Good morning, friends!

Today, I am linking up with the wonderful Nina of According to Nina as she inspires us with all of her holiday entertaining tips and ideas.

I absolutely love to entertain! I have dreams of hosting parties all throughout the month of December. I want to host an ornament exchange, a cookie exchange, a tacky sweater party, a white elephant gift exchange, a Christmas Eve open house and a Christmas Day breakfast.

But, I am a mom to two young boys and most of these ideas just aren’t possible for us right now.

I still want to make Christmas special for my family while I have fun planning, decorating and entertaining for a small crowd.

This year, I am hosting Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day dinner. Because Christmas is on a Sunday this year and we’ll be at church in the morning, we decided to have an evening Christmas Day meal.

Set the Menu

For Christmas Eve, our tradition is to have gumbo. It’s delicious, it’s warm, it’s hearty and it’s tradition! It’s also very simple! We serve gumbo with a green salad and French bread. I’ll post the gumbo recipe later this week when I link up with Molly from Duchess of Fork.

In addition to the gumbo, we have yummy snacks. This year we’ll have sausage balls, a cheese spread and party mix.

Set the Table

I like to keep it simple when it comes to “tablescapes.” I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew and I like to use things that I have around the house.

I use my every day china. Last year, my mom went outside and clipped some greenery from a neighbor’s bush and we put it in our center piece. Crafty!

Just tying a few little bows around some things can spruce it up. Maybe you have an apothecary jar, a trifle dish or a group of candles. Anything can be used as a center piece. Add some apples, oranges and ribbon and you’re set!

Set the Mood

Light candles, turn on the lights on the tree and the smell of delicious food will fill the home.

I love Christmas music and love my Christmas playlists on iTunes. My favorite for our Christmas Eve events looks like this!

Relax

After dinner, we wind down and put on our Christmas pajamas. Then we get ready for Santa Claus. All the grandparents are excited about Santa Claus visiting Hudson and Hayes, so we all take time to prepare. We read the Christmas story out of Luke and then The Night Before Christmas. Then we set out some treats for Santa on his special plate.

It’s not entertaining for a crowd, but it’s entertaining for our family and it is tradition.

My dream is to host a party for all of our friends who stay in town for Christmas. After Christmas Eve services I want to come back to my house and hang out while the kids all play together. That’s what I love about Christmas– it’s about celebrating the birth of Christ with family, friends and neighbors. As long as we’re together, it’s a party!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…

You all are invited to join Nina from According to Nina, Meredith from The Tichenor Family, Molly from Duchess of Fork, AP from I Love You More Than Carrots and me for a week of holiday-themed blog link-ups!

On Monday, Nina will be posting about “Oh What Fun It Is To Entertain” and she’ll be sharing holiday entertaining ideas and tips with you. We wanted to encourage you to share your own ideas on your blog and link back up with the blog host for that day. Hopefully we can all get some great ideas and showcase what we’ve done this holiday season.

Each day, the hostess for the day will provide you a little link up button if you choose to put it on your blog.

We hope you’ll link up and share your Christmas ideas!

1. There are still times when I cannot feel the skin around my c-section scar. I’m so sorry if that’s TMI, but it’s the truth.

2. Despite the confession in #1, I am still oh-so-grateful that Hayes was born via c-section.

3. I still need to lose about 20 pounds. It’s a combination of Hayes pregnancy and Hudson pregnancy weight. Please do not say in the comments “you don’t need to lose weight” just to make me feel better. Yes, I do. It would make me feel so much better to finally get that weight off. I have chosen not to post the most unflattering pictures of myself because it’s my blog and why would I post unflattering pictures of myself?  Anyway, the weight needs to take a hike.

4. Who decides to lose 20 pounds right before Christmas? Shouldn’t I wait until after Christmas? You’d think. But, no, I’m ready.

5. The last four confessions aren’t really helping me to focus on what I’m grateful for right now. Sorry, Ann Voskamp. I’m working on it, I really am.

6. Today, I am grateful for a husband who is willing to drive to Louisiana late at night so the boys can sleep most of the way!

7. My Erin Condren iPhone case arrived yesterday and I love it. It was a gift from the wonderful Nina and I am so excited to have it!

8. I am a book swap failure. I have all of the addresses and I even purchased the books for the kids I’m sending books to. I just haven’t mailed the letters or the book. It will get done eventually!

9. TC has been out of town for the past three days. It is so hard when he’s not here! My patience is about gone and I took time every night to pray that I would be kind and patient no matter how much I had been pushed to my limit. It’s as if Hudson was pushing me just because TC was gone. Anyway, I did it and I can’t wait for him to get home tonight!

10. I just read #4… please understand that I do not plan to lose 20 pounds by Christmas. Just wanted to make that clear.

11. I am straight up obsessed with my new Keurig. They make it way too easy to make a cup of coffee. And it’s a good cup of coffee. I love the new Starbucks K-cups in Breakfast Blend.

12. My oldest friend in the world is getting married this weekend. This officially makes us grown-ups.

13. Which takes more effort? “Being the bigger person” or holding a grudge? Neither are easy.

14. I am running the air conditioner in my house today. Hello, South Carolina? It’s December. Get it together.

15. I only want one thing for Christmas. I’m not very easy to buy for this year.

16. Instead of watching Christmas movies this week, all I wanted to watch was the old 90210 episode that was a spoof on It’s A Wonderful Life. This makes me weird.