January Moments

At the end of each month, I like to do a post full of the fun little moments throughout the month that made the month a little happier.

We started our new year with a gorgeous Vasilopita, a Greek cake that is orange flavored and is traditionally eaten on New Years Eve.

I enjoyed a lot of sunrises, which is pretty unusual for me, so I savored each one.

January is one of my favorite months, I love the feeling of a fresh new year full of possibilities, I also love setting new intentions and looking for new ways to enrich my life.

One of my 2022 new years intentions was to use my freeplay app at least twice a week. I like to use it for yoga and meditation classes. I went to a restorative rolling class at Brick Canvas every week this month! I love it so much.

I also used my freeplay app to explore different yoga studios, I took the most lovely gentle yoga and sound bath class in a little studio in Alpine.

I also tried to get myself out in nature and enjoying the sun when it was out. I had several wonderful, sunny walks with Oscar. I love a sunny January day.

I also went walking at Highland Glen park, it was so cool so see the lake completely frozen over.

Since I wasn't able to make it to the Johns family Christmas brunch. Mom and I had a little lunch date at the new restruatn in the Grand Hotel. We were hoping the windows would still be up and decorated, but they weren't.

I was amazed at how completely different the dining space is!

Our server also showed us around the closed off parts of the restaurant that are used for private events or Sunday brunch. These areas were completely different as well, but were still recognizable as the area where we used to have the Christmas brunch. I loved the new decor!

Our server said the menu was made up of comfort foods but with elevated twists.

So, we couldn't resist ordering pigs in a blanket as an appetizer in such a fancy restaurant. They were wrapped in croissant dough and served with a delicious spicy mustard sauce. They were exactly what was described, comfort food with a twist.

I ordered a delicious steak salad that had the most delectable salad dressing. Then we of course had to check out the dessert menu! We wanted to experience everything at this new eatery.

We ordered the croissant bread pudding and the sweet potato beignets. Both completely blew us away, they were divine.

The beignets came with a myer lemon cream dipping sauce and oh my goodness, it was so refreshing such a unique combination that I wouldn't have ever thought would work well together, but they sure did.

We had the best time!

On our way home, we spontaneously decided to take a little drive through the Mount Olivet cemetery and say hello to the herd of deer that live there.

One came right up to our window, hoping for a little snack, we didn't have any.

Our family has been super into challah bread lately, epically V and Monty, its one of the few things they will actually eat, and they will eat multiple slices. One of my friends posted about this amazing, rainbow challah made locally in Utah and I HAD to order some. It was absolutely beautiful and tasted so good.

The colors were so vibrant which is hard to do in a baked good!

Speaking of baked goods.... my favorite macarons are back!! The lady who makes them took about a year break from baking, and this was her first variety pack for sale since her return. I always order one of every flavor and have them delivered. Macaron day is my favorite! The way she personalizes each order with a hand written name tag makes me feel unbelievably special. Her shop is called Ruth's bakeshop, and her macaron flavors are out of this world.

She always creates the most pleasing color palettes.

All of these flavors were amazing, my favorite was the cinnamon roll.

Work was also really great this month, cared for lots of cuties. I love taking Blu on car rides, she always looks so happy looking out the window.

I got to meet Lizzy! She belongs to an aquarium client, she usually goes on vacation with her humans but stayed behind this time. She would come and keep me company while I cared for the fish, she is the sweetest.

I got lots of Luci time this month! Her adorable face brings everyone so much joy!

The way she sits cracks me up, her little back paws are so spread out.

She joined Blu and I on a couple of walks, Luci tires out pretty quickly (even though she would never show it) so I let her walk for half the time and then carry her for the other half.

The way she lays on the couch with her little back legs spread out also cracks me up, she is just so silly and fun.

I also got to spend time with Jo, Wren and Odin! These majestic pups amaze me every time with how big they are, they are gorgeous! It was also fun to see them in the winter since they love the snow and ice so much. Wren would trot over to a big ice patch on the lawn and roll around on it. Their water buckets would freeze over during the night and they would love to munch on the ice when I would break it out of the buckets.

Dinah and Louis were just as cute as ever, as always. Dinah has discovered the fuzzy rug on the piano bench, and it has become one of her regular spots, especially in the morning when the sun comes in through the window.