Getting in the holiday spirit

It's funny because it really doesn't feel like December to me. Perhaps because snow and cold have been replaced by 70 degree days. Also, there aren't nearly as many Christmas lights here and no hoards of tourists looking at window displays. They do however have a "Trail of Lights" in Zilker Park that I'm hoping to check out next week. Sam and I are also hoping to plan something special and holiday-like for Christmas Eve. It will be our first year spending Christmas Eve without family, so perhaps we can come up with a tradition of our own. We haven't exactly narrowed it down yet, but my guess is that it will center around food. 

In the meantime, to get in the holiday spirit, I went to a craft making party at the aptly named Craft. Normally the place functions as a crafter's paradise. They have tons of supplies that you can use, and you just pay by the hour to use stuff and thus avoid shellacking your own house in glitter. Given the sheer amount of crafting materials, I think I would find going and trying to figure out what to make to be totally overwhelming; however, for the holiday event (in addition to free drinks and cookies) they had makers come and lead workshops, so you could just pay for each gift item you made. They had screen printing tote bags, making bath salts and scrubs, wood burning magenta, and several other activities. Theoretically you were supposed to be making Christmas gifts, but I just made things for myself (unless…does anyone want some cedar magnets with plants and balloons burned into them?). 

An action shot of wood burning. We used stamps as patterns and then just follow the lines with the word burning tool. 

I also made a Christmas wreath to spruce up the front door. It was something on impulse. I saw some other girls doing it, and their wreathes turned out so pretty. It seemed easy enough, but I think they were wreath-making ringers because mine turned out a little more special. I think I didn't anchor some of the spruce down enough, but I decided it has character and I like it. 

The fruits of my labor

On Saturday night, a friend hosted what is apparently her fourth annual Home Alone party. She and her  roommates show the Christmas classics Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. To complement the cinema, they serve cheese pizzas (everyone theoretically could have eaten their own), hot cocoa, and ice cream sundaes. Your basic makings for a food coma. Now I'll admit, I'm not personally a huge fan of Home Alone or slapstick comedy in general, but watching it this time I could appreciate some of the occasionally subtle points in the screenplay as well as the very humorous John Candy cameo. However, it certainly doesn't unseat Die Hard as my preferred needlessly violent Christmas movie. 

I appreciated that they bought a bunch of tiny pizzas instead of a few large ones for authenticity. 

There's still a few more weeks til Christmas, but I wanted to share one more photo. Sam and I went to a holiday party for an organization I've been volunteering with. For some reason because he and another guy were standing in front of the tree at the party, one of the people who works for the organization decided to take their picture and tweet it out as a summary of the party. I thought it was funny because Sam has never worked with them and came along as my plus one, but I also just think it's a cute picture.

We didn't get a tree this year, so this will have to do!