This past Sunday our family made the trek up to Salvatore’s in Buffalo, NY for their annual Salvatore’s Brunch With Santa! We had the pleasure of attending their Easter event a few years ago and have been dying to check out Christmas since we had such a grand time. Every time I mentioned how over the top fabulous our Easter experience was, I would be told we would be blown away with Christmas! Safe to say those rumors were 100% true, since here I am writing a post telling all of you that you need to book a table ASAP!!! I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend a Sunday with the family!!!! New Christmas tradition that’s for sure!!!

Salvatore’s Italian Gardens is literally right around the corner from the Buffalo Airport inside of The Delavan Hotel on Transit Road! The building is filled with chandlers and makes you feel like your no longer in Buffalo since it’s so over the top glam!! Total European vines from the second you walk in!! I really wish this place was closer to my home in Jamestown since it fits my brand aesthetic to a T! If I ever win the lotto, I’m hiring their interior designer to glam up my dream home!

I’m not gong to lie, it is pricy for Western New York, but I promise you it’s worth every penny! You will walk out the door feeling you got your money’s worth. $35 adults. $22 kids $12 Toddlers and 2under free. We were paying $39 to attend our country clubs Breakfast with Santa, and it wasn’t even close to being this fab! Salvatore’s is my new favorite Christmas tradition!!!

I can’t stop raving about the food!! Not only because it’s beyond delicious! Prime rib, turkey, ham, yum!!!! Salvatore’s knocks it out if the ballpark with their kids buffet! One of the toughest things for parents of picky eaters is holiday meals. My kid hates carving stations! She’s not a fan of anything fancy. Heck, she won’t even eat something she loves if there happens to be a sauce touching it! Whoever created the menu at Salvatore’s, must be the parent of the worlds pickiest eater since kids have the options of chowing down on pizza, nuggets, gummy bears, ice cream, the list of “kid approved” foods goes on!!! So not only can mom and dad enjoy a fabulous meal, the kiddo can say they had the best meal ever as well because well, pizza!!!!!

Tell me this isn’t one of the most glam Santa setups you have ever seen!!! Only other over the top glam Santa’s I can think of are located in boujee malls/stores in South Florida, NYC and LA!

The only down part is, a picture with Santa will cost you an additional $25! On the positive side, you really do get what you pay for! The photographer does know what he’s doing! I’m guessing he’s an actual pro and not a random college kid clicking a button at the mall. He took his time posing everyone to get the perfect shot! So if you have unphorogenic kiddos, do not worry! The photographer will make sure to get the money shot! Spend a little more and you get a mini photo shoot with Santa! I was impressed with the fact my daughter wasn’t rushed and had the perfect Santa experience!

While you can write letters to Santa pretty much anywhere these days, I thought this was a nice touch! When you walk into the restaurant and have a few minutes to kill while waiting for your table. This place is busy! Expect to wait since brunch tends to be a sold out event, you can kill time with your antsy kids by writing a letter to Santa! Salvatore’s has a table set up with post cards to fill out so your kids can write away while waiting for a table to be cleared.

Dress to impress!!! While you won’t spot many suits, dress pants, ties, fancy sweaters and dresses are the norm! While I did spot a few folks dressed in causal attire, they did stick out since everyone around then was dressed to the nines!

While I personally took this opportunity to rock a dress! I don’t have many opportunities to dress up these days #MomLife, just as many woman were decked out in fancy sweater and blouses.

​As for the kiddos, holiday dress galore!!! Even if mom and dad were dressed more on the casual side, their kiddos looked like they were about to hit a runway with their glam holiday looks!!!

For all of you Instagram obsessed girls like myself, Salvatore’s is an Insta paradise!!! So many cute setups to pose and click away at so make sure to have your phone fully charged! You can even bring your fancy camera and not be looked at like you’re crazy! I spotted many moms snapping away with their over the top DSLR’s! I will have to bring mine next year knowing I won’t stick out shooting with a giant camera.

There is no denying it. We are an amazon family! Prime is our favorite way to shop & Alexa helps hubby and run our empires smoothly, especially during the holidays! Honesty, it’s hard to remember a time Alexa wasn’t there to help save the day & make our holiday season extra festive!

With all of us having type A personalities, we were one of the very first families we knew to welcome Alexa into our home. Since interacting with Alexa is as simple as asking a question. Just ask her to play music, read the news, control your smart home, tell a joke, and more, you best believe our collection of devices just kept growing and growing! Whether you are at home or on the go, Alexa is designed to make your life easier by letting you voice-control your world.

​When we found out about Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition, I might have gotten a tad bit excited! Families just like ours have loved using Alexa in their households so Amazon wanted to provide a kid-friendly, kid-centric Alexa experience with parental controls! My daughter loves playing with our devices and now she can have one of her very own! No more stealing mommy’s Alexa to play Santa Shark over and over, she can ask her very own Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition instead!!!

Help your kids get into the holiday spirit through brand new holiday-themed content on Echo Dot Kids Edition and FreeTime on Alexa. Kids have access to age-appropriate music! That’s right, unlike Mommy & Daddy’s devices, Echo Dot Kids Edition is filtered with FreeTime on Alexa that lets parents select which services and skills kids can use, turn off voice purchasing, and more. Parents can also block explicit song lyrics with Amazon Music, and use Household Communications for announcements, calling, messaging and drop-in within the home. WooHoo!!! You can also find kid friendly Q&A, Audible audiobooks, Alexa skills, character alarms and more. I swear after one day of having an Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition in your home, you will be asking yourself how you ever went without one!

For all of you Alexa newbies, I know what you’re asking yourself. What the heck is this FreeTime Unlimited that you speak of? FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa is how you keep your child entertained since it includes over 300 Audible kids’ books, ad-free radio stations and playlists, character alarms, and premium Alexa skills that kids will love.

FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa is also available on Echo devices starting at $2.99 per month. And, families that already subscribe to FreeTime Unlimited on Fire tablets or Android devices can enjoy FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa content at no additional cost. So if your kids have those popular Fire Tablets like my daughter, hook your Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition for free!

Need another gift idea?!? Check these ideas out from a few other fab bloggers ;)

It’s officially the time of year I hate to leave the house! The most fabulous and festive event can be taking place and it will take everything in me to step outdoors to attend! I just hate the cold and if you add snow to the mix, unless I’m at a ski resort, no thank you!

Thankfully December is a fun month craft-wise! One peak at Pinterest and you will have more indoor entertainment ideas than days! One of my daughter & I’s favorites? Making Christmas Aromatherapy Play Doh! So fun to play with and it leaves the room you’re playing in smelling fantastic for days!

Tis the season of all the holiday treats!!! Honestly, I’m not that big of a dessert gal! People always ask how I’m so skinny when I eat 24/7 and I like to joke it’s because I skip out on dessert! I know it’s odd and I should totally lose my basic bitch card for this one, but chocolate really isn’t my thing and I’ve had a fear of milk since I was a toddler, so ice cream has always been a no-no!

Cookies however, cookies are my guilty pleasure, especially sugar cookies! I know, milk is in cookies, but you can’t see or taste it!!! So I like to pretend that milk isn’t involved in the creation process.

Since cookies are my favorite holiday treat and Dunkaroos were a childhood favorite of mine since sugar cookies were involved, I thought it would be fun to make Christmas Dunkaroo Dip!!!!

6. Serve with things such as strawberries, gingerbread men, animal crackers, graham crackers, etc.

As most of you know that follow my Instagram, my parents live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area! So several times a year you get a little dose of Texas Spam!!!!! So much to do in the area and I can’t help but share all the fun with y’all!!!!. I always tell everyone that I would do anything to move back to Orlando, the place I coinsider home, but honestly, Dallas comes in a close second. Such a lovely area!!!! I wouldn’t mind living there one bit!!!!

This last trip to Dallas over Thanksgiving, my dad suggested taking my daughter to Grapevine! The Christmas Capital of Texas!!! The suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth is literally a 10 minute drive from his home in Trophy Club so I was like sure! Let’s check it out. Boy were we in for a treat! I wasn’t expecting all the fabulousness we were about to encounter!

If you couldn’t tell, my family had a blast!!!! So much to do you almost run out of time. I love it when that happens. Our day was so jam packed with fun, making memories that will last a lifetime.

If you plan on hitting up the Christmas Capital of Texas, you will want to purchase all of your event tickets on advance. While all the photo ops are free and there are dozens of restaurants to dine at without large waits, activities like
the Polar Express train ride so sell out.

We had so much fun that we will definitely be going back next Christmas season. Only change will be all of our tickets will be purchased in advance. That way we won’t be bummed when we find out the train is sold out. It will be sold out, but we will lnvine on board with our pre purchased tickets, so we won’t care lol.....

If you are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area around Christmas, definitely check out Grapevine. You will have a blast & your Instagram account will be looking lit!!

Too soon?!?! I know! Halloween was literally one day ago and I’ve already moved on to Christmas like the crazy people! Honestly, I’m all about Thanksgiving and usually hate people who jump right into Christmas! I’m a huge foodie and that Thanksgiving dinner is EVERYTHING to me!

Finally!!!! ‘Tis the season of all things Christmas!!! Nothing makes me more jolly than seeing those stockings hanging from the mantle, just waiting for Santa to fill them Christmas Eve. It’s such a festive sight! However, the whole playing Santa part and actually filling the things can get rather stressful.

Cologne

Anti-Aging products are a huge stocking stuffer hit!!! Don’t be scared by that anti-aging name!!!!! Just buy it. The girl in your life will love you for it since she will be looking 10 years younger on Snapchat!

Not convinced? In a recent poll taken in 2016 by one of my favorite fashion magazines, one of the top three items NOT returned was anything to do with Anti-aging!!! Us gals love these products guys, so head to Boscov’s and stuff those stockings!

Knock the stockings off your favorite with a stocking filled with bath bombs!!! Who doesn’t love a little me time? Nothing is more relaxing than a hot bath and I will be thanking you Santa that next evening my kiddo drives me bonkers!!! That hot bath and bath bomb will totally change my mood & transform my evening!!!

This year was full of stunning cosmetic launches, advanced skincare tools, and a ton of lust-worthy hair and nail products!!! Any girl, regardless is she’s a makeup lover or a once in awhile makeup continuer, will be thrilled to receive a stocking full of beauty essentials!!!

For the beauty junkie type, there's nothing better than a clean set of makeup brushes! Yes,girls are usually loyal to a brand, but brushes need replaced OFTEN! So having spare brushes, regardless of the brand is always a bonus!!!

Nothing is more relaxing than a face mask! It might sound basic, but hey! A face mask will get used!

If you know your loved one is huge into makeup, things like eyelashes, nail glue, even eyelash glue would be a total hit! Something that doesn’t need to be purchased later thanks to you!

Whether you're looking to get some bang for your buck or go all out for the holidays, I guarantee Boscov’s won’t disappoint!!! From makeup, clothing, appliances, gadgets, jewelry, to the infamous socks and underwear Santa always brings, Boscov’s is your one stop Christmas shop for all of your holiday needs!!!

If you’re in the Jamestown area, head down to the Milcreek Mall and finish playing Santa today!

Not in the WNY/NWPA area?! Don’t sweat! There are over 50 other Boscov’s locations in the eastern United States. Click away at the store locator below and find your local store and get to shopping!

Don’t forget to mark those calendars! Boscov’s Beauty week will run December 25th-January 6th! Boscov’s will have amazing gifts with purchase, makeup demonstrations and more! Plus, daily giveaways on social media!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #GrabHolidayHappiness #CollectiveBias

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!! It’s officially the start of the Holiday season! As excited as I am for all things festive, jolly & full of cheer! When I look at my calendar for the next 2-3 months, I end up feeling overwhelmed. So much to do!!!! So little time!!! How am I ever going to accomplish is all AND in my over the top fashion?

Dunkin' Donuts

The answer to doing it all in over the top fashion?!

Help kickstart your holiday season with Dunkin' Donuts from Dollar General. You can find a Dollar General near you with their store locator! Just click on the Dunkin' Donuts text above and find the store closest to you!!!

Dollar General

Thankfully for me, I literally live steps away from a Dollar General! So I usually just walk right over when I start to see my Dunkin' Donuts coffee start to get low. We don’t want a caffeine emergency now do we? So I make sure to stay nice and stocked, especially during the holiday season!

​Once inside your local Dollar General, just head to the food & drink section of your local store and bam! You will see your beloved Dunkin' Donuts coffee sitting there all nice & pretty waiting for you to toss a bag or two into your basket!

Why Dunkin' Donuts?

That’s simple! Dunkin’ Donuts is dedicated to providing a consistently smooth and delicious cup of high-quality coffee!!! Exactly what one needs when they start to glance at that over booked holiday calendar. Makes life a tad bit easier to take in with a cup of high quality joe in you hand!

Dunkin’ Donuts also strongly believes that a great cup of coffee can help transform your day. By providing you with the emotional and physical fuel you need to help transition and prepare for what lies ahead, a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee gets you started and keeps you running. We know your Dunkin’ Donuts coffee doesn’t make you YOU, but it helps. Especially when tackling that never ending holiday to-do list!

Because Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is available in a variety of formats, blends, and flavors, there are many different ways to experience the positive boost Dunkin’ Donuts coffee provides, whenever and wherever you want it!!!

Coffee Bar!

Help spread that holiday cheer this year by fueling up your loved ones! Nothing says Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays like a smooth and delicious cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Setting up a coffee bar at your next holiday family gathering. Or at you next PTA meeting or heck, maybe even at your next morning coffee chat with the besties can bring a huge smile to your loved ones over worked and beyond stressed faces!!! Dunkin’ Donuts does make everything better after all ;-)

You will want to make sure your Coffee Bar has something to snack on! It’s a fact people will rave about something when their tummy’s are full. Nothing pairs better with Dunkin’ Donuts coffee than Dunkin’ Donuts, Donuts! So I love adding donuts to my Coffee Bars!

Decor Ideas? I keep it over the top simple! Things that look fabulous, but easy to assemble. I love paper cutouts that I can tape up in a few minutes and take down and tuck away in a drawer just as fast when I’m finished. Letter stickers also work wonders!

All those super light weight and foam ornaments you see everywhere? They work just as well as wall decor with a piece of duck tape on the back as they do on your festive tree!!!

Don't forget those holiday mugs!!!! Coffee Bars are the perfect excuse for you to display your holiday mug collection or even a fabulous excuse to buy more!

What Bar is complete without paper straws?!?! I Love using paper straws as coffee stirring sticks since they are always so festive and pretty!!! They always add glam to my Coffee Bar setups!

Make sure to provide your Coffee Bar guest with plates, napkins, and all of those coffee add-ons like creamer, milk, sugar etc...

Who doesn’t love a photo booth!?!?! A good way for the whole internet to see all of your Coffee Bar hard work is by setting a few photo props on your bar! Let your guest pose in front of the Coffee Bar being all sorts of cute and silly and posting that silliness all over the web!!!!

Free Printable!!!

All You Need Is Santa & A Good Cup Of Coffee!!!

Print one of these festive signs for FREE by clicking the download link below. The sign will print out to a full sheet of paper that you can frame in an 8x10 photo frame. Want to print small like I did? Just use the photo option on your printer and a piece of photo paper and print a 4x6!

Connect With Dollar General

Let’s Chat!

What is your favorite Dunkin’ Donuts blend or flavor your kicking off the Holiday Season with? Are you excited for the Holiday Season?

I LOVE trying out new photographers!!!!! When you walk into my house you will see my walls covered in photo fabulousness of my daughter!!! I swear we have booked photo shoots for every possible reason. Birthday? Photo shoot! Holiday? Well that's just a given! First time finger painting?! Well that is captured by a photographer as well. Some might call it over the top. Me? I like to remind people that I only have one kid so I have to do everything "right" the first time around. I don't have a second or third kiddo to spread out the fun with.

For the past two years I have been dreaming of a dorky pajama family photo! My hubby however has refused to see an actual photographer wearing dorky pajamas. He hates having his picture taken (why you rarely see him on the blog) so sitting for a session wearing something he would never actually wear is a total nightmare to him. This year he finally got sick of me asking over and over for such a photo that he suggested ordering the dorky pajamas & just using my blogging photography equipment to snap the pic. Our photo might not be the most professional, but since it did come out looking cute, I thought I would pass on some home photography tips!

1. Natural Night. Take your family photo next to a window. You will love how your complexion looks with natural sunlight shining on your skin. Light is your photography bestie. If you suck at editing past filters like me, I can't preach natural lighting enough!!!!

2. Load On The Makeup. I will admit I went a tad bit overboard on the blush, but my main goal was to have that "flawless" smooth looking skin. To achieve that look use a primer before you even start your makeup & then use more foundation than you would normally use. You will look like you're about to hit a night club in real life, but you will have flawless skin in your photo even before you use that filter!!! Loading foundation = photo editing newbies bestie!

3. Self Timer. This one is obviously a no brainer, but use the self timer option on your camera to shoot your photo. 10 seconds might not sound like that much time, but it will be all you need to capture that moment.

4. Tickle To Get A Kid To Smile. Have a kiddo that refuses to smile on command?! Tickle them! Works like a charm with my daughter. Maybe telling a funny joke would even work for your kid?! I have even had my daughter sing a song before while shooting her for the blog before and have captured the perfect shot while in song since she was smiling due to singing!

5. Turn Off Your Flash. Camera flash is deeply unflattering and totally unforgiving. I promise you will get a much, much nicer & cleaner looking picture without it especially if you take my advice above about natural lighting!

6. Cropping. Don't stress too much about having your home looking fabulous for that photo! As long as the main focus of the photo is clutter free, you can most likely crop out everything else. The photo above was shot next to a window and had a fire place on the other side! You would never be able to tell since I cropped both out!

This post was sponsored by WaterWipes as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

I have a confession to make! I am obsessed with gift wrapping!!! Like it is right there on my holiday favorite activities list next to watching Elf & eating holiday snacks 24/7! Why I love spending so much time (and money!) on something that will be ripped to shreds seconds after giving the gift is beyond me, but it brings a smile to my face so I guess that's good enough reason to continue feeding into my gift wrapping obsession. The world needs more smiles, even if they come from something as silly as gift wrapping!

Back about 3 years ago my daughter was in the Early Intervention Program for speech. Her therapist at the time was all about the holiday crafts and brought dot paints over one day to dot paint holiday pictures. Being a newbie mom with only one kiddo, I had never heard of dot paints before, but after seeing how much my daughter loved them, I went to Michaels and bought her a set of paints. These paints were her favorite thing to do for the longest time. She would spend hours with these things!!!!

Since my daughter was legit dot painting her days away, I got the cleaver idea (ok maybe Pinterest did) of buying rolls of white wrapping paper for her to dot away on. I would just roll the paper across my dinning room table & she was set to paint her little heart out!!! When she was done, all I had to do was toss the paper and I would once again have a clean table.

My daughters speech therapist came by one morning for a session and saw the rolls of wrapping paper laying out and told me I had the most brilliant idea of having my daughter make her own custom wrapping paper for people! Totally not my intention whatsoever, but it was that moment it clicked that I should be saving those rolls of paper and using them as actual wrapping paper instead of just tossing them when my daughter was done with them. Who wouldn't want a gift wrapped in toddler creativity?!? Plus it was a fabulous way to incorporate my daughter into my gift wrapping obsession!!!

Over the years we have moved on to dotting other things besides wrapping paper! We now dot gift bags, gift boxes!!! Anything we can get our hands on that does with wrapping!!

The only setback to this totally awesome activity is the mess!!!! My daughter is a pretty neat and clean kiddo! Things like dirt & spilling messy things are activities she has no interest in! Thank god!!! But regardless of how neat your child attempts to be, paint still gets everywhere. That's when our handy dandy WaterWipes that we ordered from Walmart.com come into play.

Never heard of WaterWipes? WaterWipes are a chemical free baby wipe that contains only two ingredients, 99.9% pure Irish water and 0.1% grapefruit seed extract!!! That's right no toxic chemicals you can't even pronounce in these things!!! Something that makes this mama extremely happy.

WaterWipes are both durable and effective without containing any of the potentially harmful chemicals that may be found in other baby wipes!!! WaterWipes proves a safer, natural option for your little one. Perfect for cleaning up that dot paint mess!

Want to try WaterWipes yourself?!?! Head over to Walmart.com and check the hype out for yourself. Or you can just enter the giveaway below and keep your fingers crossed you win so you can use a few bucks from that gift card to buy a pack when online shopping for other goodies ;-)

I-C will randomly select winners from all program entries and will facilitate fulfillment of the winning prizes (5 winners).

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Tomorrow is it folks! Christmas Eve! For all of you last minute shoppers needing that killer cute gift. Haylie & I might just have you covered ;-)

Every year I struggle on a gift idea for my dad! He does so much for us so I always want to do something nice, but the dude literally has everything!! Like literally what do you buy a CEO that can buy whatever he wants at any moment?!?! I've even tried gifts cards to exotic places (even though I'm a gift card hater, such a cop out in my opinion) thinking well
I might not be able to buy the dude that has everything a thing, but maybe I can buy him an experience? & they literally just sit collecting dust & honestly I think a few of those experiences were regifted to others -_-

So the past few years I kinda said screw the fancy gift that just collects dust & my Lil'Princess and I have been making fun gifts for him! This year we decided to glam up the ReinBeer I have been seeing all over the place! My dads favorite thing in life is his Coors Light, so I know this gift won't collect dust!

The originals you see all over are just beers with pipe cleaner antlers. Definitely cute since they did grab my attention, but Haylie & I needed to take it a step further and totally glam these beers up! We can't give anything less than fabulous after all ;-)

So I took my handy can of metallic gold
Spray paint that seems to be never ending. This is literally the same can I've used in 52829 other post. Swear the thing refills it's self or something.

Then had Haylie work her dot paint magic. She's STILL dot paint obsessed so I figured it would add a nice personal touch. Who wouldn't want a case of beer painted by there granddaughter?

Then I worked my magic & made antlers with brown pipe cleaners & let Haylie help glue eyes and a nose & bam! We have cute reinbeers people!

My dad just happens to love it too! For the first time in like forever he actually grabbed his phone and snapped a photo of the fabulous ReinBeer we made him! So happy to finally pull off a gift. I should of figured booze was always the way to go with him, since he is my dad and all and what is my favorite thing? Lol

What to make your own ReinBeer?!?! Well you can grab one of these labels by downloading below and start crafting up your 6pk today!

*Tip*
use the 4x6 print option on your printer. The HP social Snapshots paper also works like a charm since it does have a sticky back.

Cheers & Happy Holidays