The Santana Row Tradition Continues

Danica's Daily

The Santana Row Tradition Continues

Hi all! Can I just say I feel so lucky to have great life long friends?! Yesterday we kept the tradition going with our Elf on the Shelf Scavenger Hunt and Christmas Tree Lighting on Santana Row. This tradition actually started when another friend took me for the first time to Santana Row. This brought 4 of us back for a cookbook signing that just happened to be on the same day as the Christmas Tree Lighting. We all fell in love with Santana Row and 3 of us made it our annual tradition to go find the little elves, devour delicious food, listen to carolers, see the singing/dance shows, lights, shop and gab the day away. I truly love it and look forward to it every year!

Disclaimer: This is one event that I don’t stress on the points but focus on tasting everything and stopping when I am satisfied. It also helps sharing everything with 2 other people.

Before heading out, I whipped up a 2 egg chicken apple sausage scramble with 1/2 an orange.Our first stop is always at Hunan Taste for these Meat pies. They have layers of taco meat, crispy lettuce in between these crispy chive pancakes. They give you a homemade peanut sauce and sweet hot sauce as toppers.

This is my favorite thing and I always make room for 2 wedges.We then pick 3 new dishes to try with a goal to get through everything on the menu eventually lol. I had a 1/2 cup each with a little steamed rice.

Spicy Kung Pao Chicken – I put the sweet hot sauce in this too.Spare Ribs in black bean sauce – I love their black bean sauce best on shrimp.Plus broccoli beef.After lunch we did a little shoe shopping and stopped at Cost Plus before heading over to shop at Santana Row.

My favorite stop that I bought a few things at with 20% off my entire purchase!We stopped for coffee and shared two mini cakes at Cocola Cafe.

I had 1/4 of the cappuccino cake and 1/3 of the strawberry shortcake that had a marzapan layer – so flipping good with my Americano.This totally fueled us for the scavenger hunt. It’s so fun as the stores get really into hiding the elves and spreading holiday cheer with free samples, drinks, etc. It doesn’t hurt you win a cute prize for collecting all your stamps.

This is last year’s card as I somehow missed taking a picture of this year’s lol.This years light theme included all these animals throughout. We also met Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Hello Kitty, stilt walking angels and a Power Ranger (I think).We break for wine (Mount Verdeer Cabernet) and dinner at Pizza Antica before the big tree is lit.I can totally admit that it is this brussel sprout salad that draws me in every time.

Bacon + caramelizes onions, fresh herby thyme, homemade croutons, egg, parmesan….need I say more?!

I have 1/3 of it and always think about trading my pizza slice for more I resist and have 2 slices of this homemade sausage, mushroom and caramelized onion pizza. So light, crunchy, doughy, good.The grand finale was this dark chocolate olive oil cake with vanilla bean gelato. It was crispy like brownie edges but moist like a cake. I had 2 bites and pondered eating all the gelato.Such a fun friend filled day – it totally makes it worth being tired the next day.

Night all!

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Thanksgiving in Aruba � Recap #1

Hi all! How was your weekend? Our weekend was pretty fantastic as we headed to the Caribbean- Aruba to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary. Technically it�s on November 26th but we are celebrating early with our trip.

This is our 3rd visit to Aruba and ironically my first time posting about it. Crazy I know…once was during my couple year blog break (May 2016) and the other was a cruise stop when we went to the Panama Canal.

We love Aruba – seriously – it might be our favorite island outside of St. Martin/Anguilla (where we were married). Everyone is so friendly, it’s built out nicely with plenty to see/do, the beaches are amazing and it feels safe.

Since we may just relax this year, I am including a recap of what we did on our first visit with a link to our pictures.

I like that we were able to rent a car and venture out all over the island. We saw several beaches (all beautiful in their own ways), hiked to the top of Mount Hooiberg to see Venezuela, went to the Gold Mine Ruins, saw a natural bridge, visited over 10 casinos for The Husband and even found an antique shop. We walked all over town too. The food is pretty amazing and I surprisingly didn’t take many food pictures lol. Our timeshare/hotel was right on the beach at Divi Village Beach and Golf and the cool thing about it is that you can use all the Divi resort amenities – so there were like 5 hotels we could do things at. The beaches are so amazing with the water warm and the sand all powdery and soft.

Need I say more?! You can click here to start the slide show to see the pictures of our May 2016 trip.

Now onto this year�s trip. We traveled and got settled in on Saturday. On Sunday, we woke up and had breakfast on our balcony.

1 scrambled egg, 2 Turkey Sausage patties, 1 piece of butter bread with 1/2 Tbsp whipped butter, 1/2 and orange and Aruban French vanilla coffee.After breakfast we headed out for a walk. The Husband is totally mesmerized but also afraid of the iguanas. He cracks me up every time we see one.

The trail we walk along takes you all along the beach.

We spent a good part of the afternoon relaxing here…it was amazing.

We took a beach break for lunch at our room with pickle chipwiches. 2 slices butter bread with mustard,turkey , ham, colby cheese, pickles and bbq chips. I had more chips and watermelon on the side for good measure.

Late afternoon we headed into town for Starbucks. I had a tall Java chip frappucino with nonfat milk (the points are so high but it was worth it!)

We walked around the shops and harbor before gambling in a few casinos. I actually won $50 in free slot play and took home another $75 yay!

We had dinner outside on the patio at Twist of Flavors listening to the steel drums play.

I am so glad they only bring 1 piece each of their garlic bread because I could eat so much more!

The starters we picked were garlic shrimp and cheesy garlic mushrooms. Both were amazing and super rich – garlic, wine, butter, lots of cheese….You actually needed the brightness of the salad to offset the richness.

He had the ribeye steak and I had Aztec Chicken which was like deconstructed enchilada nachos. I loved this but sadly could only eat half as it was a lot of food. My mouth said nooo don�t stop but I did – so there is some success there.

My google pixel phone stopped working so I am attempting to use my iPhone for posting. I don�t love it as much -pictures are just ok and I may switch back to my actual camera for this trip. We will see how many pictures I take as both options take so much more time than with my pixel.

Have a great short week all. I�ll catch up with you later on our next beach break!

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Jay Day

Happy Sunday all! How was your weekend? My weekend actually felt like a week and I fit in so many things even though my plans changed. We were originally planning to hike on Saturday but had to cancel due to all the smoke. I ended up spending Saturday getting caught up on everything and fitting in some good relax/read time.

Today was Jay Day meaning we did everything The Husband wanted to do which was actually quite fun. I managed to stay in track even while having all 3 meals out.

Breakfast at Huckleberries – I had a 2 egg omelette with chicken sausage, bell pepper, mushrooms and no cheese. I saved 2 potato bites before handing them over to The Husband and had 1 slice of sourdough with whipped butter on the side so I could control how much went on my toast. (7 Smartpoints)I picked Starbucks after Tall nonfat cappuccino (2 sp).We grabbed a quick lunch at Jersey Mike’s.

I ordered the Mini Turkey & Provolone �Mike�s way� with pickles, pepperoncinis and jalapenos. Everything about this sandwich is good but the juice aka olive oil, red wine vinegar & oregano make it awesome and worth the points. (8 sp).

Plus a few of his BBQ Miss Vicki’s (3 sp).We went to the luxury movies for the reclining chairs lol and watched Hunter Killer. It was very good and totally keeps you on the edge of your seat. I still cannot believe the movie is based on a true story.

For dinner, he picked Buckhorn Grill. I’ve really been craving salads lately so I went with the Yik Yak with chicken.

Mixed greens, cabbage, jicama, red peppers, crispy pasta & toasted almonds, snow peas, cilantro and green onions with the sesame dressing on the side (5 sp).

Its easy for me to pass on the tortilla.25 Daily WWFreestyle Smartpoints, 8K steps

Night all!

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