TREATS

This year I thought it would be fun to make some homemade treats to give to friends and neighbors for Christmas. So where did I turn. Yep! Pinterest. Are you even surprised? Both of the things that I made were extremely easy to make but I tried to package them in a festive way.

Cinnamon Honey Butter - Yall! This stuff was crazy good!

( I tripled the recipe)
2 Sticks of Butter room temperature
1 Cup of Powdered Sugar
1 Cup of Honey
2 Teaspoons of cinnamon

Combine all ingredients and beat with hand mixer.

Mixing it all together

I put it into these cute little mason jars.

Then used a festive fabric to give it some Christmas spirit.

I also made easy peasy Rolo Pretzel Turtles. I love Turtles and these were so fast to make and also had the salty sweet combo I love.
Rolos
Pecan Halves
Square Pretzel

Place the rolos on the pretzels and place in oven for a few minutes until rolos are soft. Pull them out of the oven and immediately place pecan halves on rolos. I then popped them in the freezer for a few minutes to let them harden up.

Treats ready to go out to friends and neighbors. Merry Christmas!

WHAT I WENT WITH

You might remember that I was on the hunt for a new bag. I had worn my current one out. I found several that I liked but ultimately ended up going with this one.I like it because it wasn't as tote-y as some of the others I was looking at and I also liked it because it was a a little bit edgier with the braided embellishments.

I love it and have already started carrying it since Kenny was so sweet to gift it to me for Christmas.

LACEY FAMILY CHRISTMAS

The Lacey family Christmas was this Saturday. We did it early but Santa came to see Elting anyway because she is always a sweet girl.

Reading the Night Before Christmas for the first time. Obviously those are our "Christmas" pajamas and we are getting as much use out of them as we possibly can. You WILL see them again.

Helping Santa by putting toys together. This was right after I seriously did the ugly cry at the opening sequence of UP. How in the world that is a children's movie is beyond me.

Santa's spread! It looks so cute. Elting's stocking is wrapped and under my mother's tree because I asked for a family set of Christmas stockings that match for Christmas. So Santa just put out all her stocking stuff with her big gifts. Our presents to Elting were under the tree.

This car was and still is a hit! She L-O-V-E-S it! We took her out for a drive on Sunday and she hangs on to the steering wheel and everything.

This ribbon was pretty fun too.

Ignore my greasy hair and my pajamas. I was also modeling one of my gifts from Kenny. A down vest. Elting also was very pleased with her music table.

Kenny is in his pajamas too but I love this picture. Lena just came and sat next to him. She is getting to be an old dog.

What a mess but she was loving it!

After Christmas morning was over, I cooked a yummy breakfast and we just spent time relaxing as a family. We haven't really been doing a whole lot because Elting has been sick with her first "yuck" and it seems to be lingering. Runny nose, cough and extreme fussiness. She is also cutting her first tooth so that could be contributing to the general lack of happiness. Whatever it is, Kenny and I are praying that she gets in better spirits before this coming up week. Mommy and Daddy are worn out!

We did get out for a little bit on Saturday afternoon to grab some Five Guys, (I'm obsessed. It's like crack) some yolo, and a red box. We watched Larry Crowne. I HATED it.

One last thing...

Saturday was baby bird's birthday. Happy Birthday Annie!!

A STARRY NIGHT

When the Starry Nights event returned to Shelby Farms three years ago we started an annual tradition of going with our wonderful friends Tracy and Joe. Every year we go to dinner and then we all pile up in the car, listen to Christmas music and enjoy all the pretty lights.

Last year I was pregnant (not knowing she would be here sooner than we thought) and while driving through the farm Tracy and I talked about how next year we would have Elting in the car with us. So last night was kind of fun seeing it come to fruition.

We had dinner at the Half Shell and then we were on our way to see the sights. This year they added some fun things and then also put a little stop in the middle of the drive where you could stop and have hot chocolate, roast smores and see Santa. We took the opportunity to take some pictures of course.

The girls. (p.s. my daughter does have on pants. They were just pushed up. Don't worry)

Our little family.

The Shearins.

Flash didn't go off but still a cute pic.

And look who we ran into when we were loading up into the car again. It's Aunt Annie!

It was a great night and who is to say how many passengers will be in our car next year as our families continue to grow and the tradition continues.

WISHING YOU...

(click to enlarge)

A MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Because I think everyone has received their 2011 Lacey family Christmas card I want everyone else to have a peek! The lovely Susan at J Press Designs designed them for me and I love them. I love how the pictures highlight Elting's first year. (she's growing up so fast) I also love how they look folded and standing up. See blurry iPhone picture below.
Don't you just love Christmas cards!

CHRISTMAS MOVIE AND A RECIPE

Monday night I might have forced Kenny to watch 12 Dates of Christmas. It was one of the movies they played on the Disney Family channel's 25 Days of Christmas. It was really good. Kenny didn't even really complain too much. Although, he does enjoy anything Christmas.

Mark Paul Gosselar was in the movie and in my opinion has aged pretty darn well. He was my first celebrity crush. I wrote him a fan letter. Anywho, watch the movie if you see it on. It is cute.

That night I also made a new recipe that Kenny just loved. It was from Pinterest of course and insanely easy. Crockpot Buffalo Chicken. Kenny loves anything buffalo-y so it was a hit! Here is the recipe!

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken

• 3 lb. bag of frozen chicken breasts
• 1 bottle Frank's Wings Buffalo Sauce
• 1 packet Ranch Dip Mix
• 2 TBSP butter

1. Put frozen chicken, wing sauce, and ranch dip mix into crock pot.
2. Cook on low at least 6 to 7 hours
3. Using two forks, shred chicken & return to crock pot.
4. Add butter.
5. Cook on low for an additional hour.
6. Enjoy!

CHRISTMAS TRADITION

Kenny and I have had a tradition these past few years to take a little overnight trip to Nashville during the holiday season. We go and stay at the Opryland Hotel and see the sights and just enjoy being together. You can see our trip last year in this post. Last year's trip is one of my favorite memories of all time. The entire weekend was wonderful and then we woke up on Sunday to snow falling from the sky. We went and ate at the Loveless Cafe for breakfast and over a wonderful breakfast we watched snow fall from the windows and Christmas music was playing. I was pregnant with Elle and it was just so magical.

This Saturday we woke up and got ready to head to Nashville again. We were so excited to be able to bring Elting with us this year. Once we got into town we headed for downtown Franklin to meet some friends at Puckett's Grocery. It was delicious. Then we walked around because they were having Dickens Christmas Festival. People dress up in period costumes and walk around the streets. There are booths and people roasting chestnuts and mulling apple cider. It was all so fun.

After walking around for a while we headed to our hotel to warm up (because it was freezing) and let Elting nap. We actually decided to not stay at the Opryland Hotel this year and chose to stay in a hotel more centrally located.

Saturday night we went to a fabulous Mexican restaurant on a recommendation of a friend called Sopapillas. I had a cucumber margarita that was to die for and the food was so good. After dinner we planned to go see the lights at Opryland Hotel but instead chose to drive through the neighborhoods of Brentwood. They were having a luminary night and the lights on these homes were amazing. We drove around a for a long time just marveling at the time it took for the people to decorate like that.

Rolling around in the hotel bed Sunday morning.

Sunday morning we woke up and headed to our favorite breakfast place in the ENTIRE world! The Loveless Cafe. It was here that I finally pulled out my camera because I had neglected to take pictures all weekend.

Someone is excited about her first trip to Loveless Cafe

Daddy and Elting waiting on their breakfast.

Yum! Pancake!

My meal! I love their blueberry pancakes. And I didn't even make a dent in it. I had the leftovers for dinner Sunday night.

It was another great weekend. I am so glad we do it ever year because it really puts us in the holiday spirit. Plus having Elle with us this year just made it that much more special.

This week I will be busy putting together Christmas happies for my friends, having a Starry Nights date night, another holiday tradition with our friends Joe and Tracy and then we are doing our family Christmas Saturday morning. I can't wait for Elting to see her "Santa" gifts and to give Kenny his presents.

CAN'T GET ENOUGH

You must go out and get Michael Buble's Christmas cd. It has been playing on repeat non-stop at my house. It might be my favorite Christmas cd to come out since Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas album in 1994.


And if you have a few dollars to spare Justin Bieber's album Under the Mistletoe isn't all that bad either. I might be embarrassed to say that given my age but I happen to know a certain mother (my mom cough cough) who is loving his cd too.

HERE COMES SANTA CLAUSE

Saturday morning, Kenny and I went to Vineyard Vines for their "Breakfast with Santa" event. We thought we would let Elting have a little dry run meeting Santa and we needed to do some shopping for Christmas presents. When we arrived we went ahead and plopped Elting on jolly old St. Nick's lap.

This was the result...
Poor thing. She was TERRIFIED! Blood curdling scream. Which Kenny was like "get her, get her" and I was like "Omg! We have to have the picture." Ha. Santa's face is priceless.

But the store was so nice to print out this picture and put it on a cute card for us to keep the memory forever and ever. To me it is much more memorable than if she just sat there. Funny enough, every time she saw him or got anywhere near him for the rest of the time we were in the store she started screaming. Yikes. Maybe next time she sees Santa they will be old friends.

The rest of the day we relaxed at home and watched the SEC Championship. On Sunday we got up bright and early to rake the huge amount of leaves in our yard only for it to start raining the second we got out there. So our yard still looks like poo and I spent the day watching the Hallmark Channel, cooking, preparing materials for Christmas happies I am making and enjoying the Christmas spirit.

I cooked/baked two different recipes from Pinterest yesterday. One was awesome and one was just okay.

First I baked. I am not much of a baker. I do not have a Kitchen Aid Mixer (sad I know) and our oven doesn't cook very consistently so I always get nervous. But this Eggnog Poundcake was easy peasy and yummy if you love Eggnog like I do.And for dinner I continued my love affair with my crockpot and made Chicken and Corn Enchilada Casserole. Going to be honest. I had high hopes but to me it was just ho hum. Kind of bland and mushy.

JUST A FEW MORE

Molly at Good Golly Photography got all of our proofs up to view and I just had to share just a few more of my faves! We are so happy with all of them. So if you are in the Memphis area give her a ring! Be sure to tell her I sent you.

NOW THAT I'M FEELING NORMAL AGAIN

I am not really sure how to put this post into words. I feel normal. Hooray! Not sure when the normalness came back. But for a while after I had Elting I felt strange and so unlike myself. I really can't say if it was just a raging case of hormones, baby blues or maybe a smidge of postpartum depression. But looking back it was something.

The best way I can describe it and I have already said this, I just did not feel like myself. I felt sad. I felt overwhelmed. I felt depressed. I felt exhausted. I felt different. I felt disconnected. I felt lonely. I felt anxious. I felt insanely happy. I felt tremendous love. I felt like a mommy. It was odd to feel so sad and so happy at the same time. I am sure that is what hormones do to you.

It really was some of the happiest days of my life but I was also off my rocker. I never ever felt any ill will towards Elting but I did have crazy crazy worries. Like the time I was convinced at two weeks old that she was autistic. I am laughing out loud right now just typing that. Yes. I thought my two week old was autistic. And I bawl cried for two days and had my best friend who is a RN reading medical journals to reassure me that she was and is indeed just fine.

I also felt so different from my friends. I felt like we had nothing in common. I couldn't really talk to them because I didn't know how to explain how I was feeling and the experiences that were happening to me. I was afraid that I would never care about the same silly things like tv shows, books and cooking again.

But here I am. I do care about silly reality television shows, and I just checked out another Young Adult series from the library and I do feel connected to my friends again. I enjoy cooking again and I feel like my marriage is strong. I feel normal.

Looking back I know I did not feel normal because my whole world had turned upset down. I went from being a wife to being a mommy and a wife. I quit my job. I wasn't sleeping. It was a crazy time so it is only natural I was a feeling a little crazy.

I have some girlfriends who are close to having babies of their own. And I can only hope that I can be there when they feel weird and unlike themselves. Because feeling that way after you have met the love of your life has to be NORMAL right?