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I [heart] Davids · Holidays

Holidays

Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.

I’ve come up with a way to display our Christmas cards that I’m really happy with. I draped garland around the entrance to the Living Room and the cards hang from little clips attached to the garland.

Christmas Cards

Detail of Christmas Card

On another crafty note, Cristin was admiring my tree skirt. My secret to a great tree skirt? Go find a festive holiday tablecloth that’s large enough to fit your needs. Cut from one edge to the center and cut a small circle out of the center. Then stitch up the cut edges so it looks neat and doesn’t fray. You can get a much larger skirt for a better price than a traditional tree skirt and there are lots of patterns to choose from.

Presents!

Presents is what Christmas is all about, right? I got all of our presents wrapped up this weekend and put them under the tree. About half of them are being shipped out so our tree will be bare by the time Christmas rolls around.

Here they are, looking pretty!
Presents under the tree

And here’s my favorite wrapping job – it looks like a big Christmas cracker!
Pretty Package

Waffle

The Christmas decorations at Waffle House make me happy. So does the food.

Waffle Lights

Waffle Lights2

Whaaaa?

Taken September 17th at BJs and Lowe’s. Honestly, people.

Xmas Trees

Xmas Aisle Lowes

Xmas Aisles

Photos from the Luau at Mom and Dad’s.






By and by, New Year’s resolutions are kinda stupid and clearly ineffectual for most of the population, so I don’t know why I even bother, but here I am, anyway, making 4 resolutions for 2007.

1. Eat more vegetables. Dave’s response to this was “Even more vegetables?!” but I really don’t think we eat enough veggies. Fruit’s no problem, and we eat plenty of meat, lord knows, but we need to figure out how to add more vegetables during snack times and at breakfast.

2. Be nicer to my boss. Or rather, figure out a better, more effective way to communicate. I know there’s a trick to getting the most out of him, but I keep responding with my gut reaction, which is not the most effective.

3. See our friends more. We tend to stay at home a lot, or if we go out to dinner, we don’t think to call and invite our friends. It seems we still struggle to get enough “us time” even though we don’t have very much committed “friend time.” Yesterday, I mentioned via e-mail to a friend that I wanted to go check out Tasca Brava with him, his wife and his wife’s parents who live out of town. The parents were still in town for the holiday so we ended up going last night!

4. Cut down our junk mail. I’m going to start contacting credit card companies and catalogs so that they’ll stop sending junk mail our way. I’ve already contacted Restoration Hardware, Capital One, and GO Magazine.

Last year, my half-hearted resolution was to use a recipe from every cookbook I owned. I half accomplished it. What are your resolutions?

Some great photos of our New Year’s Eve party at Erics.




Friday morning we arrived in Cleveland to visit with Dave’s family. I love them. They’re all so nice, and they seem so normal compared to my family. I love visiting here, too.

When we arrived, we headed straight over to Skyline because we were “good and hungry.” Ever had Cincinnati-style chili? It’s an acquired taste, but once you’re hooked, you’re hooked! It’s a very finely textured chili that is cooked for hours and hours. It’s made with spices like Cinnamon, which we always think of a sweet, but it’s not really sweet at all, just the connotation of sweetness. It’s served over top of angel hair spaghetti, and topped with mounds and mounds of very finely shredded cheese. You can also get it topped with onions and beans, but that spoils the beauty of a perfectly-made Jumbo Three-Way. Ah, I’m getting hungry thinking about it!

After everyone filled up at Skyline, we went back to Mom & Dad’s and a few hours later opened our Christmas presents! The kids were going crazy, and they had a great time opening all their presents. So did I!

Audrey, Carson and Riley dive into the gift piles.

Eric proudly displays his NC-Raleigh Browns Backer T-shirt, which says “I bleed orange.”

Vince, Leslie’s new boyfriend, with Leslie, Audrey, Riley and Eric.





Dave with presents, our new 12 bottle wine chiller, my new flat iron, Dave’s bakeware from Granma, and my Demeter fragrances!

Mom and Gene were scheduled to come over for Christmas dinner, but Gene was sick and couldn’t make it. So, it was just Dave, Mom and me.

I made:
  • Turkey
  • Stuffing/Dressing
  • Baked Acorn Squash
  • Sweet Potato and Apple Stuffing
  • Mashed Potatoes
  • Cranberry Sauce

Mom made marinated chopped cucumbers and tomatoes, and Dave made a pumkin pie. I also set out a little teeny portion of cheese and crackers with grapes as an appetizer. We had the BV Coastal Estates Pinot Noir to start with and a Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais after that.

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