Quick, Let Me Post These Pictures Before They Lose Their Seasonal Relevancy

Happy Christmas Eve! I am here at my parents' house in San Diego, where I have already eaten many dishes from my childhood, shouted out many answers on Jeopardy (if only we could play as a family, we would totally win), and watched Elf, Meet the Parents, and Good Morning Vietnam (we started out with a Christmas theme, as you can see, but it soon deteriorated into Eh, Whatever's On and Won't Distract Me From This Delicious Thing I'm Eating From a Tray on My Lap.) Sure, I have yet to wrap the presents my family will be opening in less than 24 hours, but what does that matter when my sister and I are pretty sure we've made our best Christmas table yet. 

We even fashioned tiny miniature wreaths for the placecards, and I think when you make tiny miniature anything, you can be assured of having far too much time on your hands. Or rather, far too much time on your hands when you'd rather be doing anything but wrapping presents. Why is wrapping presents the going-to-the-gym of the holiday season? It seems like it'd be fun, but it's somehow not. 

Making miniature wreaths, however, is a blast.

Call it the Pinterest effect or call it "well, I've just put in a full day of work and the only thing my brain can handle right now is cutting up a bunch of paper while I zone out in front of a Real Housewives franchise," but I've been really into decorating this year. I had a holiday party in San Francisco before I left to come down here, and although I went way overboard on the merriment and cheer—well, maybe not the merriment and cheer, but definitely the veggies and dip (I put them into individual plastic glasses with a dollop of hummus piped into the bottom, I don't know why, maybe just to see how ridiculous and twee I could be without actually cracking up)—I really liked the way my house ended up looking and now I'm considering leaving my Christmas decorations up year round. 

My sister and her boyfriend were staying with us during the party, and my sister's boyfriend—a big strapping lad of 6"4—made those delicate little doily chains, a task I don't think he anticipated being given when he offered the customary "anything I can do to help?", but which, to his credit, he took in his stride like the polite Southern gentleman he is, even honoring my request not to be addressed as "ma'am" ("do you have another year of school left, Alex?" "Yes, ma'am!") when I told him it was making me feel old. 

Here is the invitation we sent out for our holiday party:

And here is some of the food and drink:

My favorite part of the gathering was the photobooth we set up in my office, using two "party curtains" from Party City and half a roll of aluminum foil.

It resulted in some fairly hilarious pictures, many of which I am sure will come in useful if I ever need to blackmail anyone in the future. 

Tons more pictures here, which I'll leave you to look at while I go and finally wrap these presents. Happy Christmas to you, if you're celebrating Christmas, and happy Monday and Tuesday to you if you're not. Hope you all have a wonderful time with the ones you love best.