Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Poppin' Corks



One of the best ways to ring in the New Year is with a glass of champagne. Champagne is perfect for celebrations and festivities, making it great as you wait for the clock to strike midnight with friends and family. Because of how celebratory champagne is there are tons of wonderful quotes about France's iconic sparkling wine that you can use in a salute or even decorate your party with!

Using these printable champagne quotes from Gifts.com, you can easily decorate for your next soirée with these fun quotes, so you can have your champagne and drink it too! With words from authors, philosophers, politicians, and even experts themselves, everyone loves champagne, giving you tons of quotes to toast the New Year with!


One of my favorites of these champagne quotes is this one from F. Scott Fitzgerald:





These printable graphics are the perfect way to spice up your New Year celebration. Print them out and put them in cute frames as centerpieces on all of your tables. Or, print them out and hang them from string to make a banner of champagne quotes. You could also print them as small 4x4 size, get little frames and give them out as party favors for your guests too! Who wouldn't love to take something like that home with them? I know I would!

Here's a few more of my favorites:




Happy New Year to all of you and I hope you celebrate by popping a bottle of some delicious champagne!!



Thursday, March 2, 2017

Let's Celebrate - Read Across America Day




I love all of these fun National Holidays – especially ones that celebrate books and reading. I was so lucky to be raised in a household that loved and encouraged reading. I think it is so important, especially in today’s tech-driven world, to encourage kids to read. Reading is such a great habit and hobby to have in your life!



Read Across America Day was started by the National Education Association in conjunction with their Read Across America initiative. Read Across America Day is always celebrated on March 2nd – Dr. Seuss’s birthday! This holiday is meant to motivate and encourage children from every community across America to celebrate reading. The first Read Across America Day happened back in 1998.

“Ok”, you say, “I’m in – how do I celebrate?”

Well, it’s pretty simple. All you have to do is pick up a book and read! It’s even better if you have children in your lives that you can read with to celebrate this day. If you are into the social media thing then make sure you share your reading adventures with #ReadAcrossAmericaDay or #DrSeussDay.



If you really want to go all out for this fun holiday, I’ve got a couple ideas to share. Since this is also Dr. Seuss’s birthday – make the whole day Dr. Seuss themed! Cook up some green eggs and ham for dinner. Have craft time with your kiddos and make some cute Cat in the Hat cardboard hats. After dinner, sit down and read together.

Another fun idea to keep the reading celebration going all month – or all year -  is to do some reading challenges. These are great for kids and adults alike!

  • -          Hot Fudge Sundae Challenge: challenge yourself or your kids to read a certain number of food themed books. If they complete the challenge – take them out for ice cream!

  • -          Read Your Bookshelf Challenge: if you are anything like me, you have a number of books on your shelves that you’ve never read. There’s no good reason for this, it’s just how it is. Make it a point to finally read those books! Reward yourself with a trip to the bookstore for a new find.

  • -          Book Club: Start a book club with some of your friends or with your family. Make a night out of it once a month and do pizza (and wine for the adults!) and talk about the book. If you do this with your family, let your kids pick out some of the books that you all will read.



No matter how you celebrate – JUST KEEP READING!


Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Mardi Gras Wines



Happy Mardi Gras everyone! I love this holiday because it falls during the perfect time of year where we all really need a little celebration. This is that long period of time on the calendar once New Year’s is over that we have to make it all the way to Memorial Day for another holiday off work.
It doesn’t matter that Mardi Gras is on a Tuesday – you can still celebrate!

Here’s a couple of my favorite festive Mardi Gras wines for your party tonight. Even if it’s just a party of one.

Fat Bastard Syrah



This wine may not be called “Fat Tuesday” but it’s close enough! One of the most popular Mardi Gras dishes is Gumbo and this wine pairs perfectly. It’s a flavor-packed, fun Cajun dish that’s sure to complete your festive evening. This dish is traditionally spicy so you want something that can hold up to those heavy, complex flavors and not overwhelm your tastebuds. This Shiraz is just the ticket.


Marques de Monistrol Semi Seco Cava




Another traditional Mardi Gras treat is the King Cake. If you pick one of these up (or make one of your own) for your festivities, you’ll want something a bit sweet and definitely sparkling that can hold up to the sweetness of this dessert. Any sweeter, sparkling wine will do but be sure to avoid any of them that have Brut in their name. Those are typically drier and don’t pair as well with sweet dessert.

Honoro Vera Garnacha





One of my favorite varietals is Garnacha and it also happens to be a perfect Mardi Gras wine. This Garnacha specifically is easy-drinking and fresh and should pair nicely with pretty much any dish you end up serving tonight. And really, you can’t be the price on this one!




Sunday, February 12, 2017

Wines for the Perfect Valentine's Day




I don’t think I’ve talked about this on the blog before so here it is – I HATE Valentine’s Day.

I think it’s a completely commercialized holiday made up so that companies can charge you ridiculous amounts of money for things. I suppose it is fitting that I’m not a fan of Valentine’s Day because I also don’t really like flowers (as a gift). Flowers cut from your own garden are awesome but, paying a million dollars for flowers from a company is silly, in my opinion. They last like a week then they die. Give me something useful – like food.

Anyways, there is a bit of silver lining to this whole holiday. That of course – WINE!

What a great excuse to pop open a bottle and celebrate your love of wine.

Here are some fun, Valentine’s type wines for you to try out this year.


This is a fun little blend with a name and label perfect for a Valentine’s night at home. Flavors of plum, cherry and vanilla with just a hint of oak. It’s surprisingly complex for a wine with such a cheeky name.




This is a true Zinfandel that boasts flavors of pepper, vanilla, black cherry and plum. A delightfully sinful choice for Valentine’s Day.




Sometimes you just need bubbles in your life and Valentine’s is the perfect occasion to indulge. This is a delicate, fizzy red that will pair perfectly with those chocolate covered strawberries.









Monday, January 23, 2017

Let's Celebrate - National Reading Day




I hope that everyone’s social media feeds today have let them know that today is National Reading Day. If it hasn’t – now you know!

National Reading Day is an annual celebration to encourage young readers to pick up books (instead of the TV remote!) in order to build a strong foundation for learning. You don’t have to be a young child or have a young child to participate in this holiday though.



Here are some ways that you can take part in this celebration:

Plan a trip to your local library

When was the last time you’ve been to your local library? In today’s technological age where we have pretty much everything we could ever want to read at our fingertips, we often forget about the library. Libraries are a treasure trove of fun and knowledge – and they are free! So take a trip and spend some time browsing the aisles. You’ll never know what you might find!


Do you have one of these in your neighborhood? If not, consider starting one of your own! These little miniature libraries are such a great addition to any neighborhood. Not only does it promote reading, but it fosters relationships with your neighbors and helps your bookshelf from becoming too cluttered. Here's the one that's in my neighborhood.



Pick up your Favorite book

Go dust off your favorite book – you know the one – the one that you’ve read 100 times but it never gets old. Curl up on the couch or go grab a latte at your local coffee shop and transport yourself away to that special world that only a book can take you to.


Do you have other ideas on how to celebrate National Reading Day? I’d love to hear them!


Happy Reading!



Friday, January 20, 2017

"Let's Celebrate" Series - Cheese!






I’m excited to share the first installment of what I hope will be a fun new series this year – the Let’s Celebrate series! Something that social media has brought to my attention is that there is literally a National day for EVERYTHING. It may seem silly but I’m all for any good excuse to celebrate something fun.

I have found all of the fun days to share with you that have anything to do with wine and books - or anything that pairs well together with wine and books. Like our first National Day today.

The series kicks off this year with....

*drumroll please**

NATIONAL CHEESE LOVER DAY!

                               
I don’t know about y’all but, I seriously could not imagine my life without cheese. It is vital to my survival as a human and it’s good in just about any form. I do have 2 favorites though – Mac & Cheese and cheese fries. I’ll pretty much go to the ends of the earth for a good version of either of these dishes. If you know of a good place to get either of these, share them with me!

So, in order to celebrate National Cheese Lover Day, I thought I would share some fun facts about cheese with you.



 Just don’t forget – as you celebrate with some cheese today, make sure there’s wine too!


Sunday, October 25, 2015

Wine and Candy - Halloween Adult Style





Admittedly, Halloween is not my favorite holiday of the year. I've never really gotten into the whole costume thing (it take A LOT of effort, y'all) and unfortunately, lately more and more of the trick or treaters are rude and don't even dress up. I do enjoy walking the neighborhood with friends who have little ones. We usually have a wagon full of adult libations and we can totally sneak candy all night long. It's a good time.

Recently, I saw this article online about pairing Halloween candy favorites with wine. Say what!? I can't believe I had never seen this before. I immediately thought that this was an amazing idea and I absolutely needed to try this. 

Luckily, I also have really awesome friends who say “that sounds fun” rather than “you’re crazy” when I ask them to help me out with this crazy idea. It was a blast munching on the yummy candy and testing all the different wines alongside them. And of course, we finished ALL the candy and ALL the wine.

Here’s the pairings I put together for this Halloween festivity. While all of the pairings were good, the hands down favorite from the group were the Skittles with the Moscato. It was amazing!




Let me know what wines you pair with your Halloween candy this year!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – Taylor Tawny Port $11.99



This is by far my favorite candy for just about any holiday. The crazy thing is though, I’ve never tried to pair a wine with them before. I’ll admit it – this pairing was difficult to figure out. I pretty much scratched reds off right away. They are too heavy to hold up to the rich flavors of a peanut butter cup. I tried Riesling which wasn’t terrible but not amazing either. Then it hit me – dessert wines. This Taylor Tawny Port was JUST what the peanut butter cup called for. It’s a medium-bodied port wine with a nutty aroma and rich flavors of caramel. It is potent though so sip carefully!

Smarties – White Hall Vineyards Viognier - $19.99



I took a hint from the article mentioned above and knew exactly where I wanted to go with this pairing. Virginia is well known for their Viognier so there are a ton of good ones to choose from. The Viognier from White Hall Vineyards is one of my favorites and a perfect pairing with Smarties. It has notes of peach and cantaloupe with an interesting hint of blood orange on the nose. It’s a medium-bodied wine with a delicious orange finish that I love.


Candy Corn – Smoking Loon Steelbird Unoaked Chardonnay - $9.99



OK, let’s be honest here – candy corn is delicious (in a weird, artificial sugary sort of way) but it tastes horrible when you eat it alongside anything else. I was munching on some of this the other night and happened to have a glass of Petit Syrah in my hand as well. This is a TERRIBLE idea – please don’t try this at home. It almost ruined this perfectly lovely wine for me forever. So, what in the world WOULD taste good with candy corn? Turns out that the Viognier mentioned above is a pretty good choice but I wanted to change it up. Since the Viognier worked well, I decided to go for a Chardonnay. I knew I wanted an unoaked Chardonnay because I didn’t think the oakiness would pair well with the odd candy corn flavors. This Chardonnay from Smoking Loon was perfect. It’s a clean, crisp wine with hints of pineapple and melon and is just sweet enough to compliment the sweetness of the candy corn.

Raisinets – El Cortijillo Tempranillo - $6.98



I also knew exactly where I wanted to start my pairing with this candy. Again, taking a hint from the article I wanted something rich and smoky to pair with this chocolate treat. I knew my favorite wine region – Spain – would have just what I was looking for. This Tempranillo is one of my favorite finds and it did not disappoint when paired with the Raisinets. This Tempranillo is a fresh, complex wine with hints of blackberry and cherry. It’s rich and a bit sweet to start and drier on the finish, but not enough to drown out the flavor of the candy. I recommend this wine even if you aren’t eating candy!


Skittles – Middle Sister Sweet and Sassy Moscato - $9.99



With Skittles, I knew I needed to head back into the realm of sweet, fruity white wines. After some research, I decided to go with a Moscato. I don’t drink much Moscato wines so I decided to go with a relatively inexpensive brand that hasn’t disappointed me thus far – Middle Sister wines. Middle Sister has a special place in my heart since I am a middle sister! They have a Moscato that really hit the spot with this sweet candy. This one is smooth and sweet, but not too sweet as some Moscato’s tend to be. It has floral aromas and fruit flavors like pear and peach.