I'll take some egg nog please!

I got up too late this morning to hit the post office, but had just enough time to shower and get ready to meet our family at Bella Vida for brunch! It was raining and cold, but no snow.

everyone at lunch

We met my cousins Jenn, Mark, Barbara and Murray for brunch. We were celebrating Barbara's birthday - the day before - and my birthday, tomorrow. Lunch was very good. I had the chunky monkey pancakes (pancakes stuffed with walnuts, banana and chocolate chips) and scrapple. I think next time I'm inclined to try something else on the menu. Jenn and Mark gave me a birthday card, and Barbara and Murray gave me a birthday cat mug - it's so cute!

My cat mug! Mom says I should leave it in Cape May, but I want to enjoy it at home.

After lunch, we stopped at Moonstruck Boutique. My mom got me a Hanukkah present from there (a CM necklace) and I had been dying to get a look at what else they had. I had followed their posts on Facebook - so closely, that the owner Caroline knew me when I mentioned that I followed on FB! Too funny.I got a beautiful ring and a little sewing box that I adore.

In love with my new ring

We came home and relaxed for a while. I finished my book - Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook. It's about a girl whose mother gets married quickly after a 3 month relationship with a guy she met online. She and her daughter, Isobel, move in with the step father and stepbrother, into a manor. The house is named Morrigan, and is in Nairne, Washington. The stepbrother, Nate, lost his mentally ill sister and mother suddenly. Their deaths are suspicious, especially after Isobel starts seeing the ghost of Nate's sister. It was a fascinating read that I really enjoyed. I love Eileen Cook.




Our friends Tina and Don came over and we had a really nice time with them. We gave them a tour of our house! Yay, "our house" feels so good to write. Tina brought little Christmas bags over to me and Michael - with candy, candy canes, little notepads, a mini nutcracker and NYE poppers! She also gave Michael a cat puzzle for a belated birthday present, and me a bar of soap from A Place on Earth (in the fall scent, mmm) for an early birthday present.

After Tina and Don left, our neighbors came over, first two and then one. We had egg nog and chatted with them. All about Cape May, our house, home improvements, school plans, etc. It was a very nice evening. We had a good time.

Totally obsessed with my house keys - love the CM keychain. From when I was a little girl and the house key is leopard a la my dad!

After everyone left, we had some soup and got ready for bed. I can't believe tomorrow is my 19th birthday and I am finally going to get to spend it in Cape May! I only wished every year on my birthday (for years, I might add) that I would get to spend it in Cape May and I finally am! Now I just wish we were staying longer, and I was coming back earlier than March~!

xo,
capemaychick

And there goes the power...

This morning I was woken up by everyone talking in the kitchen. Oh, the joys of the downstairs bed room! But what I discovered is that the bed is SUPER comfortable. Figures, right? I finally got up at 10:40 am ish. We had cereal with berries in it while we devised our plan for the day. We took showers and I dried and straightened my hair - something I never do at the beach!

Mom and I left for the post office. There was a letter from my pen pal Mary in the mailbox I noticed before we left! I got one from Lindsay yesterday. We mailed off the rest of my holiday cards and got more stamps. Dad and Michael met us at the post office and we ate lunch at the Pilot House. It was delicious. I had grouper fish tacos and mom and dad had a grouper burger and a pastrami sandwich. Michael had a grouper basket with seasoned fries and we swapped. It was so yum, I can't wait to go back. And the best part? I had won a gift card there on the Exit Zero Facebook Page. It was supposed to have $30 on it, but it had $50 and it paid for our whole meal!

Afterwards we went shopping. At Henry's I chose my birthday presents from my parents. A "Restore the Shore" charm bracelet, and a "CM NJ" charm for my Pandora bracelet. At Across the Way I picked up a bungalow 360 bunny pattern wristlet and four little buttons. I stopped at A Place on Earth and got "I Want Candy" soap scrub as well as a bar of soap in that scent for me, and one to mail to Mary for her birthday - Sunday,the same as me!

Restore the Shore Bracelet

I came home, and Michael was watching How I Met Your Mother, so I watched it with him for a little while. After mom and dad came home, we had a snack and worked on unpacking all the glass and other items we brought up from Virginia. We did that for a good hour. We were getting ready to go out to dinner, when the power went off! Dad fiddled with the breakers, but it wasn't anything we could do. And our next door neighbor to the left had power, but to the right they didn't. Cape May has some sketchy power grids. We found out that 260 people on the grid didn't have power - from our neighbor Gino. We had to regroup.

In the basement, a present to one of the owners of the house.

It's a little light up "winter wonderland evergreen tree" and dad got a blue bulb for it!

We ordered dinner - cheesesteaks, onion rings, salad and sprite zeros from Louie's. While we were waiting for it, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. Pretty! We debated as to whether the house would be so cold, we might need to check into a hotel. We went to Louie's and ate dinner. We noticed there were fire trucks and utility trucks up on Beach Drive, so we asked a worker what had happened. He said a car had hit a telephone pole head on. Oy vey. DON'T DRINK or TEXT or DISTRACTED DRIVE! Of course, we don't know if that's a factor.

We drove around some more, drove by the Cove beach and saw how totally washed away it had been. So sad. We came back to the house and the power was back on.  Yay! Heat! It's very cold out. I made a birthday card for Mary and finished my scrapbook that I'm gifting to my cousins tomorrow. The power went out briefly for about five minutes before coming back on. Ay caramba - make up your mind, on or off!

We had egg nog, peppermint ice cream from our friends at Bliss and called it a night. Tomorrow we will hopefully make it up to the beach.

xo,
capemaychick

Winter wonderland

I have been waiting all my life to go to Cape May in the winter. I have also always wanted to spend my birthday in Cape May. Well guess what? WISHES GRANTED!

Ever since we bought the beach house, I have been thrilled that we can go up off season. But with school in October, I didn't get to go when mom and dad went. Neither did Michael. But that was okay because they were cleaning up and doing a lot of reorganizing and some decorating.

But today is December 27 and we are leaving for Cape May in an hour and a half! We were supposed to leave yesterday, but snow kept us at home. I was not amused.

I couldn't even grasp the beauty of the first snowfall, I was really bummed.

So we had a do-nothing day at home. I watched A Dennis the Mennis Christmas Story in the morning. I spent some time watching Psych, took a shower. We had a  yummy hor d'oeuves lunch. Then I spent about 4 hours (AKA the rest of the afternoon) scrapbooking, and mom did some too. The car had already been packed, since we were supposed to leave on the 26, so we really had nothing to do but relax.

I finished our second Cape May trip and started working on the December trip pages. Three trips to Cape May in one year for me, a record! We're hoping to start the day off by leaving at 10 am. We're going to an antique store in Annapolis. One in Denton. Stopping at Holly's for some noms after going over the Bay Bridge. Then we're going to stop in Bridgeville to go to Antique's Alley and visit kitty Diode. And then we'll have dinner at Jimmy's! Our ferry is the last one, at 7:45 pm SO LATE. It will get us there around 9:15 pm.

It will be a late night, since we have to get all the beds ready when we get there and probably all want to take showers. And I get the lovely honor of sleeping in the room downstairs (NEVER have any of us slept there - our rooms are all upstairs) because my room is in the midst of getting painted! Woohoo! My room at home in VA will be the same paint color as my room in NJ! The color is belize, and it is a beautiful blue hue. Perfect beach house colors.

So my room downstairs has a full size bed and a 1/2 bath attached. My own bathroom! It's the bathroom we usually used when we're downstairs, but I told my fam it's off limits since I'm staying in the room. Take your business elsewhere, please!

So I have to get dressed, take the rest of my luggage downstairs and then Michael and I are heading off to Target to get some last minute clothes, legoes and photo printing done.

Cheerio, talk to you from the Victorian Winter Wonderland! We will be there until Sunday December 30 - my 19th birthday (see, told you about getting to spend my birthday there, finally).

xo,
capemaychick

***Arrival update:

We did get out of the house at 10:46 am. Only forty six minutes later than we had intended (side note -- I think I've lost even more eye sight. I need to wear my glasses while writing this on my lap top). We made good time the whole trip. Stopped in Annapolis and I got a glass cat for $3.  We had lunch at Holly's and they were not up to their usual service, slow and our order came out somewhat wrong.

We stopped in Denton and Michael and I stayed in the car. We stopped in Georgetown and mom got these little dishes called shrimp boats. They will be awesome to eat sushi out of, at home. Then we went to the big Bridgeville antique store that always takes us an hour. Also because they have a cat there named Diode - he is 17 and is clearly up there in years. We brought him treats and a mousie. We made out like bandits there. Michael got three mini hess trucks, mom and dad got 6 egg nog cups, a tacky clock, an apple jar and I got a yellow cat planter, wonderbread post card and a DC bracelet.

Aftewards we took a "detour" to see what was in Atlanta, Delaware. Um...NOTHING but two sitting cows. So we turned around (we had had time to kill) and headed to Jimmy's for dinner. It was good, but I think Holly's is better. Fried chicken is always good though! We got pie there to eat on the ferry - which we went to straight from Jimmy's - but oh man, it was cold, windy = ROCKING FERRY. None of us could eat pie. In fact, my dad and I were both nauseous after half of the trip. Easily the worst trip we took on the ferry. We got to CM and stopped at Wawa for breakfast staples.

We got to the house. The driveway was a big puddle and we could hear the sump pumps working. The basement had a small flood. #beachhouseproblems. I think it seemed like it took care of itself.

All the changes my parents had made to the house are AWESOME! Some of the paint is up and it looks fantastic. We made beds, looked at the stuff we bought and around the house. We ate our pie and then headed to bed. It's now a quarter after midnight and I'm exhausted. Off to bed, looking forward to our first day of a Cape May winter!

xo,
capemaychick