Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! :) Here's our 2010 Christmas card:

Merry Christmas! 

Christmas Party Recipes!

Here are some of the things that I made for the Christmas Party.  Everything turned out great, although some of the pictures aren't very good.   These appetizers/heavy hors d'oeuvres are great and definitely worth including at your next party!

Candy Cane Cocktail

Candy Cane Cocktail from Martha Stewart

Mac and Cheese Bites

Three Cheese Mini Macs from Food & Wine Magazine 

Pigs in a Blanket

 Pigs in a Blanket from The Neelys

Stuffed Mushrooms

 Stuffed Mushrooms from AllRecipes

Pecan and Brie Phyllo Bites

 Phyllo cups with Brie, Preserves, and Pecans

Buffalo Crack Dip Bites

 Buffalo Crack Dip Bites modified from AllRecipes

Veggie Tray

Pecan Ice Box Cookies

Almond Ice Box Cookies

Lemon Cheesecake Cheese Ball

Lemon Cheesecake Cheese Ball from Annie's Eats

Oreo Truffles

 Oreo Truffles from Kraft

Christmas Party Recap

We had our Christmas Party on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and great to spend time with a lot of our friends.  I baked and cooked a ton in preparation for the party, but I think it paid off and everything turned out great.  Here are some shots from the party, I'll post recipes and more details later!

Lots of food!!

Girls in front of the Christmas Tree

Darcy trying to get to the food on the table...

Me and Jennifer

Jennifer and Sarah with their Dirty Santa gifts

Angela and her new wine opener

Marielle and Chris

Leah and Brandon

Holiday Party Planning!

So, this weekend we're hosting our 2nd anual Christmas Party ;).  I'm really excited about it, I love hosting parties, especially since that means I'll be doing lots of cooking/decorating prep. Lol, two of my favorite things! Some inspiration:

   

    

So, here are some of the things that I'll be making/serving. Maybe you can include some of these recipes in your holiday get-togethers.

savory:
Garlic and cheese stuffed mushrooms
Buffalo chicken crack bites
Pigs in a blanket
Crudites and veggie dip
Mac and cheese bites
Phyllo cups with preserves, brie and pecans

sweet:
Oreo truffles
Cookies
Lemon cheesecake ball


Yum, I want to eat all of this now! I'll definitely post updates with pictures and recipe modifications! Hope everyone's enjoying the last few days before Christmas!

Weekend Recap!

This weekend was a great one.  Christmas is getting so close, and I'm really feeling the holiday spirit.

On Friday, Kevin and I went to dinner in Durham at Dos Perros for Angela's birthday. It was a lot of fun and nice to try a new restaurant! Here are some of the pictures from Laura's camera:

The girls at dinner

Red and white (aka NCSU) wrapping paper ;)

Kevin and I at dinner

Kevin and I after dinner

On Saturday, it SNOWED! We didn't get that much, but it did stick around until this afternoon.  Our weather has been crazy recently, but oh well. It's really rare that we get snow this early in December...  Darcy really enjoyed running around outside in it at my parent's house with their dog Toby.  Here are some pictures of Darcy in the car on the way:

Darcy looking out the window in the car

Darcy relaxing in the car

Then, on Sunday we had brunch with David and Catie at La Farm... it was fun and delish!   Afterwards, we ran some errands and picked out our Christmas tree! We found the perfect one, brought it home and set it up in our living room.  We decorated it with lights, garland, ribbon and ornaments. It was so fun to do this and listen to Christmas music. Yay, for the holidays! :)

Our Christmas tree!

Our fireplace and tree

self-timer with the tree ;)

After decorating! 

Our first (married) Christmas tree! 

I also made some decorating progress in the guest bedroom. I used to have a boring quilt on the bed, but it was really bothering me, so I dressed it up a little bit with the new bedding I got from Macy's.  Maybe we'll have someone actually stay in our guest bedroom now, lol.  

Guest bedroom/office

New bedding

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! This week is a busy one, but only a few more until Christmas!!