Rachael's the winner!

Congrats to Rachael for being the winner of the Christmas vacation dvd. Rach, send me your mailing address and I'll work on getting the dvd sent to you a.s.a.p.

Funny thing about Rachael.... I was pretty sure she hated me for the longest time... and I had a little angst towards her. We were in the same mommy's group and every year at the Christmas party we did a gift exchange. We did the "dirty santa" game where you can steal the gift someone opened, etc. I hate the "dirty santa" game...let it be known. Anyways, the first year I got this AWESOME gift...movie theater gift certificates. Rachael stole them from me. I ended up with some lame-o gift that I don't remember. I was a little upset. I'm not the best sport when it comes to playing "dirty santa."

I spent the following year putting it all behind me and attended the next Christmas party. I got this AWESOME gift...movie theater gift certificates. Rachael stole them from me. I ended up with some lame-o gift that I don't remember. Deja Vu? Yes? Mad...um.. yep a bit. I was totally convinced she had it out for me in a big way. I mean, hello? Two years in a ROW?

It might have been the last year I played "Dirty Santa."

Do you think that maybe she just thought the movie certificates was an "AWESOME gift" just like I did?

Anyways, Rach, I'm glad the days of you stealing my gifts are over, and we are still friends on the other side. And lucky you, you won the funniest Christmas movie of them all. One of these days, I'm going to get some form of movie from you --haha ;0)

Make it a great day!

Christmas Vacation

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you may have noticed that I am on a "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" kick.

I LOVE that movie. Love love love.

Funny funny funny funny.

Have been known to watch it in July. Doesn't matter when you watch it, it is just hysterical.

Did I mention I think it is funny?

Now certainly you have all seen this movie. But perhaps you do not have it in your movie library. You should. On a day when you are exceptionally grumpy, a few minutes of this movie chippers ya right up.

So, to share my love of Clark Griswold, to make sure one of you has this in your library that doesn't already, I'm giving away one "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" DVD.

To enter, leave a comment on this post and tell me one of your favorite holiday memories.

Winner will be announced on Sunday!

Rockettes Christmas Spectacular

We had tickets to the Rockettes Christmas Spectactular yesterday afternoon. We took the girls and gma and gpa went with us as well. It was a great show and we had fabulous seats.

Brooke was mesmerized and did great. Hannah did good considering she is two, she did spend a lot of time flipping the arm rests up and down. Fortunately the Big Man In Red made his appearance frequently throughout the show which recaptured her attention anytime it started to wander. I should have waited in line to buy popcorn for the girls, because Hannah would have sat much better. I also should have waited in line to buy myself something to drink because by the time it was over I was so thirsty I felt like I licked a cat.

Anyways, enjoy the pictures!

Amazing nativity scene they did. I was so glad they included Jesus in their show.

I can do that. I'm sure I can. You'll just have to take my word for it. ;)

My lunch- Bruschetta De Angie

Have you seen the movie "Julie and Julia" ? It's a pretty good movie. Except that it makes me think "why can't I come up with such a fun and fabulous idea that will then make me famous and wealthy...?" But, cute movie. Kinda makes me adore Julia Child, even though I've never seen one of her shows. So the movie makes you want to get up and cook, right?

I mean, I'm baking my butt off here, but I haven't made any fabulous meals for awhile. One scene in this movie, Julie has some french bread browning away in a saute pan with a bunch of butter.

That scene spoke to me I tell you. I've been salivating ever since. And so, my little lunch was born.


I think it's basically Bruschetta. Which I pronounce BroooSSSHHHHHeta. Not BrewSketA. But I've never looked at an actual bruschetta recipe so I'm not sure how mine deviates.

Here we go. Melt some butter in a pan. Don't skimp.

Put in your slices of French Bread. Brown away. Here is how it should look when you flip it.

If you wanted to be healthy, I suppose you could "spray your butter with "I can't believe it's not butter" spray and toast it up under the broiler. But mine is yummier, I'm telling you.

Plus you top it with vegetables, so it like totally evens out.

Browned bread. While it's doing it's thing, and don't lose track of it, chop up some tomato and onion. Sprinkle with whatever italian seasoning you have in the cupboard. I did oregano.

Put in some freshly minced garlic if you don't have a hot date. I never have a date, let alone a hot date, so I sure as heck used the garlic.

Toss the happy veggies together, drizzle with a schmidge of olive oil, and a little more than a schmidge of balsamic vinegar. Toss some more.

Place on top your lovely warm browned butter toasted bread. Eat away.


You could also toss some shredded mozzarella in the tomato mixture if you have some.

My husband saw the pic of this and wrinkled his nose. First off, he hates tomatoes, and secondly, he asked "is there meat on that?". Um nope... which is why it's my special little lunch for no one else ;)

Have a great day!

Random Musings from the last 24 hours

Here is a pictorial of some of my thoughts the last 24 hours.

Doing some tree decorating by the light of our first fire of the season. My thought is "why doesn't hannah pose for pics like brooke does? She's so in that uncooperative picture stage"

After this picture I took one of Matt putting his bubble lights on this tree. He was not happy I took his picture, to which I thought and said "It is my job to document the life of this family, do you or do you not want to be part of that?!". Lucky for him that picture is fuzzy.

Yesterday I did two cakes (two of five for the week). I'm darned impressed with myself on how they turned out. I made hello kitty out of chocolate. And I spent over an hour making all the green dots on the lego cake.

Brooke brought a note home from school saying they are making friendship trail mix next week. She is to provide a bag of Reese's Pieces, which I purchased at the store today. They have been staring me down ever since. I can't wait for Brooke to get home so I can put these in her backpack!

Nearly as important as the oxygen in my lungs these days. Damn Kansas.

For the first time ever, I bought vanilla beans today. Now I must figure out what to do with them. ie. what I want to make with them.

Thursdays used to be my favorite day of the week. Mom's Day Out is fabulous, until it is time to pick Hannah up and she screams, kicks and throws a fit as I have to literally drag her out to the car. She does not want to leave "school." She screams all the way home. It is not fun. My thoughts at those moments is "I do not get paid enough for this."

If this is true, I've got the happiest damn kitchen in town when I'm baking. There's stuff everywhere.

I had this for lunch today. It was soooooo good. I'll be nice and tell you how I made it very soon.

Christmas Tradition: The Giving Tree

We are Christmas nuts around here. We love to decorate. We put up 8 trees of varying sizes (including three full sized ones). Yes we have started the process for this year :)

In our dining room we have this tree:

I call it the Giving Tree. Every year we load it up with new ornaments. Then anyone who comes to our house over the Christmas season takes an ornament off it to take home with them. We want to share a little of our Christmas spirit with our guests.

One of my favorite ornaments we've had on it are these little guys:

There's a few glittery snowflakes and stars on it now too:

Sometimes I forget to offer them to a visitor... but in years past some of my travel customers have taken an ornament home, my family visiting from Iowa, whatever guests we have at Thanksgiving, friends we have over for Christmas parties and cookie exchanges, even the Schwan man got one a few years ago.

It's our little way of saying... Merry Christmas...Thanks for sharing a little bit of this busy time of year with us....We love Christmas....Spread the cheer....Take some Christmas Spirit home with you....You are important to us....God Bless you my Friend.

So if you are at our home in the next 6 or 7 weeks, be sure to get an ornament off the dining room tree. Our little gift to you. I may or may not remember to tell you about it when you're here.

And think about doing your own little giving tree. There are cute and affordable ornaments that you can buy by the dozen on Oriental Trading Co's website... even some of the inexpensive stuff at Walmart is cute. Brooke's first Christmas we did ornaments with her picture in them. Spend a day making fun little ornaments with the kids. This is a fun and simple way to share a little of yourself and your love this Holiday Season.

God gave us the most precious gift at Christmas...Jesus.... which set the tone for the fact that Christmas is about GIVING. What will you give?

Flashback Monday

The well is currently dry in my creative brain today, so I thought I'd do a little flashback.

Stuck a disc of pictures in the computer and this is what I found... from mid-November 2006. Brooke was about 3.5 years old.

It was the first time she got to actually help decorate the Christmas trees.... (and yes, we have started unloading the Christmas closet!).

She's so cute!

Bloggy friends, asking for help!

Hey gang,

Do you have a blog? Are you local? Would you consider doing me a big favor?

Might you share a blip on your blog about my Worthwhile Moments Sweet Shoppe? Just to help spread the word a little bit more? If you do, and tell me about it in the comments or via email, I will give you a $5 credit or a free pan of cinnamon rolls, your choice :)

Worthwhile Moments Sweet Shoppe can be found on facebook... and offers cakes, cookies, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, and assorted other sweets! Christmas offerings will include caramel corn and cherry mash bites among other things! There is a gallery on FB, but here are a few of the cakes I have done recently! I promise a yummy treat sure to delight everyone, quality, care and love put into each sweet that I make :)

I'd really appreciate you sending folks my way!

And for you non-bloggers.... if you want to send a little nod out to your email contacts, that'd be awesome too! I have made some customer referral cards so if you see me and want some, ask :)

Thanks gang for your support! I hope I can make a treat for you soon!

Biker Chick

Grandma bought Hannah a new coat. it goes well with her little boots.

Check out my little biker chick:

Brooke's got a jacket similar to this one too. I need to get some pics of her in it, the ones I have are on my iphone and they're not that great.

No Mommy Monday yesterday b/c no one sent me a pic. Boo. So much for that idea ;)