Christmas weekend was a blast!

So for my Christmas weekend recap I'm linking up with From Mrs. to Mama for the Show me Christmas link-up...

Our Christmas weekend started Friday night with the arrival of Grandma and Papa!  We were so excited for their visit, they were here for almost 3 full days.  The prince LOVES spending time with all of his grandparents, it's such a joy to see him with them and how happy they all  are when together.

For Christmas Eve, I spent the morning cooking a nice brunch for the hubby, prince and my parents.  I decided on doing brunch because the hubby had to work until 11am and I wanted to make a nice breakfast for everyone to enjoy, so by putting breakfast off for a few hours the hubby then got to enjoy it with us.

So for brunch we had whole wheat brown sugar banana bread pancakes...  

Recipe courtesy of "how Sweet it is", get it here.

Delicious and very filling...  perfect for Christmas Eve morning  { smile }

Along with cooking brunch I also spent some time baking  { LOVE }

I found a recipe for some cupcakes that I thought would be perfect for Christmas...  

Peppermint Mocha cupcakes = delicious!!

Recipe courtesy of Bakers Royale, get it here.

More to come in a future post about these { PERFECT } cupcakes, I promise!!

We took these { PERFECT } cupcakes to Mom Woods' house for a yummy dinner of pizza followed by the Christmas Eve service at the First Baptist Church of Darrington.  

It was then time to get home so I could get to work on my last sewing project...  

Tutorial courtesy of Make it Perfect, get it here.

"Peek-a-Boo" toy sack { FILLED } with cars!  I was so happy with how easy this project was, I will definitely be making at least one more of these.

Christmas morning came at about 6:30am...  and there were lots of presents for opening followed with lots of smiles and even a few tears...

These would be the tears I mentioned...  Grandma was so very happy with the Shutterfly book I created for her and Papa all about the prince.  I will definitely be doing more of these for gifts in the future!

Here's a looksee at all of the great gifts I got this year...

A glass bowl for my KitchenAid mixer { LOVE }

A Silpat and new cookie/bar sheet { another LOVE }

The slicer and shredder attachment for my beloved KitchenAid mixer.

And a microwave, a gift for both me and the hubby.  We've been without one for almost four months now..  a BIG thank you goes to my brother and Claire for this AMAZING gift!

Christmas day was made perfect by all of the wonderful family and friends that we got to spend the entire day with...  

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend, too!

Now bring on the new year!!

"She's a tad obsessed."

A direct quote or thought, I'm sure, from either my father or my husband, if not both, while I was organizing my Baking Center in our new place.  

We've been in our new place for a little over a month now, FYI we are LOVING it, and two weeks after the move I spent some time organizing all of my baking goodies on what I'm calling my Baking Center.  Grandma and Papa Kelly were visiting for the weekend so I had someone to keep the prince busy while I worked on my project.

The storage space in our kitchen is lacking since we no longer have a pantry in which to store stuff and the cupboards seem to be a tad smaller than they were at our last place...  therefore ALL of my baking stuff needed a new home to make room for dishes, canned food, etc.  I've really been into baking this last year, especially cupcakes, and thought it would be fabulous to have all of my stuff in one place, FINALLY!  So here's what I came up with...

We've had this white shelf for years now and it was the perfect foundation for my project.

Notice my KitchenAid is displayed front-and-center, I love that thing and the COLOR.  Have you seen the new glass mixing bowl that some come with?  Check it out here.  I must have one!  And in case you have now found yourself needing one too you can find it here at Macy's or here on Amazon.

**FUN FACT:  My kitchen paint color, if we actually take the time to paint, in many of our previous places has been a few shades lighter than my mixer...  each time we get paint I compare the swatches to the mixer to make sure they compliment each other and don't clash.  I guess I'm kinda obsessed with a fan of the Robin's Egg blue colors.**

Did I mention that we (yes the hubby, too) are obsessed with fans of coffee?  And we have a collection of coffee brewing supplies too...  how many do you see in the pictures?  If you guessed 4 then you are correct!!  There's the coffee maker on the kitchen counter next to the Baking Center; the green French Press on the top shelf right next to the canister with a Starbucks VIA package (Italian Roast) inside (and yes the VIA counts as one of the 4); last but not least... our Starbucks espresso machine- LOVE!

We definitely have fewer drawers now in the kitchen so I found the white "baskets" at a local storage store to put my measuring cups and spoons in, my cupcake decorating supplies, and the lids for our NUMEROUS travel mugs...  I told you we are obsessed with fans of coffee.  Don't even get me started on all of the Starbucks mugs we have hiding in the cupboards...  trust me.

And then there's the collection of mason jars that I have, only a couple are pictured here because I'm still working on perfecting my storage solution for these babies...  of course once I've figured it out I'll share with everyone.

Ok so that's my new Baking Center!  Who knew that sharing my completed project with you meant I would be sharing a few of my other obsessions along the way...  coffee- YUM... and blue- specifically Robin's Egg blue...  I think that covers all of them right?!  Oh wait!  I forgot STARBUCKS!

I feel so much better after coming to terms with my obsessions, thank you all for letting me share with you :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Love Steph


I almost FORGOT!  Someone decided to help a little...