White elephant party 2011

Saturday was the second annual Sweeting White Elephant gift exchange. We didn't have as many people as last year (I blame John Williams... how selfish to get married on that day ;)) But we had a good time. And there were good gifts this year!

Jeff fought pretty hard for that Chia pet

Right before she opened it, Mandy said "I really hope it's a Justin Bieber poster!"

Notice that William is only showing his gift IN the bag... he got the surprise, special gift of the night :)

Candace and Josiah will be having tacos for the next two weeks.

After scoring 5.5 lbs of licorice, Amber no longer has to buy gifts for her kids

And of course, I got to do some cooking and decorating, which was fun!

We had a small hot chocolate bar. I got the little buckets from the $1 section of Target and picked up a bottle of chalkboard spray paint from Walmart. The recipe for crockpot hot chocolate was delicious and decadent. Daniella had three cups, including one for the road. Check it out: 

http://www.mrshappyhomemaker.com/2010/12/creamy-hot-cocoa-in-crockpot.html

These are my favorite chocolate malt cupcakes. I tried to dye the chocolate frosting white, but I didn't have nearly enough dye. I threw on some white sprinkles and sanding sugar and called it good. The template for the North Pole signs is here.

I also made a delicious spicy cranberry cream cheese dip, but forgot to take pictures. It was really easy to make (puree and pour) and was a huge hit.

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season.

It's [Finally] starting to look like Christmas

Given that we were out of town the first half of December, we got a little behind on making our house festive. Over the past week or so, I've slowly been able to put up a few things and it's starting to look much better!

We had a bit of trouble finding a tree this year, probably because it was so late. Home Depot had a ton, but most were either too small or seemed dead already. We finally found one that was full and fresh.... but it was huge. We knew it was huge, but got it anyway. It was a struggle to get home (I still have bruises to prove it). But I love it and I love how it smells.

We went with a red and green theme this year. I think it needs something extra... maybe some ribbons? Maybe I'll add those tonight. And since it's such a monster, the star topper we've been using doesn't work and I can't find something bigger. Oops. I think next year I want to try and all silver and white tree.

I saw this thing on Pinterest that said you could hang some mirrors inside the tree to help reflect the light back out. I hung about 20 (see it behind the Santa Claus?) I don't know if it helped, but it couldn't hurt.

Also courtesy of Pinterest, I saw these scrapbook-paper trees and thought they looked easy. Definitely use the template - I didn't, and regretted it. But I thought it helped make the Nativity table a little less bare.

My "craft closet" has about four more holiday crafts that I started and didn't finish. I may do them after Christmas, that way they're actually done before Christmas next year :)

Happy National Cupcake Day!

Today is national cupcake day. I asked my boss if I could have the day off, seeing as it may as well be a religious holiday for me. She laughed. A lot. I was only halfway joking ;)

In celebration of the day, I made these gingerbread cupcakes that I found on The Rockstar Diaries.

I'm not thrilled with them. They're good, just not my favorite. It's not a taste thing - it's a texture thing. They're very dense, which is just not how I like my cupcakes. If that's your thing, this might be your new favorite recipe. Steph and I had a debate yesterday, partially sparked by this cupcake, about the difference between cupcakes and muffins. It's not just about the icing - an un-iced cupcake is clearly not a muffin. Google tells us the difference is in the ratio of fats, sugars and eggs. Google also said "If you threw a cupcake against the wall, you would hear something of a 'poof!' If you threw a muffin, you would hear a 'thud!'"... but I think it was joking. These little gingerbread guys are clearly in the grey area between cupcake and muffin. But I digress. Here's the recipe.

What you need:
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1 T. ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
Dash cloves
1 1/2 T. molasses

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat to combine. Add in the remaining ingredients and beat until just fully mixed (don't overbeat). Pour into cupcake liners and bake at 350 for about 18 minutes.

The original recipe calls for a buttermilk buttercream. But I decided to go a different direction and make up my own Eggnog buttercream. I didn't have a recipe, so I just kinda threw stuff in. Some of these measurements may be approximate - add or subtract as you wish.

What you need:
1 cup butter, softened
3-4 cups powdered sugar
3 T. eggnog
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Cream butter until fluffy (2-3 minutes). Continue beating as you gradually add in powdered sugar. Mix in eggnog (you may need more or less, depending on how stiff you want the frosting). Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon and cloves and beat until combined.

Happy Cupcake Day, the happiest day of the year!

Christmas ornament tradition continues

Since I was a kid, every year we go to Hallmark and pick out a keepsake ornament. I've always loved this tradition, so we keep doing it (see last year's here).

We weren't thrilled with the selection this year, but are still pretty happy with the ones we found. Hans' matches his Halloween costume! (sorry for the dark instagram photos)

Cruise Part III - Cozumel

Also known as Heaven. It was a perfect day, sunny and gorgeous. We didn't want to do one of the excursions because they're so expensive. We thought we'd just wing it. After getting off the ship, we asked a bunch of gift shop workers and taxi drivers what they recommended. They all said different things, haha. When we got to the taxi stand, they were telling us it would $30 to take us to the private beach we wanted to go to. Seriously? Yuck. We were hanging around waiting to see if anyone else from our boat was going there so we could try and share a cab. Hans overheard some guy negotiating with a rental company and heard him get offered a dune buggy for $55 a day. Then Hans stepped in and said "Ya, we'll do that, too." We took this little dune buggy all over the island, just enjoying the sun and the drive.

At the very southern tip of the island, we found an ecological preserve called Punta Sur. Entry was pretty cheap and there was a lot to see! There was a turtle nesting area, crocodile habitat, light house, and the most perfect private beach. The most beautiful white sands and crystal clear, turquoise waters. And almost abandoned. We saw only a few other people the whole time we were there. 

We rented snorkel gear, got all suited up and dove it! It was cold at first, but then felt wonderful. We saw a few, clear fish. And then I saw something huge. Like.... almost my size. And I kinda freaked. I was smacking Hans' arm to get him to turn back, but he didn't see it and kept swimming toward it! You could tell when he saw it. It was just lurking in the weeds at the bottom and staring at us. Creepy. I totally thought it was some sort of baby shark. We booked it back to the shore. As we returned our gear (with the guy teasing us for coming back so soon) we described what we'd seen to us and he's all "Oh, ya. That's a barracuda." Umm... what? No. I'm done with getting in the water. At least it's a good story....

Cruise Part II - Progreso

This little port didn't impress us too much. We did a double-decker bus tour that was pretty fun. We sat on the top and you had to watch your head because the power cables hang pretty low. Then we parked on a private beach. It was kinda a cloudy day, but we still got some sun. The water was a little murky and the beach had some junk on it. I imagine we just caught it on a bad day. The worst part was that every 30 seconds someone tried to come sell us a conch shell or a temporary tattoo or a bad dvd rip. We went back to the ship early cuz we were a little bored. Our dining buddies told us that they did an excursion inland to see some mayan ruins and really enjoyed it - we'd probably do that if we ever went back. At least we didn't get left behind like one very unlucky (and very drunk) couple.

double decker tour

That guy has an iguana!

We be cruisin'

We just got back our first cruise and we LOVED it! It was so much fun. We did a five-day trip out of Galveston on the Carnival Triumph. We stopped in Progreso and Cozumel. The ship was really nice, clean and comfortable. There was so much food! We ate ourselves silly. Progreso was just kind of "eh" but we absolutely loved Cozumel. We even got to see some dolphins swimming alongside the ship! I have a lot of photos, so it'll probably have to be split into multiple posts. We had a great time and can't wait to cruise again.

The Carnival Triumph. They just remodeled it this year and it was really nice!

Love the towel animals on the bed.

Formal night

Watching Rango in the outdoor movie theater

Our dining buddies, Krystal and Chris and Brad and Angel.