Cookies and Cousins

Pumpkin Pecan Cookies with Brown Sugar Butter Frosting These are always favorites for fall

Easy Peasy Macaroons dipped in white chocolate and sprinkles

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread

Well my parents annual Christmas party has come and gone and it was fantastic as usual.

I posted pictures of my parents house last year, you must stop and see their awesome backyard.

Last years cookie table featured 16 different kinds of cookies and I was determined to cut down this year.

My efforts were thwarted by special requests and more specifically my mother...

who declared half the cookies I was eliminating her "favorite".

This year she took on quite a few cookies herself and we ended up with

21 different types of homemade cookies.

23 if you take into consideration different flavor variations.

Here we have...

Lemon Bars Deluxe

Almond Window Cookies with Raspberry Jam or Apricot Jelly

I detest making window cookies so my mom did those this year.  It was awesome.

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread, dipped in white chocolate and sprinkles

Cranberry Orange Chews

Spicy Gingerbread Snowflakes- Peanut loved these.  He's a weird kid.

My mom made them and I decorated them and I really love that system of doing things :)

Going clockwise in the collage and clockwise on the plate

Repeats of the window cookies and shortbread with 

Salted Butterscotch Shortbread Bars (one of my personal favorites)

Peanut Butter Kisses & Lemon Bars

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & Pumpkin Whoopie pies made by my sister Sherri

I think she needs to get on here and share this recipe with you- I expect this every year.
Thanks Sherri- here we go with the recipe!

Cranberry Orange Chews, Sugar Cookies and Revel Bars (another crowd favorite)

Sugar Cookies, Peanut Butter Kisses and Cherry Winks

Someday I'll learn to decorate sugar cookies with fancy frosting.

The thing is I need them to be stackable and I feel like a whole sugar cookie covered with royal icing might break your teeth.  Thoughts?

That and the fact that I'm lazy.

I made my sister help me decorate these which just means painting them with corn syrup and dipping them in sprinkles.

My mom also buys danish butter cookies along with 

See's Candy because we just don't have enough sweets.

On the back side of the plate are Almond Orange Bites.

Not pictured (along with the rest of the party and all of the guests)

were Salted Caramel Southern Comfort Truffles,

Rum Balls,

Chocolate Gran Marnier Truffles

and 2 different kinds of my mom's fudge.

Am I missing some?  I can't remember.

Then people started showing up and I couldn't find my camera,

I spent several hours following kids from one room to another,

back and forth, all night long.

Most the time I was running after Peanut but occasionally it was someone else's child.

I almost missed this family shot but my mom let me know my camera was in the garage 

(of course, why wouldn't it be?)

and I was able to sneak it in.

This is at the very end of the night before all the kids got into their pjs.

Next year I vow to get pictures of everyone.

I have approximately 5 pictures of B, Peanut and I and 

almost none of both my parents with him.

I didn't even get a picture of him in his cute little argyle sweater.

I am so happy I got this shot!!

Afterwards all the cousins got cozy in their pajamas

and played around the Christmas tree.

Everyone had a great time and we can't wait until next years!

Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, Costa Mesa

When the holidays come around we all find ourselves thinking about food.

We think about stuffing ourselves on Thanksgiving,

what to make on Christmas morning

and sweets to bake with friends and family.

What if we were wondering where to find our next meal instead?

What if we were rearranging our day to make it to the soup kitchen between 1 and 4 pm?

A few weeks ago I spent a few hours helping at Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa.

I'd love to tell you all about the people I met, the fantastic food,

the hilarious chef and of course... raise a little awareness and a little money.

Click HERE for my post.

Christmas Decor at tpt home, costa mesa

Are you ready for a marathon of Christmas decorations, inspiration and trinkets galore?

I really meant to post about tpt home back before Easter and here we are in Christmas.

But if I thought Easter was spectacular then Christmas just blew me away.

tpt home is a ginormous store in the SOCO Center you see off the 405.

It's packed with home decor of all types.

It attracts designers, interior decorators, party and event planners, 

wedding planners and people like us who want to decorate or even transform their space.

Don't you love all the wintery accent pieces they have?

The products range from very cheap to some pricier items

but none of the items will compare in price to what you would have to pay

in a designer store.

Normally the majority of their stock aren't themed like you find at Christmas.

But at Christmas you find incredible displays every way you turn.

I loved the little bit of sparkle on the tips of this foliage.

Some tables or areas are simply tons of product set together in a pretty display for you to pick from.

I didn't notice them at the time but I love those green, red and white

 whatchamacallits in the bottom left corner.

I also loved this holly tree. 

Simple, modern, with the perfect amount of sparkle and snow.

Although it may not all be your style, you could find inspiration everywhere.

I love these wreaths hanging off these vintage mirror doors.

Everything is for sale, including the pieces you see the items on, like the doors themselves.

I'm really loving all the natural looking elements with snow and frost on them.

In tpt, they use the entire space to their advantage.

Things are hung from the ceiling, stacked on the floor and poised on tables.

There are loads and loads of fully decorated trees.

Near each tree you find bins of all the objects you need to create your own masterpiece.

All I have to say is THANK GOD we didn't have this place before my wedding.

I went with a winter theme and all these icy elements are right up my alley.

These are really hard to see but there are these whimsical light strands 

that sort of hang down in soft curls.

I need these in my house.  Or my room. 

The trees are in so many different color combinations.

I love the fall colors on the right.

It is rich and warm and decadent.

They also have a really impressive selection of artificial trees.

Growing up I always had a small flocked tree in my room.

I loved my little tree.

They have kinds I've never seen before.

All variations of flocking,

all variations of pine needles.

Although I've never been a fan of artificial trees (Christmas just wouldn't be the same)

I can say that if I ever decided to get one,

I would probably come here and spend a couple hundred dollars on an amazing one.

I briefly thought about getting a fake tree this year.

My plan was to go the complete opposite of a regular Christmas tree.

I figured that I may as well go all the way and flip my tree upside down like this one.

I've seen them around a couple times and I love the way they look.

Super fun and I'm thinking a future kids room with a big upside down tree....

with a little less decor on it.

I also wanted a aluminum or white tree instead of a green one.

Of course, I fell in love with this silver tipped tree.

You didn't really notice the glitter at first but the lights were just glowing and bouncing around it.

Gorgeous.

Are you looking for trees?

Ornaments?

Nutcrackers?

Perfect polka dot dishes to stuff with goodies and give to friends?

$2.97 each and they would make a perfect hostess gift.

Maybe you just need some serving pieces for the parties you'll be throwing.

Forget red and green, how about pink and blue baubles for you?

Maybe you could just indulge in one pretty piece to center a display around.

I'm still dying over the wintery woodland details.

I need these frosted pieces of wood.

I see these laying across a mantel where you would get the full effect of the snow on top.

Flickering candlelight, sparkling snow.

Frosted trees are a great way to show off bold ornaments.

Did I mention you can by the fully decorated trees?

Oh yeah.

And yes, they are crazy expensive.

I mean, look at the amount of things they've attached to those trees!

Green, blue, copper and white.

Really unique with peacock details.  

People are so creative.

Modern, sophisticated, swanky, luxurious.

Black, silver, metallic chocolate and crystal.

Perfect to carry over to New Years.

Gorgeous traditional archway with ribbon hung stars and berry accents.

Individually it may not work for you but in a display this just sparkles.

Speaking of sparkle....

from garlands to wreaths to little accent pieces, tpt has everything you could think of.

I'm wondering if they are going to have an after Christmas sale.

I'm not sure that Peanut knew we were in a store....

I mean, for all he knew I was taking him on some fun Christmas adventure.

So head on over to tpt home and do some last minute Christmas decorating!

Sacrificial Offering to Santy Claws: Check

 

Do you remember last years pictures with Santa Claus?

 

This was my favorite from last year.

Santa squishing my little sumo baby.

 

This year was equally as funny for mommy.

The Peanut may not agree.

Peanut missed a nap and was tired before we even left for the mall.
Yes, I know, a nap is required before potentially traumatic events involving

weird white stuff growing out of their face while people point and laugh.

Mommy gets a big fail on this one. 

The boys are on different schedules and it's nearly impossible to get both their timing right.

Daniel was crying before we even sat him down because he wanted a snack.

I'm pretty sure that set off Peanut, who then took one look at Santa and was like

Get Me Out Of Here!

 

I think they had a good time.

 

The trauma was nothing a few minutes with Bob Builder couldn't fix.

Daniel was scoping him out.

I'm pretty sure they shared a joke or two.

 

Yes, much better.

I'm pretty sure Peanut was plotting to run Santa over should he come our way.

Don't mess with this elf, man.

5 minutes later Peanut had a meltdown of epic proportions.

He came home and slept for 2 hours.

Celebrating Christmas is harder than you think.

Christmas FAIL

The thing about Christmas (or really any holiday, party or event) 

is that it never really all goes as planned.

Take, for instance, this gorgeous reindeer cookie.

While it is obviously very beautiful and delicious looking,

it's not exactly how I saw it here.

It all started with a problem attaching the antlers.

They wouldn't stay on.  Although it could be because the chocolate wasn't really setting.

There isn't enough space to get the antlers in between the layers of cookie.

We tried forcing it.

We tried adhering it with chocolate.

We tried adding extra peanut butter.

Then we did the only logical thing we could....

Pull out the drill.

Dad found a drill bit that matched the size of the pretzels and voila!

 Of course, that didn't solve the problem of the ugly chocolate and sad decorating.

Maybe next year reindeer cookies!

The night before last I woke to the sound of something breaking.

B said he thought an ornament fell off the tree and I nodded and started to drift off to sleep.

Then I remembered that I had anchored each ornament on with super glue, 

nails, chains, locks and cement.

You know, just in case some little monster were to pull it down.

When I went to check on it I found...

our tree on the floor!

I'm still mad that I didn't think to take a picture.

I know.  That's a FAIL in itself.

The whole thing just keeled over, base and all.

The floor was covered in water and little bits of pine needles and glass were scattered around.

Some of the ornaments on top broke when they hit the coffee table.

My 2010 swarovski crystal snowflake lost a piece but I think it can be repaired.

The tree is looking a little crazy.  

We have some big holes and it's a little sad

but it makes me laugh whenever I see it. 

And possibly the most tragic FAIL of all

so far this Christmas 

was the candied bacon fudge that will not be making an appearance.

My first hand at candied bacon failed because I made it on foil 

which is impossible to pull off hardened sugar.

The second time around was incredible. 

You must try candied bacon.

It's dangerous.

Unfortunately, after adding the fudge and layering it with the bacon,

the bacon softened and it got chewy.

Bacon should be crispy.

~sigh~

Is there anything worse than wasting bacon?