Weekend Holiday-ing

Good Monday morning to all and to all a deep breath. Christmas will be here in 16 days. Are you ready? Santa's asking. 

Linking today's recap with Holly and Sarah as per usual here on a Monday. We had a very merry weekend with lot of decorating and holiday fiesta-ing, beginning Thursday night with our holiday wine club event. 

The dinner featured a Spanish style menu and excellent Spanish wines. This was dessert and it was muy deliciosa! Olive oil tres leche pancakes with fresh berries and shaved chocolate. Yum! 

I am all about dessert. I'm the person who always looks at the dessert portion of a menu first. 

Friday morning dawned with several bins holding various bits of decor still waiting to be unloaded sitting in the middle of the hall, the dining room table under wraps, literally as that's where we wrap, and my Christmas dishes still in the cupboard where I store them as I haven't had time to make the switch yet. I had plans to get to all of that Friday but we had some errands to run in the morning and the day just flew right on by.  

We had tickets to a holiday show in the nearby city Friday night with dinner reservations beforehand. I also wanted to see the gingerbread houses on display in a downtown hotel lobby so we needed to leave the house by 4. 

It was frigid (for South Carolina) so we dressed for the weather. Hubs bought me this coat in Canada while chaperoning a show choir trip for daughter1. She was in the 9th grade. 

Quebec, 2003

In case you're new here she's now been married almost ten years and has three children of her own, so the coat's not new. Still a favorite though!  

England, 2024

Also time is a mystery too big to comprehend. 

There were almost 40 entries in the gingerbread contest and it was fun to see all the many bakers handiwork. Pecan halves for the rooftop...so clever! 

There was a category for professional bakers and another for home bakers, and some really cute designs. 

After voting we made the short walk to a fabulous dinner (Bricktops for locals reading here)...

In one of those small world happenings Daughter1's mother-in-law and sister-in-law came in to the restaurant with a group of friends right as we were finishing up, and were seated just a couple of tables away from us. So fun to run into them. 

The show was terrific. This is our third year attending and we look forward to it every December (Holiday at Peace, again for the locals reading here) 

It's put on by the symphony, but there's always a ballet number, a little humor, and someone reading The Night Before Christmas. There's a guest soloist each year too and this year it was Siri Howard. She happens to be a local resident and also a Broadway actress with a most angelic voice. She's beautiful to watch and her wardrobe was fabulous.  

After the show we walked across the street to see the lights in front of the AC Hotel. So many people were out and about, the city was aglow with holiday sparkle, and everyone seemed in a festive mood. 

Saturday we had yet another non-holiday errand to run before we hit the grocery store. Hubs doesn't usually accompany me, but since we were already in town he tagged along. He paid while I reorganized the bags (it's what I do) and I think was a bit shocked at what groceries cost. Aren't we all???

I'm trying to finish up my cards, so I put a movie on Saturday afternoon while I stamped and addressed. Have you seen One Little Secret (Netflix) with Lindsay Lohan? It's super hokey but I liked it. Kristin Chenowith is in it too, and she's always adorable. 

Saturday night was our neighborhood holiday party, a lovely dinner at a nearby club. There was a photo op, a jazz trio, and lots of laughs with friends who just happen to be neighbors. 

We have some non-neighborhood friends coming for dinner tonite so I buckled down Sunday and knocked out more decorating, all the laundry, made a meatloaf for our Sunday dinner, baked a dessert for tonite's dinner, addressed a few more cards, and prepped the cranberry jalapeno dip to serve as an appetizer tonite. 

While I did all that hubs wrapped. He was super Grinch-y about it, but he got it done and I'm glad. I need to get a couple of boxes mailed pronto, and these unwrapped presents have been piled in my bedroom closet mocking me every time I pass them by. 

In other happy news, our two favorite teams made the college football playoffs this weekend, which you might say was the proverbial icing on the cake. Star on the tree? 

So what kind of fun did you get into this weekend?