California Christmas Vacation

This year for the holidays, we went to southern California. My sister lives in Los Angeles, and my grandparents live in Laguna Niguel. My grandparents cancelled at the last minute coming east for last year's Christmas, so this year we came to them.

I was with my sister and her boyfriend for a few days before the rest of our family flew in. Other than seeing "Love Actually Live" (read that blog post here), we mostly hung out at their apartment watching Christmas movies like Elf, Home Alone, The Santa Clause, and the new Netflix animated film Klaus. But we did go out for ice cream to Wanderlust; I saw the owner of the shop featured in a Try Guys video (here), and since it was only about 20 minutes away, we just had to try it! I tried a hazelnut flavor, and my sister got the ube flavor.

My sister and I also did a lot of baking:

Chocolate peppermint cake. SO good!

My sister insisted that we do fancy cookie decorating. I'm surprised how nice they look!

My parents rented an AirBNB in Carlsbad for the whole family, so we headed there on Monday. It was really nice! It was perfect for just hanging out as a family. We walked around the town of Carlsbad as well, doing a wine tasting at the Witch Creek Winery tasting room (which features Sleepy Tiger Wines, related to Sleepy Tiger Coffee), walking around checking out all the cute shops (I bought a pair of snakeskin-printed jeggings from Blues and Shoes), and eating gelato at Gelato Love (the chocolate banana flavor and eggnog flavor were really good!). We also walked along the beach in Carlsbad and visited Hosp Grove Park to get some nature time in. It felt so good to get outside and be in the sunshine. Weather.com had predicted rain for the time I was there, but it mostly only rained at night, which meant we could get outside during the day.

Our Hanukkah bush!

My sister's boyfriend with our itty-bitty Christmas tree.

There was a lot of cool wall art in Carlsbad:

On our last day in California, my parents and I stayed in Dana Point. We had a picnic of our Christmas leftovers by the beach before walking along the coast and doing some more shopping.

I'm flying home today. Sad to see this trip end, but I'm off to New Hampshire tomorrow for Vacation Part II! Stay tuned for that blog post!

Love Actually Live at The Wallis

My sister and I in front of the Love Actually Live step-and-repeat

I am visiting my sister in Southern California for the holiday, and she surprised me with an early Christmas present! Love Actually is one of our favorite Christmas movies, and she bought us tickets to see "Love Actually Live" at The Wallis. I've heard of shows in which an orchestra will play the score of a movie while the film is on a large screen, but this was different!

There was not only a band of musicians for this performance, but there were singers, too! And not only did they sing songs from the movie (as well as others), but they even dressed like the characters and played bit scenes while the movie was playing.

One screen showed the movie, the other was the outside of a building, and the long one at the top represented his trip to "an American bar."

And the movie played on multiple screens, too! There were two split screens as well as a long narrow one near the ceiling. Throughout the performance the movie would play on one of the screens and then bounce around between scenes. And the screens would raise and lower to reveal the live actors as they mimicked the scenes in the movie, or the actors would sneak behind the screen and then "appear" on the screen as the movie.

Because most songs in movies are just clips, and the performers were singing full songs, some parts of the movie had to be cut out. That was a little sad when you know the movie by heart and pieces go missing. And some songs they didn't include, including Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," which was disappointing (but probably due to copyright concerns). I understand why they made those decisions. At least the singing was really great! I was very impressed!

Levi Smith played Sam, and his version of "Puppy Love" was wonderful!

Aubrie Sellers sang Joni Mitchell's "River." This song isn't in the movie, but Joni Mitchell does play a role in the film. The actress' voice reminded me of LeAnn Rimes with a little country twang. 

Ruby Lewis as Mia the secretary killed Santana's "Smooth," although it's not part of the original soundtrack.

I was blown away by Carrie Manolakos' version of Kelly Clarkson's "The Trouble with Love Is."

Gabriela Carrillo sounded just like Norah Jones when she sang "Turn Me On."

I did find a clip of the group singing "Love Actually," which is the movie's instrumental theme song with lyrics written by Audra Mae.

This show was a lot of fun. I highly recommend it. And it's not too late to buy tickets!

*All photos of the show are from The Wallis' webpage for the show.

Recipe: Thick & Chewy White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

I was invited to a holiday party where I wouldn't know anyone, so of course I want to make a good impression. The party is tomorrow, so I woke up early this morning to bake cookies for the hosts. I wasn't sure if I'd have enough time tomorrow between all my errands and such.

I found this recipe on the Baker by Nature website. I thought the cookies looked pretty festive, and who doesn't like soft cookies?! Here's how you make them:

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 15 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups white chocolate chips
• 1 cup dried cranberries, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F).
2. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
3. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the dry ingredients; set aside.
4. In a large bowl combine the butter, sugars, and vanilla; whisk until light and fluffy; about 2 minutes (you may use a stand mixer/ handheld mixer to help if you have one).
5. Add the eggs and beat quickly – for only about 30 seconds – until they’re just combined. Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes, then beat the eggs for another 30 seconds. Gently fold in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon, stirring only until the flour begins to disappear.
6. Fold in the white chocolate chips and cranberries.
7. Roll 3 tablespoon sized balls of dough between your palms to form a ball (they should be big; almost a 1/4 cup), then place on prepared sheet (make sure to leave enough room in between each cookie for inevitable spreading). Continue this process until all the dough has been rolled. Place baking sheets in preheated oven and bake for 11-14 minutes, or until golden at the edges but still soft in the middle. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

If you've read my previous recipe blog posts before, then you can probably guess which step I skipped. Yep: I was not going to chop up craisins. But the rest of the recipe I followed pretty closely; I even set out the eggs and butter early so that they would be (close to) room temperature. The dough is a little hard to mix because it gets pretty thick, so I'm not sure I had a good distribution of cranberries and white chocolate chips. And as usual, I over-baked them just a little because I always fear that cookies will be raw in the middle. So the outside is a bit crunchy, but the inside is still soft. I'm happy with how they turned out. I hope the party guests like them, too!

Cher Concert in D.C.

Image found here.

Cher is such an icon, so as soon as I heard she was going to be performing at Capital One Arena, I bought a ticket. I wasn't sure if anyone would want to go with me, so I just bought a ticket for myself. I wasn't going to miss the chance to see her live!

I met up with some friends for dinner at Bar Deco before the show (Taco Tuesday!), so we missed most of the opener. I hadn't heard of Nile Rodgers or Chic by name, but I definitely recognized their music! They sing songs like I'm Coming Out and We Are Family.

Here are some of the songs I heard them perform:

Le Freak

Good Times

Then there was a LONG break in between the opener and Cher. I mean, we sat around for over half an hour! Cher is 73 years old; why would she want to start the show late? Perhaps because she already knew (while I didn't) that she wouldn't even be performing for 90 minutes. The woman has been in this business for DECADES with SO many hit songs, and she can't even put on a two-hour show? On top of that, she spent a good 20 minutes telling a funny story about her 40th birthday (so...something that happened more than thirty years ago); I liked the story, but again, I would have rather heard it during an interview on The Ellen Show rather than on stage at a concert.

But not everything was a disappointment. As far as her famous costumes and wigs were concerned, they were on point. She looked AMAZING. I'm half her age (not even), and I don't look like that! She rocked so many different looks:

The blue hair was insane. But check out the rest of the outfit! Image found here.

Um, what?! How is she over 70 years old?! She wore a similar look back in 1992! (see below) Image found here.

Not that different even after 20+ years! Image found here.

I want this head piece! Image found here.

She wore this number for Welcome to Burlesque. Image found here.

She sang some of her biggest hits:

A Woman's World (although she wasn't actually viewable on stage for much of this one)

I Got You Babe (She sang the duet along with a video of Sonny Bono.)

If I Could Turn Back Time (definitely my favorite of the night!)

Strong Enough

Bang Bang

After All

All or Nothing

Believe (The dancers were great!)

I will admit that I didn't realize this tour was in association with her ABBA album. I love ABBA's music (I saw a concert all about them earlier this year), but I didn't pay to see Cher sing someone else's songs. She not only sang covers of Waterloo, S.O.S., and Fernando, but she also sang Marc Cohn's Walking in Memphis, Michael Bolton's I Found Someone, and Betty Everett's The Shoop Shoop Song. She has so many of her own hits; that's what I wanted to hear! Here are some of the songs she should have sang:

We All Sleep Alone

Half Breed (although I understand that she may not want to perform such a political song)

Song for the Lonely

Heart of Stone

I still had a fun time, but the concert wasn't exactly what I had envisioned. I'm seeing Celine Dion at the same venue in March. Hopefully she won't sing too many cover songs!

Missed the show? You can watch the entire concert on YouTube.

The Second City's "Love, Factually"

Image found here

I love the Christmas movie Love Actually. It's definitely one of my favorites. So I was curious to see a comedy spoof of the story. The improv group The Second City is performing "Love, Factually" at the Kennedy Center this holiday season, and I would recommend it!

Just like the movie, the show is a series of little snapshots into the lives of several couples. Unlike the film, though, they are all tied together by the writer Cassie (played by Kate Lambert) who is re-writing the stories to be more like real-life: i.e. not sappy and romantic. Throughout the show she is guided by her personal Christmas spirit, that of romance author Jane Austen (played by Inessa Frantowski). There were only eight performers, and Lambert solely plays Cassie, so that means seven people were playing all the different roles, which was pretty cool!

Most of the couples do mirror those in the film, but with a twist:
-Instead of Marc (played by Aaron Bliden) being in love with Juliet ("Keira" in this play), he has the hots for Peter.
-Instead of falling for a woman at work, Eric M. Messner's character likes the local barista.

Messner's Colin goes to not one city in America, but three (and meets women in all the locales). Photo credit: Jati Lindsay.

-Renea S. Brown is a senator rather than a prime minister, and she falls for her male assistant. And there's no Southern-charmer Billy Bob Thornton as the President of the United States, but the rival is another senator (played by Anne Bowles).
-When Sarah finally has her chance with Karl, the interruptive phone calls asking if Abraham Lincoln was a real person or wondering why a frozen dinner has to be cooked first aren't from a sick brother but are from President Trump instead.

There were no Daniel/Carol, John/Judy, or Sam/Joanna couples, but there was a story of two senior citizens who met in an old folks home. Not from the original story, but very funny!

Such a talented group! Photo credit: Jati Lindsay

Most of the show is scripted, but there were a few chances for audience participation, like:
-Jane Austen talks to a few men in the audience trying to set Cassie up with someone for a date.
-The ghosts of the spouses of the two elderly people were audience members who had to give word suggestions (on stage!) to the actors.
-While Colin starts in D.C., the two other states were determined by the audience (this time Utah and Wisconsin).
-When their versions of Jamie and Aurelia express their love to each other in the restaurant, the audience helps translate for them.
-Audience members could submit crazy stories on paper that were then used as excerpts from a tell-all book. When TV host Basil Gordon (played by Scott Ward Abernethy) interviews the washed-up rock star (played by Ian Owens) and his manager (Bliden) about the book, the audience-submitted stories become his wild tales (some were, like doing mushrooms with Lance Armstrong's wife, others were not, like calling in sick on the Monday after Thanksgiving to avoid work).

Even though Cassie tries to ruin the good ol' love stories, in the end Jane Austen convinces her that she, too, can find love, inspiring Cassie to re-write happy endings for all of the characters. And she does find love with her Amazon delivery man, à la Legally Blonde.

This show was so funny. It's not too late to get your own tickets and see it for yourself! Buy tickets here.

*My friend wrote the review for DC Theatre Scene. Read it here.

TRULY Cocktail Tasting

I recently enjoyed a cocktail contest at Republic Restoratives, a distillery in D.C. (read that blog post here). It was so much fun, and I was very excited when I learned about a similar event taking place at Crimson's whiskey bar in Chinatown. Along with the Washington City Paper, they were hosting a cocktail contest, this time using TRULY hard seltzer.

I love the dark-wood vibe of the Crimson whiskey bar. Image found here.

Instead of just five tastings like at RR, we had ELEVEN mini-cocktails. The event originally said we would taste twelve, but I only had 8.5 and was plenty tipsy after those. Here's what we tried:

Our first cocktail was so yummy! The fruit and floral flavors were well-balanced, and we each got a little love-note! (Shame on me for not asking if I could move the rolls; I can't remember her name or what bar she works for!)

Shelly Caviness from Crimson made our second cocktail, but it was not my favorite. It wasn't as sweet at the first, and I'm not a fan of ginger.

This bartender, Christopher Chapman-Shakra from the Coconut Club, was at the event at Republic Restoratives! This drink was like a mint lemonade, and it had a delectable Rasta man berry as a garnish!

This cute pink drink was a little watered down from sitting out on the counter. My friends and I thought the bartender, Cheston Sobande from CALICO,  should have used POM for a stronger pomegranate flavor. The aroma from the large sprig of rosemary almost covered the taste of the drink!

This drink was SO vanilla-y! Emily nicely described it as "a lemon cupcake in liquid form." Jim on the other hand said it tasted like "the Pillsbury Dough-boy's butt hole." Charming, I know. Created by Ian Fletcher from The Fainting Goat.

This cocktail made by Mreaed Mengesha from Doyle Bar got my vote, and I don't even like coffee! I think the sweetness and creaminess reminded me of ice cream or chocolate milk; there was some nostalgia about it, I guess. Dessert in a cup!

This drink was less sweet but very good. It was Jim's favorite, since he likes the bitter taste of a sour. This creation from Andrew Lamkin from The Alex got his vote!

This one tasted like licorice, which a lot of people don't like, including me. The whole thing was kind of blah, to the point that Katy said it was "offensive." Needless to say, none of us finished that cocktail. Created by Aysha Scott from Landmark Atlantic Plumbing.

I liked the cinnamon rim on this one! It was pretty sweet, especially with the pear juice and syrup. I was a fan! Created by Katie Gentsch from Beuchert's Saloon.

This drink from Frank Mills from Roy Boys was one of the only ones using a flavored TRULY. While I like sweet drinks, this one was actually sickeningly so: berry seltzer, strawberry syrup, grapefruit juice...too much of a good thing.

Thank goodness all of those drinks were balanced with some food! The fried chicken sliders were delicious, the deviled eggs were good (and pink from beet juice!), and their well-known pimento cheese did not disappoint. Yummy!

A people's choice winner and Crimson's vote for best cocktail were announced, but it was so hard to hear (and honestly, at that point my head was spinning), so I don't know who won. But in the end, aren't they all winners? As attendees, my friends and I certainly were winning: for less than $30 each, we enjoyed the equivalent of four/five cocktails and great food. You can't beat that!

PS: There was a jalapeño drink made by Paul Martinez from Chicken + Whiskey, but I don't like jalapeño, so I didn't even bother to try it. #SorryNotSorry