Christmas Parties

Christmas is officially one week away & we couldn't be more excited! The girls get out of school tomorrow & I cannot wait to have some down time with just the 4 of us around the house. This is why I love not traveling or going on vacation over winter break - I just want to catch up on life! I cannot wait to stay up late watching movies, eating & sleeping in with the girls. Having said that, the past couple of weeks have been anything but that. For some reason I feel like we have had more Christmas parties than usual, but I'm here for it! I've had a couple of fun lunches with my girlfriends, but my favorite was Holiday Tea at the French Room at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas:

Isn't it gorgeous?! I hadn't been here since Bryan & I were dating. My company had their Christmas party here, so it had been a while, but it was just as pretty I as I remembered. We talked about doing this last year, but we waited too long to get reservations. This year, I got online at midnight back in October & was able to grab them:

I couldn't help but take pictures because it was so pretty! Ok, we'll move on to the dining room where the chandeliers were gorgeous:

It was a true tea with different teas brought out with our different courses. The picture above is my plate & I know it doesn't look like anything special BUT I was beyond excited because I had told them beforehand that I was df & gf so they had made me a plate which was very similar to what my friends were having. I didn't feel left out at all, and it all tasted delicious!

The first picture below is the traditional desert course, which is what my friends had:

and this was mine - I even got warm scones straight from the oven & they were delicious:

The decorations in there were a little more girlie & you know I loved it! Plus, they had live music with a harp:

Honestly, not only did I have the best time with these 3 ladies, but I was honestly surprised how much I got to eat & how great it tasted:

I am definitely going to put a note on my calendar to make reservations again next year!

I also drove to Dallas another day to have lunch at Paradiso, which is in Bishop Arts with Jamie & Julianne. This place blew me away also - it was so cute & girlie Christmas with pink everywhere:

I love doing life with these ladies!

I also went to 3 other Christmas parties at night & somehow got 0 pictures. Bad Shaye!

Bryan surprised me with a night out in Grapevine. I don't know why we have never really come here before since it is the Christmas Capital of Texas. Main Street was shut down & it was decorated with twinkle lights & photo ops everywhere:

We went to dinner at a steakhouse & then we had tickets to a Michael Buble tribute. And you know I love me some Michael Buble, especially at Christmas!

Because I have seen Michael so many times, I feel like I know his stage presence & mannerisms pretty well, so it was kind of funny seeing this knock off guy trying to duplicate him. He was a great singer, but sometimes it was a little too much:

But it was still a fun night & I love Bryan for planning something like this for us:

The girls have been partying also! Earlier this month they had their KLife Christmas party for all of middle school:

And they had their small group parties also. Sadie's was at a friend's house & they had a tshirt exchange:

We hosted Sophie's 6th grade party at our house & it was 2 days before her birthday, so we celebrated her as well:

I mean look at how excited she was! They all had fun singing to her:

and then we played Sophie's favorite, Christmas bingo with m&m's:

Then they made Christmas ornaments:

Finally, Sadie's soccer team had their party:

Lot of Christmas fun with more to come & one more birthday too!

Sadie's 14th Birthday

Last week, we kicked off our busy month with Sadie's birthday! Her actual birthday was on Monday, but she had zero free time between school, basketball practice, KLife Christmas party and then soccer practice so we celebrated the weekend before! She had a basketball tournament all day Saturday so afterwards we let her choose her favorite restaurant for dinner & dessert afterwards:

Monday morning, she requested her favorite cinnamon coffee cake for breakfast before school:

Unfortunately, by the time she got home from soccer practice late that night, she was losing her voice & not feeling good & by Tuesday morning she was feeling worse & by that afternoon she had fever. She spent the next 48 hours in bed with the flu, type A. Not exactly the best way to celebrate your birthday week. Not only did she miss school, but she also missed a basketball game. By Thursday her fever broke & she started eating again so thankfully she was cleared by her doctor to still have her birthday party Friday night. She invited friends over for dinner & then we took them all to a game place in Plano:

They divided into smaller teams & then they had multiple rooms they could go into ranging from basketball to lasers to the floor is lava:

Bryan & I sat in the holding area & watched them run around but I tried to sneak in once & caught Sophie in action:

 They got to wear wristbands that timed them & let them in & out of all of the games so they all had these silly player names & there was a big scoreboard where we could keep track of how everyone was doing. Can you see Sophie's name below? I'll let you take one guess which one is hers.....

Thankfully we were able to bring in an ice chest with water bottles because the girls ran around for 1 1/2 hours & were hot, sweaty & exhausted. I think that's the sign of a good time:

Afterwards, the girls came back to our house for cake & gifts:

Most of the girls were gone by 11:00 & then she had 1 friend spend the night. They kept the celebration going until almost 2:00 which was really late since she had a soccer tournament early the next morning. I ordered gf donuts that spelled out her name with a soccer ball to surprise her:

and then we headed to soccer for the day. In the cold. Layla is a trooper for getting up early & going out there with us:

In between games Bryan's parents came over to give their presents to the girls & spend the evening with them:

It was a fun & busy week & I am just glad Sadie was able to get over the flu fairly quickly so she could continue to celebrate her birthday. Time to do it all over again this week for Sophie!