A Whole Weekend Off Together

I got lucky this year, because not only did Mr. Hass have Thanksgiving day off from work, (he did work the day after though) Saturday and Sunday just so happened to be his weekend off, and I chose not to work on Saturday thinking it would be slow and worked today instead.

We had a nice weekend.

We...

hung the lights around the garland on the banister.

This is where we've hung our stockings the last couple years too.  Our mantle is not very wide, and the stocking hangers are so sharp and heavy that I am afraid the kids will pull them down on themselves and split their heads open.  They are much safer on the top of the stairs.  Santa found em last year without a problem.  ;)

 I know this next picture is blurry, and I'm not sure why I love it, but I do.  I think because Claire looks like such a big girl to me. 

 ... we helped our Daddy while Mommy just sat around taking pictures.

I wore my new comfy slippers (while taking said pictures).

 We documented where The Elf on the Shelf has been popping up.
Do you know about him?
He was a gift from My Great Uncle John and his wife Sue.
The Elf comes with a neat book to read to your kids.
First it tells you to name your Elf... ours is Oscar.
Then it tells the kids never to touch him or he will lose his magic.
Then the book says how your Elf is watching you everyday, and at night when the kids are asleep he flies up to Santa to report how you are behaving.
In the morning he always appears in a different spot.
Hannah loves to wake up and see how fast she can find Oscar.
A couple of mornings Oscar was in the same spot as the day before.  Huh.  Weird.  Don't know why...

 ...we I wore my new fair isle cardigan on a cold and windy Saturday.  Wanna see the rest of it?  Check it out on wiww!  ;)

...we all enjoyed lots of hot chocolate and hot tea and chai tea last weekend.  With whipped cream of course.

 ...We  I got a lot of wrapping done.  I hate wrapping.  I know, I know, I sound like the Grinch.  But it's true.  I don't enjoy it.  So I don't want to get stuck doing it all at once.  I'm almost done shopping too.  Mr. Hass loves to shop  couldn't be more thrilled about that.

...We (meaning everyone but Claire) spent some quiet time on the couch while Claire napped yesterday.

I just finished reading Water for Elephants (which I really enjoyed and can't wait to see the movie in February with Robert Pattison and Reese Witherspoon and Christopher Holtz).

Yesterday I started The Help.  I'm not too far in but I like it so far. 

 ...those little hands flipped through her new Christmas book.

 ...and this handsome fella sipped hot chocolate while watching ice skating  football.  Just seeing if you're still paying attention.

 ...we bundled up so warm you'd think we were going snow skiing (it really was that cold) and took Abbey for a walk and the girls sat in the stroller and pointed out all the Christmas lights.  Hannah yelled at our neighbor James for not having his up.  We'll see if he gets right on that.

Palm trees just scream Christmas don't they?

 ...we saw Gamma and Geeps pulling into the gates just as I made the family stop so I could take pictures of the palm trees.
We headed back in to take off our gloves and scarves, and eat this...

Cheese tortellini soup with spinach and nutmeg.

It is so easy and delicous.

My Mom always made this on a cold night.

It's a good one when you want some comfort food, but don't want to cook.

All you do is:

-empy 1 package cheese tortellini into a large pot

-pour in 1 carton of chicken broth. (I also added 1 can, so maybe 1 1/2 cartons of broth.

-Bring to boil to cook tortellini, and add salt and pepper to taste.

-I did not have any whole nutmeg so I just added about 2 tsp. of ground nutmeg.

-Once tortellinis are done (doesn't take very long 5-7 mins), add as much fresh spinach as you'd like

-Stir and let spinach cook a minute or two.

-Then scoop large heapings into a bowl and top with parmesan cheese.

-Grilled cheese sammies go good with this soup.

-We ate them with leftover enchiladas.  Those went well with it too.

Well, my reading material is calling me.
Gotta go!

Thanksgiving 2010

This year I was very thankful that Mr. Hass had the day off.
He has worked most major holidays since we have been married, and this year he just happens to have Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day off.  It was nice to have him home.

We spent the morning relaxing in our pj's for as long as possible.
The Mr and I sipped our coffee while we all enjoyed the Macy's Parade.

The girls loved watching the Parade.  They were glued to the couch for almost an hour watching.  Claire couldn't even turn away during her pancake breakfast. 

 After the breakfast clean up, and the get ready clean up, Claire napped, Hannah played in her room, Mr. Hass fell asleep watching football on the couch, and I sippped some hot chocolate and flipped through the new  "O" magazine, and read my book.  It was very relaxing.

When Claire woke up from her nap, we headed over to Gamma and Geeps' place.

 I made PW's artichoke dip for an appetizer.  This is so good.  If you haven't made it yet, you should.  PW recommends spreading any leftovers onto some bread for a panini or sandwhich the next day.  I think I might make a turkey/artichoke spread panini for dinner tonight.

Even though our Thanksgiving was wonderful with a nice small group, I do sometimes feel like I might be missing out on what the rest of my family is up to.  As a kid we always celebrated Thanksgiving with my whole family, aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandma, Nana, and everybody.  Now that I have young kids who need a nap in the afternoon, it is harder to get out to Orange County with our whole gang.  The older I get, the more new traditions we are creating.  And that's okay.  But I still like to reminisce about the old times too.

My Mom put together a beautiful table in her kitchen.

 Even little Clairey got a leaf with her name on it.

 Chowin' down on dip.  P-Dub, Claire is a big fan of the artichoke dip!

 Hannah showing us some twirl moves like she saw the baton twirlers in the parade do that morning. 

 Mom putting the goods in the oven.

 Smile Mom and Dad...

 Carving the turkey...

 My parents ordered the entire meal from Marie Calendar's this year.  Even though all of the women in my family are excellent cooks, and really do enjoy to cook, in this season of our lives this is just a much simpler way to go.  And it was all delicious.  And of coure my Mom jazzed everything up a bit too.  She put the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes and baked them in the oven cause that is how Nana does it.

 When it was time for dessert, I was just too stuffed.  I even wore my pie pants too.  But I couldn't eat any more, so I got cozy in Mom's chair by the fireplace and flipped through her new Ina cookbook for a few minutes.  Ahhhhh.

I stepped outside for a minute to test out my new trenchcoat.  You know, see how warm it kept me and stuff. 

While outside I noticed a couple of cutie patuties dancing to their Uncle Goo's music, so I ran back in to get my camera, and then ran back out to take their picture.

I have so very much to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope your holiday was great, and that you have plenty of leftovers for turkey sandwhiches today.

Who went out and braved the crowds for BLACK FRIDAY?

Anybody?

I thought about it, but decided not to.

I've done it before, and let me tell you it is something to see.

Are your Christmas decorations up?

What about your lights?

Ours are.

Lights are going up tomorrow.

Ho Ho Ho.

What I Wore Wednesday...

Hi all!
I suprised myself and actually managed to get a picture the whole week again. 
Although, the more pictures I take of myself, the worse they seem to get.  So the more I have to take.  And then the bigger decision I have of which one looks the best.  I think I need to set a limit.  Like 3 pictures of yourself, and then you're done.  It's harder than you'd think. 

Wednesday- off to work

 shirt- my buddy LC

jeans- Vigoss Brass Plum Nordstrom

scarf- Vera Wang Kohl's

What WE wore on Thursday- home most of the day, sorry this outfit is not too impressive.   Hannah on the other hand, looked very cute for preschool.

 white tank- Target

hoodie- Victorias Secret

yoga pants- Champion Target

leopard slippers- Target

Hannah's dress- Target

Friday- rainy day, did a little Christmas shopping and took the girls to Barnes N Noble.

hoodie- Victorias Secret

black tank- Target

jeans- Vigoss Nordstrom

black crocheted Uggs- Nordstrom

Saturday- rainy again.  Did not leave the house once. (I was organizing things)

white hoodie- Victorias Secret

black yoga pants (again)- Target

slippers- from my Mommy when Claire was born

Sunday- I was also in sweats most of the day, then I got dressed and did some grocery shopping (alone-so nice) and a little Christmas shopping too.

shirt- Free People Nordstrom tbd

jeans- Hudson Nordstrom

brown cami- BP Nordies

purple scarf- Target (it's SO soft)

Monday- The pediatrician's office for both girls (just check ups)

black t pocket t shirt- Target

skinny jeans- Vigoss Nordstrom

jakcet- Old Navy recently

boots- Uggs ( So old and I still love them.  About 10 yrs old now, I have had Nordstrom repair them twice, and they keep on going.  Last time I wanted them repaired because the rubber was coming off on the bottom and the guy in shoes said to me "Why don't you just go pick out some new ones", I said I dont' want new ones, I love these ones.  Then he looked at them and said, "Oooooh, these are like vintage.  Yeah keep these.")

Tuesday- work and errands.

black sweater- LC Kohl's

jeans- MEK Nordstrom tbd

boots- Report Nordstrom

earrings- Vera Wang Kohl's

I am linking up with The Pleated Poppy again for this post.

I realized that I busted out all of my Victorias Secret hoodies this week.

Maybe next week I will be a bit more fashionable. 

Happy Wednesday!

Thanks for stopping by!



Organization #1

I am always a pretty organized person.
Every year after the girls birthdays and Christmas I usually go into a major organizing spree.
I believe that everything in your house needs to have a home.
That way picking up is easy, you just return things to their home.

I started a bit of organizing before the girls birthday party, and it has just snowballed into something crazy.

Plus Erin over at Sunny Side up has some great ideas for organization, so I have been really inspired lately.

Hannah and Claire both have a lot of toys in their rooms.
Hannah's have been overflowing from her baskets and she now has a lot of toys with multiple pieces that need to be contained.
So I bought these perfect sized storage totes and Target.
They were on sale for $6 so I stocked up.

The clear ones are nice because you can see through them and know right away what is inside.
I also put a few downstairs in our closet that also holds toys and games.  Claire likes to sit in them as well.

After going through the girls toys, I realized how gross the shelf paper in my pantry and all my kitchen drawers looked.  It's almost eight years old, and I decided I couldn't stand it for one more day.
So I've been doing a little every day as I had the time, and my drawers are all nice and neat now.

I saw on Erin's blog that she had a drawer for her kids art supplies.  I really liked this idea, and thought it would be a good way to be able to see what we have too.

I've always hated the cutlery tray we had, so I finally bought a new one from Target that the knives don't slip through.  Now it looks much prettier when I open the drawer.  The kids silverware used to be in the drawer that the art supplies are now in, along with bibs which we no longer use, and a few other random things.  Now it is much better to have it all in one place, and it freed up one whole drawer in my kitchen.

 And of course after organizing our silverware drawer, I had to march right back to Target to get a tray to organize this miscellaneous drawer with all my kitchen tools.

Do you like the black and white swirly shelf paper?  Me too.  ;)
These drawers used to hold all of my linens, tablecloths, cloth napkins, and placemats.  But let's face it, I don't use those fancies all the time, so it was time to make these drawers full of everyday useable items.  Such as the girls' princess plates (which they want every meal on) and snack bowls.

Just a couple more drawers...

This is what my pots and pans cupboards used to look like...

 It was such a mess.  I didn't even know what was where, and was always too lazy to look way down there to see what was where.  So it just got messier and messier.

 What I really wish I could do is knock that stupid piece of wood in the middle out and install those beautiful roll out drawers where it is so easy to see what you have.  But, that was not to be...
so instead, I ripped out that old and decrepit looking contact paper,
lysoled and cleaned both cabinets, and then...

 I re-arranged everything so that the items I use the most are up front and easy to get to, and the lesser used things are neatly stored in the way back.

Voila!
Everytime I open this up now I sing, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
(You know and it sounds like Ariel in the Little Mermaid)

Right now I am currently working on an organization system in my pantry.  I used to clean it out pretty regularly and keep things tidy, but I need something better.  A system where everything has a home and gets put back in the same place all the time.  It's been a big project but I'll show it to ya soon.

One of the things I've done is take some of the things that are not frequently used in the pantry and that take up large amounts of space, (like my china) and moved them to the very back corners of this cupboard below...

There was a lot more room back there than you would think.

I also bought that white basket for all of our filtrete water bottles that we re use often (trying to be green ya know).  ;)

It feels good to be getting things so organized.

I'm on a roll...