The Cadillac of Christmas Trees

Although I wanted to start decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween, I made it all the way till December 8th.  We finally bought our Christmas tree!  And I love it.  

This is the first time in a long time that I've had a real tree, so I had no idea what kind of tree we wanted.  The best I could suggest was, "maybe a fir?"  Apparently, there are many types of "fir" trees.  (Alex knew more about them because he used to sell them when he worked at Target a few years back.)  So anyway, we powered through my tree ignorance and just went for it.  I didn't like the floppy kind, or the too-light-colored kind.  I wanted the "needles to go all around" instead of in one direction. (Does that make any sense?)  Alex very patiently helped match my anti-descriptions to a real tree.

And then we found it.  Its branches were strong enough, the color was right, the needles were perfect.  It was a Noble Fir.  (I'm trying NOT to remember the other kinds, because I want to remember what kind we liked next year.)  We had it all picked out at Lowe's and then found out that they didn't have any more of the material they use to bundle it for transport.  BUMMER.  We had to get it up three flights of stairs, so bundling it was necessary, or we'd lose all the branches on the way up.

So, we went down the street to Home Depot and the hunt began again.  At least this time I knew what kind we wanted.  We went over to the Noble Fir section and began pulling trees out.  Well, it was more of me saying, "Grab that one! What about that one?  Can you reach tat one?" while Alex pulled, spun, and nicely put them back one by one. (I should mention that Amelia was a very patient tree-hunter, all comfy in a sling on my hip, until about the last 5 minutes.)  Fortunately, we found a tree more beautiful than the first one I fell in love with. (It might not have been, but I didn't care.  I liked it.)  With the decision made, I took Amelia to the car and Alex took care of the tree buying/cutting/bundling.  

On the way home, I did a quick Google search on my phone to see if there was anything special about taking care of a Noble Fir tree, and came across a website that said, "The Noble Fir is the Cadillac of Christmas trees."  Well... YEAH!  Of course I'd pick the Cadillac.  It's small-ish, but it's still a Cadillac.  

And here he is, in all his glory:  Mr. Caddy

Like I said, small-ish, but a Caddy no less. :) And you can't tell in this photo,
but there are WAY too many lights on this tree (yet still not enough!). 
I'm sort of a lights fanatic.

This is from Amelia's point of view. 

So cute, right?!

What Women Want

Diamonds.  Right??

Not this lady.  What I want... is to bake like my Grandma.  And boy howdy, I did it!!

Check these puppies out...

Grandma's Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Cookies

They're kind of a secret recipe, only not really.  The recipe has been shared, but most people who've tried it haven't quite gotten it right.  So, with the recipe in hand, and a few tips from my Dad (the only person I know to have successfully replicated them, although one of my many aunts may have done it) I gave it a whirl.  After just a few minor adjustments to the baking time, I did it.  And they were amazing.

There was one enormous small problem.  My Grandma had 9 children.  This recipe made enough for 9 CHILDREN.  I realized after 3 batches coming out of the oven and it looking like I hadn't even put a dent in the bowl of dough, that I'd have to continue baking the next day.


They are Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Alex had never tried them before.  (I was secretly hoping he'd LOVE them so I'd have an excuse to make them more often, but also secretly hoping he wouldn't care for them, so I could freeze them and eat them all over the course of the rest of the year...ok, so there weren't that many... but I could have eaten them all over a month or two.)

The verdict:  He loves them. 

"They taste kinda like mini-muffins.  You know, the kind in the little bags.  And they're all round on top, so you should call them Muffin Tops!"

Maybe I will... 
may...be...I...will... (said in Britta's voice)

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving is a funny time.

It's a time when people rush around the store, and then spend all morning preparing a huge meal.  Family gathers, all the nice china, silver, and crystal comes out.  In my family, we always went to my grandparents' house, where my Grandma had been cooking all morning.  Always on the menu:  Turkey, mashed potatoes with turkey gravy, stuffing (cooked in the turkey--there's nothing better),  sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, green beans, pea salad... I'm sure I'm missing a few items.  And then dessert.  Pies, bars, and cookies.  


This year, Alex is in his 3rd year of seminary school so we are temporarily living in Texas, away from our families.  It's the first time either of us has ever spent Thanksgiving away from family.  The past few years, we spent it with either my family or his, but we've never had a Just-Us Thanksgiving.  So, since it was Amelia's first, we decided to have our own.  


We cooked our first Thanksgiving week's-worth-of-food dinner.   

The leftovers better last us nearly a week, since the groceries cost about that much!  Our turkey was already cooked for us, by the amazing Chicken Ministry men at our church.  They spent all night last Saturday night camped outside the church smoking turkeys.  So all we had to do was heat up our delicious bird and cook our sides.  A few recipes from my fam, a few from his, and we were good to go. 


We set the table with as close-to-matching plates as we could, pulled out our beautiful silverware (from my Grandma)  and had ourselves a feast.

We pretty much have one or two of every type of plate imaginable.

There were actually two more dishes than this, but somehow they didn't make the photo.

Yep, this was the first dish to get polished off---by me.

But even if everything burned, or dried out, or didn't set-up properly, I realized I didn't care a bit.  It was so much fun to have the parade on the TV, Amelia playing with toys on the floor, and the two of us swapping out between kitchen-duty and baby-duty.  We love cooking together, and make a pretty good team.  Amelia feasted right along with us-- from a jar of Vegetable Turkey Dinner.  

MMMmmm... Pureed meat.

And that's what I have to be thankful for.  The fact that it never really matters how it all comes out.  What matters is family--the near kind, the far kind, the not-officially-family-but-may-as-well-be kind.  What matters is that we have the opportunity to be together and give thanks, and that we can do that every day.  There's so much to be thankful for.  Writing it out in a list isn't the important part--Giving thanks is.  So just do it.  Give thanks.  

Guilty Pleasures

I am a stay-at-home-mom.  That statement still doesn't hit me quite like I always thought it would.  I always imagined feeling like a mom, but the truth is, I just feel like my old self and get to hang out with my adorable daughter all day.  Granted, that puts me in charge of most household stuff (the less fun part) which sometimes gets done, and sometimes doesn't. I don't feel guilty about not always being caught up, but one things I do feel guilty about is napping.

Napping. is. awesome. That is all.  I almost never do it, because I'm not capable of a power nap.  So yesterday, after an abnormally long night with Amelia, I did it.  Amelia and I took a quick nap that lasted 2 hours! The only thing that made it better than just a few extra ZZzz's was having that warm little furnace of a girl next to me.  No, I'm not proud. Yes, it felt amazing.  No, I didn't really get a whole lot done because I felt "nappy" (as in tired) the rest of the day.  But sometimes, you have to take part in the guilty pleasures in life.  After all, sometimes one day's "nappiness" turns into the next day's motivation, right?
 

Who wouldn't want to curl up next to this little snuggle bunny?!

 

Leap of Faith

Ok, so starting a blog isn't necessarily a "leap of faith", but for some reason it sure feels like it!  Heck, if it's terrible then nobody will read it, so no biggie. 

Allow me to introduce myself...

I'm Emily, wife to Alex, an Intern Pastor (for now...one day he'll be a real Pastor, and that can't come soon enough!), a stay-at-home mom (again, for now) to a gorgeous and amazing little girl, Amelia, and a pup named Bella.

I'll go ahead and state for the record that Bella is not named after the Twilight girl.  (She's actually named after Bellatrix Lestrange.  harrypotteralltheway.) 

 Yes, I used MS Paint to do a terrible job of splicing my daughter 

(who isn't actually a giant, and can't scale my husband's back yet)

into this existing pre-baby family photo. Photoshop has too many buttons.

I struggle all the time for no real good reason.   Basically, I'm an ill-equipped (did you see the above picture??) over-functioner who is trying to walk with a strong faith in this anxious world, and I really wish I was organized.  (I pretended to be for a very long time, but have finally come to grips with the fact that I'm. just. not. organized.)  I love DIY projects when I can get around to them--especially sewing--and am slowly "going green" when I can afford to.  

That's me in a nutshell few rather long run-on sentences, but for now it's enough.  It will all become clearer as this little blog begins to take shape.  Or it won't...which is fine, I suppose.  <--See that? I'm growing already.