I believe that it’s always a good time for sangria, so please feel free to replace “summer” in the name of this easy summer sangria recipe with the season of your choice 😉

Sangria, or wine punch, is a fantastic party beverage, especially if you can make it at home and let it sit in the fridge overnight. I made last night’s sangria at the BBQ we went to, because I had visions of exploding sangria and the Pilot’s car smelling like wine and brandy for the rest of the year. I personally don’t mind the smell of wine and brandy, though…

For this recipe, I like to use inexpensive dry red wine, like a cheap Spanish wine. If you prefer white wine, you could definitely swap the red wine for pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc and make a white wine sangria that tastes just as delicious. I know plenty of people who also like to add lemon lime soda for some carbonation, but you can skip adding that and not miss a thing. After all, the key ingredients here are the fresh fruits (summer fruit in this case) and wine for sangria that’s off the charts amazing yet surprisingly simple.

Sharing a review of 2023 and my goals for 2024. 

Since it’s a bright and shiny new year, I always use this opportunity to look back, see what I accomplished, and set my intentions for the upcoming year. If you’re setting your goals for 2024, I’d love to hear them in the comments. Also, if you’re looking for support for January, join our 21-day challenge here!

When I look back on 2023, it’s easy for me to see all of the things I struggled with, and all of the things I set out to do, but didn’t. 2023 was full of some magnificent highs, and some challenging lows. After the 2020-2021 time span, I’ve really learned to lean into and enjoy the good parts, because there are always dips, and try to remember that everything is temporary.

looking back on the year and my goals for 2024

Travel and personal:

Travel was a huge highlight this year. It has been my dream for so long to take the girls to Italy, and we finally did it!! We had an incredible Disney Mediterranean cruise to Italy and Greece, and introduced the girls to my favorite place in the world (Positano). I ate chocolate croissants every.single.day (in addition to so much Italian food and wine), played in the ocean in Mykonos with the girls, and we shopped and explored to our hearts’ content.

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Hi friends! I hope that you have a wonderful day, and a very Merry Christmas to my friends who are celebrating today. Wishing you joy, happiness, love, and vibrant health. Thank you so much for being a part of my life!

For now, we’re going to enjoy some coffee and nana’s egg casserole, watch the babies open gifts, and spend the day in our jammies with family.

Have a great day and I’ll see ya soon.

xoxo

Gina

The post have yourself a merry little Christmas appeared first on The Fitnessista.

Sharing lots of ideas for the tween girls you’re shopping for this holiday season! I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments, too. 

Hi friends! I hope you’re having a wonderful week so far! We have dinner with the fam and are looking forward to a little Phoenix staycation this weekend. For today’s post, I’m sharing what I think is my favorite gift guide of the year: for tweens! While I have to admit that I do miss the Magnatiles and Melissa and Doug days, it is pretty fun shopping for tweens… even though many of them seem to have better taste than I do. 😉 Shopping for Liv and her friends is so fun right now, and I thought I’d share some of the popular gift requests if you have a tween girl on your holiday list.

As always, if you have any ideas or if you’d share your tween’s gift requests in the comments, that would be amazing!

2023 Holiday Gift Guide for tweens

New Stanley cup

Hatch light. This made a huge difference in my stress levels, so I got one for Liv last year, too. She prefers to have bird sounds wake her up instead of me lol.

Silk pillowcase

Nike platform sneakers

Makeup eraser set

initial pendant necklace

Laneige mini set

Clean beauty set

Skincare headband

Mini skincare fridge 

Aviator Nation hoodie. These are an amazing special occasion gift! I got them for the girls this year for Christmas since they’re always trying to *borrow* mine.

A Kindle

Sharing a roundup of cute and festive outfits for holiday parties this season.

Hi friends! How are you? I hope you’re enjoying the morning! We’re back in the swing of things after our trip and looking forward to upcoming holiday events, festivities, and travels. What are you looking forward to right now? I’m so excited for our annual staycation at the Scottsdale Princess and taking the girls to see the Nutcracker in Phoenix.

For today, I wanted to talk about cute and festive holiday outfits! While I don’t *love* winter attire (give me summer dresses and sandals any day), I definitely love party clothes. The holiday season is filled with sparkles, plaid, red, leather accents, and I’m into ALL of it.

Today, I’m sharing a roundup of 15 festive holiday party outfits!

(this dress is from my Rent the Runway Unlimited subscription. My referral link to try it out is here – perfect for holiday events and formal attire – and the link to the specific dress is here.)

15 festive holiday party outfits

1. Classic nap dress with bow heels (I have these from Lulu’s and love them. This link gets you a discount)

I just recently got on the Nap dress train and now I 100% understand the hype. T