It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I decorated for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, I could not wait to get in the Christmas spirit! I have always wanted to do a 1950ish vintage Christmas, and this was the year I made that happen. All my decorations were in pale pink, green and blue with accents of gold and silver. 

My decorations were pretty during the day, but they really came a live at night when the Christmas tree could really glow and the twinkle lights made all the glitter on the ornaments shimmer. I loved spending my holiday evenings basking in the low glow of the Christmas tree, there isn't a more magical type of light.

I had a fun time wrapping all my gifts this year. I put on a marathon of Christmas movies and went to town. I had the Griffin family this year, they share my love of kitties, so I found the cutest kitty gift tags to use on their gifts to make them a little extra special. 

I fan girled hard when I saw these dainty chandelier ornaments at the store, they were some of my favorite Christmas finds this year.

Louis and Dinah love when I put up a Christmas tree. Dinah loves to be naughty and climb up the tree and make all the ornaments fall off. Louis loves to sit and admire it from a far. They both love hanging out underneath it, I can only imagine how magical that must be for them.

I have been on the search the last couple of years for plastic crystals, and this year I finally found some! Hobby Lobby had an entire wall of plastic crystals, all different patterns, shapes and sizes, and for suuuper cheap. I loaded up on them, I am now prepared for any and all occasions that call for gorgeous, hanging crystals.

When I had gotten all of my decorations up, my cute parents said they wanted to come see them in person, so I had them over to dinner one evening. I don't often cook elaborate meals, since it's usually just me and cooking big meals is exhausting, hard work. But I do enjoy cooking, so I used this as an opportunity to try out some new recipes, and I must say, they all turned out rather delicious.

I added this rustic bar cart to my home collection a couple of months ago, and I am obsessed with it! It's perfect for serving drinks and appetizers.

We had cranberry, apple ginger spritzers with homemade ginger syrup and balsamic cranberry and goat cheese crust-inis for starters.

I also wanted to learn how to make sugared cranberries so I made a batch and used them as garnishes on everything haha

The Menu:

Balsamic and Thyme Pork Tenderloin 

Creamy Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes 

Buttered Green Beans with Shallots

Orange Lion House Rolls with Homemade Orange Glaze

Raspberry Mixed Green Salad with Candied Almonds and Cranberry Ginger Dressing

Chocolate Peppermint Cake

As much as I wish I could say I made this gorgeous cake, I didn't, I picked it up at Whole Foods. They have an amazing bakery and I always want to buy everything they have in their coolers. I was so excited to finally have an occasion to buy something from there! I picked this cake because of how pretty it was, they told me it was a chocolate vegan cake. I wasn't sure what that would taste like, but I went for it anyway. I bought some of that special, comes-around-once-a-year peppermint ice cream to go with it. Turns out chocolate vegan cake is amazing!! It was so rich and chocolatey and moist!

Bethy's Beautiful Bohemian 30 + 2

This gorgeous, smart, talented, thoughtful, creative, loving woman turned 32 this year and threw a party of a life time. She had planned this magnificent party for when she turned 30, but then she got the best birthday gift in the world, she found out sweet baby girl was on her way. So, Bethy postponed her party a couple of years, so little V could be one of her treasured guests, thus a 30 + 2 birthday party! 

All of these stunning photos (except for those occasional phone selfies) were taken by Season Atwater.

Bethy found an amazing venue in Holiday that is a studio for guitar lessons in the day that can be rented out as a hip event venue at night. A handful of us spent the day turning Bethy's enchanting vision of a bohemian oasis into a reality. We brought in all our own furniture, rugs, pillows and decorations. One of Bethy's many, many gifts is being able to take any space and envision it's potential for anything.

Anyone who knows Bethy, knows she has a big heart and is always looking for a way to make a difference in her community and the world. She went back to school to get a degree so she could do cancer research, she has worked in a lab at the Huntsman Cancer Institute and has done amazing work up there. She cares so deeply about others and it's one of the qualities I admire most about her. So, in true Bethy fashion, she asked guests to bring donations for refugees in lieu of gifts.

In the entrance, there were bohemian headdresses for all the ladies to wear to the party, as well as roll on essential oils, so guests could choose a scent to wear for the evening.

My mom arranged fresh flowers in eclectic little containers that were placed all around the venue, she did such an amazing job!

Culinary Crafts catered the event and did and outstanding job. Bethy had a very distinct menu in mind and was worried she wouldn't be able to find a caterer that would be able to turn her vision into the buffet of her bohemian party dreams. She discussed her thoughts with Culinary Crafts and they totally delivered! They presented a gorgeous buffet, full of beautiful food.

A stunning cheese plate

A huge honeycomb 

A couple of Bethy's favorite food are hot dogs and pulled pork sandwiches, so she served slider versions of both.

Dessert consisted of pumpkin chocolate chip and red velvet cupcakes, all topped with creamy cream cheese  frosting and individual servings of caramel pudding.

I came in my best bohemian ensemble 

There was a fortune teller who had a line out the door of her tented corner the entire night. She read people's cards as well as their palms. 

Culinary Crafts also provided a bartender that mixed up speciality drinks all night. There were a couple of signature mocktails guests could request, such as these super fun Shirley Temples with cotton candy garnishes.

Beth and Reece created their own photo booth that took six photos and would either print them out or email them to guests. It was super fancy, and was busy all night long.

After most guests had arrived, and we had all enjoyed wonderful selections from the buffet, Wild Wonders arrived with some special honorary guests. 

Wild Wonders is an animal rescue and education organization that offers interactive, educational animal encounters and programs. Our sister Jenny found this awesome organization last year and had them come to her daughter's birthday party, to see pictures from that fun event CLICK HERE.

Bethy got to choose 8 animals to attend her party, she choose a:

fox

chinchilla 

hedge hog

boa constrictor 

cockatoo 

bearded dragon

skunk 

ring tail

Here's an example of the awesome photo booth print outs

After our time with the animals, they mingled with the crowd for about an hour, then it was time to light the candles and sing to the lovely birthday girl

Red velvet, the birthday girls favorite!

When the bar tender was packing up, he handed out giant cones of the extra cotton candy

my favorite place to be, in between my two carr sisters

The birthday girl got a special extended reading with the fortune teller, they got in deep.

I got my cards read late in party so it was a tad bit rushed since the fortune teller was only booked until a certain time. But it was enlightening, I felt she answered my question and offered good advice

A few friends couldn't help but bring some gifts for the girl of honor along with their donations

It was such a fun and memorable night, Bethy is definitely the worlds best party planner. It was also wonderful to spend a night celebrating such a special person who we all love and cherish, Bethy deserves to be celebrated and I'm so glad I got to be a part of her magical evening and watch as all her loved ones showed up to support and celebrate her. Happiest of birthdays to you, Bethy, I love you to the moon and back.