Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a safe and fun time. We had a relaxing break, celebrating Christmas and New Year with family and friends. I took down all of our Christmas decorations today. I expect that some people keep theirs up for a while, but taking them down made the New Year seem like an official fresh start. We had added additional decorations after Christmas because we decorated for a NYE gathering with some friends. We decided not to have a huge party, but just a few friends over. Here is a re-cap of the food, decor and our little party. We probably ate about 1/3 of the food available. I had asked for help with the appetizers, so we had a lot of food! But I guess that is better than not having enough. 

First food is called white trash, which I made for family and co-workers for Christmas. It consists of cereals, nuts and m&ms which are mixed with melted white chocolate and cooled on cookie sheets. I used my own version of a double broiler for melted the white chocolate. I have had trouble with it in the microwave in the past, so I found using a double broiler helped me not to over-cook the chocolate. 

For our party, I made buffalo chicken dip. Easy & delicious recipe. First, spread out 8 oz of cream cheese

Second, mix together shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken (I use the whole chicken) with 1/2 c of buffalo wing sauce and 2 Tbsp. of melted butter and spread on top of the cream cheese.

Third, add a layer of blue cheese dressing (until it covers the chicken mixture) and finish by sprinkling mozzarella cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. You can prep everything the day before and then bake when people arrive. This made it easy for me.

Here is the sparkly garland I picked up at Target after Christmas. I thought it would be festive for NYE. I also decorated downstairs with extra Christmas lights but completely forgot to take a picture before I put everything away.

Oh, and I randomly picked this up at Hobby Lobby. :)

Our dining room table prior to being filled with immense quantities of food.

Caprese sticks (grape tomatoes, mozz, and basil drizzled with olive oil and balsamic). If I may say so myself, these were delicious.

Before all the dips.

The champagne cupcakes I baked for the party. From the Georgetown Cupcake recipe book.

Two of our guests. But check out all the food!

More party pics.

A big Thank You to Jen for coming early and helping me!

The girls:

I cannot believe it is back to work starting tomorrow. The holidays always do come to an end. Although, I am excited about some of the house projects we have planned for the new year. We are planning on tackling the basement soon, so I am looking forward to seeing that room get some paint and decorations.