Christmas is Coming!

Tonight we had our first annual Christmas party! I am really glad we decided to have it early, because it just seemed to get everyone excited for the upcoming month - despite exams! We had both Jordan and my Bible studies over together so there were over 25 people there! For those of you who have been to our apartment...it is not meant to hold 25 people. Nevertheless, I think this is the 4th time we've had that many. Oh well, what can I say, we're extraverts!

So, to prepare for the party we decorated for Christmas and I cooked a lot today. We went to Michael's and caught the tail end of all the black friday related sales (I had already bought a box of ornaments from there on black friday, which was of course the first place I headed. A side note about Michaels: the one in Mechanicsville is FAR and AWAY better than the one in Christiansburg. I feel jipped. The scrapbooking and beading sections were immaculate. I will be returning at Christmas. I just want to know when this glorious transformation occurred, because it was certainly not like that this summer while I was wedding planning.) That was a long rabbit trail. We got garlands and lights and we had fun filling our cart with cheap things. I think we've decided not to get a Christmas tree, because really, we don't have anywhere to put it, and we'll be leaving in 2 weeks. I am pretty sad, since it's our first place, but I guess it's good because I invested the money into decorations that we'll be able to use again and again!

The house looked so pretty after we finished getting everything together. I was so happy. I love Christmas. My favorite is when we do things like that together - I like when we're a team. 

I also did lots of cooking! I made homemade bbq sauce for meatballs (not homemade - so I had to do somethin!), shrimp dip, peanut butter blossom cookies, Christmas brownies, gingerbread cookies, and the girls and guys brought fruit and veggies and apple cider and egg nog. It was wonderful. And oh so yummy.

Then we did stations once everyone got there, and we made a gingerbread house, gingerbread Christmas tree, painted Christmas frames, decorated cookies, and made gingerbread cookies. The boys got very creative with these!

The party was a hit, but, the biggest catastrophe of the night happened just before the party. I got back from campus at 6, so, I needed to get the barbecue sauce cooking, and take a shower, and it was 6:20 - the party started at 7. The sauce needed to simmer for 5 to 7 minutes, so I thought, great, I'll take a short shower. But as soon as I got out, I realized I had not taken a very short shower. So I told Jordan to turn the sauce down to low really quick, but the sauce had boiled over and gotten into the burner - all over the place! He quickly put it on another burner and thought he'd turned the burner off. But when I came in there a few minutes later to put the shrimp dip in the oven, I set the plastic top down on the burner (thinking it was cold - I have no idea why) so then of course there was burning plastic in a matter of seconds, making our whole house smell of it. EEK! Somehow I managed so get clothes on, dry my hair, get makeup on, and get all the food set out before 7, but I was worried. 

Hope you all had a great Tuesday!

I'm definitely getting into the Christmas spirit! 

Here are the pictures from the party, there are in reverse order so start from the bottom!

some of the Bible study girls

the boys' creative cookie designs. they also made a dinosaur that everyone was impressed with.

in the office - with no seating because we ran out! they were painting frames

who ever heard of a gingerbread Christmas tree!? I thought it was cute.

the lovely gingerbread house makers.

our bakers. 

decorating cookies!

This is the dilemma with the wreath, though. What do I do with the cord!? It looks awful but I don't see any other choice! :( Any suggestions!?

This wreath was supposed to hid the ugly thermostat in the middle of our living room wall!

We got those black things in the corner for 75 cents at Goodwill the other week! I am going to hang them eventually, but Jordan put them here for now.

These are all the ornaments I got for $7! There are 80!

this actually isn't from the party, but I made it on Sunday for a friend and I thought it turned out really nice! I made a bracelet too :)