Christmas Day 2011 at the Bruns house

Sorry this post is coming so late after Christmas, but I haven't been feeling good and been in bed for a few days...........I wanted to post anyway, even though Christmas was so last week...

I think I was up by 8:30 or 9ish on Christmas Day. We don't have and small kids at our house so no need to be up extra early (lucky me!)

Friends and family started coming over around noon and we spent the day eating things like bacon wrapped little smokies, cocktail wieners, meat and potato knishes, ham and cheese ball, and veggies and dip.
I didn't remember to take pics until things were half-eaten.
This was our appetizer buffet:

Amber made this really cute gingerbread house. It came out really good!
(next year we are SO having a ginger bread house making party!)

Around 5:30, we put the Christmas Dinner buffet out:

Roast beef, Honey baked ham, mashed potatoes & gravy, baked mac-n-cheese, green bean casserole, cooked carrots, deviled eggs, and rolls n butter.

 OHMYGOSH!! It was all so good!! I cooked the roast beef a little longer than I wanted to but it was still tasty and moist. Everything was so good, I had 2 huge platefulls of food.
Here is what my Christmas dinner looked like:

I love the pictures of everyone sitting around eating all the food I cooked, it makes me feel good:

Around 7 or so, we cleared away the dinner foods and began to put out the desserts. I have made a dessert buffet on Christmas for about 15 years now. I guess it's my own tradition now, and it's my favorite part of Christmas!!

We had 3 kinds of pie (pumpkin, apple and choc creme), and we had baklava, cupcakes, brownies, pudding cups, jello cups, fudge. and chocolate chip cookies. Everything made by me, with help from my sons this year:

The food turned out fantastic! Our family and friends are what makes the day so special, Tim and I really enjoy having everyone over on Christmas Day.

This year turned out to be a really good Christmas for Timmy and I.

What a fun, fun holiday, I really love Christmas!

I have some bigger plans for Christmas next year, I'm already making plans.....

Christmas Eve at our house

On Christmas Eve, we spent the day preparing for our big Christmas Day party.

We removed the coffee table from the living room so there would be more room for babies and kids and people (and Tim shampooed our living room rug!):

My son Allen came over and made his hard cracked candy:

He added sugar and corn syrup to the pot, and boiled it until it reached the hard crack stage:

Then he added red food coloring and cinnamon flavoring. He poured it into the pans, scored it, and let it harden:

Later, he cracked the candy out of the pans and dusted it with powdered sugar:

It came out really good!
this batch has not been dusted with powdered sugar yet:

I also made my baklava:

And two apple pies:

And I made two pumpkin pies:

When my son Chris got home from work, he pitched in and made these pudding cups:

 He used chocolate and vanilla puddings and he layered them in the cups:

Some other things we made on Christmas Eve that we didn't take pictures of; chocolate creme pie,  brownies, fudge, cookies, and cupcakes. It was a full day  (and night) of baking!

We also set up a table in the kitchen for our Christmas Day buffet:
The Christmas platters are ready for appetizers!

And we set up a table for gingerbread house making:

I think I finally went to bed around 12:30 or 1, and I was exhausted!

I couldn't wait to wake up the next morning -- Christmas Day!!

Tomorrow's post = Christmas 2011 at the Bruns house! 

Merry Christmas!!

Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, from our family to yours!!

Our Yearly Christmas Ornament

Every year at Christmas time, Tim and I get a Christmas ornament together.

This year is our 4th Christmas together, and our 4th ornament.

This year we got a typical glass ornament, although this is a tiny one.

Here are the ornaments we picked the last 3 years we have been together:


2008- Our first Christmas together:
Glass snowflake ornament

2009:
Wooden picture frame ornament

2010:
adorable penguins ornament

All of our ornaments have the year on them (some are marked on the back of the ornament). We have a special place to display our ornaments in our living room, and they stay up all year 'round.


2008 was our first Christmas together, and also the year we moved into our house together. When we were shopping for our 2008 Christmas ornament, we came across this one, and we just had to buy it. When we found this, we had only lived in our house for a few weeks:

At the top of the gold key, it says "New House" and toward the bottom it says 2008.
The little door spins around and has a plain red door (no wreath) on the other side. Love this!!

This Key ornament is proudly displayed with our yearly Christmas ornaments in our living room next to our front door. More on our ornament display coming in another post.

It's Christmas time at our house!!

We don't have any room in our house for a big Christmas tree, but we have plenty of Christmas going on here!

First, I have to start this post with a picture of my Christmas nails! I love em!

It's Christmastime!!! My favorite time of year!!
When Tim and I moved in to this house in 2008, we didn't have a single Christmas decoration.

We both had to start over that year, and so far we are doing pretty good together!
Here is some of the Christmassy stuff we have collected in our 3 years together.

Most of what we have is from garage sales, thrift stores, after-christmas sales, or DIY projects.
Nothing fancy here.
This is our $3.00 "Greetings" doormat:

And a new wreath I made for our front door. The one I made a few years ago was too big to fit between the front door and the glass door. This smaller one is perfect (and SO cute!):

A close-up of the little ornaments and tiny bows I used to decorate the wreath:

Garage sale Christmas throw blanket that Tim and I both love. It matches our decor perfectly:

Here is the old door wreath. It has found a place on our living room wall for now. It is decorated with gold bows, ornaments and flower sprigs. I love the all-gold decorations, it looks pretty good in our livingroom:

A picture of the old gold wreath hanging on the living room wall.
That little fake tree is our only Christmas tree, and it is also decked out with gold bows and gold ornaments:

Sparkly gold flowers, green leaves, and a cinnamon candle:

An adorable ceramic elf boot:

A Lucite choo-choo train candle holder. It looks like it's made of glass:

DIY- I painted a 99 cent wooden candle plate, added a candle and red bow:

This ceramic Holly candy dish was part of a set I found at a garage sale.
I paid $3.00 for the whole set:

Large ceramic vegie/dip tray is also part of the set:

And two Holly Candlesticks complete the set. This set was a nice find for 3 dollars:

My dad sent us a basket of yummy Florida oranges and grapefruits!

A large silver candy dish, (needs more candy!):

Candlesticks, and our little gold tree:

My DIY apothecary jars, I just LOVE these!
For Christmas, we filled them with M&M's and cinnamon red-hots:

My favorite "Earth" incense and a gold sparkly PEACE sign stay in our living room year 'round:

A little knick-knack I found at a garage sale:

Another garage sale find, a ceramic gingerbread house candle holder:

I got these 2 little angels a few weeks ago, they are GOEBEL ceramic figurines and they are about 40-50 years old. They are only about 3 inches tall and they are so cute! On Christmas Day, I'm going to give one of these to my best friend Christina so we will each have an angel.
Best-friend angels:

And last but not least, I just love this glass serving dish. It's pretty good sized, bigger than a large dinner plate.
It was $4.00 and is one of my favorite Christmas garage sale finds this year:

Looks like we have Christmas in full swing over here at the Bruns house!
The cooking and baking begin in 48 hours!!