Aroha's New Years Eve Menu & Our Special Announcement!

I can't believe in just a few weeks 2015 will be coming to a close! This past year has been such a life changing experience for both my husband and I and I truly can't believe how far we have come.

We are so thankful for the amazing customers we've had so far at Aroha. There are so many large corporate owned restaurants that we compete with daily and as a small family owned restaurant, we are beyond grateful to those of you who continue to spread the word about us and support our small business and family! We look forward to providing you with more quality food and service as we continue to grow in the Westlake Village community.

As for Aroha's New Years Eve plans...we have just released our six course 2016 Countdown Menu which offers many of my husband's most delicious dishes including the New Zealand Venison Loin with cherry gel, vanilla parsnip, pistachio, and micro licorice greens; Ceviche of Tua Tua Cloudy Bay Clams with lime, cilantro, chili, and tomato; and Jelly Tip Ice Cream with fresh berry jello, mixed berries, and house made vanilla ice cream encased in chocolate! If you would like to view the entire menu (as well as the wine pairings!), click here. We are proud to say our Countdown Menu is 100% gluten free/gluten free optional. We will also have separate available menu options for vegetarians dining with us, and, as always, if you have any specific allergies, we are happy to make changes to the dishes to meet your needs!

We will also be offering some giveaways throughout the evening, including $100 gift certificates and bottles of wines!

We hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday season thus far and look forward to spending New Years Eve with you!

Reserve Now For New Years Eve at Aroha

On another exciting note, I would like to officially announce, with a photo and short video, the arrival of our baby boy, Bailey! He arrived in this world on October 17th and Gwith and I have been soaking up every second since.

Throughout the nine months of my pregnancy, I wrote a song for Bailey and I sang it almost every day. I'm happy to say that since he's been born, it almost always relaxes him and puts him to sleep! The video below features both the song and footage of Bailey shortly after he was born! Enjoy! ("Hey Little Baby" by Justine Thomas is available on iTunes.)

Once again, thank you everyone for your support! It means the world to us!

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30990 Russell Ranch Rd Unit C, Westlake Village, CA 91362
© 2015 Aroha Restaurant.

Fans, Music Videos, Santa Barbara, and Dexter!

I must start by first of all saying, I am super super excited! I've been running some Facebook ads the past few days for my music page and I'm incredibly pleased with the turnout! I've got like *actual* fans. (Enter squeal here). Besides seeing fans actually commenting, I am really enjoying using all of these different promotional tools. I've always enjoyed marketing so this doesn't come as too much of a surprise. It's interesting to see what's popular and what isn't.

If you're not a Facebook fan yet, here's my chance to advertise. And if you are, help spread the word and keep the numbers jumping! You guys are awesome! Also, follow me on twitter. Fair warning though, there will be a lot of adorable bunny photos mixed in with my music posts and TV talk. That's just the way I roll!

https://www.facebook.com/JustineThomasMusic
https://twitter.com/themeanjustine

One of the things I'm finding most interesting is the "post promotion". I tried two different posts: my blog and my photo album. My blog got a bit of a turn out through the promotion but what's really doing well is the photo! And it's not even my favorite of the bunch, so go figure. This makes me wonder: If a photo is doing so well, how well would a video do?

Naturally, I want to make a music video at some point. Besides my love for singing and entertaining, I also have my love for film and video editing, so this seems like a no brainer. I have no idea which song though to make the video of! Given my huge (and overactive) imagination, I dream elaborate things. I'm not kidding. When I was 8 I dreamt of having a Titanic themed birthday party. I actually thought my mom could fill the basement with water and have a sunken ship inside. Understandably, this party did not happen. But my mom did hang blue ribbons all over the ceiling and place a "treasure chest" in the basement for an under the sea theme. I enjoyed it just as much!

Ok, back on to the topic of music videos before I get sidetracked with my old birthday parties! My vision for a "Stepping Stone" music video is to have it set in the 1940s with my long lost love coming back from WWII. Now, if I could just find 1940s clothes, a WWII plane, and a 1940s themed town, I'd be all set. My "Worst Date Ever" music video vision is to have it set in the 1950s. Clearly I need a time machine!

I've got to figure something out! I feel like a video is key to the promotion at this point.

Switching gears, my hubby and I went to Santa Barbara the other day. It was so nice to get away from the city! We enjoyed a nice lunch by the beach and then strolled the zoo. It's a smaller zoo but that's what I liked about it! There were no crowds: Just me, Gwith, and the penguins. The penguins were adorable, by the way! There was also a bird that reminded me of Willow. That probably sounds crazy. How can a bird remind someone of their pet rabbit? But I swear it did!!

DEXTER TALK AHEAD. AVERT YOUR EYES NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN SUNDAY'S EPISODE.

Dexter was AMAZING this week. As usual. Does anyone else not trust Dr. Vogel? I personally think she is the serial killer. My mom thinks she's trying to trap Dexter. I want to know what everyone else's theories are. We've been through 7 previous seasons of this show and I think we all know by now that someone who's been introduced this season is bound to turn up evil. It would be an interesting twist if it's Deb's boss! Oooo. Maybe it's Deb. Okay. Now even I think that's farfetched. I highly doubt Deb is coercing people to chop off heads.

END DEXTER TALK.

Should I do a music video? Which song? What is your favorite zoo animal? Do you trust Dr. Vogel? Is Deb's boss bad?

Here's my photo of the day:

Willow is feeling incredibly possessive over her carrot toy!

Talking the Sims 3, the Bachelorette, a Vending Machine that sells $1,500 of caviar, and the most scarring music video ever!

The good news: I got pictures of my resort that I worked so hard on. The bad news: I can no longer load that game. It keeps crashing during the loading screen. Luckily, I did manage to get in and save the resort to the bin.

By far, my new favorite feature from The Sims 3 Island Paradise is the waterfall! I know, out of everything, that's kind of silly, but I've always wanted that! I don't have much to say about the game today. After my game wouldn't load yesterday, I got fed up and decided not to play for the day. I needed a glitches reprieve.

I caught up on The Bachelorette yesterday. My family has a voting chart where we guess each episode who is going home. I'm happy to say I was wrong about Ben vs. Michael. I thought for sure Michael was going to bury himself as most previous contestants have. But I was wrong. Apparently they need prosecutors every season to convince the judge that their is a fraud among the bunch. Bring out the guards, Chris Harrison! Take Ben away! I was finally right about Mikey T. going home!! I've been giving his little box an X since night one. The funny thing is, I almost changed it tonight because of their moment building a little snow family on the mountain. If I had changed it, that would've sucked. The night he finally gets eliminated would be the one time I didn't eliminate him on my chart! Good thing I stuck with my original decision! Now I can start guessing someone else to be eliminated in future episodes and not just Mikey. It's a shame about Bryden. I wouldn't care so much if it wasn't for the fact he was in my original Final 4 prediction. But then again, so was Ben. Yuck. As it stands now, my final four prediction was actually sitting around last episode all talking to each other. Brooks, Chris, Drew, and Kasey. Unless Drew and Kasey tell Desiree about James and both get sent home! That would really mess things up for me. But, she seems smart, so I don't think that's going to happen. For those who don't read spoilers (I do not want to know! Not this season anyways), who do you think is going to win? Brooks or Chris? I know. I'm jumping the gun a little on the finale two but I really do think it's going to come down to those two.

On another note, I saw the weirdest thing at the mall yesterday. Apparently, you can now go to a vending machine and buy caviar for $1,500! I know. That is madness. I don't know why anyone would even spend that much on food in the first place but even worse, from a vending machine? If you're going to spend $1,500, at least do it in a beautiful restaurant with outstanding service and the most amazing food you've ever tasted. I forgot to mention, you can also get escargot and a nice teacup set from this machine. I. Don't. Get. It.

For my final thoughts, have you seen that horrible Miley Cyrus music video "We Can't Stop"? I literally can't wipe that shocking image from my mind. I'm not a fan of hers in the first place but why would anyone make a video like that? It didn't make any sense and it just seemed like her way of saying "I'm grown up but I'm going to prove it by acting really immature". I really wish I could unsee it. Unfortunately, I don't have that power.

How long until your Sims game crashed? Do you think Chris or Brooks will win The Bachelorette, or someone else entirely? Would you spend $1,500 on caviar from a machine? And have you seen that horrible music video? If you have, here's a cute picture to try to erase it from your memory:

Willow sleeping in her cage during The Bachelorette!