Christmas Day

Yep. I'm just now getting around to posting our Christmas pictures. Better late than never, right? :)

Santa came by and brought a few presents. The unwrapped ones are from him. Jer wanted the Toy Story scooter so much he asked for it in a letter and in person.

We kept telling him that if he was bad he would only get coal for Christmas. When he went to bed he told us to wake him up if we saw that Santa had brought presents. Then he added, "let me know too if you wake up and all the presents are gone." Apparently he thought that if he had been bad, not only would Santa bring him coal but he would take away all of the presents from Mommy and Daddy too!

When Jeremy saw that he stocking was the only one with presents in it he told Shelby and I that we must be on the naughty list!

While Santa was here he munched on the sugar cookies Jeremy left out for him. The reindeers enjoyed the reindeer treat we made for them (oatmeal and colored sugar). Santa liked it so much that he left a note!

When I told Jeremy that we were going to make reindeer food his response was, "but reindeer eat hay!" So I told him this wasn't their regular food, it was more of a special reindeer treat kind of like the dog treats we give Rogue. He seemed satisfied with that.

He really enjoyed listening as Shelby read the letter from Santa. That face just kills me! :)

This was when he discovered that Santa also brought the Hot Wheels that he asked for. When he didn't see them under the tree, he was sure that Santa had forgotten.

Then it was time to open the presents from Mommy and Daddy.

There were a couple in back that required some digging. I love his tighty whities poking out.

We received Nightmare Before Christmas Uno from Aunt Misty. He was so excited when he saw Jack The Pumpkin King.

For our advent calendar this year, I put a slip of paper in each pocket with a special Christmas activity written on each one. When he pulled out the one that said, "Watch a Christmas movie", his movie of choice was Nightmare Before Christmas. Crazy kid!

He also received the phone from Toy Story 3 from his Great-Grandma. He played with it all day! He would listen for his "mission" then run off to complete the task.

Irish Soda Bread

This bread doesn't require any yeast (my favorite kind) and has a biscuit-like quality.

Irish Soda Bread

a modified version of this Taste of Home recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups All-Purpose Flour

1/4 cup Sugar

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

6 Tablespoons Shortening

1-1/4 cups Buttermilk

1 Egg, lightly beaten

2 Tablespoons Butter, melted

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in shortening, one small piece at a time, until mixture is crumbly. In a small bowl, combine buttermilk and egg; add to the crumb mixture. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently 5-6 times.

Divide dough in half and shape into two balls. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Form each ball into a 6-inch round loaf. Using a sharp knife, cut a 4-inch cross about 1/4-inch deep on top of each loaf. Brush with butter. Bake at 375F for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 2 Loaves.

Delicious served with Beef and Ale Stew.

Beef and Ale Stew

My husband actually made this one and it was amazing! Absolutely the best stew I've ever had. And it wasn't just because I didn't have to cook it. :)

Beef and Ale Stew

adapted from the amazing Jamie Oliver

Ingredients:

2 Celery Stalks

2 Medium Onions

2 Carrots

3 Dried Bay Leaves

Olive Oil

1 pound Diced Stew Beef

1 heaped Tablespoon All-Purpose Flour

2 cups Guiness Draught

1 (14oz) can of Diced Tomatoes

Sea Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Trim the ends off your celery and roughly chop the stalks. Peel and roughly chop the onions. Peel the carrots, slice lengthways, and roughly chop. Heat a Dutch oven over medium heat. Put all the vegetables and bay leaves into the pan with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and fry for 10 minutes.

Add your beef and flour. Pour in the beer and tomatoes. Stir well, then season with a teaspoon of sea salt (less if using table salt) and a few grinds of pepper. Bring to a boil, put the lid on, and simmer slowly for 2-1/2 hours. Remove the lid and cook for 30 minutes longer. Add water if it looks a bit dry.

Remove the bay leaves before serving, and taste it to see if it needs a bit more salt and pepper.

Serves 4-6

Served with Irish Soda Bread.

Decoupaged Helmet

This was a project that I did over two months ago and I am just now getting around to posting it because...well...I have no good excuse. Other than I'm a flakey loser. :p

It was a great project too! Because it involved an adorable baby boy...

This is my friend, Rachel's, baby boy, Ari. He has Plagiocephaly (aka Flat Head Syndrome) and has been wearing a cranio cap to treat it. You can read all about their experiences over here at Rachel's blog On Becoming Wise.

The plain white helmet wasn't doin it for the boy. On Rachel's blog she asked for suggestions on how to decorate it. Of course I suggested old school flash tattoos. She took all of the suggestions and put up a poll to help decide which one to use.

My husband and I may or may not have tampered with the results by convincing friends who have never even met Ari, to go and vote for the tattoos. I can't say for sure though. Bahaha!

Anywho...the tattoos won and since it was my suggestion Rachel asked if I could help out with it. Here is what we came up with:

He looks so badass! Well...as badass as an adorable little boy with chubby cheeks can possibly look. ;)

I didn't take any pictures during the process but it was just a basic decoupage. Drew and Rachel found some Sailor Jerry tattoo flash that they liked and I did a little photoshop editing to make the background white. Then I sized them, printed them out, and cut closely around the pictures.

Then I took some Mod Podge and watered it down just a bit so it would soak through the paper. Rachel decided which images she wanted to use and where she wanted them placed. I brushed a little of the Mod Podge mixture onto the back of the pictures and stuck them in place. A little more brushed on top of the pictures sealed them and gave them a slightly glossy finish. I let it dry and then applied another coat just to make sure it was sealed tight.

If your little one has a helmet in need of some decorating, decoupage is a great way to go since you can use any image that you want!

Almost done with the pictures. Sorry I just can't help it! I love pictures of babies with their mamas. :)

Getting Organized

I am in a major "spring" cleaning mood so I was pretty excited when I heard about this 21 day organization challenge! Starting Jan 1st, A Bowl Full of Lemons will be giving an organization challenge every day (except Sundays) for 3 weeks. The goal is to complete the challenge by the end of the day, blog about it and then link up. Find more info here.

Just today we started tackling the basement. I can't wait to see what the challenges are and I hope they will keep me motivated!

Knight In Shining Armor

"In Shining Armor"

by Better Days Ahead:

And he wants to be her knight in shining armor

And he wants to watch the sunset in her eyes

And the simple way he loves her just disarms her

And he wants to spend the rest of both their lives

Making sure she sees, that he'll always be, her knight in shining armor

- from the album "Maybe You"

Listen to the full song here.

Iced Dip Bowl

I'm always paranoid about keeping food the right temperature at parties. Not just because the food tastes better but because I would feel awful if anyone got food poisoning. I have a warming tray and mini crock pots for the hot foods but cold food is always a challenge.

For our Christmas party I made this ice bowl for the veggie dip. I thought some of you might be able to use it for a New Year's Eve party or other future event.

First, I found two bowls that were slightly different sizes. I filled the bottom one with about half an inch of water and froze it. Once solid, I set the smaller bowl on top of it and carefully poured water in between the two until it just about reach the rim. Then I placed them in the freezer. When it was time for the party I pulled them out and filled the smaller one with veggie dip. The ice kept the dip cold throughout the entire party!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are having a great day filled with happiness and loved ones. :)

Covered Pretzels

A Christmas classic! Covered pretzels are my favorite traditional Christmas treat. This is a little last minute but I'm sure most of you already know how to make these anyway. :)

Covered Pretzels

Ingredients:

Twist Pretzels

Vanilla Flavored Almond Bark (in the baking aisle)

1. Break the almond bark along the lines and place in a double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler you can use the trick that I did. Fill a Dutch oven or other large pot with water and bring to a boil. Place the bark in a two handled pot that is slightly smaller but large enough that the handles rest upon the rim of the larger pot and remains above the water line. Do this only if the handles of your pot are heat-proof. Otherwise the rim of the large pot could melt the handles of the smaller one.

If you don't have pans that would work for this, you can also melt it in the microwave. Just heat at low power and stir every 30 seconds to make sure it doesn't burn. If melted improperly, it will become dry and chunky.

Aaaaaanyway, using whichever method you choose, stir frequently and continue until it is completely melted.

2. Remove bark from heat. Toss a few pretzels in and coat.

3. Use tongs to remove each pretzel and shake off excess bark. You can also use a fork to remove the pretzel but you won't be able to shake off as much of the bark.

4. Place covered pretzels on sheets of waxed paper and leave until dry. If desired, you can decorate with sprinkles while the bark is still wet. You can also color some of the bark and drizzle over the top of the white bark.

More Party Features

As you can tell by my posting this only two days before Christmas, I am still ridiculously behind on everything having to do with the blog. Hopefully some of you last-minute crafters can find some inspiration in these projects. Or you can file them away for next year like I am!

There are so many amazing projects linked up at the Christmas Party. Thank you all for linking up! Sorry I haven't been able to make the rounds and comment on all of them. I've been struggling to keep up with the blog while at the same time not letting it take over what should be quality family time during the holidays. You know how it goes.

Alright enough rambling. Here are a few more link party projects that I love!

This Sugar Cube Cottage from Humble Bee is a fun twist on the traditional gingerbread house.

This Placemat Casserole Dish Cover from Ceo A's Draiocht would be perfect for transporting food to holiday get togethers.

I love this Ornament Garland from Dream Home DIY.

This Christmas Card Holder from Mom Endeavors is a great way to display and organize incoming cards and photos.

This Wine Cork Reindeer from Wood and Wine Club is adorable!

These Paper Ornaments from Smile Monsters are simply beautiful and vintage looking.

Thanks again for all of the inspiration! This Christmas I have been more into baking than crafting but with all of these awesome projects to inspire me maybe I will get more into the crafting next Christmas.

If your project was featured, feel free to grab a button over here.

P.S. I want to give a big thanks to Revamped French Maison for highlighting my Peppermint Wreath!

Chai Tea

This stuff is amazing:

Ahhhh...just a splash of milk and it's like Christmas in a cup.

Happy day. :)

Christmas Party!

We had our Christmas party on Saturday and I've had requests to post pictures of the party and the food so here you go! :)

I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of our Christmas decor at night so here are a couple of shots of the living room.

And the food...

On the menu:

Bacon Wrapped Sausages

Broccoli Cheese Dip with Wheat Thins

Cheese and Cracker Platter

Veggies with Dip

Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Lush

Pretzels covered in Almond Bark

Rice Crispy Treats

White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge

Cookies and Cream Bark

Cranberry Lime Punch - Equal parts Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash and Minute Maid Limeade.

The cookie decorating table. Last year I made gingerbread houses but they were too soft and kept collapsing. This year I decided to go the easy route and made cookies in the shape of houses instead. It worked great.

The only problem was my tried-and-true gingerbread recipe that somehow tasted more like a molasses cookie. There's always something that goes wrong. :)

Even though they didn't taste as good as usual, everyone still had fun decorating them.

We also had a gift exchange. People who wanted to participate brought something valued under $5 and we drew numbers to see who got to pick first. In previous years we would open the gifts as we went and the person who had the next number could either pick a gift from the pile or steal one that had already been opened.

This year we decided to switch things up a bit. You could still steal gifts but this time they stayed wrapped so you had to choose based on how pretty the wrapping was or shaking and feeling it to try to guess what it was.

The Importance of Winterizing Your Home

We decided to skip putting plastic on the windows this year.

That turned out to be a bad idea.

Those ice crystals are on the inside of the window.

Unfortunately it's too cold to put the plastic on now.

We won't be making the same mistake next year.

It is kind of pretty though. :)