Good Morning! I hope you had a great weekend. As we count down the days until Christmas, I thought I would share with you some of my holiday favorites.
The holidays are not complete without seeing the Nutcracker. One of my best friends and her family make it a tradition to go every year. I thought it would be special to start the same tradition with my daughter. We started seeing the Nutcracker when she was 5, she's now 15! I hope we continue this tradition as she becomes an adult and has a daughter of her own one day(in the distant future).
My daughter asked if I would take her and a couple friends ice skating next week. She's really looking forward to it. It should be a lot of fun watching them fall skate around the rink! I have very fond memories of ice skating as a child. One winter day it rained hard, followed by freezing temps, turning our backyard into an ice skating rink. My mom and my aunt quickly ran out to Play It Again Sports to purchase a bunch of ice skates for me and my cousins. We enjoyed ice skating that night in our backyard. Hands down, one of my best childhood memories. Most of us had never skated before so we spent a lot of time laughing and helping each other up off the ground! : )
What's your favorite holiday movie? My list includes Home Alone and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. My husband and I watched Miracle on 34th Street this weekend. Can you believe I had never seen it before?! Crazy, right!
As much as I enjoy listening to music on my Itouch, listening to the radio never gets old for me. One of the best things about the holiday season is the radio Christmas music. Last Christmas by Wham, is one my favorites, followed by...
Lastly, Target's after Christmas clearance sales can't be beat. The best thing about Target is that they have everyday merchandise (with a holiday label) mixed in with their seasonal clearance. Last year I purchased white dinner napkins, a bunch of apple cinnamon plug ins, paper towels and treats at a great price. It's also a good time to start shopping for holiday decorations and stocking stuffers for next year.
So tell me, what are you looking forward to this holiday season? What are some of your family holiday traditions?
PS. I'm sharing an inexpensive gift idea for teachers over at Life Is Hard, Laugh Anyway. Hope to see you there!
Lately, I've become a little obsessed with Pottery Barn and their Emma Collection dinnerware. The beaded detail makes me really happy! Sadly, their prices do not. For a family of 4, the 20- piece set would have cost around $150, plus shipping.
So, imagine my surprise as I browsed around Dollar Tree and spotted these! Woo to the Hoo! I couldn't believe my eyes! I shoved as much as I could into two hands and walked fast to the register. I had to make a second trip to grab the mugs. I planned to purchase 6 to complete the set, but the few that were left were chipped. Hopefully, while I'm out and about this week I can find 4 more. Unless of course, there are more Pottery Barn obsessed, Emma Dinnerware Collection lovin' folks, living in my area!
So let's do the math, shall we?! 6 dinner plates, 6 soup bowls and let's assume I'll find 4 more mugs. $18! Pottery Barn- much, much more! : )
Decorating for the holidays can be expensive, if we allow it to be. I am determined to decorate my home for the holidays on a budget.
While grocery shopping, I came across an inexpensive package of fresh thyme. Although my husband would have preferred that I used it in this recipe, I had other plans!
I simply took each sprig of thyme and stuck them into the grooves of the wreath form until I was pleased with the look.
As each sprig is added it covers the end of the sprig before it.
Thyme is such a fragrant herb. It adds a nice scent to my kitchen and the sprigs can be clipped off to use in cooking as the wreath dries out.
I love the simplicity of the wreath. I displayed it above a shelf in my kitchen along with some greenery and pine cones from the yard. The berry garland was purchased last year after the holiday on sale.
I added a few dried oranges for their nice citrus scent.
I added a couple of candle holders from another room to complete the display.
I love candle light! The soft glow warms the room.
Decorating with natural elements is a simple and inexpensive way to brighten your home for the holidays.
I enjoy hearing from each. and. every. one. of. you. I would love to be able to thank you all for stopping by and leaving me such thoughtful, encouraging words, because I truly appreciate all of your visits! I feel that it's proper etiquette to respond to comments. But sometimes I can't! When I receive an email notification that someone has left a comment and I try to respond; instead of seeing your email address, I see <noreply-comment@blogger.com>. Also, If you ask me a question in a comment, it is easier for me to respond through email. If you would like to receive an email response after your comment, you can easily fix this by updating your settings. Go to your blogger dashboard, click "edit user profile", then check "show my email address" and save! Pretty simple huh! I've been blogging for a little over a year now and there is so much that I didn't know when I first started. I am so thankful for more experienced bloggers who took the time to offer me advice. A year ago I was a "no reply" blogger too, but a fellow blogger took the time to show me how to easily correct this. So that's what I'm doing today. As I'm sure most of you are unaware that you are showing up this way!
One of my favorite seasonal drinks is Silk brand Pumpkin Spice. It tastes similar to eggnog with a subtle pumpkin flavor. I was really looking forward to picking up a carton while grocery shopping last week. Sadly, I have not been able to find it. So what's a girl to do?! Make my own, I guess! I started with an easy eggnog recipe, then added some canned pumpkin puree until I was pleased with the flavor. It tastes great! I'm looking forward to making it again.
Ingredients 6 egg yolks 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 1/2 cup canned pure pumpkin 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 4 1/2 cups milk 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg Directions In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks until they are thickened and light. Gradually stir in condensed milk, pumpkin, vanilla and milk. Stir nutmeg into the mixture. Pour all ingredients into blender and mix. Pour into glasses, and garnish with nutmeg. *Use caution when consuming raw and lightly cooked eggs due to the slight risk of salmonella or other food-borne illnesses. To reduce this risk, it is recommended that you use only fresh, properly refrigerated, clean grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell. Pregnant women, young children, the elderly should not consume raw eggs. source
I hope all of you had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with your families. My family and I enjoyed a pleasant meal together. The highlight of our night was "skyping" with my family in NJ. Skype is the coolest thing ever! It felt as though we were right there in NJ enjoying each others company.
Now that Thanksgiving is behind us and Christmas is only weeks away I thought I would do a little crafting and make a few stockings for my family. I found a great tutorial online, instead of making my own template I used a leftover stocking from last year for my pattern.
For my daughter's stocking, I kept it simple and added a flower using leftover fabric and a name tag made from muslin. I added her name using rubber stamps.
I embellished my son's stocking with a pine cone flower as seen here.
I'm sure my husband would prefer his stocking without ruffles, but I didn't give him a choice! ; )
I added a few fabric covered buttons to my stocking and filled it with some greenery from my yard.
Total cost $0! I was able to make each stocking using leftover fabric and scraps from my previous projects!
PS. You can purchase the ruffled trim at Hobby Lobby.
As you may recall, I purchased this bed for my daughter's room from a nice man on Craigslist after searching for months for an iron bed.
After going back and forth, my daughter and I agreed to paint it white. She agreed, I painted! ; )
Her monogrammed pillow is recent gift from a sweet blogging friend, Beverly! Thank you again Beverly- She loves it!
Here's a few more pictures from around her room. I purchased this set of pictures from Etsy.
My daughter's room is not very big, but it was important to us to include a small desk and chair so she has a quiet place to do her homework. She's a good student! I'm extremely proud of her!
