Happy New Year!

I can't believe 2016 is here......so I am a little late on this!  My oldest graduates from high school this year!   That is just crazy.  Time flies by!

Anyway here is a quick recap of our NYE treats and then our late Christmas with my inlaws.  I wish I had taken more pictures but I didn't.

For New Year's Eve we had a few snacks:
Sausage cheese balls
Turkey meatballs
Bunless chili burgers
Shrimp
Lil' smokies
Veggies & ranch
Hot wings
Loaded potato skins
Chips

We did work stuff during the day then after work stuff was done we watch the new Vacation movie for the second time.  The first time we saw it at the movie theater.  After that we switched back and forth between the NYE tv specials and a football game.

Then since my inlaws were out of town visiting their daughter and her husband we had a late Christmas with them.

We had a nice dinner.  I cooked up a yummy leg of lamb, mashed red potatoes (I had cauli mash), and veggies.  I also made french onion soup and left the bread out of mine. After dinner we had the zucchini cake from the Trim Healthy Mama cookbook and I served it with strawberries.  The leg of lamb recipe can be found HERE.  It is a Martha Stewart recipe.

Then I finally put all the Christmas stuff away this past week.  I had a little help from a protesting dog.  Dozer wanted the closet area for himself.  Took a few cookies to get him to move out of the way!!

That's it it was all really low key and very enjoyable!! :)

Recap of Christmas Day

The dogs woke me up at 5:30am like usual.  They have their schedule and they stick to it.  I got up fed them, let them out and then enjoyed some quiet time by the Christmas tree with a hot cup of tea!

Once the boys and hubby woke up they all came downstairs to the family room and started opening their presents.  

After opening all the presents it was time for some brunch.  Hubby and I enjoyed a cup of brandy slushy, kids had OJ.  We had eggs, shrimp, bacon, sausage and orange cinn. rolls. 

Then for dinner they all requested steak fajitas!  YUM!!

Then it was time to relax!!

Merry Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!   I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

Here are some previous Christmas pictures.

and this years picture again:

Living Room Christmas Decorations

Decorating has been slow going.  I have the tree up in the living room so far.

The flower pot I put it in this year was spray painted green and I redid it in a antiqued stainless spray paint.

Before

Then I got it ready and made sure I checked all the lights and none of them worked so I had to run up to the store to buy new ones!

I ended up getting some larger C7, I think, LED warm white lights from Menards.  I really like them! 

The bell wreath hanging up was red, silver and green.  I just gave it a quick coat of spray paint.

Then I went to hang the garland which I couldn't find anywhere!  I have no idea where I put it when I took it down after last Christmas.  So back to Menards to buy some more.  I really like the new one better than last years anyway!!

Nathan is in charge of the Christmas countdown.  He insisted his kangaroo help as well!

Christmas Fireplace

Here is this years fireplace all decorated for Christmas!

Here are some of the ones from years past:

2012

2013

 2014

2015

Family Room & Front Porch Christmas Trees

Here's the family room Christmas tree:

I added the red snow flakes this year.  Other than that it's about the same as last year.

The front porch is pretty much the same as last year as well.

Christmas Day

We had a lovely Christmas morning opening presents with the boys.  Then later in the day my inlaws came over for dinner and more present opening!

Here are a few pictures.

We got up and made a fire in the fireplace, turned on some Christmas music and started opening presents.  Then came waffles & movies.

We are all looking forward to the new year now!

Gold Tray

Last week I spray painted a plastic tray I bought a few years ago from Target.   I used spray primer for plastic and then a quick dry gold spray paint.

Before

After

And a few other pics of the lights & candles!

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