Christmas with the girls, and a Griffin Gathering

We had such a fun weekend! I spent the day at Scott's with my Mom, Aunt D, and Beverly before having my nails done with Jill and Hollie. Later, we re-joined Mom for dinner at Truffles. David and Wesley had a nice man-date, and we all waited on Kim and Nick to arrive from Nashville.
On Saturday, we all got ready for Lauren's first party - her bridal tea at the Ritz Carlton Buckhead. It was so nice - the food just kept coming ! Afterward, we took lots of pics on the stairs.

The Bride to Be with all of her girls!

 After the Ritz tea, us college friends went to Lauren and Renee's for our annual Christmas swap. I remember us doing this while living in the ADPi house - back in 2003! And we've carried on the tradition ever since!

Lauren and Renee really went all out for our girlfriend swap!

Look at all those presents!

Renee, one of the awesome co-hosts!

A few years ago, we added a Dirty Santa swap - with ornaments! Most of the time, we never trade because they're all so pretty! I opened Lauren's ornament - the adorable Rejoice ceramic ball. I love it!
Hollie drew my name, and she hooked me up with the most fun goodies! I drew Meredith, and sadly she couldn't be there and we missed her! But, we'll see her in a week and I will give her her goodies then!

After a big day of the bridal tea and the girly swap, we all ended up at Big Ketch with the boys for dinner.

And later at Red Door for some ski ball! I love the look on Kim's face, and Hollie's smirk in this pic of David getting ready to bowl.

 On Sunday, David and I were sad to say goodbye to our friends again. But, we were happy to get ready for the Griffin Christmas 2011. Every year, we do a Dirty Santa Swap and its so fun!

The festive entry way at David's Aunt and Uncle's.

David's cousin Kathryn and Uncle Steve planned the best menu for our Christmas party.

A few of the apps

These two cutie pies loved swimming together and playing outside.

As my gift to everyone, I drew Grandmother's house

I found these fun frames at Ikea

And had them ready for the Griffin Christmas

As part of my Dirty Santa Swap gift, I included a big jar of Grandmother's hot chocolate. The recipe has cocoa, creamer, Splenda, instant coffee, cinnamon, and nutmeg in it.

This weekend, David and I will be driving to Hawkinsville for 4 (yes, four!!) Christmas parties/family gatherings...stay tuned for more on those! :) Merry Merry!

A Christmas Dinner Party

David and I asked a few of our Gainesville friends to come have dinner at our house last Sunday night, before everyone gets too busy during the holidays. Here's a few of the highlights!

I love it when we can all sit together...I think we sat around the table for almost 2 hours on Sunday night!

We had Mulled Wine and Hot Buttered Rum to drink. The Mulled Wine smelled so good! And the Rum was like drinking dessert! :)

We had cream cheese with blue berry topping and apricot preserves....

Artichoke dip with thin bread points....

And red pepper pesto bites all before sitting down to a dinner of tomato pie, green beans, and ten-hour chicken. I had Pomegranate Granita for dessert - it was like pomegranate shaved ice...super refreshing!

My awesome friend Callie brought me this amazing cookbook/entertaining book - I was so excited!

And my friend Laura brought this adorable Mrs. Claus wine bottle outfit on a delicious bottle of wine!

And we were so sad to see our guests leave, and that I completely forgot to hand them their party favor - Grandmother's homemade Hot Chocolate recipe. Looks like I will be making Santa deliveries of my own later this week! :)

Thanks to our great friends The Fowlers, The Smithsons, and The Hughs - we had such a fun night!

Christmas Season Kick-Off

So many of our friends were heading to the SEC Championship, and lots were in town for the game. So, on Friday night, David and I had dinner in Atlanta with the Muller-Stones, The Wages, the Kings, The Hills, and Renee. We had dinner at Haven and it was wonderful! We didn't want to leave our friends! But we had to because....

So happy the Kings were in town!

 We got up at 5:30am on Saturday morning to buy toys for the Gainesville JayCees Empty Stocking Fund. David and I were surprisingly chipper!

But, Callie, Brian and Colby were definitely feeling the early morning wake-up!

It was so odd to go into WalMart at 6am when its dark, and walk out into the sunshine at 9am - 3 hours later!

 After we both took naps, I got ready to head to the Georgia Theater to watch the game with David before the Heery's Christmas party at Rusty's house.

I made these amazing cookies for the party. They use whole wheat flour, canola oil, almonds, and maple syrup instead of sugar. They're easy to make, and healthy too!

To balance out the healthiness of the cookies, I made Paula Deen's spinach and artichoke dip....not quite as healthy, but delicious!

The crowd was so excited at the Theater - until the second quarter. And after half time, it was just plain sad to watch.

Last year, Rusty and his wife Ginger didn't host the Christmas party because his oldest son was about to be married - they had a lot going on! So, this year, the tradition continued and everyone was happy to celebrate the holiday season together.

This huge Christmas tree was such a beautiful sight in their entryway!

I am just sick that these are fuzzy...taking pics in front of a well-lit tree is apparently tricky.

That's Deanna, Me, Chad, Suzy, Rosemary, Jeannie, and Molly - The Heery's Too Girls!

Rusty and Ginger's house is just beautiful, and Ginger had everything looking so festive!

Emily, Me, and Molly in our fur!

 David and I left the party around 11, and headed back to Gainesville. It was such a nice evening! On Sunday, we slept in and spent the rest of the day getting ready for and hosting a Christmas dinner for our friends Callie and Brian Hughs, Laura and Brett Fowler, and Jamie....so sad Colby couldn't be there, but she will be next time. Stay tuned for pics of the dinner party, and to my B&B blog for pics of our festive house!