'Tis The Season

I absolutely love this time of year!  One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is all of the parties!  This year has been no exception.  We've already had a jam-packed party season and have a few more festivities to attend before the new year.

The party season started off with a second round of Thanksgiving.  Every Monday night a group of people from Dan's work get together for a casual dinner.  A few weeks ago, one of the couples decided they'd like to host a Monday night dinner on Sunday instead and make it a Thanksgiving party.  Anyone who knows me at all knows that I LOVE Thanksgiving.  Actually, you don't even need to know me that well...I'm pretty outspoken about it (see this year's awesome Thanksgiving recap here).  Needless to say, I was pretty stoked about this party. 

Host Randy (front left) and Dan are still in Movember mode

Then, the next night, another couple continued the regular Monday night schedule and declared it the beginning of the Christmas parties.  Everyone was told to come in ugly sweaters and we'd watch Christmas movies.  Now, I'm Jewish, but somehow I still absolutely love Christmas.  It's kind of ridiculous, actually.  But I just love all the movies (It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite) and Christmas songs. It's a sickness.

Sadly I don't have any pictures of the ugly sweaters on display, but there were some good ones.  I even went to our local thrift store to pick some  up, but they were nothing compared to our friend Sarah who was fully decked out in a sweater vest with raised reindeer.

Dan and I decided we needed to step in and spread some Chanukah cheer.  So we volunteered to host the next Monday night get-together, Chanukah style.  We made blitnzes and latkes and dreidel-shaped cookies and served bagels and lox. 

We even bought a bunch of dreidels and taught people how to play the game. 

It was our first time hosting anything in the new house, and it went really well.  I can't wait to host many more parties in the future!

After our Monday night get-together, we also had a holiday party for Dan's work.  It was hosted by one of Dan's co-workers Bob.  Bob and his wife Lisa work in a gorgeous barn conversion near the base.  A barn conversion is a property that was once a barn that is now converted into a really nice, luxurious house.  This one was no exception.  It was amazing!  They had a hot tub, a 360 degree shower, and a sauna (!) in their bathroom!!  Their conservatory also had the most incredible views of the Dales.  It was awesome.

And our final party thus far is one that deserves its own post: 12 Pubs of Christmas.  Our friends put together a great list of 12 pubs in Harrogate in which to grab a half pint.  I have a bunch of pictures to share for that, so hopefully I can blog about that tomorrow.

As you can see, we're having a very merry holiday season.  I hope you're doing the same!