Christmas decorations

We don't go too crazy with Christmas decorations at our house, but here's a little glimpse...

My mom made these stockings for us, and of course that makes them extra special. They match the tree skirt she made as well. The stockings will go on the mantle one day, when we have one again and don't have kids trying to pull them down. Until then, I like hanging them on the staircase.

We picked up this old sled in a thrift store for $10 - I love it. Having it out front makes it feel like we're ready to run out at any moment to have fun. We also always get a nice wreath for the front door.

My mom got this poster for me when she went to see Frank Capra, Jr. She knows how much I love 'It's a Wonderful Life'.

And of course there's the tree. You get a close-up view, because our living room is not very photogenic at the moment, and the baby gates around the bottom aren't very aesthetically pleasing. But despite all that, and the white lights, our tree is beautiful.  Kevin and I have picked up Christmas ornaments throughout the years, and our collection is pretty good at this point.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!

What should I wish for?

Mmmmm.....chocolate!

Hooray for birthdays!

How Time Flies

My baby is two years old! In two very short years, my little boy has gone from this...

...to this....

...to this!

Amazing!

A few fun Etsy finds - "Winter Solstice"

Winter Solstice...that magical time of year when the days begin to get a little longer.

Sometimes I like browsing the shops on Etsy, because there are so many cool and unique things out there. Inspired by the Solstice, I thought I'd share a few recent finds with you.

Photograph by Alicia Bock:
Snowflake adhesive gift tags:

Magical Yuletide Charms:

Pretty crystal earrings:

Beautiful Yarn:

Winter Solstice Soap:

A Few Recent Recipes

*Image from Cooking Light

I can't really call it This Week's Menu, but here are a few recipes we've recently tried and liked.

Turkey Mini Meat Loaves - The little boy ate a bunch of this, which means it must be good. I double the recipe but still bake in a muffin tin - it makes 6. It cooks faster than a regular loaf and I like the individual portions. I served with a salad and mashed potatoes.

Spaghettini with Garlic and Oil - Simple and easy, and can be made with items you probably already have in your pantry. Would be easy to experiment with this, too. Add broccoli or sun-dried tomatoes or mushrooms. Add shrimp or serve with scallops. We kept it simple and just served with bread and a salad.

Chicken Fried Rice with Bok Choy - I also made the Braised Chicken with White Wine, Tomatoes, and Peas, and I loved making two very different dinners at once, but this dish I'd only give an average rating. The Chicken Fried Rice, on the other hand, was so so yummy.

Holiday Baking

We had our first snowfall this weekend, and it made me feel like baking. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with that signature item that I make every year for gifts. I'm still searching. Should it be a jam, or something decadent like these cranberry turtle bars, or should I stick to my favorite cookies or brownies? Since I don't have that answer yet, I decided to stick with cookies this year.

I realized that I've actually never made plain-old Christmas cookies. You know, sugar cookies with sprinkles and different shapes and designs. So I used this recipe and had a little fun. I didn't come up with anything super-creative or anything, and I discovered that I'd really love to have a few small cookie-cutters; but I think the results were pretty good, and they were definitely tasty. My husband and son particularly liked the chocolate-dipped ones. I also made a batch of raspberry thumbprint cookies, just to provide a little variety.

I wrapped up a few batches and delivered them to my neighbors on Sunday. A very nice way to spend a snowy weekend afternoon.

Do you have a recipe you make each year as a gift? I'd love to get some ideas. As I said, I'm still on the search for my own.

Sunrises, Car-Starters, and Coats

*Image from efatzo's flickr page

If ever there was a time that one needs to focus on the beautiful things in life, it's Monday morning.

Monday morning's Three Beautiful Things:

1. There was a gorgeous sunrise this morning. A pink sky followed by a bright orange ball in the sky. Made me forget how cold it was outside (for a moment, anyway!).

2. Automatic car-starters. Oh my, how happy I am that I insisted on getting this installed. I am lucky enough to have seat-warmers, too. It is so very nice to be able to get into a warm car on a very cold morning.

3. A said, "I'm going to school. It's really cold outside. Need jackets on." He put his books down so I could put his coat on him, and then he put his hat on himself. Oh, if it was always that easy.

The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole

Just in case you need a little help getting in the spirit. Sometimes it's best to stick with the original.

Five Senses Thanksgiving Week

*A loved the aquarium!

*Alligators - up close and personal. We could count their teeth!

See
- Alligators, jellyfish, sharks, and a very cool octopus at the North Carolina aquarium. The little boy had tons of fun.
- My mom lose at Scrabble several times in one week. What is going on?!?

Hear
- "What's this, Mommy?", stated about 10000 times on the plane ride home. But heck, I'll gladly answer questions all day, as long as the boy is happy. I gave him a book called "I Love Trucks", and he wanted to know every single thing in it.
- A singing "Row, Row, Row your Boat" while we played at the Children's Museum.
- Christmas tunes, which officially get me in the holiday spirit

Touch
- Sticky cookie dough and biscuit dough, lovingly kneaded by my hands.
- Air hockey piece, as I decidedly kicked my sister's arse.

Smell
- Turkey roasting in the oven, cookies baking, pancakes cooking...
- Christmas trees! Oh how I love this smell.

Taste
- Leftover turkey sandwiches
- That first glass of nog
- Who knew roasted brussels sprouts could be so tasty?
- Cookies, more cookies, and pie. Oh, and ice cream too.

*The Children's Museum was basically a dozen or so playrooms set up for maximum fun! This was their "outdoors" room, complete with tents and a campfire.

*We also had a lot of fun at the park down the street.

*We exchanged just a few gifts while we were together, maintaining our "Thanksmas" tradition. (I'll explain some other time.)

*We moved seamlessly from Thanksgiving to Christmas, as my mom completely decorated her house.

Favorite Christmas Movies

*Seriously. It gets me every time.

Image from movie.moldova.org

As usual, in no particular order...

1. Miracle on 34th Street - The 2000 version is just wrong. Stick with the original.
2. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Totally silly. Just a fun one for everyone.
3. It's a Wonderful Life - Makes me cry every single time. "To my big brother, George - the richest man in town." (I seriously teared up just typing that.)
4. A Christmas Carol - I prefer the George C. Scott version, although I am fond of the old b&w Alistair Sim version as well. It was my dad's favorite. I'm sorry, but Patrick Stewart is the guy from Star Trek - he's not Scrooge.
5. A Christmas Story - People typically love this movie or hate it completely. It cracks me up.
6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! - Okay, this one isn't a movie (I've never seen the movie and have no plans to), but it's a great 30 minutes! I am pretty sure I can recite the entire thing by heart.
7. A Charlie Brown Christmas - We typically put this on while decorating the tree. I love how one scraggly branch becomes a cute (and full!) Christmas tree. And you gotta love Linus and that blanket.
8. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Ah, the land of the misfit toys. I also love Frosty the Snowman.
9. Love Actually - Not sure if this has quite reached "classic" status, but I do enjoy it, and we've watched it the last couple years. I've actually enjoyed the predictable and kinda cheesy The Family Man in recent years as well.

What are your favorite movies/shows to watch during the holidays?

My New Baby Nephew!

I am such a proud sister and aunt! I can't believe I have to wait until February to meet this gorgeous little dude! He's going to be so big by then. I can't wait to see his tiny little fingers and wrinkled forehead. D, please don't let him grow up too much before I get there.

Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

*Image from Cooking Light

We made Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies last week, and they were super yummy. There are some flavor combinations that are simply irresistible to me, and almond & raspberry is definitely one of them.

A few notes: They took a little longer to bake than the recipe indicates. I baked at 350 for the second batch, and they took about 12 minutes. I also baked with the jam instead of putting it on afterwards. And unless you're really trying to reduce calories/cholesterol, go ahead and use the whole egg instead of just the whites.

White Lights or Colored Lights?

*Colored lights...

I come from a colored lights family. We always had colored lights on our Christmas trees. My dad even had the big old-school lights that clip to the branches. We had ornaments that ranged from beautiful ornate globes to a thumbprint deer drawn on a fast-food restaurant ashtray. I used to like making chains from construction paper. I am looking forward to having ornaments made by my kids hanging on my tree.

My husband comes from a white lights family. They also have some homemade ornaments, but they love the white lights. They believe the house looks prettier from the street this way.

My husband and I are both so adamant about our preference that we have been forced to compromise - we alternate years. Very unfortunately, it is a "white-lights year", so we will have white lights on the tree this year. Sigh. I almost have him convinced that when A is a little older - perhaps starting next year - we should really stick to colored lights. You know, for the sake of the children.

What do you use - white lights or colored? And why? Did you stick with what you had growing up?

...or white lights.

Reasons I Love the Holidays

*Here we are with Clifford on Thanksgiving Eve

In no particular order...

1. Egg Nog. Oh my goodness so incredibly bad for you but so so yummy. I can't drink a lot of it at once, unlike my husband who can chug a huge glass, but even just a little bit is so decadent. I also adore Egg Nog Lattes, or just replacing the milk in my coffee with a little nog.

2. Okay, I guess I could go on and on about food. I am one of the weirdos that actually really likes cranberry sauce, roasted vegetables, stuffing (or do you call it dressing if it hasn't been stuffed into anything - whatever, it's still stuffing to me), mashed potatoes, and leftover turkey sandwiches. (The perfect turkey sandwich, by the way, is made with wheat bread, lots of mayo, salt/pepper, and cold turkey. Keep it simple.) Oh, and the appetizers/snackes/noshes/whatever you want to call them: olives, cheese, dips, figs wrapped in proscuitto, celery sticks with chive cream cheese, nuts, good mustards... Wow I'm hungry, and I didn't even mention dessert!

3. Christmas carols. I listen to Christmas music from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Pretty exclusively. I love it. It's all the same old songs, but I love it anyway. I'll have to remember to create a list of some of my favorites for you.

4. Fireplaces and candles. The holiday season is all about being cozy. Warming yourself in front of a fire after playing outside in the snow. We just got a fireplace this year, and I'm so excited to light her up!

5. Snowmen, sledding, and snow angels. This doesn't really have anything to do with the holidays, of course. Some of these are just reasons to love Winter, but these are especially fun things to do when you have groups of people together. We have the perfect sledding hill nearby, and my family went last year and had a blast. (Well, I think K broke his butt, but the rest of us had fun.)

6. Christmas movies. I'll write another post with a list of my favorites. I watch them all every year, and they never get old to me.

7. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I miss going in person. We had Thanksgiving in NYC for several years when my sister was living there, and I still believe it's the best place on earth to spend that holiday. We liked going to see the balloons the night before - they have them all blown up and tied down to the street. On the day, the parade is just background noise, but it's still fun to make fun of soap opera actors, bad lip-synching, and the new balloons.

8. Cutting down the tree. We've had a few mishaps over the years (we paid $70(!) for a tree a couple years ago, because we didn't ask how much they were before we went cutting; and we drove an hour away last year to get to a farm, not knowing about the one two miles away), but I still love cutting down the tree ourselves.

9. Decorating the tree. The lights are annoying, but once that's done, I love unwrapping each ornament and thinking about the story behind each one. The first gift I received from my husband, one from our trip to Peter Island, one from our first trip to Vermont, one that I made when I was 7 that still makes my sisters laugh (every. single. time.)...

10. The Holiday Pops. It's become an annual tradition for us to attend an evening with the Boston Pops. For now, it's still just me and K, although I'm looking forward to the boy becoming old enough to appreciate it, too.

11. Family. It's sad how often I hear people complaining about spending time with their family for the holidays. I am so incredibly lucky that I don't have any of the drama that some people seem to have. My family, including my in-laws, is low-maintenance. Nobody complains about sleeping on an aerobed in the office, everybody contributes something to the meals, people in general keep things picked up, and we all have fun together. We watch movies, play games, eat and drink a lot, and enjoy our time together. This is really what the holidays mean to me: quality time with people I love.

Did you notice that gifts didn't make the list? Well, I'll admit that I do enjoy the gift exchange. I like making my list, shopping for other people, and wrapping presents in pretty paper. I enjoy the surprise of Christmas morning. I've never let this aspect of the holidays stress me out, and we've always kept our lists relatively small and manageable.

That said, the gifts are never what I remember about the season. I remember the year my husband and sister accidentally cooked the turkey upside-down, the year of the soupy pumpkin pie, the time my sisters and I spent Thanksgiving together in NYC, my dad's Charlie Brown Christmas trees, four people sharing one blanket on the couch watching movies, the "relaxi-taxi", my sister-in-law's winning entry: chocolate-cranberry torte, visits with friends we don't see during the year. I remember the food, the lights, the music, and the food. (Wait - Did I already say food?)

*This is what our coffee table looks like during the holidays.

Thanksgiving

*I have a lot to be thankful for!

We're headed to North Carolina for next week. I'm not really looking forward to the plane trip, but I'm desperately anticipating the time off. It will be nice family time. I hope you all remember to think about all the things you're grateful for this year. These are hard times for a lot of people, which makes me even more thankful for everything I have.

I've scheduled a couple posts for later next week, and I'll be back in December.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Amy Macdonald - This is the Life

This song came on the radio the other day, and it stuck with me all day. In a good way.

via last.fm

I Love The Smiths

*Image from here. Found via Design is Mine.

How great are these cards? Of course, I would never get them, because I was the one who loved The Smiths back in the day. Still do, actually, but now their music just transports me back to high school. Ah, the memories.