christmas recap

Happy New Year! I hope your 2017 is off to a bright start.

I thought I'd do a quick holiday recap before we get too far into January. Plus, I need to share all of the adorable photos I took over Christmas, right?

Are you ready for photo overload? Here we go.

The kids met the big guy at a Breakfast with Santa this year. One of them was more interested than the other.

holiday cheer: stocking stuffers

Everyone, it is Christmas week! Can you believe it? I have had so much fun shopping for the kids this year. Elia is at a great age where she is starting to understand the true story of Christmas and that this is a very special season. We went to visit Santa a few weeks ago and before that visit I asked her what she was going to ask Santa to bring her. She told me, "Angels and... Baby Jesuses." Sweet girl, that just warmed my heart.

Throughout the season, we will continue to share the good news that Baby Jesus has already come and that he wouldn't have fit in her stocking anyway. A few years ago, we went back and forth about whether or not we would be a family who "does" Santa and in the end decided we would. Opening stockings is one of my favorite traditions and I just love shopping for them. The best part is that you can fit great, inexpensive gifts for kids in their stockings.

If you're still looking for a few suggestions for your kids, here's a peek at what our kids are getting in their stockings this year. Thankfully, they're still too little to read the blog so no surprises ruined here! Many of these stocking stuffers are available on Amazon so if take advantage of your Prime account they can still get here before Christmas Eve.

august so far

Note: As I am writing this, Wells is asleep. He is, at the moment, approaching ten hours of sleep overnight. This is the seventh day in a row where he has slept at least seven hours overnight. I realize this might be boastful but I am so glad he is sleeping through the night that I had to share! We are so relieved to be sleeping again!

We ended July and kicked off August on Mackinac Island. I say this every summer: Mackinac Island is my favorite place to go.

There are many reasons to love Mackinac but, I think my main reason for loving it is the timelessness of the island. In a world that is moving so quickly, you always know what to expect on Mackinac. There will be bike rides, it will smell of horses, there will be fudge, there will be great lake views, there will not be cars, and there will be charm in spades.

And every August, there will be Neckers there. It's fun to see how much Elia grows from year to year and watch her experience the island in new ways and I look forward to doing the same with Wells.

We've gone to Mackinac with my parents and my aunt's family for the last five years and normally stay in the middle of the island, at some condos I grew up going to. Since Wells is too small for a bike, we opted to stay at Mission Point Resort this year, on the far side of Main Street. It was fun to stay somewhere new and we were so thankful that we weren't walking several miles into and out of town for meals.

During our weekend we spent time with our family, swimming, visiting with my college bestie Jess and her family who were on the island Saturday, and Todd and I even got to have a cocktail hour sans niños one day.

Saturday evening, we went to The Woods for dinner and bowling, a family tradition. We took a taxi there and it was far less slow than I remember it being in years past. As a bonus, Elia was fascinated by the ride. We ate and bowled, duck-pin style, before heading back into town for the evening. The Woods is such a unique and beautiful spot and we love eating time there every summer.

Mackinac never disappoints and I love creating new memories there with my family.

That was last weekend and this weekend we hosted Todd's college friends and their families at the lake house. This is a tradition that formally began two years ago, making this our third year running. Since the first year we have almost all grown to be families of four and watching our kids run around together is incredibly entertaining. The crew was slightly smaller this year but we still had a ball. I'm always grateful that Todd has such a solid group of friends from college, they're such lovely people and I always enjoy spending time with them.

With so much fun packed into the first third of August, I can't wait to see what fun is in store for us the rest of the summer! 

egg dyeing

I recently declared that I wanted to start making a big deal out of holidays and Easter seemed like a good one to start with. Dyeing Easter eggs seemed like a must so Elia and I got to work on that today.

She loved watching the color tablets fizz while we waited for our eggs to boil.

By the way, did anyone else know how complicated it is to boil a perfect egg? It's not rocket science but there is more of a method to it than I realized.

Because egg boiling is not only more complicated than I thought but also takes longer than I thought it did, we took a break from our egg prep to enjoy some bunny mac and cheese while the eggs boiled. (Don't worry, she scarfed down her veggies and fruit while I was making her bunny mac.)

Side note: Annie's must make a killing on their bunny-shaped macaroni and cheese and grahams around Easter. I know I bought the grahams to fill Elia's Easter eggs with and couldn't have been the only mom at Target doing so.

After our thematic lunch break, the eggs were ready to dye. We only did half a dozen eggs since I'm not totally sure what you do with the eggs once they're dyed but six eggs still left plenty of room for dyeing fun.

Elia picked which color each egg would be and couldn't wait to see them come out of their dye cups.

Didn't she pick beautiful colors?

Since before Elia was born I've been looking forward to doing all of the things that shape my childhood memories with her. Now that she's almost two, she's at the perfect age to start trying fun activities like this. I love watching her as she absorbs what we're doing and listening to her talk about it later on in the day.

Tomorrow we continue the Easter fun with a community Easter egg hunt and I just can't wait to see her scurry around looking for eggs.

How are you celebrating this Easter weekend?

thanksgiving week

After a two month hiatus, there is nothing like the beginning of the holiday season to kick start a family blog.  We have spent the last week enjoying lots of time with both of our families, relaxing, and getting ready for the marathon that is December.

Elia loved playing with her cousins this week, especially Madeline who taught her all about being a two-year old.  Elia can't wait to try all of her tips out when she turns two this spring.  She liked seeing Griffin, too and if you ask her, she would be happy to confirm that he is a "bebe", as she stated every time she saw him.

The girls kept busy playing with marshmallows on Thanksgiving before we settled in for a delicious meal followed by much-needed naps for kids and grown-ups (at least me, not sure about the others, I was too busy napping to notice).

Tradition called for the annual cutting of the family Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.

It was cold but Elia was a trooper and helped us pick the perfect one.

Today, we went to meet a reindeer.

Look closely and you'll see is in the background, she was not at all interested in petting the creature but we sure enjoyed looking at them.

The train though, she would have watched the train for hours.

After dinner tonight we got to work on trimming the tree and I have to tell you, we have discovered a better way to add lights to your tree.

Look at all of those lights!  We have never been able to achieve such full light coverage without the configuration of the lights being quite visible before.

The key? Add your lights vertically.  Stop wrapping your tree with lights and just go up and down.  It works and it's easy!  Thank you, Real Simple, for the tip!

Now we have ornaments to add.  Happy Thanksgiving and may your holiday season be filled with joy!

welcoming fall

It's here. A season filled with apples, falling leaves, and the all-important sweater weather. We rung in the first fall-like weekend of the year with a trip to Robinette's.

Doughnuts. Check.
Cider. Check.
Apple picking. Check.

Traditional ladder climbing. (We'll go with it.) Check.

Wooded hike. Check.

Someone has changed a bit since last year's first orchard trip.

We're ready for more.  Welcome to fall.

holiday cheer: christmas sugar cookies

I'm not the only person who has fond memories of baking Christmas cookies with my family. My mom would let me and my siblings help roll out the dough, pick whatever shapes we wanted from our vast selection of cookie cutters, and of course, we each got to decorate our fair share of cookies after they were baked.

What I think of as my mom's recipe is actually my paternal grandmother's recipe and, I have to tell you, it's the best one out there. The cookies are chewy and the orange zest and extracts lend just enough citrus to make them taste light and fresh. They're also just slightly salty but the icing we use balances that out perfectly.

Do yourself a favor and make a batch of these cookies before your family gets together this week. They will thank you.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp. grated orange rind

1/4 tsp. lemon extract

1/4 tsp. orange extract

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

Cream together shortening and sugar. Add beaten egg, orange rind, lemon and orange extracts. Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth. Chill until firm. 

Place dough on lightly floured board or between parchment or waxed paper and roll thin with a rolling pin. Cut with cutters.  Place cut cookies on greased cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes.  Repeat with remaining dough until all is formed into darling sugar cookies to be.

To decorate: 

Mix 1 tablespoon milk with food coloring. Add powdered sugar by the tablespoon until mixture is  thick. Use this to hold on colored sugar, cinnamon red hots, chocolate ants, etc.

Year in and out I look forward to making these cookies and I can't wait until Elia is old enough to help decorate them with me. Let's hope her cookie decorating skills don't peak at age six like mine did.

Happy baking everyone!  

What is your favorite holiday baking recipe or memory?