Christmas Festivities

Last year, I posted about our Christmas Traditions and Parties separately, but in an effort to catch up a little quicker this will be a two-for-one post :)  December was an absolute whirlwind - an extremely fun month leading up to Christmas.

To kick off the month of craziness, we finally went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens Holiday Lights. We were really looking forward to it and had pretty high expectations. Near where we both grew up, Hoffman's Chocolate does an amazing light decoration in their gardens which you can walk through for free. (Well, free until you get into the chocolate store at the end, that is.) Since we loved it so much as kids, the Holiday Lights event at the Botanical Gardens has been on our Atlanta bucket list ever since we moved here. I'm glad we've checked it off but we probably won't return. Granted, we are probably in the minority on that one because everyone LOVES it. At $23 per ticket, we just thought it was kind of a rip off (we missed the SweetJack deal, and with Bo's work schedule we couldn't use Groupon...boo). Don't get me wrong though, it was still very well done and it was a very fun date night.

Our favorite part was actually these musical orbs! They played christmas music in the background and we found a nice bench to hang out there for a while. The orbs changed colors along with the music and they played some of our favorite songs. It wasn't too cold outside just yet, and we had a good view of midtown (which you can just barely see in the background below).

Grandma sent us a new puzzle last year which we enjoyed putting together. It was pretty difficult- took us about a week to finish it, even when our little helper wasn't in the way. At the time, we were dog sitting for Dudley's dog, Madison, and she likes to hang out on our table to escape from Molly...

all completed! I wonder who the culprit could be for the missing pieces...

My work party was at the Atlanta History Center again, and Bo's work party was at 103 West (amazing restaurant - lobster and filet, please and thank you!). No pictures from either of those events, but we went to the St. Regis bar before dinner, and we were happily surprised to find out they do a free champagne toast every day at 6pm. This guy tells a whole story and then decapitates a bottle of champagne with a mini-sword. Cheers!

Carolyn and Heather hosted their annual Christmas party, complete with Christmas cookie shots!  Absolutely delicious - not something I often say after taking a shot, and they sure beat the pickleback shots from last year ;)

Josh hosted his annual tacky Christmas party and eggnog competition. Bo won the blind taste test! Eggnog has been an acquired taste for me over the years, but this recipe was by far the best he's ever made. Love having my own personal bartender.

wearing slippers to a party is the best. especially when they jingle!

I attended several girls night parties throughout the month...Ana and Katie hosted a Christmas party at their new apartment (ahem, Shara..still waiting on your pics!), met up with some of that same crew for a Christmas dinner at Einstein's, Kelly hosted her annual ornament exchange (see: previous post) and Katherine hosted her annual cookie exchange. I always love the cookie exchange but as you can tell I had zero time to prepare this year. At the last minute (9pm the night before...), I found this quick recipe on pinterest for Andes Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies. Ohmygoodness these were sooo addicting. I made a few batches of them and brought them to the cookie exchange, my office, our new neighbors, and of course plenty to eat at home. I ate way too many!

In between all the choas of party fun, we managed to squeeze in one more date night. For the fourth year in a row, we went to the Shakespeare Tavern to see A Christmas Carol. As usual, they had a few fun additions to the show and we loved it as always. I also read the actual story beforehand - I've seen so many movies and shows do different variations of it, so I knew the story inside and out, but it was nice to read it myself. Plus it's a really short story - it only took a few hours to read.

And finally, Bo and I built our second gingerbread house. What an absolute failure. I used a different recipe than last time, and the dough was wayyy too soft. Just a few minutes after putting it together, the roof started caving in and then slid off. We didn't even bother decorating it, and I returned all the candy to Publix (that was a first!). We called it our "hurricane house" and ate some of the frosted gingerbread but it was just okay. Better luck next year, and back to the original recipe!

'Tis the Season

Actually, because I am a bit behind, this post should probably be titled 'Twas the Season. But considering I haven't had the time or desire to take them down yet, my decorations are still up. So in our home, 'tis (still) the season. :)

I usually start decorating for Christmas as soon as we get home from Thanksgiving. But for these rare years when Bo's birthday falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving, Bo demanded we decided to put the tree up (couldn't let it die!) and then let the branches settle for a full two days. We waited until the day after his birthday before decorating the tree and the rest of the house. We are very much a one-holiday-at-a-time kinda family.

For the most part, our Christmas decorations were identical to last year. With the exception of a few (necessary!) additions...

We both agreed that our most fun new addition this year was the advent calendar. Each morning, one of us pulled out a new ornament to put on the tree.  We both grew up with calendars/countdowns so we sort of felt like little kids again. We loved it. I found it at christmascentral.com - they don't seem to have it anymore but they have some similar ones. And since I'm so late on this, here it is fully decorated:

We hung our stockings with care...above the entertainment center.

Bo found this miniature nativity set while we were in Venice this past summer. The little set is so cute! We were happily surprised that Molly did not think they were chew toys.

I finally got an advent wreath this year (another purchase from christmascentral.com), but the candles didn't quite fit (they also did not come with the wreath and were kinda hard to find!). Too bad we never got a reading booklet to go with it. Fail. Maybe next year...

I found this door decoration on sale at Michaels and got it, just because. Now both sides of the front door are festive!

I love receiving Christmas cards each year, and putting them all on display. I am always so sad to take them down - I just love seeing all of our friends and family every time I pass by.

And last, but not least...the TREE!! I can't help it- I love enormous Christmas trees. I get it from my dad :)  When we first got home from Blowing Rock and got it up in the stand in our dining room, Bo gave me a look of death and said "Holy shit, you've Griswold'ed us!!"  I, on the other hand, thought it was an absolute perfect fit. It is by far the largest tree we've ever had, and I loved it. In fact it was so large that at first, we couldn't even see the tree skirt - we made do and just pulled it out a bit (good thing you don't see all around the tree), but that might be on the shopping list for next year ;)

hits the ceiling with no room to spare

First, I put up all the lights...

Then, Bo puts on the star (which had to be tied to the tree, since it couldn't sit on top!)...

Meanwhile, Molly hung out in the other room. She was pretty skeptical of everything.

And then I decorate! My favorite part. I have a pretty good collection by now, largely thanks to the annual ornaments my mom gives us, and my obsession with getting new ones each year. I always put the new ones on first (for prime real estate, of course), and then add the rest.

First up, is my missing ornament from last year! We actually got this fleur-de-lis last year while we were in New Orleans. I couldn't find it anywhere, until we were packing for another trip this year and I found it in a suitcase. Whew!

We received two ornaments as Christmas presents last year - an angel from my Aunt Angie & Uncle Blane and a new Gator ornament from my Grandma.

Every year we add to our crystal collection, and this year was another snowflake. Maybe I'll switch things up next year.

Our travel ornaments from the past year:

From my trip to Dublin this summer, obviously from the Guinness Factory!

A very, very mini ms Nieuw Amsterdam from our cruise this summer!

On our last day in Venice, we found a Murano glass gondola ornament, right before we took our own gondola ride!

Just for fun, this set of 4 ornaments was on sale at Macy's and I couldn't refuse :)

I think we may start collecting Wedgwood ornaments in the future. My mom got me one a few years back and it's one of our favorites, so we added to it this year with a cross.

We added a little Atlanta flare to represent our love for the Braves.

Always love dated ornaments.

Kelly hosted an ornament exchange, and I brought the candy cane ornament below. I liked it so much that I got one for myself, too! And in return, I received the set of two snowmen.

And last, but certainly not least, the annual ornament from my mom. I have quite a snowman collection going. Perhaps, to make up for my lack of actual snow men.

Probably the BEST addition we had this year, though not at all a true decoration, was the tree funnel! Our tree was SO big this year, that it was extremely difficult to water. We literally had to pull apart branches and hope we didn't kill any ornaments in the process. Not to mention that it drank 2 full pitchers of water every single day!! Bo has always been the tree waterer in our family, and I have never argued. This arrangement worked out wonderfully for me, until he was out of town for work the first week we had our tree and I was stuck watering it. Crawling on the floor, spilling water everywhere, nearly knocking my precious ornaments off the tree. No thanks!! After the first night, I went online to find a solution. We did not want an entire siphoning system, so I found this beauty at Sears. I'm sure you could easily make this yourself - it's just a funnel, with a clear pipe, and a small stick inside of it, and the whole thing ties to the tree and branches. The stick goes up and down with the water level, so when the stand is full, you mark on the clear funnel where that is, and then you easily know when it's time to water the tree. It took us a few times to get the measurements just right, but it was pretty easy. Love that we can now water the tree while standing up!

LOVE

And here is all 9.5 feet of our fully decorated tree! Gorgeous, if I do say so myself :)