Weekend recap and looking ahead (December 15-21)

Where has the time gone?!?  Christmas is imminent! I had a fun girls evening Friday and family time with my extended Ohio family the rest of the weekend. What a whirlwind!

Friday we went across the lake to Covington to have our ladies Christmas party at my friend Kelly's house.  Her beautiful house was featured on a Christmas Home Tour . We combined our two Holiday traditions, playing the dirty santa gift exchange game and watching White Christmas. We also had drinks at the Southern Hotel and dinner at the wonderful Ox Lot 9.

The wonderful spread at Kelly's beautiful home. 

The gifts.  The highlight was my friend Laura's gift.  It included an ornament of her face.

I had my first two gifts stolen and I ended up with the perfect gift for a wino like me.  A bottle of red and a holder for your wine glass in the tub.

The hotel was decked out for the holidays

I used to have a couch similar to this.  I sold it because it was too girly for the shared house.
I miss it so much!

I had a mirrored coffee table like this too.  I miss my girly furniture!

I am obsessed with this fireplace!

Some fancy girls having pre dinner drinks!

I loved all the decor.

We got free champagne because they seated us over an hour after our scheduled reservation.

We also got a free charcuterie platter.  I was a little tipsy and forgot how to use my camera.

Multitasking.  Wish I would have drank more of the water.

My neighbor's foie gras

My osso bucco.  So delicious.

Sorry for the blur.  I wanted you to see how I was seeing :)
That is Brussels Sprouts with goat cheese.

We had some lovely cake from Zoe's for our pal Cary's birthday.

Saturday night we went to dinner at the Bourbon House with my Aunt in from Ohio and various family and friends.  We had a party of 15 so it was the perfect place for a big group.

I got the special, bacon wrapped duck stuffed with jalapeno and cream cheese.
  I mean...so damn delicious!

You have to get oysters there, it's the first thing you smell when you walk in the door!

Middle sister got the other special, the venison and sweet potatoes.

My dad got the signature dish, redfish on the half shell

Oh bring us some figgy pudding!

Can't go to the Bourbon House without getting a bourbon milk punch!

My Rachel Zoe box of Style came a day early!  All this for $100!  Get yours here

Sunday we grilled out with the Ohio fam and celebrated my nephew's 5th birthday.

I made my "world famous salsa" and we had some other dips.
We had some yummy sausage too, but that disappeared before I could get a photo! 

Happy Birthday Elliot!

This week on the blog there is buffalo chicken yet again, an evening cooking with the cute Crawley twins, some hella delicious soup and an old favorite from my Texas days.  I have charity stuff, Holiday lunches and parties and other fun. Hope you all had a great weekend like I did and are getting ready for the holidays with minimal stress.  I am making holiday cookies for a cookie swap this week, what are your favorite cookie recipes?

Happy Cooking!

Missy