25 Fun Things to Do This Christmas!

We made it back to LA from Texas! What a great Thanksgiving week with the family.  Lots of food, love, and laughter made it so unforgettable!  I can’t believe how time flies when you are having fun.  I am already looking forward to the next year!  Photos coming soon. 🙂

Now, it’s time to get ready for the holidays!  My absolute favorite time of the year, besides Thanksgiving, is Christmas.  Even though we won’t be here, it doesn’t stop us from doing the usual holiday decorating, gift giving, and baking holiday desserts.  We also watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and drink eggnog with Brandy……

Clark: “Where do you think you’re going? Nobody’s leaving. Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We’re all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We’re gonna press on, and we’re gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he’s gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.”

HAHAHA!! This is one of my favorite quotes!

There is so much fun stuff to do so I decided, for the first time, to make a 25 Days of Christmas list.  You can check out daily photos on my Instagram.

Day 1:  Last day in Texas to hang out with the family before heading back to LA!

Day 2:  Take silly family photo at the airport.

Day 3:  Set up small Christmas tree and other holiday decor around the house.

Day 4:  Finish Liam’s custom made toy chest.  Add letters, stain, and chalkboard paint to complete the look!

Day 5:  Take photo with Santa Claus at the Los Angeles Grove!

Day 6:  Bake mini Christmas donuts.  See day 16.

Day 7:  Take family Christmas photo to send to family and friends.

Day 8:  Make french toast and listen to Christmas music.

Day 9:  Shop for family gifts.

Day 10: Donate toys and clothes to a local charity.

Day 11: Make a holiday Christmas ornament with Liam.

Day 12: Make a romantic candlelight dinner for the hubby.

Day 13:  Watch National Lampoon Christmas Vacation and enjoy Christmas cocktails.

Day 14:  Take Liam to a snow day with friends during the day and eat Christmas cookies.

Day 15:  Host a christmas gathering with a few friends, play board games, and drink egg nog with Brandy.

Day 16:  Bake salted caramel pies and give to friends.

Day 17:  Buy new holiday PJ’s for Liam and myself.

Day 18:  Snuggle and read holiday books with Liam.

Day 19:  Get a manicure with a new red nail polish.

Day 20:  Listen to Christmas music while packing our bags for our 2 week trip in Wyoming.  It’s 16 degrees there! Burrrrr!

Day 21:  Fly to Wyoming to see the family for Christmas and New Year’s! Another silly photo at the airport.

Day 22:  Make snow angels and drink hot chocolate, aka snowman soup.

Day 23:  Chop down Christmas tree and make a snowman!

Day 24:  Take part in a White Elephant gift exchange with the family Christmas Eve.

Day 25:  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Open gifts and have Christmas dinner!

PS.. Reggie is here for a visit so he will be joining the fun too!

July 4th (TB)

Here’s a throwback (TB) to our July 4th holiday!  Since we were busy planning our destination wedding, which was on July 20th,  we didn’t have much time to post any of our family get togethers or any other special family moments.  So here are a few photos from our celebration of Independence Day spent at grandma’s house in Ventura, CA.  I promise I will upload our wedding photos soon!  Stay tuned to our awesome adventure in Costa Rica!!!

Our Elf and His Name…

I know Christmas is over, but I had to share our new Elf on the Shelf given to us by the Talty Family.  I am so excited to have him as part of our holiday tradition!  Have you ever wondered how Santa knows who’s naughty or nice?  Liam will be thrilled to know that our elf will be reporting to Santa everyday during the month of December.  As most of you know about the Elf on the Shelf phenomenon you have to give him a name.  So the other night I told Tim, “What should we name our elf?”  Without hesitation Tim said, “his name is Reginald.”  Reginald?  What is that?  I’ve never heard of such a name, but I thought it was unique and fun so I went with it.  We named our elf, Reginald (Reggie for short).

The next morning I went online to register our elf.  It comes with a certificate of elf adoption, which you can print out and show the little ones that it is official.  And you can print out a letter from Santa as well.  This is so cool!

After I registered Reginald, I decided to look up the name to find out what the meaning is.  Well, according to Urban Dictionary Reginald means….

“a person whom is full of themselves; tends to be successful and is pompous about it. they have a competitive mindset and will bang any female while pretending they REALLY care, but everyone else knows…a Reginald can CARE LESS.”

Way to go Tim.  Nice work.  Sigh.

Holiday Card 2012

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!!!

It’s the Little Things

Banana Walnut Bread Recipe

I had exactly 3 REALLY ripe bananas and a carton of buttermilk that I needed to use up before it was too late.  The cranberry orange bread I made last time called for buttermilk also, which is why I had it sitting in the fridge.  Wish they would sell this stuff in smaller containers! By the way, this banana bread is delicious.  My neighbors said so.

Christmas pop-up Stickers- used on presents and x-mas cards

Liam’s ornament from our family friend, Reda Garza.

Personalized pacifiers

Nickname: Lil Nugget and GDub all started from the day Liam was born until now.

Baby Liam Meets Santa

It’s 1:30pm and we are headed out the door and on our way to the Grove.  Today is the day Liam gets to meet Santa for the first time.  I am excited and curious.  Excited because it’s Santa. And Curious to see how Liam will react, how the Grove is going to do the “santa Thing”, and how long we have to wait.

Tim did some research prior to us leaving the house.  Reviews said don’t even try meeting Santa after 5:30pm, because the wait is 3 hours plus, and you may not even get to see Santa.  So we made sure we were out the door well before then.

As soon as we get to the Grove we went straight to the rooftop to park (parking was madness!).  We head over to Santa’s cottage.  I have to say, it is quite the spectacular Christmas experience. Lights, decorations, fake snow, Christmas music blaring, elves, and thousands of people. It was like a ritzy packed amusement park, like the ones Tim REALLY loves(not).. From a distance we see that there are about 3 people in line.  HOLY MOLY!!! Did NOT see that happening, the Christmas spirits have blessed us!! Tim and I had a smile from ear to ear. This, was gonna be MAGICAL!

But that “magical” feeling evaporated quicker than snow in July when we noticed a little sign that said “take a number.”  Our lucky number was 204.  Not bad right? It made sense.. This was the Grove right? Lots of people, and they ALL want to see Santa.. Well, they were on 70.

Damn!  So I asked the (freakishly authentic) girl elf at the front of the line about the wait.  She said, “the line is tricky, it can go quickly or pathetically slow, I have a good feeling though; come back at 5:30.”  Sure enough, that was 3 and 1/2 hours later.  Tim’s eyes blinked a couple times, then glazed over but he said nothing. I knew he was overjoyed.

Ugh!!  To good to be true. I convinced Tim to stay until then.  To kill time, we went off and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory then did a bit of shopping after.  Our last stop was Nordstroms.

After waiting close to 4 hours, in organized chaos and Christmas music, we walked back to Santa’s cottage with our Christmas spirit slowly returning with each step..

Finally, it was Liam’s BIG moment!! Thats when the bomb drops..the (freakishly authentic) girl elf has the nerve to tell us that Santa is going on break. That’s when Tim’s eyes get big and both of us were….”ummm what?!” She goes on to say “the lucky number is 201″….we were #204. Son of a B%#@!!! She goes on to say “Santa has to break from 6:00-6:30, you will have to come back after that.” It was 5:40. I had somehow managed to keep Tim in this place for almost 4 hours and to make him wait another hour was way beyond my skill.

Oh boy, I saw Tim’s face and he wasn’t  happy.  Mostly in shock…he had no words(thank god).  I was so bummed! BUT, then the (freakishly authentic) girl elf see’s the rising anger disguised as disappointment in our faces and tells us that she “maaay” be able to get us in.

I think it had something to do with Tim being a really good samaritan that evening.  He found a money clip with credit cards and $700 in cash just sitting on a chair in Nordstroms. Tim saw it, picked it up, counted it, showed me and then handed it to the salesperson. Don’t know what happened after that, hopefully the salesperson continued the karma! We didn’t stick around, Santa was waiting!! In Tim’s words- “Your Welcome”.

Waiting at the Cheesecake Factory

Liam can scratched this off his bucket list…being bottle fed at Nordstroms.

Apparently Liam didn’t make it on Santa’s list.  Oh well, maybe next year! lol

Ta Daaaa!!!

Santa and Liam 2012

First Annual Mitchell Christmas 2012

 

 

 

Liam’s First Thanksgiving

This year was my first Thanksgiving in California.  Usually I fly back home to Texas to visit the family, but since our bundle of joy is too young to travel, we decided to spend the holiday at Tim’s mom’s house in Ventura.  I made a cranberry orange cake and a broccoli cheese casserole.   First time I’ve EVER made something for Thanksgiving.  Don’t judge.  I am not Betty Crocker and I still, till this day, don’t know how to make a damn turkey.  I’ll leave that up to my husband for the following turkey days ;).

It’s Movember….hence the beard.

My first broccoli cheese casserole.  I still think my aunt Christina makes is waaaay better.

Liam, not quite interested in football just yet.

My first cranberry orange bread.  Actually, this was my second attempt.  The night before was the first trial run.  It didn’t turn out good, so I woke up really early Thanksgiving morning and searched for another recipe.  This one was the winner!! It’s probably because it asks for buttermilk and 6 tablespoons of butter, the ingredients that make all desserts taste better.

Tim’s ma, Sharon