How the weekend went down.

Friday:

Tat's work Christmas Party.

Was held at the cool Hotel Sofitel San Francisco Bay.

The food was divine.

Of course, someone else making my food AND cleaning up after me...
it cold be cold cereal & I would consider that Heaven on a platter.
I had the salmon.
Tat had the filet mignon.

Dessert was a pistachio creme brulee.

MMMMMMM

While everyone else at our table took a few bites & then sat back in their chairs,

we pretty much licked our plates clean.

I say what's etiquette when there's delicious food under your nose?!?!

Crazies.

For those who were as concerned as I was about what I was going to wear,

here's what I settled on:

(& does not Tyler look so handsome?)

(& that red bulb is in fact a red bulb.  on the tree.  not in my hair.)

(& I just owe a special shout-out to my amigo (or maybe amiga? I don't speak spanish) Stephanie for keeping Avy all afternoon so I could pillage & plunder the mall for the perfect dress)

Notice the ruffled detail on the front:

& the sah-weet ruffle around the back of the neck:

& this is about the most attractive picture ever taken of us 2:

So I got all gussied up, stepped out in the hallway to show off my smokin' hot dress to Tat & his response when I asked, "So what do you think?":

He said, & I quote, "You look fine."

Not as in...

D.A.N.G. girl, you be lookin' FINE tonight.  MMM...HMMM!

Fine as in,

eh, yeah, that'll work.

He claims he meant that I looked really good.

But come on ladies, back me up...

We want to hear that we be looking like we spent time on our get-up.

Here are a few adjectives to assist you gentlemen in the future.

Try something like this. 

"Wow! You look:

Radiant

Exquisite

Beautiful

Smashing

Even a 1 syllable word like "hot" will do.

But no worries.

He redeemed himself by having a winning raffle ticket.

He won this baby:

That's right.  An iPad.  How cool is that?

There were a couple hundred people there, about 8 iPads, a few cameras, a few digital photo frames,

& we were the lucky recepients of one.

This is a picture of a picture of us showing off our win:

Don't mind my man hand.  Not sure why I felt the need to look totally masculine here.

What a fun night.

It was great to finally meet all the people who are so lucky to be graced by Tyler's presence all day.

& to top off the awesome night, we came home to a clean house smelling of fresh cookies & no dirty dishes.

Austy, you da man.

Saturday:

Breakfast with Santa.

Awww...these 2 are BFF's.

It really is as sweet as it looks :)

First time Avy actually talked to Santa without getting skiddish!

She spoke in clear, coherent sentences that she wants a walking pup for Christmas.

This one right here:

Can't see walking pup getting annoying anytime soon.

Finally got all my Christmas cards ready to rock:

I love getting them & I love sending them out.

But man oh man it's such a chore.

Later on Tat & the miglets put up the lights outside.

Avy the school marm said to me on her way outside,

"Now if everyone will just work together, we'll have these lights up in no time!"

What a gem.  Such words of wisdom.

At one point Tat came inside with this jumbled mess and declared,

"Well, this is the only strand I can't get to work.

I either buy a new one or go through every bulb to fix it."

You and I both know what Clark Griswald did.

Sunday:

Kaari's 6th Annual Cookie Swap

Boozie Woozie.

I came home empty-handed AGAIN!

(So maybe I have a little bit of a competitive edge to me.

Don't ask my family about the time we played Family Feud for FHE when I was 8 years old.

YIKES.)

Well, I didn't come home totally empty-handed...

I brought these tasties home with me:

& Kaari had the cutest red & green polka dot platters for everyone to take home too!

Some of the cookie critters with their platters:

This year I made Lemon Princess cookies with the help of my Strawberry Princess

(get it? b/c of the red hair?)

She was the drizzler.

It's all in the wrist.

I should have taken a hint that I wouldn't place when neither she or Buddy would eat my cookies.

In fact, when I got home from the party,

Avy was almost asleep in her bed so I ran in to tell her I had mounds of treats for her to help me eat tomorrow.

She said,

"Do they taste better than your lemon ones?"

The nerve.

But yes, clearly they do.  Hence the reason I came home

 without a fancy-pants prize.

But by golly the goodies just keep getting better & better every year!

I suggest someone with a lot of time, energy, & money make a Cookie Party Cookbook of the entries present & past. 

That would be a seller.

Thanks for a fun weekend friends & family!