Category Archives: Holidays

Holidays

Giving Thanks

November 25, 2015

I’m so, so thankful for:

This sweet little family of mine. (They are so cute, I might just die of happiness.)
All the changes and transitions of this year. They have been so tough, but also rewarding in so many ways.
The Gap employee discount (because there are so many kiddos to buy Christmas gifts for this year!)
The sweet, tiny face that makes waking up at 3am every night not quite so terrible.
Amazon Prime (which makes both Christmas shopping and re-stocking baby items just that much easier.)
El Niño and all the rain it’s bringing (it’s coming, guys!)
Christmas music and endless amounts of holiday cheer being just around the corner (I CANNOT WAIT.)
All the big, big things that are going to be happening in 2016. (Isn’t it so exciting and stressful to have stuff to look forward to?)
Having the “I have a kid” excuse to use on New Year’s this year. (I’ll legit be in bed wayyyy before that ball drops, and I don’t feel bad about it at all.)
All the delicious food I’m going to be eating on Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, and the CHAMPAGNE I’ll be drinking since I’m not pregnant this year! (And who cares if it’s only going to be one glass because I’m breastfeeding. Champagne is delicious no matter the quantity, right?)

Happy Thanksgiving, guys. I hope you all have the best holiday ever.

Holidays

Thanksgiving Plans

November 24, 2015

What are your plans for Thanksgiving this year? Usually we host Thanksgiving at our place, but since we’re, um, “between residences” (read: living with KC’s parents), Alexis is hosting this year. I have to admit, it’s kind of nice to not have to tackle hosting this year, given that I have a very wiggly and demanding 6 month old to look after. I will be helping Alexis prep for the day though, and contributing the pumpkin pie I make every year for KC (it’s his favorite) as well as some to-die-for mashed potatoes.

Last year I discovered that I could make mashed potatoes ahead of time and reheat them the day-of in the crock pot. Which, um, is like, life-changing when you’re hosting Thanksgiving. There’s a lot that you can do ahead of time to make the day run smoothly, but you’re still going to be cooking a lot on the actual day-of (like, the turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, and biscuits, just to name a few). So anything you can prep before Thanksgiving actually arrives is pretty amazing.

Not to mention that my most productive hours tend to be post Prim’s 7pm bedtime.

So in case you’re wondering what I’ll be doing on Wednesday night, or if you’re looking for an especially delicious pumpkin pie or mashed potato recipe — here are the links to the recipes I use:

Pumpkin Pie with Cinnamon Crunch Topping and Bourbon-Maple Whipped Cream and Make-Ahead Crock Pot Mashed Potatoes

PS: I use half the cream cheese those potatoes call for, and if the egg whites weird you out, you can probably omit them without any issues. And if you’re looking for other Thanksgiving recipes, here’s the list of what I usually make when I’m hosting.

Holidays

Pumpkin Carving

November 3, 2015

The night before Halloween we got together with Braden (my brother), Alexis, and her husband to carve pumpkins. We put the babies to bed and got to work on the carving (←I first typed “carbing” there. Uhh, which might be more accurate.) Obviously we needed some fuel for the long night of intense creativity ahead of us, so Alexis broke open a bottle of real French rosé champagne (because what goes better with pumpkin carving than champagne, right? I mean, champagne goes well with everything.)

If I wasn’t breastfeeding, I could have swum laps in that champagne. But since I’m a mama and being responsible, I had a small glass (which was still delicious, by the way). It paired well with the fancy Mexican takeout we got for dinner, and this spread of treats: Plus like a solid 7 pounds of Halloween candy, because obviously… We had to replace one of the carving pumpkins we had gotten because a squirrel ate a giant hole in it., and we actually ended up having to put the remaining two inside the house after that because the freaking squirrel returned for more (^^see the little dent in the pumpkin where he started to munch on it? So funny.) ^^I couldn’t get the top of my pumpkin off, no matter how much I pulled on it, so KC had the genius idea to get it off with a corkscrew. We thought it was hilarious that he was going to pop open my pumpkin like you would a nice beaujolais, but it actually worked!^^ We were very serious about our carving (KC wouldn’t even disclose what he was carving and kept covering up his pumpkin anytime we tried to sneak a peek.) ^^I’m a professional.^^ ^^I carved the tiny pumpkin we got for P from the pumpkin patch. That might be my best carving work ever, right there.^^ ^^Braden is hilarious. (I was trying to pose with my pumpkin, but it was so freaking heavy! You’d think my little arms would be a little more prepped for this since I haul a baby around all day long, but nope.)^^

Braden also had us dying laughing because he kept singing this song.Look at that spooky porch! I think the pumpkin carving was quite the success. (And in case you’re curious, mine’s all the way on the left, and KC’s is the lego man.)

Holidays

Trick or Treat

November 2, 2015

How was your Halloween? Was it spooky and full of treats? I hope so.

This year we went to Alexis’ house for Halloween. The kiddos got dressed up and we walked them around her little court to go trick-or-treating (and made it to a whopping one house — no one else was home!) Luckily the kids are so young that they didn’t mind our very short trick or treating excursion. We mostly watched the kiddos teeter around the court in their costumes (and omg, babies in costumes — is there anything cuter??) We dressed up as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Mini-er Mouse this year. I like a costume that I can put together mostly (or completely) from items I already own (so sorry if anyone is offended by our less-than-perfectly-accurate Disney mice 😉 ) ^^Cousins in costumes!^^^^The littlest mousketeer.^^
Halloween with babies is like 100x more fun, and I think it’s just going to get better and better as the kids get older and understand more. Remember trick or treating as a kid and RUNNING from house to house so you could get as much candy as possible? The best. I can’t wait for that.

PS: Halloween 2013 and 2014

Holidays

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

October 28, 2015

We finally visited the pumpkin patch this past weekend. I can’t remember the last time I went to an actual pumpkin patch. Not that I am not usually in the Halloween spirit or anything (because I actually love Halloween), it’s just usually I stock up on small pumpkins from Trader Joe’s or get one or two large pumpkins for carving from a local grocery store (which, truth be told, we did get our two carving pumpkins from Costco this year — pumpkin patch pumpkins are pricey!) But now that we’ve got Prim, we’re starting all sorts of fun new holiday traditions.

Obviously she’s not super aware of Halloween or what any of it means, but I like that we’re building these fun memories with her all the same.We ended up going to a small local pumpkin patch (no crazy hay mazes or anything) with Alexis and her husband and kiddo + another couple and their 2 year old. The two older kids had a blast tottering around the pumpkins trying to pick them up (even the tiny ones are so heavy for little hands!) We picked out a small pumpkin for Prim, but I’m sure we’re just a few years away from her wanting to take the biggest pumpkin in the joint home to carve. (Alexis and I used to scour a pumpkin patch to find the biggest pumpkin to take home. This was generally foiled by my parents’ rule of “If you want to pick it, you have to be able to carry it.”)

^^Kitty buns on daddy’s shoulders ^^

Aaaand our very first family photo that doesn’t look completely terrible. (And yes, it did take like 20 shots for us to even get one this good; so even though Prim isn’t really looking and my hair is sort of crazy, we’re gonna go ahead and call this one a winner.)