Christmas Round 2

Every Christmas Eve, Michael and I get together with my Dad's side of the family. We do dinner, presents and then we all go to the late Christmas Eve service at Grandma's church.


Grandma is always ready with a big plate of cookies!

And the tree is always looking over a large pile of presents.

Grandma received cooking classes and her very own chef's hat!

The best gift was for Aunt Beth. Aunt Annette created a book that at the end said for her to receive her present she had to find clues that were hidden around the basement and in Grandma's apartment. To help, she was able to pick two reindeer helpers, "Stupid" and "Goof Off."

Of course she picked Zach as "Good Off"

And Chris as "Stupid."

 If her helpers, weren't helping, she had a nerf gun she could use to shoot then and pick a new helper.

Chris didn't make it too long, and Gordon was picked as the next helper. 

The clues were hidden all over the place. 

And once a clue was found, there was a special treat for the helpers!

Zach didn't make it very long either. I was the next one up! Gordon was taking the job very seriously (not!). 

Living up to my new name!

Her present was in a very large box with a ton of tissue paper! She pulled out Sorry cards until she got to her gift card at the very bottom of the box.

And of course, you can't having a evening, without Jello shots made by Grandma!

We finished off the evening in church where Michael and I were married. We always sing our way into Christmas morning in a candle lit church singing Silent Night as a congregation. It's always one of my favorite memories of Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Michael and I are off to Pennsylvania for a week of spending time with family and friends. We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy new year!

Last Minute Wrapping Suggestions

If you're like most of my family (don't take offense Mom, just stating a fact ;) you probably haven't even started to think about wrapping Christmas gifts yet.

I found some great inspirational photos to help make your packages stand out under the Christmas tree!

This package uses tape and paper straws to dress up plain brown kraft paper.

 www.bhg.com

Use newspaper to create a flower and act as wrapping paper.

 www.bhg.com

Do you have any old sheet music laying around? Use it, some bells and satin ribbon and you'll have a festive gift in no time!

 www.bhg.com

How about an old or even new shirt to wrap a gift box?

 http://www.bhg.com/

Every year I choose a color scheme and wrap all of our presents using just a few colors. This year I used mostly gold. It keeps in very simple, when buying wrapping paper, ribbon and any other embellishments I use to decorate the package.

Here are our presents wrapped and ready to be given to family and friends.

The only exception is for Mike's little cousins. I will buy fun wrapping paper for them. This year I made a tower of gifts, held together by ribbon.

They are so cute...I wish someone would give me a tower of presents. :)


Happy Wrapping!

Eclipse

So did you either stay up or get up out of bed to see the eclipse last night? Me neither.

But I did go out and take some pictures of the moon before I went to bed.....

Christmas Round One

The Saturday afternoon before our holiday party, Michael and I made a trek up to Pennsylvania to visit with Mom's family and exchange gifts. It's always great to see everyone, even if it is a hectic few hours. Of course, Miss Amanda, had to get family pictures and here are the best ones we got.

Here's my Nana and her 2nd great grandchild.

And I love this picture of Amanda orchestrating the whole picture taking extravaganza!

We survived our first round of Christmas....only a few more to go!

Cookies Galore!!

What better way is there to celebrate Christmas than decorations, cooking baking and friends and family visiting?

I made the decision in November to combine all of these things....it turned into what I hope is our 1st annual Christmas cocktail party. I baked for two straight weeks, decorated like crazy and celebrated with friends and family last night.

Let's start with the cookie baking, shall we?

The kitchen counters were scattered with blue and white snowflakes,

Raspberry shortbread,

which were packaged and sent home with our guests.

I also made snicker doodles, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter chip cookies, peanut butter cup cookies and jam thumbprints

And just because I'm thrilled with how my snowflake cookies turned out, here are some more pictures. :)

I'll let the house decorations speak for themselves. 

 

   

And of course, here are the obligated night time shots.

When the party started, I put down my camera and enjoyed the moments laughing, telling stories and make memories with family and friends! After all, that's what this season is all about right?


Merry Christmas!