Parties, parties, parties!

This is the first time I've had a second to sit down and blog since Sunday. It has been nonSTOP - has anyone else had crazy holiday festivities?! I think having a husband who was also born and raised in Atlanta adds to it - we've got 2 sets of high school friends, college friends, work friends, and families all in the same city. Believe me it's a good problem to have!

So a very delayed weekend recap is in store. Saturday we had Jill's tacky Christmas party which was hilarious! If you can't tell from the pictures, I dressed up as Mrs. Claus and if I do say so myself, was a pretty big hit! I was decked out in my mother in law's Mrs. Claus outfit that she wears to the Ritz every year (they invite her to read to the children every Christmas at tea with Santa). When I decided to be Mrs. Claus I didn't tell any of my friends what I was going to be, so when I walked in they all cracked up hysterically!

The one food picture I captured at the party were these salami roll ups that I contributed. This is the easiest "no cook" recipe ever that I got from my friend Bridgette - take a piece of salami, put some cream cheese in the middle, put a banana pepper on top of that, and roll them up. Easy peasy!

After dominating a keg and some jello shots, we all headed to Front Page News for to continue the festivities. Here are a few other pictures from the party that I loved:

Needless to say, Sunday morning came faster than I would have liked. John and I squeezed in a quick 3 mile walk with Sam before we headed over to his mom's house for her extended family's Christmas gift exchange. I'm really glad we walked because it turns out that was the only exercise I got all weekend. Now that I'm sick I haven't gone to the gym once yet this week either, but I'm kind of giving myself a break. I figure, I can either sit around and be mad about it, or realize that I only get sick about once a year AND the holidays only come once a year, so if I miss a week of exercise so what?

At my mother in law's house, we ate cheese and crackers, chili (there was meat and veggie, I opted for the veggie), salad, and chocolate cake with peppermint ice cream (my fav!). Then we had not one but TWO rounds of gift exchanges (one where we were each assigned a person to get a gift for, and one was dirty Christmas). I have to say I think I contributed the best dirty Christmas gift...a snuggie! John's grandma snagged it and LOVED it! It was so cute.

Here's a picture of John's mom and siblings:

Sunday night was another holiday party from 6:30 - 9 with a bunch of John's high school friends, who are probably my favorite people ever. Sadly, I did not think to take any pictures. If I'm going to change up the format of this blog, I guess I better start getting used to having my camera with me at ALL times, right?!

So that's it for my weekend. My cold is actually getting worse, probably because I've been burning the candle at both ends. I'm going to really try to take it easy Wednesday and Thursday, because Monday (and Tuesday is turning out this way) was equally as busy as my weekend, but equally as fun! (More on that in a post coming soon). Now I'm getting ready to head to Brio for a Christmas dinner with John's dad. More food and drink, coming up!

Hope you are really enjoying the Christmas week, and not working too hard! (really, who is working hard now?) Cheers!