A Christmas Carol

Growing up, my parents always took me and my siblings to Christmas shows each year. I absolutely loved it. My favorite was the Singing Christmas Tree at a nearby Baptist church in West Palm Beach. When Bo & I moved to Atlanta a few years ago we started some holiday traditions of our own, including a Christmas show. After a little research he discovered the Shakespeare Tavern in downtown Atlanta, which features the play A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens during the month of December. This was our third year in a row to see this show and we have loved it every time.

The cast does a great rendition of the story and adds quite a bit of humor to it. The seating arrangement in the theater is setup at tables on the main floor and along the balcony, and since the theater is not too large every seat is a good one. It is also open seating based on your section, so we always get there extra early to guarantee good seats. This year we were center stage!

There is a cafeteria at the back of the theater that sells dinner and drinks prior to the show and dessert during intermission. The food is really good so it makes for a great date night. It's a really cool atmosphere and after seeing the show a few times, we now feel like we know the cast (though they clearly do not know us...).

The director also changes up a few things or adds a new caster member each year, so it isn't the exact same show every time we see it. It is a really affordable show and we definitely still plan on seeing it every year going forward. And if our budget allows, we might even venture out to see a few other shows in the area next Christmas season. Regardless, seeing this play is always such an enjoyable way to start off the holidays and it has become one of our favorite traditions.

Birthday Dinner

Since we are always out of town for Bo's actual birthday, we have another birthday dinner celebration for him when we get back to Atlanta, at a restaurant of his choice. This year Bo picked The Iberian Pig, which is in Decatur and has been on our "restaurants-to-go-to" list for far too long.

The picture of Bo and I did not turn out very well...so this is all I have from the night!

For celebrations like birthdays/anniversaries, we always choose a new restaurant that we haven't been to, which is actually really easy to do in a city like Atlanta. Iberian Pig is a Spanish-style restaurant that reminded us so much of the food markets we perused on our honeymoon cruise stop in Barcelona (which we loved and hope to go back again one day).  We shared a bottle of wine and a variety of cured meats, cheeses and tapas - everything was incredible. I will admit that we got extremely lucky there was an open table because we were apparently the only people there who didn't have a reservation...almost an epic birthday dinner fail on my part. Thankfully we squeezed in and really enjoyed the night. And once again - happy birthday, Bo!!