I am the oldest of three (even though my brothers with their facial hair and size make me look like the baby these days) and my brothers and I always grew up very close. Unfortunately now, between all of our crazy schedules and one of them living in another state, it’s difficult to find time to all get together.. so as you can imagine, when we were able to plan a night away in Newport together, I was thrilled.

It was a simple trip.. complete with a fun dinner and drinks, a few games of Uno to end the night and breakfast the next morning.. but it was a memorable one.After breakfast, one of my brothers and his girlfriend had to leave for work but the rest of us were able to visit the Breakers mansion.. and daydream about what Christmas between these ginormous walls must have felt like.. and then remember the Vanderbilt family probably never even spent the holidays in this mansion because it was merely their “summer cottage.” Sweet Jesus, how that could be is beyond me!

The details and the decorations and the history behind this place is so amazing. I, of course, swooned over every single Christmas tree than adorned each room and could totally envision myself dancing around their great hall in my very own fancy Christmas gown.

Hubby and I were fortunate enough to have some time off from work and able to stay in this charming seaside town a few extra nights. We spent the time meandering around the twinkling streets and harbors, eating yummy food, drinking delicious wine, reading and watching Christmas movies.

We even managed to sneak in a walk along a deserted Cliff Walk with our girls.We never get to walk down the forty steps on the Cliff Walk because they are usually jam packed with people and our puppies don’t do great in tight quarter surrounded by water.. but this morning, we had the place to ourselves and took full advantage. Little Riley is terrified of water and waves but surprised us and came down all the steps with me!

But, when she got the chance, ran back up those stairs to safety as fast as she could! Mya, on the other hand, has bad hips and hubby is recovering from knee surgery so steps don’t work very well for my two crippled ones.. they just watched from the top!AND on our last day, MAGIC happened.. we woke up to snow!Neither of us had ever been to the beach during a snow storm until this trip and it was something I’ll always remember. The beaches were empty (except for a few crazy people surfing.. yes.. surfing during a snowstorm), the waves were rough and the snow was coming down hard.. it was beautiful. Then, all of a sudden, the clouds rolled away, the snow stopped and the sky turned a beautiful shade of blue. It looked like a winder wonderland.We even found a Christmas tree ON THE BEACH.. I was pretty excited about this.. And, once again, some of my favorite memories happened when we had no plans, nothing to do and no where to be besides next to each other driving around exploring. There surely is magic in this world if you just open your eyes and look for it.