Decorating our Christmas tree.

It's the 1st of December and what better way to start out the month than with all the happenings of our Christmas tree decorating night { smile }  

We've been doing this since our little Prince's very first Christmas.  Each year we invite the grandparents over for dinner on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend and we all work on decorating the tree whilst talking and watching the occasional holiday movie, USA Network permitting... { Did you know they don't play holiday movies all the time on Thanksgiving weekend?!  Jeesh, how dare they! } 

Seeing as how I can hardly contain my excitement about how our tree turned out this year, I'll start with showing you a picture of it...  taa daa!

Now you'll have to wait for all of the details...  On to the food and grown-up hot chocolate!

Appetizer

I ended up making the Greek layer dip I mentioned in my "And moving on to the next holiday..." post.

Quite yummy!  And sooo very simple!  

Recipe/Guidelines/Tips for making...

1 package of your favorite hummus (or you can make it from scratch if you prefer)

1 cup chopped kalamata olives 

1/3 cup of cucumber minus the seeds

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

**I used the hummus for the bottom layer, then topped it with the olives, cucumber and feta.**

{ Remember...  you can use as much or as little of the ingredients that you want and you can add whatever you please.  The original post I found for this dip included red pepper and fresh dill, I left them out to make it to my taste. }

Dinner

Roasted Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Croutons

Again, yummy!  Here's the recipe if you want to try this!

Last, but not least the Grown-up Hot Chocolate with HOMEMADE marshmallows!!

Rich and creamy, sweet-delicious hot chocolate with a touch of marshmallow vodka, topped off with a homemade Bailey's Irish Cream marshmallow!  { Both Dad and hubby approved. }

My marshmallows definitely tasted like marshmallows, but they didn't quite reach their fluffy potential and rather than making an entire second batch we used them and they were wonderful...  definitely a must try!   

Here's the recipe in case you want to try making them yourself (remember to substitute Bailey's for the beer in the recipe) and let me know how they turn out for you!  

AND FINALLY...

 all about our Christmas tree!!

Ornaments

I picked the majority of them up at Michael's on Saturday morning for a steal...

 50% off plus an additional 20% = AMAZING!

My color inspiration for our tree came from this single "ornament"...

{ I think they're meant for putting on wreaths, but Mom worked some magic and turned it into an ornament instead. }

I absolutely LOVE the brown, the orange, the blue and turquoise...  I instantly knew these would be the colors for the tree!!

I love to use glass balls { if you couldn't tell }, ribbon for the garland { this year I found some glitter encrusted ribbon to use }, and this year I just happened to have a piece of material that matched wonderfully that I used to cover the base of the tree!

Then came the time to put all of the decorations on the tree, Mommy had a special little helper/assistant...

And then came pictures of us all in front of the tree...  

The only thing left to get to make this Christmas tree perfect is the matching/coordinating wrapping paper that I saw as we were leaving Michael's { wink }

Of course I'm just kidding, I know that's a little overboard...  right?!

When do you put up your Christmas tree?  I know there are people out there who put it up on the 1st of November and then some wait until Christmas week...  where do you fall in this vast spectrum?

And moving on to the next holiday...

The big turkey day is almost upon us.  And I've got my contributions all planned out, see here (Family. Friends. And Food. = Thanksgiving) if you need a refresher. 

So that means that I'm now having to mentally plan for our annual tree decorating get-together with the grandparents, which will be this Saturday night, as in 3+ days away--  EEK!  Click here to see me blab about the { yummy } hot chocolate and marshmallows I will be making for us to enjoy. 

Here are some pictures from last year's tree decorating.  Seeing the joy and awe on Carter's face while we decorated the Christmas tree was amazing/priceless/one of the most wonderful moments EVER!

Ok now back to business. { wink }

Let's start with food.  I've decided to make some soup, roasted tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons to be exact. { smile }  I found the recipe on Pinterest, as would be expected considering I'm addicted to it.

Get the recipe here if you should want to try it, too.

And then there's the Greek layer dip, I'm about 80% sure I'll be serving it.  I have most of the ingredients already I'm just not sure if everyone will try it, some { specifically the hubby } aren't very adventurous when it comes to new food.

Photo and recipe courtesy of The Lovely Cupboard, get the recipe here.

Hummus, kalamata olives, cucumber, etc...  what's not to love?!

Moving on...  the tree and the decorations!

 We have a new, smaller tree to use this year because our usual one, yes we have an artificial tree and it is way. too. big.  So that brings up the dilemma of decorations...  since it's a new tree there have to be some new ornaments for it, right?!

I hope to recreate something kinda similar to these...

I love the color schemes of BOTH of these and the fact that I have some gold/champagne/silver glass balls already is { PERFECT }.


I'll be shopping on Black Friday, just not at the crack of dawn, will you?

You'll find me at JoAnn Fabrics with my partner in sewing/fabric crime, Lacey Rose.  We'll be the ones with bolts, upon bolts of flannel fabric in our shopping cart.  { smile }

Good luck in your shopping adventures this weekend!

And again... yummy??

I was at it again, the night after my first FABULOUS grilled cheese creation I tried my hand at another sandwich.  But this time it was definitely more of a miss than a hit.

I'll start with the ingredients and then explain why it was a "miss"...

Yukon Gold rustic bread

Jambon ham

Crispy bacon

Tomato

Smoked gouda cheese


Here's the before "grilling"/cooking pic....

And the after "grilling"/cooking pic...



See the difference?  What? They're the same? 

Well Mr. or Mrs. SmartyPants, you are right!  The pics are the same and that's because the sandwich looked pretty much the same, except the bread was golden from cooking, but the cheese did not melt as I had hoped, big disappointment.  BUT, if it had I think this sandwich would have been AMAZING!

Until next time!

Love
Steph


FYI, my third attempt was delicious!  A grilled fresh mozarella, tomato and basil sandwich, yum!

Something yummy.

I was cruising through the blogs I follow when I happened upon the most recent post from Grilled Cheese Social...  First have you checked out this blog yet?  If you love grilled cheese sandwiches or food for that matter you will love MacKenzie's blog!  She makes masterpiece sandwiches with just about any ingredient you could imagine.  And seeing as how I had been thinking about what I was going to have for dinner, when I saw her post "From Meme and Me"it was the inspiration I needed to try my hand at a fancy-schmancy grilled cheese sandwich and now I'm sharing it with you because it was DELICOUS!

Alright so here are the ingredients, all of which I picked up at Central Market (one of the best grocery stores/markets EVER)...

Yukon gold rustic bread

Sliced Muenster cheese

Jambon ham

Tomatoes (which I seasoned with a little salt & pepper)

And here's how it turned out...

The only thing that I still need to tweek is the cheese needed to be melted a tad more, specifically to the point of being ooey-gooey yumminess (hence the reason it's back in the pan after cutting it).

I was quite pleased with my first attempt at "gourmet" grilled cheese and I can't wait until my next sandwich.  Any ideas on the next ingredients I should use?

Oh! In case you were wondering, here's the sandwich that caught my eye and inspired my creation tonight...

Courtesy of Grilled Cheese Social

Until next time!

Love Steph