We spent the week of Christmas (12/22 – 12/27/24) in Miami, Florida with my family. One of my stepsons joined us along with my siblings, their kids and my sister-in-law. We came from Oregon, Virginia, Delaware and Denver to meet up for Christmas week!
Here is John on his way to get our rental car in the Miami airport with the artificial Christmas tree we brought along on his back!

John and I rented a couple loft condos in a converted former industrial building so the 8 of us would have plenty of space; and made our condo the main Christmas area with the tree, stockings and meals served there. I put on a fireplace video with Christmas music from YouTube and hung the stockings on the entertainment center for ambiance – ha!

Here’s what our condo looked like with a view of Miami’s skyline:

John made several wonderful meals and it was so good to sit down with the family from all over the country and share his yummy cooking:

I spent an evening on Espanola Way in South Beach with my siblings and their kids wandering around and it was magical!
John got to go on several rented bike rides along South Beach with his son Z who is an avid cyclist in Portland, Oregon (they didn’t appear to take any photos).
Miami was beautiful and decorated for the holidays:
I got to spend a morning wandering around downtown Miami with my sister and visiting the really lovely Brickell City Centre shopping area.
We stopped for some amazing pastries at the Rosetta Bakery.
Our family was so sweet and the day after Christmas they threw a surprise party in the afternoon for John and I at the other condo to celebrate our love and our commitment to family. They decorated the table with my favorite – sunflowers!

My brother, sister and stepson all made amazing speeches and John and I got pretty choked up! It was a very special afternoon.
On our last day in Miami, before heading to the airport, a couple of us went to Coral Gables and spent time in a delightful independent bookstore – Books & Books. It has a cafe, a bar, and endless rooms of books! I didn’t want to leave but eventually we had to head to the airport – ha!
I loved the cozy looking windows looking out to the outside dining at the bookstore.
The week flew by fast and we didn’t get to do all the things we planned (like go to the beach!) but it was a very special Christmas!

Hope your holidays were wonderful, I’ll be catching up on my blogging buddies’ posts I’ve missed in the near future 🙂













Outstanding Writeup Tierney. We had the Best time. Thanks so much to You and John for Making it Happen. The Meals and Lofts were Awesome. We always have so much Fun Together
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Thanks so much 😀❤️
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Looks like a very special Christmas. What a great place to gather.
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It was, thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
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Looks like an amazing holiday!!! that condo looks amazing, lots of space for gathering ❤ Glad you had a good trip!
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Yes your state isn’t too bad 😉
I was happy people felt like they could spread out and didn’t feel too cramped since we were going to be there 5 days!
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Looks like an amazing place to spend Christmas. Glad to hear you were with all of your family for the holidays!
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Hope your holidays were wonderful and thanks for stopping by! It was good to be with the family we had fun 🙂
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Looks like a lot of fun! Hope you had a lovely holiday!
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It was so much fun and thanks for stopping by, hope you had a great holiday too 🙂
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Made me smile. I’m glad it was such a happy time!
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It was a memorable holiday, like 6 months of planning and glad it all worked out 🙂
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What fun! That’s quite a lot like what Christmas in Australia looks like: bright sunshine, palm trees, blue skies and decorations everywhere. Which reminds me, I must take my lights down tomorrow. Always so much more time consuming than putting them up – why is that?
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That is true – but I think we have the anticipation of the holiday in mind when we put up the lights and decorations and that makes time seem irrelevant 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and yes I sort of got to experience an Australian Christmas with all that sun and palm trees!
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A magical Christmas and holiday
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It was, thanks so much for stopping by and hope your holiday was wonderful 🙂
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When families gather, special things happen. You explored some fun places!
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Well said, yes we had a pretty special time, hope your holiday was wonderful too 🙂
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Happy New Year, and what a lovely joyous post you have written.
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That sounds like an amazing Christmas. I am glad you have sisters that you can communicate with – I got choked up myself about the sunflower surprise…
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Thanks so much and I do appreciate my awesome siblings, we’ve worked hard on developing friendships as adults. The party got me choked up too! 🙂
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what a wonderful Christmas, nothing better than spending it with family.
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It was and thanks so much for stopping by and commenting 🙂
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Looks like you had a great Christmas. And you always have the best pictures of FOOD! Ha!
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We did and thanks so much 🙂
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What a wonderful, special Christmas week! How lovely to share it with your families and get to explore such a beautiful place!
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Thanks for stopping by, it was pretty awesome 🙂
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