In Glee Heaven!!!

Who else is SOOOO glad Glee is back?

I got so excited that B actually agreed to watch it with me.  Big night...

...we also had a big weekend down here in the QC.

After 3 weeks of bathroom demolition, which meant living in our guest bedroom and having a toilet in our dining room, we finally have our apartment back....at least until the guest bathroom renovations start in another week.  Sigh.

Our dining room, finally put back together.

We also had our first engagement party.  My mom says this means B and I are officially engaged.  So basically we're out of the wedding closet, woohoo! 

The theme of the party was bbq, bluegrass and brews.  We had tons of friends and family there, it was pretty awesome to have so many people celebrating with us, especially those that came in from out of town.  It was a super fun night, but I did feel like I needed it to last a few more hours so I could actually catch up with everyone.  Thank god our wedding weekend will be two nights, otherwise I'd need an 8 hour reception to have enough time with everyone. 

So Cheesy Yet Cute

B had tons of family in town for the party, including his mom, dad,  brother, sister, aunt, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.  I spent Saturday with a bunch of the family waiting in line for...wait for it...Jessica Simpson.  It was a labor of love..B's niece was DYING to see her.  I have to say, she looked pretty good:

Hope you guys had a great weekend, too!

In Search Of...The Perfect Hostess Gift. Any ideas?

We've got an engagement party coming up in just a few weeks and I'm still search for the perfect hostess gift!  The party is actually a "triple engagement party", hosted by my parents and two of their closest couple friends, in honor of their three newly engaged children, B & myself included.  We all decided it would be easier (and way more fun) to do one big giant engagement party, instead of three separate ones.  We spend every Christmas Eve with these families and used to all vacation together at Wrightsville Beach, so we've all known each other for a long time; the kids have become great friends as we've become adults and always look forward to seeing each other.

So back the hostess gift.  I'm stumped!  I thought about just having all of the hosts over for dinner, but there is no way we'll fit 8 adults in our tiny dining room :(

Now I'm searching for "hostess" presents for the couples hosting the party.  It has to be appropriate for couples and not too expensive.  I think our back-up idea is a really nice bottle of wine for each couple, but I thought I'd see if any of yall have any fun ideas.

What would make a really great hostess gift for the couples hosting this party?!

(Here are some pics from xmas Eve a few years ago - all these people are super close to my heart!)

All of the "kids" at Xmas Eve

"The Girls"

"The Guys"

Engagement Party Invites before Save the Dates

My parents have been friends with several couples for years and it's tradition that all of our families get together and celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve as a group.  All of the kids are around the same age and we've gotten closer as we've gotten older and can all relate to each other.  I think all of us look forward to Christmas Eve because its one of the few times we're all together.  And we're all booze hounds, which always makes for an entertaining & fun night!

Three of the "Christmas Eve Kids" are getting married in the next year, and our parents decided to throw us a one big engagement party.  I love this idea - the more the merrier!   But because one of the couples is getting married in October, the party's going to be really soon and I'm positive the invitations for this party are going to go out before our save the dates.  All of the people invited know B & I are engaged (at least I hope?) so I don't think its a big deal.  But I still wonder if its "weird".

I checked with Ms. Emily Post herself and found: "Engagement parties are most often held soon after the couple becomes engaged.  It's a chance for the families to announce the happy news and for relatives and friends to meet and congratulate the couple."  So I think we're straight.  And thank god - there's no way we could get our act together and get save the dates out in the next two weeks! 

Woohoo!  Looking forward to getting our party on with the Christmas Eve crew!