Christmas

So the past few days (weeks?) have been ultra busy for the husband and myself. As I am sure they were for you too. Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday, but even with all the cheerful festivities and family traditions, it is one of the more stressful times of the year. I hate to admit it, and I am sad Christmas is over, but I am also really, really relieved.

Now my living room *will* be clean again, my spending can go back to being *somewhat* controlled (ahem) and I don't *have* to eat cookies and sweets, like Christmas basically requires.

I thoroughly enjoyed being with my family, both my own and my in-laws. I laughed, I ate and I received many thoughtful presents galore. I am a very lucky lady. :)

Unfortunately, I was also combating one pretty nasty ear/nose/throat thing. Being sick over the holidays is TERRIBLE. I seem to always be sick on either Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years. Last year was NYE. Hopefully this year I got it all out of my system at Christmas. One year I was sick on all three! Ack.

Anywho, I will post some pictures once I am back in the swing of things. I go back to work tomorrow after a 3-day weekend, and that will ensure I am thrust back into normalcy whether I like it or not.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Bring on the new year :)

Also, now that Christmas is over, does it still have to be cold outside?

New Girl and new blog!

Tonight I had the house aaalllllll to myself (yay!), so I watched last night's episode of New Girl, made some soft pretzels and threw together my new header image... and I kind of love it!

Christmas lights, deer and navy blue are so in right now.

Well, at least in my brain.

Which I think is pretty credible.

And I just had to include the teal... cause who do you think I am?!

Speaking of New Girl, I really think that might be my new favorite show. Zooey Deschanel is one of my favorite actresses and I think she nails her character... I mean, it was totally written FOR her, but she does an incredible job at being awkward, loveable and actually completely normal all at the same time. She makes me want to wear cute clothes, grow my hair out and be adorably kitschy. Le sigh.

Anyway, I just wish it was snowing.

It was 60 degrees and thunderstorming today. WHAT!

It better start blizzarding next week in time for Christmas, that's all I have to say.... you hear me, mother nature!?

Currently..

Obsessing over:

Joey and I have been watching Psych over and over on Instant Netflix. We watch all the new episodes on USA and it's also definitely a show that I can watch in syndication without getting bored. We started with season 1 last week and just started on season 2 tonight. The cast is fabulous and I laugh at every episode!

Working on: 
I finally got all of our Christmas cards addressed tonight, now we have to go get stamps and mail them tomorrow. It's so exciting... these are our first Christmas cards together! So cute. We are just so damn cute.

Thinking about: 
My momma. The holidays were her favorite time of the year and it's just not the same without her here. This will be our 3rd Christmas without her... and I'm just hoping it's going to be a quiet and simple weekend full of family and friends.

Anticipating: 
New Years! I keep thinking I want to do something fun this year, but I also love just staying in and eating junk food with the hubs. All I know is that I am looking forward to a new year... new resolutions, new opportunities for change. We'll see what happens, I suppose!

Listening to: 
Psych, weren't you listening?! but also Joey clicking on his computer and the loudness of my laptop as it slowly overheats into oblivion.

Drinking: 
I'm not drinking anything, actually. But I did drink a glass of milk about an hour ago.

Wishing:
For a white Christmas ;)

Thanks for the fun survey, Katie!

Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

This morning I woke up and immediately thought, "I need to mail our Christmas cards!"

I have been putting off doing these cards because the thought of hand addressing all of them just reminds me of the wedding and how many invitations, thank you cards, shower cards, blah blah blah I had to send. I mean, obviously these are completely voluntary... but it just is a daunting task.

So to get in the spirit, I decided to start my day off being crafty. I made donuts!

I got the recipe from Little Bit Funky and knew I had to try them for a weekend breakfast.

They super easy to make.

First, fill your pan about 1/2 inch high with vegetable oil and heat on medium heat.

Meanwhile, lay out your biscuits and using a cookie cutter or something of the like, cut a hole in the center of the biscuits. [To make you feel better about yourself, I used the lid from a vodka bottle.]

Place the biscuits in the oil and fry until golden brown. Flip and do the same.

Melt butter in the microwave, approximately 2 tbsp, and combine cinnamon and sugar in a separate bowl. [I used splenda, so that's why my cinnamon sugar mixture looks suspiciously like sawdust. Splenda for baking is not fine, but it tastes the same to me and my diabetes thanks me.]

Once the biscuits *now donuts are done, place them on a paper towel lined plate to cool. [pretend there is a paper towel on this plate. I need to go grocery shopping...]

Once they are cool enough to touch, dip one side in the butter and let it drip off. Then place in the cinnamon sugar mixture and voila! 

Homemade donuts!

I also fried the little donuts holes, hehehe.

Happy eating!

Clothes for Christmas!

I am really really excited about the dress I found tonight at Kohls. I plan on wearing it on Christmas day when we go to my Dad's house for our extended family gathering. I tried it on tonight with a black belt (totally looks like Santa! ha!), a gray cardigan, black tights and silver shoes. I love how it all came together and it's so totally festive. Yay!

For Christmas eve, I think I am wearing a black floral lace skirt, a red satin shirt and a black cardigan, with black tights and flats. Simple, but refined. Cause I'm sooooooo refined. ;)





So yeah, I am pretty excited for my new finds. All at Kohls, all on sale (of course!)

Is it Christmas yet??

Ornament Party

Last Sunday while the boys watched football, my gal pals Kirstie and Kristin and I had a super exciting, off the wall ornament party. By that I mean we made ornaments while gossiping and eating guacamole taco dip and bagel bites. That is some pretty compelling stuff.

Okay, okay, I am making it sound like it was lame, and I guess to others it might sound lame. But I had a blast and I really love hanging out with those girls. And crafts; I love crafts!

The ornament party in its conception was meant to bring all of the lady friends together to make ornaments for each other. You know, pick an ornament and make one for everyone there. That way we would all leave with an ornament from our friends! We still did that of course, but since only 3 of us were able to make it, it was a lot more low key and we just kind of free balled it. But it was so much fun and I definitely want to keep on the tradition next year!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of the ornament I made. Basically, I had a clear plastic bauble and filled it with white glitter to emulate snow. Then I placed a miniature pine cone that I 'dusted' with snow and some holly berries on top and glued the ornament closed. It was pretty cute, I have to admit. 

Kristin brought some clear glass baubles and different glitter paints and we all made our own colored ornaments! I made a teal one, of course, and I'm obsessed with it! I want to make more, more, more!

Kirstie got all fancy pants and made each of us a swirled one with our favorite colors. She made Kristin a black and white one, with red/black/white feathers attached to the top. It was stunning! When the paint dried, it kind of feathered inside of the ornament and it totally made it look professional. 

She made me one with green and blue paint, with a little owl pendant. I love it because it kind of turned into a globe, which is great because I have an obsession with globes. And the owl is just perfect. She knows me well!

My pretty new ornaments! Too bad I don't have a tree this year. I decided to rest them in our key holder because I want them to be seen and I love looking at them. :)

Then Kirstie surprised me with a second ornament.... Golden Snitches from Harry Potter!!

I am pretty sure I squealed. SQUEALED.

Look at how amazing these are!

The instructions she found on Pinterest included painting a gold bauble in swirls with golden paint. Kirstie found these premade ornaments in the clearance section, with red and green ones included. How lucky was that? Then she just painted white felt with silver glitter paint and affixed them to wire, creating the wings. Super easy, super cute.... super nerdy but I'm totally okay with that! I put all 3 of them on my little tree. ha!

I love my friends! 

Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Tomorrow is our annual Christmas Party at work! We typically do a luncheon and this year I signed up to bring cookies. I had an idea for red and green cookies and was pretty much set on them until my Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine came in the mail. Flipping through, she had some pretty amazing looking cookies and I was enthralled. I was taken, though, with these chocolate cookies that had York peppermint patties inside.

INSIDE! 

Count me in.

Looks delicious, right?

They are.

Here is the recipe for all your holiday cookie needs! I've also included a link for easy printing...just copy the URL to this specific blog post!




DOUBLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES [WITH A PEPPERMINT SURPRISE]

Makes: 2 dozen
Prep: 30 mins (plus chilling)
Bake: 15 minutes

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 egg
24 miniature York peppermint patties
6 oz. white chocolate, chopped
Peppermint candy canes, finely chopped 

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the flour, cocoa powder, both sugars, salt and baking soda on low speed. Beat in the butter, then the egg. Turn out the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disc; seal. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.


2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment. Working with 1 tbsp of dough at a time, use your fingers to evenly encase each peppermint patty with dough. place on the prepared pans and smooth the dough with your fingers. Bake, switching the plans halfway through, until just firm to the touch, about 15 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and let cool slightly. Transfer the cookies on the parchment to a rack to cool completely.


3. Meanwhile in a double boiler or small heatproof bowl set over a small saucepan of simmering water, melt half of the white chocolate, stirring until melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining white chocolate until smooth. Using a large spoon, drizzle the white chocolate over the cookies. Sprinkle immediately with the crushed peppermint candies. Let set completely before serving or storing.

Merry Christmas!

I may have mentioned this before, but our apartment this year is too small for a traditional tree. So we've had to improvise with a small tree on our bookshelf.

This tree has been in my family since I was a little girl. I remember we would have our big tree in the living room, and my mom would always let me and my sister decorate the little tree in the den. It was always one of my favorite parts of Christmas.

Hehe.

Look at my bowl cut. And my purple tights. And the terrible nineties decor.

This year though, I opted out of my mom's ornaments and tree topper and bought some funky colored baubles and garland from Target. It was hard for me to not use the trinkets from my childhood, but I can't help myself when it comes to miniature sized things.

I also kind of like that it looked like our old tree from last year. 

Compromise is the reason for the season! [that's probably not right.... oh well..]