My 1st Time Hosting Christmas!

I know it's a bit late for a Christmas post, but better late than never, right? (and this way I can pretend it's still the festive season, lol) I had a wonderful time hosting Christmas lunch for Mr. B's family & also doing Christmas Eve dinner for my family. It was busy, stressful & at times crazy, but most of all magical & fun! :D

I woke Christmas morning a buzz of excitement & ate a lovely gluten free & diary free croissant (baked fresh then brought online from Choices Gluten Free). I filled it Toblerone (I figured it's Christmas so I'd deal with the pain of having dairy for this one special day :P) folded it & warmed it in the oven so the Toblerone melted inside. It was yummy! :D

I'm not going to post about all the many gifts that I received this year (I was very spoilt), although they were all so lovely, it was more of a day & night to get together with family, chat, eat & enjoy each other's company. I loved playing host. Decorating the house was fun!

The Christmas Tree:

This Mr. & Mrs. Claus decoration has been on our family Christmas tree since I was a child. This is a special edition to Mr. B & my Christmas tree in our home :-)

This cute Santa decoration is actually a snow globe! (for those of you who don't know I am mildly obsessed with snow globes)
A lovely gift from my friend, Jess :-)

This tin cupcake was a gift from my sister x

This gorgeous Hello Kitty hand blown glass ornament is a favourite!

Our tree is not complete without an angel on top :-)

This hand made reindeer has been a trusty 'present guard' since I was a child. Another special Christmas decoration I can't bear to part with :-)

This gorgeous ceramic 'Cookie' decoration was a gift from Mum x

Christmas is just not complete without my sequined reindeer & Henry the chicken :-)

...and let's not forget my Helly Kitty stocking!

The Table Settings:

Even though we had traditional Christmas bon bons as well, I couldn't resist these cute bunny bon bons:

Keeping up with my snow globe obsession I got this cute Christmas train for the table. Each carriage is a snow globe!

We brought this pretty detailed table centrepiece from Prouds the jewelers

I visited my family for a fun-filled Christmas Eve family dinner. I wore this emerald green maxi dress from Modcloth:

My sister made this amazing 3 layer jelly:

The layers are: strawberry, coconut & pink lemonade. It was so sweet & yummy & also gluten free! :-)

My Christmas Day Outfit:

It didn't take me long to decide on this Portmans white dress for my Christmas day outfit. I had purchased it (on sale) a few months prior & had been resisting temptation to wear it as I was 'saving' it for this special day. I paired it with a old red bow belt & my trusty old Target red shoes (a perfect mix of old meets new, I thought).

Christmas Day lunch was absolutely delicious! Mr. B's family made so many gluten free versions of Christmas favorites that I have missed out on in previous years. Mr. B's sister made an amazing gluten free stuffing, there was gluten free gravy, leg of ham, roast veges and of course two roast turkeys stuffed with orange, sage & gluten free stuffing:

Me being stupid about to carve the turkey :P

I baked a few Christmas treats this year including gluten & dairy free gingerbread men:

and a gluten free twist on a family favourite, New Zealand lolly log/lolly cake:

I will do a separate post about the lolly log & the gingerbread men, including recipes later :-)
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas & that 2013 has been wonderful for you so far!

miss_tash x