Christmahanukkah at The Farm

My guess is that most people who may have a Holiday party this season have a.) working lights in their dining room, and b.) actually planned in advance to have the party. I didn’t have either of those things going in my favor, but it didn’t stop one of my friends from suggesting the start of Hanukkah and the fact that I have a large, round Christmas tree in an actual finished room in my house were cause for celebration. A conversation that went something like this:

Her: We should have a party at your house this weekend! A Christmahanukkah party!

Me: Um. I have a toilet. In the middle of my mudroom.

Her: Oh, good. Because it’s going to be that kind of party.

So. That settled it. The nice thing about an impromptu party is that it doesn’t give me any time to get “just one more thing done” before I have people over. At least not anything big, although I did manage to get a few working lights in the entryway.

My sparkling friend Katy also suggested that the party decor should have a little of its own Liberty House flavor…

I don’t know if she exactly meant that I should pick up some scrap wood off my shop floor (from making the top of my indoor workbench) and nail parchment paper to it for cheese trays…

Well, yeah, she probably did.

Don’t worry, I brushed the sawdust off first. Kind of.

I also used a (clean) paint can as a wine bucket…

And a few other little farmhouse touches.

My new favorite addition to the house came from a friends basement…

He was all, hey, I’m taking one of the most awesome cabinets that ever existed out of my basement and replacing it with plastic shelving, want it? And I may have gotten embarrassingly excited when I saw it, but I’m pretty sure the happy dance I did was only in my head. Probably.

I hit it with the sander, gave it a quick wash of white paint, and took the hardware off and spray painted it flat black…

Then I tacked a couple of old barn wood planks to the top, and fell in love.

What I also learned is that getting a Christmas tree to sit vertically in the stand is more than just a one-woman job. Thankfully I roped a couple of strapping young men into helping me right it. (Notice the deer candle holder in this picture? Wait for it…)

In addition, Liberty House hosted its first ever Menorah lighting…

And I bet the only telling of the Hanukkah story that included the words “suck it, bitches, we get eight days to party.” (I might be paraphrasing, but not as much as you would think.)

Oddly, I noticed that throughout the night some of my decorations seemed to be… not as I remembered.

Tits and legs, guys. I should have seen that coming.

I definitely can’t reach that candy cane, so it’s staying there.

And I may have had to sit down on the floor I was laughing so hard when I opened my fridge this morning, and found this keeping my OJ company…

What I know for sure is that none of my friends should be trusted with a to-do list and a piece of chalk…

My favorite thing is that whoever added “Candy Room” to this list wanted to make sure I understood that meant “room full of candy”. You know. Because there are so many different ways I could have interpreted that. (And I’ll get right on that guys. Right after I construct a Harem.)

The one thing I can say for sure is that over the last year I’ve been so lucky to have the most awesome, talented, and downright hilarious people enter my life, and I couldn’t be more grateful for them.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find where someone hid the wrapping paper…