I hope you all had a great Christmas! Mine included some amazing time worshipping God for the best gift ever, memories made with family and friends, and some much-needed down-time. It was perfect!
For some reason I have a hard time seeing past Christmas every year. It seems that everything after Thanksgiving builds towards Christmas and it's all I can do to focus on the next task at hand in preparation for it. So when it passes, I'm never prepared for it to be a new year so soon. Although one week is never sufficient for me to mentally prepare for a new year, it IS a great time to look back over 2012 and reflect.
Today I'm going to share my top 10 most commented-on blog posts from 2012. This is something fun I do every year and it's great, because if you missed a popular post, this gives you a chance to get caught up!
It's always enlightening for me to look back on a year of blog posts and see what got you guys weighing in. This year's top posts include five weddings, a new business launch announcement, a helpful tip for photographers, a couple goals checked off my list and some musings on self-sufficiency vs. neediness.
For 15 years now, my friend (who also happens to be a fabulous wedding and event planner) Victoria Canada, has been hosting an annual cookie swap party. I have attended for the last three years and it has become one of my favorite holiday festivities that I look forward to each year. The idea is brilliant, really. Everyone brings 8 dozen of their favorite cookie (each guest claims their flavor on the Evite to make sure there are no duplicates) and leaves with an assortment of cookies in all shapes and sizes. If you love giving away tins of homemade cookies to your neighbors and friends, you simply must start one of these of your own. It allows you to sample and give away so many different types of cookies without having to make so many different types of cookies. BRILLIANT!
Victoria is an event planner who loves Christmas, so you know her house is decked out and gorgeous every year when guests arrive:
The mandates of the cookie swap party are five-fold:
A handful of cookies of each type are cut up so that guests can sample each without keeling over from sugar-shock, and each guest votes for their favorites. Last year my fancy chocolate chip cookies (below top right) won for the category Best Tasting. It was quite an honor considering the competition.
Winners go home with baking-related gifts:
Victoria also sets up a packaging station where guests can wrap up their cookies so they're ready to give away as gifts before they even head home:
And here's the pretty assortment I went home with!! Scrumptious!!
Even though I just attended Victoria's Cookie Swap Party yesterday, the above photos were all taken at last year's party in preparation for a feature on Style Me Pretty's Blog. And they just published the prettiness yesterday! Click here to see the full post!
And to find out more about our associate program and see more of Tina, Rachel, Michelle, and Mary's work, click here. If you are interested in hiring one of them for your upcoming wedding, please fill out our contact form!
I'm so excited -- I just had my promo video updated with some new footage. I didn't completely redo it because, let's face it, I will never be able to part with Kindra comparing me to Santa Claus, but there's some new stuff in there to freshen it up! You can view it here, and also, anytime you want under the "about us" section of the website by clicking on "MJ in Action."
I'm so excited! The new issue of Arizona Bride is out and Becky & Anthony's wedding is featured in it! These two were married last October at the Four Seasons and I love how their outdoor reception really featured the gorgeous desert backdrop they wanted. Congratulations to the team of vendors that helped to pull off this amazing wedding!
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