Jikana Damaru: 11/29/10

From Turkey to Lights

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a very good one. The food was scrumptious, the four days of relaxation and quality time with Hubby was amazing, and being with family was joyous. Thanksgiving morning I woke up and began baking. I made corn casserole (my favorite) and peanut butter pie (a new recipe I tried that turned out so delicious). My very first pie I've ever made!

Then we headed to my sisters to have a whole feast.

Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole.. it was all there.

Of course I snapped a few shots of my nieces and nephew...

Sleepy Bailey!

Olivia giving Bailey kisses.

Handsome Hayden cheesing...I think I bribed him with something for this shot ;)

Friday was a full on shopping day in the madness. As I've said, I love Black Friday. I really do. It's the only day of the year I will wake up before 8am and embrace chaos with open arms. I got so much of my list done. Friday evening I went back out with Hubby to search for our perfect Christmas tree. Our ceiling is a weird height so we decided we wanted a 7ft. tree with clear lights. Yeah, nearly impossible. Every single tree was either 6.5 or 7.5! After going to six stores we called it a night. We went home and watched 3:10 to Yuma, a really great western movie- I recommend seeing it. Saturday morning we tried two more stores, and failed again! So we went back to Sears, where the prettiest 6.5ft tree stood, and made the purchase!

And decorating was what we did the rest of the day, well I did.. Hub pitched in here and there while watching college football. And of course I had to take a few pictures of Roxy by the tree..

Hehe, probably too many pictures. But hey I don't have a kid yet. Though I'll probably still take as many pictures of her then :)

That night we cozied up on the couch, turned on the tree and lighted garland on the fireplace, put on the Poinsetta Pine Scentsy bar, and watched 2012 (I do not recommend- one of the worst movies I've seen lately). But it was a nice evening.

Sunday we had friends over to watch the Redskins game. Another loss. Boo. They're now 5-6, I had much higher hopes for them this year. But we made chili, rotel, and baked reindeer cookies. That made it better :)

I so enjoyed every minute of this Holiday time off, I can not wait for Christmas!!

I feel behind on blogging, with a lot to catch up on!

some blue for you

Just cause it's my signature blog colour....

Flickr images L-R courtesy of: jagosaurus, colourdodge, aimee ray, memake.

Dipped in Chocolate

I was on a mission last week to see if I could produce a cake pop!

My mission failed - big time - capital F type failure

I jumped on facebook and mentioned my failure and my lovely party friends came back at me with lots of suggestions - add copha, use Wilton melts, add some oil, keep melting the chocolate!

Alas it was too late for my cake pops, so girls I have collected all your tips and will be better prepared next time!

I did however have a variety of "sticks" on hand as I also wanted to make pretty chocolate dipped sticks - pretzel sticks, wafter sticks, bread sticks - any sticks I could find really. So please enjoy some time with me (and my sticks) in my kitchen...

Can't believe I am showing you this but here is my poor excuse for a cake pop!

Mr A said it tasted good - as long as you closed your eyes!

With these lovely gold and silver sprinkles on them I was pleased with how my sticks and pretzels turned out - they would be perfect for a christmas dessert table!

Any further tips on making the perfect cake pop! Please - pretty please?

Winter Woodland dessert table ideas

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This week on Scrapbook Dreams, I continue my theme of a "Winter Woodland Christmas" with these gorgeous images of inspirational ideas for my Winter Woodland themed dessert table. I have most of my Winter Woodland candy with which to fill my Christmas candy jars, and I am now preparing to make a gingerbread bird house, Christmas cake, cookies, mince pies, chocolates and more...

Have a sweet day!

Week-a-Boo

I can't believe another weekend has passed! Time is flying by so fast I just can not keep up with it! Can you believe this is the last weekend of November! Hello December...you are just around the corner. This weekend was wonderful. On Saturday I had a special day with my mummy! We went into the city and had a shopping day! it was so lovely just to chill out and spend some girl time with each other. No husbands or work or doggies - which our lives are full of - just mum, myself and the endless shops in the city. We were only going to spend the morning but by the time we stopped for lunch it was 1 oclock and we had only gotten through one street of shops. So we stayed for a few more hours - while we were there :-P I really loved spending this special day with my mum!

~ This beautiful turkey and bacon sandwich restored my energy and got me through our day of shopping! Shopping is such hard work ~

Today we had a lot of fun! It was one of my favourite days of being a 'puppy mummy' My puppies are my babies. I celebrate all of their birthdays and give them cakes and presents. I talk to them, discipline them and love them like they were my babies. and today was no different. Today we were off to visit SANTA PAWS. Rspca put on this event every year where you can go and take your pooches to the store and get their picture taken with SANTA PAWS. A Christmas highlight for our puppy babies.

We got up nice and early and had a special bath just for Santa!

~ Then we were all set and ready to go ~

~ So we waited... ~

... and waited

... and then 2 hours later it was time to go in...and of course my babies were too scared of Santa and wouldn't sit with him hahah they were just like kids! Blaze just froze and wouldn't move! I told them that we had waited 2 hours for them to see Santa so they were getting a dam photo haha so mummy and daddy had to sit with them with the dogs on our laps hahah sound familiar 'real mummies' out there??? God help us when we have kids hehe but at least we got a family photo with Santa! We get the pic in a few weeks!

Every Sunday night we have family dinner at my mum and dads. In our busy lives it allows us to all get together and talk about our weeks and we end up just laughing the whole entire time. Mum cooks a meal and we just chill out and relax. This Sunday was very special as we celebrated the first weekend of Christmas - in our family anyway. Mum had put up their Christmas tree and had completely decorated the house! We had dinner by candle light, sparklers after dinner and then a walk up the street to see our first Christmas lights. A perfect night to celebrate the beginning of Christmas!