Skip to main content

Covid Birthday Party and Home Photos

The timing was not great for my birthday in 2020. COVID was brand-new and especially scary, so we didn't risk any sort of get-together, socially distanced or otherwise. 

This year, SN and my parents are fully vaccinated (here in New Mexico, we're #1 in the country for our COVID vaccination rate), so we planned a COVID birthday party.

Interior design bloggers
Welcome (finally) to our home!

SN and I are not big on housekeeping. We try to keep up with daily tasks like dishwashing and sweeping up endless tumbleweeds of dog hair, but even that often gets away from us. Pre-COVID, our house would benefit from a good scrubbing every time a visitor came. 

COVID = No visitors for more than a year. Our home was a disaster!

We tidied and dusted and rearranged our decor for springtime.

Spring cleaning
Spring decorating ideas
Much better.

Interior design ideas
I'm clearly incapable of taking a straight photo (too much peer pressure coming my way through the glass), but I was able to hang my carrots properly.

You know, whatever is the proper way to attach linen table runners to your walls with thumb tacks.

Now I'm looking at the photo and seeing that my carrots are not hung properly. I'm moving them anyway, just as soon as the 6 matching table runners I ordered arrive.

Deer salt and pepper
I was excited to have company. Aren't these reindeer salt and pepper shakers just the cutest? I bought them months ago and haven't been able to show them off.

What's even better than reindeer shakers? (And what doesn't go with reindeer shakers at all, but just try and stop me?)

Wallace Napoleon Bee
I could not 'bee' more delighted with my new Wallace Napoleon Bee silverware.

SN and I don't do birthday presents. If I want something, I talk myself in and out of purchasing it until SN insists I get it. Technically, the reindeer and the bees were his idea.

White kitchen with red brick

For my COVID birthday menu, SN fired up the pizza oven. He just finished it last weekend and was optimistic that the Ford blue engine paint would not peel off the instant he got the oven up to temperature.

Pizza oven
It survived. Whew! Olive also managed to survive, despite repeated attempts to sniff inside the fiery pizza oven.

Our homemade pizza oven
Not great for puppy noses.

Pizza party
There's one of those out-of-control tumbleweeds of dog hair now, right on the floor next to SN.

Wait, that's Biscuit.

Herringbone ceiling
Fun fact: That's our Christmas tree on the dining table. We're 99% certain it died before Christmas (never watering it is a good indication), but it stayed green, albeit a bit crispy.

I worked tirelessly to make the house presentable and became more frenzied as our deadline approached. We'd originally planned for my parents to come over at 2 pm. I'd called them the day before to change our plans to noon. What was I thinking?

Also, what was SN thinking? Every time someone comes over, I race around the house trying to clean everything before they arrive. Every time, SN decides the house is as clean as it's going to get and relaxes. "It's done," he'll say, ignoring the trash that needs to be emptied or the mozzarella cheese he just dumped all over the counter and floor. 

Every time, he says, "Why are you mad?" Every. Single. Time. 

I've heard most husbands are guilty of this. It's weird, right?

Indoor fountain
See how he won't make eye contact? That's because I asked SN to put Bernadette's harness on, which reduces her social anxiety. (Can dogs have social anxiety? Apparently.) Instead, I caught him exiting my office with a handful of Skittles.

He was later upset that Bernadette would not behave. If only someone had put her harness on like they said they would...

Dog sisters
This is the smile of a dog who is about to go berserk.

Panorama Homes ABQ
THEY'RE HERE! (OMG! THERE'S STILL SO MUCH TO DO!)

Williams Sonoma copper party tub
With a drink in each person's hand, everyone quickly relaxed. 

Social distancing
Mine may have been a big glass of wine.

Smile for the camera
Pre-wine and post-wine

Thrive rose recipe
Fun fact: This Thrive rosé is the perfect wine to serve at an outdoor party. It's even more refreshing (and fancy) mixed with iced green tea and served in a champagne flute.

Dogs smiling
Olive was thrilled to see her grandma and grandpa. During COVID, we've cautiously kept the dogs away, lest my high-risk parents pet a COVID-covered pup. With everyone fully vaccinated, Olive made up for lost time by insisting on extra attention. 

Like anyone could say no to that face.

Bernadette was rescued right at the start of the pandemic and has had almost no socialization outside of our house.

Dog friends
It shows. Bernadette was terrified of my parents. Here she is hiding behind Biscuit, the big, scary dog that she is.

Fearful rescue dog
Bernadette checked out my mom from the safety of a non-opening window.

To Bernadette's dismay, we took a few COVID birthday party photos out on the back patio. Then we retreated inside because the wind picked up. Gotta love springtime in New Mexico.

COVID Birthday Party

Outdoor party

Taking photos was fun (oh, and finally seeing my parents, I suppose), but if you know me at all, you know where my priorities lie. It was time for the highlight of my birthday party.

Time to eat.

Party menu
I can't resist a sweet treat. Note to self: Next time, photograph the desserts prior to devouring them.

Birthday lunch
Look at all this salad. Such a healthy meal! It totally cancels out the pizza.

Birthday party at home

After our meal, we played Mexican Train Dominoes. We used to do this often in the pre-COVID world and it felt like life was returning to normal.

Family photos
You even get a smile from my dad in this photo. He loves Mexican Train Dominoes. You'll understand why in a moment.

Mexican Train Dominoes
I tried to convince our guests that the birthday girl automatically wins by default. No luck.

Poker face
We're a competitive family! The lighthearted and fun Tootsie Roll Pops I'd put out only increased everyone's poker face. 

I gave my dad a hard time because he always takes the longest to decide which domino to play. He won. 

He always wins.

With our wine bottles emptied, the food polished off, and three Mexican Train Dominoes players licking their wounds, we called it a day.

Patio after our party
The sign of a successful party? Your meticulously cleaned house is messy again.

Popular posts from this blog

Cake Mix Pancakes

This reader-favorite recipe is *almost* as popular as my Cake Mix Cookie Bars recipe .  When making Cake Mix pancakes , the scrumptious possibilities are endless. Red Velvet cake mix pancakes. Chocolate cake mix pancakes. Butter Pecan cake mix pancakes. Funfetti cake mix pancakes. (Yes, Funfetti cake mix pancakes!) With this 2-ingredient recipe, you can turn your favorite cake mix into your favorite pancakes. Pancake making at its finest. Cake Mix Pancakes Personally, I think my funny napkin is the icing on the (pan)cake. It's Sunday morning and you're planning to do all the things today - scrub those grody baseboards, polish your quartz countertop that was supposed to be low maintenance but actually isn't at all, sort through the disaster that is the freezer.  While on your superhuman kick, you think I'm going to make my family pancakes for breakfast. Not just any pancakes - the best pancakes ever. I may even serve them as breakfast in bed! You pu

10 Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks

You're in for a treat. Today I'm sharing my best canned cinnamon roll hacks and improvements for turning store-bought cinnamon rolls, like the Pillsbury Grands ones or even the store brand, into something special.  Dry cinnamon rolls? No thank you. They need to be OOEY and GOOEY. That's just Cinnamon Roll 101. All of these ideas keep Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls soft, company-worthy, and delicious. These are also great for taking homemade cinnamon rolls up a notch, but what a pain that is. With these better-than-homemade canned cinnamon roll hacks, you'll never bother to bake them from scratch again. Test out some of these ideas tomorrow. Won't it be nice to dig into a mouthwatering cinnamon roll for breakfast? You can't get a better start to your day than that. Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks Actually, make that 11 easy ways to improve store-bought cinnamon rolls: you can top them with homemade coffee whipped cream . Yum! Nope, make that 12 canned cinnam

Chemical Peel Before & After

This article has been updated! My new chemical peel post, which includes pricing, Jessner peel before and after photos, product recommendations, and a helpful timeline for scheduling your treatments, is at the bottom. My original Jessner peel post (one of the most popular on my site of all time) is at the beginning. Original Chemical Peel Article Considering a chemical peel? I recently underwent my first Jessner peel and thought I'd share my results, post a Jessner peel review, and answer some frequently asked chemical peel questions. (I'm guessing that "Does a chemical peel hurt?" is a biggie!) I'd been planning to order an over-the-counter peel when we were in Iceland , but my computer led me a different direction. I decided to do this on a whim after Groupon greeted me one morning with a great $40 chemical peel deal. Now, I can read your mind. You just gasped in horror and thought  You trusted your face to a  discount  chemical peel?!  You're wondering w

Hello Fresh Complaints

Hello, my bloggy friends. I have a HelloFresh complaint and believe they are pulling a scam. Yours truly came *this close* to falling for it.  Maybe scam is too harsh of a word. Sneaky? You can decide for yourself. The fact that there are so many Hello Fresh complaints online does seem suspicious. My main complaint about Hello Fresh has to do with their promotional rate, which seems like it is set up to be intentionally misleading (more on this below). Despite so many people complaining about being charged more than they thought they'd agreed to, Hello Fresh maintains this as part of their business model and continues to mislead. So it's intentional, right? I do not recommend Hello Fresh. For starters, the service is just ingredients-by-mail with recipes, not meals. You can buy your own ingredients for much less, especially now that most grocery stores conveniently offer pickup and delivery. Excellent recipes are easy to find.  Click here for a list of top-rated, reader-favorit

Window Seat Idea - Dream Home Inspiration of the Day

See it? Waaay at the back of the photo?  I like how the window seat extends past the window all the way to the wall. How about you? If that's not your style, how about one of these lovely window seats? I'll seat you, my pretty, and your little dog too. How perfect would this be in a home office? I'd swap out that wimpy rug with a larger one.

How to Move a Mattress

My site is popular for reviewing memory foam mattresses. With today's bed-in-a-box options lasting much longer than the traditional 7 years of a spring mattress, there's a good chance you'll eventually need to move one. But how? This is  how to move a mattress  without damaging it - even by yourself!  When we were faced with the challenge of moving our beloved Amerisleep AS3  to our new home, it seemed like my readers would enjoy the details. This handy tip should work for any memory foam bed, including Casper, Leesa, and Nectar.  I'm happy to report there is an extremely simple way to do it. Apartment and dorm dwellers rejoice! How to Move a Mattress At first, I wasn't sure how to move our king-size mattress down a flight of stairs. It's a problem we've dreaded solving ever since we made the decision to build a new house.  The answer? It was right in the back of our truck.  Ratchet straps . This solution could also serve as a 'How To' for returning

My Instant Pot Explosion!

Like many new Instant Pot owners, I've wondered, How many Instant Pots have exploded?  (Eeek!) I'm happy to report that my research on Snopes and other sites has shown that these do not explode, at least not when used properly. There is a lawsuit between a woman in Texas and the Instant Pot manufacturer, but she admits she had thrown a towel over the steam vent. Do NOT do this.  Still concerned? Consider that on Prime Day of 2018, Amazon sold more than 300,000 Instant Pots. That's more than a quarter of a million sales in only 1 day! If these things were not safe, you would see news stories every day about someone being injured. Still, things can go wrong. We love our Instant Pot, the digital pressure cooker that seems to suddenly be in every home. You can't mess up - just throw in random ingredients and you'll get something yummy every time. It's foolproof. At least, that's how I used to feel about our Instant Pot, until the explosion... Inst

Sharing Funny Memes

Funny Memes Post 2 of 3:  kittydeschanel.com/2021/05/funny-dog-memes.html Funny Memes Post 3 of 3:  https://www.kittydeschanel.com/2021/12/christmas-memes.html You know those people who have nothing better to do than browse through memes for hours at a time, many of which are in poor taste? Yeah, I'm one of them. Oh, except I actually do have so much to do and absolutely should not be scrolling through memes. Just try and stop me. Covering everything from working to cake, here are my Top  Funny Memes from the last week: More Funny Memes to Make You Smile: The last one was created by yours truly. Kitty Deschanel - now a source for funny dog memes AND original memes! Funny Memes Post 2 of 3:  kittydeschanel.com/2021/05/funny-dog-memes.html Funny Memes Post 3 of 3:  kittydeschanel.com/2021/12/christmas-memes.html