Eat, drink, and be very merry!

This past weekend we had an early Christmas party at the house with some friends and family. 

Now that we are all getting older, it is harder to get everyone together in one place for the 25th, so we have been trying to celebrate a week before. It was fun hosting and Chris and I are so lucky to have such great family to help pitch in to make it easy and seamless. 

In our dining room, we set up the hutch with plates and utensils for dinner and had all the food set up on the dining room table (that is finally built yay).

I found these red burlap bags at Michael's (2 for a $1) and used them to hold the utensils and napkins.

Now that the party is over, I hope to re-purpose the bags in all kinds of ways.

I'm all about what is easy when it comes to hosting, which is why we used paper plates and napkins. There was no spending hours in the kitchen scrubbing dishes and these (that I found at Home Goods) were festive and worked just fine.

We had a bar set up in the kitchen but I also set up this bar in the family room.

I love using what I already have! 

The gray straws are left over from our wedding and the red ones are left over from Chris's 30th birthday party this summer.

Santa Spritzer anyone? 

I just mixed champagne, seltzer, and cranberry juice.

Here's my amazing mom (who I reference in practically every post)!

How cute is this newest addition to the family?

 Thank you to all our friends and family that made "the trek" up to CT to celebrate with us!

Merry Christmas!

- Caitlin