Balsam Hill Treelot 2016 - Burlingame

The Balsam Hill annual Treelot event is one of my favorite holiday events to attend. At their Burlingame show room, rows of trees are displayed and walls are covered in wreaths, garlands, and ornaments. Last year's event was a spectacular evening and this year had much of the same wonderful spirit.

The marvelous wine, cheese, bread, and cold cuts table




Wreaths, garlands, and ornaments adorning the walls.

The part I look forward to the most is the wreath decorating contest. Balsam Hill items were displayed on the tables. After a brief introduction from interior designers on this year's trends and decorating tips, it was a mad dash to gather items for our wreath.

Tran and I are so proud of how our wreath turned out this year. It was really all her aesthetic eye. I only helped with assembly. Our design won second place this year! I'm so excited. We didn't win anything last year and all the other wreaths were amazing this year too. 

Here are some of the other trendy and high quality Christmas decor by Balsam Hill. Their trees are very realistic and the ornaments are really high quality.

Christmas 2015 Recap - Ribs and Dim Sum

The holidays are great because I get days off work and so does everyone else so we can get together more often. There's always good food involved.

Appetizers with cheeses, sweet potato chips, seasoned nuts, oatmeal cookies, and lots of sparkling ciders.

I mean, look at this prime rib.

And these garlic prawns.

And this whole spread.

If you're Asian, there is often dim sum the morning following a big holiday dinner. I don't know why, but it just is. We went to Koi Palace for some yummy eats.

Their main dining area has such a great ceiling art piece

Shrimp rolls

Chicken feet, plain bun, soup dumplings, and sauteed pea shoots

Xiao Long Bao always!

Waited until after Christmas to finally take the kid for a tree photo at Santana Row. Best decision ever. No parking hassle, no lines, no crowd.

My friend made us a very legit lasagna dinner at her place and we got to check out her floor to ceiling Christmas decorations. Ah #homedecorgoals

She still kept some arts and crafts projects that I made for her when we were in 8th grade. It was so long ago, I can't believe I made these! and I'm so touched she kept them.

I cross stitched these Precious Moments characters from a pattern book onto blank cross stitch fabric. I think I had to really count the squares and map it out because this is not a pre-printed pattern. Then I stitched everyone's names, added a decorative border, measured out the fabric to make a book cover, sewed the cross stitch onto the book cover, and then finished wrapping the book. It's a lot of work for a middle schooler.

Another year, I was still in a cross stitching phase and I bought these polar bear ornaments. I think this was a pre-made pattern so I just stitched by colors according to directions.

I'm most proud of this gift I gave her. It's an egg that I poked a hole in at the top and bottom then blew out the egg contents. Then I glued ribbon and flowers on and tied a little bow. So simple but so elegant. Each of my friends at the time got one in a different color. There were only a handful of these in existence and I'm glad she kept hers!