christmas crafting in duluth, annual chili party, best parents ever

azalea and i are back from a super fun weekend in duluth visiting one of my best friends, dani, her hubby, and their little 10 month old, gino. dani and i have always bonded over our obsession with christmas. every year for the last couple years, at the beginning of november, we've had a crafting/baking/christmas movie watching weekend at her house. we pretty much start planning and fantasizing about this weekend the day after labor day. hahaha. 

we arrived in duluth friday morning around 11:00. azalea did really well in the car. she played with toys and looked out the window for the first 2 hours and then slept for the last half hour, which was good because it pushed her afternoon nap back. dani, gino, azalea and i went out for lunch at fitger's brewhouse, one of my favorite duluth restaurants! it had been way too long! the kiddos did really well at lunch. 

just chillin post lunch

then we headed to michael's and target to get crafting supplies. we put gino and azalea in a double-seated cart at target and they were so funny! we kept cracking up. 

when we got back to their house, the little ones went down for a nap and we got started on our crafting. first let me say, i am so not a crafter. i like the idea of crafting, but anything i make usually doesn't come out how i envisioned it, so i just don't attempt it very often. we had a couple projects in mind. one was making ornaments with epsom salt and the kids' names on them. the other was making pretty little christmas trees out of those cheap cardboard trees. here are the supplies we bought: 

epsom salt, cardboard trees, ribbon, paint brushes, metallic paint, clear glass ornaments, paint pen, rubber cement, glue stick, and sparkly letter stickers. 

the first project was the ornaments. we planned on covering them with glue and rolling them in the epsom salt to get a "snowy" effect. dani's turned out pretty well, but i wasn't happy with mine, so i went a different route. i instead filled my ornament with the epsom salt, put the letter stickers on the front, and finished it off with a ribbon. easy peasy! 

only problem is, it's super heavy, so i might need to empty some of the salt before it goes on our tree. 

after craft time, we made spaghetti for dinner and played with the kids for a while. then azalea and gino had a bath date. hehe! 

after they went to bed, we drank wine and watched christmas vacation. nice, relaxing night! 

saturday we headed to the mall. azalea can be sort of a disaster to take shopping, but she did really well. i did really well too. ha! i got a winter coat at old navy for $32(!!), 2 pairs of jammies for azalea, holiday hand soap, and 2 shimmery candles. we picked up noodles to go for lunch and headed home so the kids could nap. we also did a little more crafting. we painted our trees with the metallic paint, then covered them in glue and rolled them in the epsom salt. here is how they turned out: 

pretty and inexpensive! :) 

we ordered in burrito union for dinner and played with the kids. after they went down for the night, we made some cocktails (sparkling white wine, vodka, and cranberry juice - yum!), made some mint chocolate chip brownies, and watched a couple christmas movies on lifetime. we know how to have a good time, huh? 

sunday morning we made cinnamon rolls and then azalea and i were on the road by 9am. i wanted to get back for my friend (former boss) karen's annual chili party. our drive was ok, but a little scary at times because it was sleeting and the roads were really wet. but azalea was a complete angel! she just watched out the window quietly for most of the time and slept for an hour. we unpacked our stuff and then headed to the chili party. we brought brownies this year, but we enjoyed trying 4 different chilis. azalea had lots of fun running around with the kids. in the evening, i met up with a friend i haven't talked to since freshmen year of college for coffee. it was nice to catch up with her. thatcher is out of town, so azalea and i ate dinner at my parents'. azalea was in major meltdown mode during dinner and after and i was needing to stop at the store to get a couple things, but my mom took pity on me and offered to go to the store for me and then drop off the groceries. i love her!