This Weekend's Christmas Spirit

Good morning, blog friends.

♥

I can't imagine a better way to begin a Monday morning than a writing a weekend recap full of Christmas preparation, friends and family, cupcakes, and music. And two movies. Plus, usually when I click that "Publish" button I switch gears and start getting ready for work, but I have this week off so I won't be playing the role of Office Manager today. Instead, I'm going to spend my day making lasagna for tomorrow night's Christmas Eve gathering and tying up the loose ends of Christmas preparation. It's the best way to spend a Monday, I think.

 

I ended up embellishing 10 dish towels to use as gift wrapping this year, and I finished tying all those up this weekend. I'm really happy with how they turned out! I used some of the towels to wrap around loaves of bread, and the others to tie up some brownie mix. {recipe here}

 

Saturday night was spent enjoying the company of friends and family at an annual soup party. This year's festivities included a house concert by our friend, Rachel and my nephew, Ryne. It was so cool to hear these talented young people sharing their gifts. I loved every bit of this!



Same night/same party... We also celebrated our niece Kaycee and her recent graduation from Arizona State University. I volunteered for cupcakes, and Kaycee chose red velvet.

I don't go to the movies very often, so it's really unusual for me to see two in one weekend! We saw "Hunger Games - Catching Fire" on Friday night. Carrie and Doug loved it, I fell asleep. :o\  Then yesterday Carrie and I saw "Saving Mr. Banks" which was an utter disappointment in so many ways. I think we both were expecting the lightheartedness of our beloved Mary Poppins, but it was actually a rather depressing movie. Pity.

 

Our friends, Samantha and Adam came over yesterday and it was so nice to spend some time with them. Sam and I stamped a few dish towels, and our guys made sausage from venison and pork. I'll spare you the graphic photos, but let me tell you, it was an interesting process. Adam is a pro, and Doug thoroughly enjoyed himself. And even though I don't eat venison, I did try some of the finished sausage and it is the BEST I've ever eaten. Hands down. We are really excited to share some of the sausage with our family at tomorrow night's Christmas Eve gathering.

 

So that, in a nutshell, was our weekend. I need to click that publish button and get busy. There's lasagna to make, a few gifts to finish wrapping, and Christmas to celebrate.

 

I feel so grateful for this blog space and for those of you that visit regularly.

I'm sending heartfelt wishes to each of you for a very Merry Christmas.

God bless us, everyone.

♥