A Mommyhood Year in Review

Here in pictures, I present the "Mommyhood Year in Review".

We've learned to swim, to waitress and to use the potty.  We've had doctor appointments (more than I can recall), testing, surgeries and medications.

We drove to Disney for the 1st time, ran races and celebrated birthdays.

With family, I believe the more the merrier, and the more the crazier.

Here is our very concise year in review:

January

Cold Stone Creamery contacts me to review their ice cream flavors for 2011.  They send a car.  We arrive in city and spend an hour in a penthouse eating ice cream.

I will forever love Cold Stone Creamery for appreciating my sincere and genuine love for ice cream.  And for trusting my expertise.

February

I begin my first official waitressing gig.  The girls are fun and the money is better than retail.  After six hours waiting tables, our evenings end with greasy food and money.  

 

We drive 19 hours to Disney for the first time.  Or, hubby drove 16 hours and I drove three.  I like to pitch in when necessary.

March

A very dear childhood friend, who also happens to be a phenomenal Dermatologist, uses me for a demo on Botox and Juvederm.

The clock turned back ten years for 9 short months.  It was fab.

April

A few local mommies created a running group.  Our first race was at the Bronx Zoo.  We left early in the morning and we ran for penguins. We had a three hour lunch afterward.

Hubby was thrilled.

May

Our little Moopa had corrective surgery on her eyes.  She was a trooper.  I wish I could say the same for myself.

On a happier note, our Gymnastics Queen won State Championships on the uneven bars.  On her 8th birthday.  It was pretty awesome.

June

Our oldest hit "double digits".  Ten is a big birthday for a little boy.

July

My Sports Fanatic and my Gymnastics Queen ran a five mile race.  The both finished with their tiny faces beaded in sweat and blisters on some toes.

I was very proud.

The week after the race, my youngest brother got married.

August

LLG, the resident maniac, learns to swim.  Parenting a child with no fear is wonderful in these instances.  In 90% of other instances parenting a child with no fear just causes mini heart attacks.

September

Hubby and I celebrate another anniversary.  Eleven fabulously fabulous years of wedded bliss.

 

October

Our Sports Fanatic earns back his quarterback position.  This taught him much about perseverance and hard work.

He also took a trip to watch the Chargers (his #1 team) play the Chiefs in Kansas City.  It was the trip of a lifetime for our football fanatic. 

November

I reconnected with Edward.  Breaking Dawn hit theaters and finally Edward and Bella....got married.

December

We spend another Christmas together, celebrating our family and the real reason for the season.  Santa brought exactly what the munchkins asked for, and we once again give thanks for how blessed we are.

Happy 2012!  All the best for a Happy New Year!  Be safe!

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Jammies and Ice Cream

For us, the pace slows after the holidays.  This week is a welcome break from the running around we do the other 51 weeks out of the year.

I let 75% of the mess stay where it is.  And I ignore it beautifully.

We stay up later and sleep in past 8am.  We order take out and rent movies.

We wear jammies and we eat ice cream.

It's pretty awesome to hide out from the world every once in awhile.

Sometimes we need to recharge the batteries in peace.

The hibernation in this house continues.  I may just hang here until Spring...

Happy Friday to everyone.  Hope it's as awesome as you are.

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Broccoli Stuffed Mushrooms - One of my MOST FAVORITE appetizers

Every Christmas Eve my Mom makes these for appetizers.  

On the way to her house on Thanksgiving, one of my kids always asks

"is THIS the holiday that Grandma makes those mushrooms?!?!"

They are just plain a never fail yummy warm appetizer that is easy to love.

These would be a great addition to your New Year's Eve celebration!

broccoli stuffed mushrooms

Broccoli Stuffed Mushrooms

12 large mushrooms

1 very small onion, chopped

6 T butter or margarine

2 T Flour

3/4 t salt

dash of white pepper

2/3 c milk

1 pkg (10 oz size) chopped frozen broccoli, blanched and drained

2 T finely shredded Parmesan cheese

Remove stems from mushrooms and chop. 

(I have found that a strawberry huller works GREAT for this step!)

Quickly saute chopped mushroom stems with onion in 3 T of butter in a frying pan. About 2-3 minutes.

Reduce heat and stir in flour, salt and pepper.  Gradually add in milk and continue to cook, stirring constantly until thickened.  Add broccoli and heat thoroughly.

Melt remaining butter and brush the inside and outside of mushrooms caps.  Fill each mushroom with an equal amount of vegetable mixture and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake stuffed mushrooms on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, until hot.

I love to prepare them the day before, and bake them when I am ready to serve them.

I have put them in a chaffing dish to keep them warm, but they tend to get a little watery.  It's really just best to bake them in the oven.

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Hibernation

This week, the munchkins are on winter break.

There is no school bus to chase down and no homework to complete.  Basketball games are on hiatus, and the gymnastics team only attends the day camp.  There are no practices to run to and no lunches to prepare.

This "nothing to do" week has me wanting to go nowhere.  The desire to hibernate is strong.

Fierce.

Paralyzing.

My bones are craving sweatpants and my tummy is craving pizza.  My days are spent cleaning, running laundry, "resting" my eyes while the munchkins play and clawing through Christmas mess.

Every few hours I accomplish something.  The time in between is for nothing-ness.

And it's lovely.

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The White Elephant

This year, my family held our first annual "White Elephant" gift exchange.  It was fabulous.  And cheap.  And we laughed until our nostrils flared.

The rules of the swap are simple:

1.  Find and wrap anything in your home that you no longer want, need or have had hidden away for years because it was given to you and it's awful.

2.  Wrap this "White Elephant".  Wrap can be inviting, simple or downright ugly.

3.  Bring gift and set in pile with other White Elephant items.

4.  Gather family, and draw numbers.  Lowest number goes first.  This person selects and opens gift.  Everyone laughs because this item is most often quite unique.  Or atrocious.  Or both. 

This year featured:

Obscenely large framed photos, giant stuffed animals, heinous lamps, strange metal Indian sculptures and more.

5.  The next person in line then either steals the first person's gift, or selects a new one.  If you steal a gift,  then that person has to choose a new gift, or they can steal a different gift from someone else.

More laughter.

 Two very important rules:

• Each item can only be stolen once per round.  Once an item is stolen, it can't be taken again until the next person is up to choose a gift.  So people can't just keep stealing the same item over and over again.
• An item can only be stolen 3 times.  Once it has been stolen for a 3rd time it has reached its rightful owner.

6.  The deal with the "White Elephant" in our family is that every gift MUST be used/displayed/worn.  If you receive an ugly sweater, you better be wearing it to Easter.  If you went home with an owl ash tray, it better be front and center on your coffee table when I visit your house in two months.

Or if you opened Mellville, the founder of an old family business, he better be above your couch.

I highly recommend implementing a punishment if someone is not displaying their White Elephant prominently.  Punishments can be hosting a brunch, or paying for a round of drinks.

Either way, the game is a fabulous tradition.  It's fun and easy to play.  And people dig up some real "winners" when given the opportunity.

You also go home with a heck of a conversation piece.

Send out the bulk email now, and give everyone a year to comb their attic.

Mommyhood Footnote:  Hubby chose a small metal Indian figurine from 1948 which is on his desk.  I went home with a classy framed photo of several Easter Eggs dressed as punks with weapons.  Underneath them it reads, "This Easter beware.  The eggs have gone bad".

Both items are better than hanging Mellville.

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A Post Christmas List

1.  On Christmas morning, I won $500 on a scratch off lottery ticket Hubby put in my stocking. 

We are officially now funded to take a spring vacation.  I would like to personally thank the New Jersey Lottery.

image via google

2.  This morning I braved the deal hungry crowds to purchase marked down Christmas decor at Target.  My munchkins voiced their displeasure concerning our lack of lit reindeer in the yard this Christmas. 

 Image courtesy of google

I settled on a four foot lit snowman sign that reads "Let it Snow". 

Next year we will still be lit reindeer-less.

3.  There are several piles of gifts and garbage scattered throughout our home.  This week I am determined to get the house in order before the clutter drives me nutty.

It's a short drive.

 This is not my house.  Image courtesy of google.  Aren't the floors lovely?

4.  I am sending Hubby to the store to purchase screws to hang shelves.  I'm fairly certain this is not what he envisioned when he imagined his day off.  I can't say for sure what is the lesser of two evils: me versus the office. 

It's still up for debate.

5.  With munchkins still in pajamas, crumbs and wrapping paper scattered across the floors, I shall sign off and make myself productive.

Hope yours was merry! 

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Merry Christmas!

From our house to yours, Merry Christmas!

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Holiday Highlights from An Affair from the Heart

all packaged up for delivery

I have been busy busy baking and baking. Then Tuesday night I had my cookie exchange.  

Wednesday morning,  I spread my platters out on my kitchen table and began filling them up.  

We made 5 huge platters, two small containers and several little plates of goodies.

My twins and I loaded them up and off we went to deliver!

I decided to share with you the holiday things that I have been making in one spot.

So, here you have a Holiday Recap!

Holiday Recap 2011

Spice Cookies with Pumpkin Dip

Candy Bar Fudge

Caramel Toffee and Pecan Fudge

Almond Raspberry Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies

My Great Aunt Vern's Sugar Cookies

Candy Coated Crispix Mix

Click on the Crispix Mix to see this cute way to decorate a Pringles Can for your cookie Exchanges.  How cute are these?!?

Grandma Davis' Frosted Sugar Cookies

Karen's Gngerbread

Rainbow Cookies

Pecan Caramel Bark (Turtle Bark)

Festive Cherry Pie Jell-O

Home Made Sugar Scrubs

From myself and my family,  to all of you who take the time to follow my blog and facebook pages, 

Happy Holidays!  It means so much to have you here with me! 

Cheers to 2012!

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A Christmas Rambling

I am currently looking at my kitchen table, which is peppered with groceries I need for the coming days.  The contents include items such a shells (for the homemade macaroni and cheese), vodka sauce (for dinner tonight), chocolate chips (because I am always baking) and red sprinkles from the Bakery Department (for my next 5 bowls of ice cream).

My dishwasher is running and there are crumbs on my floor.  Neither of those things is news in this house.

I have approximately 70 gifts to wrap tucked away in my basement.  Don't tell anyone. 

Before you cry for me regarding the above statement, I shall rephrase: I have about 10 gifts to wrap and Hubby has 60.


The longstanding rule in this house is "I buy it, YOU wrap it".  Works like a charm.  It's a highly recommended system.

I have more laundry than I care to admit waiting for me in the basement.  I avoid this job because my basement is the temperature of my fridge.  I also have to carry laundry up two flights of stairs if I want it in a timely manner.  If there are no time constraints on clean laundry, and all munchkins have clean underwear, I stack the baskets as high as possible and wait for Hubby to carry them upstairs.

Hubby is fabulous.

Before I start laundry I have to adjust the outside Christmas decor (dang wind) and fix a fuse. 

Is it too late to ask Santa for updated electric?  

All the while, as I continue about my day, I shall be listening to my Christmas music and snacking on my hundreds of baked goods.

Tis' the season.

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Karen's Ginger Bread Cookie Recipe

Karen's Ginger Bread

If you follow my blog you have heard me mention my Sister-in-Law, Karen.  Karen passed away in 2005 from a very aggressive form of mouth cancer.  She is sorely missed all of the time, but around the holidays, I think about her more often than normal.

Karen LOVED to bake, and she was GREAT at it.

Her oldest son, Alex, is just three weeks younger than my oldest son. They are like brothers. 

Alex's favorite Christmas cookie was always Karen's Gingerbread men.

She would always make these at Christmas, and often times for my annual cookie exchange.  

I make them every year now, because they are my son, Spencer's favorite, too.

The recipe I have is a printed email that she sent me with her recipe. 

 It contains the back and forth conversation that she and I had about just your normal everyday life. 

She was my "go-to" person when I was baking.

I was a Creative Memories consultant for 6 years, and found my love of scrapbooking when Karen and I attended our first home class after we had our boys.

My friend Candi, over at The Devilish Dish, and I started an online scrapbooking art store called Simply Scrapbooking, and I left CM. We made handmade scrapbook art.

After Karen passed away in October if 2005, a BUNCH (and I mean a whole giant room full) of my scrapbooking family got together and brought all of her kids' scrapbooks up to date. We did this around the holidays, and everyone that helped received one of these tiny little angel ornaments when they left, attached was this little saying: 

You're in my thoughts at Christmas,

so I say this little prayer. . .

"May angels always bless you,

and keep you in their care.

And may the heaven's angels

light a Christmas star,

to shine on you all year through. . .

no matter where you are."

karen angel

I call it my "Karen Angel" and she hangs year 'round in my kitchen on the cabinet knob, right over my oven.  

When I am baking, I know she is here with me.

After Karen passed, Hallmark aired a movie, based on a book, called "The Christmas Shoes." I am not sure if you have ever heard of it? But that was a tough one to watch for me.  It is an honest to goodness tear jerker of a movie with a very nice message about a little boy that loses his Mom at Christmas.  

Every year when I am baking, I listen to Christmas music, and they play the song from the movie.

It brings me to tears every time.

This is the song from the movie, by a band called Newsong. I found this clip on youtube, and if you watch/listen it even has the ending scene from the movie.

I know that Karen is in a better place, but she is sure missed here.

I am sharing with you now, her recipe for Gingerbread cookies.  I don't know where she got it, so I can't give credit to whoever wrote it, and I am sorry for that.  But to us, this is Karen's Gingerbread.

Karen's Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients you will need

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened

3 T molasses

1 egg

2 T water or milk

3 1/4 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

Sugar or icing

Directions:

Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, butter and

molasses; beat until light and fluffy.  Add egg and water; blend well.  Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off.  Add flour and all remaining ingredients, except additional sugar or icing; mix well to form a smooth dough.  Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate one hour for easier handling.

Heat oven to 350*.  Roll portions of dough into medium sized balls, roll in sugar (if you want them sugar coated) or leave plain if you plan to ice them.  (Keep remaining dough refrigerated.)  Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until set.  Immediately

remove from cookie sheets.  Ice when cool.  

These cookies can also be rolled into gingerbread shapes if desired on a floured surface.  Bake 9-11 on 350. 

These freeze very well.

the alco dress




This is one of my favorite pictures of Karen.  We had gone to a wedding in Manhattan, Kansas, and Karen had hand sewn a dress to wear to the event. 
 When we got there, she realized the dress was laying on her bed back at home. 
The only place to shop in a pinch was Alco.  That is where she found this sweet little number.  
I think she looks great!! 
We sure laughed about this.

Mommas and Daddys, squeeze your babies tight.

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Grandma Davis' Sugar Cookies

Grandma Davis' Sugar Cookies



Grandma Davis isn't even my Grandma, but her sugar cookie recipe is the one I make every year.

You have heard me mention my friend, Tonja, before.  Grandma Davis is her Grandma.

These cookies are always SO GOOD. 

If you like soft chewy frosted sugar cookie cut outs, these are for you!

I add a touch of almond extract to my store bought vanilla frosting

Grandma Davis' Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup shortening or butter (I usually use butter flavored Crisco)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, combine. Add the flour, salt and baking soda, mix well, form into a ball, cover and chill over night.

Roll onto a floured surface and cut with cookie cutters.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 7 minutes.  

WATCH CLOSELY for them to be soft, you can't let them brown.

Frost with powdered sugar icing.  

Or... you can cheat like me.  By plain classic white frosting in a can. Zap it in the microwave for a few seconds, and drizzle on your cookies.

Santa will be SURE to leave you somethin' Good!!

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The Evolution of Tiny Cookie Makers

Every Christmas the munchkins make cookies.  Or, I make cookies and the munchkins use cookie cutters.  And icing.  And sugar.  And sprinkles.  And sugar.

You get the idea.

While my cookies have kept the same look and consistency over the years, my munchkins have not.  If I wasn't delirious from fudge making and late night wrapping I would cry.

But my eyes are too tired.

Here, in pictures, is the evolution of my very tiny, very dedicated, cookie makers.

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Sniff. Sniff. 

Glad to see my cookie cutters have withstood the test of time.

 

Happy December 21st!

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