Friday Favorites.....3 More Sleeps Edition!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve my friends!! Only three more sleeps til Christmas!!!
I cannot believe that this is my last post until after Christmas. But it's a good one! So many favorites from the last week to share with you.
As usual, I am linking up with some of my favorite blogging friends, Andrea, Narci, and Erika for a super- sized Christmas week Friday Favorites, so grab some coffee  Christmas cookies and check it out!

one
I celebrated a big day on Monday. Yep... I celebrated my 40th birthday!

And my crew pulled off a fun surprise for me last Saturday night. Paul and the kids had been planning a surprise party for me.

My birthday is December 18th...exactly one week before Christmas. Maybe that's why I love Christmas so much, because it's my birthday season too!

Paul told me not to make plans for Saturday the 16th. He told me that our friends, Tom & Nicole were coming over to hang out for my birthday. I did not think too much of it at the time & honestly thought if anything, we would be going out to dinner as a surprise. 

So on Saturday, Tom & Nicole came over. We were fixing ourselves a cocktail when the doorbell rang and my parents, sister, and brother and his family came in with platters of food!

Ella told me this was just the beginning!

Over the next hour or so, many of my dear friends stopped by to celebrate with us. It was fun to kind of have a surprise all night...like who will show up next?!?

They made a signature drink for our evening. "The Gen"....

it was a pomegranate moscow mule and it was so good!

My sister gives the kids money in all their cards for the holidays. She sends them cards for every holiday and always includes money, in the amount of their age. Ella gets $10 and Luke gets $8. I always joke with her when I open my card and it's empty! So sure enough, my 40th birthday card had $40! Ha! Love my little sister!

I still cannot believe the kids kept it a secret. Ella said they started to talk about it in October!

Love this little family of mine.

two

Each year we "adopt" a family to help during the holidays. We ask all of our guests at our annual gingerbread party to help with our family's wishlist and goodness...we have such generous friends.

On Tuesday this week, we took all the gifts to meet our family. 

The foundation we work with, the PUNT Foundation was founded by one of the Buffalo Bills players. There are always some players at the gift event....which is why Luke is decked out in all his Bills gear!

We met our family and found out some heartbreaking news. We knew their 4 year old daughter had a form of brain cancer, and the mom shared with me they found a similar brain cancer in their 3 year old daughter this year. I can't imagine....I am praying for this family and their girls and ask for you prayers too.

three

This week we had our cookie exchange with the girls from the neighborhood! 

Yay for lots of cookies! Side note, I found these fun Christmas wines at our local wine store. They have a few varieties of wines with different holiday labels.  A pretty perfect hostess gift!

four

I love getting the mail these days. Seeing all the smiling faces of friends and family on their Christmas cards makes me happy.

Here is our card....

five

I am all wrapped and ready to go. And that my friends is a favorite for sure! And is it just me or do you feel a big sense of accomplishment when you have several empty rolls? I feel so much more accomplished when I finish a roll of paper!

I even got the dining room table set for Christmas dinner. The fresh pine smells so good!

six

These have become a late night favorite. They are a perfect treat as I cross of some of my holiday to-dos.

Tonight we are off to go Christmas Caroling with friends and then it's three days of  all the Christmas things!! 

I wish you and your families peace, joy and all things merry this Christmas.

See you next week....there's always room for one more at our family table.

xoxo

Genevieve