Year in Review 2008

(click on image to enlarge)

Cindy over at My Romantic Home is hosting a year in review party.

Here are a few of my pictures from the past year. Our family took a trip to Big Sur this summer, Chasen played 2 seasons of baseball and he also went to Ft. Tejon to participate in a living history. I also attended to teach the kids blacksmithing.

We hosted backyard movies that included s'more making and theme decorated tables.

I have a new niece this year, Josephine Grace, named after my grandmother. We call her Josie.

We enjoyed our perennial favorites of going to Dodger games and visiting Disneyland with our annual passports. We also found some new things to do such as cherry and apple picking and go-kart racing.

I continued to be my daughter's Brownie Girl Scout leader and Sheridan was in her first Nutcracker ballet as a solider and caught a Leopard Shark off of the Santa Monica pier. She also had 11" of her hair cut off and donated it to Locks of Love.

Being together with family and friends was the hightlight of our year! Looking forward to 2009!

Pink Debutante Saturday

My friend Jan and her daughter are members of the National Charity League Debutane program of San Marino. Jan was Co-Chair for the photography for the debutante ball on Monday evening at The Langham (formerly Ritz Calrton Huntington) and she asked me to be her date. Her husband was at home with their 2 sick kids. The decor at the hotel was all in PINK...lucky me!
My daughter is only 8 so this was my first introduction to the world of Debutantes. Our community has Silver Rose Debutantes through our local hospital but it was started when I was 20-two years too late for me...bummer! In the NCL Debutante program, girls join in the 7th, 8th or 9th grade and continue various charity work through their senoir year in high school.
The evening started with a cocktail hour and then the introduction of the debutantes. The room was decorated like a Winter Wonderland. For dinner we had salad, Beef Tenderloin, potatoes au gratin and asparagus with chocolate mousse for dessert.

All of the girls are college freshman and are home during winter break from school. Last year, one of the debutantes was the Rose Queen for the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day. Here are the dads, all in tails and white gloves, waiting for their daughters. The last dad in line kept taking sips of wine off of the family table while waiting for his daughter... he was so nervous!

The girls were introduced and we were told what their favorite part of their charity work was and their favorite moments. It was very cute.


Their fathers take their arm and escort them around the dance floor.
Half way through the walk, the girls do a deep curtsy. They were all wearing flat ballet shoes to ensure that they wouldn't fall over!

The first dance of the night, the dads and debs danced to Eidlweiss. That is the first song that I sang to my children after they were born.
I almost cried! Here are the escorts and stags waiting for their introdution. The escorts are the Deb's date and the stags are there to protect the "virtue" of the debs with their dates. :)


During the party, the girls had professional pictures taken with extended family members and friends. Earlier in the evening, they had their pictures taken with their parents and siblings. Jan said that the debs receive albums of the photographs similar to wedding albums.



It was so fun to watch the interaction between everyone. There were even non-professional pictures being taken. Isn't this deb's dress gorgeous? It looks like a Monique L'Huillier. My friend said that the girls gowns are bridal dresses without the trains.

There were 13 debs that evening. Jan said that usually there are between 25-40 but this was a small class.

This was just the cutest moment between a deb and her grandfather. It was such a special night. I can't wait for my daughter's turn in such a special organization.

Don't forget to check out the other pink goodness at Beverly's. Every week, she hosts this fun event encouraging us to post pink loveliness. It is so much fun! Happy New Year!!!!!

Vintage Christmas Pink Saturday

Welcome to another Pink Saturday! These decorations are on my front table when you first walk in my house. I bought this cute box from Target several years ago.
This is my Christmas tree in my living room. It has all pink and white ornaments on it. For years, I have collected hand made angel ornaments.

I bought these trees on ebay and the seller had a fabulous story about the orgin of these trees.
During World War II, these trees were donated to give to the service men for the holidays. The government thought that the trees were too sparkly and that they might put the soliders in danger of being seen by the enemy so they were put into storage. Years later, they were found in a warehouse and auctioned off. They are in brand new, mint condition and this is how they ended up in my foyer.

This is also a vintage tree that I placed in a mint julep cup.

Here is the whole grouping together.

Thanks for visiting me during such a busy time. I truly appreciate all of your comments and the time you spend to take a peek at my blog! Have a fabulous weekend!

Please visit the other lovely pink goodness hosted by the wonderful Beverly.

Is this the last time?

Is this the last year my children want to visit Santa? My 10 year old is still campaigning to his friends that there IS a Santa. I told Chasen last night, as we were waiting in line for 1 1/2 hours at The Grove for a quick visit to the "man in question", "How can all of the world's parents be keeping the same secret? How is this possible? We didn't have email or radio or tv to get the word out, so how can there be no Santa?" This absolutely sealed the deal for him. He told me this was going to be his argument tomorrow at school. Yikes! Am I setting my son up for the biggest disappointment of his life? What did I just do? All I wanted was to hang on to the last fleeting moments of childhood innocence. Is that so wrong? So my guilt took over and when the cute boy elf wanted to know if I wanted a DVD of the visit that they recorded, of course I said "yes". This is the last of my children's childhood captured digitally for me to treasure forever!

Cost of guilt: $50 bucks!
Here we are blissfully waiting in line in 53 degree weather. How do you like my winter coat?

Of cousre, this is Los Angeles and we have to make our own snow. So at 7 and at 8 o'clock, it snows at the mall.
See the machine blowing out bubble flakes?

My daughter was very disappointed that it wasn't REAL snow. I told her "Honey, this is LA. Everything is fake". She didn't quite get my sarcasm.
Here is a festive trolley that runs from one end of the mall to the other.

This is the 106 ft tree with Santa and his sleigh flying over head.

It did really snow around us on Wednesday. It snowed at Malibu beach and at my sister's house who lives 30 minutes away (she is at a higher elevation than us) But our mountains got a nice dusting. This is a view from my bedroom window.

On Wednesday, my friend Paula had a "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party. No offense to those of you who still wear these!

It was a lot of fun catching up with friends.

I just got my Christmas cards out yesterday...Yikes!

Hope you enjoy the last few days before Christmas!

Cookie Exchange & Gift Wrap Ideas

My friend Marina and I hosted a cookie exchange and gift wrap idea party on Tuesday.

For brunch, I made egg nog french toast with apple-cranberry compote and Marina made this amazing spinach quiche with puff pastry.

We also offered our guests speciality coffee drinks such as

Angel Mochas and Snowflake Lattes.

We showed our guests how you can wrap beautiful packages and not spend a fortune. This ribbon and glittered bell I got at the dollar store. The bell came in a pack of 4. So Festive!
I love wrapping with tulle! The fairy ornament adds that special magical touch.
This package is wrapped with vintage wallpaper and a vintage Christmas pick.
It is really sparkly-you just can't tell form the picture.
My friend, Suzie, called it "the Sound of Music present" because it reminded her of the drapes that the von Trapp children's clothes were made out of.
This little bird was 60% off and cost $1. He sits upon a fanned nest made out of a paper grocery bag.
I wrapped this gift in silk taffeta that I found in my fabric pile. The tag is made out of vintage sheet music with a touch of gold glitter.

This package is done in all different types of white ribbon. The ornament was $3 at a discount store and the glossy white paper is from the dollar store.

After the gift wrap ideas presentation, we invited our guests to make their own custom gift tags. We precut different shapes out of vintage sheet music and scrapbooking paper, gave them glue and glitter and let them be creative!

Next, we had our cookie swap! Each guest brought 8 dozen and went home with 100 cookies!

Suzie provided the lovely plates.

Suzanne and Marina played some Christmas songs on my piano.

Everyone said that they were so inspired by our ideas and immediately went home to wrap gorgeous gifts. I hope I have done the same for you. Now go, spread cheer!