I need help

I have been enlisted to make an appetizer for our annual Christmas dinner with our family friends. This is the first year that I have been required to bring anything to the dinner besides my merry self, and I'm beginning to feel the pressure.

I need something with pizzaz and flourish. An appetizer that says, "Yes...Sarah made me; and I'm still going to taste delicious even if she did stray from the recipe." I need a WOW factor.

I've done some basic researching in order to gear myself up for this event, and I feel like I'm coming up cold. I'm trying to steer clear of the bruschetta, cheese and cracker, chips and dip sorts of appetizers and really go for a BANG ba da BOOM situation. Any suggestions?!?

No...I probably won't be making these wine-poached pears. But aren't they pretty!?

Holiday Genius

Hats off to my favorite Christmas season commercials of 2010. And no, this doesn't mean I want an Acura.

Post Modern Gingerbread Haus

The Chestnut, She's a Fickle Beast

Did you know!

Did you know that if you received all of the gifts listed in the "12 days of Christmas" song, you would come away with 364 gifts?! Here's what I want to know...why isn't it 365 gifts? How ideal would it be if you played this game and got one present every day for a year! (except for that one, sad day when there is nothing left to give.) This would be a fun experiment. I wonder what the cost of actually pulling this off would be...

I could see things adding up around the maids-a-milking. Do you know how expensive milking cows are?!

all I want for christmas...

This Christmas forget the socks, ties, shirts, and other slightly generic presents that can tend to define the boxes under the tree. No offense intended to anyone who has bought those presents, is planning to buy those presents, or who have received those presents. They are fabulously practical. However, doing some online researching, I've found some great new gift ideas!!

The Lighted Bocce Set!

How great is this? Now I can fulfill my lifelong dream of playing bocce ball 24/7, 365.

The Goldfish Hotel!

Let your goldfish live in STYLE!! Seriously, he's probably only going to live for 24 hours anyway, so give him a chance to explore some posh digs.

The porcupine paper-clip holder!

Love it. Reminds me of Narnia, in an office-y sort of way.

Ninja-Bread Men!

A personal fave. What could make gingerbread men more exciting? Putting them in COMBAT mode with each other and their sweet Ninja moves!

The World's Largest Gummy Bear

Another Fave! Five pounds and 12,600 calories of gummy goodness! And if you're thinking about getting one of these for me, don't bother. I already have one. A red one. It's awesome.

Happy Shopping!

Yummo!

So after all that smack talk about us having the best food at Thanksgiving...in the rush of excitement to eat said food, I didn't take a single picture of the feast! However the mental image alone of peeling, cooking, and mashing 23 lbs of potato's should be somewhat rewarding.

One of my favorite features of our Thanksgiving is actually the Christmas decorating frenzy that takes place after the meal. We create a line of people from inside the attic down to the living room. This year the line probably had upwards of 25 people...pretty awesome, and SO efficient! So while I failed to capture food images, I DID get a picture of my cousin Clara placing the angel on top of the tree.

Clare-Bear

Mom and Grandpa!

We typically have several dogs present at the Thanksgiving meal as well. Below are the poodle Kipper, and the Shelty Jake. Unfortunately the Golden Retriever puppy Elway couldn't sit still long enough for the photo shoot. There was also a random chihuahua (NOT PICTURED!). This year it wasn't TOO hectic...I was kind of hoping Aunt Pam would bring her Pit Bull and two German Shepherds...

Jake and Kipper

Jake's skinny legs vs. Kipper's poofs

Grandma's new favorite Christmas decoration

Next, we're off to go dashing through the snow in a two mule open sleigh with Two Below Zero Sleigh Rides!