Christmas Eve Candy

Merry Christmas lovelies! Can you believe there are only about 2 more weeks until the 25th?

With Christmas coming up, I have found myself relatively broke and strapped for time ;].  Which kind of makes blogging hard. I apologize for the lack of posting!

(Our Tree from last year. None this year, we'll be OOT.)

We are currently trying to save up for a somewhat impromptu trip to visit family. Originally, we had planned on doing our own Christmas. However, some things have come up that have compelled us to save the money and make the trip down to see our loved ones.

Which means some of our projects have had to be put off. At least until we have saved enough gas money for the drive. Among these post-poned projects would be my Emmie's Market. Ugggh! It is killing me not being able to put it all together like I want!

But I'd rather wait till we have the money, then to go into debt for something so silly.

Cool, granted. But silly nonetheless.

(The baskets I am going to spray paint a mustard yellow... <333)


That being said, I did go ahead and add stripes to the side of my awning. I think I will also scallop or round the edges on the side panels. It should add a nice detail.

Kev thinks I should cover the whole thing with fabric so it looks more like a real awning. I think he's right. But that's obviously not in the budget. Yet.

I also may have changed my mind about painting the grocery stand in chalk board paint. I might just spray paint the whole thing white... I guess you'll have to wait and see ;].

...And so will I.

Le sigh.

Thankfully, we pretty much have everything we need for the Lego table... except for maybe some extra Gorilla Glue. So I think we will be tackling that baby this week. At least I sure hope so anyways! It'll get my mind off of everything I want to do but can't (yet) afford to with Emmie's Market.

So, in absence of any real progress made on our Christmas Projects, I thought instead I could share one of my favorite traditions we have developed over the years.  Christmas Eve Candy Making.

(I had to crop the photo to hide my terrible self-haircut. I'm not kidding you. It was SO bad.)

Last year, we were lucky to live near family, so we were able to make candy with my parents and my brother and sister in law.

 I think my family may have more issues than Texas when it comes to doing things "BIG." ;]

 Not only did we spend the majority of the afternoon and early evening making caramel-wrapped, chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks... we also made peanut butter fudge, chocolate-covered peanut butter balls, a berry cobbler, and bread pudding.

(My beautiful mother!)

Did I mention there were only seven adults present at this shindig? Oh man it was a lot of sweets.

...a lot, a lot of deliciously delectable sweets! Yum!

This year we will be out of town for Christmas Eve, but we sure do hope we get to continue our tradition. It is the only time of the year we ever try and make our own Candy...and hey... it's fun!

Recipes we want to try next time around? Here, and here!

What does your family do Christmas Eve? Do you do a big dinner? Or do you save that for Christmas night?   We like to eat our homemade candy, open up our presents of brand new Christmas jammies, and snuggle on the couch reading about our Savior's birth. Can't wait to do it again this year! Happy Holidays everybody!

Christmas Gift Ideas for Our Kids

So, no lie... I've been pretty stoked about planning and executing our Christmas Plans for this upcoming December the 25th. I might have started planning our whole holiday season back in August...

Just maybe. ;]

But, it was too fun not to! I love putting things together for my kids, and the holidays are just such a magical time for children. I love promoting that magic, and I also love spoiling my children. And the Holiday season is one of the few times in our family that we allow ourselves to splurge.

Well, Holidays...and Birthdays.

But other than that, we tend to be tight-wad Thompsons over here! (No offense if your last name is Thompson... it just rhymed ;])

So, when Holidays(&Birthdays!) come along, we are kind of methodical about what we want to get the children.  It is one of the few times we really have the money to get them something good, so we want to make sure that it is quality, both in how it is made...and how it is received by the kiddos.

So far the kids have building blocks, a light table, art shelves and supplies, balls, playmobil, playdough, puzzles, trains, a train table, an art table...and the list could go on.

To help expand and diversify that list...we decided this year to make Emmie her very own market... and Kay a lego table.

And I just made an awning for Emmie's market, and I am SO stinkin' excited about it!!! Like maybe happy dance excited. Just maybe!

I made it out of a card board box that Kay's lego table supplies had come in. I cut the box in half and painted it using my kid's craft paint. Then I attached it to the wall using my husband's screwdriver and a few screws.

What can I say? I'm a borrower! ;]

Anyways, I kind of like that the stripes are only on the one flap, but I'm not entirely sure. Do you think I should finish the stripes through out or leave it as is? I'm a little bit worried that finishing the sides of the awning with stripes might make it too busy. I dunno. Opinions?

For the actual market stand, we are using an old T.V. Center that we found sitting outside by our apartment complex's dumpster. Pretty classy, I know ;].  But, I figure, with a fresh coat of paint and a little bit of elbow grease, it will end up looking pretty cute.

I especially love all the different levels. The plan is to paint it with chalkboard paint, and then add some wicker/wooden baskets with play food, a basket with some fake flowers, and put up some vintage grocery ad's on the wall behind it. 

I mean, how cute are these? Really!

I'd also like to add wooden letters above the awning, with a store name like "Emmie's Market", or something personal like that.

As far as Kay's lego table, we bought 15 of these lego mats from lego.com, and will be gorilla gluing them down on the underside of his train table top. That way it'll be dual purpose. If you're interested, I'll put together a step-by-step tutorial on how we assemble it all. In the meantime, I just need to find a day to sit down and do it!

                                                                                    Source: shop.lego.com via (Megan) on Pinterest

I'm thinking next date night.  ;]

We also bought Kay a lego set to go along with it. Not to mention the free holiday set we got as part of a promotion when we ordered it all online. Not too shabby ;].

Anywho's it should make for a pretty special Christmas morning. I'm just excited to see all of our ideas finally start to come together. They have been floating around in our brains and conversations for far too long. I can't wait for them all to be a reality!

How 'bout all you lovely folks? Are you doing a hand-made Christmas? A store-bought? Or a little bit of in-between?  Ours is definitely an in-betweener. Hopefully, it will be a good mix of convenience, quality, and sentiment. I'll let you know ;]

Man, I really seem to like those winky faces. I gotta keep myself in check. Totally resisting the urge to add another winky face after this sentence.

....

;]

Our Holiday Break

Sorry it's been so silent over here this week! Seeing as my husband is a teacher, we've been extra lucky to have him home since Wednesday. It has been such a nice break. Contrary to popular belief, teachers actually happen to work hard. ;] I'm lucky if I get him home by dinner, most days.

So, we've been soaking up the family time as much as we can! And, because I only get about one more day with him before I have to relinquish him to the ravaging adolescents again (Just kidding! I love his class. They be the coolest ;]), I thought I'd keep this post short and just share a few of the things we've been up to!

Wednesday night I cut and dyed my own hair. Thank you, you-tube!  Total price tag: $3.00. Yes, please!

Thursday morning (like 5am in the morning, morning!) I prepared a Thanksgiving Turkey for the very first time. Ever. No lie, I was slightly terrified.

T

Kevs made the traditional green beans and bacon. Yummm.

This picture SO does not do that deliciousness its justice. 

Our Thanksgiving table. Definitely not glamorous. Absolutely set up with the littles in mind.  The toilet paper roll turkey was made by Kay at his preschool. How cute is that? It definitely had to be displayed prominently. 

I love kid art.

Emmie does too. She enjoyed coloring. A lot.

She might have enjoyed the Soda just a little bit too. ;]

Turns out I had nothing to be terrified about with the Turkey. It turned out amazing. Thank you crock pot!!! I'll never mistrust you again!!!

Our tasty Thanksgiving spread. Everything was homemade. Including the pumpkin cheesecake and pecan pie. Man, if you need some good recipes for those, let me know, because the ones we used were off the charts delicious.

Kevin made this one especially for me, because I had never had Pecan Pie before.
Uhm, YUM?! What have I been doing all of my life?

Never had pecan pie before. Pssh. Its like I had never really lived before that first bite of pastry. ;]

 I've requested a re-make for Christmas. I'm drooling already.

A group shot of our Thanksgiving party. It was the very first one we've ever hosted on our own. Distance and money were against us when it came to going to visit family, but thankfully, Kevin's cousin is going to college nearby. So we still got to hang out with her (and her roommate!).

 We ate lots of pie and  played games. Like the Harry Potter & the Sorcerers Stone Trivia Game. Because we are super cool and mature like that. ;]

My husband and I also had a bit of fun with picmonkey.com.

We posted this photo on our private facebook accounts, with the caption "Happy Thanksgiving from the ______ family!". Just goes to show that we have really nice friends. Everyone was afraid to comment, just in case it was "real."  ;] So awesome.

Anyways, besides that, we've just been up to normal holiday fun. We put up a few Christmas decorations. We made some Salt Dough Ornaments. I even did a bit of Black Friday shopping. But from home. I love online shopping. And I hate crowds. So there you go ;].

Oh. And we made pumpkin cheesecake milkshakes and watched White Christmas! I love Bing Crosby. And that is probably my favorite Christmas movie of all time. So thankful to have a husband that loves old movies and musicals just as much as I do.

Anyways, hope ya'll had a happy holiday weekend! Looking forward to getting back into a routine over here. Any fun plans for tomorrow? What about Cyber Monday? Got anything you have your eye on? I'm super interested to see the deals they have this year. 

Pumpkin Bread French Toast w/ Cinnamon Powdered Sugar

Hey ya'll, how's it going! Today I'm super excited... 

Because I don't have to write the post! Ha!! I'm kidding.... kind of. ;] Today you get to hear from my awesomely adorable husband who asked me if he could do a post on my blog! And I of course said yes! 

So without further ado, I introduce you to the hubsters:

Being my first post on my wife's blog, I thought it appropriate to introduce myself. My name is Kevin, but to keep my anonymity on the dangerous world wide web I will now only refer to myself by my code name niveK. Safety first! =)

I'm constantly full of brilliant ideas. Sometimes they come to me as I am pondering life, washing dishes, or practicing my table tennis serve. Whenever they come, I stop what I'm doing and excitedly tell my wife "nageM" (wink... wink...) all about them....... and....... sometimes she lets me try them. =).

So, once upon a time I was perched pondering life in front of my open (empty) fridge and the words "pumpkin bread french toast" ran across my mind like an electronic billboard. I ignored them at first, but they were so persistent I finally gave in to my sagacity. Trust me....... it's a blessing.......  and a curse.

Upon realizing the scope and divinity of my new revelation, my face instantly morphed to take on an appearance similar to the one shown below:

I instantly got to work! 

Luckily, each year, when buying pumpkins to carve for Halloween, we make sure to buy an extra pumpkin for cooking and pureeing. We love having pumpkin as an ingredient for pasta sauces, cookies, breads, and soups. What a delicious squash! 

I cut our pumpkin in half, threw it upside down  on a cookie sheet with some oil and baked it for about an hour. When my knife easily poked through the top I knew it was done. I scrapped out the meat and pureed it in our blender. With this puree I started on my pumpkin bread. Being the first time -- I was proud of my result. 

There was a restaurant where we used to live called "Kneaders." I loved their french toast because the bread was so thick. I tried to mimic that below with nice burly slices. 

From there it was just like making normal french toast. I dipped each slice in my egg mixture and threw it on the griddle. 

Some swear by syrup and that is an excellent topping, but for this I wanted something special. Instead of making cinnamon sugar, I made cinnamon powdered sugar. I used this to garnish the hot buttered french toast.  

 

Kay tested...

Kay approved!

Here's to many, many, many DELICIOUS breakfasts and their variations! Enjoy!

This is Halloween: Haunted Ginger Bread Houses!

It's October ya'll! Holy cow, this year has gone by fast. I feel like we just barely finished last year's Holiday season! And yet, here we go again.

 But you know what? I'm totally okay with that. ;] I kind of love the Holidays. Especially fall!

So, in spirit of the upcoming busy-holiday-happiness, I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite Halloween traditions:

Haunted Ginger Bread Houses!

Or in this case, graham cracker houses ;] (we like to cut corners 'round hur).

They are super easy to make, especially if you've ever done the more traditional Christmas Gingerbread Houses.  Really, all you need is some frosting, some graham crackers (or gingerbread. You dern over achievers you!), and some candy of your choice.

My family has been creating these haunted counterparts, well...  well since before I was born! 

Growing up, we used to have these huge magnetic photo albums.  As a little girl I used to spend hours pouring over them page by page ( I was really just searching for pictures of myself. Narcissistic little child.).  Some of my favorite photos in there were of my family, back in the early 70's, decorating haunted houses. 

Well, those... and also the photos of my dad and brothers wearing matching daisy-dukes at Disneyland. 

Horrifying. But I digress. ;]

The point is, this tradition ( the haunted houses... not the daisy-dukes) has followed me from childhood to motherhood, and I am so glad it has! It has been so fun sharing this tradition with my husband and, more recently, our children! 

 (I think he's a fan, don't you? Maybe it's all the frosting...;])

Our haunted houses seem to get more and more elaborate each year. Normally, we pop in a movie and help our kids make & eat their haunted homes first. After the kids are in bed, my husband and I work together making our own monster-huge haunted house. It gets pretty serious. It may or may not take us all night to finish. Typically. 

I plead the fifth!

We like to use the following for decorating, but you can really choose whatever you like best! 

Black Licorice: Makes great "trees", shingles for the roof, doorways, lined walkways...

Candy Corn: Good for porch railings, chimneys, shingles for roof...

Reese's Pieces: Can use for windows, fancy trim, a tasty snack...

Candy Pumpkins: Good for a jack-o-lantern in the spooky yard.

Marshmallows: You can buy pens for cake decorating that have edible ink, use those to make ghost faces on your mini or large marshmallows and stick them randomly around your haunted home.

Frosting: As many as or a few colors as you would wish. We usually use frosting not just to stick the graham crackers together, but also to give our homes a nice coat of fresh "paint."

The options are really limitless. These are just a few ideas!  My best advice would be to have fun with it. Make it as elaborate or as simple as you'd like. And buy some extra candy for munching on! And maybe an extra movie or two for watching, just in case you get extra ambitious! ;]

I can't wait to turn on The Nightmare Before Christmas, pull out my cake decorating set,  and sit down with my family this year to make some perfectly scary little mansions for our neighborhood ghouls! What are your favorite Halloween traditions? Movies? My favorite movie as a little girl was Earnest Scared Stupid. I haven't seen it in years! Maybe it deserves a revisit. We'll see!