December 25th 2015: Christmas Lights in Saugus

We went to Saugus tonight to check out the Christmas lights at 401 Lynn Fells Parkway.

It was definitely a different house we checked out several years ago, but much more impressive this time around.

December 24th 2015: Checking Out the Yankee Candle Village, Deerfield

I went out for a bit this morning, stopping at the Red Barn Coffee Roasters in Westborough, a cafe with a nice lounge area and books,

getting a Hot Chocolate, which was pretty good.

Can see why they have several locations.

Next, I went to The Bistro, a bakery which also serves breakfast nearby. This place does a lot of custom cakes as well. I got the Lord Have Mercy Bar (white chocolate, semi sweet chocolate and butterscotch chips topped with pretzels and caramel),

Not bad, but pretty sinful.

Across, the road, Yummy Mummy Bakery, a much smaller bakery with much less stuff on display. I got a Caramel Latte Cupcake, which was way too sweet in my opinion.

Later, on our way to the Yankee Candle Village in Deerfield, we decided to go on a short hike to see the Roaring Falls in Sunderland, located within the Mount Toby State Forest. The path we took here to get to the waterfall from around 453 High Plains Road in Leverett is shown below in pink.

Thankfully, due to the rain yesterday, the waterfall was really living up to its name,

and there was fog over the railroad. Thankfully no trains coming out of the fog though.

From here, we headed to the Yankee Candle Village. I was expecting the Christmas decor to be outdoors,

but it turns out the real nice decor is inside the store itself,

with a castle

and a Bavarian village inside.

Dinner was at Goten, a Japanese restaurant in Sunderland.

We got a side of Milk Tofu,

which looked just agadashi tofu, but the texture was really soft. Delicious stuff.

The Miso Glazed Scallops (pan seared scallops with shiro miso sauce, shredded scallions, soy vinaigrette)

had really good sauce, but there were only 3 pieces on the plate, for $9? So not worth it.

The bacon for the Hill of Fire Roll (Bacon, shrimp tempura, cucumber, crabstick, tobiko) was a little hard,

and there was nothing really special about the Tobiko Spaghetti with shrimp (clam sauce, sauteed white shrimp, tobiko and shiso),

which came with soup

and salad as well.

Overall, an okay meal, but not worth the price.

December 23rd 2015: Lunch at Masala Cafe, Westborough

I had a quick bite from the Masala Cafe, a new Indian place in Westborough which is very different from most Indian restaurant where it is styled more like a casual cafe, but still with pretty decent decor.

I got the Podi Dosa,

which was a little spicy, but pretty good. I'm not too sure that I like the lack of variety in the menu though.