Christmas 2014

Sierra & I came up with our 1st annual family Christmas Eve game of Rudolph Monopoly!

We had such a great time!

Sierra beat me by $100! I was sad :P Hahaha!

Christmas this year was one of the best Christmases I've ever had!

Of course I am like a little kid & up before the sun to open up presents. Unfortunately some of my family doesn't feel quite the same way-well...my sister isn't a morning person. I am.

We took over 200 pictures that day. I'll post just a few & let them do the talking.

New York City : Part III 9/11 Memorial

What turned out to be my favorite part of our whole trip to NYC was our trip to the 9/11 Memorial. I didn't expect it to be so...sad? Touching? I'm not sure of the exact word.

We started out the day with our trip to Good Morning America & then had breakfast at a little random place near Times Square. It was a delicious BLT & hash brown for breakfast... It was raining a decent amount that day so our plans to go to The Empire State Building were going to be postponed till the next day.

New York City : Part II Good Morning America

The next morning we were all up super early because this morning we were going to Good Morning America.

I'm obsessed with GMA & watch it every morning with my cup (maybe 2 or 3) of coffee. So when we first decided that we were going to NYC-visiting GMA was up towards the top of my "things to do" list.

Tony Bennet, Lady Gaga, Maks from DWTS, & Reese Witherspoon were the guests the morning we were there.

I kinda made my way to the front of the barrier. People that worked with GMA would come out & tell us what to do and when to do it. I don't know what I was expecting-but all of the crew were really nice.

Tony Bennet came out at one point to sign autographs. Although he only stuck around long enough for GMA to film him out there signing stuff & then he went back inside. So I only got to see him...But he is kinda old sooo...I understood that he went back inside. It was cold.

We were all expecting Lady Gaga to come out at some point but she never did so that was disappointing.

At one point one of the crew people had some people move to a certain area because they were going to be filming a quick scene outside. So I told Alex to stay where I was to save my spot..while I ran over to where they were calling people. I was standing there waiting and they came out...it was Robin Roberts...& some lady I have no idea who she was..but she was a guest. The camera guy ran all into me...so I was trying to backup-but there was no where for me to go-because there was a decent size crowd.  After the camera guy ran back inside-Robin Roberts stayed outside & was talking to some people. I was quick to try & get her attention (she was only a few feet away) - because I knew she would be going back inside soon & this was my only chance. I hollered out her name a few times -while she was talking to someone else (I was desperate.) & she came over to me. She was SO nice. I was so excited...I gave her a hug and asked for a "selfie"-which is a word that I absolutely hate & NEVER use. But it just spewed out of my mouth. She was more than happy to take a picture with me. I told her how much of an inspiration she was after everything she had been through & that she seemed like such a good person. She held on to my arm the whole time I was talking to her. She said I was so sweet & told me to give her another hug. Then she had to go back inside-but before she did she turned around & told me my hat was "rockin'". :D 

New York City : Part I

It all started when I was a little girl & watching Home Alone 2 : Lost In New York. When I watched the movie (several times every year...duh) I knew I wanted to someday go to NYC at Christmastime. 

When you think about it...a lot of Christmas movies take place in NYC. Home Alone 2, Elf, Miracle On 34th Street, tons of Hallmark movies, etc.... It's just a very Christmas-y city. 

ANYWAY. I knew ever since I was little that I would go to NYC at Christmastime. I just didn't know when. And to be honest, I didn't know we were going to NYC until a few weeks before we left. 

It started when Taylor Swift's album 1989 came out. Of course, I got it on itunes right away. The first song on the album is called "Welcome To New York". I got about halfway through the song & I had to pause it. I called up Alex & basically the conversation was like this:: "Hey...wanna go to New York City in December?" Alex : "This December?" Me: "Ha, yeah!".....and that was when we began planning. It was mid to late October at the time. 

We were leaving the week after Thanksgiving. I couldn't believe how fast it got here. Before I knew it we were up at 4 in the morning getting ready to head to RDU Airport for our flight to JFK. Traffic getting to the RDU airport took longer than we thought it would (thanks to traffic) & it took forever to find a place to park in the parking garage. 

We were thinking we would have time to relax at the airport...grab some starbucks & watch a movie on the ipad. Well, we had time to get a little something to eat, but that was about it. 

Here we are on the flight to NYC. 

Alex has always been obsessed with flying. He made friends with the pilot once we landed & the pilot let us go in the cockpit. 

I have never been to NYC before. Alex has been a couple of times, but the last time he was there was when he was around 12 or 13 years old. We could see the city from the plane & both of us were so excited! Once we landed, Alex had got us a private car & driver...so we were driven in to the city. Taking in everything around was kinda crazy. It seemed unreal to actually be in NY. Of course...once we left the airport...it looked like we were in the "hood" of NYC. But the closer we got the better we could see the buildings & before we knew it we were at our hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express...a couple of blocks down from Times Square.

Pumpkin Spice Turtles

I found this recipe somewhere on pinterest but can't remember where. But these were a huge hit at the murder mystery party. They were super delicious and very easy to make...

::::: What you'll need ::::

Waffle pretzels

Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses (they were sold out, so I used regular hershey kisses)

Caramels

Pecan halves

Set the oven to 350 degrees. First put down the pretzels on your baking sheet. Put one caramel on each. Put in the oven for 4 minutes. Then put the hershey kiss on top. Let that sit for a moment in the oven. When the kiss has melted enough, push a pecan half down in there. Then let them cool!

That easy....BUT....the next day I had some cooling in another room. I went to eat one & it was so hard from being cold...it chipped my tooth! So be sure to re-heat them for a few moments in the microwave!

Murder Mystery Halloween Party

A little late....BUT. Since we are a little too old for trick-or-treating (even though we could totally pass for 12 year olds) & Halloween is one of my favorite holidays....I decided to throw a murder mystery party.

I bought mine on www.nightofmystery.com - & it couldn't have turned out any better. I chose the "Murder of A Millionaire" party package.

We decided to host it in my basement. So I went all out with the decorations...candles, sheets hanging up & covering furniture, some Halloween decorations...I was pretty proud of myself. Especially if you knew how long it took to do.

I also chose to serve dinner at the party (which the package recommended doing). I made a (if I do say so myself) delicious chili bean soup & mexican cornbread. Desserts were fun to make...I made rice krispy treats from scratch. Rolled them in to balls-colored them orange-stuck a chocolate cookie on top...and it looked like a pumpkin. I even had them on a tray that was covered in "dirt" (actually crushed chocolate cookies) to make it look like they were in a pumpkin patch. Another dessert was turtle candies. AND no-bake sweet & salty peanut butter bars sprinkled with crushed candy corn. Yes, I am Martha Stewart. :D I just wish I would have gotten more pictures of the food before it was all demolished.

I don't want to give anything away (if I tried to go in to any detail, it would give everything away), just incase someone sees this that wants to play this game...so I'm just going to leave you with some pictures from the party. Just know it was one scandalous, surprising party ;-).

Yummy Made From Scratch Cinnamon Rolls

So Sierra decided the other day that she wanted to make this delicious looking-yet very elaborate-dessert recipe. It turned out delicious & I will post that a different day. Anyway...after we did that I thought it would be fun to bake something else together! So I found a few different recipes & changed them all up a bit...& we made cinnamon rolls from scratch. It was easy too! And SO delicious.

||W H A T  Y O U  N E E D||

For the dough....

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup milk

For the filling....

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

4 teaspoons cinnamon

For the glaze....

powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

vanilla extract

||S T E P S||

1 : Go ahead & make the filling. Don't forget to melt the butter first ;).

2. Time to make the dough! Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir together. Soften the butter and mix that in. Then add the milk.

3. Get the pan you plan on baking your rolls on & sprinkle half of your filling mixture on to the pan. 

4. Roll out the dough (don't forget to add flour to whatever surface you're using-don't want it to stick!). I made mine in to a 9 inch circle. This will make the dough about 1/4 inch thick. 

5. You will then want to take the rest of your filling mixture and carefully spread it evenly on to the dough.

6. Slowly & carefully roll up the dough. 

7. Now...this step all depends on how large you want your rolls to be. Just stretch the roll out in to the width and length you want. Obviously, the longer it is the more you will have, but they will be thinner. 

8. Slice the roll evenly. Depending on how large you want them to be...will determine how far apart you cut in the dough. We ended up making around 12. But with the amount of ingredients we used you can make up to 18. 

 

9. Turn on your oven! Set at 400. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

10. While that's baking you can make your glaze! You add 1/4 cup of milk. Then you slowly begin to add powdered sugar. You want to add as much as you need to reach the consistency you want for your glaze. Once you have your consistency just the way you want, add vanilla extract. I estimated. Some like more vanilla, some like less. I am one of those who likes more. I suggest slowly adding it a little bit at a time & tasting it until it reaches the right flavor for you.

11. Once your cinnamon rolls are out of the oven you want them to cool before you put the glaze on them. Being the impatient person that I am, I could't wait for them to cool-so I immediately put on the glaze. Which just caused it to melt all over the rolls. If you like, you can just use the glaze as a dip! 

 They are deeelicious! Yum yum.