Christmas Party Recap

I've been absent on the blog for much of the holidays, but I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends! We have been very busy for almost 2 weeks with parties, visiting family, and traveling. Here are some pictures from our annual Christmas party that we threw before Christmas!

For drinks, we had a bar set up in the kitchen with a his and hers cocktail station, along with wine and festive jello shots. I wrote the drink menu on the chalkboard in the kitchen.  The cocktails were both very popular, but the maple old fashioned was a hit with all of the guys! The jello shots that I made were a modification of these jello shots from a couple of years ago, but made with tequila and cointreau instead of vodka. They had just enough tequila to taste like a margarita but not too much ;).

For food, here's what we had, including links to some of the recipes:

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Chili Lime Shrimp Cups
Stuffed Mushrooms
Buffalo Chicken Dip Bites (similar to this, cooked in phyllo shells)Pigs in a Blanket
Slow Roasted Tomato Bruschetta (recipe coming soon!)
Veggies and Knorr Spinach Dip
Hummus and Pita
Raspberry Brie Bites
Christmas Cookies with Royal Icing
Assorted Macarons via Trader Joe's

We had so much fun with everyone! Here are some pictures from the party.

We love hosting this party every year! It's always a great group of people and a wonderful chance to catch up with friends who live out of town! 

Holiday Updates

Yes, I realize I've been really slacking about blogging recently. Things have been a whirlwind with work and the holidays, there's just not been a lot of time! However, my lack of activity on here does not reflect what's actually going on, we've actually been doing quite a bit of work.

In our bedroom, we are slowly but surely making changes and I'm loving it! A few weeks ago, I got the jewelry armoire that I'd been considering on sale in a Cyber Monday sale. I got the Oxford Jewelry Armoire from HomeDecorators in white. I had been planning to buy this jewelry armoire from Ballard Designs, but at the last minute I decided that the French white was too yellow for my liking. I am really happy with the armoire, now I have lots of storage for both fashion and nice jewelry.

We also ordered a new bed for our room and it came in this week!  I had originally planned to DIY a headboard, similar to my upholstered ottoman... but, after much thought, I decided that we wanted the upholstered side rails as well. I kept trying to figure out what kind of bed skirt we would do with a headboard with our bedding, and finally decided that ordering the bed was the best way to achieve the look I wanted. We got the Montmartre bed from Joss and Main. I wasn't sure how the process would be, it was my first time ordering from them, but it was awesome. The bed even came in earlier than expected! So far we are loving it, and it makes a big difference in our room... another check for slowly phasing out our old furniture!

Other than those things, we are prepping for Christmas around the house. Our tree went up the weekend after Thanksgiving, although the rest of our decorations took a while to get completed.

Lastly, I am super excited because our annual Christmas party is this Saturday! We love hosting our friends for this party each year, it's going to be so much fun! I have a lot of shopping and cooking to do before then, but I know it will be wonderful. And, as if reuniting with old friends and celebrating the holidays wasn't enough, I'm sure the festive cocktails that I've prepared will get everyone in the right mood!

Hope you have a great last weekend (!!) before Christmas. Have you finished your shopping?

Thanksgiving Recap

Yes, I know, it's already been a week since Thanksgiving! It's crazy how fast time flies, Christmas will be here before you know it!

We hosted Thanksgiving for our families at our house this year. We had a wonderful time on Thursday, here are some pictures from the day.

Amazing Salted Caramel Pecan Pie Recipe Here

On Friday, I hosted a Friendsgiving girls' night with friends. We all brought dishes and it was a ton of fun. I set the table slightly differently for this event since it was smaller.

On Saturday I went to the last NCSU football game of the season. Even though we lost, it was fun to see Sarah and hang out with my family. Then, Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, and I love this time of the year with all of the decorations at church. Later that afternoon, we took our Christmas card photo and went to get our Christmas tree!

Have you ordered your Christmas cards yet?!

It's that time of the year!! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends... we sure did! I'll be back later to talk about our long holiday weekend.

This year, there is even less time than usual between Thanksgiving and Christmas... so I hope you've either ordered or are ordering your cards very soon! I ordered our Christmas cards from TinyPrints last night, like I've done in the past. But this year, they have some awesome new designs, new trim options, and even include foil printing on some designs!!

Plus, you can get 30% off your entire order at TinyPrints with code CB13 until Dec. 3rd!

Here are some of my favorites:


They even have cute cards to show off your pets!