The last month has been a little rough. My dad had surgery before Thanksgiving and it’s been a rough recovery. He is finally heading in the right direction but it’s been a long couple weeks. We did try to fit in as much holiday festivities as we could but I didn’t really have time to share with everyone which saddens me but there is always next year. I’m just grateful that he is finally feeling better and looking forward to warmer weather and spring. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays and we had a pretty packed week and a half.
Friday the 16th we spent some time downtown before and after the Cavs game. We checked out Society Lounge’s pop up Christmas bar, Miracle on East 4th Street before the game. It was decorated so cute. I loved the decor and the specialty cocktails. We tried the Snowball Old Fashioned and Elfing Around. The Old Fashioned was made with Rye Bourbon, gingerbread, aromatic bitters, wormwood bitters, and orange essence. I did get a slight gingerbread flavor but otherwise it tasted like an old fashioned. The Elfing Around had Prosecco, gin, mulled wine reduction, grapefruit shrub, aromatic bitters, and orange bitters. This was much stronger than I had anticipated and I’m not much of a gin fan but the Prosecco and bitters helped masked the gin flavor and it was pretty good. They did have special holiday glasses but people kept stealing them so by the time we visited the rocks glasses were pretty much all they had left sadly. The glasses were listed on the back of the menu and all looked so adorable.
We then headed to the Cavs game, where the Cavs decided to come back in the 4th quarter and win. We ate at the arena, getting Flour Pizza for dinner. We decided on a pepperoni and a sausage. They also have just cheese and a meatball sub on their menu. Flour pizza is so much better than your regular arena pizza. The crust of the pizza is crispy because of the wood fire oven but it’s not too crispy. They put just the right amount of sauce to cheese to topping ratio. I also really like that the cheese goes most of the way to the end of some of the crust.
A holiday tradition for us is visiting the lights at Public Square and since it was just lightly snowing and not too cold we decided to go check out the lights. During the summer there is a water park in the middle of Public Square and during the winter they turn it into an ice skating rink. Skate rental is right there as well. By the time we got there the rink was closed for the night, otherwise skating would have been a must.
The lights were beautiful as normal and the tree changed color from red to green. The church across the street has such a history and is a must add to any holiday photos and just adds to the beauty of the lights. I’m so glad we did decide to go see the lights this Friday because the weather in Cleveland got crazy cold and the snow moved in the Friday before Christmas.
Saturday lunch consisted of one of my favorites Nora’s Public House in Downtown Willoughby. We of course tried their holiday drinks, some of which are always on their menu and others which were just for the season. The Irish coffee is a staple on their menu and is one of my favorite drinks and then we tried the pumpkin martini, which was creamy and had great flavor. It was another one of those drinks due to the cream I could only drink one but it was really good. My coffee was a little on the strong side the day we were in but it is normally a go to for me when we go to Nora’s. We just got appetizers for lunch since neither of us were that hungry. The pretzel sticks, pierogi and a side of Mac and cheese. It was the perfect amount of food and everything was so yummy.
My husbands birthday is before Christmas and I always try to take him to dinner before all the holiday craziness starts. We went to RED Steakhouse in Pinecrest for his birthday dinner. I will have a full review up soon but dinner was fabulous. Everything we ordered was so flavorful and where I don’t talk about service very often our service was great! The steaks at RED really do melt in your mouth and I typically order my steak medium well. RED instead of charring the steak to get it to this temperature, they butterfly it to make sure it is cooked a perfect medium well with a little bit of pink but still cooked great on the outside. They also brought over their fresh-n-hot doughnut holes, which were pretty much beignets as my husbands birthday dessert. They were soft and fluffy and came with different dipping sauces. Everything was so good and we had such a great celebration.
That then brings us to Christmas weekend, which consisted of lots of family time and lots of cooking. A tradition in my family is to make Kielbasa and sauerkraut with pierogi. I did not have time to make homemade pierogi but everything still turned out great and I feel like every year my kielbasa and sauerkraut just gets better. Christmas morning I made a breakfast casserole and then we ran to see all of our family. It was so fun seeing everyone, having wonderful conversations and getting to eat tons of yummy food.
The last couple weeks have been crazy but I am grateful that I was able to spend the holidays with so many amazing family and friends. I’m so excited for 2023 and I can’t wait to see what the new year will bring. I appreciate all the continued support and love getting to share my adventures with everyone. I hope everyone had an amazing holiday and has a Happy New Year!