Blue Elmo

Thanks You Shanna for sharing the silence and support and I believe after searching around Neely is the one who thought this up with some friends help, goes to show what a great blogging community there is and how fast something can spread if we really want to.

• Baby Fox thinks Cookie Monster's name is Blue Elmo - Funniest thing ever! Yes Baby Fox you are correct that is a Blue Elmo, good work on your shape and color recognition. Something is sinking in, those flash cards are working! Why did my almost 2 year see this and I never did?

Via

Via

• Happy 42nd Anniversary to my parents!  Once when I was a small chap, I went and separately asked my mom a set of questions and then asked my dad, all of their answers were EXACTLY the same. I don't remember the questions, but I do remember being blown away that they had the same exact answers. I only hope that when Baby Fox asks Mr. and me questions we answer the same exact way.

• Transitioning from no window treatments to window treatments is weird. For example I leave for work at an abnormally early time, Mr. is almost always still sleeping, therefore I tip-toe to the bathroom close the door and then turn on the lights. Then when I leave I turn off the lights and try to tip-toe to the door, which is halfway across the room. Now this didn't used to be a problem because enough moonlight would come in through the windows and allow me to see the door. This morning however, I ran into the wall, literally walked right into it. In my defense it's a small wall that jets out (like 18 inches or so), so when the door is completely open you can't even see the wall. I think I need to channel my inner toddler and get a night light.

• After watching Gossip Girl through the good times and bad times I stayed up way too late on Monday to discover who GG was on the night of,  I knew if I didn't I would just read about it and then the surprise would be ruined. Despite what everyone is saying, I liked who it was (I won't spoil the fun, just incase you haven't watched it yet, or didn't read the tabloids). I thought the episode was good, but I'm a sucker for happy endings, but when the reveal finally happened, I almost missed it. Mr. was talking to me and I said, wait, I think I just missed the reveal! I don't care about inconsistencies, seriously people just enjoy the show for what it is and move on with your life.

• I can't believe I'm going to have a 2 year old in 6 days! Where does the time go?!

He's about a week and a half old in these pictures

And now, he's swimming and jumping into the pool...

I think Mr. and Baby Fox should join the circus, what an act!

Linking up with Shanna at Because Shanna Said So for Random Wednesday

Silence

We are also raising money that will go to an organization in the memory of this tragedy. The organization is called The Newtown Family Youth and Family Services. Here is the official description of the support service we are donating to:

"Newtown Youth and Family Services, Inc. is a licensed, non-profit, mental health clinic and youth services bureau dedicated to helping children and families achieve their highest potential. NYFS provides programs, services, activities, counseling, support groups and education throughout the Greater Newtown area.

ANY DONATIONS MADE TO NEWTOWN YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES WILL BE DONATED DIRECTLY TO THOSE EFFECTED BY THE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING.

My thoughts and prayers go to out to the families and friends of the Sandy Hook Elementary school.
May God grant them strength and serenity during this difficult time.

Weekend Recap

Unfortunately this weekend actually started on a Friday, so we'll start there.

A little background, my mom was an interior decorator before she retired just before Baby Fox was born (priorities were to spend as much time with him as possible, work was going to get in her way). We ordered new drapes/shades in September! They finally arrived at the store so we had the drape man come and install.

 

Please ignore the bed spread, that is not what it looks like, just an extra quilt for these So Cal people. And that pile of clothes on the dresser is a donate pile

Then this happened:

 Yep they made them too long, we got a pair, and they made one side 92" long and the other 94", arg, so they had to return them to the store so they can send them back to get shortened...we'll hopefully get them back by Friday. But we got the shades for the other side of the room...woo hoo! So excited to have window covers after 3 LONG years!

After the drape man left, we decided to go to this house. It was seriously amazing, he had a whole light show, fresh hot apple cider and hot donuts to pass out to everyone that came. Plus they gave tours of their house to anyone that wanted to come!

 Yep you see that correctly they even had some help in the kitchen to help with the hot apple cider and fresh donuts coming...oh to be so wealthy and then share their joy of Christmas. Amazing!

Saturday I spent in the kitchen making these (am making more next weekend too)

While I was baking Grandpa, Dadday and Baby Fox spent some time in the spa playing

Daddy wanted to fill up the fountains, Baby Fox wanted to help fill them

 Baby Fox wanted to keep playing outside, so Daddy put his shirt on him so he wouldn't get cold.

Saturday night Grandpa watched Baby Fox while Mr. and I went to a Christmas party. I couldn't eat the food, but I hear it was amazing!

They just remodeled or should I say, tore their house down and built a new one. This was the first time seeing it, more picture to come later. It was amazing!

Since I couldn't eat the food, I was hungry when we left, so we stopped at In and Out...yep I ate french fries at 11pm!

Sunday Baby Fox wanted to play outside, it was cold. Notice how Mr. is wearing his ski jacket with shorts and flip flops, only in California right?

 

Mr. and I wrapped some of Baby Fox's Christmas presents. He's so spoiled!

Then we decided to do a painting project, but Baby Fox wasn't done painting when the project was done so we kept painting for another 40 minutes.

Towards the end, things got messy

And then Baby Fox decided he wanted to eat the paint, he said "Yum" after he started to eat it, weirdo.

This is his "Cheese" face, he looks scared, but is actually having a great time

And that my friends is our weekend. Only 4 more days of work, then I get 17 days off for the price of 2 vacation days, can't beat that!

Linking up with these fab people

Sami at Sami's Shenanigan's

and Leeann at Join the Gossip

for "Weekend Update"

also:

Sarah at The Not quite Military Wife

and Megan at The Mrs.

for "Mommy Moments Blog Hop"

Best Stuffing You'll Ever Have - Ever

Remember this post and how I sort of promised to post the recipes, well many days later, I finally got the energy to put together the stuffing recipe. This recipe is from America's Test Kitchen, if you haven't checked it out then you should.*

Classic Bread Stuffing with Sage and Thyme

Ingredients:

Note: the ingredients I'm listing is for a 10 x15 baking dish, I halved the recipe and used a 9x13 pan (as suggested by the recipe). Also if you are not going to make homemade bread cubes you'll need to increase the chicken broth to 7 cups.

12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the dish
4 ribs of celery, chopped fine
2 onions, minced
1/2 cup mince fresh parsley
3 tablespoons minces fresh sage or 2 teaspoons dried
3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon minced fresh marjoram or 1 teaspoon dried
3 pounds high-quality white sandwich bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and dried
5 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I am allergic to chicken so I used No Chicken Broth, tastes like chicken
   broth but only uses veggies, have no idea how they do that)
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper

There were also variations of this stuffing recipe, so I made one of those, called

Bread Stuffing with Bacon and Apples
You'll also need:
1.5 pounds of bacon, chopped fine 
2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (2 cups)

Don't let all the ingredients scare you, it's really not that hard.

Let's get this party started:

Step1 : Set oven to 400°

Adjust oven rack to the middle position

Step 2: Let's make some bread cubes!

Like it said, use high quality bread, no wonder bread for this recipe. I actually went to the bakery part of the store, instead of the bread isle, and bought a white bread that basically had 5 or so ingredients, none of it were preservatives.

If you plan ahead you can cut the bread up and then leave out for a few days to become stale. Otherwise, spread them out on a baking sheet and dry in a 300° oven for 30-60 minutes. Let cool before using in recipe.

Step 2: Cook Bacon

This is where you would melt butter in skillet but if you are doing the bacon version skip the butter part, I cut up the bacon (even though I was halving it, I used a pound of bacon, the more bacon the merrier right?) and cooked it. While the bacon is cooking, cut up the celery, onion and apple.

 removed and put on paper towel lined plate. Instead of using butter, I just used all of the bacon fat, yep I used all of it. In the recipe it says to use the fat and then add more butter, but I didn't since I can't eat butter, and it worked out ok.

Step 3: Add Celery, Onion and Apple

Add the celery, onion and apple to the bacon fat, doesn't that sound delish? Cook until softened, 10-15 minutes

Step 4:  Stir in the bacon, sage, thyme, marjoram and parsley until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer to very large bowl.

Step 5: Add dried bread cubes, broth, eggs, salt and pepper

Okay so remember how I told you that I was halving the recipe? Well I spaced out and totally forgot this fact, and didn't halve the eggs, so I actually ended up using 4 eggs instead of 2. The result of the stuffing was absolute perfection, chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside. We're not sure if the extra eggs had anything to do with this, so you can make up your own mind on that one.

Toss to combine

Step 6: Put in buttered (in my case, olive oiled) dish and cover with foil and back for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until golden, about 30 minutes.

Since I was currently cooking my turkey, I put this in about 30 minutes before the turkey was going to be finished, then when the turkey came out and was resting, I uncovered the stuffing and continued to cook.

And you're done! Our guest showed up before I was done, and I forgot to keep taking pictures, so I took a picture of the partially eaten stuffing. In the picture and in real life it looked burnt, but in no means was it burnt, just crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. I'd rather get a F for presentation and an A+ for taste, then the other way around.

I would also like to add that I was worried about the whole apple thing in the stuffing, but you could not taste it at all. I think the apple was what was helping to give the stuffing the chewy texture? When I picked out an apple to see, it was just chewy and tasted like stuffing then apple.

Okay now you're set for making the most awesome stuffing ever! If I make this again and have a better picture to show you, I'll re-post.

* background: America's Test Kitchen is on PBS and they take a recipe and make the crap out of it, in every different way possible until they figure out the best way to cook it, slice it and dice it. They have a magazine you can subscribe to called Cooks Illustrated, you've probably seen it at the check out line at William Sonoma. Anyway, it's an amazing magazine, it goes through what steps they did to get the recipe, so you know the exact process about how they decided to cook something with 4 cups and 2 tablespoons of chicken broth instead of just 4 cups. (I was not paid to write this, just something that I use on an everyday basis and love EVERY single recipe I've made from it, always my go to cookbook)

Clothes Pin Christmas Trees

Okay here's the other tutorial of the clothes pin series. Christmas trees of course. In hind sight I probably should have just used felt and cut out Christmas trees, but whatever, I still like them :)

What You'll Need:

 Brown Paint - Already had this
Green Paint - Already had this although I had to mix yellow and blue
Paint brush - Already had this
Yellow Felt - $0.86
Green Pipe Cleaners - $0.99
Clothes Pins - $1.99 (same pack as for the Reindeer)
Orange Pom Poms - $0.99 (they come in different sizes, so just use the size that you like best - orange because Baby Fox's favorite color is orange and he kept screaming out orange when we were standing there trying to pick out the pom poms)
Different Color Pom Poms - $0.99

 Step 1: You'll need to paint the trunks of the trees first.

I painted these at the same time when I painted the reindeer

Step 2: After dry, paint the "branches"

Step 3: Cut out the Stars

I free handed these, but I did draw a star on a piece of paper so I could get the basic shape, for whatever reason I was having issues cutting out the stars without looking at a star on a piece of paper, go figure

Step 4: Form the tree

This will be a trial and error. I started by folding the pipe cleaner in half, then forming the branches from there. Then I glued the bottom part down first - right where the spring is attached to the clothes pin, then glued the rest down. You don't have to glue down each branch, it just worked out for this particular tree. If you look at the other ones, you can see that not all of them go glued down.

 The beauty of the hot glue gun, you can glue at random points of the clothes pin and it dries so fast that it sticks no problem.

Step 5: Attach the star

Step 6: Attach the "ornaments"

I did this randomly, there was no rhyme or reason of how I did this.

And you're done! See the all orange one, that was for Baby Fox. You could really just buy 1 package of those pom poms, I have a ton left over.

And you can see them on my mantel. I've since gotten a lot of Christmas cards, and it's turning out great!

Super easy project. Next year we'll hopefully have stockings, so I plan to wrap one of our doors with wrapping paper, attach a ribbon/bow to the door, and then attach all the cards to the ribbon on the door.

Hope you have a great Thursday!

Cause Everyone has a Birthday Tree

As you know Baby Fox's birthday is on Christmas Day. Mr's best friend was born on Christmas too and seriously got the shaft every single year. So in hopes that doesn't happen to Baby Fox (like that would ever happen), we decided to celebrate his birthday with a Christmas twist, enter the Birthday Tree. Last year we decorated it in Cars theme, but this year we just did birthday festivities. We also decided that since everyone is so busy during the holidays that we're going to start throwing him a 1/2 birthday party, until he tells us otherwise. Mr. wants me to make some letters spelling out Baby Fox's name to display across the top somewhere, been too lazy to do so...yet.

See there, that's his first birthday present under the tree

On my mind:

• That awkward moment when you thought no one was emailing you, but realized the email forward function was disabled...doh! And that other awkward moment when you realize the email replies go back 3 months and wondering, does she really remember writing that random email commenting that my son was born on Christmas (Sorry Yi-chia! Love you!)? Probably not, so from now on, I'm emailing back and checking both accounts! So sorry to all of those that emailed me really kind responses and never heard back from me. Really I don't usually ignore emails, really, I'll prove it to you if it's the last thing I do!

• Funny things that happen to Mr. - He comes home and tells me, I have a story to tell you. It was too good to just text you, so I waited to get home. And this is his story: So I was walking in the parking lot at work and you know when you're walking and you see a leaf or a rock and you kick it? Well I saw this leaf and kicked it and when it landed it flipped over and started WALKING! I was like, what the hell is that thing?! I ran to my car jumped in and then ran that sucker over. I'm fairly certain it was plotting his revenge on me and would get me on my way back into the office, I had no other choice then to run him over with my car. I had asked him did you get a picture first? He said, hell no I was running to my car. And that my friends is my manly man, love him! 

• Only 6 more days till Christmas shut down at work for two weeks, woo hoo!

What have you been thinking lately?

Linking up Because Shanna Said So for Random Wednesday