In true Christmas fashion, we've been baking....a lot. Truth be told, ANY baking in this house is a lot of baking since it is something I am pretty much terrible at it. Adam is the baker and I am the cook. That's how it works and we're good with it. But with the season in full force, I'm trying not to be a grinch...hence the baking. It started with cheese crispies for the neighbors (which actually turned out to be quite good, but I don't have any pictures to prove it) and since the Rice Krispies were already out.....well, I'm sure you know what happened next. And for clarification, they were supposed to be red, but who has that much food coloring? Sheesh!
Next, Gray, who was quite displeased with the store-bought gingerbread house that we made last week, saying it "tasted too hard" for him, insisted on another. I decided that while I was willing to make my own gingerbread, I was not, however, willing to make it from scratch. I went to four different stores trying to find a suitable mix and finally found one lonely box on the shelf. After tasting it, I'm really confused as to what all the fuss was about. But, it was exponentially better than the store-bought house so I guess it served its purpose.
Here are the pieces I baked to make the house.....
and here it is after we were done decorating it......
and here it is about 20 seconds afterwards. Such a sad, sad fate.
Our sweet friends, the Wrights, invited Gray and me over for a cookie swap and decorating party. Again, with me being a non-baker, this posed a problem. So, I went to my old friend Marci's tried and true ginger crinkle recipe, and couldn't believe how great they turned out! Maybe I am a baker after all!
Ginger Crinkles
(courtesy of Marci Woodmansee)
2/3 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tbl maple syrup
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
Beat oil, sugar and egg together
Add maple syrup
Add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger
Mix well and shape into balls
Roll in sugar (can add sprinkles to the top to make festive)
Cooke at 350 for 8-10 minutes (best if soft)
Baking aside, we've also had time to squeeze in a little Christmas fun. Adam took Gray to Vineyard Vines to see Santa where he got to play with his godbrothers, Campbell and Airey. We went to Winter Wonderland at Bass Pro Shop with Katie and her boys, Lewis and Cole. And Gray debuted in his first school Christmas program. But, we're not Christmas'd out yet! Christmas break is finally here and we are just revving up for our own merry little Christmas.
Gray with Santa at Vineyard Vines
Airey and Gray at Vineyard Vines
Gray singing in his first Christmas school program
Since we were going to be at the beach for Thanksgiving this year and coming home right before the work week started, we decided to go ahead and decorate for Christmas a little early this year. By "we", I mean Adam, and by "decided", I mean Adam started doing it against my will and there was no turning back. But, I will say that coming home from our trip to a fully Christmafied house was so nice and I am now eating my words as I admire our sweet house in all its glory.
We had an amazing trip to Fort Morgan, AL with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law for Thanksgiving and spent the week swimming, eating great food, drinking good wine, and enjoying our family.
Pop's Crabmeat Au Gratin (Mal's favorite)
P's Shrimp Remoulade
We even fit in a few games of Dominos, some golf for the boys, and massages for the girls (plus Big) at the spa. Hayes got her first pedicure, Gray cozied up on a palette watching movies for half the trip, and Adam and I enjoyed watching the kids get spoiled by their P and Pop. We left with thankful hearts and full bellies.
Hayes' pretty toes
Right before I took the trophy
At P's request, we finally got Hayes' first haircut. It was bittersweet but she looks so cute now with her little bob. Like Gray, she was not the best customer...no surprises there.
Here's a door sign I did for a bridal ornament shower Linda was throwing. It matched the invitation and the bride-to-be will hang it as a Christmas decoration in their new home! So fun!
Gray has been wild as ever, largely I suspect thanks to the massive amount of holiday sweets he's been consuming. It seems like every day there is a new fat-laden sweet in our house and he is plagued by the sweet tooth like his mommy and P and therefore cannot resist. The other day, after jumping on his bed for an hour during naptime, I went in to find him on his bed dressed (or at least attempting to have dressed) in Stan Keith's clothing. For those of you who don't know, Stan Keith is Adam's Cabbage Patch doll, circa 1983.
cousin Greer with Stan Keith (for imagery purposes)
If that isn't funny enough for you, try picturing Gray with Stan Keith's headband around his forehead, his jersey on on arm, and his football pants all the way up his thigh. As mad as I was that he had not napped, I couldn't help but laugh at the site. What an imagination this one has!
Wearing Aunt Mal's boots
Fresh haircut and all smiles
We've spent the last few weeks getting into the Christmas spirit and we're having so much fun watching BOTH kids get into it this year. Oh, the joys of two toddlers! Bill, our elf, has been watching closely and I'm so thankful for the leverage this time of year provides! Gray is OBSESSED with Santa and even insists on dressing in all red, with boots on his feet and white socks on his hands (as gloves) to imitate him.
Thanks to "Portable North Pole", Gray has already received a personal message from Santa and we even went to see the big fellow himself earlier this week at the Enchanted Forest. I think the highlight was watching Santa arrive at the Pink Palace in true VIP style....via helicopter! Gray is STILL talking about it and we had such a blast doing it with Aunt Lala, Uncle Andrew, Cousin Greer, Lovie, and Papa.
Greer, Hayes, and Gray in Santa's helicopter
Papa with Greer and Hayes
We have baked gingerbread cookies with the kids, mailed our Christmas cards, made a gingerbread house, and had tons of fires to ward off this chilly weather.
Gray started eating it even before it was finished!
Yes, that's a batman gingerbread cookie!
Now all we need is a visit from Santa in a few weeks! Stay tuned for a full report....
Halloween has got to be my favorite holiday of the year. I am probably joined in this sentiment only by goths, witches, and mass murderers, but I just can't help getting all giddy when I see the orange and black decorations starting to emerge at all of the stores in late summer. Halloween has only gotten more fun with the birth of our children and this year has got to be our best yet. Gray took weeks to decide what he wanted to dress up as, poring over all of the catalogs we got in the mail. First it was Ironman, then Batman, then Kungfu Panda, so I waited as long as I could before buying one for fear he would change his mind. When Lovie and Papa gave him a Buzz Lightyear costume for his birthday, I thought for sure that would seal the deal and he would be one of the thousands of space rangers roaming the neighborhood. But ultimately, after seeing the Spiderman costume with the built-in pecs, he had made up his mind (thank goodness).
Hayes, on the other hand, seemed to want nothing to do with dressing up. I purchased what I'm sure will be the last costume that I have any say in and was in stitches when I saw my little pink poodle. She immediately tore the chenille puffs off of her arms, tore feverishly at the sequined collar around her neck, and screamed when we put her dog ears on. But thanks to her paci, we did manage to get one decent picture of her in
it and it is one I will always get a laugh out of.
Since Halloween wasn't until Sunday this year, we pretty much celebrated it for 3 days straight (not that I'm complaining of course). First, the kids had parties at their school. Then we went to Katie and Ed's for their annual Halloween bash with all the kiddos.
And Sunday we went to the Whittingtons for their daughter's 3rd birthday party, which was of course Halloween-themed. After wearing his Spiderman costume since Friday morning, Gray was still suprisedly sporting it come Sunday night when we headed over to the annual Northwood Drive Halloween party.We had a great time hanging out with our neighbors and then Lovie, the Kirklands, Aunt Lala, Uncle Andrew, and Cousin Greer joined us for trick-or-treating.
Gray was like a well-oiled machine, moving from houses to house, ringing doorbells, grabbing candy, and spouting thank-you's with the utmost efficiency. Even Hayes had the grabbing candy/"thank you" part down by the end of the night.
It was a great night and we made some great memories. I'm already looking forward to next year's Halloween and it's not even Thanksgiving yet!
We celebrated Aunt Lala's birthday this week with some yummy apps at our house
Lauren's Goat Cheese Birthday Torte
and had a great time visiting and watching the kiddos play. It melted my heart watching how sweet Gray was to Greer, bringing her toys, showing her how to play with them, etc....especially since it's such a contrast to how he plays with Hayes. Gotta love that brother-sister dynamic!
I have been busy working on grants for Visible School and am starting up work on Staxtacular 2011. I can't believe it's time to start planning the event already, but I'm so excited to be a part of such a fun and worthy cause again. I've also been doing some more door signs for people and here are 2 of the most recent ones.
A Circus Birthday Sign for My Friend's Son in Nashville
A Welcome Baby Sign for My Friend's 1st Nephew
Adam has been gone for most of the week on a business trip so we're looking forward to a low-key weekend with the fam, which we are kicking off tonight with lasagna, red wine, and a couple episodes of "Friday Night Lights". We took advantage of his early afternoon return and headed downtown today for a late lunch on the patio at "Lunchbox Eats". It's in a not-so-frequented area of town but I think this restaurant just might change that. If you haven't been, it's a must-try. Anywhere that serves macaroni and cheese as a condiment on a sandwich is on my short list. We also tried the chicken and cheddar waffle sandwich...another too-good-to-be-true combo in my opinion. It was fun to drive around the downtown/midtown area and see all the new buildings, adding sites to our must-see list and restaurants to our need-to-try list. I think we forget about how cool Memphis is when we stay in our little bubble and it was good to be reminded of why we love this place, even with all of its issues.
Gray had his first school field trip a few weeks ago and Hayes and I joined him and were so glad we did. We made the beautiful drive to Marion, Arkansas' Circle R Ranch and had a great time on the hayride, choosing a pumpkin, riding the pony, petting the animals, and picking cotton. Sure hope they make that an annual trip because it was such a fun outing on such a gorgeous Fall day!
We had so much fun picking cotton, but I didn't have my good camera with me so we didn't get any good shots. Instead, I took the kids down to the Agricenter's cotton fields and had a blast watching them take it all in. By the way, if you've never been down there at this time of the year, it's absolutely breathtaking.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Fall....the pumpkins, the colors, the leaves falling (okay, that's a lie), and all of the delicious comfort foods that we start to make. But my FAVORITE part of the season is my baby boy's birthday. Gray turned 3 on the 16th of October and even though most of our family was out of town and his party wasn't until the next week, we made sure he had a big day. I made him some chocolate pumpkin muffins for breakfast and he had a complete blast opening his gifts. We went to the zoo and then Lovie and Papa came over for dinner, cake/ice cream, and of course more presents! It was truly the first time he had shown such excitement about the whole gift concept and it made me all the more excited about this year's Christmas. Here is his opening some of his treasures.....
As if he hadn't celebrated enough, we had all of his friends over for a pumpkin decorating party at our house this past Saturday. It was great fun to watch all of the kids poring over their pumpkins and so excited to see the final product. I think the parents were pretty relieved when they saw all the pieces were self-adhesive foam and there was no paint or carving involved.....we'll save that for another year I guess.
Since Halloween is my absolute FAVORITE holiday of the year, I was so thrilled to finally be able to have a Halloween birthday party for Gray and only wonder why I didn't think of it sooner....so many fun decorations and food!
Recipe for the Jackolantern Cheese Ball:
2 10 oz blocks extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
2 4 oz goat cheese logs, softened
½ tsp pepper
Stir together cheeses and pepper
Shape into a ball to resemble a pumpkin
Smooth with metal spatula or table knife, making grooves with fingertips
Serve with crackers and assorted veggies
Party favors
Poor thing....he almost passed out trying to blow them out!
Homemade pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
And again, he was over the moon opening and playing with all of his new toys. As soon as someone would walk in with a gift, he would tear it open, take it in another room and play with it all by himself. I think I have FINALLY solved the mystery of who gave him what gift since he did not do me the courtesy of keeping the gift cards with the gifts. His all-time favorite gift though was from his Aunt Lala and Uncle Andrew. It was a parking garage with a helicopter pad and 4 levels of parking. Since Uncle Andrew didn't make it back in town in time for his party, he paid his penance by putting it together for him.
Even Hayes had a great time, though it took her a while to get over the shock of all of those people and all of the noise they were making. Thankfully she had lots of grandparents, aunts, and uncles there to love on her until she warmed up to the idea. Here she is playing with some of Gray's new toys and eating dinner after the party with her cousin Greer.
After a long day of getting ready for the party, a fun-filled time with family and friends, and then pizza and football with all of our family, we were ready to finally wrap up Gray's week-long birthday celebration....even if he wasn't. Happy 3rd birthday sweet baby boy. We love you and have had such an amazing year. Here's to the next one!
In true Christmas fashion, we've been baking....a lot. Truth be told, ANY baking in this house is a lot of baking since it is something I am pretty much terrible at it. Adam is the baker and I am the cook. That's how it works and we're good with it. But with the season in full force, I'm trying not to be a grinch...hence the baking. It started with cheese crispies for the neighbors (which actually turned out to be quite good, but I don't have any pictures to prove it) and since the Rice Krispies were already out.....well, I'm sure you know what happened next. And for clarification, they were supposed to be red, but who has that much food coloring? Sheesh! 
