Christmas Parties 2011!!!!

In addition to the sweet, loving, and sentimental family gatherings, there is another side to Christmas; the WILD CRAZY CHRISTMAS PARTIES!!!!!! In the week leading up to Christmas, it seemed like I had a Christmas Party Every Night!!

On Friday night, we had Christmas with the Corleone's down at Don Lisa Bootylicious (aka MAAAWMA) Smith's compound. We ate Lasagna, Spaghetti, and cannolis while we watched Bridesmaids and played dirty santa. I dressed as The one and only Don Corleone himself. John David was Michael Corleone, Claudia was Connie Corleone, Samantha and Austin were Elvira and Scarface. A Good time was had by all

Scarface and Elvira 

Michael, Connie, and Vito Corleone 

Me and Lisa Bootylicious (aka MAAAWMA) Smith 

Coreleone Bunch! 

Michael and Vito and their love! 

Barrows and Smiths.

On Monday night, Samantha Hill hosted a Christmas as a Character party. Guests were asked to come dressed as their favorite Christmas character. Well of course Claudia and Myself just HAD to go as someone from Christmas vacation; we went as Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis. Claudia had a nice mink collar, a tacky turtle neck, big hair, and a hat. I wore a tacky Christmas tie (which my father actually likes and wears), an overcoat, cigar, and fedora. Of course my Uncle Lewis wardrobe would not have been complete without a toupee. Because I could not find a reasonably priced on line, Claudia and I resorted in flouring my hair. We did it in my bathroom just minutes before we left and we made a HUGE MESS. There was a scrumptious buffet of party foods and a very entertaining game where one person called out a question and everybody else had to write down and answer to the question. Then you draw the answers out of a hat and try to guess who said what. It was so much fun! We then moved outside for a bon-fire where we burned Nancy Pelosi's memoir. We ended the night back inside playing and interview game and telling each other the things we liked about one another.

Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany-Yes, we "wrapped up our damn cat!" 

Rudolph and Clarice 

Redneck Santer and Miz Clause

Santer, Miz Clauze and their rain der

On Tuesday night the Andalusia City Youth Ambassadors motored up to the home of Jeraldine Stroud for a wild night of Reese (pronounced rees) balls and scategories! Only 6 of the 12 ambassadors were in attendance. We dined on cookies, cheese dip, reese balls,chess bars, and other goodies. John David was my partner for scategories.

Last but not least, on Wednesday The Fourth Annual Christmas Party was held in the Mancave of John David Thompson. The theme of this fete was Christmas through the decades. Guests were requested to come dressed in attire from their favorite decade. Of course I dressed like the 1950s in a collard shirt, varsity cardigan, oxfords, khakis, and horned rimmed brow-line glasses. The evening consisted of a buffet of sweet treats,  dirty santa, and taboo. Towards the end of the night (after I came out of my shell lol) we started impersonating the british twins from the movie Bridesmaids. It was so hilarious. Everyone's outfits were humorous and festive. Once again, a good time was had by all.

Big Smith in Granny Smith's glasses 

Love birds -____-

Big Smit (50's) and Mace (60's-70's) 

Me and Claude-50's 

Smith Guhz-50's and 80's 

The host-50's/80's (i think he was 80's in this pic) 

Group Picture 

90's girls! 

Cousins in the 50's 

Dirty Santa 

Hunter's gift!!

My Caton Christmas Vacation!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!! I hope everyone had a delightful holiday season this year, I know I sure did. Christmas time is my favorite time of year. I just love the food, family, and decorations. I've already done one blog post about our decorations, so I'll talk about the other two parts to the Christmas trinity: food and family.

I absolutely love my family!! They are just great! Every time I'm around them we just laugh all of the time! This year we had our traditional Christmas meal on Christmas Eve at my grandmother's house. We had pork loin, butter beans, dressing, cranberry salad, and sweet potato casserole! YUM! We started a new tradition a couple of years ago; on Christmas Eve we always watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Me and my family can quote the ENTIRE MOVIE!! An "outsider" would probably be intimidated at this point. We all just get so crazy and start yelling out lines form the movie and laughing hysterically!!! Then Gaga read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, my personal favorite. Ever since Hope and I were little children, the family has always rung jingle bells and spotted Santa on Christmas Eve. This year my Uncle Jimbo went outside and rang some jingle bells for Bo and Cozy! They were soooooo excited! Bo wanted to run home right then and get in his bed! Sowe all adjourned to our respective houses to wait for the arrival of Santa Clause!

Next comes Christmas morning, something I think the Caton's are famous for. People that have married into the family think we're inside, but we find it completely normal. Hope and I awoke from a sleepless night at 7:00 a.m. to find many presents waiting for us in the living room. This year I got a new TV, printer, monogrammed towels, and book ends for my dorm room. I also got some new clothes, a GPS, and The Help book and movie. After opening presents from our "Santas" Gaga, Greg, Mother, Daddy, Hope, and I made our way up Magnolia Hill to Cindy and Chuck's house to watch our cousins Bo and Cozy open their gifts. When I say I have never seen so many toys in my life, I am not exaggerating! They were so excited and got lots of cool things! After experiencing the craziness up the Hill, at 9:30,  the whole fam-damily headed to Gaga's house to open presents. This next hour and a half is 90 minutes of pure insanity. The Caton family Christmas is  not complete without the follwoing: screaming children, wrapping paper up to the ceiling (literally), barking dogs, someone trying to hide the underwear they recieved, and a tear or two. This year was no exception. All 13 of us starting ripping and tearing our presents at once! By 11:00 a.m. its all over, everyone travels home with armloads of presents to play with their "toys."

We all spent a relaxing afternoon trying on our clothes and figuring out how to work our gifts; then we all rendezvous that evening at Gaga's for finger foods. (Most of us are still in our PJ's hehe). Jimbo and Susan could not make it Christmas night because they had to go to Banks to be with her parents. Cindy was doing this hilarious impersonation of this Yankee woman who comes and picks up her pee-canz. I was crying by the time she was finished.

Well as Cousin Eddie would say, it was Real Nice Christmas Clark! Hope your's was just as Merry!

Fluffy and Cozy 

My fam minus me 

Gaga, Bo, and Daddy

"When I went to Auburn every freshmen had to have a pair of saddle oxfords!"-Gaga 

Monogrammed Towels for my dorm! 

How sweet! 

She takes after he cousins!

Uncle Clark hehe

Sub-Deb Cotillion Winter Formal

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of attending the Winter Formal Dance of the Andalusia Country Club's Sub Deb Cotillion. I had the privilege of going with my long time friend Claudia Elizabeth Williamson. We started out the night by taking pictures at my house with my sister and her date, Michael McCalman. We arrived at the Club at 6:15 so Claudia could be in the Sr. Sub Deb Club Group portrait. We got in line to get our pictures made then watched with great anticipation as the other guests arrived. The dining room was like a kaleidoscopic of colors; the dresses this year were especially colorful and beautiful. After all the guests arrived, we dined on scrumptious "vittles." We then waited as the Senior "Debs" lined up for their lead-out debut. After the new debutantes promenaded through the crowd with their father's, they lined the dance floor and danced with their "daddies" to "Daughters" by John Mayer. As soon as the formalities ended, the dancing began. Everyone had a wonderful time as they danced the night away. 

Word Count: 179

 Me and Claude

 Myself, Claudia, Michael, and Hope

 The Fam

The Debutantes and their fathers

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.....at The Caton Home!!

Well, its beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Caton household; we got a head start this year! Every year for my mother's Christmas present, her friend Nichole decorates our house. This year was no exception and it looks FABULOUS! Of course, I had to add my own special touches to everything. This year, we used a lot of fresh magnolia greenery. It looks so great! The only thing is I don't look forward to is having to take it down an replacing it before Christmas. Like everything else we do, our Christmas decorations are planned out to a T. Every room has its own theme and its own tree. The kitchen/breakfast room is gingerbread, the den is snowmen, the living room and dining room are full of fresh magnolia, greenery, berries, bows, and balls, my room is Auburn, and Hope's room is just cute and girly. We put up our main Christmas tree in the dining room; it is a "themed" tree where we put all of our presents. In the den, we have a smaller Christmas tree where we put all of our mismatched ornaments we've collected/made over the years. Hope and I each have our own trees in our room; mine is Auburn, and hers is cute and girly. In the breakfast room we have a gingerbread tree. We always pop some popcorn and make garland for this tree. I just love Christmas. I love spending time with family, eating great food, decorating the house, opening presents, and most importantly, celebrating the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Word Count: 263

 Mantle in the Living Room- By Nichole Adkinson

 Buffet in the Dining Room- By Christian Davis

 Dining Room Table-By Nichole Adkinson and Stephen Caton

Foyer- By Stephen Caton

Piano-By Stephen Caton

 Tree for the Den-By Stephen Caton

 My Auburn Tree-By Stephen Caton

 Dough Bowl a Colonial Christmas Must- By Stephen Caton

Centerpiece for Breakfast room table- By Stephen Caton

Wreath-By Stephen Caton

Mirror Swag-By Stephen Caton 

Foyer Buffet-By Stephen Caton 

Mantle-By Stephen Caton

Top of Secretary-By Stephen Caton

Le Grande Tour De L'Europe: le Voyage Accueil

Well all good things must come to and end, and my Grand Tour of Europe is no exception. Every time I think about it ending it just makes me want to cry. These were the absolute best 10 days of my life! I learned and experienced so much; I would do it again in a heartbeat. I certainly hope that one day I will get to go back to Europe! We were awaken at 5:45 and left the Hotel Hilary at 6:30. We drove on the bus to the airport; we arrived about 7:30. Once we got to the airport we had a little while to do some shopping and I bought a beautiful cardinal bow-tie. We boarded our plane and flew from Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome to Heathrowe Airport in London. Once we got to Heathrowe we thought we had plenty of time to get to our flight deck, but we didn't! We all almost missed the flight; John, Toby, and Aaron almost got left. I was randomly searched when we were about to get on the bus to head to the plan. The flight home felt extremely long. I watched No Strings Attached, Black Swan, and the Kings Speech. They were all very good. Once we to to Atlanta we went through customs and walked what seemed like MILES to re-check our baggage. We finally got to the car! I rode home with Mr. and Mrs. Momenpour and Aaron. I fell asleep almost immediately; we arrived in Andalusia around 12:30 a.m.

Word Count: 255

John David, myself, and Claudia

Le Grande Tour De L'Europe: Roma, le Finale

We woke up the next morning for our last full day of the Grand Tour of Europe! In the morning, we toured the Colosseum and the Forum, and in the afternoon, we traveled to Vatican City for a tour of the St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. The Colosseum was huge and overwhelming and the forum was long and fairly boring. It was rather hot! For some reason, I thought the Forum was only one building, but it was like all the ruins of the ancient city in the Roman Republic and Imperial Rome, (temples, meeting halls, senate chamber, etc.) Upon exiting the Forum, we walked past the church where St. Paul was imprisoned. We ate lunch at this over priced placed right across the street from the Vatican. For Claudia and I to each get once slide of lasagna and a coke it was over $50!! The big, fat Italian men were rude and expense. Just one coke $8.00! We then toured the Vatican, which is much larger and prettier than you would expect. Then, we ended up at the Sistine Chapel. It was the closest thing to hell I'd ever experienced in my life. We had to walk down at least six flights of stairs; once we got there it was dark, hot, and crowded (just like what I would expect hell to be like.) It was well worth it though! Of all the ornately painted ceilings I had seen in Europe, it was by far the prettiest! You felt like you were a part of the painting it was so huge! After we fought our way out of the chapel, we were supposed to have a free time in a square with a lot of artists, but because the tour too so long, we loaded up and headed to the Hotel Hilary! This made Le Fleur FURIOUS!! Well we got back to the hotel and thoroughly enjoyed our last night in Europe!

Word Count: 326

 River Tiber, Roma, Italy

 St. Peter's Square, Vatican City

 The Colosseum, Roma

Forum de Roma