Christmas 2011 recap (Part 1)

I hope every one of you reading this, had a wonderfully spectacular holiday weekend! We sure did. Like always, Christmas Eve was at our pad and while I am still trying to clean up from that  ordeal, we had a really great evening! Hubs and I got up early to finish cleaning our place, prep the food and set up the tables.

Since we don't have the biggest of spaces, our dining room table for four wasn't going to work (there were nine of us eating and ten total by the end of the night), so I bought a folding table that came with four chairs to go with it. I wanted to pretty up the tables:



{Table 1}

 

{Centerpiece: $1/pack of small ornaments at Target piled into glass bowls/vases. Sooo easy!}

  

{Table two: The "kids" table}

I knew I wasn't even going to try and use real plates and have to clean all that  up at the end of the night! I bought a package of Vanity Fair durable plates for dinner, and found these decorative plates at Target for a whopping $2 to jazz the white ones up! I thought that was so easy and the smaller guys doubled as appetizer plates, as well. Cha-ching

What do you think of my easy and affordable centerpieces? I already had the vases and bowls on hand so all I had to do was fill away! I loved how clean they were (not a fan of clutter, people) and really how could I beat that price?!

Those silver/damask votive holders were also an entire dollar (!) at Michael's. They had a huge clearance on their sparkly, blingy ish. All of this loot was for sale back when I was planning my sister's bridal shower, but we didn't have the budget for all of it at the time. Figures.

For eats, I def went overboard. I will always blame my mom and her Italian blood for this! But her motto (and mine now too, I guess?) is, "I'd rather have more than not enough"... And more than enough was what we had.

Appetizers:

Stuffed Mushrooms

Bruschetta

Veggie Trays

I was going for this thanks to pinterest:

Via

Ours:

Jason had two jobs: The steak and veggie trays. He did the first tray (above) like I asked and also made this one to look like a Christmas tree (all his idea, folks):

Main Course:

Ny Strip Steak

Baked Mac n' Cheese

Roasted Green Beans w/ Balsamic and mushrooms

Dessert:

Red Velvet Cake

My camera broke (when we threw our ugly sweater party ::sigh::) and I was too busy running around to get any real food photos on my crappy BB, but I think ya'll know what a steak and some mac n' cheese look like, yes?!

All and all, it was a really great night and as our first family shindig hosted as husband and wife, I couldn't have asked for a better day. Well, maybe some cooler weather. That would have been nice!