Year: 2009

by Kimberly

15 new year’s eve playlist songs

Some of my favorites for some New Year’s Eve mixing, mingling, flirting, toasting, and two-stepping Fly Me to the Moon–Frank Sinatra The Best is Yet to Come–Frank Sinatra Save the Last Dance–Michael Buble Everything–Michael Buble Come Fly With Me–MIchael Buble Be Ok–Ingrid Michaelson It Had to be You–Harry Connick, Jr. We Are in Love–Harry Connick, Jr. Better Together–Jack Johnson Melody–Kate Earl Moondance–Van Morrison The Show–Lenka Auld Lang Syne–Bare Naked Ladies Auld Lang Syne–Straight No Chaser all available at itunes This…
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by Kimberly

Auld Lang Syne

New Year’s Eve is the anniversary of Mr. J and I meeting for the first time. He tracked me down three weeks later for a first date, and the rest is history! Thus, we make a point to mark the holiday in some way. Sometimes we eat out, sometimes we order in, perhaps watch a few movies and share a special moment and a fizzy drink at midnight. It has been, though, a little more difficult to celebrate in a…
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by Allison

off to see a man about a horse.

We open our presents on Christmas Eve, it’s a European Catholic thing. You have to open up those toys so you can hurry off to Midnight Mass at the local cathedral! We don’t go to Midnight Mass, but we have kept the tradition of opening presents early; it’s all about priorities, and clearly ours are in order. This year when Viktor handed out the presents he whispered in my ear *you’re going to kill me when you see what I…
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by Allison

safe cough syrup for kids.

honey cough syrup

December has been filled with nothing but sickness at my house, which is par for the course. Kids coughing, cat coughing {I jest}, me coughing my little lungs out. It’s literally been a month-long lie-in over here; as I type this I’m sick in bed. Again. Enter ZarBee’s Cough Syrup for kids. You know how you can never get your kids to drink the disgusting stuff from the pharmacy, even when they sound like they have the plague and just…
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by Allison

Homemade Müesli

I’m on day 5 of pajama wearing heaven, and I’m not coming down off this high anytime soon. I only interrupt my magazine consuming, chocolate devouring, Netflix watching euphoria to share a little something we did on Christmas morning. Something we do every Christmas morning at my parents house actually; we make German müesli. And it’s the highlight of my entire year. Fo shizzle. My dad doesn’t do a lot of cooking, but this is the one tradition we’ve done…
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by Kimberly

A Christmas Carol Movie

“A  Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens is beloved in our home. Mr. J reads the original story to his students each December, and we are familiar with its many cinematic interpretations. Last weekend we seized upon a babysitter in order to have a certifiable date night, and went to see the latest version, Disney’s “A Christmas Carol.” It was fantastic. Very true to the original story, very creative, with an excellent musical score. Because it is so true to the…
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by Allison

how to: make homemade toffee.

homemade toffee

I make homemade toffee for Christmas every year.  I give it to friends, neighbors, family, and the mailman. No, seriously I do, he’s the nicest guy ever. Sometimes I wish I’d never started this tradition because my kids won’t let me stop. It’s not that making toffee is complicated {it’s not} but that I make batches and batches and batches of it, until my house smells of nothing but butter and we’re eating toffee for breakfast. But it’s as much…
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by Kimberly

fun idea for neighbor christmas gifts

A lot to celebrate at my house this weekend: our 9th wedding anniversary, the completion of graduate school, and our beloved babysitter is home from college, so we get to go out on a real live celebratory date. Oh, and Christmas is here, so we are  delivering some goodies to neighbors and friends this weekend. It’s always such a conundrum for me, deciding what to share with them. My Auntie Nan always gives her homemade sweet pickles, my mother always…
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by Allison

how to: make homemade sugar scrub.

This year for Christmas we’re doing a little less of everything. A little more homemade, a lot less commercial. My kids are getting a small smattering of presents {and I do mean small} and Viktor and I are keeping the gifts between us pretty basic and practical. I already bought myself the camera I wanted, the only thing left on my list is every available song from the Glee Soundtrack. But I digress. My point was that we’re keeping it…
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