DEFINITELY DEBI: January 2012

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Christmas Brunch

I'm finally posting pictures from the Christmas Brunch I had for a few of the women from my bible study group. In mid December I invited all of the women from my bible study group over for brunch. Unfortunately, only four women were able to make it...but even with the small group we had a wonderful time!

I decided to keep it casual and set the table in the breakfast nook for the brunch. I used my snowman plates, a red runner and centerpiece of greenery, pine cones, berries, ornaments and candles.

Here are my "red" velvet cupcakes that I make every year. THIS year however I made the mistake of buying a regular chocolate cake mix instead of a German chocolate cake mix. The recipe was given to me by my friend Beverly J and it comes from a book called "The Cake Dr." Well I learned WHY it calls for a German chocolate cake mix. That cake mix is lighter in color so when you add the red food coloring your cupcakes turn red. A regular chocolate cake mix is too dark, so when you put the food coloring in the result is NOT red cupcakes but a sort of burgundy colored cupcake! Oh well, live and learn....they were still delicious.

In addition to the cup cakes, I made a breakfast casserole and a chessy hashbrown casserole. The girls brought the rest of the food. We enjoyed an assortment of breakfast breads and muffins, fruit salad, and a vegy tray.

I set up a coffee and tea station for the ladies.

I made these ornaments as party favors for the girls.

...and yes I made one for our tree too!

Here are the girls sitting at the table right before we ate. From left to right is Janine, Joanne, Karen and Irene.

I thought it would be fun to play some Christmas themed games. The first game was "Guess the Christmas Song" and Janine and Irene won. Here they are with their prizes.

We also played "Christmas Pictionary". Here is Irene drawing.

.....and Joanne drawing.....

.....a nutcracker!

Below is my drawing. Everyone cracked up at my drawings. The word was
JESUS. First I drew the face and long "hair", but the girls thought the "hair" looked like rabbit ears! Finally when I drew the cross next to the "rabbit eared" Jesus. Someone guessed it was Jesus! They insisted I take this picture. It got quite a few laughs.

The final game was "Guess what's in the stocking". I took a very large stocking made of thin fabric. I put Christmas related items in the stocking such as an ornament, pine cone etc.. and then asked the girls to guess what was in the stocking by feeling the items through the fabric. Whoever guesses the most items within 90 seconds wins.

We had such a wonderful time of fellowship and fun at the brunch. The girls seemed to really have a great time and thanked me several times for putting it together.

Here we all are on the stairs.

I feel so fortunate to have met these wonderful ladies!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

You make me smile!

There was a significant void felt at our house this year at Christmas....our sweet Lily was not able to come along with Kate as it became really clear at Thanksgiving that Kyle is VERY allergic to her. So we followed the doctor's orders and Kate left Lilly back in her college city with a friend.

Here are a few pics of Lily (and Kate and Kyle) from her visit to see us at Thanksgiving. Going forward when we want to see Lily...we will have to go visit Kate to do so.