Christmas Weekend With My Family!

I’m so excited that my parents and sister were able to come to NYC to spend Christmas with me! We surely had an eventful week! Here’s all what we did!

THURSDAY – DECEMBER 21

We had dinner at this amazing Asian hibachi restaurant called Edos Steakhouse located in Pelham, NY. My family really enjoyed the food and the fun show that the chef gave when making our food! We had so much food that we had an extra serving of food to take home!

FRIDAY – DECEMBER 22

I took my family to do a little shopping on Central Park Ave in Yonkers. The shopping center had a variety of stores like Burlington Coat Factory, Marshall’s Shoe Shop, and Best Buy To name a few.

My colleague told me about this creole based restaurant called The Bayou Restaurant where they have meals that are traditionally served in Louisiana! The atomesphere was pretty cool! It looked just like we were eating at a restaurant down in Louisiana with all the cultural decorations all around us! I was so excited because I always wanted to visit Louisiana so by coming here I get a little taste of it lol!

For our appetizer, I ordered Swamp and Turf which were bbq ribs with grilled alligator! Yes I said alligator! Alligator taste similar to chicken but is a lot more tender. I enjoyed it! My dad and I ordered Fried Catfish Po’Boy which is a fried catfish sandwich that comes with sweet potato chips and coleslaw. I also ordered hush puppies (my favorite!)

My sister and husband ordered Louisiana Yard Bird which was chicken in a gravy sauce and my mom ordered a cheeseburger and a side of mac and cheese. Everything tasted amazing! And I will be revisiting that restaurant very soon!

SATURDAY – DECEMBER 23

We went to an Alvin Ailey Dance Show at the City Center in Manhattan.

Alvin Ailey was a choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. He is known for popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African American participation in 20th century concert dance (dance performed for an audience that is choreographed to set music).

My mom is a dancer and has been since her teenage years. After high school, she actually auditioned and was accepted into the Ailey School and she was in the program for 2 years. So she received dance training directly from Alvin Ailey himself! She even performed at the Apollo Theater in the early 80’s to “The Beautiful One’s” by Prince. Her crew came in 2nd place! How cool is that!

The picture below is of my mom on ballet pointe when she was about 19 years old in NYC!

The Alvin Ailey performance at the City Center was amazing! When I was younger, my mom showed me the videotapes of Ailey’s classic performances like “Revelations” so to be able to see it all live was an amazing experience!

After the showing, we went to my moms old performing arts high school called Julia Richman/ Talent Unlimited Performing Arts School! And turns out that my husband’s uncle went to the same school as well! Small world isn’t it!

Later for dinner, my mother in law had a gathering at her place filled with great food, games, laughs, and fun!

SUNDAY – DECEMBER 24

My uncle took us all to their old neighborhood in East River in Manhattan where my mom and her 4 brothers grew up. My mom hasn’t been there in years so she was happy to see her old neighborhood and talk about the memories she had. She said that the movie “The Wiz” was filmed very close to their neighborhood so in between takes, the actors in the film such as Diana Ross would come to say hi and talk to the people in my mom’s neighborhood. That’s so awesome!

Later that night we had Christmas Eve dinner at my husband’s aunts house in upstate NY which was a great time! The food was delicious as always and we played a few games as well!

MONDAY – DECEMBER 25

Christmas is finally here! We had Christmas dinner with my moms side of the family at my uncles house in Brooklyn. We normally don’t get together for holidays because everyone’s family is usually doing their own thing. I haven’t seen a lot of these family members in a long time so it was very nice that everyone came out and spent time together! It was a great time for sure! I’m sure we’ll all be able to have more family gatherings like this in the future!

My parents and sister went back home this morning! I was sad to see them go but I’m so glad they came out to spend time with all of us here! They are already planning to come back very soon since they had such a great time! I’m looking forward to it!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday as much as I did! 😊

Night Out In Brooklyn!

I went out to Brooklyn to this nice lounge called Dean Cafe Bar for my uncle’s birthday.

The atomesphere was very chill and they decor was very unique, with a rustic feel to it! I loved it! Check out their Instagram for more pictures! Dean Cafe Bar Instagram

There was a mixed crowd of ages and cultures! The staff was very attentive and friendly too! We all had a good time! I would definitely recommend coming here! 

*if you do visit this bar, there are actually 2 Dean Bars so make sure it’s the one on 951 Dean Street.  (We went to the wrong one at first lol) 

Here are a few pictures from the night!

The Santiagos ❤️

The birthday guy!

😉

Cool street art near the bar!

More street art!

Make sure to follow me on Instagram! 😁 Just Brittany Moments Instagram!

My First Time At Curl Fest in NYC!

CurlFest is a festival catered to multicultural women who have all types of curls ranging from wavy, curly, and kinky textures! 

This event connects the latest curly hair products and brands to fans and influencers, and creates fun spaces for women of color to celebrate their natural beauty! 

The event was held in Prospect Park (Nethermead section) in Brooklyn and it  started at 12pm so my friend and I decided to get there an hour earlier to sort of beat the crowd… Well that was a fail! LOL When we arrived, there was a SUPER LONG LINE at least 1 mile long! I was like OMG! But we didn’t really have a choice so we waited for about 1 hour and 30 minutes before we got closer to the front of the line. 

The Super Long line! And there were at least 200 people in line behind me!

We discovered that the line we were in was to get a gift bag that had a bunch of awesome hair products. There were people who bought an “Early Bird” ticket which guaranteed them a gift bag. But general admission (my friend and I) had to wait in that super long line for a gift bag…that is if there were anymore left. 

First of all, my perception of having to wait in line was that we had to check in to the event, they would give us a wrist band of some sort, and then we’d be on our way. BUT that line was JUST to get a gift bag! And I was like WHAT! So I could’ve been enjoying myself 1 hour and 30 minutes sooner! Ahhh! I was irritated about that but once I found out we didn’t have to wait, we just went ahead into the event! 

There were SSSOOO many people at this event! I would say there were about 2,000 people that attended! Maybe more! I saw a variety of curly hair textures, creative hairstyles, and amazing outfits from both men and women! I was so amazed at the beauty of everyone surrounding me! I just felt so empowered because it made me super proud to display my natural curls! 

They had a stage where the DJ was playing some awesome jams! That was also where the panel of influencers were speaking on different topics. 

There were about 20-30 tents around the park that had smaller up and coming businesses who were selling a variety of items from unique sunglasses, pieces of art, handmade clothing, graphic t-shirts, candles, jewelry, Barbie dolls, pillows, etc!

I ended up buying a pair of funky, but stylish sunglasses! My friend, Elkema, bought a pair of sunglasses and a piece of art! 

Then there were tents that displayed different natural hair product brands like Shea Moisture, Creme Of Nature, Madam C.J. Walker, Eden Body Works, and much more! 

We decided that we were starving so we went search for the food trucks! They had soul food, thaietnamese food, Spanish food, and Caribbean food from Island Spice Grill!

Island Spice Grill is very popular in NYC because they make amazing jerk flavored food and they travel all over NYC! I’ve heard great things about their food so we decided to buy food from them! 

The downside is that ALL the food trucks had super LONG lines so we didn’t have a choice but to wait. So after about 45 minutes of waiting to get the food, I finally got to the front and they said that they didn’t have any more Jerk Chicken and didn’t have anymore rice either! NOOO! I was looking forward to that! All they had left was Lemon Pepper Brisket and Jerk Pork. I decided to get the Jerk Pork and man was it delicious! 

There’s a lot more Jerk Pork than it looks like! I was super full after eating it all!

The Jerk Pork came on a bed of leafy greens with corn on a cob and sliced bread. Yum! It was definitely worth the $15! The taste was so savory and the flavor was spicy but not to spicy where you can’t taste your food anymore! I was pleased with my meal! 

My opinion of my first time at CurlFest was that I felt that things should’ve been a little more organized especially for the amount of people that were there. There should’ve been more signage and directions to make things easier for us! I thought we would be able to get a few free samples without having to wait in a super long line.

But overall, I appreciated being surrounded by others who were proud to wear their natural curls and flaunt it beautifully! =)

Daily Prompt – Savor