Staycation at The Ritz, the Christmas Tree Challenge Continues, Ora Trattorizza, and Cultivar~ Oh My!

I had made it through report cards, parent conferences, and 3/4 of the December Crazies!  It was time to celebrate with a staycation in the city!  We did this last year and it was so fun we decided to do it again.

We booked a room at the Park Plaza which would give us a great location for checking off a lot of trees on the Christmas Tree Challenge.  After checking in we did a small loop of Back Bay with stops at the Taj, Four Seasons, drinks at Bistro du Midi, Lennox, and the Copley Fairmont Hotel!

We had dinner at Ora Trattorizza, a newish restaurant that opened on Boylston Street.  I'm super excited about this place because of it's location, super ambience, and yummy food!  I forget what used to be in this location before but I love the glass enclosed area at the front of the restaurant.  It's like a patio on the sidewalk.  The golds, whites, and exposed decorative beams that decorate the dining room make it feel really cozy but modern at the same time.  In reading an article for this post I realize why I like this place so much.  It's owned by the same people that own Piattini Wine Bar that I rave about all the time!  Since we had done some snacking already we opted to try a few of the sfizis~ we could a Caesar salad, the truffled ricotta pasta bags, and the arancini.  Those pasta bags were out of this world!  You should go there just for those!

After dinner we continued with the trees, making stops at Revere, the W, Ritz Carlton, Nine Zero, Omni Parker, Ames Hotel, Faneuil Hall and Christopher's Park!  We even timed it perfectly to catch Blink at Faneuil Hall which was really fun and a new must-do holiday city outing!

After the trees we wanted to extend the evening so we went back to the Ames to check out Cultivar.  It had looked really cool when we stopped in for the selfie with the tree and we were happy to find two seats at the bar for us.  Cultivar is know for it's fresh ingredients and gin cocktails!  The modern rustic thing is really working in this space with lots of wood and white counters and hints of blues and golds.  I'm in love with the interior of this place and views out the windows.  I'm also a bit of a snob when it comes to barware and this place has some great glasses!  I absolutely loved my South Side and the chocolate mousse we got for dessert.  Yes, those are mini meringues on the plate.

The next morning we capped off the staycation with breakfast at Tatte before heading home!  It was a great night in the city, seeing trees and trying new places!

A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Grows in Inman

There's this little "tree that could" in our neighborhood and every time we walk by it we say to each other, "That's a Charlie Brown Christmas tree just waiting to happen."  So last week we made that happen! 

Since then people have been stopping to take their picture with the tree and we even saw it show up on Instagram!  It seemed like the Inman Square thing to do!

College Reunion

Each Christmas, my college friends and I try to get together.  Last year we did a staycation at the Ritz.  This year, everyone's schedules were super crazy but we were able to secure a Friday night that we were all free.  I was in charge of picking a spot since my friends regard me as the expert in dining in the city.  (While I love this distinction I always feel a little pressure to deliver the perfect experience.)  We needed a place close to the Red Line, with parking near by, that we could have a leisurely meal at, and most importantly somewhere where we could actually hear each other talk. Oh, and they needed to have a reservation for four available on a Friday night in December 😉  No biggie!

I wracked my brain.  I love Teatro but it's not a lingering kind of place.  I love Marliave but it could skew a bit fancy for our group.  I love Sulmona, but I know my friends love going out in Cambridge.  I was really stuck and then I remembered Serafina's, that great new place JO and I had tried just a few weeks ago.  It had been pretty quite when we went, they had a great menu with great prices, and I definitely got the idea that you could linger there so Serafina's it was. 

I arrived first and I started to panic just a bit.  Gone was my quiet cozy restaurant and here was a crowded, somewhat loud restaurant with the bar overflowing a bit into the dining room.  I was a little nervous that this wouldn't work out but about 20 minutes into dinner the bar settled down and everything got a bit quieter.  It actually was never a huge problem but it definitely wasn't the way I remembered it (and that's totally fine.) 

My friends really enjoyed the food and drinks.  We each had a main meal and at least one glass of wine and our bill was under $35 per person.  I think that's pretty reasonable for the quality of food and service that we got.  Even though it was crowded the waitress never once rushed us, even when we didn't have any drinks or food left in front of us.

After dinner we continued the evening at the Back Deck in Downtown Crossing.  I hadn't thought through the after dinner portion of the evening and was pleasantly surprised when I realized how close South Station and Downtown Crossing really are (I always get confused in this part of the city.  I associate South Station with the Seaport when it really is much closer to the rest of the city.  The bar at Back Deck was perfect for hanging out, reminiscing about college, and talking shop (we are all teachers.) It was a really fun night out in the city, and my restaurant picks continue to win high praises!  Phew!!!

The Night They Saved Christmas

You know you have that one Christmas movie that you remember from your childhood.  The one that when you watch, you feel like a kid again.  The one that brings you right back to your parents' living room.

For me, that's The Night They Saved Christmas.  I vividly remembering watching this made for tv movie under the covers when I was sick.  My parents were still living in Cambridge so I couldn't have been more than five or six.  Every year following that first watch I would scan the TV guide to find out when it was showing.  Eventually they stopped showing it on tv and I kind of forgot about it.

When JO and I moved in together it was right before the holidays.  We were talking about Christmas movies and I remembered this movie.  I wanted to watch it so badly but we found a copy that probably shouldn't have been posted on YouTube.  We watched it and all was right with the world.

The next year we tried watching it again but it had disappeared from YouTube.  We found it on Hulu but the next year it was gone from there too.  Last year, for Christmas, JO jumped through a lot of hoops, including international shipping from Hong Kong, to secure me a dvd copy of the movie.

The week before vacation we broke out some bubbles and watched this movie and it was perfect in every way!

Lula Wiles at the Charles River Museum of Industry

If Lula Wiles is playing a show you better believe I will make every effort possible to be in the audience.  Over the summer, Mark Erelli, one of our favorite local artists, posted that he was curated the Second Shift music series at the Charles River Museum of Industry.  One of the shows in the series would be featuring Lula Wiles.  It may have been July, but right away, I reserved the date in my calendar.  We don't venture out of Cambridge and Boston very often but the museum is a really cool place to see a show and not too far from where we live. 

Before the show we went to Gustazo's for dinner.  Good thing I made a reservation.  This placed got packed really quickly.  I had gone for lunch once before and was super excited about having their delicious Cubano sandwich for dinner.  I was pretty let down when it wasn't on the menu but that was short lived since all of the tapas we ordered were delicious (like I want to go back right now and have that meal again.) Lucky for us, a second Gustazo is opening in Porter Square (which I only realized when we were headed to Route 2 the other day) and we won't have to venture too far to enjoy their delicious food. 

After dinner we headed over to the museum.  It's in a beautiful old mill building with super high ceilings and brick walls.  The fixtures are black iron and the lighting is what you would expect from a museum.  It really gives the main room where the concert is held a beautiful feeling.

As usual, Lula Wiles did not disappoint.  They keep getting better with each performance that we see.  The members have such great chemistry with each other and their harmonizing is perfection.  I loved the set list.  They balanced their older stuff with their new stuff perfectly.  They ended with an acapella song that was perfect for the setting. 

Lula Wiles is releasing their second album on February 3rd at Oberon in Harvard Square.  Even though that is Super Bowl Sunday, I know where I'm going to be.  Please check them out!  You will be quite happy you did!

Walking Home with Our Christmas Tree

This December has really gotten away from me.  I thought I was ahead of schedule, checking things off the list pretty early on but I feel so far behind.  Last week was crazy busy and things had to go perfectly in order to fit everything in.  When Friday rolled around I was absolutely dead tired and couldn't muster the energy to go out and take on the Christmas Tree Challenge. 

On Saturday I was bogged down with work and errands and didn't think I had  enough time to go with JO to get our Christmas tree.  In fact, I was feeling a bit humbuggy and didn't even want to get the tree at all.  JO wasn't having that so we walked down to Ricky's Flower Market to pick out a tree.  I love this tradition of walking home with the tree. Every year, they wrap up our tree and ask us where our car is and then they chuckle when we say we walked.

JO even got to put power tools to good use when the base of the tree was too thick for our stand.

I'm glad we got the tree, even if we can't really decorate it because of the kittens!  It's fun to have a tree inside and our house smells really nice!  

JO surprised me with this UConn ornament which is so perfect!

U-C-O-N-N is Number 1 Again!

Last UConn season ended in heart break, for the second year in a row.  We graduated two seniors and have a serious issue with rebounding and depth, but we do start the five best players in the country so it's not a total lost cause but it certainly makes for a lot of uncertainty, which I am not used to dealing with.

The first big test would be UConn vs. that team I won't name.  I wasn't able to watch live and I actually wasn't too sad about that because it would be too nerve wracking!  That being said, you better bet I watched this game on replay at least three times now!  Guess what?  We learned how to rebound and found some depth (not much but enough to get by) and we are back at #1!

I was riding a huge high after the big win and with the next game being televised on CBSSN we headed straight for Parlor Sports.  When I walked in, the bartender headed right over and greeted me with, "They are back on top" and a high five.  Seriously, it doesn't get any better than that!  Parlor Sports is amazing!!!