Christmas "break"

Here are some of my favorite moments of my trip back to Georgia for Christmas:

The puppy that we rescued. He stayed with us for a couple of days before I brought him back to Dallas to live with his new family - some good friends of mine.


Brotherly love :)


I was invited to take part in the annual pre-Christmas Jackson feast this year!


My dear friend, Joanna, works at a winery in California. She saw this wine from the field to the bottle!


A beautiful pastel drawing of the road horse that won my father the World Championship in 1993. This was meant to be his Christmas present 19 years ago. Sadly, he passed away 2 weeks before that Christmas. My mother gifted it to me this year, still in the original shipping tube.


The drawing I did for my brother's Christmas/Graduation present.


Brother attempting to keep the turkey's dry in the rain.


Brother, his beautiful girlfriend, and my lovely neices playing Headbandz (coolest game EVER!)


My sister-in-law and my cuz


Sis and her baby girl


And who wouldn't want to see another picture of this adorable puppy?!

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas!!

Christmas soirée

Our email invitation, courtesy of Cocodot.com, which sadly has gone out of business :(


Preparing for the feast.



Strawberry chocolate chip cookies: 1/2 container of Cool Whip 1/2 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 egg 1 box of strawberry cake mix   Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together ingredients, and bake for 8-10 minutes on parchment paper (these cookies are very sticky)



Baked brie & Holiday Jam



Bacon-wrapped dates (delish!!)



Dijon, ham & asperagus roll-ups



Vintage glass mugs with peppermint spoons: for our spiked pepperming hot coco



Champagne with fozen blackberries



Some of my girls :) LOVE them!!

Christmas nesting

I finally amped myself up enough to fight rush hour traffic across town to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few Christmas decorations. I promised myself I wouldn't spend too much money this year on Christmas. I have plenty of decor packed in 2 Tupperware tubs in a friend's garage in Florida. But I love nesting for Christmas, so I allowed myself a few purchases, and a few craft projects. Here are a few...

Wreath made from scrap linen and a poinsetta from the Dollar Store.

With no Christmas tree, I had to be creative on how I displayed my ornaments.

Copied straight from Pinterest.



Reindeer with jingle bells: Dollar Store. Bust of reineer: idea from Pinterest.

Twinkly lights under the countertop.

In addition to my crafts, here are a few other extra touches:

the perfect Christmas gift

I have finally reached the point in my life where the words “Christmas is right around the corner!” instill panic instead of excitement. The list of friends and family that I want to give gifts to continues to grow. In addition to the growing list, the miles between my family and I have increased as well. That makes it harder to know what my nieces and nephews are into this year, and what my brothers and sister may or may not need. There are a few tools that have come to my rescue this season. Listed below two magical helpers that I’m sure Santa wishes he had…

Pinterest – the pin-board style social photo sharing site has become a time-wasting phenomenon over the past two plus years. If you’ve been living under a rock the past year: Pinterest is a site where you can “pin” images that inspire you. You can group your images into categories such as “Holidays”, “My Style”, etc. Users have also used this site to “pin” images of things they covet – jewelry, clothing, books, and so on. If you are looking for something for a friend and you want to get something you know she will love and adore, head on over to her Pinterest boards. Take a quick scan. Not only will you find some great ideas, the links will (sometimes) take you directly to the link to purchase the item. Done and done!

Amazon Wish List – much like any retailer’s online “cart” or “wish list”, here you can compile a list of items that you wish for. But unlike others, Amazon allows users the option of adding items from other websites. Users can also add a confidential shipping address to ensure that any gifts arrive safely to their door. Encourage your friends and family to create a Wish List. But make sure they make it public. Once the list is public, others can search it by last name or email address. If they prefer not to make the Wish List totally public, they may choose to “Share with a link” – they’ll need to provide a link to anyone they’d like to view it.

Happy shopping!