Merry Christmas!!

We had such a lovely Christmas this year! It is both Andrew's and my families' tradition to decorate the house on Christmas Eve. So we purchased our tree the week before Christmas and kept it in our basement until Christmas Eve. Andrew and I started collecting ornaments from the different places we have been since we have been married. It was so fun decorating the tree with these ornaments, especially the ones Andrew had brought from the various places he had been last year going to and from Afghanistan. Many of them are from different historical places we visited in NC and a few from SC.

This Christmas was especially exciting for us because last year we weren't able to spend Christmas together as a family while Andrew was deployed. We were both reminded of this and are so grateful that we are all together!

We were so happy to be able to Skype with Andrew's family on Christmas morning. We spent the rest of Christmas Day with my family opening gifts and watching the children play with their new games etc.. It was so fun to watch Annette open her gifts and play with them! I think she was a little overwhelmed by all of the excitement and is still recovering :)

Christmas Dinner was amazing as always, Papa's Prime Rib was fabulous! We also had the traditional Bacon and Spinach Stuffed Tomatoes and Cheesy Mashed Potatoes. Andrew asked me to make his family's traditional Date Pudding which thankfully was approved by him...whew :)

Happy St. Nicholas Day!!!

 

Happy St. Nicholas Day! We are so happy to be carrying on this tradition in our family! Every year on Dec 6th, the Feast of St Nicholas, the Saint comes and brings gifts and goodies to those good boys and girls who leave their shoe out the night before. This is a special feast day for us because St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children.

USMC Ball

On Saturday we celebrated the 238th Marine Corps Ball with Andrew's Reserve unit. We really enjoyed our time there! The company was nice and the food was great! We even got to dance to a few songs that we had requested :) I was happy to have finished sewing my dress in time!

 Me and My Handsome Marine :)

 

Annette copying Auntie Francesca's Laugh...hehe

Today we took a nice walk out to the pond in our subdivision. It was such a lovely Fall day! Annette started to try and make geese sounds :)

Mama and Maarten's Surprise Birthday Party!!

Last night we surprised Mama and Maarten with a birthday party! Maddie, Angie and I came up with a menu and each made a part of the meal. The meal was as follows-

First Course

Gingered Pumpkin Bisque a la Kitty

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/gingered-pumpkin-bisque

 

Second Course

Pork Tenderloin with Apricot Fennel Ragout a la Kitty

http://www.marthastewart.com/355381/pork-tenderloin-apricot-fennel-ragout

 

Roasted Red Potatoes a la Angie

http://www.marthastewart.com/332662/roasted-red-potatoes?search_key=herb%20roasted%20potatoes

Herbed Wild Rice a la Angie

 

Third Course

Almond Chocolate Tart a la Maddie

(I will have to get the recipe from Maddie and share it! This was exquisite!)

 

 Jozef brought a lovely Moscato that paired perfectly with the meal!

 

For décor I bought gourds, pie pumpkins and mini pumpkins. I carved out the middle of the mini pumpkins and put tea lights, this was a fun project and turned out great! Tom and Angie brought a beautiful flower arrangement in a pumpkin that made a wonderful centerpiece for the table!

 

Everyone parked in the little parking area behind our house. Papa did a great job at keeping the surprise and bringing Mama to our house and masking the visit as a quick drop-by :)  Unfortunately, we weren't able to keep the surprise in the same way for Maarten. He just thought it was a party For Mama but we surprised him when we sang him Happy Birthday too!

 

Thank you everyone for your help in pulling off this wonderful party!!

 



Fall Fun!!!

Andrew and I started our Friday evening trying to think of something fun to do... I was dreaming of  a Peanut Butter Popcorn recipe that I had seen in Hy-Vee Seasons Magazine. Immediately we thought to make a party of it and invite our neighbors, or more specifically, my siblings :) Thankfully, our lovely babysitters(Mary Clare and Francesca) were riding their bikes past our house so we were able to secure them for a quick babysitting job while we ran to the store to get what we needed for a fun filled evening!! Andrew, Louis and Will ventured into the woods right near our house to collect wood for the fire pit while the girls and I made the delicious popcorn. We had a blast eating, talking and laughing while listening to some memorable tunes :)

Our Snack table for the evening- Peanut Butter and Heath Popcorn and Smores!!

 Found a wonderful Peanut Butter Popcorn Recipe in the Hy-Vee Season Magazine-Peanut Butter Cup Popcorn

 My lovely helpers :)...

 The recipe called for Almond Bark but we substituted it for Heath...

 

 Annette joined us until it was her bedtime :)

 

 

 Andrew and Will getting "fueled" to build the fire...

 

Bringing out the goodies :)

 

 The Smores-making begins...

 

 

First Attempt At Making A Baby "Gate"

Well, my loving husband spent an entire day teaching our little Annette how to climb the stairs... while this is a very admirable skill to learn it makes things difficult for Mama who is trying to get work done and cant be following little Miss up the stairs all day. So,we needed to come up with a solution for keeping Annette from climbing the stairs. Its not as simple as just buying a baby gate because our staircase has spindles on one side and a wall on the other. I decided to sew a piece of stiff duck cloth on one side and a pretty piece of material on the other that would match my soon-to-be-made couch pillows. I screwed hooks in the wall and sewed ribbon to all four corners to secure it in place. She has figured out how to climb under it :( So we are working on Attempt #2. Our plan is to add a sheet of thick plastic or foam board to the back. Anyway, here are pictures of Attempt #1!

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The Party in Action!