details : food, games & family

I know those of you who read a lot of blogs are probably sick of hearing about the holidays, but indulge me a little on this one, okay? I'm not quite ready to share my intentions for the new year. Plus, my boss surprised me today by saying that the new office is not quite ready yet, so we have until Monday off. If you're back at work right now: I would hate me too.

The picture above is one of the Rifle Paper Co holiday postcards I picked up from the paper & other handmade goods emporium Inkwell Boutique. I had big plans to do our first holiday postcard complete with a personalized photo of D, Abby and I, but when I saw these postcards, I decided they would work perfectly. Less of a time-crunch, less stress and postcards are always fun to receive.

My grandmother made this ornament for me and my sister when we were younger. The other side has another photo of us together. Nearly all of the ornaments on my family's tree have always been handmade or gifted to us by family, friends and family friends. I love that each one holds a memory and reminds me of special times. I'm looking forward to having room to put a tree up, so I can mix in some handmade ornaments with the store-bought ones. I love a tree that's coordinated, while also being sentimental. 

Yes, just like last year, we played Scattergories again. We played a couple of games actually. The second one was LOUD and I kind of needed an Advil, but that's Christmas with my family... Haha.

Cake baking with my mom for our last family dinner of my stay. Her icing recipe is yummy and crazy easy. Shortening, icing sugar and cocoa. Mix it up and it's done. So easy.

Testing out my brother's gift to me - a raclette! It's kind of like a fondue, in that you prepare all of the raw ingredients. Then you fire up the grill which has an element that runs along the bottom. When you're done cooking your meat and/or veggies on top, you put rice in these little shovel things, top with sauce and cheese and then heat it up underneath the grill. So delicious! Mom couldn't stop raving about how great it was that we could sit down and cook our supper. All of that Christmas hosting had her feeling a little wiped.

And we topped off my last night with a game of Mexican Train. There are many different versions of how to play. In this one, we use little tokens or figurines to signal that others can play on our "train". Mine was a miniature angel, while my Grandmaman had a donkey and my mom had what looks like the big bad Wolf. I have no idea where these came from, but thought they looked cute and oddly enough their hands (and paws) are in the same pose.

I think these pictures are a fair representation of my holiday. A lot of food, a lot of games and relaxing time with the family. I'm feeling pretty lucky. 

I hope you had a great Christmas holiday too!

The series: Life is all about the details - the moments. Over the next few months I'm going to test out a series called details. Since I don't have instagram or a smartphone to capture my daily life, I'm going to rely on my trust Sony P&S and will share the photos here. I hope you like it!