Merry Ho Ho HO!

Oh my....cannot believe another Christmas has come & gone...crazy how fast it sneaks up on us...seemed even quicker this year with Thanksgiving being so late in November!

Christmas Eve, Kapri & I made JUMBO cookies for Santa as usual...but this time, we also remember to leave out carrots for his reindeer as well, phew! I had to wear this adorable red sweater with a stripped bow on it, that was given to me by Chloe's mom, Rain...she said the color didn't look good on her & would suit me more - so voila, it's mine now and I love it!! Thanks girl!

Christmas morning was early...with an eager 4 year old, ready to see what Santa brought her. As she told him in the letter she mailed him, she was soooo excited when she opened up her very special musical ballerina jewelry box, and her big fluffy unicorn doll (from the Despicable Me movie)! Also popular this year, was all the My Little Pony goodies she scored...she's obsessed this year.

Later, we had my mom, sisters & Chels' BF Andrew over for our annual brunch... I make a pretty spectacular breakfast casserole that gets devoured every time. Chels brought a 'paleo' friendly cinnamon bread/cake that was delish! And KayLee made a HUGE fruit salad to balance it all off...yum yum!

Among some other things I gifted...I found this awesome body scrub trio at Trader Joe's in late November/early December, and luckily scooped up 6 of them as quick as I could (one for myself of course!) - and never saw them re-stocked again after that day (and I go every week!). Thank goodness I did because they were a huge hit with the ladies in my fam:

After brunch, mimosas, and a quick round of my new fav game, Cards Against Humanity, we went out front to the greenbelt & took some fun fam pics:

Later that night, we went to my Mother-In-Laws for dinner & more presents...and to visit with Kapri's cousins who were in town for the holidays - I love how much they adore each other!

Such a wonderful Christmas...so many memories that I'm grateful to have made with my family!

Annual Holiday Light Walk

Time for the annual walk to see holiday lights!! This time however, a bunch more friends & I decided to try a new place to view the lights, called "Fairway Village"...UNfortunately, the advertisement we all saw online, posted the wrong date for this big neighborhood block party....soooo, we missed that by a day and there really wasn't much to see at all sadly.

But the kids didn't seem to mind...with all the hot chocolate they had in their bellies:

After the quick walk around the first place...a few of us decided to extended the evening and go check out our normal place, Christmas Card Lane - we've gone here since Kapri was a little baby, 4 years ago. It really is awesome...the kids just LOVE all the character boards set up along people yards. And K is starting to remember certain ones too...god her memory is beyond me sometimes.

We got home about 2 hours PAST her bedtime....but in the end, it was all worth it to make her smile and carry on our special tradition!

Playdate: Nutcracker Ballet

Another first for us.... the Nutcracker Ballet - it's honestly amazing the amount of things I have never done or been to before....until having Kapri!  We went with K's best friend from school, Chloe & her mamma Rain....love these two! When we met up with them the girls exchanged gifts - and great minds obviously think alike because they each got each other different style bracelets!

We stopped for a quick bite to eat before going to the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Center - which we've actually been to once before to see Seussical the Musical (so fun!). We made it there just in time and the girls were in awe the entire performance. I can only imagine what they must've been thinking - it all must seem so magical in the eyes of a 4 year old girl...especially ones that have done ballet themselves and in a way, hold a ballerina high on a pedestal with their beauty & grace.

Towards the end of the show, the girls just could not sit still...so we got out of our seats and took them over to the stairs along the side of the auditorium. There they could watch & mimic the moves they saw on stage, without us worrying if they were blocking someone's view from behind us!

It was so adorable - just to see their eyes - focused intently on all those little dancers. Maybe next year we'll take them to see the Nutcracker again, but on a bigger, more elaborate stage... at the San Diego Civic Theater!

Preschool Holiday Party 2013

Ah sickness. 

It got the best of K again tonight....but luckily it didn't hit her too bad until shortly after her adorable school holiday performance - another 'last' at this school.

I remember her first there, when she was only 2.5 years old...little bitty compared to now!!

2011, 2012 & 2013

Since it was her last Holiday party at this school, we invited my mom, sisters and James' mom & her husband - sadly, because she felt really poorly right after performing, we didn't get any other group/fam pics with her other than these :-(

But we did get some good video of her singing & dancing SO well....beyond proud of her for coming out of her shell and overcoming her shyness little by little!

Holiday Boat Parade

My middle sis, Chelsea...is now officially BACK from her 1yr move to Arkansas - and I honestly could not be happier!!! Since she's back, I wanted to do something with all us girls...and found this San Diego Bay Parade of Lights, down on the bay that looked great!

I'd never really heard of it before (swear, I've lived her my whole life...but still so sheltered from all that SD has to offer!!)...but knew K would love it as well. I read there were a few different places to view the boats from, but heard from many people that Seaport Village was the best spot. So we got there early and nabbed a great seat on the grass.

The sunset was OUT of this world....and I see my fair share living in Encinitas....but this was unbelievable - no filter on this pic:

The show.... which took FOREVER to start. Online said it started at 5:30pm...however I don't think it finally got to where we could see until closer to 7!!! Come to find, that it "proceeds from Shelter Island past Harbor Island, the Embarcadero, Seaport  Village, and Ferry Landing in Coronado." - I had no idea it would take that long to go from place to place...oye.

However, I kinda want a boat now so I can decorate it and have a big party on the bay with my fam/friends! Some of them we're ROCKIN!!

Afterwards, we all craved something sweet....so we cruised around the little shops and found a 'cupcakes & cafe' place that was perfect! Then we ended the night with a quick ride on the famous carousel - such fun memories!

Run or DYE!

Another 'fun' run under our belts...as Nic & I (along with her friend Stacy & her sis Julie) participated in the "Run or Dye" 5K today:

Since Christmas is just around the corner, we decided to wear little Santa hats, cute red/white striped socks and red tanks to get in the spirit... soooo many others had the same ideas! We had tried to find white leggings (to wear under black shorts)...so that the color would show better - but had terrible luck finding any!

The guys at the start line, did a GREAT job hyping up the crowd...there was awesome music and such amazing energy from everyone around us. Every once & awhile people would throw up the dye packs and we'd get splash here & there.

The run itself wasn't anything spectacular, as it was just around the parking lot of Qualcomm Stadium... so ti was rather drab - I think the best parts were seeing everyone in fun costumes and the anticipation of being BLASTED by color at each 'station'.

I have to be honest...I thought for sure we'd be more 'colorful' at the end....but each time you go through a color station, you get bombarded with color...but then as you continue running, the powder just gradually falls off. I have heard that you should run baby oil or something on your exposed skin, so that the color sticks better.... so if I ever do another 'color' type run again, I'll have to put that to the test!

Happy Running!!!

Dear Santa....

Kapri wrote Santa a letter this year, after we got back from the Holiday Train - she was so excited to actually WRITE him a LETTER... cannot believe how great she is with writing her letters these days, both upper & lower case:

She thanked him for coming on the Holiday Train ride, and sitting with her to talk about what she wanted for Christmas - a jewelry box and a unicorn doll. Then we sealed it up, addressed it to the North Pole, and took it to the Post Office so she could buy a stamp & mail it off all by herself.

About a week later, we woke up one morning and Buddy was at the top of our Christmas tree holding a BIG, beautifully decorated envelope, which had a fancy reply letter from Santa himself (with a little help from moi!). She was sooo happy to get such a personalized letter from him!

I definitely plan to make this an annual tradition with K from now on ;-)

Holiday Coaster Express

Today we surprised K with a little outing. I swear, almost everything we do with her is surprise...for 3 reasons - 1. if we tell her in advance, she'll ask every hour when we're going.  2. if we tell her in advance, and plans fall through (which they most definitely do at times), then we feel bad & she's devastated.  3. Who doesn't like to be surprised??? haha

So I had heard of this thing they do on the Coaster every holiday season called "Holiday Coaster Express" - which apparently sells out each year. It's only on one day, and only 2 different times. Luckily I had thought about it ahead of time, and took note when the website said tickets would go on sale. I put a calendar reminder for the day of, to remind me to buy the tickets...which are only $6 a person!

K picked out a new skirt I had bought her, and of course coordinated with a brightly colored necklace (that she'd got during our trip to AR), and her fav silver sparkly crown headband - that girl cannot go ANYwhere without a headband on these days....even better if it's a 'crown' headband!!

When we arrived at the station she was SO excited to be getting on a train again, her 2nd time ever. Then we finally told her what we were there for - to have a special visit from Santa & some of his buddies!! The total time we'd have on the train was about 90 minutes...so I figured Santa would be towards the end, and that they'd have a few different Christmas characters coming around as well. However the information originally provided on their site was a bit misleading - as only the Grinch made a quick appearance in the beginning - then NOTHING until the end when Santa, and later Mrs. Claus, made they're way in. I also read that there would be 'caroling' - but there was none, not even some faint Christmas music playing in the background, so that bummed me out.

In all, we had an okay time - but we were really surprised that this 'sells out' every year... for something that wasn't really well planned. I figured that with a ton of kids on each car of the train, you think they'd have a couple different characters coming by to entertain them - an hour & a half is a long time to have them just sitting there. Literally after we saw the Grinch, it was probably 45 minutes until Santa came. So the entire train ride, Kapri was so anxious, and kept anticipated the next one.... so that was a little disappointing (and the people of the NCTD definitely received a little email from me with my thoughts on the whole thing).

At least Santa was pretty legit...and Mrs. Claus was so adorable - so it ended on a good note:

Holiday Cards - 2013 {via Zazzle}

I am seriously so glad that Groupon & LivingSocial exist....because I honestly don't know how much money those sites have SAVED me!!

For example... a deal for holiday cards from Zazzle (75 with envelopes) and for a photo session at JCP:

Together, those would've cost us around $267 full price - but instead I got both for only $55 total...so we saved over $200!!! People who don't check Groupon/LS sites before doing ANYthing, are nuts.

I decided that I wanted to get our pics done early, so that we'd have time to get them on the CD, then take it home to save to our computer, then use to upload for our holiday cards...then have adequate time for processing & shipping of the cards...then having to label them all & get in the mail by Dec. 1st.....whewww!

Here are the 3 photos that we selected from our session...next year I'll definitely find a photography deal for an OUTDOORS photo sesh...I feel like it's always more 'natural' that way.

From those I made a little FB profile pic for December (edits via PicMonkey):

And here's the card ordered from Zazzle:

The quality of these cards was SO great....the selection was amazing (they had a page for Groupon purchasers only), they were delivered very quickly and were a nice, thick card-stock...I just loved how they turned out! I had never heard of Zazzle prior to seeing/buying that Groupon deal, but I'm now officially a huge fan and hope to order from them again in the future.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Hey Buddy - great to have you back!

On my birthday, our yearly tradition is to get the house decorated for Christmas...since Dec. is the next day. I just love decorating!

We also do it that day, so that our Elf on the Shelf, Buddy...has his special place to land when he flies in from the North Pole that evening - the top of our Christmas Tree...snuggled up by the warm light of the star.

I should note:  Buddy underwent a quick...very mild surgery this year as well - he now is the proud owner of BENDABLE LIMBS!!

It was pretty easy really....just found a little how-to online, and I had all the supplies on hand. It took me probably 45 min to do all 4 limbs from start to finish. SO excited to be able to place him in funny positions/places and have him holding onto things himself, instead of TAPE everywhere!

Welcome back to your home away from home Buddy!

Christmas Day 2012 Recap

So James & I didn't go to bed until close to 2am...and Kapri was definitely awake til at least 11pm... she was obviously SO excited. Then she woke up around 6:45, walked in our room, and said "I don't think Santa came, because I didn't see him!"

James then replied, "well how do you know?? Santa only comes when he knows you're really asleep...go peek & see if he left anything by the tree!"

She ran into the hall, peeked through the stair rails and came running back, yelling "I see presents, I see them!! Santa came!!" - seriously, so cute!

So we got up and dug through our gifts...K knew to find all that had her name written on it. James set up our video camera on the coffee table so it could capture us all enjoying the morning together & unwrapping our gifts. So smart! So I didn't get any pics sadly...but the video captures the excitement much better anyway!

Then we got ready & drove one street down to my mom's for brunch...yummy yummy! We spent the whole day hanging out and had a great time...thanks for hosting mamma!

bacon & prosecco - don't mind if I do!!

Christmas Eve - Until Next Year, Buddy!

I am NEVER wrapping all of *Santa's* gifts last minute again... no idea why I thought that was a good idea to begin with!! With all the other things I try to get together on Christmas Eve...wrapping should be the least of my worries. So next year, I'm doing it ahead of time... hiding them well... and focusing my energy on other important, last minute things!

We/I almost forgot to set out Santa's cookies!!! Sheesh, that would've been bad... but luckily I remembered when I was putting K to bed... so we jumped up, plated the cookies, poured the milk, set them on the fireplace and took a few pics:

Having hours of wrapping ahead of you... knowing full well that your child will probably wake up between 6-7am - yeah, NOT good. No amount of coffee can help that.

Anyway - we finally got mostly everything done...yay! Thought I gave the easy things James - all he had to do was fold & simply place inside boxes... we both know I'm the pro-wrapper between the two of us ;-)



And I have to say, I'm officially OBBBsessed with these little Santa gift tags I found HERE {this chick has TONS of free printables for every holiday!!} - think I'll use them every year!!

Here's a recap of Buddy's 'efl-capades' this year (& here's 2011):

click for an enlarge photo to see the detail!

The picture with Buddy & Jessie, sitting next to the iPhone - was pretty funny.... Buddy took a few 'selfies' on the iPhone, Kapri thought it was silly!

Christmas in the Kitchen

Wow - it recently occurred to me just how much of my time is spent in the kitchen....especially during the holidays...it's fun & tiring all at the same time. I need an assistant...one that doesn't eat the batter out of the bowl, lick her finger...then dip it BACK in the batter, hahaha...silly kiddo! But I guess that's the joy of being a kid, right?

Anyway, this year we made a few delicious treats...one night I had a few girls over for a little pizza, wine & of course...baking!! It got a bit messy, but so fun...got them all little reindeer antler headbands, haha!






Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows (no recipe...just dip marshie into melted chocolate, then in sprinkles or crushed graham craker...mmmmm...and let dry on wax paper)





Red Velvet White Chocolate Cookies (recipe here - from WhipperBerry Dish)



Sugar Cookies (used the box mix from Trader Joes - comes with cookie mix, frosting mix & sprinkles! these were fabulous!!)




Double Chocolate Peppermint Pudding Cookies (recipe here - from my fav food blogger: Chef in Training)

I doubled this recipe and ended up with around 85 little cookies...perfect for gift giving!

Cinnamon Swirl Bread {not pictured} (recipe here - from Mangio da Sola). I made two loaves of these to give to my family...they say it was good, wish I'd made one for my house! haha

My favs were the chocolate peppermint... I'd never used Andes peppermint baking chips before, so yum! Dipped in cold milk...serious drool.