January has been a such full and fun month! I went to my best friend’s wedding on New Year’s Eve, explored the Tampa Bay area with Jeremy, and had a great time with friends.
This whole year is already looking to be a busy one, in all the best ways. This month, my nephew, Maverick was born, and we’re going home to meet him at the end of January.
We have trips planned (or people visiting) every month for basically the rest of the year. It’s going to be a great year! I’m working to make sure I keep life balanced and make time for health, self-care, and quality time with Jeremy as well.
Anyway, let’s stop planning the rest of the year and get into the January recap!
January Recap
This month (well, technically December 31) started off with my best friend, Jen’s wedding! She got married at a beautiful new venue back in our hometown in Illinois. I was her maid of honor and it really was such an honor to get to be by her side during her special day!
She looked absolutely gorgeous in her dress! The wedding was such a blast and I’m so happy for her and Brian. It’s crazy seeing your best friends from childhood get married, move cities, have kids, all the adult things. We’re really grown up now and it hits you how much time has passed, and the people that have been in your life through it all. It’s a really special thing to get to experience.
Our other bestie Mary, and her fiance Jesse, Jen, Jeremy, and I, definitely took advantage of the photo booth. Living across the country from one another makes it even more special when we can all get together. Especially for such big life milestones like a wedding!
After our trip home for the wedding and the holidays, it was back to Tampa for me. I had plans with my good friends Cassi and Erika at Armature Works! We did a picnic where we all brought food and shared.
I baked chocolate chip banana bread, Cassi brought a giant bowl of fruit, and Erika brought a delicious breakfast casserole. We’re all trying to stick to our budgets for January, so we wanted to do an inexpensive get-together. It ended up being even better than going out for brunch at a boujee restaurant, it was so much fun and the food was delicious!
We went on a long walk on the Riverwalk after our brunch. We ended up walking close to 4 miles, but it felt like nothing. Time flies when you’re having fun with great people!
Jeremy and I had some chill nights and have been cooking a lot in January. I’ve been doing Hello Fresh lately and this vegetarian ramen was to die for. I love ramen so I’m always looking for new recipes and ways to experiment with cooking.
I watched a documentary on Netflix the other day (You are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment) and have been wanting to try to eat more plant-based recipes as well. If you watched it, you get it! So I’ve been trying to pick out at least one plant-based recipe every week for dinners.
I know this looks like a birthday picture…but it’s not. 😉 We went to a new donut place (Bam Bar) and they were all out of their normal donuts. I really wanted an old-fashioned donut, but surprisingly all they had left were the supercharged donuts. So I got a birthday cake donut and Jeremy got a Cap N Crunch donut. They were still good, just a little too over the top/sugary for my donut preference.
On another date day, we went to Tarpon Springs to visit the Greektown historic district.
First, we headed to National Bakery for baklava and Napoleon pastries.
We got the traditional and chocolate baklava. Everything was soo good!
After the pastries, we needed some coffee! We headed to Tarpon Social Club for espressos.
After we were properly caffeinated, we drove to A.L. Anderson Park to walk the trail.
It was a beautiful day out but chilly (for Florida standards…) It has been in the 40s and 50s this week, which is really nice in my opinion, because it’s the coldest it gets here. I love to bundle up in a sweater, or a hoodie and sweatpants, and get outside in this weather!
It’s also nice because we normally have the place basically to ourselves when it’s this cold out. The Florida locals aren’t as excited about the colder temps as us born-and-raised Midwesterners. 😉
Look at this cutie! He even had a pretzel snack. So nice of the parkgoers to feed the little guy.
Back home for MORE SOUP. The colder temperatures mean we’re making soup as often as possible… Soup in the middle of summer with 100-degree temps is a sin.
I made chili and cornbread and topped the chili with jalapenos, sour cream, and cheese. It was so comforting and yummy.
That’s all folks! I’ll try to get these monthly recap posts up more often. I aim to do one every month to have all my memories and adventures in one place.
Snooze really is the best! I can’t stop thinking about that place since I’ve had it 😍 great post, Erin!