Is it Friday already? I am still on work break until Monday, so half the time I don't know what day it is, haha, but welcome to 2025! January is a busy month for me, with my birthday on the 13th and our trip to Mexico upcoming too. Since I didn't do a Friday Five last week, due to traveling, I will incoporate some of those events into this week's, too.
 |
| Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit |
What I've been up to the past two weeks:
- Seeing the TSO at Little Caesars Arena. Last week, on Saturday, my husband and I saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) at LCA—this was my TENTH (!) year seeing them, and I've been going since they used to perform at the Palace. I am lucky enough to go with blogger tickets yearly, and they are usually floor seats, with an amazing view. Parking was a bit crazy this year—I always purchase Detroit parking ahead of time, through the Parkwhiz app, but they had workers routing traffic and I got stuck in a loop—but the show itself is always amazing.
- Dining out/getting takeout. On 12/21, a friend and I tried Le Supreme, also in Detroit, and it was really good; it's a French restaurant, so I had steak frites, and we also split the mushroom tart. On 12/22, my parents and husband and I had Hungry Howie's takeout, and when my husband and I were in Indiana, we had Mexican food with my in-laws, as well as Raising Cane's (see below; my favorite fried chicken chain, and now there is a location 15 minutes from them). After the TSO show, we got Domino's takeout—Costco usually has a deal for $100 in gift cards and you pay $70 to $80, so we've been using those—and on New Year's Eve Day, we picked up some Saroki's Pizza from the South Lyon location to bring to a get-together we went to, which was also very good. I had only had them one other time, from their Royal Oak location, and it's in a gas station so you can also get pizza by the slice.
- Watching movies. I've been rewatching a lot of comfort favorites this break, including Home Alone, Home Alone 2, and Hook. Yesterday I saw Babygirl at the theater, and it was about as weird as I had heard it would be—that being said, Nicole Kidman is phenomenal in it, and should get a lot of awards from her performance in it.
- Christmas in Indiana and with my parents. Last week, we were in Indiana from Tuesday to Friday, to visit my in-laws and celebrate Christmas, and then we did Christmas with my parents this past Sunday. Some of my most favorite gifts I received included a Machi Koro expansion set (I had the base game, just not the expansion); a UM outdoor mat, to match my husband's Purdue mat; and scratch-off lottery tickets from my parents, which is a yearly tradition.
- New Year's Eve get-together. Our friends did an NYE get-together last year too, and it's more of an all-day thing since it involves smoking a brisket. We got there around 1pm with pizza and then basically ate appetizers and tasty foods for the rest of the day, culminating with the brisket for dinner and other side dishes, like French onion soup meatballs. We also played Cards Against Humanity, which was fun, and we left around 12:30am. There were only eight of us total: the same six from last year (us, our friends, and two of their Cincinnati friends), plus two of their neighbors this year.
 |
| Caniac Combo from Raising Cane's (split with my husband!) |
