NYE

Ringing in the New Year once again! Unfortunately, December 31st delivered miserable weather so Steph and I were a bit derailed from our plans of partying downtown. We instead went to a friend's house and celebrated a little more low key. I can't complain when there is Catch Phrase involved though! Hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year's, here are a few pics from mine:

Christmastime at Home

I was lucky enough to take a really long break at home in Maryland this year for Christmas. I got to see almost everyone I had been missing, albeit for not nearly long enough. Thanks to everyone for making time to see me!

 

First up was a Christmas Eve rondevous with the Devines to meet Kelli's baby, Gregory. I, of course, did not remember to get a pic of him before he went to sleep, but here is his mama and I:

Christmas day with all the Bourne cousins:

Christmas day with the fam:

Christmas day with Grandpa and Grandma:

Then, I was able to drive up to NJ to see Christine, Ben, Abby, the Noodle, and all the Furgiones! Here is Abby, Teeners and I having fun with my new iPhone camera:

 Favorite niece!

 

 My Noodle!

Extra bonus: Kait was in AC with her fam so we went over to have some lunch with her, Chris, and Camden (due March, yay!):

All of us ladies in Atlantic City after lunch:

After NJ, I was able to make a trip into the city to see my fave lifeguards, but I haven't seen any pics from Miss Grace, so I'll have to add to this post soon! So happy to see everyone for the holidays, miss you all already!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party 2012

After a 3 year hiatus, I went to Duck’s Ugly Christmas sweater party again this year. As always it was a great time with Apogee home brew, white elephant gift exchange, and of course ugly Christmas sweaters. I had planned on wearing one of my Mom’s exquisite Christmas sweaters that I borrowed (permanently) a few years back, but it ended up being about 75F that night so I opted for my Christmas tee. If you don’t get the reference you need to check yourself.

Me with the lovely couple that took the One Direction Biography book that I had won in the White Elephant gift exchange off my hands (she has a young daughter, not terrible taste in music):

Me with the hosts!

Merry Christmas!!

USWNT vs China

The US Women’s National Team came to Houston in December and played at the awesome new Dynamo stadium downtown. As soon as this was announced I rounded up some of my fave soccer homies and got 3^rd row tickets. The seats were amazing and the ladies played awesome as always; Beat China (at least at soccer we win).

Go USA!

Jaxon's 6th Birthday Party

Next up on the kiddo birthday train was Jaxon’s 6^th birthday. His awesome parents got him a giant bouncy castle, outdoing themselves every year seems to be the goal because this one had a basketball court and a giant slide. His birthday was Avengers themed so I made Captain America’s shield in cupcake form.

They turned out pretty good once I finally found those darn white stars. Seriously, every time I need a specific decoration it is nowhere to be found in stores. I can’t believe Jaxon is getting so big/old (and how have I become old enough to start making statements like that?!). I’ll include this gem to show him when I met him:

And truthfully, this was probably more like a few months after we met him since we were babysitting. Craziness!

November and December Subscripton Boxes 2012

Well it's time to sum up the last boxes of 2012, hope you enjoy!

December Birchbox

 

My November Birchbox was missing some of the items it was supposed to contain (they gave me 100 Birchbox points to make up for it) but my December one was pretty cool. It contained Klorane Dry Shampoo (can never have enough dry shampoo), Benefit It’s Potent eye cream (pretty good but isn’t good enough to replace my Mario Badescu eye cream), Harvey Prince Hello perfume (actually pretty good stuff, contemplating purchasing), the Balm Hot Mama eyeshadow and blush in one (not super into this), FLO fragrance atomizer (super cool-you pour a little bit of perfume into it and can take it with you on your travels so you don’t have to worry about cracking your glass bottles- which I’ve done recently), and a $50 gift card for Rent the Runway which I will probably never get around to using. Overall a really great box, I like more than half of it and the total value was $37.80 for a box that costs $10 each.

November Goodies Box

This box was filled with snacks, my favorite! I think I ended up liking every single item in this box. My favorite item was the American Vintage Wine Biscuits that I ate with cheese while sipping wine. The pumpkin spice tea was also an amazing pick me up at work when it was really cold (for Texas). They also threw in a canvas tote for grocery shopping. Still loving the crap outta this $7 box!

December Goodies Box

Another big winner full of tasty snacks! I could not get enough of the apple chips, veggie crisps, and cinnamon sugar popcorn. I’ve had the sun cups before and they’re still delish. All around cannot complain about the massive yumminess of this subscription box!

November My Glam Bag

I am officially discontinuing this subscription after this month because I don’t need two beauty subscriptions and I love the Birchbox way more. This month had a big winner in the Balm Meet Matt(e) eye shadow. I use it as a soft eyeliner when I'm not using liquid.

December Glossy Box

Glossy Box had a really great sale on their December box so I bought it and then cancelled the subscription. I got a couple of nice items, I really like the Forest Essentials Luxurious Ayurveda Bath and Shower Oil because it makes my winter skin feel super hydrated. The Zoya nail polish was lovely, but I already have an identical one in my collection (isn’t that always the way?). This box contained a lot of products and very healthy sizes. It would be a nice one to try out for a while, but I’m trying to cut back on my subscriptions.

Let me know if you've tried any awesome boxes lately!

Avery's 2nd Birthday Party

December seems to be a very popular birthday month for the nuggets I know. I went to Miss Avery’s birthday the first weekend in December. Already 2 year old, insanity! I made some red velvet and chocolate cupcakes for the event and Amy did an awesome job with all the snacks and decorations. Happy Birthday, pretty lady!

Friendsgiving 2012

So it appears that I’m now increasing the gap between posts from 1 month to 2 months, my bad peeps! I could say that I’m going to be better, but that would be a lie so we’ll just roll into all the things that I’ve done in the past few months. Since my last post was from before Thanksgiving, I’ll give you a little looksee at our Friendsgiving celebration first. My friends Randi and Joe were kind enough to allow all of us Thanksgiving orphans over to their house for some turkey, football, and booze. Perfect day. I made the same turkey I’ve been making for the past few years and everyone brought tons of sides and goodies. It was excellent and I ate way too much, as it should be. Here are a few pics in between (and during) noshing and boozing: