A Little Late

Happy New Year everyone!

Since it's already '09 and I still haven't posted about our Christmas, I figured I'd better get to it!
This Christmas was so much fun because Kate actually got excited about Santa (or 'Ho Ho' as she calls him).

We had our family Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve night at Sal Gal's house. Everyone brought a dish or two and we ended up having a pretty big spread.

I volunteered to bring the green bean casserole and chocolate bark.
I always volunteer for the green bean casserole because it's so easy and doesn't take long to prepare. I do however take the time to fry up a few strips of bacon to crumble in it because that can make or break it in my book.

Grabbing my dish and heading out the door

After everyone ate, we drew a picture or wrote a few words on our table cloth. Instead of putting the table cloth on the dining room table, we just put in the living room on the coffee table and took turns sitting around it and drawing.

I ended up finding the perfect table cloth at Target. It was solid white and 100% cotton.

So I scored on the linen but pretty much blew it with the markers. The markers I bought had way too fine of a point and they were very hard to draw with. I am definitely getting different ones for next year. Because of the marker issue, the drawings aren't as dark as I'd like them to be. But it doesn't bother me enough to break out a needle and thread and embroider it either.

Here's a few of the drawings:

How precious is that? Out of everyone's drawings, Kate's little random lines are my favorite. I'm smiling right now just looking at them.

So maybe I didn't have time to practice other Christmas drawings and ended up going with the candy cane after all. I tried to add a little twist to it by drawing two of them into a heart, which did nothing but confirm the fact that my artwork will never end up on the walls on the Guggenheim.

Let it be known that I drew my picture first, therefore making it obvious that Sal Gal did indeed copy me. Except for that patch of grass. Everyone knows that candy canes come with their own sod square, right?

Most of us drew a small picture, except for M to the Izz-A of course. He had to go all out and turn it into a competition.

Seriously dude, did you print out a template and practice all week or what?

Look at his face and you can tell how proud he is of himself.

Over all the table cloth turned out great. We had so much fun doing it! It will definitely be something we do every year from here on out.

Big Al, Sal Gal, and me

Side note: I wasn't sure what color the darkest bead was on my necklace. I'm usually very good at distinguishing colors, especially between blacks and blues, but on this necklace I really couldn't tell. On that particular night, I wore it with a black and grey color scheme so I called it black. But on Sunday I wore it with a navy blouse and called it navy.

It's black. It's navy. It's blavy. Work with me here.

Kate LOVED her kitchen from Papa and Gaga. Can't you tell?

Before bed on Christmas Eve, Kate and I had a tea party with the tea set she received from Lillie (Sal Gal's daughter).

Of course in our house we pretend that it's ice cold sweet tea.



Kate and her cousin Kennedy on Christmas morning

I loved this Christmas and am looking forward to the new year ahead.

We just returned from a quick trip to my mother-in-law's and all I'm going to say is this:

And you thought I could catch air with my heel clicks...

Stay tuned...