Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Holidays=Food, & Lots of It!

Hi everyone! School is out, and now I can hopefully blog a bit more often! How was your holiday season? We had such a blast! We spent a lot of in-between time meeting up with friends in from out of town and hanging out with our families. Much of our holidays were spent eating a TON of delicious food. I think I gained something like 6 lbs. in 6 weeks.... I have to say it was completely and totally worth it ;)

Matt and I spent Thanksgiving with his family and we cooked the whole dinner for the first time! Well, Matt's brother Danny did make the green bean bake, but we did everything else. We did it all from scratch; the turkey baste, the dressing, everything. I made sweet potato balls and some gooey butter cake that was amazing, if I do say so myself. Matt's sausage and pecan dressing was out of this world. Needless to say, it was a Thanksgiving where maternity pants would have came in handy. Mona has been making Thanksgiving dinner for 30 years so I thought she deserved a break. To all of you who cook these meals year after year: you are incredible! I do not know how you do it. It is so much preparation and work!
Pretty, huh?

We had a great Christmas too, which we didn't do any cooking for. My mom's dinner was amazing. She made a corn dish that was sooo yummy! I'll get the recipe from her soon and share it with you all:) My parents got us a new TV, which was totally unexpected and awesome! We have been using a large computer monitor as a television for a couple years now so having a real one is like living in another world. After dinner we did our annual dessert and game night at my aunt's. It was hilarious as usual, especially since we played a lot of Catch Phrase. I'm thinking next year we should introduce some charades into the mix!

My birthday, as you may know, is two days after Christmas. Matt and I didn't really do much. I'm always so tired by my birthday. I turned 26... I know to a lot of you it will sound silly, but it was pretty depressing. I'm getting painfully close to the dreaded "30" mark. Which, of course, means that I'm all too close to the "ticking biological clock" stage of my life. That's such a scary thing to say or type out loud, in this case. Matt and I are still no where near ready for children, but as Matt gets closer and closer to 29 I feel a little bit of a sense of urgency about it. It's still okay to produce offspring into your late 30's right? Has anyone ever frozen their eggs, or read anything about freezing them? I'm guessing it's pretty expensive and I'm not really sure at what age you're supposed to do it, or how effective it is. Lately we've been thinking we may want a larger family (3-4 kids) so the rush to get started has intensified. 

Moving right along... (Writing about freezing eggs is starting to give me high anxiety, ahhhh!) We had a nice New Year as well. We went to a friend's little party. It was relaxing and fun and sort of pajama party ish. I'm always stoked to go somewhere where real clothes aren't required :) Matt made 7-layer bean dip and I made these pretty and decadent little cupcakes. I got the recipe off of foodnetwork.com so the link to the recipe is under the photo!
Click here for the recipe! 
*Note: This recipe says to make these in a jumbo cupcake pan, but I made regular sized ones and they were still yummy.

For our annual Christmas goody-bags we did garlic pickles, strawberry jam, triple berry jam, and two types of candies. We made them for less people and I didn't knit anything so it was a lot less stressful than last year's. We printed out these super cute tags to label everything with too!
Well, I think that's about it! Here's a few more photos of fun, holiday-related stuff. Happy 2011 blog world!
Charlie's first Christmas ornament:)

I couldn't resist...
This was Matt's Christmas-time tee. Can any of you figure out what it means?? If you can't see it very well it is a basil, oregano, garlic, and rosemary saying, "What's new?" "Hi guys" and "How's it going?" (Mona & Mom- neither of you are allowed to guess.)

5 comments:

  1. Woman, here's my comment:
    l. You're 26. Why are you talking about freezing your eggs? Just make them the old fashioned way.
    2. Start having them whenever. No time is ever the right time.
    3. Don't wait till your middle or late thirties if you want to have 3 or 4.
    4. Have one, then see how many you want. It's hard
    5. But so, so worth it!
    6. Hey, start now.

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  2. Well, that was my point. We aren't ready yet. We are financially unable and are both still in school. My husband is about to start working on his doctorate and then we would like to be established in our careers before we start a family. So we will be in our mid- thirties more than likely. I don't have a problem with that other than the risks involved, hence the reason for bringing up the egg freezing:) I'm under the impression the earlier the better if you're going to freeze them.

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  3. People are bugging me right now about having more kidlets. I have two boys so they say, "Don't you want a girl?" I have no desire. I think if I were suppose to have more I would get the urge. Anyway, I'm 40 years old and I know I could still do it if I wanted to! Do it when you guys feel like it's right. You'll feel it. Don't worry. Hugs, love reading whatcha up too. :)

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  4. First off, this post looks delish... some of the pics seriously made my mouth water! seriously!... secondly, I think babies come when they're ready. you can plan all you want... but it'll happen when it's time. either now, or ten years from now. grayson was a happy surpriseish. we'd like 3-4, too... so I get the pressuretogetontheball thing. John is 34, so I wouldn't worry about Matt's age. I think guys are better suited to being dads once they're a tad older anyway. just breathe... ya'll are doing just fine. and guess what, whenever it happens... you're both going to be great parents. <3

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  5. Way to go cooking the whole Thanksgiving dinner!! I hosted my first Christmas Eve this year, and I am totally with you it's kind of overwhelming and so much work, but it was a lot of fun!

    Secondly, don't get to stressed about the baby thing you are 26 not 46! I know it's easier said then done, but I wouldn't be too worried about it.

    Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! :)

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