Christmas book club

Our Christmas book club is always my favorite one of the year. We have a book & bookmark exchange, and we exchange gifts as well. Whether the gifts are handmade or not, I am always blown away by everyone's creativity.

Unlike Jill, I was, true to form, a complete last-minute Sally. Even though I have been working on my gifts for at least two weeks, and I thought I had everything under control, I didn't. (Is procrastination just my way? Can I not produce until I'm under the gun?) At noon, I thought I was doing really well, time management-wise, but Eva didn't take a nap and was extremely cranky and clingy, and... I ended up being 45 minutes late. (!)

{I finally finished my gifts at 6:50 (our gathering started at 6:30)! My favorite part is the tag with words -- I tore a page out of an old book and cut out words, then arranged them into phrases for each person. Thanks to Stacy S. for this idea (she gave a book like this to Jill for Pink Christmas last year).}

My good friends didn't seem too upset with me, even though they were holding dinner for my arrival. And such a great dinner it was! Jill brought an appetizer (which I missed, but I'm sure everyone else was grateful to have it). Amy made a delicious roast, Jenn made wonderful potatoes (I think I need that recipe), Jana made her coveted rolls, I made a salad, and Collette brought a dessert that was apparently a gift in return for a charitable donation. (I'm still not clear on that story, but Amy and I got a kick out of her "out-sourcing" dessert!)

one of my very favorite salads (especially at Christmastime!)

In case you are wondering, it is spinach, fresh raspberries, sliced kiwi, and macadamia nuts. The dressing is 2 T. raspberry jam, 2 T. raspberry vinegar, and 1/3 c. oil (mix in blender).

Jana gave us these cute Christmas word signs. Jenn asked her if she made them, and she said, "No, but I saw them, and I said that I loved them!"

Collette made us these way cute floating frames with pictures she took of us in front of the Eiffel Tower. I think we were all impressed!

She also bought each of us a copy of one of our books for next year (they were closing them out at the BYU Bookstore) and a new book-a-day calendar! I'm totally excited that we can continue to read about books every day next year.

Jill drew my name for the book exchange, and she gave me a book I have never even heard of! That is so exciting. In addition, it has a pretty cover, it is a big book, and is almost 500 pages long. I love a book with substance and heft.

This is the cute bookmark she made for me. I forgot to take a picture of the bookmark I made for Collette.

And of course, this is the awesome gift she made for us all -- a book of photos from our Paris trip. I still cannot believe I fell for her ruse of saying that she was using felt for her project. That should have been a red flag! There are so many cool photos in this book, as well as memories from each of us that she solicited a week or so ago. Even though we were all in Paris in May, it almost feels as if it never happened, so this tangible book of memories is a real treasure.

Thanks to all my wonderful friends for a book club to remember!

p.s. This is my 500th post!!!

p.p.s. I did finally figure out how to get my banner back on my blog. I have not yet figured out how to get rid of the extraneous title or get my sidebar links back...