Monday, November 26, 2007

Holiday Cheer

How was everyone's holiday?

Good, I hope.

Ours was pleasant. We dined at my parents house on Thanksgiving. It's the first time in a few years that we haven't had two places to eat at that day. Rodney's parents went to Mississippi this year so only half the food! (and honestly, thank goodness for the reprieve) I helped my mom and brought a few dishes of my own. Nothing super spectacular. Just some very southern, whipped banana pudding, green bean casserole and some garlic whipped mashed potatoes.

The day prior I had a customer pick up my version of the Thanksgiving turkey. You won't find any bones or meat in this turkey. Just spongy cake and vanilla buttercream. Of course there's a few fondant vegetables thrown in and some drumsticks/ wings made of rice krispy treats as well!



Did I mention that it snowed here on Thanksgiving? IT SNOWED! We usually get some snowfall here in North Texas but I don't think any of us expected it on Thursday! What a nice surprise, it was beautiful.


Other than that...

We did a little research on the black friday sales that were happening this year and decided that some things were worth the mayhem. So Rodney bundled himself up in 3 or 4 layers of clothes, hats, socks and with his iPod, gameboy and blanket in tow, he headed up to Toys R Us Friday morning at 1:30. He was 12th in line. We don't normally participate in these kinds of things but they just so happened to have a sale on the bounce house we wanted to get Rylee. Miles' Christmas present was also on sale, as was Rodney's dad. (can't mention them here for obvious reasons) He somehow managed to get all three items when they opened the doors at 5. There were 500 people in line.

What's even crazier than that? When we were driving home from my parents house Thursday evening, we drove by a Best Buy and there were already at least 60 people in line.

IT WAS 6:30!

We ventured out Friday afternoon, Saturday and yesterday. We got quite a bit of shopping done. We're almost done with both of our family's. I think we have one of my brothers left and a few friends. I went and got about 80% of Rylee's shopping done this morning, so we're close to being done with that as well. I still need to shop for the boy and he needs to shop for me. I did get one thing for him over the weekend - he knows about it because I made him stop by and get it after toys r us (he figured it out earlier in the day) - a shop vac.

For any of you mommy's out there who like Babystyle - they are having a decent sale going on right now. 40 % off of one clothing item, buy one get one half off toys and books. I took advantage this morning.

I forgot to show you guys - this is how Rylee's room turned out with the new decals!



I'm happy with the way they came out but MAN! They were a pain to put up. My right index finger still has a blister.

And now, I'm very pleased to show you all this cookie cutter. My wonderful husband MADE this for me. I wanted something to match the invites for Rylee's party and after searching online, in craft stores and several different cake shops, I figured I wasn't going to get what I looking for. I just so happened to stumble upon an article on Cake Central that gave instructions for making cookie cutters and I sent them to Rodney to see if he thought we could pull it off. He came home with this:




EXACTLY what I was looking for!

If anyone ever needs a personalized cookie cutter or something along those lines, we're taking orders now!


What are you guys asking for, for Christmas? Have you done any shopping yet?

2 comments:

Holly said...

Explain to me whipped banana pudding.

I have only ever experienced it as jello pudding mix and Nilla wafers.

Steph said...

Basically you mix a box of vanilla pudding as you normally would, whisk in a can of sweetened condensed milk and then fold in 8 oz. of whipped cream. Once that's done, you layer wafers, pudding mix and bananas until you have filled your dish/bowl. You have to either refrigerate it overnight for for at least 4 hours before serving but it's SERIOUSLY the greatest banana pudding you will ever have. Rodney could probably eat the entire bowl if I let him!