Santa's Helpers

I've been taking a sewing class for almost 2 months now, and here's the first product of all of my labor! Don't look too close. It's certainly not perfect, but if you scroll down, you'll see it makes a great outfit for fruit decorating:)
Here are Santa's helpers working hard at making Christmas citrus.

And here's how we displayed all of the yummy smelling fruit!

Cooking in the Kitchen with Kathryn

I've heard of Christmas in July, but I've never quite heard of July in Christmas. Yes, that's my daughter helping me do a little holiday baking in her swimsuit!

Gotta love ALL of that flour too! Want to know what we were baking? Toffee Crackle Cookies! The recipe came from the Publix Family Style Magazine. You can get your free subscription here.

And here's the recipe:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 egg

1 t vanilla

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup chocolate covered toffee pieces

granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl beat sugar w/ an electric mixer on med. to high speed for 30 sec. Add brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with mixer. Using a wooden spood, stir in any remaining flour. Stir in toffee pieces.

Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Roll balls in granulated sugar. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake about 20 minutes or until tops are cracked and sides are set (do not let edges brown.) Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool.

Forgot to take a picture of the final product, but I can guarantee you they were yummy! You'll just have to try them for yourself!

Neighborhood Favorite

We went for a walk around the neighborhood the other night and discovered this winter wonderland! It wasn't exactly "right around the corner," but after seeing the kid's reaction to all of the lights and decorations, it was worth the walk!

Walker's favorite was the dalmation driving the firetruck!!

Out Takes

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving in Camden. Lots of good quality cousin time and lots of food, fun and fellowship. We also took advantage of Nana's great camera skills to hopefully capture our Christmas card pictures.

Here are a few of the out takes. In case you didn't know, it's not easy to get two three year olds to cooperate with picture taking. So, we would take a few pictures and then let them play a bit.

After a few rounds of photos that delivered a few card possibilities, Nana and I decided to attempt one more round in the pursuit of the perfect picture. This was the progression of that photo session.

Needless to say, it was time to call it quits. Nana and I had exhausted all of our "bribes." Fortunately, we were able to get a picture out of all the chaos. Cards should go in the mail this week. So be on the look out for the final product!!

O Christmas Tree

Today, we did what Matt and I haven't done since we were married. We bought a REAL Christmas tree! Since we are in a rental house this year, our artificial tree is nicely packed away in Mobile. Instead of dragging it up here for the season, we decided to buy a real tree.

So, now the house smells like pine, and I'm in love. I don't know if I'll be able to go back! Well, that is until all the needles start falling off and the cat chews on the bottom branches:) Maybe fake trees aren't so bad after all:)

The kids were in love too! They kept wanting to reinact a scene from their Mickey Christmas movie where two little kids exclaim, while picking out a the family tree, "It's bigger than our house!"

I can guarantee you this tree isn't bigger than our house, but it is almost 8 feet tall. And we had so much fun decorating it! Matt took the little ones out for some errands and came back home with some peppermint mochas from Starbucks. Perfect fuel for tree decorating. The kids watched Polar Express while we strung the lights, and we all had fun putting ornaments on the tree. Thankfully, to date, we've only broken two:) I'm sure the count will increase as little hands find their way to shiny, sparkling ornaments!

Here they are enjoying all the trees on the tree lot...

And here's the decorated tree! We still need a star for the top as Walker and Kathryn have informed me. They were also insistant that we hang candy canes, although I have a feeling they will not last long around these two little ones!

One Little, Two Little Indians

Yesterday, Walker and Kathryn celebrated their Thanksgiving Feast at school. The three year olds were Indians. Here you can see Walker (aka Wild Buffalo) performing for the crowd.

Here they are in full performance mode! Once they both saw me, they just froze! Too funny!

Kathryn (aka Pretty Pony) wasn't too happy once she saw me. She started pouting on stage and pretty much had a complete meltdown after that!

Once we returned back to their classroom, we were back in good spirits and willing to let Mommy take a picture!

Here's a picture of my favorite turkey cookies (the ones that I make every year). This year we made them and passed them out to their classmates. Walker and Kathryn loved sharing these with their friends (and everyone really!). It's a good thing I made a few extra because Walker was going around passing them out to everyone, even the parents!

Showering Sweet Baby Addison

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of helping this sweet group of girls shower sweet baby Addison Paige. The shower was wonderful! For a bunch of hostesses who mostly communicated via email, everything from the food to the decorations to the adorable favors (pictured below) came together perfectly!

Here's Makenzi with the hostesses (minus one sweet hostess who had already left!).

I promised several of the guests that I would share my macaroni salad recipe. It's so yummy and so simple! And the best part is it's so versatile. You can throw any ingredient you want in it and it comes out perfect every time!

1 lb. pasta (mini bow tie, mini penne or plain macaroni)

1/2-1 whole jar Marzetti Cole Slaw Dressing

1 container tomatoes (halved) (I usually use grape, cherry or Santa Sweet tomatoes)

2 small cans chopped black olives (drained)

1 pkg. feta cheese (crumbled)

4-5 green onions (chopped)

salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse pasta. Add tomatoes, olives, feta, and green onions to the pasta. Starting out with 1/2 bottle of dressing, pour over ingredients and mix well. Add more dressing if/as needed. Salt and pepper to taste. (You can also sprinkle some Parmesean cheese on top for a little added texture and taste).

Please check out Makenzi's blog for even more pictures of the shower and to see some of the sweet gifts Baby Addison received. She is one loved little girl, and we can't wait to meet her!!

P.S. A little shout out to Anna Kate. Thank you for letting us borrow the pink feather boa wreath! I appreciate it so much!