Having gone back home for the Holidays our time was full of family, food, football, fun, and flurries ❄️….but let’s be honest, mostly food 😄!

Life’s never dull in Buffalo. First things first, we made sure to hit up all our favorite local eats. Buffalo pizza has its own style, called delicious 😋! And what goes with pizza, wings of course…and tacos ×3, Chinese, roast beef, subs, BBQ and more pizza 🍕! Spread out across our whole time in Buffalo.

Part of our Christmas gift to ourselves and the family was tickets to the now infamous “snowball” Bills vs. Dolphins game, complete with a Bills win!

With the game having been moved to Saturday night, the following snowy Sunday was the perfect day to cut a Christmas tree and decorate cookies.

Later in the week Joy and I were able to get to the Campfire Grill for some caramel apple bacon and cinnamon roll pancakes with cranberry mimosas!

And then came Christmas Eve (Sigh). We were finally home at the right time, there was a coordinated to see and include everyone plan.

And then there was mother nature. 79 mph wind, 51+ inches of lake effect snowfall, up to -30 wind chill temps, and me home alone.

I was definitely luckier than many though. I was safe and I was warm.

My house never lost power and I had plenty of wine 🍷. The snow finally let up around 8:00 at night and I immediately started shoveling the driveway. Hoping the plows would come around I wanted to get a head start. Christmas morning I was able to get out and get to my dad’s and Don’s mom’s. Though the full feast was put on hold we were still able to enjoy some festive cranberry brie bacon crescent bites.

At the end of the week we were finally able to fully celebrate with everyone, Christmas and New Years 🥳.

The proper way to welcome the New Year is with a toast naturally, and where better to do so than on the Niagara Wine Trail, and what better winery than one with a fuzzy lap warmer 😍.

After our butter tart tour of Canada we apparently had stirred up quite the frenzy. So Don’s mom looked up several recipes to try and we had a butter tart baking and tasting day. We had a clear winner that was just as good as the ones we got up North.

It was great to be able to spend extended time home with everyone before continuing on our journey. I was able to get the final wedding planning pieces in place and are excited for that upon our return this year!

We are also fortunate to have Don’s brother be available to drive us back to Florida. After a slight delay with the boat we finally got the call it was ready to go. We had the marina where we left it fix the thruster, which will be a great help to have working again, replace a seal and clean the hull. With all that done we are headed back south.

So that brings me to the backseat with a fluff who sees no reason why I can’t pet her the ENTIRE way to Florida.

But she’ll take snuggles as a consolation prize.

We had left before the boat was pulled out of the water but friends of ours were there and happened to catch it for us.

Tomorrow we should be back in Florida and maybe we’ll be able to watch it being put back in the water so we can continue on the Loop!