Happy Friends-giving!

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on our lives and think about what we are most thankful for.  For most of us, we spend this time travelling and spending it with our family and loved ones.  Then there is a minute to nap and we are off to the races until Christmas.

There are only four short weeks between these two holidays which are spent preparing, getting our Christmas Part-ay on and spending time with family.  I'm looking at my schedule the next 5 weeks and realizing that we are going to be crazy busy until after the New Year.  I'm sure you can all relate! 

During these weeks it's hard to find time to spend with friends.  And thus, I plan an annual Friends-giving Dinner to give us an opportunity to spend time with those peeps that don't have to love us.  I plan it the weekend prior to family events, so it gives us five full days to crave turkey again. 

Just in case you don't know, I love to host these types of events because I love to cook.  A lot.  This is the time of year I go into crazy-hostess-it's-best-to-stay-out-of-my-way-mode.  Last year it was insanity trying to cook everything...from scratch...with 3 contractors in my kitchen.  Thankfully, this year I would be the only one in my kitchen.


Knowing the next few weeks would be busy, I chose to decorate for Christmas the Friday evening before Friends-giving. I strategically added in a few gourds to tie in both holidays using some leftover chrome spray paint.  I don't want to deprive friends of some fall-ish decor.  I only snapped one picture of one gourd on a white plate.  You get the idea.

I left this arrangement of faux pumpkins below by the serving area.  Oh yeah, this is the third chalkboard in my house #Chalkboardoverboard.  And that awesome, rustic cutting board was a birthday gift from my parents.  Cutting board...sheesh...I mean gorgeous wooden disply pedestal.

In an attempt to lessen the load of stress this year in the kitchen, I requested that my friends bring a dish to pass.  Except it had to be homemade.  Yes, I have high standards.  Thank goodness my sweet friends understand me.  I whipped up a pie and fresh applesauce first thing in the morning.  Washed and prepped the turkey, made cranberry sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes, roasted carrots and the bacon-wrapped date bites (which you heard me mention before last weekend during Justin and his roommate's Friends-giving).  I'm not even a bacon fan (gasp!)and those little bites are very easy to put together and heav-en-ly.  If I were a better blogger you would be graced with a ton of food porn to drool over.  I will try harder in the future.  All I have for you is the poorly put together pie that tasted aaaah-maz-ing (if I don't say so myself)...

I had so much time left over after prepping dinner and cleaning that I was able to indulge in some DIY...

Sheet music - I can tell you're shocked ;)

This wreath is actually the reason why I was seeking sheet music for the last 2 years.  I found the project on this blog 23 months ago - and I finally recreated the look in a matter of 60 minutes.  I did not wrap the Styrofoam wreath form in burlap like in the tutorial mostly because I don't think anyone would ever see it.  Now you know my secret - the back is ugly, and I don't mind.

Back to the Friends-giving...Last year we started a tradition of deep-frying the turkey.  Which is amazing because it 1)keeps the oven open for other dishes 2)doesn't heat up the kitchen to 400 degrees 3)only cooks for an hour...and the best reason...it's very manly to fry a turkey so the boys are happy to be outside with the fryer - and out of my way.  I keep the fire extinguisher within close reach just in case the boys get a little crazy.

Friends-giving was a success yet again.  It reminded me how thankful I am for everything - I've never been as happy as I am today thanks to friends, family, health, my pups, my ability to work and create and for the one guy who gives me a reason to smile every single day.

In addition to some great food and friends, Justin and I also spent some time decorating this weekend.  Friday was spent focusing on decorating the mantle where we gathered up some items I already had.

- Branches from the backyard
- Old window I picked up from a garage sale for $3 a couple years ago
- Candlesticks, one I received as a Christmas gift last year and another I found at an antique store (that is the true mercury style and just so happened to match the new re-created look that was given to me as a gift from my parents that they got from Pottery Barn)
- 3 Trees I inherited from Grandma (we moved Grandma out of her house and into senior apartments back in August - and she insists that she isn't going to decorate anymore)
- Burlap tree skirt from a coffee sack (which was previously being used as a table runner)
- Christmas ornaments I made here
- Reindeer I made here

And I added a few stockings I just found from HomeGoods & Target over the weekend.

o

The mantle isn't done yet.  It needs a little splash of color before the holidays are over.

 

On Sunday Justin and I headed over to Royal Oak to check out their annual holiday parade.  The parade was fun, but it didn't compare to the excitement that followed as we were leaving.  I had to introduce Joe (about 5 1/2 months old) to this beautiful little guy (an 8 month old Newfoundland that already weighs 120 lbs) - holy big dog!! I bet my dog food bill is less than his :)
 

I loved this baby newfie...but loved him even more when I heard his name.  His name is Lord...wait for it...Stanley Cup. What?!  I stood in shock for a minute then went into total baby-dog-talk as I exclaimed that Joe's name is Joe Louis!  They are soul-friends!!  A 6 lb. dachshund and a 120 lb. newfie have more in common than we thought!  Whew, sorry for all the exclamation points.  It was an exciting day.

 

And it was about to get even more exciting...

 

My family had this awesome tradition growing up where my two brothers and I each had a 6' Christmas tree in our bedrooms that were ours to decorate as we pleased.  On Christmas morning we would visit each of our rooms as a family and we then distributed the kids gifts to each family member.  Then we would go to the family room where Santa filled our stockings, and then finally we would visit the family Christmas tree in the living room where we opened our gifts from our parents.  I still have that Christmas tree that I decorated each year - and while it has some amazing memories, I felt it was time to get a grown up tree. 

 

I originally had plans to graduate to a real tree this year.  On Saturday I transplanted two little spruces to the urns on my porch and was left with an itchy rash on my arms - which went away after washing up.  I realized I must've inherited my mother's allergy to pine, and not wanting to experiment with a possible full month of allergic agony, I decided to adopt a fake tree, especially after seeing the selection these days.  Did you know there are trees that actually look real? And are even spiny? It's called molded tips and they are so real that they fooled me!  Trees never really go on a great clearance at the end of the season and since I've shopped around for a year now I felt comfortable splurging to get one I know would last a while.  We found a 7 1/2' tree that fit our list of exactly what we were looking for...
 

I was so excited to get it home and fill it with all my new ornaments I found at the end of the season last year.  They all went right into storage after I bought them so it was like opening up two dozen Christmas gifts!  Our new tree is looking a little bare yet, and will see more attention once I find some time.

This guy is my favorite.  He is a metal bird I picked up from PB last year and is about 3" high with a 10" wingspan.  Sorry for the horrible picture.  I had to reload the operating system on my computer and have yet to add the photo-editing software... As a side note - always buy the virus protection.

Even though I've replaced the 6' tree I will still pass the tradition down to my children one day.

Let the holiday festivities begin!

Mary