Christmas Party Success...

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Christmas party success means a few things… it means that the house was cleaned and decorated in time… the food was good… AND we had an amazing night with quite a number of our friends… I love having our friends around… but especially during the Holidays… I always get homesick during the Holidays… and the best cure for that if you can't just hop in the car and get home in a few hours is spending time with your friends… 

I've been very fortunate to have enough banked time and EDO's that I've had the past three Friday's in a row off… Having that extra day every weekend makes a big difference to what you can get done around the house… We completed the photo wall… I would like to adjust some photos and cut all crisp white mats but for now this is how it exists… I would also like to rewrite "home"… I don't know if I want another word… font… what do you think?.. what's the right word for this?..

What have you been up to this December so far?.. are you an early shopper?.. we've just finished our main Christmas shopping… though we have a few little things to pickup… Do you have any design controls on Christmas?.. hahah that sounds hilarious but this year I've decided that all presents will be brown paper wrapped with various red and white ribbons and twine… It looks beautiful… or so I think… it's less distracting on the eyes than bright printed papers… and who doesn't love brown paper packages tied up with string!?.

Here are some party prep and party shots… Of course I made some of Chris's Momma's Short Bread Tarts and Cookies… tarts complete with blueberry and raspberry jams...

  

I made my first attempt at a baked brie… I tried one a few weeks back at Bunco… what's bunco you ask!?. google that… and then find a group of crazy ladies to get together with once a month to play… trust me you'll have a ball…  back to my brie… I baked it on a baking pan… that was mistake one… mistake two was not watching it like a hawk… it melted out allover… One… get a brie baking dish to contain the gooey goodness… Two… watch the brie… either way it was delicious...

Mr. Pickle and I are getting into wine more and more… we've tracked down a few whites now that we really enjoy… we're still on the hunt for reds… but we've 9… YES 9 bottles of reds to try out now after our party… I found these darling wine charms at superstore… yeah… they have some really sweet things there if you take a real good look...

Olives… I am not a fan… I'm not sure what it is exactly but I don't like the taste… but I grabbed some up to go with the meat and cheese platter that I put together...

Now this was our biggest get together yet… every other Christmas shindig we've ended up having on the same night as friend's companies Christmas parties… well not this year… we had the most people we've ever had in the house at once in the house!.. Like I'm talking 40+ at the hight of the night...

I loved it!.. only I wish I had a little bit bigger of a house to fit everyone a little less snuggly… haha… don't get me wrong I like a good snuggle… but it was a struggle to move around to the food and drink… check out the piles of footwear… this is only about a quarter of what was in the foyer… foyer… I use that term very loosely btw… for if you know my house you know how small that space really is...

I had on a few pairs of random shoes… these were by far my faves… I now want white Chucks… Santa if you're reading I saw some at the mall yesterday… my foot is a ladies size 6...

What is a party at Chateau Pickel without Red Solo Cups… Yes… the song is now stuck in my head too… 

I found this darling little gem on my camera the next morning!.. seriously we've got to start taking pictures of us together before we start our nights out…  There isn't one shot of Pickle and I from either work Christmas party or our Christmas Party…  This photo is from the end of the night… my curly curls were much nicer at the start of the night!.. Oh!.. the brown sweater I found at superstore too… I always take a quick peek at the clothes there… you never know when you might find something!.. and about the jazz hand there… I'm not totally sure why I decided to break out the jazz… 

The rest of the weekend we took pretty easy… a few drives and some resting… Pickly picked me up these… my fave candy… live wires...

We had some kitteh snuggles...

Some post party naps were had...

…and more kitteh snuggles...

I'm still experimenting… testing the waters… pushing the envelope… with what I can wear to work in a "proper" office… comfort equals leggings… now don't get me wrong I wear leggings all the time… but this one below was with much shorter shirts… hahaha that sounds really lame now that I've typed it out but I don't normally wear such short shirts when I'm wearing leggings… I call this one ski chalet cozy…

We cracked one of the present bottles of wine… well two actually this past week… and we've loved both… one was a white riesling… that came in a purple kitteh wine bottle!.. you can say my friends who know me really know me… hehe… The other one is Black Tower… It is really nice and smooth as well…

I was going to blame going out to lunch due to lack of cooking meals and making lunches on the fact that it's December and a busy month but that's not why… we are lazy in the evenings and just don't want to spend time cooking… we'd rather work on projects… chill out and snuggle!.. Luckily for us it turns into some tasty lunches… well me especially because I'm working downtown now and have access to many restaurants...

Two of this past week's highlights!?.. Beer Revolution and the Palomino… the pictures speak for themselves...

Now here I sit… Saturday morning… snuggled in a blanket in my front living room with the tree on… Christmas music playing… blogging… kitty snuggling… and I finishing 95% of the shopping that I had left to do yesterday… now I have two days to relax before a short 3 day week before I take two weeks off over the holidays… its been awhile since I've had that much time off altogether… I'm quite excited as my parents are coming and Chris has a nice little chunk of time off too… and we've nothing planned to do other than spend time with loved ones… 

Haha… now I said this weekend I've two days to relax… this is just in theory of course… because I would like to get the office upstairs up and running for real… the spare room completely prepped and ready for my parent's visit and the basement well on it's way to being gutted out… it's been a catch all for the past year… and it is bursting at the seams… a few runs are in order… a dump run and a donation run… let's see how this goes today!.. What are your plans for this weekend!?.

…of course I've included another shot of the kitteh's… how couldn't I… look at these two little devils plotting… they're growing closer every day… it's very sweet… 

Have a great weekend now and we'll chat again soon… sooner this time than the last… I promise… I've got some thoughts on the past year… and some on the upcoming year and what I have planned for the year ahead ;)

xo

Lacey