Merry Christmas - 2013

I Love ... L-O-V-E Love Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I love driving by the houses seeing lots of cars parked outside, the soft glow of candles or Christmas tree lights coming from the windows and just knowing that for a night - most of the world around me has slowed waaayyy down. Even in all of the business leading up to Christmas, those 2 days, life feels still.

Well, I should preface that by saying it feels that way AFTER 6pm on Christmas Eve. I am a crazy person and actually went to the mall Christmas Eve morning to pick up ONE last minute gift for my Grams. Its not that I minded the hustle and bustle of the crowds in the mall as much as the 30 minutes it took me to actually get into the mall parking lot and find a parking spot. Short traffic lights + hundreds of last minute shoppers on the road has the power to rip the merriness right out of you I tell ya. Thats why you shouldn't do it people! Lesson learned for next year. 

Lets speed back up to AFTER 6pm on Christmas Eve. :)

We spent the evening of the 24th at Mark's parents house like we did last year. Enjoyed a delicious dinner of prime rib, played some games and opened gifts. My father-in-law had been working on a special project all year for us. We knew about it, but we hadn't seen it yet so we were excited for it to be unveiled.

A beautiful, hand crafted dining room table. It even has 2 12 inch leaves to put in it to extend it! I know this will be a treasured piece of furniture in the future, especially to Mark. 

Christmas morning we spent just the two of us, and Piper. We enjoyed a little fire while we opened our stockings...

But other than that we only had one gift each to open under the tree, since we had agreed that our new appliances were our Christmas gift to each other. I should've bought a big red bow to put on it on Christmas morning just to make things more exciting ; ) But I do love my new refrigerator!

We snapped a few pictures in front of our tree before heading to Mark's Granny's for lunch.

After lunch and presents at Mark's Granny's we headed to my parent's house at about 4pm. We played some more games there, mostly enjoyed one another's company and opened some more presents. 

Mark loved his new Orioles Grill Spatula!
My brother Noah had his name this year;
We always draw names among the
siblings...

I loved  the new boots my sister Erin got me!     

She had me this year! Check out what else she made me...

 Erin and her husband made me this gift to hang in Mark and I's music room. I absolutely love it and can't wait to hang it up!

 

My Grams was super excited about her new wallet.

My fantastic parents who continue to make Christmas a special and magical time even for their married children. They always go above and beyond on Christmas and we have always been spoiled growing up with the best Christmas memories (not always the presents either!)

One last family picture of our 2nd Christmas together! 

Here's to hoping Christmas was a delightful ending to 2013 for you and your family 

and a beautiful beginning for the New Year!

PS

Look at our Christmas picture from last year...(ignoring the poor quality)

 Look how big our puppy has grown this past year!

I miss being able to pick her up and hold her!

Christmas Peppermint Bark

...White Chocolate Peppermint Bark...

Just some Christmas treat goodness that we passed out to our neighbors this year. :)

Happy 2 days until Christmas!

1 Week til Christmas = Christmas Cookies!

1 week til Christmas can only mean one thing -

Baking Time!

I had my family over this morning - along with all of the little kiddos that my mom and sisters babysit for - and spent the morning making some good old fashioned sugar cookies.

Here's the Cookie Recipe we used today:

Ingredients: 

2 cups flour

1½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp milk

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Stir 1½ cups flour with baking powder and salt into a large bowl.

- In another bowl, mix butter with an electric mixer. After the butter has been creamed then go ahead and beat in the sugar, egg, vanilla, and milk. (Using a whisk attachment if its available - I like to use my Kitchen Aid Mixer for this.)

- Slowly stir in the flour mixture until fully blended - then add in the remaining 1/2 cup of flour a little at a time until the dough is thick enough to roll out. Put the dough into the refrigerator and let it chill - 2-3 hours for best result. (Today I was a little late in making the dough so I chilled it in the freezer for about 10 minutes - it worked - but chilling it in the fridge is the best way to go.) 

- Roll out dough on a surface that is lightly dusted with powder sugar. (You can use flour but the powdered sugar keeps the cookies sweet. Then cut out your shapes! Make sure not to make them too thick or the shapes will puff up and lose their shape. 

- Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a rack. Don't transfer too soon or you may cause the cookie to crumble.

Last step - Decorate and Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My mom likes to tell the story about how she went in to labor with me every year on my birthday. It's not a particularly crazy story, but it is meaningful to her (and me) because it started out the night of her birthday...

It was December 13th, 1988 - the night of my moms 25th birthday. She was 9 months pregnant with me and says that after she got home from her birthday celebration with family she went up the stairs and sat down in the middle of the empty nursery. She likes to tell me how she sat there and rubbed her belly and said "Okay Meggie Kaye, my birthday is over so you can come out now." Legend has it that the very next day, while my mom was Christmas shopping at the mall with 2 of her sisters, her water broke in the women's restroom and she went in to labor - I made my appearance the following day on December 15th. (I don't mean to brag or anything, but I would just like to point out how obedient I was as a kid - even from the womb ;)) 

Because my birthday is so close to my moms, we often have a joint family celebration! This year, since it was my moms 50th and we went down to the beach house, we got to celebrate my birthday there as well. My parents made the family a delicious birthday breakfast Sunday morning (breakfast foods happen to be my favorite) and I got to spend time with my lovely family until it was time to head home.

Mark surprised me by having flowers waiting for me when we got home along with some presents.

Gosh, isn't it pretty? I was so surprised. Mark's not one to buy jewelry for presents all of the time, so it's pretty special when he picks something out for me. And I think he did a good job. :)

He also took me out to the Melting Pot - its a fondue restaurant with a-mazing food. Mmm my tastebuds do a little dance just thinking about it. We were planning on getting the full 4 course meal which includes cheese dip, salads, a meat entree (I usually get the seafood because I love the salmon!) and then a chocolate dessert. Buuuut since we had such a late big breakfast we weren't quite feeling hungry enough for all of that - so we skipped the meat portion.

For the cheese dip (I like to get the fiesta cheese without the jalepenos) they bring out bread, tortilla chips, veggies and apples to dip. I had never heard of dipping apples in cheese until I went to the melting pot, but its not too bad. :)

The chocolate is my favorite part! My favorite is the Banana's Foster chocolate - I could eat that straight off a spoon without dipping anything! But Mark's not a big fan of Bananas - like he hates them can't even stand the smell of them haha - so I sacrificed and got a cookies and cream chocolate dip instead ;) They bring out marshmallows coated in graham crackers or oreos, (which you can roast over your chocolate as the waiter sets your chocolate on fire with a little flambee action) they also bring out strawberries, banana's, brownies, rice krispy treats, short bread chunks and then my personal favorite - a small slice of cheese cake. I just don't want it to end when I'm there. 

And I'm only there maybe once a year because it's not in the average joe price range for regular old dinner date. Nope, this place is saved just for special occasions. But I think that why I love it so much, you know? If there is a Melting Pot near you and you haven't been, I highly recommend a splurge to try it out. It is a fun experience. You can tell by the pictures that it has a romantic ambiance about it with the dim lighting and its a dinner that takes a while. You can count on being there for over an hour - depending on how many course you get - and I find that thats a nice change from the go, go, go dinners we do on a more frequent basis. 

Crazy to think I am the age now that my mom was when she had me! In fact my mom had 2 babies by this age. Guess I better get working on that ; )

Here's to being a quarter of a century old! Life is good. : )

Happy 50th Birthday Mom!

My mom turns 50 today! We wanted to do something special for her big day so my dad got us a beach house down in the OBX, NC. (Outer Banks, NC) He and mom came down early on Wednesday to spend a couple days by themselves celebrating and then we (meaning her children and son in laws) joined her this evening after we all got off work! My grandma even came down this week to celebrate her youngest daughter's 50th birthday! (She'll be here until after New Years! Yay for Grandma's!) We'll be spending the weekend here together doing Christmas shopping and just hanging out as a family. My 25th birthday is on Sunday so I've heard murmurings of a little celebrating for me as well.

50, while just another number, just another year, really just another birthday - is still pretty significant! One present we ("the originals" {scroll down}) decided to put together for her was pretty inexpensive but did evoke a few tears from her when she saw it and read through it.

We put together 50 words or things that remind us of mom or character traits that she exemplifies and put them together in a collage. We had it printed and framed for her to keep in her room. She loved it and I have to say that we originals had fun coming up with things and then narrowing it down to the 50 that we wanted to put on here! If you're looking for a sweet, thoughtful gift for a loved one - try this! It won't disappoint. :)

So Happy Birthday Mom! Here's to you and the big 5-0! I pray you have 50 more years here with us!

Its Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas!

Feeling the Christmas Spirit as I'm watching the CMA's Christmas Special on ABC tonight, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to share some of the Christmas pictures my sister Mallory took of us a few weeks ago!

Photo credit to Without Words Photography

Thanksgiving in Pictures: The Poindexters Host Thanksgiving

Some snap shots of our Thanksgiving!

All the dishes prepped and ready to go the day before...

I even labeled everything to make sure I had enough dishes :)

The brine I used for our Turkey. I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman's blog. My picture doesn't look quite as appetizing as hers, but it smelled amazing as it was heating up!

Prepped and ready to cook! I was so nervous putting it in the oven to cook while we left to visit with Mark's family, but it ended up working out perfectly - this bird was just 30 minutes away from being done when we got back home. 

My brother-in-law Adam making his famous Corn Bread for our feast!

Erin and Adam came over a little bit before the rest of my family to help finish cooking all of the food. :)

Just some appetizers to hold everyone over until the rest of the food was done.

The table all set :)

The place settings...

The Centerpiece... small and simple to leave plenty of room for food. :)

What's a holiday without family pictures?

Erin and Mallory - twins born 7 years apart ; )

The "Originals" as we like to call ourselves. 

My man. 

My fabulous mama - who just happens to be turning 50 this month!

The feast:

(The turkey taste was a hit, but I think I need to work on the presentation a bit more next year!)