The Easiest & Yummiest Holiday Punch Ever

Really Truly the Best Non-Alcoholic

 Holiday Punch

We try to have a Christmas Party every year; this year we went off script a bit and invited some of Marc's friends from his work. He's an employee benefits attorney. Don't even ask me what he really does all day but apparently he does make a few friends. However, even though we didn't invite the same people we usually do, we did serve the same punch...because it is SO GOOD.

Here is Marc working the drink station like a boss man.

Our guests are all invisible. I kid. People did actually come, I just only took pictures before hand.

Okay so the punch. I got this three ingredient recipe from an amazing cook and hostess, Julie, back when we lived in Virginia. 

You need:

 3 bags of Celestial Seasonings 

apple spice herb tea

1 gallon of any brand apple juice

1 litre of diet ginger ale.

Steep the three bags of tea in the bottle of apple juice overnight or for at least 6 hours in the fridge.

When you're ready to serve just fill your pitcher with 1/2 of the juice and 1/2 of the ginger ale.

This punch is crisp and spicy with a bit of a zing to it. It's very refreshing.

I thought the party went well. Two of our guest are participating in a "step challenge" where they use their fitbits all day and are on teams competing for the most steps in a several month period. They both followed me all over the house whenever I was bringing things in from the kitchen or whatever. It was funny.

I deconstructed a bouquet from Trader Joe's and added berries from a bush in our backyard to make the centerpiece.

This was fun too, I hollowed out a cabbage head to use to hold the veggie dip, put it in a bowl and then layered the veggies for dipping around it. It was a tight fit for those bell peppers but I made it work.

Much Ado About NOTHING

I was talking with my friend Monica last night about how confusing the blog world is. She was over at our house because she's the awesome church leader for the girls Ellie's age and they were watching Elf together. Really they were giggling snacking together, and they are just ADORABLE! See?

So she and I were discussing how we don't really know how to "brand" our blogs, and how we both think we're supposed to narrow our blogging focus but what we really like is sharing all kinds of nonsense. It got me thinking about how my blog name doesn't have anything to do with painted furniture or decorating or really anything outside my head. I've explained how I got it here, but I haven't said anything about my tagline, "all girls are mermaids, some boys are mermaids too."

You're probably just so dying to know about that right? You've been losing sleep over it I bet. It's a line from this great Kid History episode. Enjoy.

I like it so much because, duh, all girls are mermaids. Or, I guess, I'm one; you probably are too. As grown up as I'm supposed to be, there is a part of my Narnia loving heart that will always believe in magic. I also believe in Nessie.

And as long as I'm sharing things that have nothing to do with anything, have you seen this Bruno Mars video for Uptown Funk? It is total awesome sauce. Please, please watch this. It will make your day!

Crafts Gone Wrong

What you see here are the six weird little stuffed Christmas trees that it took me two days to make. The little devils just would. not. cooperate. At all.

Even after several unpicked seams and re-sewing you can still see that virtually everything about these little guys is crooked and wonky. So instead of telling you how to make these like I normally would in a craft post, I'm going to warn you away. Don't be tricked into thinking, "it's a triangle for pete's sake...it's like sewing half a bean bag." Because you would be WRONG. 

It doesn't really make sense that I'm posting this but gosh darn it, I made the stupid trees, took the cute pictures, and by golly I will blog them! I like them now, but I cannot in good faith recommend them to you. There has to be something easier. When you find it, tell me!

Linking up

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Christmas Home Tour and an Apology

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm kind of excited to share my Christmas home with you, and kind of embarrassed too. Each year some of my favorite blogging ladies host Christmas link up parties so all us crazy for decorating bloggers can share what we've done this year and get inspired by and encourage each other. In the past I've spent lots of time looking (and pinning) but this is my first year posting and linking.

So let's pretend you just came to my front door this morning and I'll show you around.

"Nice door," you'd say. "Thanks," I'd say back. And then I would launch into an apology about the wet doggy nose prints all over the windows that I forgot to clean. But you wouldn't really care, right? Because we're friends.

Open the door and you'd see my entryway.

And to the left my little silver desk table Christmas tree still life thingie. 

You know how the camera adds ten pounds? I think it adds a bunch of dust and fingerprints too because every time I took a picture I'd see something that I should have cleaned. My first impulse was to get all annoyed and stomp around huffing and dusting but then I decided nuts to that. Doing this is supposed to be fun...dusting is not fun...ergo, I didn't dust. 

Let's focus instead on the wonderful things, like this paper star wreath that Ellie made for me last year. I love it.

Now let's head up the stairs. 

Here's how I did the wallpapered stair risers

Ribbon and greenery are an easy, and super cheap way to Christmas up a gallery wall. I just used the extra branches they cut off my tree when we bought it, and I save the bows every year. 

I spent the most decorating time this year on the top of my stairs. Like most Christian moms I spend a fair amount of time trying to help my family remember, and remember myself (REMEMBER!) to let our hearts feel the joy of Jesus' birth. All this decorating and partying and gift giving is wonderful and I really love it, but even more and everyday I am grateful to know my Savior, and I was hoping to do something to help us keep that focus.

 

 My tips on making your own chalkboard art are here. But if you want to buy one, I pretty much copied the lettering from this one. I want to be sure and put a link because I really don't want to be stealing for Christmas :-) That would be bad.

And with that, we are into the rest of the house.

Other people have the Elf on a Shelf; for the last 15 years we've had this little fellow my kids call "Creepy Santa." But I know they secretly love him.

Now a picture of the living room with a heaping side serving of the mantel. 

This is the first year that neither of the Christmas police (Maddie and Katie) are home, so I was able to do the mantel a bit different than the usual six huge red velvet stockings that they always insist go up. This is a very tiny bright spot in the misery of not having all my kids home for the holidays.

This is a TON of photos, eh? Less talking, we just need to get through this so we can get a snack.

Tree. I believe you know what this is without my labeling it but apparently I can't stop myself.

My Grammy made all these white crocheted snowflakes and angels for me. I can't even tell you how much I love them.

Also, we are so classy that we have a fish ornament. 

My snow globe village. Because everything can't be perfectly fancy.

Let's finish up with my last nativity. It's on top of the white painted piano.

Thanks for stopping by friend. I really do hope your holiday is wonderful and full of joy and peace. Merry Christmas!

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