A Look Back

Hey everyone!  I feel like it's been forever since I've posted!  Probably because it has.  I hope you are all doing well!  I am glad to be back.  (And no baby news yet to report...though I am 1-2 cm. dilated, so that's something!)

Isn't it funny that we blog about our houses, our craft projects, and our thrift store finds, but when I sit down to reflect on the year that has passed, it's my family that comes to mind?  The year 2008 has been full of fun discoveries for me, blogging being among the greatest.  But here are a few of the snapshots and milestones from this year that really make my life meaningful.

Our daughter Nina started the year as an adorable half baby/half toddler...here is a photo from Valentine's Day to prove she used to sit still.  

My sister and I started our small business, Mildred Lane, selling collectibles and hand painted gifts in a local Denver shop.  Mildred Lane is the name of the street where we grew up.  (And for my 100th post, coming up this Friday, look for a fun giveaway that involves some of our merchandise!)

In the spring, my sister and her husband moved out of the rental apartment below and into their first house, a mile from where we live in suburban Denver.  

In May, with the start of baseball season and our trip to watch the Cincinnati Reds play, we found out we were pregnant!  Seems so long ago now...

Nina turned two in August and had a rockin' birthday party in the garage.  It was supposed to be a water party in our backyard but the 50 degree temperatures forced us inside!

As the fall "rolled" around, my belly started to get a little "roly-poly" too!  Here we are at a petting zoo at our neighborhood fall festival.

And as 2008 closes, I look at Nina and realize that (sadly) she is an independent little girl these days.  We even moved her into a big girl bed over the holidays (more on that later this week).  I can barely glimpse the baby anymore...just in time to welcome her little brother or sister in 4 weeks or so.  (Or hopefully less!)

  

I am so looking forward to sharing more of our lives with you in 2009.  Thanks for making 2008 so much fun!

Merry Christmas!

Phew!  I don't know about you guys, but I am exhausted.  I spent yesterday cleaning, and rather than feel good about it, I now realize how dirty my house was and I don't know how I am ever going to keep up with it when I have two kids!  Can anyone else relate?

Anyway, Merry Christmas Eve!  I am excited to have nothing more trying to do today than to whip up a few little things for Christmas dinner.  The rest of the time I will be sitting on my couch!  We plan on going to a candlelight Christmas Eve service tonight, and then spend tomorrow in our PJs for as long as possible.  :)

Wherever you are, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!  You all have been such a wonderful (and unexpected!) blessing to me this year.  

I am taking some time off from blogging while my husband takes some vacation time, too.  But, I'll be back when he goes back to work on January 5!  Of course I will let you know if any baby news breaks (Get it?  Breaks?  As in water?  Wow, I must be really tired.) between now and then.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  

My Christmas Table!

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it is December 23rd!  As a kid, I always thought this day had a little magic all it's own.  Today I will be cleaning the house in preparation for some family coming to stay on Christmas Day.  Magical, right?

Yesterday I managed to put the Christmas table together, mostly because it is more fun than cleaning the house and I wanted to see how the new Christmas china looked.  What do you think?

I am really happy with it!  This is the first year that I am using my wing back chairs as part of the seating for the dining table, and I love how they look on either end.  Now just imagine this whole scene at about 7 p.m. with the lights down low and the candlelight glowing.  I hope it will be as pretty in reality as it is in my head!

 
I also wanted to show you my water goblets.  I bought these at Cost Plus World Market, and I love them because they have little bees on them.  Very French, no?

My menu for Christmas dinner is pretty simple.  We're starting with rosemary roasted cashews and an old family favorite, artichoke dip and bagel crisps.  For dinner, it's beef tenderloin with two different sauces on the side: a sour cream blue cheese and a mustard horseradish sauce.  Both can be made in advance, so yay for that!  We're also having roasted asparagus, creamy scalloped potatoes, and Parmesan and thyme popovers.  Of course, lots of Christmas cookies for dessert!

Now if I can just get the dog hair and dust bunnies off the floor before the guests come, I will be all set!

'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

'Twas the weekend before Christmas, and I should have been using these:

But instead I spent my weekend baking and eating.  (Poor pregnant girl that I am!)

We made a simple Christmas ornament for Nina, as we do every year.  Someday this hand print will look so tiny!

And we watched Daddy's favorite Christmas show,  "Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas."  Does anyone else remember this?  Nina and her daddy had a little dance party during the music scenes!  (Frankie the dog is not impressed.)

We also spent an inordinate amount of time with this book below.  Still no baby names for either a boy or a girl, and we are T-minus 6 weeks or so!  They don't let you leave the hospital until you have a name on the birth certificate, do they?

How was your weekend?

My "Keeping Room" at Christmas

A while back I showed you all my front room, alternately called my living room, keeping room, and what-the-heck-do-I-do-with-this? room!  Click here if you want to see what it normally looks like, and the process I went through to redecorate it.  Definitely worth all the fuss, though, because it was so fun to decorate for Christmas!

Every year I buy a few bags of cranberries to put in my glass candle holders.  So easy, and I love the color of the cranberries with the white candles.

I have a little tree for my front window that holds my "Twelve Days of Christmas" ornaments.  I never noticed how many birds are in that song, until Nina and I unwrapped these, and she kept saying "What's that Mommy?" and I kept saying "It's...uh...another birdie, Nina!"

As you saw a few days ago in my kitchen/dining room, I love these little pepperberry wreaths, and I think they look cute hanging from a chandelier!  

Here's our little manger scene.  Nina loves to come and look at the characters, and she tells me the baby Jesus is "a good boy."  Don't you love it?

Here's some simple berry garland going up my staircase.  I found these at Goodwill in July, can you believe it?  And that poinsettia at the top of the stairs is another Goodwill find, totally fake, for $5!  Thank God, because it would be dead by now if it was real!  (I am not a gardener.)

We are hosting Christmas dinner this year, so I think I will open up the dining room table in this room for the big feast.  It will only be the second time I've ever hosted a dinner in here!  I'll be sure to show you photos next week as I get the table all ready.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Someone asked about the photos on my stairway and how I hung them.  If you want to read more about it, check out this post!

Homemade Oreo Cookies

OK girls, this is serious.  I went to a party last weekend and I told my friend I would bring something sweet.  This was the perfect opportunity to try a new recipe, because usually around the holidays I feel like I need to stick to "the old standbys" that my family loves.  I know you know what I mean!

But since this was a party, I felt like I could branch out and try a new cookie.  I am SO glad I did!  These are called Homemade Oreo Cookies, and I probably don't need to say much more to get your attention!  But just in case...

...don't they look amazing?  They remind me of those Little Debbie cakes from when we were kids, but they really do taste more like a homemade Oreo.  I dare you to try these and not eat the whole batch!

I found these at one of my favorite cooking blogs, Smitten Kitchen.  Go over there and check out her other amazing recipes!

Homemade Oreo Cookies

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375 degrees.

2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

5. To assemble the cookies, use a knife to spread the cream onto the flat part of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream.  You could also do this with a pastry bag if you are feeling really fancy.  Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

6. Try not to eat every single cookie before your family knows you made them!

WFMW: A Christmas Card Miracle!

I'm glad you stopped by today to witness this great Christmas miracle.  OK, it's not as amazing as the birth of Jesus, but we can still celebrate!  What am I talking about?  Take a look below:

Those, my friends, are my Christmas cards.  Stamped, stuffed, sealed.  They went out in yesterday's mail.  Why yes, that is a miracle unto itself!  But wait, there's more!  I want to do something that I avoid doing at all costs to share with you the extent of this miracle: Math.

A few months ago, I told you about my love of Scrapblog.  You can see that post here, but basically, I discovered that I could design cute things on this digital scrapbooking site and then save them as .jpeg files.  These files can then be given to any printer to print as a regular photo.

So, my first step was to design my Christmas card on Scrapblog.  Now comes the Math part.  Brace yourself.

Printing of 100 (4x6) cards................$14.49

100 (4x6) envelopes (Walmart!)......$8.88

100 stamps...........................................$42.00

TOTAL.......................................$65.37

Isn't this amazing?  Originally, I went to Kinko's to print my cards, and they were going to charge me $60 just to print, not to mention I would have had to cut each one out myself, and the clarity of the picture wasn't very good.  If I had gone that route, I would have spent over $110 in total and had Lord-knows-how-many paper cuts!  Instead, I just sent my .jpeg file to Kodak online, and a few days later, this lovely package came to my door.  Great clarity, great color, and already pre-cut to the 4x6 size!

If you like to design things like this yourself, I highly recommend Scrapblog and Kodak, or one of the many other online tools like them.  I am so happy!  And here's my finished Christmas card (with our last name blotted out).  Merry Christmas!

See what I mean?  A $65 Christmas miracle!  Works for Me!