Friday, March 1, 2024

Tales of the Traveling Totes #38 and A Giveaway


Welcome to our 38th edition 
of Tales of The Traveling Tote, 
where our MacKenzie-Childs 
totes take you to all kinds of 
places and on all kinds of adventures.

We spent most of January and 
most of February in Cabo, again, 
so Miss Petit Four, who stays 
down in Cabo, and I will bring 
you along with us, 


Where the weather is amazing 
this time of year and the sunrises 
and sunsets are spectacular.  


Miss Petit Four and I did a little
refreshing of our flowers in 
the kitchen as they had yellowed 
with time. 

We spent New Years by ourselves 
as we watched fireworks from 
all sides coming from resorts 
and private homes. 


We enjoyed a lot of good food 
together like this shrimp molcajete,
from one of our favorite Mexican 
restaurants, Guacamayas,
before our guests arrived. 


We entertained three separate 
groups, the first one was our 
oldest daughter and her family 
and one of her brother in law's 
family. 


With this many teenage mouths 
to feed I made three batches of 
ice cream a day to treat them.  
This was a chocolate Oreo.  
I brought down an ice cream 
machine in my biggest suitcase 
and it gets used and used. 
Click here to see the ice cream 
machine I am in love with.
We have one at home and in 
Cabo and at Lake Powell.  They 
have more than paid for themselves. 


One of our grandsons caught this 
big Dorado.  He brought the meat 
home and we made fish tacos and 
fish in a lemon sauce.  It was fun 
to see the kids want to eat it.  
We were able to freeze the rest 
and bring it home for him. 


They spent most of the day in 
the pool and a lot of time at 
the swim up bar. 


We celebrated my birthday at 
The Montage Resort at Marea 
with a cold seafood tower and 
the best lobster I have ever had. 


Our next group of friends 
arrived a few days after my birthday 
and we were off to breakfast at 
one of our favorite places, The Office. 


The Office is where you can 
take your shoes off and run 
your toes through the sand.  
Miss Petit Four got to come 
along, carrying my beach 
necessities. 


She also got to come onboard 
while I played photographer 
for one of the couples that 
wanted to parasail. 


We had dolphins swimming 
in the pool, 


and whales breaching!  
These guys are a lot of fun! 


Why not celebrate all month 
when you are born in January?!!


Our architect and his wife arrived 
the next week on her birthday.  
We celebrated by going to a couple 
of her favorite restaurants for two 
days and also going to the spa 
at Villa La Estancia resort.


Lucky Miss Petit Four got to come 
along too.  Even though it wasn't 
our architect's birthday, we gifted 
him some lobster sandals, 
since he loves lobster as much 
as we do.  His wife, the birthday 
girl, doesn't like seafood at all. 


Happy Valentine's Day and hubby 
gifted all of the rest of the 
incoming guests with heart shaped 
sunglasses and chocolates.


We ate Valentine's Dinner at 
one of our favorite Italian 
restaurants in Cabo, La Dolce. 


The women held their roses 
from hubby and wore the 
pajamas I had gifted them 
at Christmas. 


Meanwhile back in Utah, 
our oldest granddaughter 
opened her mission call for 
our church, The Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 
She is leaving in June for 
Lima, Peru!  She will serve for 
18 months and will pay her own 
way.  She is posing here with 
her siblings and parents.  They 
were the family that were our first 
group of guests here in January. 


Our last couple joined us on 
two days later.  They are the 
couple on the left.  We attended 
Church on Sunday and experimented 
with Google Translate.  I took 7 years 
of Spanish, but have forgotten so 
much over the years.  I can speak 
enough to get us around, but 
listening to talks at church is a 
little harder.  We had great success 
with Google Translate.


We had fun every morning 
walking through the neighborhood, 
which is all hills.  One morning I 
even took them downtown, which 
is downhill all the way, but then 
uphill going back.  They all made it!


Half of us went up to 
Los Cerritos surf beach 
one day, and then while 
the most avid boogie boarders 
stayed at the beach, we went 
on to Todos Santos to the 
famed 
Hotel California.



It is a beautiful restaurant, and 
not associated with the famous 
song, but worth the drive 
for these massive nachos.


We always have to take our 
iconic photo in the pool 
with the ocean behind.

Although we entertained 
three groups and had a lot of 
fun, January and February 
had five funerals of close 
friends and family.  We were 
able to attend most of them.  
Our hearts were heavy for 
those who lost their loved ones. 

So glad Miss Petit Four and I 
could entertain you too.  
We always have lots of fun 
visitors for our 
Tales of the Traveling Tote 
posts. Now for our giveaway: 

Please visit Debbie 
and leave a comment 
to win this To Go Tote - 
how cute is this?  




And then visit our other 
Travelers to see where 
they have been off to this 
quarter.

 Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney ChildsThe French Hutch

 Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box  

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home (you are here)

Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader












Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Galentine's Party with the Craft Group


I know I am a little late posting 
this, but I wanted to get it done 
before the pictures got lost in my 
busy life.

Our Craft Group had a Galentine's 
party this year.  We started with this 
fabulous charcuterie heart box 
made by our hostess Laura.  


The beautiful boxes were all laid out 
on a side table.  We took them into the 
living room and munched and talked.
I have to admit by the time we finished 
our boxes, we were stuffed and we 
still had dinner!

You can see there is a full meal 
in the heart shaped box consisting 
of cheeses, crackers, fruit salsa, 
a chopped salad, a petit four, 
nuts and a chocolate. 


Because we were too full to eat 
anything more, we moved on to 
our Favorite Things baskets.  Some 
contained books, and some Valentine's 
things, and some had date items.  
They were all beautifully done.  


The table was set with 
a Valentine's theme with
chocolates on each plate and 
fresh flowers in the center.


Our lovely hostess, Laura, had 
prepared a gift bag for each of us.
Earlier she had asked us for the 
name of a boy we liked in 
grade school.  Inside our gift bags 
were hand written notes from our 
crushes!  What a fun idea.  Mine said, 
"Jackie I like you.  Meet me at recess!" 
What a clever and fun idea.  She also 
wrote a Valentine to each of us from 
herself, a beautiful note to keep telling 
us what she admired about us.  

There was also a pretty hanky, 
candy and treats.  It felt very 
special.


Ribbons were hanging from the 
chandelier and six pots of 
fresh flowers were lined up 
down the table. 


We each got a See's Chocolates 
Heart Shaped Truffle.  I just 
loved that ruffled white plate.


A second theme of strawberries 
was featured and Amy made 
these beautiful strawberry shaped 
macarons.


Here is our lovely hostess Laura.


She is holding the chocolate 
dipped strawberries I made 
for the party.  Our husbands 
call us the "Overachievers", 
so I knew the strawberries had 
to be special.  Some were painted 
gold and some were covered in 
pink sparkle. 

Even though we didn't do a craft, 
(seems to be the way this group 
is going), we had a wonderful 
time and still didn't get home 
until 11:00!! 

So fun to share food and fun with 
fabulous friends.  

 I will be posting this with 




Friday, December 1, 2023

Tales of the Traveling Tote #37 and a Giveaway


Here it is already December 1st, 
and Miss Madi K and I want to 
welcome you to our 
Tales of the Traveling Tote 
and tell you where we 
have been off to.  


We are finishing building a 
new home and didn't think 
we could get away, but 
 surprisingly, we 
were able to travel to a few 
places.  


We were so busy with the house 
we forgot that our friends had 
invited us to St. George for 
a Gentri Christmas concert 
at Tuacahn. 
Tuacahn is an outdoor theater 
and it was a lovely settting 
and it started the Christmas 
season out. 


Check out Gentri's Christmas 
albums.  They are a trio that 
met while performing in 
Les Miserables in Salt Lake 
City.  Their harmony is wonderful 
and you may remember that 
we traveled with them on 
a Mediterranean Cruise in 
May.   


So much wonderful food 
in St. George.  We always 
have to stop at Tifani's for 
crepes.  This is a Cinnabon 
crepe with sugared pecans.  
Yum!!!


We were home just for a 
couple of days when we 
headed to Cabo for 
Thanksgiving.  
It is the year for the kids 
to be with the in-laws, 
so it was just the two of us.  


I made this Thanksgiving 
floral arrangement using 
just some wild flowers 
growing out on the cliffs. 


While we basked in the 
sun, 


the new house got its 
first snow storm.


We enjoyed eating at 
one of our favorites 
in Cabo, 
Tres Sirenas.  
I just love their presentation!
Those flowers surrounding 
the delicious coconut shrimp 
just make it magical.   


We tried the three sorbets 
for dessert.  The presentation 
on this was amazing too. 


Then when we got home 
we had a couple of fun 
shopping expeditions 
to get ready for Christmas.  
We are hoping to get into 
our new home next week!   


It is always fun shopping 
with the littles!  She was 
totally entranced with 
one of our favorite 
boutiques, 
The Busy Biddy.



Thanks for traveling along with 
Miss Madi K and I.  

Join in on the giveaway!
Visit 
The Bookish Dilettane's 
blog and leave a comment 
for this fun giveaway.


Then go see where our other 
TTT members have been off to.


 
Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney ChildsThe French Hutch

 Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box  

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home (you are here)

Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader



Join us in March for 

our next 

Tales of the Traveling Tote.









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