Hunt left this past weekend to take Harper to visit his parents for a few days over his break, so Winnie and I found the house to ourselves. I knew that I would be anxious about being away from Harper for that long (longest since she was born), but Hunt was totally up for the adventure of the daddy daughter trip, and by all assessments it seems like it was well worth it. Once they got there safely, I definitely relaxed a bit and frankly really loved a few days of peace and quiet and not the usual hussle and bussle of our usual routines. It was really nice to be able to run around without a schedule and have a few days of not being needed for anything at all.
Knowing that I would get lonely with an empty house, though, I planned a lady's evening for some drinks and apps to commence after the neighbors were all done with their respective nighttime mommy duties. On Saturday, we actually got a large snowfall so I was able to kind of just hole up in the house and be lazy while getting things ready to have people over which honestly felt like such a luxury. I wanted it to be a low key and relaxed get together, but also was excited to have the excuse to do some holiday inspired Pinterest recipes. It ended up being a super fun night with the girls!
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| Pretty much should be my motto. Frankly, I'm not sure why I ever pretend to drink anything else since this is really all I ever want to have. |
Reindeer Bubbles
A preparatory trip to Trader Joe's yielded the pomegranate seeds that the recipe called for so I didn't end up having to substitute raspberries as I had originally planned. I did the rims with cookie decor supplies, and they turned out super cute!
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| Attempt at showing my new red lipstick.. This one is Bite- Rioja which is a very matte, very red color that I added some Clinique Very Cherry gloss over top |
Sparkling Cranberry Brie Bites
These were my new recipe attempt for the evening, which looked and sounded super simple, but I was a little skeptical that they might be like the Blue Cheese apricot bites from Thanksgiving that turned into such a thorn in my side. Fortunately, these were a few steps of process but not labor intensive or frustrating. The sparkling cranberries were a fun discovery that I will definitely pull out again for holiday parties. The cranberry and brie combo was amazing.
When I was searching for the recipe again, I just saw this version with the relish added and mint garnish- looks a little more polished and might be fun to try out for next time around!
I also did my usual Heath fruit dip, a spinach/artichoke dip and then got this ridiculously amazing Carmelized Onion dip from Trader Joe's that Melissa introduced us to on Thanksgiving. It literally is like the best thing ever, and paired with Kettle Maple Bacon chips was ahhhmmmazing. We finished the entire bag and basically two containers of dip- I want to feel bad about that, but I really don't.
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| When your bottles equal your guests, it was probably a good party. |
