Baking and Gift Wrapping Howdy! I can't tell you how much I love Sundays when the kids have off on Mondays. Yep, no school tomorrow! Fun Evening with Friends... Had a fun time last night as me and Tedd and Denise and Marcelo went over to Maria (and Ed's) house for the evening. Maria will be hosting the PTA's Christmas party in a little over a week and is still decorating and setting up her house for the event. Denise and I helped her with some finishing touches and we even put the men to work, hanging some garland outside on the porch. None of them were all too happy about this, but they helped out making it a productive night. As usually, Maria and Ed had a nice food spread for us, lots of wine and tons of laughs!! Unfortunately, Denise was taking most of the pictures and then had to leave early so she didn't make it into the pictures :-(
 Maria's Front door with beautiful boxwood and eucalyptus swags and wreaths The men even helped by putting up the gorgeous tree she just purchased (sorry, my phone died so I couldn't take a picture. But, I'll be sure to take lots after it is fully decorated!! All in all, Maria seemed relieved that her house was ready for the big PTA event and I was thrilled we were all able to help get the work done. Baking Cookies... We are going to make this a baking day today. Gianna is all excited with one of the recipes she found for Italian Lemon Drop Cookies. So, we are headed over to Denise's house to bake away.  Italian Lemon Drop Cookies (Click Link for recipe) Perfect day for baking - sunny, cold and wintery! I originally wanted to go get our Christmas tree and new stand, but I'll take care of that tomorrow. I think the kids will have a more enjoyable day baking and hanging with Denise's girls. Christmas "To Do" Day 7... Later this evening, I'm going to start wrapping my Christmas Gifts. This year, we are going with a purple theme featuring whimsical angels. While I'm sure many of you are still in the midst of Christmas shopping, I thought I would give you some food for thought about "wrapping" your gifts! I have always loved wrapping gifts! Whether for a birthday or for Christmas! But, for Christmas, with the sheer number of gifts, I've made it a tradition to do something a little different each year. So, here are some ideas for making your holiday wrapping more interesting and sure to be a hit with everyone on your list!! * Theme Your Gift Wrapping I LOVE themes and each year, I try to select a theme that coordinates both my Christmas tree decor and color with the gift wrap. Here are some of the themes I've done: - Peppermint Candy - I wrapped the gifts in red & white striped tissue paper and used cello wrap over each one, tying the ends with ribbon to look like peppermint candy. For the tree, I used red and white ornaments, with red and white garland wrapping around - Emerald City - Using all emerald green paper and big, wide Gold ribbons, It was truly magical. My tree had only white lights with gold and emerald green ornaments. - Old Fashioned Teddy Bears - Everything was teddy bears - found an old fashioned paper that had gingham running through it and I finished off each package with a lovely gingham ribbon with a raffia bow for a very country look! The tree, of course had tons of teddy bears of all sizes, with gingham and raffia bows. * Have a Wrapping Party Get a bunch of friends together for an evening or afternoon of gift wrapping. Let everyone bring scissors, tape and all the trimmings they want to use to wrap their presents. Put on some Christmas music, serve some wine and you have the makings of a fun at-home ladies' night.  Bright Tape over Craft Paper (courtesy Country Living) * Try Something Different No one says that store bought gift wrap is the only way to adorn your presents. One year, I got rolls of white paper and decorated them by using decorative stamps and ink pads. Another time, I bought craft paper and using stickers and other scrapbooking materials, I personalized each present with a special scrapbooking look. There's so many fun things you can do! Country Living featured some great ideas as well. Check out these 14 Creative Gift-wrapping ideas.... Click Here. Whatever, you do, remember to have lots of fun!! Enjoy your Sunday - see you back here to tomorrow when I'll have a special Entertainment feature about the Broadway show, Love Letters. -E  | Another Celebration!Wow, I am definitely coming off of a very busy and productive week! I know I've said it a few times already before, but each day has just been so full!  And like I told you yesterday, I would give you a run down of the weekend fun in today's Daily! So here it is... On Friday, I had seriously ran around from 7:15am - straight through until 9pm with ZERO breaks; and then come 9pm I was still hardly finished with everything I still had to do at the house! After hitting a obscene amount of traffic (some of the worst I've ever seen ANYWHERE in the world)! We finally did manage to arrive at the kids performance with the International Peace Choir at the Lakewood Annual Christmas Tree Lighting. Dominic and Cosette had a duet together to open the show and I happened to forget my camera that night (realizing it when I was only down my street, but knowing that the timing was super duper Uber tight that day - I refused to turn back)! So there I stood trying to make room on my phone to snap a few pics of the kids at the event.   And then yesterday... The earlier part of the day was packed full of the kids doing 2 sets and performing at The Santa Ana Zoo for the "International Holidays with the Critters". We followed that up by a lovely lunch, and then taking Dave B. & the kiddies Christmas shopping!   Luckily they each had a bit of success, but that came well after I was beginning to get rather frustrated by each of their lack of focus on the subject! I could tell that both Dave and Dominic were trying, but it just wasn't working - they were like Deers in headlights! And Cosette just wanted everything she saw for herself! We had to head home... It was time to wrap up the shopping excursion and then head home for me to finish cooking and for us all to have our St. Nicholas christmas ornament exchange!  Mika and Chaplin Being SILLY Dinner was delicious if I may say so myself! 12 of us sat around the dining room table and enjoyed a hearty meal of Fusilli Bucati Lunghi (my FAVORITE dried pasta) with a vegan Bolognese, and some amazing Stuffed Mushrooms (my Great Grandmother's recipe)! Mmm - my mouth is watering just thinking about them!!
Then came the exchange!! And everyone was very happy with the thoughtful ornaments that they walked away with and will soon be hanging on the Christmas Tree! Today we Celebrate... Dominic's west coast birthday, which means that I will be spending most of the day in the kitchen! He has requested Chickun & Waffles for Breakfast, "Clam" Chowder in Bread Bowls for Lunch, and Baked Ziti (his favorite) for Dinner, and a Red Velvet Cake for dessert! He also wants to go bowling, indoor rock climbing, and go to the movies - so I've spread these activities for him out throughout the week. There's just no time to do it all today unless I wasn't gonna be a part of the fun! I just have no time to go with all the work I have in the kitchen today. So we'll squeeze in Bowling for today and that's about it. The movies will be tomorrow night, after another one of the kid's performances, and then indoor rock climbing on yet another (undecided) day! Whew! I guess staying busy keeps us young! I hope that you have a wonderful Sunday that's filled with much love, and I'll see you back here tomorrow! -T  |
