Happy February

Goodness Gracious is it really February!  

I don't even know where to begin..........

First of all we had the Merriest Christmas ever!   It was so fun to have Mack home nice and safe 

AND he and Cheryl came for a few days for Christmas.

So, here we go, my February 1st ~ Christmas Reflection Post

 Of course Ella and Addie had a baking day with Nana.
I so love these sweeties!

We always have Christmas Eve dinner at my mom's and then open our presents from each other.  

I love these pictures Cheryl took that I stole from Marci :)

Mom's Pretty Table

Mack & Cheryl Joy

The Bros!

Preston opening his present from Nana and Grandad

I was hoping I'd get a new Calendar from the grand babies!

 It was so fun to have everyone together.

On Christmas morning we had brunch at our house.

Ella and Addie at their little table

Thanks Cheryl for taking these pictures ♥ of the morning...

Granddad and Preston are Big Time Buddies

The Dining Room Christmas Eve

The Dining Room Christmas Morning

We're going to need a bigger table!

The Menu for Christmas Eve Dinner at Mom's and Christmas Brunch is at Marci's Menu Blog:

HERE

Silent Monks Singing Halleluia‏

My dad sent this to me and I just have to share it!

(Creative high schools students give a great rendition of Halleluia!)

Enjoy!

Chocolate Covered Marshmallows

 Momma Reiner's

Chocolate Covered Marshmallows

From The Martha Stewart Show, December 2007

This wonderful recipe for sweet chocolate-covered marshmallows is courtesy of 

Kimberly Reiner of Momma Reiner's Fudge. 

 

Ingredients

Makes about 30 chocolate-covered marshmallows

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup cornstarch
• Momma Reiner's Chocolate Fudge

Directions

1. Lightly spray a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle gelatin over a small bowl filled with 1/2 cup cold water; let stand to soften.
2. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together sugar, corn syrup, hot water, and salt. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Continue cooking, without stirring, until mixture reaches the soft-ball stage, about 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and add gelatin mixture; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. With the mixer running, slowly add sugar mixture. Add vanilla and continue beating for 10 minutes until the mixture looks like marshmallow.
4. Transfer marshmallow mixture to prepared baking dish and spread evenly. Spray a piece of parchment paper with nonstick cooking spray and cover marshmallow. Let stand overnight.
5. Remove parchment paper and invert marshmallow onto work surface. Trim 1/4-inch from edges of marshmallow. Cut marshmallows into 1 1/2-inch squares. Pour cornstarch in a bowl; working in batches, gently add marshmallows and toss to coat.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Working with 1 marshmallow at a time, insert skewer into a marshmallow and dip in fudge until coated on all sides, removing any excess from bottom of marshmallow; place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat process with remaining marshmallows (you will have some marshmallows left over). Let chocolate covered marshmallows stand at room temperature overnight before serving or transferring to an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Christmas Gift Market & Craft Fair

 

Come by!

Kayley and I are sharing a booth 

and We've been busy little elves!

Be Inspired

I love following Stephanie Nielson's blog.  She is such an amazing example of faith.

 Today  I saw this video from Mormon Messages on You Tube on Heather's blog and just had to share it.  

 NieNie always speaks to my♥.

By the Way

 Would you like to win an Anthropology gift card?

 Who wouldn't ~ right?

Mother's Day Give-away...from AnthropoloNIE!!

Go HERE

Did you hear Matthew Mead and Stephanie Nielson have teamed up?

Two of my favorite inspiration stops- now together!~

Clever Martha

Have you put away your Christmas decorations yet?  I usually have by now but won't even be able to get to it for a couple more days.  I need another ornament box....problem solved!

Martha's Organization Tip for Today:

Keep your treasured ornaments safe and sound until next year with this surefire way of packing them away.

Protect your dearest ornaments from damage as you pack up after the holiday this year. Cut a piece of corrugated cardboard to line the bottom of a plastic storage bin.

Then use a hot-glue gun to attach paper cups to the cardboard. Wrap ornaments in tissue paper, and place in cups. Then stack cardboard-and-cup flats inside the container. Store smaller ornaments in egg cartons.

Time for a Change

Remember these

 String Quilted Stockings?

Miss Hope informed me that  "it was about time we updated our stockings". (I will keep those heirloom stockings until someday when someone wants them.)

Hope was right, the time had come for a change and I had a lot of fun making some new ones.

Our New Christmas Stockings:

 I wanted to make them all a little different. So I used different fabrics and cut out different shapes for each stocking. I set out bunches of fabrics and let Scott and Hope pick the material and embroidery font they wanted.

I'll tell you a little secret.    .......     This one is my favorite

  Shhhhhh

Original Post Date

12/07/2009

Holly Jolly Christmas Sale!

Am I Limber One?

Last night Scotto had a camp-out so Hope decided to have her friend, Sierra spend the night. She is so sweet. They did Show Choir together during the summer and really clicked. Now they're in another little singing group. Here's a couple of clips from one of their Holiday performances that Marci (of cource, THANKS Marc) took for us. I just realized I never posted about them at Christmas. oops

Jingle Bells

(This one is cute because you can hear little Ella sing "Hey".)
Angels We Have Heard on High

Last night Hope thought it would be fun to do Sierra's nails. They turned out really cute. She painted them and then embellished them with tiny painted instruments.

It reminded me of a story from a few years ago when Hope was about 5. We were living in Florida at the time and she came with me to take Kayley to the dentist one afternoon. Kayley has always been SO creative and her nails were always painted to look absolutely adorable.

This particular day it was her toes. (Kayley always wore flip flops.) That day there were little murals of the beach on them. It was amazing ... the detail she painted on her own toes. There were palm trees, birds, a sun... etc. The dentist happened to notice them and couldn't get over the fact that she had painted them herself. He said, "Boy, you are so artistically talented... and LIMBER too!" Hope thought that must be a huge compliment and excitedly asked the dentist, "Am I LIMBER One?". It was pretty funny. The dentist was cracking up and never forgot it. Neither have we!

Here are the pictures of the girls last night:

Smile for The Camera (don't be too excited though....)

Another Brunch Recipe

I just came across this recipe and can't wait to try it. It's from the cookbook, The Christmas Table. I don't think I can wait until Christmas to make this one!

It is from the brunch selection but after looking at Kayley's post, I'm thinking it'd be great for dinner with a green salad.

Spinach, Cherry Tomato, and Feta Frittata

• 12 large eggs
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, halved lengthwise and cut into thin wedges
• 6 ounces baby spinach leaves, coarsely chopped (about 4 cups firmly packed)
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, stemmed and halved
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
• 1/2 cup (about 3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
  

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and half-and-half until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the salt and pepper. Set aside. Position an oven rack about 3 inches below the heat source and preheat the broiler.
In a 12-inch ovenproof skillet, preferably nonstick, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Swirl to coat the pan, add the onion, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens, about 2 minutes.
Add the spinach a handful at a time, and sauté just until wilted and bright green, about 3 minutes. As soon as the spinach is wilted, add the tomatoes and oregano and sauté, stirring constantly, until the tomatoes are heated through, about 1 minute.

Add the egg mixture to the pan, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, without stirring, until the frittata is set on the bottom and around the edges, about 4 minutes. While the frittata is cooking, simultaneously lift one edge of the frittata with a spatula and tilt the pan a little so the uncooked egg flows under the set edge. Repeat this at regular intervals around the edge of the frittata.

When the eggs are mostly cooked, scatter the feta cheese over the top and place the frittata under the broiler. Broil until the top is golden brown and the eggs are set but still moist, about 3 minutes.

Allow the frittata to rest for 5 minutes, then slice it into wedges and serve immediately on warmed plates.

Recipe courtesy of The Christmas Table

A Definite Do Again

The Gingerbread Waffles were a huge hit!

We really loved them. I think the secret ingredient is the fresh ground nutmeg. My friend sent me some from her trip to Grenada. Thanks Cheryl! I had used it before from the spice section in the grocery store and they came in a little glass bottle. Those were ready to grate. These that Cheryl sent were still inside the shell. I tried to grate them and realized I need to crack the shell first. The nutmeg smells so yummy when you grate it. I was in heaven. It reminded me of Rosalia, Christina Bambina's mom. She used fresh nutmeg in the white sauce when she made her out of this world Lasagna. I miss her yummy cooking!Of course getting breakfast in bed just isn't the same if you can't smell bacon frying!

Here you go, Mr. Mark.

XO

Family Vote....

Should we add these to the Christmas Brunch menu????

Second in Line to Ribbons

Well, it's no secret, I heart ribbons. My second love would have to be buttons!

I have some pretty buttons that belonged to my grandmother, Flora and buttons from some of Mike's clothes that I truly cherish.One of my fun projects this Christmas was a Button Wreath Pillow. I saw something similar in a magazine but can't remember where~ for the life of me... sorry.

I happen to have some red felt on hand so I had fun one afternoon with my button jar.

String Quilted Stockings

When Marci and Mack were just tiny, I learned to do Counted Cross Stitch and quickly became addicted. A friend of mine gave me the Christmas Alphabet pattern to cross stitch the cuffs for Christmas Stockings. That was 20 plus years ago and String Quilting was really popular.
I made four stockings one year and as each new baby came along I'd pull out the cross stitch pattern and make a new one adding Kayley, Scott & Hope. The stockings have been a consistent tradition hanging on the mantle every Christmas from California to New York. When Marci was pregnant with her first baby, she mentioned that she would love to have the same kind of stockings. So I made one for Ella and sent it to them for her first Christmas. The counted cross stitch is on 22 count hardanger fabric. When I made our stockings years ago I had no problem with that, even four years ago when I did Ella's stocking I did okay. Well, I don't know what happened...hmmm....but now I need to not only have glasses on but wear a lighted magnifying glass around my neck to do the small count. That kind of makes it tough to take your project to soccer practice and the doctor's office. Talk about making a spectacle of yourself. Besides, I had a book to read.


I have Addie's cross stitch started but I knew there was no way I was going to get it done, so I went ahead and made her a string quilted stocking that we can add the cuff to. Marci and I have decided that I need to teach her how to do counted cross stitch. I am a little worried about her addiction problem. Hopefully it won't be as bad as Twilight!Ella & Addie Christmas 2008