A Present To Look Forward To

My cute daughter and I are going to see Wicked in April!! Here is a trailer from youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0m6sclZkH0&NR=1

I'll tell you all about it!

My boys' favorite thing to do

Legos! They play with their legos all the time and James shops on lego.com every chance he gets. I just love this picture of all 3 of my boys, so content and focused while trying to complete a Christmas present.

Christmas Eve Brunch

Every year, I host brunch on Christmas Eve. I love starting the holiday as early as possible and this forces me to be DONE with all holiday shopping and errands. We welcome family and freinds and enjoy being a part of the start of their holiday as well!

Here are just a few decorating pictures from that party:

Coffee Bar

Cups from the hot cocoa area on the pool deck

Toppings for Waffle Bar

Rice Krispy Treat wreath, donut trees, carrot cake muffins

Candy trees that Kim made and Reindeer Food to go home with every family

Ribbon trees that I made

My sweet boys with their favorite babysitter!


Merry Christmas!

Bethlehem, a 6 year old's perspective

I just got this from Southern Living At Home. Look closely. Do you see it? Is there anything sweeter than your 6 year old little boy integrating his dinasours into your nativity scene?

Slinky Incident With Multiple Injuries Foils Mommy Play Date

This weekend I had plans to shop all day Friday & all day Saturday with 2 girlfriends. We had sitters or friends picking up our kids from school, our husbands were scheduled to be super dads all weekend, we were ready to relax and have fun and we deserved it!! Myself and a friend from Augusta drove to Charlotte to meet a mutual friend who moved last year. We pulled up to a very large and very nice mall. Our time was valuable......only 48 hours with no kids, no husbands and no responsibilities but to shop......so we chose to valet, like all smart mothers would. We open the doors to hand our keys to the cute valet and a phone rings. My Charlotte friend says "oh no" and we immediately knew that it was definitely a school for one of her 3 kids. We kind of sink a little and try not to smirk (because it was inevitable, right?). We hear "uh huh" "oh no" and then "he needs stitches?". Okay, so we know it's her 7th grade son, her other 2 kids are girls. My Augusta friend is a doctor's wife (Chief of ER Pediatrics I believe) so she knows a lot about "kid emergencies". She very quickly says "how does a middle school student have an accident at school?" I naively giggle and say "good point". Cute valet guys says "you're not shopping are you?" He was very amused. We are still refraining from laughter for fear that he is hurt and say "um, no". We climb in the car as she hangs up the phone and says "he was in an accident involving a slinky and needs to go to the ER, he cut his hand". Okay....we lose it. We laughed and laughed......not only at our bad luck and the bad timing...but a SLINKY was involved? We glance back at the big beautiful mall as we depart.

She calls her son back to get more details because my smart medical friend is asking a lot of valid questions. The slinky incident involved multiple students and there are multiple injuries, he has a big cut but it's not bleeding anymore so we determine there is an issue but he's doing fine. Okay, hysterics. A slinky incident with multiple injuries. I need to mention, recently this friend of ours was in a car accident involving a raccoon and prior to that her last vehicular accident involved an automatic car wash. To say her luck is amusing is an understatement. We had been looking forward to this day for a month and it was foiled by a slinky. Of course........it was foiled by a slinky. We take her to her car, she directs us to a mall closer to her son's school and she departs. 4 stitches and 3 hours later our friend joins us. She missed hours of shopping and a great brownie. We all missed lunch because we did not want to enjoy lunch without her.

The update: three students were injured, two required medical attention. Apparently, the kids get a "health break" for 15 minutes so they can get some fresh air (they do this in prisons, right?). Her son was innocently playing football. Allegedly, two kids had a metal slinky that they pulled apart between them. A football player ran into the slinky, it flew and hit two other players, one being our friend's sweet son. The school is now trying to assess whether there was malicious intent with the boys who had the slinky and suspension is being discussed. We should all say a quick prayer for the kiddos, my friend's son loves playing guitar and he is inconvenienced and in pain and we feel bad for him!

That evening, over a wonderful dinner and a bottle of Merlot AND Riesling, we giggled a lot as we reflected over our day. As moms we are always ready to run to our children's aid anytime they need us. As moms will will continue making idyllic plans to reward ourselves. As friends we will continue to smile and giggle (and laugh 'til we cry) as we realize that idyllic plans are sometimes impossible but watching life unfold together is half the fun.

-Kim

Sugar Cube House

I have fun at Christmas. - Kim

Best Cryptic Christmas Present Phone Call 2007

My Brother: Hi Kim

Me: Hey!

My Brother: So, you make a lot of cupcakes right?

Me: Oh yes

My Brother: Do you travel with them?

Me: Definitely, to school all the time

My Brother: Do you find them difficult to transport?

Me (pause and try not to giggle): Why, yes, they are very difficult to transport actually!

My Brother: Okay, love you, talk to you later

Me: Love you Bye!

Hilarious. Hey, good thinking! I own about every baking thing a girl like me needs and I can't believe I don't have one of those!

-Kim

Gingerbread Gingerbread Gingerbread

Hi. My name is Kim and I'm addicted to Gingerbread. As you learn more about me, you'll learn that I'm really addicted to gingerbread. I adore it and I have fun making my annual house! Here is my 2007 home.

-Kim

Shot Glass.....A Mother's New Use

I read "Real Simple". They always have ideas for different uses of everyday items. Like line your drawers with dryer sheets. Well my parents visited this week. I don't keep appliances on my counter. I put the toaster in a cabinet and we take it down daily. We use cinnamon sugar often and I've always mixed it in a pastry duster (the thing you'd put powder sugar in to dust on a cake). Well, we needed more and mom and dad used a shot glass! It's tall and thin so it fits well in the cabinet and we, honestly, never use our shot glasses now that we're old and boring. So...viola....a great use for an items that's traditionally used for something entirely different! Other uses for shot glasses that I've implemented this year...holding toothpicks which I use often when dying my frosting. One day we'll be cool again and use the shot glasses, right? Really, who has time for shots?

-Kim

I Love My Self Absorbed Daughter

I always prayed I would not have a weak, meek child and I do not. Katie is hilarious and enjoys her life thoroughly...she giggles all the time. She enjoys keeping herself happy, just like her mom. My husband thinks I'm a bit self-absorbed but he's amused by me. I told Eric the story I'm about to tell you and he smirked and said "she's your child honey". Today Kate and Derrick were given $20 each for Secret Santa at school. The school buys tons of gifts and pre-wraps them. The kids pick out gifts, for their loved ones, and a volunteer labels them after talking to the child. Parents don't go since this is their time to buy gifts for us. Tonight Kate had her Secret Santa bag filled with wrapped gifts and said "can we open our presents?". I said "No way, they're for Christmas and there's nothing for you in your bag anyway". She said "yes there is" and laughed. I took her bag and took out the gifts to see:
"From: KATIE To: ME".
Some volunteer probably got a kick out of that. She cracked up, thoroughly amused with herself. As a mother who loves that I have a strong decisive child, I was thrilled that she made the decision that she deserved a little something for herself too. She's adorable.

-Kim

You CAN make a red hot tree!

Kim says you can't but you can! See, Kim was just too precise! Here is the proof! Throw out the rules and get messy and it's a breeze!


In case you want to do it, here's what I did:

• put a large plate down below where you are working
• cover a small area with hot glue
• drop red hots on it
• quickly dump red glitter over the same area
• use a tiny paint brush to ently get the glitter off the candy so it's only in the spaces
• keep going!

Done, a red hot tree!!! I tried it with regular glue but they literally slipped off. Hot glue is the only thing that dries fast enough. My 8 year old helped me by dumping the red hots on and we had a blast!

Here are the three trees that I grouped together:



I bought the set of trees from http://www.orientaltrading.com/, aren't they cute? They came with the bases, trees and then a stick that joined them together so they were easy to decorate separately. The tall one is candy canes and was very tedious but so worth it! The small one was really too small for any candy so I just used ribbon and I think it turned out cute. I used glitter and more ribbon for the bases.

I love a good Christmas craft!!

Kiersten

Hosting A Gingerbread Party

I host a gingerbread party every year. I could go on and on about how to host a gingerbread party and would be happy to elaborate if anyone would like. For now, I wanted to show you my candy. Candy is obviously a very big part of a gingerbread party and I have so much fun getting all the candy ready! Yes, I have a list so I make sure I don't miss anything critical to gingerbread homes!

Merry Christmas!

-Kim

Christmas, Candy & Crafts

I love crafts when it involves home decor. Check out my easy creations. I don't even think I need to explain how to do these things. Grab a hot glue gun and have fun. Oh, and get a strong hook, your candy cane wreath will be heavy.

Kim's Craft Tip: don't ever bother trying to hot glue red hots to any form. I tried to make mini wreaths with red hots. 4 blisters later I was amazed......I was being so neat but there was no way to keep the gloss of the candy. The glue got on the candy due to the gun or my fingers and it was a mess. Just don't do it. I just saved you hours, I am so kind.

-Kim