A few months ago at a silent auction I bid on tickets to an IU basketball game. The timing of the game was, honestly, a little inconvenient, but Josh and I were determined to use them and enjoy them.

Turns out the timing was quite perfect as the Bloomington CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureau) just started offering their wonderful winter getaway package!! I was so excited when I got the postcard in the mail. It pays to be on mailing lists!

Through this winter getaway package, we automatically received 15% off our hotel! In addition, we received a bottle of wine upon check-in. We definitely wanted to visit the local shops and restaurants, rather than going to places we can go to here in Michiana. Perfect for us, the package included gift certificates to a number of local places, so that easily determined where we would go!

Before Bloomington, I rode down to Indy with my co-worker for our staff holiday party at our Headquarters. When all our staff is gathered together, we are quite a kooky crowd. We had an ugly Christmas sweater contest, a name-that-barely-recognizable-Christmas-carol-contest, JibJab videos with multiple staff members, and our annual white elephant gift exchange!

After the festivities ended, I met up with Charissa. We went out to Broad Ripple, a trendy area with little shops and cafes and such. Afterwards we wandered through Crate & Barrel, Victoria's Secret, & Tiffany's while waiting for our to-go order at the oh-so-yummy P.F. Chang's. Lettuce wraps, honey chicken, and ginger chicken. We also got Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake & Red Velvet Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, took it all home, and shared everything while watching "Confessions of a Shopaholic". What fun!!


Saturday morning Josh drove down to Charissa's, and we went on from there. We had lunch in Bloomington at Lenny's, a local college hangout, where we had a $10 gift card.


We ran some errands and then went downtown, discovering a great cafe, Blu Boy where the owner was so sweet to us and gave us free (expensive) chocolate.

We did some shopping and window shopping and then ordered some awesome pizza from Pizza X. We had a $4 off coupon, and the guy hooked us up with free drinks! We took the pizza back to our hotel and then got ready for the big game!

I cannot even tell you how A M A Z I N G our seats were!!! We were in the second row, the first row being chairs set up on the courts. Our "second row" seats were the very first row of the bleachers! We had space next to us and behind us. We were right behind the table of broadcasters and even made it on camera apparently.

It was soooo fun to hear the band, watch the cheerleaders, oh, and watch the game! It was a good game, and "our team" (IU) won in the end, yea!

The next day we slept in, had our own little mini church service, and then went back downtown for lunch at Grazie, a really nice Italian restaurant, where we had a $20 gift card! The food was SO good, and the atmosphere was nice too!

Afterward we headed north, stopping at The Oliver Winery where we received a couple of wine goblets for free. We also went on a tour of the winery and enjoyed free tastings. It was our first time at a winery, and it was definitely a fun experience.


What a memorable weekend in Bloomington with my sweety!!