Holiday Catch Up

I'll call this a New Year's Day catch up for the past few weeks. I don't know how people with kids manage to get everything done during the holiday season - I have a hard time with zero children. Normally I host Thanksgiving at my place and we go to my Mom's for Christmas, but since this year I was packing up the old condo in October, we decided to do a switcheroo for the holidays. By the time Christmas Day rolled around the cards and gifts were sent, the turkey was in the freezer and the house was decorated, all just in the nick of time!!

Since apparently my new motto is wait 'til the last minute, that's exactly what I did this year, breaking out the Christmas decor on the 16th. The tree didn't see the light of day until the 22nd, but that was mainly because I wanted to decorate it together with my Mom, who arrived in Toronto the Saturday before Christmas.

I added very few new pieces to the decor this year, since I love what I already have - my favourites are the acrylic reindeer (above) who graced the dining table. The only new additions were the white lacy chargers from Ikea, which also worked nicely as part of the centerpiece.

Our holiday was spread out over two days - since my sister and brother in law spend Christmas Day with his family, the Graham gift exchange and dinner was held on Boxing Day.  Everything turned out wonderfully, from the delicious turkey to my favourite sweet potatoes. Deelish! Sorry, there are no food photos, we just wanted to eat!!

I had fun mixing gold and silver at the dinner table - from the thrifted candlesticks and water glasses to the gold West Elm spoons mixed with everyday flatware. Simple linen napkins with snowflake magnets upped the fancy factor. And a good time was had by all :-)

 
Now the new year has arrived and it's time to start packing away the ornaments and the reindeer :-( No worries, there are lots of things to look forward to in 2013 - starting with a few "reveals" in the upcoming weeks. See you back here soon!!