Thursday, December 22, 2011

Merry Christmas

 I just had to post one more time and show you the tree my daughter put together in our living room.

 She and her sister had their own little tree with their ornaments when they were younger, and she decided to have a tree of with the ornaments she's been given over the years. The garland was the only thing I helped her with.

The angel was given to her on her first Christmas from us.



I made a her a little bear with wings  the following year.


Can you guess what her favorite food is?







This ornament makes me hungry for In n Out Burger. They serve their fries in a "fry boat" like this:





Muffy Van der Bear is so cute.



 

It was nice to sit back and watch her decorate her tree. I think she did a great job, don't you?

 So glad you stopped by during these very busy last few days before Christmas!

Pam 


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas Buckeyes

4 days and counting until Christmas! Are you ready??? 

Last weekend was a little stressful for us as we had to get the last of the baking done. Every year we give 
our neighbors and friends a few of our favorite home baked goodies.
Buckeyes are on the list.

Here's our recipe:
1 lb. Confectioners sugar
1  18 oz. jar chunky peanut butter (we use all natural)
1 stick butter (1/4 lb.)

Soften the butter at room temp, cream butter with sugar. 
Add Peanut Butter and mix 
completely. Form into small bite size balls and refrigerate 
till firm.

This is a double batch getting chilled in the refrigerator:

 
 Now for the chocolate:
Melt in a double boiler:
12 oz. Semi Sweet chocolate chips in a double boiler till smooth. 
I use a large mixing bowl over a 
medium sized pot with about 3 inches of water in it. 

This is how the chocolate looks when its ready:




I only take out 1-2 dozen out of the refrigerator to dip. It's easier to dip the balls if they are cold.

If you have a thin ice pick, it works much better for dipping than a toothpick. I discovered this when I couldn't find any toothpicks!


Then, just swirl the ball around the bowl until it looks like this:


Set the dipped balls on a cookie sheet with either waxed paper or parchment paper.


Remember, they don't have to look perfect! I dipped all of the Buckeyes this year and they aren't nearly as perfect as when Mr. Fanatic makes them, but nobody seems to care when they are eating them! 

Once' the tray is full, put it in the refrigerator for the Buckeyes to set up. Once they are cooled, I just smoosh the hole left by the ice pick closed.

They make a really nice addition to your other gifts all wrapped up nice and pretty.


Pumpkin bread is another favorite baked good that I share at Christmas.

What are your favorite Christmas goodies to share?

Pam


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Christmas In The Breakfast Room

There are two rooms in our home that  turned out better than I planned and I'm lovin' the way they look all decked out for Christmas.  Our Foyer is one space that has never looked better...
our breakfast room is the other.  I've been spending a lot of time lately in the kitchen and  the breakfast room and this is what I look at while baking and cooking Christmas goodies:

I ordered the wreaths from Home Decorators.

All of the other Christmas decorations were things we already had.







I love whenever I get a chance to bring out my ruby red glasses that we've had for many years. I think I first saw similar ones on the cover of a Southern Living December issue many years ago.


We've been busy this weekend finishing up the baking and getting the last shipments ready to drop off at the post office and of course, going to a few Christmas gatherings.

Hope you are enjoying the season!

Pam



Thursday, December 15, 2011

Christmas Decorating In The Foyer

I don't need to tell you that Christmas is a little over a week away...
Are you ready?
I still have so much to do and will hopefully get it most of it finished by this weekend.

At least my foyer is ready to welcome guests!!! I think this is the best the foyer has ever looked. It's a really large space and until recently, it has been pretty much empty and ignored.
The front door used to be  white and I painted it black a few months ago.



Greenery from our large Leyland cypress trees were added to the shelf above the front door. I will have to find another source next year as we are having these trees removed so we can have a larger vegetable garden in the Spring.

I love glass ornaments. The Santa and Snow White are Christopher Radko. Snow White and Winnie the Pooh are part of my daughter's collection that we've given her over the years.


This snowman is my favorite Christmas decoration and I'm not sure why. I just have to smile whenever I look at him.


So glad you stopped by when I know you  are so busy!

Hope you have a great day and get a lot of things crossed off your list!!!

Pam


Monday, December 12, 2011

Super Easy DIY Christmas Stenciled Table Runner


How's everyone doing this Christmas season, so far? Are you all finished with your shopping, baking and wrapping yet? 
This is the week where I'm wishing I started sooner. Since we live so far away from family, we try to get our gifts and goodies wrapped up and sent off before December 15th...and my goal is to get the shipping out the door no later than this coming Tuesday.

I wanted to share an quick and super easy project that you can even do with kids (just be sure to cover the table you're working on).
Since burlap is so popular this year, I've cut a couple of runners for several of my table tops. I thought it would be fun to stencil some snowflakes on one of them


I think this project took all of ten minutes plus clean up time. I used a snowflake stencil I found at Hobby Lobby awhile back and dabbed on some white acrylic paint randomly across the runner.


That's it!






I told you it was a super easy project!

My next project is dipping Buckeyes! Yum!

Pam



Friday, December 9, 2011

O, Christmas Tree...

December seems to be flying by for me, is it for you, too?
I've enjoyed all the link parties and have been so inspired by all of the gorgeous and creative Christmas decorating going on. You are all really amazing.

Im excited to finally show you our Christmas tree. We've been enjoying it being lit up, especially at night.
I love opening the boxes of ornaments and seeing my favorites from years past. The following two were purchased many years ago on a trip the Mr. Fanatic and I went on BK (before kids) to Santa Fe, New Mexico.




 Our daughter Jenny picked out the tree this year(again). I think it's one of our tallest at over 9 feet. I could barely reach the top with our tall ladder.



 I love these little blingy ornaments I found this year.

The fleur-de-lis is another one of my favorites.

Hope you are enjoying this wonderful season!

Pam


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Christmas Wreath and Front Door

Hope you all have been enjoying all the parties this week! It's been a lot of fun seeing all the fabulous decorations everyone has come up with.
I had a difficult time choosing what to do for my Christmas Wreath, so I used my Fall Wreath and added some burlap, greenery, a glittery star and of course, some burlap. I shopped the house for everything to create it.

 The weather was warm here today ~ 70 degrees....and this former Southern California girl is NOT complaining! 

I brought some poinsettias out for the photo because it was such a wonderful day. I used to fill the porch with them back in California and did the same the first Christmas we were in North Carolina. I found out the next morning after putting them outside that poinsettias do not like the cold! Lesson learned!


I might put up some lighted garlands a round the door and down our railing.





Hope you'll join me at the Blogger Block Party!

Pam


Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Christmas Tabletop

I wanted to join in on as many parties this week, so this is my second post for the day. The sofa table was decorated first this year with some new Christmas additions.



I love the bare branches I picked up in my yard, but for Christmas I just added some small red ornaments.

You'll see these lovelies in many of my Christmas decorating posts. I found these blingy ornaments at HomeGoods. Wish I could have found many more of these because they are so pretty!

These three decorations are my new favorites. Who doesn't love snow globes and bottlebrush Christmas trees?
































If you missed my Christmas mantel, you can see it here.
Pam