It’s my FAVORITE time of year!
The holidays bring about my two favorite things: Friends & Family and Entertaining!
Each year I host a “Favorite Things” party for my “favorite peeps!” Check out the details of the day…
(and holiday decor below!)
Every year a small group of gals from my church and I get together for a GALentine’s Day Brunch! It’s a chance to catch up, and show LOVE to one another.
In the spirit of LOVE and celebration, I choose a woman to shine a spotlight on! Last celebration, my sister was launching her new cookbook, so we featured her book, and each girl got to go home with a copy (along with a little seasonal Starbucks mug from me!)…
This year, there were so many exciting celebrations…each girl was truly celebrating something (from new books, to babies– from milestones ministry to milestones in business..yes, my friends truly are THAT awesome!) So we celebrated our collective group of amazing women! I was thinking it would be cool for each of us to nominate a woman for next year? Continue reading
Oh The Places You’ll Go– Gabriel’s First Birthday
My, how time flies! My baby turned ONE earlier this month! Also celebrating her birthday this month, is his great-grandmother Beverly who turned 90!
Phil and I found it fit to celebrate both young and wise in an intimate celebration with immediate family!
The Theme: Dr. Seuss “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” (and for Grandma we celebrated, “Oh, The Places She’s Been!)
When guests walked in, they signed our “Guest book” which was Dr. Seuss’ “Oh The Places You’ll Go”. I had our family sign a page for Gabriel, and moving forward we will have each of his teacher’s (and influential people in his life) sign it each year, and I plan to proudly present it to him on his 18th birthday, to celebrate all of the “places he’s been!”
Guests would “write a message on any of the pages, it will be something he treasures through all of his ages!” Continue reading
This Christmas was the BEST ONE EVER…
We gifted a family a home, Gabriel’s cousin Easton was born and they celebrated their first Christmas together…and on Christmas Eve we had the gender reveal party for Gabriel’s cousin-to-be (due Father’s Day)!
Since we hosted the party on Christmas eve, we chose a festive theme– “Buck or Doe!” Everyone wore red if they thought the baby would be a girl, and green if they thought it was a boy–this made for super fun and festive photos!
What is a gender reveal you ask?
The parents get an ultrasound or blood test to determine the sex of the baby, and often keep it a surprise and find out with their family together at a fun gathering. You can view mine here, and my sister Emily’s here.
Since my sister is a celebrity food blogger, and famous for remaking healthy versions of food people crave, I knew I had to get creative (especially for the dessert bar and drink bar!)
For drinks, we started with a “BABY It’s Cold Outside” Hot Cocoa and Coffee Bar! Continue reading
It’s my FAVORITE time of year!
The holidays bring about my two favorite things: Friends & Family and Entertaining!
Each year I host a “Favorite Things” party for my “favorite peeps!” Check out the details of the day…
(and holiday decor below!)
Dinner was catered (less stress, no mess) by our favorite Mediterranean place!
We washed it down with some of our “favorite drinks”… champs (& cider for all the “preggos”)–we always have a few each year! 😉
I decided to keep things easy on myself, and do disposable place settings (different themes each year). There are so many beautiful sources I’ve found online to make disposable place settings look beautiful!
…and as they sat down, they were gifted one of my “favorite things” as a favor…
This year I found a beautiful ceramic mug commissioned by Rebecca Rebouche, a native Louisianan living and working in New Orleans, who creates nostalgic, emotive and whimsical art out of paint, mixed media and stitched soft sculpture; a practice best described as contemporary folk art. Topped with a cute edible gingerbread house! 🙂
After dinner the guests brought their mugs (one of my “Favorite things” as their favors) over to a coffee bar to find coffee of different flavors, seasonal creams, sweeteners, and of course…whipped cream!
Across the counter in my butler’s pantry was a dessert bar set up. A “favorite” of all of my guests in parties past is a dessert bar by my sister (and celebrity blogger/ chef “Dashing Dish”!)
This year she hosted a trifle bar..with gluten free cakes (healthier versions, which is what her cookbook and blog are known for), lighter versions of fillings, and toppings (some naughty, some nice–your choice!) The instructions–get a glass, layer it up with your “Favorites”, and enjoy!
After dinner and dessert, we headed to our lower level for our annual “favorite things” gift exchange!
Here’s how it works… each guest brings 3 gifts wrapped (this year we did a contest for who had the most creative wrapping!) We each put our name in a bowl 3 times, and picked 3 new names (not our own). The 3 names we picked were the 3 people we got presents from. Each person got to share why they were gifting that item as their “favorite thing”! It is so fun to learn of each other’s favorites, and leave with 3 new “favorite things”! This year I gifted a few of my favorite holiday candles & match strikers (wrapped in a cute Santa bag!)
We also did a contest for “best gift” (we voted) and “best wrapping”! Check out these great gifts!
A great time was had by my FAVORITE FRIENDS…
Hope you have a very happy holidays filled with your “favorite things” (& peeps!)
To keep it festive and fun…
Here’s our holiday home tour to top off my favorite post of the year!
CLICK ON A PIC TO START THE SLIDESHOW TO SEE FULL SIZE! 🙂
My baby sister is having a baby! And how good is God that he is also due the same week of Christmas (like my son, Gabriel!) We have a feeling these two will be best of friends, about one year apart!
Here are the invites and the theme:
And the invitation inserts:
Myself, my mom, and sister Katie decided to host her baby shower where I had mine–the beautiful Royal Park Hotel. We love the Conservatory, as well as that gorgeous “tiffany blue” chandelier!
The theme we chose was “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” since my sister is an Elementary School Teacher. We had guests sign the book by Dr. Seuss, and moving forward she will have each of her child’s teachers sign it each year. She plans to present the book back to Easton when he graduates high school! 
Hot air balloons are the theme of this Dr. Seuss book, so we had them decorating each table, along with some pretty roses, of course! Each table also included the “Wish tree” instructions. Our family isn’t big on baby shower games, so this is an activity we enjoy–“Write your wish for Baby-To-Be and hang them on the wishing tree!”
My aunt Lorrie made these sweet hot air balloon cookies as favors for the guests!
And here’s the wishing tree…before, and AFTER! (Look familiar?)
People seem to enjoy these baby shower brunches!
Brett’s mom made this lovely cake!
My sister Katie and I had fun with this whimsical theme in decorating, gifting, etc! Our gifts to baby…We had each guest bring a book in lieu of a card to help baby build his library. I chose “Oh, Baby, the places you’ll go!” It was fun to write a note inside to my sweet nephew!
I can’t wait to meet this sweet angel! Oh, the places he will go!!!
Writing this warmed my heart, and gave me a little flashback of my shower, which you can view here!
I’m a wife to my best friend Phil (Mr. “Rockin” Robbins) and a busy mom-to-be! (There’s a new “Robbins” coming to the nest! ETA= Christmas Day!) I run an international business from home, am a best-selling author, am passionate about my faith, I adore my family, have fun entertaining my friends and absolutely love all things fashion and for the home!
