Christmas Traditions

I love traditions. For as long as I can remember on Christmas eve my mom would prepare a full spread of snacks for us to graze on all night.....till we couldn't keep our eyes open for Santa anymore! We continue that tradition in our house - actually, since the man and I moved back home my mom has spent Christmas eve at our house so we can all wake up together on Christmas day....and so we can graze on delicious snacks all night! Of course, we always have way to much food! I had a pretty major surgery on December 20th, and I haven't had much of an appetite, so it just figures that we bought lots of good stuff and of course didn't prepare half of it!! To say the least, I haven't had to cook at all this past weekend!

We also have a tradition of having Christmas with my moms side of the family the Sunday before Christmas. When my grandma on my moms side was still alive we'd go to her house on Christmas day. That was until my cousin Katie started having kids. Once she had kids, grandma decided to switch Christmas at her house to the Sunday before Christmas. That way no one had to leave their house, OR their toys on Christmas day to come to her house. It was the best idea she had had in a long time! This year my cousin Katie and her husband Ian hosted Christmas. They have a gorgeous home with an amazing great room and kitchen that Ian added on - and it's perfect for our huge, loud, sometimes obnoxious family! We eat, chat, some of us nap (snoring included!) and this year we played catchphrase. I think everyone had a great time! The photo above is of all of the grand daughters and spouses of grandchildren over 18 - we got cookie exchange cook books and have vowed to have a cookie exchange next year - maybe a new tradition?!?!

Here's hoping that whatever traditions you and your family have, they are done with lots of love and laughter.

~xoxo

Peppermint Meltaway Cookies

Nothing says Christmas like to smell of pine and peppermint! Since I don't think pine flavored cookies would taste very good, I thought I'd share my all time favorite peppermint cookie recipe ( compliments of Land-O-Lakes)! They are SO easy to make and one batch yields about 50 bite sized bits of deliciousness.

COOKIE

1 cup of butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

GLAZE

1 1/2 cups powedered sugar

2 tbsp butter, softened

1 -2 tbsp milk

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

couple drops of food coloring if desired

DIRECTIONS

Mix the butter, powdered sugar and extract in a large bowl until creamy and smooth. Slowly add the flor and cornstarch. Once well mixed, cover and refirgerate for 1 hour.

Preheat over to 350, remove dough and form in to small 1 inch balls. Place them about 2 inches from each other (although they do not flatten or expand much) and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Remove from cookie tray and cool completely before icing.

**some people like to drizzle the icing on top. I prefer to make my icing a bit thinner and "dunk" the cookie in the icing to create a delicious layer that covers the top of the cookie.

ENJOY!

Babies are coming

As many of you know, the moto at our house when it comes to having babies is ONE AND DONE and, as much as everyone would like that to change, we continue to live by that moto! Not so for my TWO sister-in-laws! Within a few days of one calling me to tell me she was pregnant, the other was telling me while standing in her kitchen. I could not be happier for these two girls and their families! I could not be happier that it is THEM and NOT me!!! I can't think of a better Christmas gift, can you?! Here's to spoiling new babies in 2011!!!

Congrats girls (and families!) - I love you both!!!

My, how time flies!

Our Birthday Girl!

I can't believe that our sweet little girl is 2 years old now! Where has the time gone? I know I don't post much on here anymore. It seems that lately, I've been working a lot, both at the office and at home. I think the more mobile Lucy gets, the more tired we get!! Lots of changes have taken place since our last posting. I think the biggest one is that we placed Lucy in all day childcare at the church. We LOVED having her at Jo-Jo's for day care, but she needed the interaction with other two year olds and it's a great Christian learning environment for her. It started out pretty rough, crying every day, clinging to mommy and daddy, running down the hall after us....but now, she could care less if we stay or go. She runs in every morning, lunch bag in tow, eager to start her day. What a blessing it has been for us to watch her grow so much in a little over a month. We had a VERY SMALL birthday party. My mom (Da-Dah) and Silas's mom and step dad (Mimi and BobPa) came over for dinner and presents. We all pitched in and bought Lucy a bounce house (with a slide!) to play in. She LOVES to bounce and will bounce on just about anything (couches, beds, people,) so it was the PERFECT present for her. We had our niece Tennie over for a play date the weekend following her birthday and the girls played dress up (with HIGH HEELS from Mimi!) colored and bounced their little hearts out! All in all, we had a terrific summer and we're sorry to see it end, however, I am happy to welcome fall!

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day everyone. Yes, I realize I am a day late, but I was busy being a mommy yesterday! I have had so much fun being Lucys mommy over the past 20 months. It's so hard to believe our little sweetie is almost two! She greets me every morning with a HI MAMA and a great big hug, followed by WHERE'S DADDY? She is becoming quite the little talker, uses big girl manners (please and thank you), runs, climbs, tells us NO, throws fits when it's time to come in from playing outside, eats us out of house and home....you know, all of the things a toddler is supposed to do!

For my second Mothers Day we woke up and decided to surprise my mom with the gift of US at church with her! We decided to take the grandmas to breakfast, and it's not cheap ($22 per person), so we opted not to give them a material gift this year. So, I figured, if I wasn't giving my mother a material gift, I could give her my time. I know it's not much, but I also know how much my mom enjoys her church and how much she wishes I would go with her more often. So we went. I cried during church. Not sad tears, not happy tears. A mixture of both. Happy because I was there with my mommy, and I had my sweet daughter with me, but sad because my moms mom wasn't there with her to rejoice in the beauty of the morning with us. I know she misses her, and I do too. I know that Lucy is missing out on having GiGi watch her grow up, and that makes me sad. Not just on Mothers Day, but every day. ANYWAY, so after church, we hurried off to breakfast with S's mom, step dad, my mom, and us. It was just lovely. The food is always good, and the company even better. After Lucy's nap, we met my oldest, dearest friend Kelli, and her two boys at a park near her house. She's divorced, and didn't really get to celebrate mothers day because, well, it's no fun when you have to buy your own mothers day gift. We had frappuccinos while the boys and Lucy played on the play ground. It was nice, and low key. I wrapped up my day by going grocery shopping like I do every Sunday!

Lucy and S surprised me with a gorgeous 60 inch strand of black pearls and smothered me with lots of love and affection all day long! What a perfect day, surrounded by the people I love the most.

I hope however you spent your mothers day, it was filled with lots of love and laughter.

RACHEL RAY GIVE AWAY!!!!

Do you LOVE the cute bakeware that Rachel Ray uses on her shows?! If so, now is your chance to win a 2 piece set of bubble and brown bakeware in LIME GREEN! All you have to do is visit http://simplecreativeinspiration.blogspot.com/ and enter to win! Hurry, entries have to be received by April 26th!!

Red Velvet Cake

RED VELVET CAKE

RECIPCE COMPLIMENTS OF BEKERELLA

INSPIRATION COMPLIMENTS OF MY SISTER IN LAW, NICOLE

Have you ever checked out Bakerellas website? I discovered her probably close to two years ago now, and have been ooooohhhhing and aaaahhhing over everything she creates ever since! One of her more recent posts was on red velvet cake. Something I have heard of, but had never tasted or attempted to make myself. Well, one day about two weeks ago, my sister in law, Nicole called me and told me that SHE had made a red velvet cake and I had to come try it, so I did. I mean, really, who am I to turn down sweets....let alone FREE SWEETS prepared by one of our cities best pastry chefs! Yes, I am "lucky" enough to have not only a sister in law who is a pastry chef, but my brother in law (her husband) is a chef as well. I say "lucky" because I think the real luck is that I haven't gained my weight in the delicious foods they've prepared over the past few years!!! Anyway, back to the cake. So, I tried hers, I liked it, and she inspired me to make my very own cake. It was not complicated, but it wasn't easy either. And by easy I mean, opening a box, adding eggs, oil, and water and mixing. Oh no. This baby was made from scratch....ALL THE WAY. Below you will find the recipe, compliments of Bakerella. Enjoy the cake (I stored mine in the fridge and served it with COLD milk!), and Bakerellas website, http://www.bakerella.com/

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.
Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
Then make the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups confectioners’ sugar

Sift sugar and set aside.
Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla.
Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition.
And frost away.

What a year we had!

It's hard to believe that a year ago tomorrow, Lucy was facing hospitalization due to RSV. We battled that silly virus several times last winter, but January's was by far the worst! Luckily, after many return visits to the doctor, a trip to the ER, and lots of breathing treatments at home, she was A-OK! We've been lucky enough this winter to have NO illnesses, and thanks to the tubes we had put in her ears last fall, no ear infections either! Who would have thought that a little five minute operation would have helped her this much?!?! I cried longer than it took to have the tubes put in her ears - I guess that's what happens when you have an emotional mommy! :-)

Lucy is growing up so fast, right before our eyes. With each new day, she becomes a little more independent. She now loves to watch Miss Spiders Sunny Patch Friends (she would probably watch this every waking moment if we allowed her to), she is able to feed herself with a fork and spoon (thanks to grandma for getting her those - she LOVES them!), she tries to take her shirts off and put her coat on by herself, she can take her shoes off, she runs, walks, climbs on things, tries to climb the stairs foot over foot (rather than crawling up them), she can say a small dictionary of words (hi, bye-bye, mimi - Silas's mom, night night, mama, daddy, Jessie - our day care providers daughters name, thank you, ~ just to give a few examples) she can point to an apple and say the word, she is beginning to recognize her grandma and her mimi and BobPa (Silas's step dad). She's at such a fun age!

I wish she was able to have a relationship with my dad and his wife, but he got upset with me a year ago because we didn't phone him on his birthday and sent him an e-card instead of a physical card (yes, this was the same time that Lucy was so sick she was faced with hospitalization) and refuses to be part of our lives. His reason for not wanting to talk with us is so petty, and I have mixed feelings about the whole situation. I realize he is doing the same thing to his children and grand children that his parents did to him. So, he's only doing what he knows how to do, and that is to shut people out, over react, and take things far more personally than they were ever intended. One day, he'll realize he's missed out on one of the greatest gifts anyone could ever ask for, the unconditional love of a child. I also know he reads this blog, and will see this, so hopefully he'll know we are thinking of him on his birthday and maybe one day he will decide that a birthday card isn't worth sacrificing the love of his children and grand children.

Thee years is a LONG time!

I look at this picture a lot. It's one of our sweet daughter and my brothers daughter, walking hand in hand, being the best friends and cousins they know how to be at their young age. Being almost ten years older than my brother, I never really thought he was that cool. I viewed him as being immature and sometimes just an out right dork! That all changed when he joined the Army. I began to understand him more and really respect him for the young man and the soldier he was becoming. Now he's a husband and a dad and NOT the pesky little brother he used to be. I long to have him home with us, telling me goofy stories, making me laugh over the silliest and most trivial things. He got a three year tour in England, and they are half way done! I cannot wait for him to come back to the States, not only so I can see him and tell him in person how awesome, brave, amazing, courageous, selfless, and yes, even cool, that I think he is - but so Lucy can go about playing with her sweet cousin A and we can snap some more adorable photos like the one below of them together. I miss you D and can't wait for your return. XOXO~c

Mr. Rebates

For those of you that know me, you know I love a good bargain! In fact, I'd almost call myself the queen of bargains. I love nothing more than to know I am saving my family money and one way I have learned to do this is through a website called Mr. Rebates. It's so easy to do. It's free to sign up and there are a boat load of online stores you can shop at. Once you sign up, you visit the site, enter the store you are looking for in the search engine, visit the store through the Mr. Rebates site, and earn a percentage of your purchases back. The money is deposited in to your Mr. Rebates account where you can withdraw it at any time (once posted to your account). If you refer a friend, and they sign up giving your email address, Mr. Rebates will give you a 20% rebate on their purchases, at no cost or rebate loss to them! I like to buy clothes for Lucy on Ebay, and as luck would have it, Ebay is one of the sites that gives a rebate! Every penny counts. If you want to sign up, click on the link to the right. Feel free list me as your referral (silasandchrisi@yahoo.com). Let's start shopping and save some money!