A Christmas Party 2013

Every year since I moved out on my own I've been hosting a Christmas party for my family.  It started out as a very simple get together at my apartment where everyone managed to SQUEEZE into my tiny living room.  Now there is much more room and  I get lots of help from my husband (it's especially nice to have help with the food since I don't really enjoy cooking... I'm more of an "out to eat" or "order take out" kind of girl)!

This year it was snowing like crazy a few days before and continued on the day of the party.  It looked so pretty and Christmas-y outside and put us all in the mood.   The kids are always excited since our party is early in December and the gifts they receive are usually the first ones of the season.  I usually have some sort of game, but this year, I decided to have Christmas crafts.  Do you remember poking holes into oranges and creating designs with cloves?  Oh, they smell so good!  Everyone also created a "scratch art" Christmas ornament.  I bought them from Oriental Trading company, but I remember making scratch art projects when I was little.  We had to color the entire paper with rainbow colors and then completely cover it with black.  Then, we used a toothpick (or a pen cap) to scratch off the black.  It was fun and creative.

I hope you enjoy taking a peak at my family Christmas party.
Merry Christmas to all of you!!

PS  For my photographer friends...  some of the pictures were shot with flash (ew, I just hate flash photography) and others in aperture mode with the ISO cranked up so high that I cringed when I saw all the noise (previously referred to as film grain when I shot film)!  My indoor lighting skills are still a "work in progress".  For now, I'm trying to just enjoy the moments captured and not be so critical of the technical imperfections.  :-)