Holiday Vacation 2011 Recap-Part One-Christmas and Christmas-ish activities

Wow, so I think this is the longest blog vacation I've ever taken.  It just sort of happened.  Around mid December I was struck with an intense cold that lasted until past Christmas.  Then I was off work for a week and a half so I just decided to let the blog rest for awhile.  But I'm back.  My vacation was officially over at 6AM today when I woke up for work.  But my vacation was awesome so I'd like to hand out some awards to my friends and family for making it so good.

Today we will discuss Fristmas, Christmas and the 1st Annual (yeah I'm going there-it should definitely be yearly) Post-Christmas Extravaganza....

Later I will recap New Years and my husband's birthday.

Best Baking-I'm going to go ahead and call this a tie between B and I.  I was too ill to prepare the Gingerbread dough the night before we made the cookies so B followed my recipe and I coached him through it.  There was a slight mix up between baking soda and baking powder but we worked through it.  Then I used my new cake ball maker to whip up these brownie peppermint cake balls.  They might have been slightly hard but look how cute they are.

Best Holiday Decor in my House-Another tie between B and I.  B for single-handedly bringing in the tree by himself and setting it up on the tree stand.  Me, for acquiring Christmas decor over the years and sitting it around the house.

Best attempt to open/eat his own Christmas presents-Hobie!  Christmas is really about the kids, right.  Hobie really enjoyed opening his presents on Fristmas*.  He wasn't bad at gift giving either.  He managed to get B and I some much needed new salt and pepper shakers.

Most Photogenic-My brother and sister.  My brother gets it for actually agreeing to be in a photo and look at the camera and L-Fab is always great in photos!

 Best Couple-Obviously B and sleeping Hobie win best couple.  Always.

Best Inter-family Mingling-This goes to B's family below and my family (in the next pic).  It was the first time we had members of both our families hang out together on Christmas.  Plus B's family forced me to watch A Christmas Story which is good since I've never actually seen that movie all the way through (Crazy, I know).

Best Feast-My mom wins the Best Feast award for preparing billions of dishes for Christmas eve dinner as well as multiple meats.  She even made a few vegan dishes for my mother-in-law.  My Aunt gets runner up for the December 23rd holiday meal she made us.  Delightful.

Best Post Christmas Gathering goes to me and all my homies who met up on December 27th for some good times.  Special Shout out to the Young's for their guest appearance all the way from Vegas.

I was so excited to fit everyone in our freshly
painted basement!

Special shoutout to me for deciding not to cook a bunch of food and instead just get 3 Stouffers Lasagnas and some wine and beer.

Special shoutout award to Curly J aka the Brayer for suggesting we play Dirty Santa (aka White Elephant) and for bringing this awesome Sweet Talking Ken Doll as one of the prizes.  It was hysterical and fun playing with my closest friends.  (Curly T, you better be able to describe the whole second season of Parks and Rec to me next time I see you).

No special shoutout to Shanzles for bringing this wreath made of plastic bags (although it did come with a Starbucks gift card so not the worst gift ever.)

Best Holiday Craft-Shanzles.  Shannon previously failed at beach craft hour but came back strong with these cute book themed Christmas ornament.  You are officially redeemed!

Overall, it was an amazing break but I'm so happy to be back at work today.  FALSE.  I am not happy to be back at work today (but I am grateful that my University totally shuts down between Christmas and New Year's so I don't have to work).

I will return later this week with part deux of my holiday recap.  You can't wait!

*Fristmas is the made up holiday B and I share where we open up our Christmas presents to each other a few days before real Christmas and then eat some sort of delightful breakfast or dinner together.

Christmas Crafts-Coasters

I'm becoming a pro at coaster making.  I originally discovered this phenomenon on Pinterest and have taken it to the next level for holiday gift giving and decor.  Here is the set I made for my house.  I love this Martha Stewart (I think) paper I got with a coupon at Michaels.

These are so easy.  In case you need a reminder on what to do....  Buy tiles at Home Depot or Lowes.  Tiles are super cheap, less than 20 cents each.  Buy pretty craft paper at the craft store.  Cut paper into squares (a cheap paper cutter makes this much easier) and mod podge the paper to the tile.  I do a layer below the paper and over the top.  Let this dry.  Then spray a couple of coats of clear spray paint (also available at the craft store) and let dry for a couple days.  Then add felt to the bottom (I bought a sheet of the sticky felt).  Here's the original Pinterest link.

I also made some as an early Christmas gift for my in-laws and I'm considering giving them out to a few other people on my Christmas list.  I think these make a great co-worker gift, which is always hard for me to figure out.

Are you making any Christmas presents this year?

Cheap and Easy Holiday DIY Decor, Hot Chocolate on a Spoon, and Hobie Clause...

Here are some of the random cheap ideas I have used to decorate my house so far this holiday season...

I bought these red picture frames awhile back at Michaels for another craft project that did not go well.  Then I bought some pretty holiday themed paper and framed some of it.  Michaels has tons of pretty holiday paper.  I bought a whole booklet of it for 40% off that I plan to use for other projects.

I made these candle holders last year by mod podging strips of tissue paper to the outside of small glass candle holders.

I bought this large vase on sale and filled it with ornaments I got from the Dollar Tree.

I'm still working on my holiday mantel decor but I will post that when I'm done. I know you can't wait to see it.

Now it's time for the delicious hot beverage portion of this post.  While I was in Indiana for Thanksgiving, I hit up my favorite chocolate store, Debrands.  We picked up a couple Hot Chocolates on a spoon.  You stick the spoon in a mug and then pour hot milk over it.  It was a nice tree decorating treat last night.

While we were decorating the tree, Hobie Clause made a brief appearance before ripping his hat off in disgust.

He hates it, but look how cute he is.

Have you done any holiday decorating?

Have you ever had Hot Chocolate on a spoon?

Shiny Christmas Balls!!!?!?!?!!?!

One of my favorite things to do every Christmas season is to go for a drive to see the Christmas balls.  What are the Christmas balls?  They are balls made out of wire (I think) and strands of Christmas lights, then hung in trees.  My house has 5 balls.  But there are a couple streets where the entire road has balls in their trees and it is amazing.  Every time I turn down the road, I smile and say "ahhh".  It's pretty awesome.  I also think it's a fundraiser for canned goods also.  So that is good.

So my handy assistant and I tried to capture this magic for you.  It's not as good as seeing it live but it's still pretty neat and you can listen to this wonderful tune from the Charlie Brown Christmas CD.

And here are the balls at my house (plus our reindeer) that B put up for us.  I was pretty much no help.

So do you have a street of balls in your town?
What's your favorite holiday decoration?
Did I say "balls" too much?

Christmas Stockings aka Things I Bought From Etsy That I Love...

Last year was my first Christmas as a married person and also my first as a dog owner.  So I decided our family needed new Christmas stockings.

I wanted something personalized and unique since we'd just had boring red and green ones the past few years.  So I started perusing Etsy and found the shop, Handmade Pretties.  I fell in love with her stockings made from old sweaters.  Plus it seemed nice that she was recycling old sweaters to make something new.  I placed my order and asked about a smaller stocking for Hobie and she told me about her little paw print stocking.  I was sold.  I loved these last year and I still love them this year.  Plus they are really big.  I did notice though yesterday that both B and Hobie have stuff in their stocking and mine is still empty.  Sadzies.

This shop has already reached it's capacity for stockings this year but if you are in the market for new stocking for next year or a cute sweater skirt, you should check it out.

I also still have a stocking at my mom's house from when I was really little.  It has a picture of a little girl on it.  When my sister was born (9 years after me) my mom managed to find one really similar to the rest of our stockings so they'd all match each other.  B's great Aunt also knitted me a stocking last year since his Grandmother used to do that for everyone in the family before she died.  It was really sweet getting a stocking in the mail from someone I'd never even met.  (I did meet her this past year though.)

So what kind of stockings do you have?

Are they homemade?

Do you get new ones every year or have the same one from your childhood?

Gingerbread Cookies!-I'm Not a Total Failure

brothers

So after my major crafting fail on Saturday I really needed some success to pick me up.  My task for our work holiday party last week was to make a ginger cake.  After I made it, I realized I had all the ingredients (like molasses, ginger, allspice, etc) to make gingerbread cookies.  I have never made gingerbread cookies before so I decided to go for it.  I found a gingerbread cookie recipe in The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook that my sister (wut up L-Fab?) gave me for my birthday.

pic from anthropologie.com

Here's the recipe-ish...

Gingerbread Men Cookies (based on the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (at room temp)
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses

1-Sift the flour, baking soda and other spices together in one bowl

2-Mix together (with mixer) the butter and brown sugar until fluffy

3-Mix in the egg and molasses

4-Gradually add in a few spoonfuls of the dry ingredients until you have a nice dough

5-Split the dough up into three sections and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (I only did this for a few hours)

6-Preheat oven to 325 degrees

7-Pull dough out of fridge and let is soften for about 10 minutes

8-Sprinkle surface with flour and roll out the dough (add more flour to the dough so it doesn't stick)

9-Cut gingerbread men shapes out and bake for 10-15 minutes

10-Let the cookies cool and then decorate

Poor little guy lost a leg.

So these turned out pretty well.  I brought some in for my co-workers and they seemed to enjoy them (except the heartbreaking part where you have to eat off the head).  I did not make the royal icing that the cookbook suggested.  Instead I took the easy route and used the quick drying cookie icing from the store.   Overall, these ended up much better than my snowflake etched glasses.

Have you ever made gingerbread cookies?
Do you think Ted Mosby would count these as a Christmas themed movie snack?

DIY Christmas Ornaments Straight from my Tree...And My Favorite Tree Decorating Snack

Last year I stole/borrowed/was given a box of ornaments from my Mom's house.  They feature many ornaments from my childhood as well as several homemade ornaments.   Here are a few.

The handmade sleigh, made from popsicle sticks...

Here is the lovely ornament I made last year by covering a clear ornament with tissue paper and a glue/water mixture...

Many years ago my mom made a bunch of these needlepoint ornaments...

And here is my favorite...the wooden frame with my face picture in it.  What a great smile I have.  And nice girl scout uniform I'm wearing...

I didn't make this ornament but it's currently one of my faves.  I demanded that we get some sort of Christmas ornament when we were on our honeymoon in Hawaii so we got this pineapple.  I like it...

Whenever I decorate the Christmas tree, I always like to enjoy a nice bowl of Chex Mix.  I pretty much just follow the recipe from the box.  I just used cashews (instead of mixed nuts) and pretzels (no bagel chips) and only 2 types of Chex (instead of the recommended 3) this time.

How is your Christmas tree? 

Do you make any ornaments?

Do you have any traditions (like Chex mix) for tree decorating night?

PS-And no, Chex did not sponsor this blog but when I was reading back through it the last part sounds a little like a commercial for Chex.

PPS-Shana is having amazing week long Christmas giveaways on her blog so check those out if you want to win something cool.