holiday hoorah-ing

it is freaking impossible to coordinate schedules with the SFAMily nowadays.  damn.

we even tried to get it together nice and early - i think the first e-mail went out in september or something.  and still, we ended up having our very first holiday hoorah without the whole group all together.  though we had a great time, it wasn't the same.  trish was still stuck out on the wrong coast, the monkey was traveling, california girl ended up with sick kiddies and weatherjen had family issues to deal with.

because of the new house of wan, i was more than happy to host the shindig this year.  i haven't been able to host in several years, but i was stoked to be able to offer up our casa this time.  so i was a happy, busy bee getting ready that sunday before christmas:

because i was still obsessed with making macarons, there were some salted caramel ones up for grabs.  and i'd just done an order for sugar cookie trees, so i made some extra ones to put out.  and i'd picked up a box of those scrumptious salted caramels at trader joe's to create my dessert trifecta.

despite the pouring rain, the rest of the gang still made the trek out to my neck o'the woods.  i was excited to see everyone, and gave those who hadn't yet been to the house a quick tour.  by the time ashley and winnie arrived, we had quite a lovely spread on the table for us to enjoy.

winnie's party cheese ball:

delicious prosciutto and mozzarella, courtesy of tater:

there were golden balls of yes - mac & cheese bites from r and porto's bakery's coveted potato balls brought by lilcee.

and this glorious heart attack on a platter from ashley: chili cheese fries topped with pastrami, straight from the hat.

i'd say it was a winner, judging by the looks on these faces.  ha!

i, of course, didn't hold back.  heh.  and yes, i rolled out the tater tot breakfast casserole again.

it was the first time this year's christmas tree actually had presents underneath it.

we had a ball, as we always do, despite our missing comrades.  it was so much fun to catch up on how everyone's doing, and i think everyone will agree that the very best part of the day was when r whipped out sonogram pictures and happily announced that she's pregnant.

oh, i'm tearing up again just typing that.  after the year she'd had, it was the most wonderful news ever, and there were lots of soggy, ecstatic hugs.  so awesome!

the hub and the girls got home as we were starting to wrap it up.  the poor teen - i'm always roping her into taking a group photo of us.  but it's not a GTG without one.  and somehow i ended up right in the middle of this one.

yay for holiday hoorah!  although i'm thinking that we should just go ahead and plan the next one now, to make sure everyone can come.  heh.

throw yo hands in the a-ir like you's a true play-er

after missing our beloved SFAM holiday hoorah last year because we simply couldn't get our shit together, we managed to find a date when a good number of us were available for breakfast on a sunday morning.  i think we were all relieved when we all arrived and were happily chatting at the table - this is one tradition that i just don't want to see end.  after a bit of back-and-forth to find a venue, i made the executive decision to bring everyone to a familiar spot:  mike & anne's in south pasadena.

i had to bring a little friend along, because holiday hoorah is where his story began.

heh.  much like the annual bridal twirl, he's also become a tradition that started from pure silliness.  gotta love it.

because we couldn't decide on one thing for breakfast, four of us decided to place our orders and then share our plates, family-style.  i mean, how do you choose between challah bread french toast:

lemon ricotta pancakes:

housemade corned beef hash & eggs:

and red flannel hash, made with red and sweet potatoes, beets, onion, and bacon:

everything was delicious as always. mike & anne's never disappoints.

part of the holiday hoorah tradition includes a gift exchange, but because we'd thrown this gathering together so last-minute, it was optional.  some of us have more time than others to squeeze in a trip to pick up something awesome.

nanette went first, opening a fabulous pocky grab bag that i was drawn immediately to.

winnie opened a nice gift set by philosophy, also an awesome pick.

karen scored a fantastic movie night set, complete with bottled mexican coke and popcorn:

i swiped nanette's pocky.

so she ended up picking another gift from the pile, which happened to be the one i'd brought.

that right there is the best set of cookie cutters ever.  i'd used mine to make some party favors that i distributed just before we started opening gifts.

(photo courtesy of tater)

i forget now what happened next, but there was a bunch of swiping and stealing and general merriment that resulted in winnie getting to open another great package - a gift certificate to my beloved dots cupcakes.

nanette managed to get her pocky back from me, which meant she got to keep it and i picked the last unopened gift.  it turned out to be this:

and it's perfect, because brother wan is a huge elvis fan and although i'd love to keep it, i think he'd appreciate it more than i will.  haha!

before we finally left, we got the server to take a group pic for us.  the angle was really funky, so it looks like nanette is literally coming out of the light.

on the way back to lilcee's house (because we always carpool whenever possible), she drove me by the house where "mr. & mrs. smith" was filmed.  and so not only have brad and angie been here, but now so has black santa.

perfection.

how much fun can you squeeze in one weekend?

well, a LOT. really!

saturday began with my cousin's daughter's baptism - you know, the one who was born a mere week before the bean. we, of course, were running late - the ceremony was set for 10:15. we thought the time was really odd, but then i thought maybe it might've been the only time available. or something.

we arrived at the church at about 10:25 and were a little confuzzled when we pulled into the parking lot and were directed by a couple of teens wearing safety vests to the adjacent lot. and then turned our heads and noticed a SHITLOAD of kids lined up near one of the buildings. great timing for a baptism - seemed it was some kind of holiday toy giveaway or something like that. crap. we parked where we weren't supposed to and strolled into the church.

our 2nd confuzzling moment of the morning came when we saw yet another shitload of folks in the church. i thought, "wow, there's a whole lot of folks here for this kid's baptism, how cool" and then realized i recognized not a single soul.

"are we at the right church?" the kid says. and i look at the invitation again and confirm that yes, we're in the right place. and then we finally see my aunt and uncle and take a seat behind them.

dudes, it was some kind of mass ceremony. there was a long ass line-up of babies being held by their parents, waiting to receive the sacrament of baptism. i'd never seen anything like it before! when the kid was baptized 12-ish years ago, it was just her - we had the church to ourselves and didn't have to share the spotlight with anybody. and then another aunt and uncle came to sit beside us, and after i expressed my bewilderment, my aunt said "this is how they do it now. they just do a bunch at one time." heh. yeah, like cattle. how special. sheesh.

and then she leaned over and said "i bet you could squeeze the bean in and nobody would even know! haha!" and i just kind of gave a half-assed smile. i didn't have the heart (or the time, or the energy) to explain that the bean wasn't going to be raised catholic. nope. uh-uh. not gonna do it.

after it was all over, we got back in the car and decided to find a starbucks before heading over to the reception. we weren't sure what kind of eats were going to be there, and we figured we'd better be prepared. yeah. and when we arrived, we were even more glad that we'd stopped first. just...yeah.

we hung out for about an hour (55 minutes longer than the kid was willing to stay, ha) before heading home. my friend A was coming over and we were going to work on our christmas cards together while munching on treats and gabbing about anything and nothing. this has turned into a regular thing for us, although last year we managed to squeeze it in a little earlier in the season. oh, well.

she brought over a fabulous little package of cupcake bites from crumbs bakery, a couple of full-sized cupcakes, and a sweet little pink & brown outfit for the bean. of course, the latter was beautifully wrapped with lots of tape and a decorative ribbon :)

the pictures i'd sent via costco.com for our cards ended up all fucked up. they cut off the tops and bottoms of my design, and this was totally unacceptable. so i worked on cutting the paper for the layers while A was able to assemble a good number of her cards before leaving for a holiday shindig with her hub.

later, the hub, the kid, and i scurried around the house getting it nice and clean in preparation for the next day's holiday hoorah with the SFAMs. and then i wanted to finish my party favors for the girls, which the kid helped me with - these are so delicious (even though they look like nipples, as the kid noted with a guffaw: these are pretzel rings filled with white chocolate and a festive m&m placed in the middle. might sound kind of gross, but i swear, they're really tasty! those pretzels are ridiculously difficult to find - locally, i can only find pretzels in the traditional shape, rods, or "snaps" - or pick the round pretzels out of bags of chex mix. i've resorted to the latter in the past, but i really wanted to have the original rings that i'd first tried at a friend's party (her SIL made them but stubbornly refused to reveal where she got them, even when i threatened to beat it out of her). so with the magic of google, i found a company in chicago who sells them via www.mybrandsinc.com and voila - i had a case of 6 POUNDS of pretzel rings at my doorstep. eeeverybody's getting these for christmas this year!

and then it was sunday morning and time for the SFAMs to descend upon BFE - otherwise known as my home. most of the girls live out on the west side, so i was particularly grateful that they were willing to come out for our holiday gathering. and the monkey has a great recap here, so i won't reinvent the wheel! instead, i'll share a few pictures of my own, including our holiday decorations.

this is what i put those nipple treats in:

the bean spent most of the hoorah snuggled in the wrap on my chest, kangaroo-style. she slept through almost the entire shindig, but managed to wake up at the tail end long enough for nanette to hold her for a bit.

we also had a lovely assortment of holiday cookies sent to us from our friend madisen, who'd recently moved to florida and wasn't able to join us. and i[dot]j brought a magnificent spread of krispy kremes, plus sugar cookies decorated by her sweet hub.

and a few more comments:

• yup, that's a container of bacon. bacon is good. i like bacon. so i took a picture of it.
• that's one of about 7 different group pics, all taken with different cameras. heh.
• tater's fruit cups were so pretty! again, while i don't eat it, i can certainly appreciate the beauty of it.
• that's the bean in her festive attire, before i wrinkled it all up by carrying her in the wrap.
• and, yes - that's last year's white elephant score, sitting all comfy on the sink. i didn't fill him with any soap, but it was fun to see him again.

lastly, thanks to monkey for my fabulous hot chocolate pot. i so love this thing! i can't wait to whip up some dee-lish cocoa in it. YAY!!

the white elephant in the room

the annual SFAMily holiday hoorah came a little late this time around.  we had a hell of a time trying to find a date that folks were available in december, and so we decided to just wait to have our GTG.  besides, it wasn't like our merriment would expire along with the holidays. 

i was pleased to host again, even though i live out in BFE compared to most.  plus, it gave me an excuse to keep this little fella out a little longer than the rest of the christmas decorations (which we'd wasted no time in putting away - literally the day after christmas):

as always, this group is no slouch when it comes to food.

this year, we expanded the group to include the OC contingent.  this resulted in a shortage of chairs, and poor courtney ended up...here (but just for a few minutes, till we worked it out).

after we'd stuffed ourselves silly and hooted and hollered over stories old and new, we gathered in the living room to have a little fun with the white elephant gift exchange.  this year, there was lots and lots of nail polish (and these little packages were also the hottest items, being stolen over and over).

the monkey had fun opening several packages in the bag she'd selected.

poor ashley got sucked in by the pretty unicorn bag that the monkey brought, and what was inside?  a shake weight.

aline was the lucky recipient of my own awesome contribution - a hot pink forever lazy with matching socks.

 poor tater.  she got stuck with...this.  but she accepted her fate with a smile.

after it was all over, everyone had a little fun with that shake weight.  it seems to bring out some pretty fantastic facial expressions to all who touch it.  comedy.

and of course, the group shot.

plus a bonus silly version.  i couldn't stop laughing at FGD's idea of a "silly face."

before she left, i made the monkey pose with her awesome kate spade bag.  i love that bag, it's so damn cute.

another holiday hoorah on the books!  my friends are awesome.