BMO at the time, a company who has a huge office in Times Square, directly across from the ball. She was able to invite friends to the office to watch the ball drop while we toasted to the new year. It was so much fun and such a quintessential New Year’s Eve experience, especially in New York.

After that, we both agreed we were tired of the traditional New Year’s Eve plans and decided to get friends together for a trip instead. We thought that nothing would be more fun than to plan a tropical, warm vacation with friends after the Christmas holidays so we could all toast the new year with a Corona while enjoying some fun in the sun before the brutal winter months.

Last year, since it was our first time, we only went away with one other couple and planned an easy trip using American Express travel. We looked at prices and ratings before choosing a resort in Cozumel due to reasonable plane prices and the fact that it is located between Seattle, where they live, and New York City.

Here are a few of the posts from last year’s Cozumel trip:027

As you can see it was absolutely fabulous! We loved the experience of relaxing with friends over the holiday. Therefore, this year we decided to make it a larger experience for more of our friends. Back in July, we sent a quick email to friends asking if they’d be interested in a tropical vacation with approximate costs of airfare and renting a house on either Turks and Caicos and St. Croix. Now, five months later there are 9 of us spending the next six days together in St. Croix. I ended up using VRBO to rent a large house in St. Croix with a pool, full kitchen, grill, and plenty of space for everyone.

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To say that we’re excited is an understatement! The house is just as we imagined and the views are spectacular! I’ll check in each day to share our adventures with you!

A winner will be announced tomorrow morning from my Thank You giveaway!

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Merry Christmas

This has been a wonderful Christmas filled with family, delicious food, warm memories, and time that we’ll never have again.

Last night we went to the local church for Christmas Eve service before enjoying dinner back at the house. Today we’ve enjoyed Christmas brunch, presents, a long walk, and time in the kitchen before a delicious dinner!

Here is quick glimpse of the day’s events, courtesy of my brand new Canon Rebel T3 camera!

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A Glimpse Inside Our Vermont Vacation

I can’t believe it’s already Christmas Eve! We’ve had such a wonderful time here so far but the time is flying! This is the first day I’m not skiing, instead spending my morning with my mom and sister in law baking Christmas cookies! I have a few different posts I’ll be doing today, one about last night’s sleigh ride and another the workouts we’ve done so far.

A Glimpse Inside Our Vermont VacationBut, for right now, I thought it’d be fun to give you glimpse inside the snow globe, aka what we’ve been doing each day.

Breakfast The past few days are some of the busiest ski days of the season since Vermont received fresh powder and there are so many families up here for the holidays. Therefore, each morning our alarm clock went off at 6:45. After getting dressed, before hitting the slopes, we’ve eaten a protein filled breakfast at home that will hold us through four hours of skiing. My usual breakfast has been a bowl of 0% Chobani, blueberries, raspberries, banana, and Bab-A-Louis Bakery granola.

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The weather each day has been around 20 degrees on the mountain and therefore I’ve dressed warmly to ensure I enjoy myself. The last thing you want to be when skiing is cold!

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Here is what I wore each day, which takes advantage of my favorite winter running gear as well! Up at the top of the mountain the temperature dropped to a wind chill of 5 degrees!

I was warm and toasty until yesterday around noon when the temperature plummeted and the winds started gusting. But overall, this gear was perfect for four days of Vermont skiing! As you can tell, most of this is pretty inexpensive or dual purposed winter running gear. Since Bo and I only ski a total of 4-6 days a season each year we haven’t invested in anything beyond ski socks, pants, jackets, and goggles. I think the next thing I’d invest in is either a helmet or boots.

Stratton Mountain  As always, we had a blast skiing Stratton this year. It’s about 15 minutes from my family’s home so while it’s further away than Bromley, the conditions are about 10x better. Most of our visit they had at least 4 different lifts open and over 40 something trails. Each person in our group, whether skiing greens, blues, or black diamond trails was happy with the options available even though the windy conditions limited some of the lifts. I love that Stratton offers multiple green and blue runs from the top of the mountain versus just blacks. Our group had a great time riding the lift or gondola up the mountain together, taking in the sights and watching people take on the moguls under the lift. This was also the first year that I felt comfortable enough as a skier to go down blue and green runs by myself versus having lesson. That in itself made me thrilled to be out there!

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The snow capped trees reminded us of something out of a Dr. Seuss book they looked so unreal!

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Lunch

We’ve skied each day from 8am-12:45, making it home by 1:15 for lunch with the whole family. It’s been an easy way to save some money this trip while also taking advantage of delicious leftovers and catching up with everyone. I’m trying to enjoy a healthy breakfast, lunch, and snacks during the day so each evening I can enjoy a few glasses of wine and delicious dinner. This is one of the ways I find balance while on vacation, especially when I know that in a few short days I’ll be on a beach in St. Croix!

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Afternoon Adventures

Each afternoon my mom and dad have driven into Manchester or to a nearby town to explore and see the sights together. Grafton was the cutest of the towns we visited, decorated in fresh white snow and holiday decorations!

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I love this historic home’s decorations including a traditional fruit wreath and the lamp post with a warm hospitality greeting of pineapple, ribbons, and greens.

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