Merry Christmas Eve Everyone!
It's been a whirl wind few days! Can't believe how fast time is flying. This time next week we will be lounging on a beautiful beach in Mexico.
But for now, we're home, soaking up all the Christmas cheer. It's been a week of visiting with friends and family, and eating, and drinking, and fun!
I realized yesterday morning that poor Growly Bear hadn't had a bath in tree days! (Mother of the Year right here!) There's just hadn't been time. The poor little sticky child had a nice long soak yesterday morning, and came out pruney and squeaky clean.
I'm being a busy mommy all morning, baking and, getting all the little last minute things done. I made the Apricot Squares again, becasue they are far too delicious. I also made Almond Pie (which I've included the recipe for here), a new recipe for Cherry Almond Pound Cake, and my traditional Chocolate Gingerbread Cake.
Thought I would sign in quickly to share the pie recipe, because it's one of my favorite Christmas recipes. I've been making it every year for the last 10 years, and the Christmas feast wouldn't be complete without it. If you're looking for something a little different to try, here it is!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Love and Hugs

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Merry Christmas everyone!
That's right, we're in full Christmas swing in our house.
Unfortunately, my camera has taken this as it's opportunity to pack it in, and will now only take fugly, out of focus pictures about 80% of the time. Maybe I'll ask Santa for a new one... Too bad Santa and I had agreed not to do gifts this year due to our Mexican Extravaganza Vacation we will be leaving on 4 days after Christmas! Woo hoo!
Last weekend I had the girls come over and help me decorate our beautiful brand new tree that I bought in August when we were at our Family Reunion, and have been DYING to put up ever since!
Not that you can tell from the crappy picture up top, but it's beautiful! And Growly Bear is being unbelievably good about not un-decorating the bottom 3 feet. She's mostly just fascinated by the gifts underneath. She's been "helping" me wrap gifts, and then watching me put them under the tree. She promptly goes over, and picks up whatever I just placed under, and brings it back to me. The entire thing is very strange for her, but she's doing her best to help me in her own little way. It's pretty adorable.
Anywho, I mostly just popped in to share my, (well it's actually Barefoot Contessa's) delicious recipe for Chocolate Cup-Cakes with Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting. I made them for our tree decorating party, and I must say, they go perfectly with copious quantities of wine and girl talk.
I'll leave you with a couple photos of our decorations, and the delicious recipe.
Love and Hugs!

Cupcakes:

• 3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 extra-large eggs
  
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk
  
• 1/2 cup sour cream
  
• 2 tablespoons brewed coffee
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup good cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 18 cupcake pans with paper liners.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the milk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it's completely blended.
Divide the batter among the cupcake pans, filling about 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

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After yesterday's post, I'm happy to report:
Today was an awesome day! A great day! A pretty much perfect day! And then the kitchen sink got plugged...
Growly Bear started Playschool today! This is a pretty big deal for a couple reasons. First off, she's never been left with anyone other then my mom and dad, and once, an Auntie.
At Playschool, the idea is that I take here there. And I drop her off with a snack. And then I leave.... We're still working on that last part. I stayed and played today. I will next week too. We'll see how it goes the week after that.
The other reason this is a pretty big deal (and this is super cool) is becasue Growly Bear's Playschool teacher was MY Playschool teacher! It's the same building. Some of the same awesome toys which I remember fondly (think a cool, custom made, colorful kids play kitchen area, and a pull down bed, and a rice table, and colorful steps that you sit on to sing songs and hear stories!). And best of all, the same awesome teacher! It's pretty amazing watching my baby girl sit up on those colorful steps with all her friends enjoying puppets and songs and leaning new things.
Growly Bear even got her very own little cubby!

We had a good laugh leaving Playschool today too. As we walked out of the building, I saw my Nana, (Growly Bear's Great Nana), sitting in her car waiting to see how the first day went! As we started to walk towards her car, I heard my mom's voice (even though I hadn't seen her!) call "What are you doing here?" to which my Nana replied back to her, "What are YOU doing here?". Turns out, my mom was parked on the other side of my car waiting for us too! They both just "happened" to be in the neighborhood, oblivious that the other one was too, and both decided to stop to see how the first day went. We had a good little laugh as I recapped our awesome morning.
Lunchtime went well. Nap time went well. Studying went well. We decided to do a little baking when Growly Bear woke up and she announced that she wanted "cake cups" a.k.a Cupcakes.
Usually she just watches me cook for afar, but today I thought she might like to help. She sure did!

Clearly, it was a perfect day!
And then I went to wash the dishes. And I discovered the drain wouldn't drain.
Luckily my handy man hubby came home right about then!

It's incidents like this that I'm so happy I'm just a "helpless" woman who doesn't know a thing about plumbing!
I don't really know what went down, but after dinner there was a  lot of swearing coming from the kitchen, a plunger in the sink, followed by a phone call to a friend, the sound of beers being opened once the friend got there, some hideously disgustingly rusty dirty thing called a "snake" on the middle of my kitchen floor, some more swearing, then then a while later a report that we had a working kitchen sink again! Woo-hoo!
Needless to say, my kitchen has now been Mr. Cleaned within an inch of it's life, smells fresh and clean, and has a sink that drains super fast! Yay handy man husband, and yay handy man husbands friend!
While all this was going on in my kitchen, Growly Bear and I cuddled up in the big bed (away from the swear words!), and watched cartoons and cuddled. So even with the small glitch in there, it still was the perfect day.
I've included the recipe for our delicious Cake-Cups, which were suppose to have Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and sprinkles, but I decided not to make any more dirty dishes when I wasn't able to clean the ones I currently had! They were pretty fantastic just the way they were though!
Hope everyone had a fantastic day too!
Love and Hugs Everyone!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups brown sugar
  
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
  
• 1 cup butter, softened
  
• 2/3 cup full fat sour cream
• 2 tsp real vanilla
  
• 4 eggs
  
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  

• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  
• 1 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 30 muffin tins with liners
  
• In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, butter, sour cream, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill lined muffin tins 2/3 of the way full
  
• Bake for 20 mins, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from tins, and cool on wire racks before removing from cans or pans.

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So as most everyone knows, we had a pretty significant 7.7 earthquake here on Saturday night. We are all doing fine, and there were no reports of major damage or injuries, but it was still the scariest thing I have ever been through.
My hubby and I were excited becasue for the first time in a year, we were going to go out, and leave Growly Bear with her Grama and Grampa for the night! There is a Halloween Dance here every year, so we were going to dress up, and get our drink on, and go out to have some fun with friends.
We had just dropped Growly Bear off at my parents house for the night, and were at a friends house getting ready for the dance. We'd only been there for about 20 mins when it hit. I didn't even clue in at first what was happening!
We were in my girlfriends bathroom doing our makeup and chatting, and we heard what sounded like a freight train coming. It went on and on, long enough for me to ask if her washing machine was going and for her to say no, that she thought someone pulled into the yard in a noisy truck. We were all puzzled and looking at one another when her boyfriend yelled for us that it was an Earthquake and we had to take cover in doorways, NOW.
As we started running out into the house where the guys were, everything started shaking violently and banging and popping. The noise was insane! The floor felt like it was going to give out, and I remember wondering what room was under me, and where in the basement was I going to end up. I kept thinking I wanted to get outside, but knew I couldn't becasue of power lines and trees.
I had my phone in my hand and tried dialing my parents house, but between the shaking from the earthquake, and my shaking becasue I was so scared, I couldn't dial.
Half way through, the power went out, and the 5 of us were left standing in total darkness in different doorways around the house with everything shaking and groaning and popping around us. It felt like it went on for all eternity, but in reality, I think it lasted about 60 seconds. Longest minute of my life!
I got completely hysterical (helpful, yes I know!) and my husband started telling us we had to get out to our vehicles and get to higher ground.
My hubby and girlfriend, and her boyfriend are all on our volunteer fire department in our small town, so they have been trained in Earthquake disaster preparedness. They knew that the severity of the shaking, and the length of the quake could quite possibly trigger a Tsunami, and we had to get out of there quickly.
Thank god my husband is the best possibly person to have in a disaster situation! Unlike me, he goes into this calm survival mode, and is completely level headed and able to tell people what needs to be done. He's my Knight in Shining Big Dodge Pickup!
Now that I look back, I realize how funny it was to be taking instructions from a half way made up Professor Plum (my husband) a partial made up, snakes in the hair, Medusa (my girlfriend), and Buzz Lightyear (the other firefighter in our group). My other girlfriend looked stunning as a beautiful version of Marry Poppins. And then there was me, the hysterical one in ratty sweats and a wife beater, as I hadn't even started getting ready yet.
One the shaking stopped, we raced for our vehicles grabbing only our shoes, coats, and my girlfriends dog.
By this point, my husband had my parents on the phone and knew they were all safe. Thank god for cell phones, becasue the regular phone lines were out. I was slightly less hysterical by this point knowing that at least Growly Bear and my parents were OK.
We knew we had to get to my parents house, which is way up on a hill. If a Tsunami was coming, we'd be safe up there.
My mom called us while we were making our way to them and asked that we pick up my Grandmother. We stopped for her, and then continued on to pick up my girlfriends mom. And off we headed to the safety of my parents house.
When we got there, they were all completely fine, but my parents were a little shaken (bad pun intended!) Growly Bear was sitting in her high chair, completely oblivious to anything that had happened, happily eating a snack that "Bumpa" (aka - Grampa) had made for her. I wrapped my arms around her and burst into tears.
My mom told us how she had grabbed Growly Bear and ran out into the middle of their yard, away from trees and power lines and the bank in front of their house.
Their home is built literally RIGHT on the edge of an enormous cliff, and my poor mom was terrified the entire house was going to slide down the cliff. She was yelling for my dad to get out of the house too when the power went out and everything was black, and she was left standing with my baby in her arms, in the cold, and the rain, as everything was shaking under and around them.
Within about 5 to 10 minutes of us getting there, neighbors from all around us started showing up with candles, flashlights, food and of course, BOOZE!
I was feeling much calmer by this point being surrounded by family and loved ones, though I was still a little jumpy.
Having a house full was the perfect distraction. The aftershocks continued the entire evening (and still are happening pretty steadily!) but the mood quickly lightened, and we ended up having quite a fun a party!

My dad went into "Host with the Most" mode, serving up cocktails and shots, beer, wine and snacks. For those of you who know him, you'll know he was in his glory.
After getting us settled in, the fire department called for my husband and the other volunteer members to meet so they could start evacuating the lower parts of town. Turned out we were in the middle of a Tsunami warning, and they wanted to make sure people were moving to higher ground.
Pretty hard sending my husband and one of my best friends out into the black of night to areas of town that could potentially be hit by a tsunami. But, that's part of their job, so off they went.
Thankfully, they were probably the most informed people in town, and were able to keep us all up to date on what was happening with texts and phone calls.
By this point, we had power back, and were also able to keep an eye on the news, and what the outside world knew about us being at risk. It was a long evening, with lots of tremors and shakes, but we made the most of it, and actually ended up having a pretty good time!
At about 1:30am the warning was called off, and all the firefighters were all allowed to come home. There ended up being a small (3 meeter) tidal swell, so I guess that was the extend of our tsunami.
Yesterday was spent still hiding out at my parents house, although everyone else had gone home in the wee hours of the morning. I was too chicken to leave though. So, we spent the night. And the day was spent with me and my mom in our jammies, drinking tea, and staring at each other wide eyes whispering, "Did you feel that!", with every rumble, and taking turns grabbing Growly Bear and getting ready to vacate to the back yard if it picked up as badly as it had the night before.
I'm still on edge, but we are home now, and all is well. We are still experiencing after shocks , (I actually just sat through a 5.1 as I was typing this. And last I checked, we were at a total 67 after shocks since the big quake at 8:00pm on Saturday night) We are told that we could continue experiencing them for up to 3 weeks as things settle back in.... Yay!
Mother Nature is angry lately! Earthquakes on the West Coast. Hurricane on the East Coast. Yikes!
Stay safe everyone!
Love and Hugs

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Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian peeps!
Although it truly doesn't feel like fall, there are some small signs that it is in fact October, and not the middle of July. Despite the fact that it's been 23 degrees for much of the past week, the flowers are starting to look tired, and the leaves are starting to fall. The nights are much cooler, and it's getting dark so much earlier then it was just a few weeks ago!
So, to welcome this incredible Fall that we're having, I decided to give my blog a little facelift. Let me know what you think!
The facelift was actually mostly inspires by an awesome impromptu photo shoot that we did with my girlfriend today! We've been talking about doing a Fall Family Photo Shoot for about a month, and today she texted me to say with this fantastic weather we are having, today was the perfect day!
She was right! The photos are amazing. And we had so much fun!
I've posted before about thing that I'm thankful for, but this time of year always makes me look at all that we have, and appreciate it even more. It's hard to narrow down all the incredible things in our life, but I decided to do a Top 5 list of the most important things - in no particular order:
1) My Family: I have the most wonderful, loving family ever! Without them, I would be lost. I am thankful for them every day. I love the fact that Growly Bear will grow up knowing what unconditional love is.
2) My Husband: I have the best husband, possibly in the entire world. He's patient, supportive and kind. He puts up with my moods and whims. Like today, he had a huge list of things to do, and he dropped everything for our last minute Photo Shoot! Despite the fact that he was less then pleased to loose his day off getting pictures takes (his least favorite thing in the entire world!), he smiled pretty and went along with it while we dragged him to different locations around town to get the perfect shots.
3) My Baby Girl: Growly Bear amazes me every single day. There was a time that we were told we may never be able to have her. Every time I look at her I feel truly blessed! She's becoming such an incredible little person! This stage is so much fun (although I find I say that at every stage we've hit so far). She's got this incredible personality and ideas of her own! The craziest little sense of humor, and so much love in her. I am so thankful I get to be Growly Bear's mommy.
4) My Friends: I have the most wonderful group of friends that anyone could ever ask for. These girls that I love have the biggest hearts! Whether it's dropping everything for a last minute lunch date becasue one of us is having a bad day. Or helping to pull off an incredible 1st Birthday Party. Texting to say "today's the day" for the photo shoot we've been talking about, even though it means giving up her day off. Showing up with beer and nachos just becasue the sun is shining. A last minute adventure, or spur of the moment weenie roast just becasue it's been a few days since we've had a get-together, and we miss each other! These girls I am lucky enough to call "my friends" are the best people I know!
5) My Job: I know not everyone can say they love what they do, but I do! Part of what makes my job so fun, are the great people I work with. Our office is a little family of it's own. And I am so thankful that my incredible bosses understand that I need to be a mommy, as well as work for them. They allow me freedom and flexibility so that I can do both!
I hope everyone has thought about all the good in their lives, and picked out a few things that they are thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Love and Hugs

So I'm sure we all remember the hilarious show "Married with Children" from back in the day. We all remember the famous Peg Bundy and her love of soap operas and bon bons and shopping, and doing as little as possible at home while her husband worked at his crappy job trying to make ends meet.
Although I had no illusions that being a house wife was actually for realz like this (and not that I actually wanted it to be!), I kinda hoped that there would be at least a little laziness and trashy TV and bon bon eating on occasion.
When I went on maternity leave I quickly learned that it in fact there wasn't much time for bon bons.. I was mostly at Growly Bears beckon call for around the clock feedings and bum changes. And then if time allowed it, there was always laundry. Lots and lots of laundry.
Growly Bear is getting to a really nice age right now though where she can play quietly (or loudly!) on her own for small amounts of time while I get things done. And she's interested in whatever I'm doing, so even if she doesn't want to entertain herself, she's happy to follow me around and watch ("help!" with) what I'm doing.
So I'm feeling like I have a little more freedom sometimes, and like I actually almost have enough hours in the day to get things done (sometimes!) and then once in a while, I even have a little left over time to have a quiet moment to myself! (I've even had time to read book 1 and 2 of the Hunger Games this summer, and have started on book 3!)
I recently pulled out my sewing machine and started working on some fun projects. I bought a new glue gun and some pretty things that I plan on using together to create something fantastic. (Once I figure these awesome things out, I will share them on here, so stay tuned!)
And then a day like yesterday happens. And it's awesome and wonderful and makes the part-time-house-wife role even more awesome!
It was hot and sunny and an incredibly beautiful day! And what made it an even better day, was a text from some girlfriends telling me they were coming over armed with nacho makings and cold beer, and they were going to cook for me, and then we were going to spend the afternoon in the yard. Um... OK!
So we set up a little shady shelter outside for Growly Bear, filled it full of toys, packed our nachos and beers out to the back yard, and we sat in the sun, alllllll afternoon long. It was lovely.
Although, I did felt slightly guilty when my hard working hubby stopped in at home for a quick second to grab something and witnessed our slightly buzzed, lazy asses lounging around doing nothing at all productive. Not guilty enough to apologize or get up make myself look busy while he was home though. Instead I think I stood up, frosty beer in hand, and told him how hard it was being a house wife, and that I was pretty sure I was going to need a break sometimes soon.
By the end of the day, my throat hurt from talking so much. My sides ached for laughing so hard. And I felt like I needed to purge my brain of some of the insanely inappropriate things we talked about. All in all, a fantastic day!
So, a big Thank You goes out to my wonderful friends for a perfect day, and the best way possibly to spend one of the few last days of summer.
In other exciting news, I think we can officially say we have a walker! Growly Bear took her first couple of steps two weeks ago when we were coming home on the ferry from our 1st family vacation, but she's been pretty cheeky about it ever since, and hasn't really made much effort to do a lot more then that.
However, tonight, she just kinda took off outta the blue! It was perfect too, becasue we were at my parents house, enjoying a drink after work, having a visit, and all four of us got to witness it!
She got the giggles, and loved us all cheering for her, so she continued to walk around in 12-15 step chunks while she giggled and clapped. Cutest thing I've ever seen! My momma pride was bubbling over. Yet another amazing milestone has been reached,
I'm off to bed now!
Love and Hugs

Please don't forget to vote! We've fallen big time with my absence in August. Can we bring me back to the top 25?