MERRY CHRISTMAS

From our home to yours.....

2012 - What a year!

Wishing you the Merriest Christmas and hopes for the happiest of the new year. Bring on 2013!

Christmas Traditions

Sometimes I like to shock the world. Every once in a while I can be domestic. I know it's hard to believe, but when given the right inspiration I can bake.

I found a recipe on Pinterest (with my 504 followers just so you know) for Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cheesecake. When I pulled out my spring form pan, Samantha was confounded. Obviously, in her 17 years of life, I have not used this archaic tool for baking frequently.

Peppermint Cheesecake

My dear husband says I just need the right motivation. So he mixed my motivation up in a brown jug: Peppermint White Russian.

Said MOTIVATION in a bottle

Now I know some people need alcohol to help them through the holidays due to too much family time; however, I truly love spending time with my family. Mainly because they make me laugh so hard I end up with tears streaming down my face. 

Sandy & Ruth

When I was younger, my sisters were stuck with me at various times and believe me I'm sure I was not always a pleasure to have around. I was one year old when my oldest sister, Ruth, got married and her daughter was one of my best friends growing up. Now that I am older my relationships with my sisters are so incredible. I feel as if I carry a piece of each one of them inside of me. They helped to form me into the person I am today. My sister, Ruth, has an incredible gift of laughter. My sister, Sandy, taught me the gift of conversation. My mom used to say she could talk to anybody. My sister, Sus, taught me about the gift of true friendship. I can spend hours in silence or deep heartfelt discussions with her. My sister, Pam, taught me the about true love and acts of service. Pam married her high school sweetheart and she's still madly in love with him. I love watching the two of them together. It fills my heart with joy. My sister, Dera, is the one I have been close to throughout my entire life. We've shared so many stories and cried so many tears together. When her life changed, my life changed.

Corey learning about Santa. Don't ask. 

Sometimes people are shocked when I tell them I am the 8th child of 9. Coming from a large family, the holidays have always been hectic and crazy. When I was young, Christmas Eve was the one night when we all try to be together. My dad would order the $5 pizzas from Little Caesar's. In order to work it all off, we'd all go to the basement and play ping pong.

Run, Run as fast as you can GO!

We'd usually start out with a round robin tournament until someone realized they got stuck with the "bad" player. After a few rounds, we'd switch to Run Around the Table Ping Pong playing round after round until we were down to the final two. Then the competition got serious.

Fortunately, the tradition of Cheap Pizza and Mean Ping Pong still continues with my family. Only now we meet at my sister, Sus', house and like this year it's not always on Christmas Eve. Jeff spends the evening talking with my brothers-in-law and I spend my time catching up with my sisters, nieces and nephews. On the way home, we swap stories catching each other up on all of the family news and highlights.

No matter what I am thrilled to spend time with the people who know me best and love me the most. 

Zapping out the JOY from Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Day started out with such promise. After a night of rotten sleep during Sunshine's 13th birthday sleepover blow out and subsequent puke fest, I decided to sleep in on Christmas Eve. By 9 am, I was up, refreshed and ready to tackle the craziness involved in preparing for Christmas Eve. 


As soon as I had my first blast of caffeine, I started my cooking for the holiday dinners. Of course, my cooking is NEVER too involved because everyone knows I am no Martha Stewart.


 
For Christmas Eve, we were heading to my hometown of Rochester, IL to spend time with my 5 fabulous sisters and their families. Our family tradition of pizza and ping pong on Christmas Eve goes back to my childhood to a time before I can even remember doing anything else. I decided to make two dips and take chips & dip. I found a tangy tomato dip in my Fitness Magazine and decided to make Lime 'N Honey Black Bean Dip from the Meal Makeover Moms. The recipe was very easy to make as all I had to do was throw it all in a blender and spin!



I also made my world famous CHEX MIX to take to the Leber's on Christmas Day. After my cooking, I went to the basement to jump on my bike for a spin on the trainer. The workout today was a 10 minute warm-up, then 3 sets of 8 minutes at 85-94% and 2 minutes of rest at 65-70%, followed by 5 minutes of cool down.  Following my cool down, I ran to the shower while shouting instructions to my kids to clean the front room if they wanted to open one present before heading to Rochester. By the time I was ready to head out, Camo-Man was home from goose hunting with bad news....the roads are getting bad. As a mode of self-preservation, I lived in denial for a while telling myself,

The roads aren't that bad. We can still make it. Springfield probably isn't getting anything now. 

 
Once ready, I let the girls each pick a gift for their sisters to open. It was fun listening to them negotiate which present to pick and they actually cooperated very nicely with each other. Everyone got to open the present they really wanted to open although I'm not sure they loved what they got.


Diva Princess got some new feetie pajamas. Last year, her last pair of feeties broke and the tears wouldn't end. This year mom got smart and bought 3 pairs to get us through the winter. It's not easy to find size 10 feetie pajamas!


A new duffle bag for Sunshine....after watching her stuff her basketball gear into an open top bag, we thought it was time she got a new bag to carry her stuff around in. Organization is the key to keeping little Miss Sunshine up and running. Her 2nd gift was a pair of fuzzy socks. Not exactly exciting, but Sunshine does like funky socks. 


Hollywood opened her 2 gifts. She also got some fuzzy, funky socks, but her other gift was the one that made this mom the happiest. A new hair dryer! Every morning Hollywood sneaks into my bathroom and uses my hair dryer. Now maybe she can keep all of her stuff upstairs. 

Princess' 2nd gift was the one she was looking forward to opening the most. She couldn't guess what it was and when I told her it was a two part gift, she nearly burst! Fortunately, Hollywood was in a good mood and let her open that gift. It was the Furrlicious Beanbag from PB Teen. Being the DIVA that she is, she LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it and couldn't stop saying THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!


Now it was decision time. After a few texts and checking a few online websites, reality came crashing in....no family time, no 2 for 1 pizza from Little Caesars, no ping pong for me. The day would be lonely and sad. 



No RUN-AROUND-THE-PING-PONG-TABLE with my crazy sisters and fun loving nieces and nephews.  (snif snif)




No giggling, laughing, and teasing with the people who mean the most to me. (whah!) God and my dearly departed parents blessed me with the most wonderful family. 






No silliness....like riding scooters in the basement or telling stories from our youth about the wild and crazy things we used to do. 

Tangy Tomato Dip from Fitness Magazine

All that was left for me to look forward to was my fireplace, movies with my kids and my DIPS! After I cried my tears over not getting to spend a Traditional Eddington Christmas Eve surrounded by my family, I dove into my dips....and thoroughly enjoyed them! We had the Lime 'n Honey Black Bean Dip with Lime Tortilla Chips....oh my word! What a fabulous combination. 

It's the most FATTTENING time of the year

It’s Sunday, December 20, 2009 and yes, it is the most fattening time of the year. Let’s exam why.

1. Everyone is running here and there trying to purchase gifts that no one needs instead of exercising.

2. There are some people in our lives who believe that food is the 6th love language and will spend hours and hours baking in the kitchen to pass out fattening treats to their friends, co-workers and neighbors.

3. Tradition. My family has a multi-generational tradition of making homemade candy each holiday season. Candy which is oh so yummy, but also full of nothing more than sugar and butter.

4. Cookie exchanges. I love my neighbors and last year I refused to participate in the fat exchange, but I succumbed this year due to pressure from my sweet tooth husband.

My goal for December was to maintain, but then I also got a cold and lost my voice. On top of it all, my Mini-Me got pink eye this week and my dear hubby was diagnosed with pneumonia.
Yep, it all adds up to stress and a quick grab of all those cookies, candies and goodies which are just splayed out across my pantry counter. Guess I’d better go get on the treadmill after all.