Liam's First Christmas | 2013

Liam's first Christmas was wonderful! We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house - dinner with both Paul's and my parents, and my brother, A.J. Liam enjoyed sitting at the table with us and then opening all kinds of fun gifts! (sorry no pics from the Eve).

Christmas morning was a lot of fun, I think the highlight was definitely seeing Liam's reaction to his gifts. Obviously he doesn't understand anything about Christmas, but he definitely had fun with the new gifts. We started off with Scout - I had a lot of fun programing him, and Liam loves toys that talk to him, so he got a kick out of his new Scout plush pup!

LiamChristmas2013_ScoutNext was the gift hand-picked from Daddy! Liam's very own laptop! Liam is always trying to get on our laptops, so now he's got his very own to bang away at those keys! And to his delight it has a mouse too! So yummy!!

LiamChristmas2013_laptopAnd lastly Liam got his first Early Rider! It's essentially a bike, but a very cool bike. It can turn in any direction and helps to develop balance. Liam has a bit of growing to do, but he definitely seems to like it. Another thing that he can chase after Chunk with... hehehe

LiamChristmas2013_earlyriderWe also had a wonderful Christmas, and following our little family time, we headed to Gama and PaPa's for some brunch and more holiday fun! Al in all it was a wonderful first Christmas for this growing family!

LiamChristmas2013_goodtimesWe hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to a wonderful New Year!


Christmas Breakfast 2012 | CRAZY FUN!!!

Well, we are catching up as usual! But I definitely wanted to be sure to post about our 2012 Christmas Breakfast because it seems to get better and better every year! So last year we ran out of Mimosa's, so we made sure to stock up on the beverages, but this time around we ran out of food (this was a first)! We did a Breakfast Burrito Bar - sorry no pictures, the food went fast! But it's not surprising when we had such an awesome turnout with probably 15 more friends than last year! We had to have had 45 people or so at our house for this awesome holiday gathering!

The food was delicious, but the company was even better! We had a blast visiting with everyone and of course the White Elephant game was an even bigger hit! Lots of great gifts to choose from and people were stealing left and right!

Check out the fun pics Paul caught! Santa even came out!

ChristmasBreakfast2012

It was such a fun event we are already scheming for plans next year! We may even have to move locations!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy Holiday! :)


Homemade Christmas Ornaments: Favors for Our Christmas Breakfast

I know this is a little late coming, but we wanted to post it anyway. Better late than never! As you may read in the previous post, we have an annual Christmas Breakfast, and what's a party without some memorable favors!

I'm a very crafty person and have always loved to be able to give friends and family something to remember when they leave a happy gathering such as the Christmas Breakfast! So this year, I found the idea for the Color Swirl ornaments, and they turned out great! Everyone was very excited to take one or more home with them!

What you need to make them:

  • Clear Glass Ball Ornaments (I got mine at Garden Ridge)
  • Acrylic Paints (an assortment of colors - I got a mix of shimmer/pearl paints as well as solid)
  • Ribbon (for hanging)
  • Card Stock Paper (for tags)

It takes some patience, but all you need to do is remove the metal tops, and pick a few colors you like together and drip the paint inside. Enough to coat about a quarter to a third of the ball going in, and then swirl it around. It also helps to add some water to the paints as they will swirl better, but not too much or you'll have to do multiple coats. Swirl the paint around inside the glass ornament until it is fully coated and then you can turn them upside down over a cup to drip excess paint out (make sure the lip is narrow enough that the ornament will stay at the top). If you don't allow it to drip, it will take a LONG time to dry! You'll want to let them sit for about 24 hours before you put the metal top/hook back in (it's ok if there is a little bit of wet paint in there still).

And repeat for all the ornaments! It's great for kids, or to do with a glass of wine and some good friends! I had the help of my friends Desi and Elaine, and we knocked out 36 ornaments in no time! And they were a hit at the Christmas Breakfast!

Check these beautiful ornaments out! This isn't anywhere close to all of them, and we had some gorgeous ones that got snatched quick!

Can't wait for next year, I'm already thinking of ideas for favors! The ornament idea is always nice and people can start to collect them over the years, but I also saw something cool that could be used all winter long! We shall see... I'm sure I'll be collecting ideas throughout the year!


Christmas Breakfast Went Off Without a Hitch!

Paul and I have been celebrating the Christmas Holiday with our friends and family for three years now, and this year was by far the biggest! We had more people and more food than ever before (over 30 mouths to feed)!

I'm honestly not sure how the Christmas Breakfast tradition got started, I think it may have started as a friend gift exchange where we decided to include breakfast and then slowly but surely it grew bigger and better each year! I remember the first year we did it, the stove only had one eye that was working and we were miracle workers getting everything knocked out.

This year we had a mix of new and old friends as well as family! And it certainly went off without a hitch! Check out some pics from the festivities!

We had a total of 10 different breakfast casseroles! A mix of different egg casseroles, a couple hashbrown casseroles and a couple Apple Cinnamon French Toast Casseroles, not to mention all the other great fixing like bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, corn-beef hash, our favorite cheesy grits, fruit, and mimosa for everyone!

We all enjoyed the great food and the happy Christmas cheer and atmosphere. And of course the Christmas Breakfast wasn't complete without the White Elephant game! Luckily this year people were nice and didn't steal too much, and everyone seemingly left satisfied!

What a fun day we had! All of our friends and family got to take home some homemade ornaments, compliments of Desi, Elaine and myself! Everyone was excited about that!

After everyone left, Paul and I totally crashed! But all the work that went into this Christmas Breakfast was well worth it! Thank you to all of those who came and we look forward to another gathering next year! Merry Christmas EVERYONE!


Our Family Santa Pictures!

Paul, in coordination with Elaine, planned this year's Annual Family Santa Shoot, and of course we couldn't miss out on getting pictures with Santa. We had the privileged of getting pictures with Santa last year, and our dog Chunk has a blast!

So naturally, we have to make a tradition out of it and we got some great shots with Santa for 2011! We had a lot of fun and Chunk really enjoyed visiting with Santa too!

Check it out!

To get more information about the Santa Shoot, go to SantaShoot.com or you can contact Paul or Elaine by clicking on their names!