Returning to Reality

Hi friends. I missed you! How was your holiday? It has taken me longer than I expected to come down from the high of the season, but the break was fantastic. Endless food, lots of great memories, and a family filled affair. Here are a few snippets....

My mother arranged the most beautiful flowers around the house. Her use of the floating cranberries is something I will be stealing in the future. 

Fun filled bloodies courtesy of my brother. He incorporated the pickled shrimp I made the night before. One of my favorite hor d'oeuvres. 

Christmas is not complete without mini cheesecakes. Which are insanely easy to make. 

Fourteen people came for Christmas Eve dinner. I forgot to take a picture of the food (Beef tenderloin with an incredible sauce, truffled roasted potatoes, crab cakes, and a winter salad), but had time to snap a few pictures of the table. 

We used some stock vases (like the cheapy ones that come with delivery flowers) and filled them with some old ornaments I had for the dessert table. I got these different silver ones from Target in bulk and mixed in a few nice ones. 

My new favorite drink, the Paloma, made an appearance or two. 

My Mom tackled Giada's Hazelnut Crunch Cake that I have always wanted to try. It was divine. 

Someone got greedy on Christmas morning. Maybe he was looking for the giant package of bacon we received from Bacon Freak. Someone knows us well. I also used this cute idea from Pinterest to label presents this year. 

It all went by much too fast. It was truly great to host my family and spend so much time together. I really enjoyed my cyber fast as well. I was really good and stayed off until a couple days ago. I am easing back in, but honestly I did not miss much. 

What I did miss was seeing cute pics on Instagram, a handful of the countless blogs on my bookmarks, and writing here on Imperfect Polish. 

I wish all of you a Happy Happy New Year. My hope is to keep you as a reader by continuing to write about things I truly love and am inspired by. 

xo

Erin