I Made it to Vacation

 I'm not sure how, but I made it to Christmas Vacation.  These past four months of teaching has been intense.  I've had to learn a new grade, get used to a new school, figure out how to handle teaching in year 3 of the pandemic, all well dealing with the house stress and moving.  When I look back, I really don't know how I did it.  (Well, actually, I do.  JO helped me so much and did so much of the moving stuff.) JO even helped me assemble 18 of these snow globe crafts that were not easy to do.

We had pretty much agreed that we weren't going to go out anymore but I couldn't resist dinner at Bar Enza to celebrate vacation.  We grabbed an early reservation so it wouldn't be too crowded.  This was our second visit in a month and I have to say, this place is great.  The food and drinks are really well prepared and the service is great.  We got into a rather long conversation about the current state of affairs with the manager.  Restaurants are really hurting.  Many will not survive.  I hope this one does.

Chad Stokes at Club Passim

 By the Tuesday before Christmas, things seemed dire on the Covid front.  JO and I were headed back to Passim for the Chad Stokes "Calling All Crows" benefit concert.  Just a few days ago we had been at Passim for Lori McKenna's show.  Now it all seemed so different.  Chad requested no food or drink, restaurants and bars were closing their indoor dining, and the world was giving off pretty strong March 2020 vibes.  I thought about not going but seeing Chad Stokes play Club Passim was too special to pass up.  The music was great but it definitely felt so weird.

Lori McKenna at Club Passim

 We finished up our Staycation weekend by going to see Lori McKenna at Club Passim.  I know I tend to toss around Club Passim and magical a lot, but that is the only way to describe this show.  Lori's song writing is just so amazing and she has a way of captivating the audience.  

Staycation at the Fairmont

 Somehow in the midst of the chaos that was our September  I had the where with all to book a staycation room at the Fairmont for the weekend before Christmas.  

After checking in, we got all dressed up and headed downstairs to get a picture with their tree and have drinks at the Oak Long Bar.  

Then we headed over to Ruka for dinner.  JO absolutely loves this place and it's really hard to get dinner reservations in Boston so when I saw this on Open Table I knew we had to go.  The food is super creative and delicious, plus the decor is super cool.

After dinner we walked around a bit before getting a window table at The Lash Hurrah at the Omni Parker.  This is one of my favorite spots in Boston and it felt so nice to be able to enjoy drinks there again.

Since we didn't want the staycation to end, we headed back to the Oak Long Bar for mocktails (how responsible of us) before calling it a night.  I'm pretty sure we will only Christmas Staycation at the Fairmont from now on.  The hotel is so beautiful and the perfect location in the city.

It seemed like with Covid numbers soaring, this was probably the last time we could go out for a while.  I'm so glad we were able to enjoy the city again because it seems like we won't be able to get out again for a long while.

The Christmas Tree Challenge is Back

 After a year off last year, we were ready to bring back the Christmas Tree Challenge.  We had so much fun visiting all of the hotels and stopping in at Piatini for dinner and Trade for drinks.  It felt amazing to be back exploring the city.

We started at the Elliot Hotel, which surprisingly only had outdoor displays.

We made our way to the Lennox Hotel.  I loved their fireplace display and this massive centerpiece in the lobby.

We were super lucky (or unlucky during Covid times) to score two seats at the bar at Piatini.  

The display at The Newbury was a bit lacking, but beautifully lit.

And bonus points for this garland.

This was the tree outside the Park Plaza.  

The Park Plaza gets a lot of bonus points for accessories and extras.

The Four Seasons had a pretty tree but it was on a table.  Minus points for lack of height and for the fact that we couldn't find the bar.

This seemed a bit gothic, but lovely colors.

The Revere always does something fun!

Very old fashioned New England tree.

I loved the creativity of the W Hotel's tree.  They change their tree every year and this one is my favorite.  It was so shiny!

The Omni Parker hotel is always one of our favorites.

The Langham had a pretty color scheme...

But they wrecked the old Bond space by turning it into a breakfast only space.

We ended the night at Trade again because it was nearby and they had two seats at the bar and this spritz is amazing!

Somerville Illuminations

 Since we're officially Somervillians now, we decided to hit the streets to take part in the Somerville tradition known as Illuminations.  Usually, the city has trolly tours for this, which I've heard are really hard to get tickets for.  They didn't do the trolly tour this year but they did put out a great Google Map for us to use.  We picked a unseasonably warm night to walk all around.  We meandered our way from Union to Davis, taking in all of the over the top light displays.  It was super fun and definitely made us feel more like we were part of the community.  While we were in Davis, we stopped at the Foundry on Elm for a quick drink.  The bar at the Foundry is super cozy and a great spot to spend an evening, post Omicron.