Cupcakes and Commentary

This year my husband’s family came to visit for Christmas and were inducted into Christmas cookie creating within hours of their arrival!

Christmas Cookie Making Collage!

A hard at work cutting out gingerbread trees.

After cookie reading with Aunt A!

Each year one of our traditions is making gingerbread houses and cookies with my Mom and Dad. This year was no exception and we even created a gingerbread village…behold:

So here is our pictorial journey to the completed village (which included A eating many sprinkles, J trying to eat all the candy, and M creating a masterpiece via candy canes and gumdrops).

A really could just eat sprinkles all day.

Yummy sprinkles.

Waiting. The hardest part of any gingerbread house creation.

Eventually the houses were done and the boys were on to stacking Handy Manny on the trains.

Since I am a bit behind on my posting (to put it mildly!)…I am using this as a Happy New Year/Happy Anniversary! Since I am still recovering from a slight relapse of a sinus infection, it’s going to be short!

Just a little trip down memory lane.

Happy 5 Year Anniversary to my husband! This is a picture of us on one of our first dates.

And now… 5 years later…

Just a little bit of a change. HA!

This year we will welcome our 2nd child, A turns four, and we both turn 30! Our resolutions are good health, happiness, and lots of safe travels for our many upcoming road trips!

I hit the jackpot with A’s stocking stuffers this year. Most of them I got on sale (some for more than fifty percent off). The two best places I found items was a Toys R Us store closing and a Barnes and Noble after Thanksgiving sale. I was able to get a few of the items for less than a dollar that were normally six to ten dollars! So here are A’s stocking stuffer goodies:

Items include: Melissa and Doug magnifying glass and shovel (my Toys R Us finds), James the train, Splat the Cat Sings Flat Book (both Barnes and Noble specials), a Word World coloring book, Glitter Crayons, Hot Wheels Truck, Cars Underwear, Batman toothbrushes, Jelly Belly’s, M@M’s, and a Mickey Mouse Tumbler/Big Boy Cup (all from Target), and I couldn’t resist the little eraser animals that you see sitting on top of the Tumbler. They are from a company called Iwako and you can find them on Amazon.  Obviously I am not endorsed by any of these brands/companies (as with the other stocking stuffers) these are just my selections for Christmas!

Tags: stocking stuffers for toddlers

You’ll have to excuse the grainy-ness of these photos, but perhaps if I get the new Adobe Photoshop for Christmas per my request, it will eliminate that.

I am lucky enough to get two stockings a year (one from “santa” at my house and one from “santa” at my parents’ house). I have to be really careful these days because I keep forgetting that stocking stuffer items come from Santa. A has vulcan hearing (Star Trek/Big Bang Theory reference, anyone?) when it comes to all things Santa.

So here is my list!

Trader Joe’s Spicy Chai Latte. I actually received a happy surprise in the mail a few weeks ago when my in-laws sent two of this delicious concoction to my house! I was so excited…and have already used up one of the cans. It’s my alternative to regular coffee these days since I am avoiding regular coffee until after February.

Nail Polishes: I have a slight obsession with collecting nail polishes although I typically use similar colors. I usually ask for one basic color (to replace the ones I run out of) and one off the wall choice:

Essie in Mademoiselle

Essie in Chinchilly

And I desperately need a new top coat finish to replace mine as it has “gone by” in nail polish terms:

I am having trouble getting boots on these days, but when I do make the effort I hate it when my socks get all scrunched down in the boot. So I suggested:

These are Merona for Target boot socks. And they are seriously ten dollars for the pair.

And one of my favorite things this time of year is fingerless gloves and hats. I happen to have an idea that I am getting a pair of cable knit ones and a matching hat from Kohls in the Vera Wang brand.

And just a few of my favorite face/hair/make-up products:

Products: Goody’s 2-1 Elastic Ponytail holders, Olay Sensitive Face Wipes, Almay Eye Make-Up Remover Pads, Loreal Magic Perfecting Base, Nars Trio Eyeshadow in Calanque, and Laura Mercier Lip Pencil in Baby Lips

And of course what is a stocking without a bit of chocolate? My favorites are Twix bars and Ghiradelli Chocolate Raspberry Filled Squares.

Happy Stocking Stuffer Shopping! A’s list of stocking stuffers is coming soon!

Tags: Stocking Stuffers for Her

Today we began making Christmas cookies. As I was taking pictures of A making the cookies I flashed back to him making cookies when he was barely one, in a little dishtowel apron with only a stripe of hair and a little green dinosaur shirt.

Flash forward to today:

My baby is now a three year old, who can reach the counter with his step stool and stir the cookie dough.

Poured the sugar over the cookie dough balls…

And enjoyed the benefits of eating a successfully baked cookie.

And tada…snickerdoodles! Notice how lovely they turned out. I attribute this to two things. One is packaged recipe (I do much much better with packaged recipes) and the other is silpat baking mat. It’s fabulous! And we added a little red sugar to the cinnamon sugar packet that came with the recipe for Christmas effect!

Tags: snickerdoodles, Super A

A had his first school Christmas party this past week. He had such a good time! They did a few songs although surprisingly A was less interested in singing and more interested in dancing and enthusiastically performing the hand gestures. He got to have a little snack of cupcakes and showed me the Christmas present he had made for my husband and I.

And we made a craft together!

It was so fun to be with A at school and share his first school Christmas party with him!

Continuing our two year tradition, we and my sister’s family went to see Santa’s Village and of course Santa. The boys had a great time and A was so excited to try and do everything at the village. What a difference a year makes!

Looking at the lights.

Playing in the candy cane forest.

A decided he should pose with all of the characters, guess he is ready for a trip to Disney World!

He was so excited to see each character!

A told us at first that he did not want to go see Santa. Then he changed his mind, so we made our way to the line to see Santa. At first A waited somewhat patiently…

Then A got tired of waiting and started dancing…

Finally it was time to see Santa!

A threw Santa for a bit of a loop when he asked for a cake. Santa said “Do you want any toys?” And A said “Nope just a cake”. If he ever becomes a super star chef this will make a great story!

Enjoying their candy canes from Santa. Can I just say how old they all look? When did they grow so fast?

They iced and decorated cookies…

They were all quite excited about the cookies!

Walking to the next thing. See A still munching on his cookie? A eats SLOW. And no he is not done yet if you thought of asking.

Posing with a Christmas tree.

Making a craft.

Playing with the wooden toys.

Running through the light maze. The boys had the best time here!

A is so funny about pictures these days. On this night he was all about pictures.

After it hit 8 o clock, the boys were done. While walking back to our cars my sister and I quick snapped these pictures of the boys holding hands. Sweet moment!

**Attention** If you are a Grandparent/Great-Grandparent of A, stop reading…unless you want to be spoiled on an item coming to a Christmas present near you!

Who needs emoticons when your child provides you with unlimited “winky faces”?

This year has been tougher to get A to do crafts then last year. I suppose it’s an age thing. When he was really little of course crafting was not his thing. Then around 1-2 and 2-3 he was really into doing crafts and we did a lot. Now, it depends on his mood if he will actually participate, or just make me regret that I came up with an idea that involves any glue/paint/glitter.

However, my sister told me about a few craft ornament ideas on pinterest and from that became these:

These are glass ornaments. Which means if your child tends to try to crush things in their hands like a grown man crushes a soda can, this type of ornament is not for you. I was more worried A would be of the cling-on variety (not the characters from Star Trek, mind you), aka not let go. However my fellow blogger and friend’s post on Tales of a Peanut was super helpful. She did this craft as well and recommended showing them how to hold the ornament before you get paint all over their hands. Yes. Smart.

All you need is acrylic white paint and a paint brush for this. Just keep baby wipes handy and you need to stay with the child. Acrylic paint is permanent. Not like the fun washable kind that won’t come out of a pair of A’s old pajamas.

Anyway….

Here are the finished products!

We did snowmen handprints (Tales of a Peanut) reindeer thumbprints (Little Bit Funky), and light bulb strand finger prints (Meet the Dubiens). A was really into this craft so I just ran with it and we did lots of different things. I added the links in parenthesis above for each to get more complete instructions than what I have provided here!