Home for the Holidays

This is one of my favorite times of the year as we roll from one holiday to the next. Here are a few highlights from the Blaylock household:

THANKSGIVING

Our Thanksgiving break turned out to be one of the most relaxing, productive, and rejuvenating four-day weekends in a while. We stayed in DC and celebrated the holiday with Seth and Sunny since they were state-side for once. We started the break by eating soul food with friends and ended the break by finishing our final (of three) closet organization project. Each day we found the perfect balance of seeing friends, doing projects, eating food, and just relaxing. I have so much be thankful for.

Ben had the honor of carving the turkey.

Don't be fooled, Sunny was the master chef who actually made the best turkey ever.

We had more food than we could possibly eat, including five pies for 10 people. Stella was the queen of Thanksgiving. Even though you can't tell from the picture, she's been SO excited about every holiday this year. Very cute.

BEN'S BIRTHDAY

Our four-day weekend was followed by a pseudo three-day weekend for Ben's birthday on Dec. 3rd. We had each scheduled to take the day off of work for his big day, but I ended up having to work in the morning. Nevertheless, we had a successful birthday weekend. A bunch of friends came over on Friday night for his actual birthday. It was really great to see everyone. The menu featured "Ben's favorite things," i.e. cheat foods such as Tysons chicken, pot stickers, gummy bears, caramel brownies, etc. We then spent Saturday at a Korean spa, which is now my new favorite thing. So economical, so cleansing. Ben even managed to get me to stop by a puppy adoption that day for a bit of "window shopping." Oh, the things we do for love / birthday weekends...

Our friend Aaron was kind enough to bring an ice cream cake for Ben's Birthday Bash.

HANUKKAH a.k.a CHANUKAH

We hosted our 2nd Annual Hanukkah Dinner party and I dare say it was an even bigger hit than last year! Per tradition, we invited some of our favorite Jewish friends and a few choice gentiles over for pot roast, latkes, challah bread, green beans, jelly donuts, cider, and a mean game of dreidel. The highlight of the night was learning one of our guests is the uncle of the most recent Amazing Race winners, the Pious brothers.

Never let the flame die! Should've taken the picture at the beginning of the night.

I made it out of clay...

Fact: leftover challah bread is awesome for French toast. What's not quite as awesome? Adding Tysons chicken, cheddar cheese, turkey deli meat, and feta cheese to your Sunday morning French toast.

Last but not least, it's beginning to look a lot like... CHRISTMAS!

We finally put up our tree and decorations tonight!

Hung with care

"Andrea, do not open unless you want me to touch your eyes with acid." And so begins the countdown until we can actually open our gifts in peace.

Happy Holidays, everyone!