January - To Do

Okay, so it is officially the last day of the month, which means it is time to look at what has to be done in January!

Key Dates
January 1st - give Banshee her meds
January 3rd - Father-in-law's birthday
January 5th - Little Christmas
January 6th - Brother-in-law's birthday
January 9th - Two more Brothers-in-law's birthdays
January 21st - Mother-in-law's birthday

Here's what has to be done...
- Give Banshee her meds!!  I always forget to do this.
- Put away all Christmas decorations.
- Send birthday cards to all Brothers-in-law.
- For the inlaws (who are divorced), figure out a small gift and/or schedule time for a visit and/or dinner for each of their birthdays.  Bill's dad lives in California and is leaving on the 5th, so this one has to be done basically this week.
- Buy gifts (if necessary) for Little Christmas.  We have this every year at my mom's house.  She has 5 brothers and 2 sisters we would see every Christmas (along with my 15 cousins).  It was always a mad house, so she started Little Christmas wehre she invites only her two sisters and their kids over the week after for a more intimate gathering. 
- House Fix-its.  We have a few small fix-its that need to be done around the house, and I'm sick of looking at them.  So, we're knocking all of them off our list this month.
- Start the Big Purge!! 

What is the big purge you ask?  Well, basically, I want to go through all the rooms in our house and get rid of as much stuff as possible.  I cannot believe the amount of stuff we have emassed since moving into our house in 2009.  I'm trying to simplify my life, and I want to be surrounded only by things I really love or that serve a purpose.  I'm going to use two boxes for each room...one for items to donate, and one for items to sell.  Then, I'm actually going to donate and/or sell them!!   

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody enjoyed the Christmas holiday!

I officially completed everything on my Christmas to-do list:
- Bring Madeleine to see Santa
- Buy Christmas Tree
- Decorate for Christmas (tree, interior, exterior)
- Christmas Shopping (We have 20 people to buy for!)
- Christmas Eve Meal - Plan / Buy Ingredients / Make
- Christmas Cookies - Plan / Buy Ingredients / Make
- Wrap Christmas presents (make sure I have boxes, paper, and bows)
- Attend mass (last year we missed this due to an urgent care visit with Madeleine on Christmas Day)
- Christmas Cards - Create / Buy / Mail-out
- Mail Christmas gifts to out-of-town family
- Clean the house for Christmas Eve

I left work on Friday around 2:30pm.  Since I don't normally pick up Madeleine until 4:30pm, I stopped home first and wrapped all our Christmas presents.  When we were all home, we made a yummy bacon and goat cheese pizza for dinner.  Bill was still under the weather, so he rested while I made the dough for the sugar and gingerbread cookies.  I also made a final list of everything I needed from the store for my Christmas Eve dinner and cookies.

Saturday, I meant to set my alarm to get a bit of cleaning in before Madeleine woke up; but I forgot.  Of course, that would be the day she didn't wake up until after 7am too; so I lost some time there, but it did feel really nice to sleep in a bit.  Bill watched her while I headed first downtown to our favorite Italian grocery store, Gloriosos's, and then to the regular grocery store.  After I got home and we unpacked everything, Bill counted; and we had over 10 pounds of cheese in our fridge!!  Then we were basically in a state of flux the rest of the afternoon, as it was too early to cook; and the house wasn't terribly messy either.  So, we just sort of chilled out and played in the house.  Bill did fix our back storm door though.  It has only been broken since April 2010!  We capped off the night at Bill's sister's for pre-Christmas get together.  We had a nice ham dinner, and Madeleine had a blast chasing a ball around and playing with her older cousins and Uncles.

Sunday Bill got up with Madeleine.  I was up by 8am ready to get started on basically everything that needed to be done for Christmas Eve, but unfortunately the past few days of being sick caught up with Bill and he crashed on the couch.  He literally slept on the couch until noon!!  Thankfully, Madeleine was super good and entertained herself while I baked cookies.  I baked mint chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, and gingerbread men cookies.  Madeleine helped decorate some of the sugar cookies with sprinkles...a lot of sprinkles!!

After Madeleine went down for her nap, I was so tired from being on my feet all morning that I joined Bill on the couch for the Packers' game and napped a bit myself.  Bill finally started to perk up, and made his contribution to the cookies - chocolate chip/coconut bars.  Afterwards, I got all my linens ironed and laid out on the table; and did a bit of cleaning (seriously...why wasn't our house more messy?).  I did one final run to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute items.  For dinner we just did leftovers.  Then, after Madeleine went to bed I spent the rest of the evening decorating the remaining sugar cookies and gingerbread men with Royal Icing.  This was only the second time I have worked with it.  I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it. 

On Christmas Eve morning I finished cleaning the house; which didn't take too long.  My parents showed up around 11am to help me with dinner.  We always have lasagna on Christmas Eve, but I have actually never made one before.  My mom helped me with it while Bill and my dad kept Madeleine entertained.  Around 3pm, my oldest sister arrived with her twins (also age 2), and my little sister arrived too.  My little sister, Bill, and I watched the kids while my two older sisters and parents went to mass.  (I have 3 sisters total, 2 older and 1 younger)  Bill's dad arrived 4pm to join the fun too.  I had dinner mentally planned for about 6pm.  Everybody got home from church around 5:45pm, and the chaos began (good chaos though).  There was a mad dash to get dinner on the table, but other than those 20 minutes of craziness everything went off without hitch.  We sat down to eat about 6:15, and it was all delicious!!  We had lasagna, Italian sausage, garlic bread, green beans, and salad.  After that there was all my cookies for dessert and of course presents!!  It was completely crazy with 1 three year old and 3 two year olds, but a lot of fun. 

Those headed back home were gone by about 9:30pm.  My little sister, Bill, and I went to 10pm mass; while my parents stayed with Madeleine.  We got home a little after 11pm, set out all the remaining presents, cleaned up a bit, and were in bed by midnight.

On Christmas morning we had a little family snuggle time in bed.  Madeleine joined me in bed while Bill showered; then we switched.  I wanted us all to go downstairs together, so we'd both get to see Madeleine's reaction to her presents.  Her big Santa gift was an art easel with a chalkboard on one side and a dry erase board on the other.  I thought she would be super excited, but she was actually a little timid about it all.  It was still cute though.  My parents and little sister had spent the night, so they joined us for presents.  Madeleine enjoyed opening presents, but wanted to play with each one after it was opened.  So, it took a little while for her to make it through her pile.  She definitely like the easel.  We also got her kitten slippers that she did not want to take off.  I think her favorite present was a $1 LED flashlight thingy I picked up for her stocking.  You press a button and it lights up and spins, and she loved it.  Go figure.  We probably could have just gotten her that and she would have been totally content.

After presents, Bill and I made French toast and bacon for everybody.  Then around 11am, we said goodbye to my family and headed over to my Mother-in-law's.  It was more presents there literally the minute we walked in the door.  We had a turkey dinner around 2ish.  It was after dinner that we realized we had forgotton to put Madeleine down for a nap, so she did that after dinner; while Bill and I got to relax and just visit with everyone.  We woke her up around 4pm, said our goodbyes, and headed home.  Madeleine played with her chalk board the rest of the night.  I wanted to get us back on our normal schedule since I had to work the next morning, so we put her to bed 7pm as per usual.  She went right to sleep.  Bill and I capped off the night watching the Doctor Who Christmas special on BBC America then headed upstairs to bed.  Exhausted, we went to sleep at 10pm. 

So, that's our Christmas run-down.  We survived, and like I wanted, it was super stress-free.  I told Bill to keep reminding me that everything didn't have to be perfect.  That really helped.  I planned everything really well though, so even though it didn't have to be perfect...it basically was.   

Friday Fun

It's been a long week in my household with a sick little girl, and now husband.  Madeleine woke up Monday morning with a runny nose and fever that at its highest reached 103.8.  She still has a runny nose, but is otherwise better.  For once (knock on wood) I didn't catch her cold, but Bill actually did; which is rare as he hardly ever gets sick.  He's now currently fighting the same fever and nasal congestion.  We also both had work holiday dinners on different nights this week, so I feel like we've hardly even seen each other.  To top it all off, we got our first major snow storm here in Milwaukee.  I was actually driving home in it last night, and it wasn't fun.  Thankfully, by our house we didn't get too much (thank you Lake Michigan).  I don't think Bill would have had it in him this morning if he had to fire up the snow blower.

So, I didn't get around to the couple of things I wanted to post about this week.  I wanted to end the week with something though, so I'll leave you with something that made me laugh.  Have you seen the sheer ridiculousness (awesomeness?) that is the Kardashian Christmas card?

My first reaction to this card was that this family is crazy and full of themselves, but the more I think about it the more I think it's awesome!!  Come on, there is a white fluffy cat sitting in a plexiglass box for goodness sakes!

 

I have never watched an episode of their show, yet I know the name of almost everybody in this picture.  Are they all overexposed, yes; but you have to give them props for marketing themselves so well, and staying relevant.  I think they are the epitome of the saying "there is no such thing as bad press."

 

So, kudos to them for celebrating the fact that they are all rich and beautiful.  How wonderful would it be to be able to spend your money on matching designer outfits, and a professionally taken (and photoshopped) family portrait.  You don't even have to be all together...a few of the family members couldn't make it, so were just photoshopped in.

 

Oh, and if you're looking for more ways to waste time on the Internet today...just type "Kardashian Christmas Card" in Google images and you won't be disappointed.  They've been doing over the top Christmas cards for years and years, and they are all hilarously awesome. 

 

I hope everybody enjoys the holidays!!  I'll be back next week with a rundown of our Christmas activities.  Merry Christmas!

 

Photo Source:  nicksaglimbeni.com

You Taught Me Everything I know About Exterior Illumination

Bill and I just watched Christmas Vacation over the weekend, so the title of this post is a nod to what is still one of my favorite Christmas movies.

Although it is hardly worthy of Clark Griswald, we did decorate the front of our house for Christmas.  We never really done this before, so we kept it small and simple this year. 

On the front porch we hung pre-lit garland we picked up at Stein's.  We wrapped it around the railing going up the porch steps, and then across the front of the porch with a red bow in the middle of each swag.  Then we wrapped red plastic ribbon around the end columns of the porch like candy canes.

I hung my jingle bell wreath (from Williams-Sonoma) on the front door.  Finally, we put interior white lights on all the front facing windows on the first and second floor.

It's kind of funny for me to look at the front of our house.  We always enter from our back door, so we hardly ever even see the front.  It definitely needs a little TLC come spring.  And does anyone else think its weird that we only have 3 columns on our front porch instead of 4?  For the life of us we cannot figure out why a column wasn't put in on the left of the stairs.

Anyway...with this, my December to-do list officially looks like this...

- Bring Madeleine to see Santa
- Buy Christmas Tree
- Decorate for Christmas (tree, interior, exterior)
- Christmas Shopping (We have 20 people to buy for!)
- Christmas Eve Meal - Plan / Buy Ingredients / Make
- Christmas Cookies - Plan / Buy Ingredients / Make
- Wrap Christmas presents (make sure I have boxes, paper, and bows)
- Attend mass (last year we missed this due to an urgent care visit with Madeleine on Christmas Day)
- Christmas Cards - Create / Buy / Mail-out
- Mail Christmas gifts to out-of-town family
- Clean the house for Christmas Eve

Other than wrapping presents, all that is left is cooking/cleaning for Christmas Eve.  Oh, and we have our plan for Christmas mass as well.  My parents and little sister are sleeping over Christmas Eve, so I think Bill and I are going to go to midnight mass that night.  Let's hope we don't fall asleep during it!!!

Christmas Decor - Dining Room Edition

Alright, let's wrap up the interior Christmas decorations with a quick look at our dining room.

Over by the bay window I've been displaying all the Christmas cards we've received so far (just taping them to the window).  I also put up my Waterford 12 Days of Christmas bells.  They are discontinued now, but you can still get them at various places online.  Bill had given me the first two, but forgot last year.  He surprised me earlier this month with three and four!  They're very pretty, and definitely fall into the "fancy" category of my decorations. 

Next our corner cabinet has our childhood stockings displayed.  Mine is the striped one on top, and Bill's has Mrs. Claus on it; which I think is hilarious.  His was handknit by a family member who thought he was going to be a girl.  I love that he still used it all those years.

On the dining room table I have my table cloth from Williams-Sonoma.  I bought it last year the day after Christmas for super cheap with six matching napkins.  In the middle of it I have my Santa cookie jar and salt/pepper shakers.  They were a gift form my sister last year, bought at West Elm.  I was hoping they would have the set again, so I could get the matching milk pitcher and mug to complete the set, but they didn't.  However, a few days ago, I was able to score the milk pitcher on eBay!  It's new-in-box, so I'm pretty excited.  Now I just have to track down the mug.

Finally, on the bar, I set up my nativity set.  For the life of me, I do not recall where I got it; but I've had it for a number of years now.  It's very modern, and I love all the colored glass.  I just really like how different it is.

So, that's that for our interior Christmas decorations.  It's really just the two rooms.  Next year, I'll have to figure out a way to bring some Christmas touches to the kitchen and bathroom too, maybe with some cute dish/hand towels.

Now all I have to do is keep it clean until Christmas Eve!

Christmas Decor - Living Room Edition

I think I'm pretty much done with our interior Christmas decorations.  I have such a random collection of items that it's not quite as cohesive as I would have liked, but it's done!  I seem to have a few different tastes when it comes to Christmas that I'll classify as traditional, fancy, and modern.  I don't have enough of any yet to do the whole house in one style, so everything I had went up this year.  I already talked about the tree here, so let's take a look at the rest of the living room, shall we?

Our living room is pretty wide, so I couldn't get a shot of the entire room, so these are shots of each side; plus our built-ins.

 

Here's a closer look at the details...on the black console table we have the Nutcracker Ballet snowglobe I got Madeleine for her first Christmas (from Gump's, still available here).

Next, a new purchase this year, I picked up felt Holiday Lights Garland (from Land of Nod, still available here).  I saw them last year and was hoping to get them cheap in an after Christmas sale, but they were gone.  When I saw them again this year, and then they went on sale (and still are on sale), I decided just to get them.  They look cute above our French doors, and Madeleine seems to like them.



On the other side of the room, I had fun adding some touches to our new built-ins.  Bill just recently finished building the bookcases around the television, and it was fun to have new surface to decorate!  We hung Madeleine and Banshee's stockings (from Annie's Woolens).  They are so cute, and a Wisconsin company too, so I was happy to buy local.  I'm going to get Baby Boy's from here as well next year.

I picked up these mercury glass trees last year after Christmas for super cheap from Williams-Sonoma.  The little snowman candle was a gift someone gave me last year as well.

On the otherside of the television I put my Nutcracker; a Christmas gift from my mom ages ago.  I also had a little gold wire present box.  I got it as a gift last year.  It was filled with candy.  I thought the box was cute though, so I saved it.

Then we hung some felt tree ornaments above the television, and on the small window above our couch as well.  They were from Target last year.

 

So, that's the living room!  Oh, and I didn't get a close up shot of it, but you'll notice our Buffalo head (from Cardboard Safari) is donning a Santa hat.  We also have a stack of Christmas books on the end table we read to Madeleine daily.

So, that's the living room all dolled up for Christmas.  It's a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but it's festive.  I'll be back tomorrow with how we dressed up the dining room. 

Time Flies When Your Having Fun

If I thought time was going fast prior to having Madeleine, since her arrival it now moves at warp speed. 

We just recently had her 2 year old portraits taken, and I just keep thinking...How can she possibly be 2 years old already!!

Here's her best "portrait" shot.  It was really hard to get her to sit still, but we got a few cute ones.

We also got some nice candids.  I thought this one really showcased her natural smile well.

Finally, we did manage a decent family shot.  This is what we used on our Christmas card (which I created and ordered last night).  I had wanted Madeleine in the middle of us to break up our black, but at least we got something.

And just for fun...here's my favorites from all the photo shoots we did the first two years.

Newborn (I think she's about 6 weeks old here)

3 months

6 months

9 months



1 year

18 months

2 years

Her face has definitely thinned out over the last six months.  She looks more "little girl" now than "baby."  Seriously...2 years!!  I still can't believe it.

All photos taken by Elizabeth at Photography Atelier, but owned by me.