Christmas Day Family Brunch

Christmas Day started the same as last year...waking to an adorable little voice calling for "MAMMA!!" Except this year she also said "have to peeee...mammaaaa...peeeee!!", LOL - it's hilarious! Of course that leaves one of us running for the room so we can grab her & make it to the bathroom in time. We really may need to start thinking about converting her crib into a toddler bed so she can get up & do her biz in the middle of the night if she needs to.

Buuuut that's a whole other topic. Moving on...


So we went downstairs to all our gifts...opened them all one by one, while James recorded the fun.

Her very favorite, most special gift of all (from Santa of course), was her plush Toy Story dolls - Woody, Buzz, Jessie and Bullseye!

She.


FREAKED!


After 'our' gifts to Kapri, I got busy in the kitchen, yet again....making a yummy blueberry french toast type of casserole, laying out the dessert/gift table for our guests...

Then I finally put my famous "Holiday Casserole" in the oven while I went to get myself ready for the long day.

Recipe from link above - except I use turkey sausage and turkey bacon...and 1% milk instead of 2%. - I'd like to try it using 1 cup of EggBeaters instead of the 4 eggs to save on calories too!

In all we had 8 guests over, all fam, to feast, drink, laugh, chat...and of course, watch K open all her wonderful gifts. I love having all these people over, such a great time making cherished memories.

After many bottles of yummy Prosecco, our bellies were full and our bodies were ready to rest. K skipped her nap, but that meant early bedtime. We all ended up in bed around 6:30/7pm and it was FABulous!!

Christmas Crafting - homemade gifts

Doily Ornaments
{inspired by this}

"M" for us - everyone else got pics on both sides

Picture Block Ornaments 
{inspired by this}

Cut up wood into 2" blocks, sand, paint 2 coats, cut out 4 pics, mod podge pics to block (2 to 3 coats), install
'screw eyes' at top of block along with a little ribbon to hand - voila! I also added "2011" under the block in white puffy paint and made little dot designs on the tops. 

LOVE how these turned out...just how I envisioned

Homemade Mason Jar Granola
{recipe here}

Quart size mason jars, fabric & twine. Tags were made from pieces of a paper bag & $1 bin Christmas tag stickers

Cookies GALORE
{Pudding cookie recipe here and M&M recipe here - did not make chocolate bark pictured below}

I had these out for Christmas day, and gave them away in little gift bags for family to take home

Call me Santa's little elf!

Christmas Eve this year was spent entirely in the kitchen...prepping food for our family Christmas brunch, baking a ridiculous amount of cookies, and baking 4 huge batches of homemade granola (for gifts). Kapri was such a trooper - she slept for a good while during her nap, then hung out with me...then back & forth from the living room to the kitch...she's good playing by herself when mamma needs her to ;-)

I also made some seriously cute holiday gifts on Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve - literally these were the only two days I had to start AND finish them all. Phew, glad i did it in time...barely! Check them out...click here.

And of course I made a special big cookie batch for Santa, with a big mug of ice cold milk. The only way I got K to pose next to these cookies (and without eating them), was to promise her one of her very own...she did good - ps, I love bribery:

Before heading off to bed, Kapri got to say farewell to our beloved Buddy...I explained to her that Santa would come while she was sleeping to drop off her special presents, and our little elf would hitch a ride back to the North Pole with him to work on more gifts for the next Christmas. I'm excited to come up with new hiding places for him when he comes back after Thanksgiving 2012.

Here's a recap of all his hiding places - there's also a full online 'scrapbook' of Buddy's adventures here

James worked late Christmas Eve - so we literally didn't sit down to wrap presents until around 10:00pm! Next year I'm definitely going to wrap as I buy - instead of all at once the night before! As we stumbled upstairs around 11:45, I snapped this pic - oh my nice clean house, it looked so nice...before the gift-opening-paper-chaos that was just a short 7 hours away.

Holiday Party at Kapri's Preschool

Tuesday night we headed over to Kapri's preschool to mingle with other parents, drink wine, eat tons of yummy potluck food, and of course...watch all the kids sing and dance - they even got a visit & a toy from Santa!!

I'd post the vid...but it's literally 10 minutes of kids screaming holiday songs and crazy jingling bells (they each wore a bell-filled bracelet). K didn't do much since there were only 148974 parents, grandparents, & other children staring at them... with all their flashing cameras & camcorders - but it was cute regardless!

Of course she sings all the songs in the comfort of our home - but there she got a little stage fright. Ah well, I bet next year when's she's used to it all, she'll know the drill ;-) After all, she's only been there 4 months, and goes only 2 days a week.

There are 4 teachers at her school - all of them are just amazing. They're so kind, patient and caring - as a teacher should be. In the short time that K's been there, she seems to love them all and thoroughly enjoys going to school. She's been learning SO much and comes home everyday with beautiful artwork and tons to tell me.

To show my appreciation, we brought little homemade gifts for the teachers to the Holiday party. I love these so much, I made myself one...just so cute, and practical, and unique (inexpensive is nice too!). I got the idea from Pinterest (here) of course!

They are big on puzzles at her school too. The other night (while making my delish Santa Hats), Kapri called to me from the living room... "mamma, come here mamma, come see mamma!!!" To which I replied, "one minute honey, mommy's trying to finish these yummy treats!". Then James piped in... "babe, you should come here...look really quick."  Alright alright...

When I stepped in the living room, I found this:

That is a fully completed princess puzzle...a 46 PIECE puzzle to be exact.

She was so excited. I looked at James & said "you helped here didn't you?" No. "Seriously, why are you lying to me?? I know you helped her!" No.

She did it HERself!! I couldn't believe it. That's a LOT of pieces!!! hahaha...normally I have to help her, that stuff gets complicated.

But not this time - here's a little vid of my surprise...so proud of this kid:

Anyway - I credit her school and amazing teachers for that...among other things... Yay for preschool!!

Christmas Card Lane - 2011

This marks our 3rd year going to a little place called Christmas Card Lane - past years here & here. Sadly James injured himself pretty badly playing flag football...and his calf was not in walking condition - at all. So me, Kapri, my sis & her BF still went. We stopped at Starbucks as usual for coffee/hot chocolate and walked the streets to see all the fun holiday displays:

1st year with no stroller needed! Sad Dadda couldn't come with :-(

Kapri really enjoyed herself there this year...running in & out of all the lawns, going straight up to all the displays and saying hi to her favs, like the Little Mermaid, Belle/Beast, Mickey Mouse Crew, Snow White, Cinderella, and of course, the cast from Aladdin!

After going this year, I found that there just aren't a ton of LIGHT displays - just a ton of (awesome) cut-outs on people's front lawns. Next year I definitely want to find a great street with more lights to actually "ohhh" and "ahhh" over. Or maybe even drive through the Holiday of Lights that is set up with 400+ light displays at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Just need some rain

Pre-household sickness, we had some light sprinkle showers the other week and had to venture out to run a few errands - giving K the perfect opportunity to try out her new ladybug rain coat from Grammy Mary and the new rain boots I found online to match ($6...what a deal!)...and her new princess umbrella that was just her size, so I couldn't resist buying that at the store the other day.

This ladybug theme is so fitting since I call her "bug" all the time!


Sadly the rain didn't last long, so she didn't get to experience the full effect...but at least we got a few cute pics. Maybe winter will bring a few more rainy days to San Diego so we can go splash in some puddles together - now I just need some rain boots! Hummm...should've dropped hints about that to the hubs for a Christmas gift, dang!! haha


Anyway - love this kid and her excitement for the small things:

Nebulizing the day away...

From my Thanksgiving re-cap post... I had mentioned K's cold/turned breathing issues - ugh. After her standard head cold took a turn for the worse...as in, coughing so hard, for so long...to the point of choking...near throwing up (actually did once, just 15 min. before her scheduled doc appt!)...and GASPing to breath normally for air.

We sat in the room for about 2 hours, while K snuggled patiently in my lap - with an oxygen mask on her face, hooked up to a nebulizer - pumping medicated air into her lungs. Thank god for my iPhone, kid apps, and YouTube to watch clips of Disney movies.

the mask kinda smooshed her face a bit, poor thing!

After 2 rounds of the nebulizer treatment - we were outta there with a prescription for a little infection and a scheduled follow up appt for Wed., the day before Thanksgiving. At the f/u appt, I was told that children who develop RSV early in life, have a 30% chance of developing asthma. Great. I freaked inside a bit...but then I realized that was just a small chance. So I'm trying not to think about that. But still, every time she gets a cold, her lungs get really wheezy and her cough typically gets really bad. No fun.

The doc also ordered our very own in-home nebulizer, so we don't have to keep coming into her office (and YAY no $25 co-pay each time!). Luckily we have that - because as I write today...just a few short weeks after that appt... our poor little bug is sick.

Again.

We've used the 'nebbie' like, 3 times already since 4am this morning - and it really seems to help when she's in the middle of a really gnarly coughing attack. She knows the drill now and tolerates the whole 'nebulizing' process...so that makes it easier. She also gets some cool ice cream for her raw throat...in mamma/dadda's bed...watching movies all day - SCORE kid!

I'm just hoping she'll be better by Christmas - luckily it's a full week away from today - so I'm sure she'll be good! Last year she was totally sick ON Christmas day and that sucked. However I'm now getting sick again too. Damn this never-ending ickyness!

Santa Hat Brownies & a Candy Cane Wreath

mmmmmm....I was SO excited to make these when I pinned them to my "Yum in my Tum...Treats" board on Pinterest. When I received a calendar invite for a 'cookie exchange' at work, I knew these would be easy and perfect! Though they aren't 'cookies' - they're in the super YUM category and are very festive.

The above link goes to a recipe that calls for mascarpone buttercream frosting - but I didn't have that... so I just used plain ol vanilla frosting, put it in a plastic zip bag & 'piped' it out on top of the brownie and strawberry. Of course mine aren't AS pretty as the original source, but they were damn good!!

I used a box of brownie mix, baked it, let it cool then used a small round cookie cutter to make the perfect size/shape for the base of the 'Santa Hats'.

I set them down on a big table amongst all the other treats...

I thought it was funny that as people came & observed...many automatically knew those were from me. It's not like a bake all the time for work, so not sure why that was the auto-assumption. But maybe it was the few times I've brought in cake pops that gave them reason to tie me to these scrumptious little treats!

Anyway - thank you "Daisy" for posting a great little recipe for me to be inspired by!!

And here's my newly assembled Candy Cane wreath...I just love it. I used 22 candy canes (just about 2 boxes...that are only a BUCK each), some thin red ribbon, hot glue gun, 2 doilies, some round felt (behind the doilies for extra reinforcement), and some black letter stickers.

I wanted to put "Merry Xmas"...but it didn't fit right. Then I tried 'joy' but it was too small with the size stickers I had...finally I decided on 'ho ho ho', which cracks me up! But it looks cute. It's very fragile however, so not sure if it'll last til next Christmas - without getting broken. But this literally cost me under $3 to make - so I'm not too worried about it!

Recaping - holiday events & my 1st baptism!

Busy bees we are this month...it's funny because I feel like with all the things we have going on...my poor hubba doesn't get to attend many because of his work schedule - lots of night shifts. Makes this mamma sad.

Sooo, when creating the collages for all these events, I realized it makes me look like a single mom... when in fact I'm definitely not - thank goodness! He does sooo much for our little fam, his hard work and great daddyness does NOT go unnoticed - so, if you read this...Love you Babe!! One day - we'll have more similar work schedules - but we gotta do what we gotta do for now. Boo.

Annnyway - because of our busy schedules, I haven't been able to blog about each thing as it's happend - so I'm lumping the last few together. Beware picture overload.

First up - our city's annual Holiday Parade with the Romero's. Oddly enough, I cannot even remember going to this in the past - at least not before my teen years. But it was cute...tons of different car 'floats', schools, businesses, organizations...all driving/walking down Hwy 101. Kapri was so excited to see it ALL. The firetrucks, the lights, the horses...everything.

Prior to the parade, they lit the Christmas tree and had a Santa sit in front of it for all the kids to sit on his lap & get a free pic... this was before the mall Santa pic. Didn't really get a great shot of her, plus she was way more hesitant than mall Santa. Ah well - he was kinda creepy, so I don't blame her! After that we got some warm, yummy hot chocolate at Starbucks to end the night right!

Next up is a holiday party K & I were invited to this year...It was fun hanging with new friends, lots of cute kids, a cookie decorating station, a nacho bar, presents for the kids...and general chaos associated with that.

It's nights like this night that I REALLY wish James were with me...that extra pair of hands sure comes in 'handy' - HA. But still fun nonetheless!

Last up is Baby Jack's baptism that I was invited to. This was a first for me...so I definitely wanted to attend. It was such a cool experience and I'm so glad I was a part of it. Lil J slept through the whole thing - which made it even sweeter - he was so calm and cool! Under his keepsake 'gown' was the necktie onesie that I made him too!!

After was a little party held at the proud parent's house with amazing pulled pork sammies and cake that made Kapri giddy! By the end of the night, she had a new bestie - Jack's dadda....Ky. He played with her, gave her a big slice of cake, and read her "The Grinch" book - that's a perfect recipe for her! Lil J has some great parents!! Love you Nic & Ky!! xoxo

Family photos & a vist with Santa

Another full day for the Mejia fam. I took the day off so we could fit everything in.

First up was her yearly follow up appointment with Dr. Pring down at Children's Hospital. We saw her during K's hip dysplasia treatments. After our dreadful 1 1/2 hr wait, we found that her hips/legs are doing really good...we just have to keep getting X-rays once a year to see how the length difference in each leg gets. Eventually when she's a teen, we'll probably have to stunt the growth in the longer leg so they match up better. No worries, yay!

While K & hubs took a little nap, I stayed busy finishing a few orders (pics to come)...then quickly spruced myself up for our family photo session at Picture People in the mall. This was the same place that we had K's 2yr old bday pics taken, of course the same day she got sick. I had bought another Living Social deal that was too good to pass up. $10 for a session/package - normally about $60!

We got an awesome photographer, better than last time - who was SO amazing with Kapri. She did everything in her power to get K to laugh & smile - and thank goodness the hard work paid off. Speaking of, I should really find out her name & give her a good review!

We had SO many great pics to choose from - wish we could've gotten more. But man those can get pricey!

K's smile is the result of just being tickled by the photog - love it!

So here's a card they made us as a "thank you", which I just cropped out their company name & put ours instead, HA. Technically - I could've just used this as our holiday card to send out. But I didn't.

Here's a montage of a few of K's best shots:

And finally here's the pic we choose for our holiday card this year, which I found for free HERE, the same place that I got our design for last year's postcard. I had a great friend/colleague/Photoshop extraordinaire help me with these, along with creating the back of our 'postcard' style greeting as well.

obviously not exactly what they look like, just merged the front/back together and hid my address! Love the little 'stickers' from Picnik.com!

Next up was Santa, who just happened to be set up right outside the Picture People store in the center of the mall - yay! Kapri was actually excited...amazing. She wasn't just a few days before at our local holiday parade...so this was a pleasant surprise! Her smile is pretty forced...but it came after the photog said "show me your pretty princess smile" - LOL...and this is what we got:

She got to tell him her name, how old she was and what she wanted for Christmas (a Buzz Lightyear doll) - then after the pic, he gave her a candycane that she was just beyond excited about. K was SOOOO much better - no whining, no fussing...suuuper duper patient. I couldn't believe it. Quite the difference from my bday dinners...sheesh! I was a proud & happy mamma that's for sure ;-)

1 bday, 3 dinners!

My bday was on Nov. 30th...but I was lucky enough to get 3 dinners out of it!!


Bday Dinner #1 - Benihana with James & Kapri:
Food was okay...but I got a $30 gift certificate for my bday from them...so it was worth it. K however, was a terror!! Fussing, melt-downing, terrible-twoing...all. over. the. place!  The other 5 random people at the table were probably super annoyed, especially since they were younger with clearly no kids. Thank god for the BLUE lollypop that was in my purse to preoccupy her...hence the blue tounge in this pic, HA. She barely ate, did NOT want to be strapped in the high chair and was just miserable to be around...honestly speaking. Oye...but we survived.

Barely.

Bday Dinner #1 - Fidel's with Mom, sisters, aunt/cousin & Kapri:
Food was amazing...as usual. And K was a little fussy...but tolerable. My fam loves this place, it's been a traditional bday dinner spot for years! When they brought out our desert we got a really good, belly-aching laugh. Kapri was trying her damnedest to blow out the candle...and we got some on video, but the few moment before the vid was shot were completely hysterical.

Then we got another vid of her blowing out the candle on my scrumptious banana cream pie they brought out back at my mamma's house after dinner:

Bday Dinner #1 - Fidel's with James/Kapri, Amanda/Steve and Grammy Mary/Mike:
Yum yum...love this place too. Can NOT go wrong with pasta, breadsticks and vino...mmmmm! K's attitude however, not good. Worse than the last 2 dinners. I was near tears because I just could NOT figure out what her deal was. It was a completely different kid...no joke. And around people that she see's very often. She was MEGA shy, couldn't look at anyone...wouldn't talk - all for about 30 minutes - til we all just ignored her, hahaha. So, it ended MUCH better than it started. Phew...

the bottom right pic is us jotting down the wine info... "7 Daughters" - a blend of 7 types of wine - YUM!

Meet "Buddy" - the newest addition to our fam

We started a new tradition this year, the Elf on a Shelf, who was adopted into our little family on Dec. 2, 2011. James *helped* name the elf "Buddy" (how appropriate right?). His 'job' from Santa is to watch over Kapri each day, no matter where she goes, and magically fly back to the North Pole each night to report back to Santa whether she's been naughty or nice.

And since he's a mischievous little elf, upon his return from the North Pole he hides in different places throughout the house. So each morning when Kapri wakes up, the first thing she'll do is find Buddy. To make this simple for James & I to find a spot for him each night, I typed up a list of special ways we'll 'hide' him or set him up (he leaves on Christmas Eve & hitches a ride home with Santa after he delivers gifts):

We even got to register our new Elf online, which then gives us access to our very own 'scrapbook' to document the tradition with pictures, videos & a short description of each page! I love it...I'm obsessed, officially:

Kapri keeps asking Buddy to be on the 'NICE' list, tonight she even told him ALL about our day - so hopefully this will help with the mega attitude she's had lately, HA! {wishful thinkin}