A Late Summer Visit To Gadino Cellars

While I have been on radio silence in the bloggisphere, I have still been hitting the VA wine trails here and there. Recently, we took a trip down to Gadino Cellars to enjoy one of the last summer days of the year and check on our geocache.

Dan decided to slip inside for a tasting, while I went right for a glass of Luminoso with our friends from Wine About Virginia. We all sat out on the patio with the sun streaming down through the vines that grow over Gadino’s pergola and listened to Triptych, one of our favorite local bands.

Triptych playing on the patio

About halfway through our bottles of Luminoso and Sunset, Bill, the winery maker and owner walked over with Quinn, a sweet lab that my son instantly began petting and talking to. Talking with Bill was easy and delightful, as he and I share a similar Italian heritage. We talked favorite foods and restaurants, family, and of course, wine!

Bill shared how this years’ crops were growing and which would be getting harvested soon. Dan eagerly asked about how Gadino Cellars was planning to use petit verdot grapes from Berryhill Vineyards, a local vineyard that we were sad to see sold recently. Happily, Bill plans to add it in with his own wonderful petit verdot, and we can’t wait to try the results. Wine About Virginia asked after his petit manseng and dessert wines, and he shared how he uses local whiskey in his port wines.

Bill and I

Throughout our visit, as we listened to live music and spoke with Bill, my little one was also enjoying the winery. We’ve worked hard to teach him winery etiquette, even at his tender age of 2, and while we still get some typical toddler breakdowns, he had a fantastic time running in the yard, jumping off rocks into Dan’s arms, and reading his favorite dinosaur book under the grape vines.

Playing with daddy

Jax reading under the vines

As the afternoon came to a close, we packed up and headed for the parking lot. We enjoyed our afternoon at Gadino Cellars, and we’d like to send a special thank you to the winery owner and staff, Triptych, and our friends at Wine About Virginia who made it so.

Arrivederci amici!

Remembering Grandma Miuccio

This post has been a long time in the writing. Indeed, I have not written a post since the day that my grandma passed away, last Veteran’s Day 2014. Life always chooses the most inopportune times to throw everything at you, and because of the different life events I had going on, I decided to wait on posting anything. But now I feel ready to send a few thoughts and memories of my grandmother out into the world, so here they are...

My grandma was one of those amazing people you always feel privileged to have known or met. She lived through the depression and many wars. She raised NINE kids (that alone should get her some kind of medal!), and she loved to spend time with all of her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.

Grandma, my dad, and I
I am very lucky to have known my grandmother for so long. I remember all our family road trips to upstate New York to visit her and my other relatives. I remember hearing her in the kitchen making up delicious meals (she knew that the secret to a happy life is good food), and I especially remember her cheering me on in basketball, and in life in general.

After a basketball game
Just before she passed, I got to introduce Jax, my first child, to her. This experience really drove home just how much I loved, appreciated, and learned from my grandma. It was something I had always know, but what made it so impactful was that, for the first time, I saw my grandma from an adult’s eyes, and not just that of a grandchild. It felt like I was now officially a parent. It was a really proud moment for me, and as I watched grandma smile at him, I saw her legacy to us all.

Grandma and Jax
After grandma passed away, I felt a deep sorrow, but not emptiness. Grandma had filled me with years of amazing memories, stories, and laughter. So, my sadness stemmed from the fact that Jax would grow up without that. I talked a little with my mother-in-law about it, and she told me how Dan, my husband, had not known his grandparents on her side of the family. However, if you hear my husband talk about his grandparents, you would not know that this was the case. My mother-in-law told him so many stories about his grandparents that Dan remembers them as if he had seen them himself. It is a beautiful thing, and one that I plan to do with Jax as well.

One of my favorite pictures of grandma
For Grandma Miuccio’s funeral, I put together a small speech that summarized some of her wonderful qualities and how meaningful they were to me and to many others. I will end this post by sharing it with you all:

Grandma’s Crossword Puzzle
When trying to condense my feelings for my grandma into words, I kept envisioning one of her crossword puzzles. My grandmother loved crossword puzzles. You could always find books of them stashed around the corners and bathrooms of her house. So, what better way to express both who she was and what she taught me? I would like to take a few minutes and fill it out with you all.

Number 1 is six letters long and means “full of animation, energy, or courage; spirited; spunky; plucky”.
The answer is “feisty”.
Grandma was a feisty woman – she had to be to keep up with nine kids and all of us grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren. Seeing Grandma’s feistiness taught me to enjoy each moment of life and to live with spirit.

Number 2 is nine letters long and means “possessing qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, and so forth”.
The answer is “beautiful”.
Grandma was beautiful – both inside and out. I especially remember her love for bright, colorful earrings. She taught me to have a good heart on the inside and to wear what made me feel beautiful on the outside.

Number 3 is eight letters long and means “a small ball of ground meat often mixed with bread crumbs and seasonings before cooking”.
The answer is “meatball”.
As all the grandchildren know, Grandma’s nickname was “Grandma Meatball” because she made the most delicious meatballs – as well as many other yummy foods. Grandma Meatball taught me the importance of good food and how it can bring all kinds of people together.

Number 4 is ten letters long and means “providing sympathy or encouragement”.
The answer is “supportive”.
Grandma was very supportive of those she loved. I remember her cheering me on at basketball games and always showing an interest in whatever life event I was going through. I saw her do this for many people, and it encourages me to do the same.

Number 5 is six letters long and means “feeling a warm, personal attachment or deep affection for another person”.
The answer is “loving”.
Grandma loved each and every one of us, and she encouraged others to love each other, even in times of difficulty or disagreement. She showed love in singing, in sharing moments and memories, and many other ways. Most recently, I picture her love in the way she smiled when my young son gripped her finger during his last visit with her.

Number 6 is ten letters long and means “to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods. Originality. Imagination.”
The answer is “creativity”.
Grandma was always creating. She loved to craft new trinkets and decorations. Growing up, I had a beautiful bunny that Grandma had created a lacy dress for, and as an adult, one of my favorite Christmas decorations is a snowman head that Grandma made for me. I will always attribute my love of crafts to her.

Now the crossword is complete, and at the center you will see the word “family” – this is what Grandma was and meant to each of us. Even though we have lost an important member of our family, we all carry pieces of her with us. We may feel less without her, but she has left us with more. Some of us have her eyes or her smile, and some of us have her humor or caring spirit. All of us have her love and memories that will keep her with us always.

I will love you always Grandma, and you will always be in my heart! <3

Bunnies, Tea, and Board Games

I love to travel and visit new places! So, because my soon-to-arrive son will be keeping me close to home later this year, I decided to take a couple small trips to places I have never been before.

First on my list was Pittsburgh, PA.

My decision to visit Pittsburgh was easy because I want to visit my wonderful cousin Hannah and see her favorite haunts around the city. Hannah and I have always shared a great love for books, and in the same way that many relatives share clothes, we share books. :) The best ones are always passed back and forth until the true owner is pretty much forgotten.

Dan and I met up with Hannah in the Squirrel Hill area of Pittsburgh on a very sunny Saturday. We began our adventures by visiting a delicious pizza place that had a little ice cream parlor right next door. (You can definitely tell that Hannah and I are related when you see how much we love ice cream. Haha)

To give our stomachs time to digest, our next stop was an overflowing game shop that had just about every kind of game or puzzle you could want. Dan discovered a 32,000 piece puzzle, and I found some cool new expansions for Munchkin.

Mid-afternoon found the three of us entering one of the most unique tea shops that I have seen, called Dobra Tea. While most of the tea shops in Northern Virginia have a great variety of loose-leaf teas, they are more stores than restaurants. Dobra Tea, however, was a quaint restaurant with a scattering of little cubby holes filled with low tables and cushioned benches. One of the cubby holes even had a raised floor so you could sit on floor cushions around a table that only came off the ground a foot or two.

It was at this tea shop that we settled in to play board games with some of Hannah’s friends and two more of my cousins. Everyone ordered tea and snacks. Dan and I got Vanilla tea and Indian Chai tea with a platter of hummus, pita slices, and veggies. The snacks were wonderful, and the company even better. The games we played were: Guillotine, Tsuro, and Masquerade. None of which Dan or I had ever played. I think our favorite one for the day was Guillotine.

For dinner, we went to a little Chinese bistro that sold Hannah’s favorite bubble tea. If you have never tried bubble tea, you must! It is an unusual first time experience, and everyone has a similar first reaction to it. (A mix of confusion and surprise, and then you either love it or hate it.) Here are a couple shots of Dan’s first time trying it. :)

Our trip to Pittsburgh included to other memorable stops. First was a trip up the Duquesne Incline in one of their 100-year-old cable cars, which gave us a beautiful view of the city.

The second was a visit to the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh campus. The building architecture was something straight out of Harry Potter!

After meandering around the building, we relaxed out in a common area and played with Hannah’s adorable bunny, Mr. Mustache.

I loved our little trip to Pittsburgh. The shops in Squirrel Hill were enchanting, and the food delectable. The best part, though, was the company, and I am very glad I got the chance to visit my cousins and meet some new friends.

If you ever stop by Pittsburgh, be sure to visit Dobra Tea!

(Here’s me and my baby bump with the Pittsburgh University mascot.)

Wedding Details – Intro and Carytown Cupcakes

Did you know that the average wedding today costs about 25 grand?! Personally, in today’s economy, I have no idea how the average is so high.

Dan and I both have decent paying jobs, but going into our wedding planning, we promised ourselves two things. First, we would NEVER go into debt over a one-day party (no matter how unique a day it was going to be). Second, even if we miraculously won the lottery and could afford an extravagant wedding, we would keep our bottom line well under the $25,000 mark.

Taking these two guidelines into account, I am extremely happy with all of the wedding vendors that we chose to work with. They all provided excellent services, and each one came at a very reasonable price. My best advice to any newly engaged couple is to shop around, get recommendations, and don’t go with an expensive venue just because they have a good review on The Knot. Chances are you can find someone equally as good for much less.

For my next few posts, I am going to take a little time to give props to the venues that Dan and I got to work with. These posts will be FULL of wedding photos and what we liked or didn’t like about each venue.

Carytown Cupcakes
For today’s post I am going to send a big THANK YOU to the folks who made our wedding cake and cupcakes – Carytown Cupcakes.

As many people do these days, Dan and I decided to have cupcakes at our wedding instead of the traditional large, tiered cake. Cupcakes are so much more manageable, and you can usually get more than one kind of cupcake for your guests to enjoy.

Choosing a vendor was easy for us because we are both big fans of Carytown Cupcakes in Richmond, VA. Their price was unbeatable (under $300, compared to the $700 and up prices of the bakeries in northern Virginia), and we are STILL getting complements from our guests about the cupcakes.

After sampling many different types of cupcakes, our final list included:

• Red velvet (my favorite)
• Vegan pumpkin chocolate chip (Dan’s favorite)
• Gluten free caramel apple
• Dirt/oreo, complete with gummy worms
• Carrot cake

Our only challenge for the wedding cake was bringing the cupcakes up from Richmond. After speaking with the owner, Dawn, we decided to freeze the cupcakes and have Dan’s father bring them up from Richmond with him. This worked very well, and did not hurt the flavor of the cupcakes.

To display the cupcakes, Dan and I purchased old wooden farm crates, which we laid on their sides and stacked on a table. This made fun little compartments where we could stash all the cupcakes.

In addition to the guest cupcakes, Dan and I had a little six inch cake made for us. This enabled us to do the traditional cutting of the cake, without having tons of left overs. The edges of the cake were decorated with grape vine clippings that we gathered from local vineyards, and the cake topper was made of Leggos. :)

PS: Special thanks for the pictures goes to our fantastic photographer, Stephanie!

Memorial Day Weekend 2013

Long weekends are wonderful. They always pass a little too quickly, but they are a great way to get a break from work without using up lots of vacation days. The best long weekends are the ones that also have a federal holiday at the beginning or end. :)

For Memorial Day weekend, Dan and I started off with a date night at the new Alamo Drafthouse theater in One Loudoun. If you’ve never been to an Alamo theater, I highly recommend you check it out. They are a combination of a movie theater and a restaurant. You purchase tickets for specific seats (so you don’t have to show up really early for the good ones), and you can order all your food and drinks (including alcohol) directly from your seats, even during the movie!

Dan and I have been to the theater three times since it opened at the beginning of May. We love the food, the funny previews before the movie, and the friendly staff. This past Friday, we saw the newest Star Trek movie, and we had yet another great visit at the Alamo. Here’s a picture we got at the theater before the show:


On Saturday, we stopped at two different parties. The first was a very yummy crab feast at a friends’ house. The crabs were delicious, and Dan had fun scaring people with the crabs before throwing them into the cooking pot.

After the crab feast, we headed west to have dinner with my family in Martinsburg. It’s always fun getting together with my cousins. Only your cousins truly understand the kind of crazy family that you come from. LOL We seem to be getting crazier as we get older too. Heehee…

Sunday brought a beautiful sunny day, and Dan and I got to clean house and watch some episodes of Castle before heading out to a VA Wine Mafia meet up. The “godfather” of our group, Kurt, had most generously opened up his pantry and basement to share some wines before they got too old to drink. The other mafia members also brought wines and snacks to share with everyone. Dan and I brought a bottle of Fox Meadow Freezeland White to share. Mmm…




There were many favorites being passed around. Some of my favorites were a Breaux rose, Crushed Cellars Merlot and Meritage, and Berry Hill’s 2010 Petit Verdot. Kurt even broke out a few special bottles – Keswick’s 2009 Cab Sav, Clarksburg’s 2010 dessert red (from Cali), and Corcoran’s special white port.



VA Mafia meet ups are always a blast, and we enjoyed every minute spent with this fantastic group!


No weekend would be complete without spending time gardening, so Monday was spent working on our veggie garden at my dad’s house and the potted garden at our house. We started with a trip to Home Depot for mulch, insect repellant, and a couple flowers.

Our veggie garden was growing, but slowly, and the zuccinni, squash, and cucumbers were getting seriously attached by some nasty yellow striped bugs. At Bluemont nursery, a worker said he had seen the same kind of bugs that we had and gave us some repellant called Eight. It is a product that has been used for years, and part of the mix comes from the extract of crushed mums.

After weeding, applying the insect repellant, and putting down some garden mulch, our garden looked much better.



The last hours of sunlight were spent cleaning up our own backyard. We moved my little maple tree into a big half-barrel pot, put down a bunch of mulch, and did a general clean up. We even gave the puppies a bath, much to their disappointment.





Dan and I thoroughly enjoyed our Memorial Day weekend. It was a great mix of relaxing, fun, and outdoor activity. Cheers to wonderful long weekends!

Oh Christmas Tree!

December brings with it my favorite holiday of the year, Christmas! I enjoy other holidays, such as Halloween and Thanksgiving, but Christmas is the holiday I remember most from my childhood. The lights outside houses and the holly draping inside them – it is always so festive and welcoming. I also loved decorating gingerbread houses with my cousins, singing Christmas carols with my friends, and watching Christmas movies with my mom.

In all the crazy, joyous events surrounding Christmas, my all-time favorite event is decorating the Christmas tree. While my mom and I would decorate the rest of the house ourselves, the Christmas tree was the one decoration that my whole family would do together. My dad would set up the tree and put on the lights, and my mom would open up the Christmas boxes and pass ornaments to my brother and I to hang on the tree.

We all had our favorite Christmas ornaments. My dad liked the crystal ornaments (except for this one crystal ballerina with fat legs. LOL); my mom liked the handmade ornaments from nuts and yarn; my brother liked the train ornaments and usually took them off the tree to play; and I liked a dog ornament that was made out of tiny little pine cones.

Many of our ornaments had stories behind them, such as who made it and what event it was created for. My brother and I had our first baby ornaments, and there were the ornaments that grandma had made, including the decorated nuts and pine cone dog. There were also countless ornaments that my brother and I had made in school or church over the years. Even the ornaments with next to no story were always greeted as friends when they were unwrapped from their protective tissues.

First Christmas ornament I ever made
Though I live on my own now, I still treat my Christmas tree the same way I did when I was little. The first thing I do is pick out a nice live tree. Fake trees work just fine if you have enough room for a second tree in a house, but the family tree, that protects the presents until Christmas morning, MUST be a live tree in my house.

The process of decorating the tree is sacred, and being the strange person that I am, I do it the same way every year. After the tree is in its stand, I put on the lights. First twining them against the trunk of the tree; then, circling them out on the edge of the branches. Next, I wrap a pretty ribbon, usually red or gold, around the tree. The ornaments follow shortly after. All the fun, unique ornaments go on first, making sure our favorite ornaments get the best locations. The colorful bulbs go on next to fill in any empty wholes. A few small red bows usually get scatter around, and finally, I hang a box or two of classic candy canes all over.

The result is always wonderful, and I love staring at the tree for the rest of the holiday season. Here’s a picture of this year’s Christmas tree!

In addition to a few of my favorite old ornaments, Dan and I’s tree is decorated with some of his favorites and a new one that we picked up the night he proposed. :)

Dan's favorite ornament

Ornament from where Dan proposed to me
As Christmas and the other holidays celebrated in December draw closer, I wish you all at least a few moments peace in all the craziness. Remember that the holidays are supposed to be about giving and spreading joy to others, which does not have to come in the form of a present.

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! And a wonderful New Year to all!

Robots on a Christmas treee? I wonder where that came from!

VA Wine Trail - Hanging out at the Creek

It’s been a busy summer for Dan and I, but we were finally able to hide the next VA Wine Trail geocache!

This new cache is hidden at Lost Creek Winery, a beautiful winery nestled on the edges of Leesburg, VA. This vineyard is close to another VA Wine Trail cache, so you can grab two caches and two tastings very easily. :)

The owners and staff are very friendly and excited about us placing this cache, so please remember to plan your expedition according to their business hours (Thursday through Monday, 11am to 5pm).

Dan and I at Lost Creek
You can find the coordinates and hint for this cache on the VA Wine Trail – Hanging out at the Creek’s page.

If you would like to find out more about Lost Creek Winery, you can find a review here.

If you would like to find out more about geocaching, you can find all the details on my previous post.

We hope you have a wonderful time finding this cache! See if you can be the first to find (FTF) and pick up the cool travel bug hidden inside!!