For the very first time since we’ve moved in together (that’s 4 years now!), Allan and I decided to decorate our little apartment with Christmas decorations. And let’s face it, when I say “Allan and I”, I really mean me, since Allan would much rather be playing video games than doing holiday decorations Plus, I’ll be honest — I’ve been suffering a little bit from wedding withdrawal, and I’ve been dying for an excuse to do floral arrangements, place settings and entertaining

Over the past two weeks, I’ve decorated our home space, the common room at work, and my parent’s house. I’ve been elfing it up this year for some reason! Normally we do Christmas completely over at my parent’s place as they have space to do the big tree… and while Christmas will most definitely still be over there, we are having my folks over for Christmas breakfast this year and wanted to prep the apartment in advance. I decided to do a silver and champagne Christmas theme with red accents.

 

We hosted a holiday dinner party this past weekend with Trev & Crista and Mat & Ali and managed to find some space for our pop-up table. Seating 6 around this table in our apartment is difficult, so swapped our normal computer desk for a “rolly” desk that we can roll into a different room when we have people over. Awesome! Then it was time for new place settings! I also did all the floral arrangements with fresh roses and Christmas greens.

Low flower arrangements with large red roses and berries.

I really like the way our place settings turned out and I think they are versatile enough to use all year round. Or do you think it would be too much for normal entertaining?

Here’s a silver wreath we used to bring some festivity to our kitchen.

And my favourite… a fresh wreath with peppercorns, pinecones and tons of greens… smells so good!

Our side table was replaced with some silver Christmas trees and mercury glass candle holders…

… a couple other accents here and there with reindeer and more candles.

The aftermath of our dinner party with some holiday decor on our coffee table and a festive throw blanket.

I find cooking for 6 people really hard to do with plated dinners, so we did quite a bit of prep the previous night. I learned how to clarify butter for the first time (awesome for searing scallops at an extremely high temperature). I also toasted the pumpkin seeds, prepped the chocolate decorations and the veggies to give the pasta some colour.

The next day, we put the kobe-style marbled beef short ribs in the oven for four hours and got the butternut squash soup going. Some photos of our prep with making the sage sauce, and the minted pea puree.

Allan did a really nice job with the striped raviolis. We did beet-coloured ravioli for the butternut squash filled ones, and spinach-coloured ravioli for the wild mushroom filled ones.

First course: Butternut Squash Soup with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds and Pumpkin Seed Oil, finished with a Parmesan Crisp … we always seem to make this one when other people come over! (recipe)

Second Course: Seared Scallops in a Minted Pea Puree with Applewood Double-Smoked Bacon

Third Course: Braised Beef Short Rib in a Red Wine Reduction with Cauliflower Puree and duo of Wild Mushroom and Butternut Squash Ravioli in a Brown Butter Sage Sauce (recipe)

Fourth Course: Tiramisu Cheesecake with Chocolate Decoration and Strawberries (recipe)

Overall I think our dinner party went well and our apartment is looking festive! I think we’re all set for the holidays…. can’t wait for Christmas! Can you believe it’s only 2 weeks away now?

What are your holiday plans this year? Are you going to decorate your place?

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It’s been a long time since I’ve updated my site, and I am really sorry for the delay! It’s been a nice, relaxing two weeks of holidays. Although I did have to do some work over the break, it was just nice to unwind and spend some time away from the computer for the most part.

This post is HUGE. Tons of photos… I thought I’d lump it all into one… everything from our Christmas parties in December, to snowboarding, Christmas Day, New Years, and a trip to the island. Here I am above all ready for Christmas!

I love this portrait of Allan… so handsome!

We also managed to get up to Cypress and Whistler a few times

For many, many years now, Allan’s group of friends have been doing Christmas sweater parties, called “The Erection Party” which refers to erecting the Christmas tree every year. Christmas sweaters and Christmastown decorations are a must!

Every year there is a gift exchange which is always a lot of fun and sometimes stressful! Plus just awesome Christmas outfits and an all-around good time

Here are some photos of the outfits

The girls…

The guys…

The group…

The group take 2

Maybe too much fun?

Next up was our work Christmas parties… unfortunately my Christmas party and Allan’s party always happen to fall on the same night every year. So two parties in one night, but I guess we only needed to dress up once I wore a red BCBG Max Azaria dress. Allan wore Hugo Boss and Etro.

My Christmas party took place in the CBC building here in Vancouver which actually turned out pretty nice all dressed up in lights and with a casino theme. Catering was by The Reef and was very yummy.

Fun with coworkers

Then it was off to Allan’s party which took place at Steamworks in Gastown. Good times!

Since we both work for video game companies, it’s not uncommon to see cool accessories like these Pacman socks

It seemed like it was going to take forever for Christmas day to come. It’s my favourite holiday of the year and since I spend time planning what presents I want to get people all year round, the few days and hours before Christmas seem to drag on.

We love decorating the house!

I’m quite proud of this flower arrangement I made for my mom. I picked out the flowers from Granville Island florist and I think the Christmas arrangement turned out quite nice!

Added some nice colours to the house

Christmas Day was finally upon us which means one thing…. Christmas waffles in the morning!

In our family, Christmas Day must begin with homemade waffles with homemade sauces… this year strawberry, blueberry, and cherry. Mmmmm! So good!

Some family photos with my grandma (96 years old!) from my dad’s side, and my mom, brother and Allan. He’s definitely a part of the family now and it feels so amazing to have him around and know everyone loves him as much as I do.

Here’s a cute photo of my niece on my mom’s side.

Our Christmas tree this year! Note ridiculously huge present in background. This will come into play later.

My dad was very excited to get some Blu-Ray discs and a pair of lower bowl tickets to the Canucks-Oilers game on Boxing Day!

My brother got a Kindle, which he says is the best thing ever! (As a Kindle owner, I would have to agree )

Cousin got a sequin party dress and nieces got Disney DVDs… my mom got a getaway trip to go away with my dad!

I got a Cuisinart popcorn maker and a camera stabilizer… and Allan gave me a brand new Xbox 360 and a necklace that I just adore from Alexis Bittar!

This year I wrapped up a ridiculously huge box for Allan’s present and got him….

… an iPad! He was super stoked. The whole family was in on it too as they bought him accessories like the keyboard docking station, camera kit and case.

It was engraved

The rest of Christmas Day was spent doing fun activities like singing karaoke on the Xbox (Lips) and playing lots and lots of Kinect. We played JoyRide, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports (bowling), and of course.. Dance Central! It was a huge hit and my cousins even ended up buying a Kinect for themselves the following week!

Christmas dinner was a delicious affair by my parents with turkey, lots of sides, and some of the cookies I made

Next up was New Year’s Eve and it was a busy night! We had three parties in one night! First stop was my coworker Asa’s house, where she made us some delicious champagne and black current cocktails!

Group photo at Asa’s

Then it was off to a house party with some of my friends…

Here’s me, Kim and Chrissy…

So we went to the Commodore Ballroom for NYE and it was a blast. I loved getting to go out to a club, dance the night away and spend time with our friends.

It was also nice to spend NYE with Allan …

… and 15 of our friends!

Soon it was midnight…

… and time for champagne and cheersing with friends!

After a little while we headed over to Allan’s friend’s place to have a couple more drinks and say hi. We had to wake up the next morning to have breakfast and then catch a ferry to Courtenay so unfortunately we didn’t get to stay long.

A quick breakfast at DB Bistro with friends Edwin and Yanshu who were in town from New York City… and then it was off to catch a ferry to Vancouver Island!

We headed up to see Allan’s mom and her husband in Courtenay and do a quick overnight trip. Dinner at Boston Pizza followed up some socializing… and then a trip to the Blue Moon Winery.

We had a pretty amazing tasting there. I wasn’t sure if I like fruit wines or not, but I was definitely convinced after a tasting. So delicious, crisp, and not too sweet!

Yeah, we ended up buying a case of some different ones… apple, pear, blueberry wine, and then blackberry port. Yum!

The winery was really cute as well.

I love this photo!

Of course, no trip to Courtenay is complete without stopping by Hot Chocolates to try some of their AMAZING gelato and pick up some of their chocolates and truffles.

Phew! All in all, a pretty good holiday break!