Happy New Year's Eve: Last 2013 Post

Happy New Year's Eve. Here is a picture of the Space Needle in Seattle, WA.  I tried to find a "free to use and share" picture of the Tower of the America's in San Antonio on NYE, but none were available. This is the next best thing, I think. Thank you to flickr user Michael Holden.

The holidays are always extra exhausting for me because we travel just about every Christmas. We spent a wonderful week in Lubbock, TX surrounded by family and friends, returning yesterday. I knew I wouldn’t feel like venturing out to the grocery store to buy a single thing. Instead, I placed an online order for groceries to be delivered to my house today. Lazy? Maybe. But not having to fight crowds is a plus in my book.

However… the only thing I frickin’ forgot were black-eyed peas. How can you ring in a new year without these crazy little beans? (Do you really think they bring you good luck?) All I know is that I don’t want to jinx it, so I better get some. Oh, and we don’t have champagne to toast with at midnight. So, I guess a trip to the store is in order, but at least I won’t be there but for very long.

Part of tonight's "big" festivities.

We also don't have party plans for the evening. I'd throw a party to see friends, but let's face it… that kind of stress coming home from a trip would likely kill me. I think we're probably going to have an intimate evening, filled with watching the TV countdowns and making homemade peanut butter cookies. Yes, we're officially old and have a kid. Yay, mid-30s. 

As for “Resolutions” for 2014 – I haven’t thought too much about this. Every year I resolve to do seemingly reasonable things. And every year, I don’t hold myself accountable to follow through. Nevertheless, I do think 2014 will be a defining year for both my husband and me based on events that happened in 2013. For us, 2013 had many twists and turns and I don’t foresee 2014 being much easier.

At the beginning of 2013, I didn’t resolve to do much aside from getting rid of pregnancy weight and organizing my house. Both were huge failures for me. I’m still the same weight as last year, I had to give up my gym membership because my husband lost his job (not that I used it consistently), and our poor, white-walled house chronically looks like Toy’s R Us took a giant dump on the floor.

Conclusion? While I do think the New Year is a fantastic time to renew or pursue personal goals, it’s important to make sure there is accountability for it. Perhaps this blog will be a nice platform for that. But either way, the goal setting process shouldn’t be saved for January – it should be ongoing. And that’s my point. I should be setting goals throughout the year to follow up on, and perhaps that’s my 2014 resolution. Though I must say that I like the idea of “starting clean” with month #1.

A toast for you!

Since we just got home yesterday, I can’t tell you what will be on our menu this week… because frankly, I haven’t thought about it yet. What I will tell you is that this week will be a “wing it” week, meaning I’ll figure out what I want to make about an hour before I make it.

Happy New Year to you all. Farewell 2013, bring on 2014!

"Winter" in Tallahassee

Moving from Colorado had its fair share of culture shock, but I think the biggest oddity I experienced while living here are warm holidays.  The first Christmas we spent in Tallahassee it was 70 degrees.  We had the windows open.  I wore a tank top.  I probably got sunburned.

Despite my loathing of the hot weather down here, I will say Tallahassee an extremely family friendly town. There are always tons of events going on, especially at Christmastime.  One of my favorites is the Winter Festival that the city sponsors.  The first year we went, it snowed.  Well, they made it snow with snow machines anyway, but it was a nice effect considering we were so used to real White Christmases.  The festival includes a lighting ceremony where they light up all the grand oak trees downtown, followed by the annual Jingle Bell Run (a short & sweet 3K.  We haven’t participated since the kids arrived, but I think next year we will start back up) and then a parade, complete with Santa.  They dedicate one section of the downtown area to kids, appropriately dubbed “Candy Cane Lane” where they don the strip with animatronics and the local candy maker does a candy cane making display and all the kids get free (GIANT) candy canes.  The festival this year is on December 7 (tomorrow).  Festivities begin at 3, and the lighting ceremony starts at 6pm. 

Another one of my favorite events at this time of year is Elf Night at Dorothy B. Oven Park.  Every year they light up the park, and you can drive and walk through a fantastic light display.  We never attended on Elf Night until Abby came, because it is geared towards kids, and well, we weren’t really into that before we had our own!  They almost always provide some sort of treat like cookies, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider.  Lots of people are dressed up as fun characters; gingerbread man, snowman, toy soldier, and of course, SANTA!  We have gone the past two years, and we are hoping to go again this year.  Last year it even rained, but we went anyway!  They also made it “snow” last year – with bubbles.  I think that was Abby’s favorite part.  Elf Night this year is on Thursday December 19 at 5:30pm.

So, Tallahassee friends, what is your favorite family friendly holiday event this month?  We’re always looking for fun things to do with the kids!

Thanksgiving Tuesday

Its Thanksgiving week.  We are travelling to visit my mom in Wisconsin on Thursday.  We are flying out of Jacksonville instead of Tallahassee (cost difference of about $200/ticket!) so we are heading out tomorrow night.

Due to all the travel, I don’t have a weekly menu to share.  However, tonight the kids and I are attending a Soup Potluck with some church folk.  So I am going to share with you one of my favorite soup recipes.  Broccoli Cheese!

I craved Broccoli Cheese soup all.the.time when I was pregnant with Will. I know it’s a pretty popular soup too.  But what I hate is when you get the restaurant soups, they are all usually overly salty, or made with super processed velveeta type cheese. 

I got this recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook I have.  I have made one small modification, but otherwise I pretty much follow it exactly.  It does not have a lot of salt (unless you use canned broth – which I like to use my own), and you can use vegetable stock to make it vegetarian.  I bet if you really wanted, you could try using coconut or almond milk to make it vegan even (omitting the cheese).  Which, someone should try and let me know how it turns out!

Ingredients:

3 cups chopped broccoli (you can use frozen)

1 carrot, shredded

1 can (14.5oz – just under 2 cups) broth (chicken or vegetable)

3 TBSP flour (this is my alteration – original recipe uses 2.  We like it thicker)

¼ cup cold water

1 cup half and half

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Salt & pepper to taste

 

Directions:

Add broth, vegetables, and salt & pepper to pot.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook 6-8 minutes, or until broccoli is tender.  Meanwhile, mix flour & water in a small bowl.  Once vegetables are cooked tender, add flour mixture to pot, stirring constantly.  Bring to a boil and cook 1 minute.  Reduce heat and add half and half.  DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL.  Cook until hot.  Once hot, add cheese gradually, stirring until melted & mixed completely.  Enjoy!

Halloween Princesses

Last year was Abby’s first year Trick-or-Treating.  It left such an impression on her that she talked about “getting candy for her pumpkin” all.year.long.  So she was super excited to learn that yes, Halloween did come again!

I asked her what she wanted to be.  She said “I want to be a princess like Foofa” – which, if you haven’t seen or heard of Yo Gabba Gabba! you’re missing out.  In the Halloween episode Foofa is a fairy princess.  A few weeks later, she very specifically told me she wanted a “purple princess costume.”  Well.  There you go.  I was sort of hoping for a superhero but what can you do.  A purple princess it is.

I knew this year I wanted to make her costume – so long as she didn’t ask for anything too elaborate, haha.  And while a princess wouldn’t have been my first choice for her, I knew it would be a fairly easy costume to make.  I soon found out that Christina’s little girl, Sydney, also wanted to be a princess for Halloween.  And, since I was in the crafty/creative mood, I volunteered to make her a dress too!  Yep.  Two princess dresses.  I went to Joann’s and got lucky in finding some great pink princess dress remnants.  But I had to buy Abby’s purple princess fabric full price – which…nothing is ever really full price at Joann’s, since, I used a coupon!  Anyway, supplies and all I think I spent maybe $25 for BOTH dresses.  And if you think about what they charge for those Disney princess flimsy fabric costumes, this was a deal!

Here is what I used:

2yds of fabric per dress (1yd of each color) – this is probably a generous amount, but since this was my first attempt at princess dress-making, I wanted to make sure I had extra in case I mis-cut something (which, I did!) 

Gold Ribbon (for both dresses)

Pink Ribbon (for both dresses)

Matching bias tape (one for each dress)

Matching thread (one for each dress)

Velcro (for the back closure)

 

I did a lot of web and Pinterest searches for princess dress tutorials.  It was tough at first, because I couldn’t seem to find one that had everything I wanted for the dress.  So, I decided to mix & match two of them. 

I made the front of the bodice from this tutorial: Rapunzel

I made the back and the sleeves from this one: Cinderella

And, I pretty much winged the skirt – but I followed the second tutorial mostly for construction ideas. 

The whole process was much easier than I thought it would be.  It was a little tough working with the satin, but, I figured, since these dresses were meant for 3 year olds, they weren’t going to be critiqued too harshly! 

They came out SUPER cute and I felt very “domestic” that I was able to create something so fun!