Christmas Eve

Vana and Joe hosted a Christmas Eve potluck at their house this evening! Serious pose:



Kayla and Derrick brought a cheese and fruit platter, shaped like a Christmas tree!! So cute!



Dennis of course brought chipotle dip.



Hi, Pete and Dad! Dad is pretending to be asleep.



Kate brought some Christmas books to give to Jasper!



He had fun unwrapping them.






Farro using Mer's foot as a pillow.



Rodrigo called Dad, and we all chatted with him! Hi, Rodrigo!



Joe made enormous Cuban sandwiches.



This is Yang trying to take a photo.



Two sets of matching outfits!



Happy Christmas Eve, Mom and Dad!



What a feast!



Back by popular demand, Yang's green bean casserole! I made mushroom lasagna, and Mer made a sweet potato casserole!



Hello, deliciousness!



Group photos!



Jazz hands!



Duck lips!



Serious.



After dinner, it was time for White Elephant!



Kayla got this amazing burrito blanket!! But will she be able to keep it?






Little Kate grabs a gift.



Cheryl stole the burrito blanket! Spoiler alert: Ben and I eventually stole it for good and took it home. Yesss!!



Derrick opening a gift!



Dad choosing a gift.



Jasper got a little chainsaw as a gift and it was a HIT. He wouldn't stop playing with it for the rest of the night!!



Merry Christmas Eve, y'all!

Cooking Club goes to Little Fish

December is such a busy month, that we usually skip having a Cooking Club. This year, we decided to all go out to dinner as a group! We went to Little Fish and shared a bunch of things. Delicious cheese board:



Smoked salmon dip:



Meatball pizza:



Mushroom pizza (this was the winner!):



Nachos:



Everything was delicious! We should do this more often.

Tracy and Tina's Christmas Party

Tonight was Tracy and Tina's annual Christmas Party! I made two kinds of spanakopita: traditional feta with spinach, and wild mushroom with blue cheese.



Bob surprised Megan with a champagne toast to congratulate her for graduating from grad school!



Cheers to Megan!



Me and Billie!



We have a lot of glitter on our faces.



Hug pile!! That is TJ, Joe, Tracy and Bob.



We had a lot of fun with Tracy and Tina's coaster faces.












Laughing so hard!









Ben went home and got Felix and brought him to the party. Felix didn't get what was so funny about the coaster faces.



Felix and Summer!



Group photos!






I'll end this with a gif of Billie shimmying. She really captured the spirit of the party!

StewMac holiday party

Tonight was the StewMac holiday party! They had a fun photo booth.

Cupcake Commotion

This weekend, Mer, Mom and I went on our annual overnight Christmas shopping trip to Easton in Columbus! We love to wear our matching cupcake hats, because we get SO many compliments. They cause quite the commotion!



The trip is about Christmas shopping, but it's also about EATING! Yesterday, we had lunch at Northstar Cafe. They have the best fish sandwich!



Then after a long afternoon of shopping, we had a cocktail at Smith and Wollensky!



Then we had a seafood dinner at McCormick and Shmick's!



And today we had wedge salads and french onion soup at Bon Vie.



I really love this special annual tradition! It's nice to have some quality family time with my mom and my sissie. 

Happy birthday, Mer!

To celebrate Mer's birthday, the fam went out to dinner at Jackie O's! Ben and I shared fish and chips:



And also a chicken parmigiana sandwich with some roasted beets!



After dinner, we headed to Mom and Dad's house for birthday cake. Mom and I made a pit stop on the porch swing.



Happy birthday to Mer!



Make a wish!






Yummmmmm!



Hope you have a great year, sissie!