#14 - Cook and host Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner

I'm not sure what it is about hosting a family dinner that is a "ride of passage" for a female, but I was very excited to! I'm sure I'll go into more detail later, but it's not nearly as stressful as people make it out to be. It was actually a fun, family event for us and a welcomed change to the chaos that a move and redecorating can cause.

So on Christmas Eve, Adam and I hosted my family for lunch. My family includes my mom, granny, brother and sister in law, uncle and aunt, and Adam and I. Crystal, my awesome Sister in law, brought her dad which gave us a total of 9 (which is probably why it wasn't very stressful - i wasn't feeding an army...)

So here's some pictures... because those speak better than words :)

 Adam and I have a high table with only four chairs, so we "splurged" on these $45 card table and chair set from Walmart. It was the best way for me to have a table in time for everyone to sit at the same place. Watch out craigslist because I am officially looking for a "real" table :) Here's a close up of the place settings. Yes, I used disposable plates and napkins (I wanted it to be festive, and our dishes are blue, brown, and yellow)

 

This is a picture of Brian and Crystal (my brother and sister in law) with Adam and I.

Love these two and I love this picture!

 

Steve and Donna (my Aunt and Uncle) brought the ham (from honey bake) and I picked up a turkey (from honey bake) I was not crazy enough to attempt cooking meat on my first attempt at Christmas dinner... I was, however, crazy enough to host dinner at our home we had just moved into the previous weekend...

 

Yummy sides - notice everything has cheese on it...I did not make all of these! It just happened that we all picked things that had cheese.

 

 

 

More sides, I bought this yummy pasta salad in the center from 12th Street Deli. Mom brought a pasta salad on the left and we (by we I mean Crystal) made some deviled eggs.

 

Yes, my husband is always first in line and first to eat.  

 

Well that's it. Another 30 before 30 in the books. Maybe next year, the kitchen will have a nice facelift, maybe a "real" table and plates, I could attempt to cook meat... but really that's not what hosting is all about - It's really about the fellowship of all those awesome people sitting at the table!