Christmas Eve:

Christmas Morning:

Christmas Day:

We had an amazing holiday, full of food and family and fun. The kids were – and are – insanely spoiled, both with STUFF and attention.

I made Bacon and Hash Brown Egg Bake and Blueberry French Toast Casserole on Christmas Eve to put in the oven in the morning and both were delicious. My plans for an actual Christmas meal were thwarted by total laziness (and maybe my “holiday style” hot cocoa starting at 11 am) and we just turned the ham into sandwiches instead. They were FANTASTIC.

My sister is here to visit for a few days and the kids are already madly in love with her. She brought champagne and chocolate and volunteered to babysit on New Year’s Eve so she can stay forever if she wants. I mean, I know her plan WAS to go to Hawaii for a couple weeks and then move to Paris, but I’m offering a very nice guest room, free food and the chance to hang out with two crazy ginger toddlers as much as she wants so we’ll see. It might be an offer she can’t refuse.

I hope you and your families had a wonderful and relaxing holiday. I’ll be on my couch finishing off this bag of candy Santa “forgot” to put in our stockings and Googling “miracle 48-hour juice fast lose 30 pounds today”.

Hello, welcome to our magical winter fairy birthday party wonderland! We’re so happy you’re here to celebrate Caroline’s second birthday. Our theme this time is winter fairies, who like the ice, snow, cold weather animals and of course, pine cones:

Fancy Chalkboard

Fairy house and magic tree

Welcome to my cottage, friends!

Caroline’s yearly books, from her first day til this month

Don’t forget proper fairy attire:

Wings, headbands & antlers!

I spy some fairies!

Please have some food:

Thumbprint cookies (so, so, so good. Insanely good. You won’t believe it good.)

Candy Cane Chex Mix, Caramel/Chocolate/Candy Appples

Sparkling Brie Bites (these are now a tradition, since we had them last year too)

Gum drop fudge (I used those sparkly gummy fruit wedges – DELICIOUS)

My mom made her traditional Christmas coffee cake

Coconut snowballs, Pita Trees

Pancake tree-tower, dusted with powdered sugar and surrounded by extra sparkling cranberries (I used the store brand complete mix, which was surprisingly good!)

Caprese Pops (pin link, original pin goes nowhere)

Reindeer Cookies –  E said these are his new favorite Christmas cookie

Cucumber sandwiches – ALWAYS a hit

Pinecone cheeseball – I ignored the recipe and mixed 1 block cream cheese with a tub of Rondele herb cheese and added a little dill and garlic powder. Then I ate ALL the leftovers for dinner.

Snowman marshmallow pops

Microwave popcorn in paper cones I made with scrapbook paper and a hole punch

Olive wreath – This was the only thing that was TOTALLY gone at the end

Fruit tree – thanks to my mom for doing all the work on this

Cupcakes – white box cake mix with homemade frosting (1 stick butter, 1 block cream cheese, 1 2 lb bag of powdered sugar, the end)

Sparkly polar bears! Reindeer! Narwhals!!

Extra cupcakes

I forgot to take a picture of the buttermints, but they get 5 stars definitely will make again

Help yourself to a drink:

Homemade gingerbread donuts on “milk bottles” (actually those store-bought frappuchinos) (idea from here)

On the hot cocoa bar: candy cane dippers, peppermint sticks, mini M&M’s, mint marshmallows, regular marshmallows, whipped cream, 2 kind of creamer, whipped cream vodka (THIS IS A THING), peppermint schnapps, Bailey’s, sugar sprinkles, milk hot chocolate, dark hot chocolate, coffee, hot cider.

Decorate a tree to take home (or eat right now because they’re delicious):

Caroline really enjoyed this part of the party

MESS.

Don’t forget your party favors:

Red & white glitter play dough in mini mason jars with printable tags

Magic wands I made from dowels, tiny eye hooks, ribbon and jingle bells (I totally forgot to give them out!)

Foam ornament decorating

The birthday girl had a wonderful time (even though her brother blew out her candles):

Thank you friends for coming!

I actually missed photographing a lot of details and people because I was too buy enjoying my own party (for once!) Despite a lot of things not going as planned – Caroline refused to wear EITHER of the “princess dresses” I planned for her, misplacing her beautiful hair bow (not that she’d wear that either), forgetting to give the kids their magic wands, not getting many photos in the photo booth – I think everyone had a really good time and that’s what is really important at a 2 year old’s birthday.

Sites and Sources:

My Pinterest Board

Tips for writing on chalkboards (dipping the chalk in water worked REALLY well)
I made the chalkboards using garage sale frames, spray paint (silver and chalkboard colored) and a piece of particle board
Wings are from both a local bargain store and The Hair Bow Company
Headbands and antlers from Oriental Trading
Tissue paper snowflakes from Oriental Trading
Branches, crystals, ice cubes, paper stars from Save on Crafts
I made the tent with Ikea curtains and an embroidery hoop (tutorial here)
Balloons from Oriental Trading
The Fairy House is a the Discovery Kid’s Playhouse I bought on clearance after last Christmas for $10
Mini light strings, paper gingerbread house, red lanterns, various other Christmas decor from Ikea
Hot cocoa k-cups purchased at Bed Bath & Beyond
Deer cupcake toppers, cupcake wrappers, paper straws, sprinkles from Bake It Pretty
Super awesome tree stump stands were made by my dad
Winter animal cupcake toppers were custom made by PaperPartyParade
All banners, signs and labels were made by me using cardstock, my printer & free fonts found online

Pretty much everything else is from Target or Michael’s

That was really fun but I am SO glad it’s over and I can concentrate on wrapping Christmas gifts and not baking for 12 hours a day. I think my theme for next year is just going to be “Milk & Cookies” and I’ll spread out all the cookie-making over a month so my feet don’t feel like they’re going to fall off from standing in front of the stove. Mmm…cookies.

p.s. I forgot to include the beautiful invitations my friend Denae designed for me! She did Evan’s dino invites too & is so talented.

We’re having our Thanksgiving just as a family of four this year, which means we could have ordered a pizza and the toddlers wouldn’t have even noticed. But my mother always made sure our meal was special, even when it didn’t involve dozens of extended relatives and I wanted my kids to have the same – despite their skepticism over everything from mashed potatoes to pie. But I’m so thankful we get to spend the day together, that we are all healthy and blessed, and that there is more pie for me.

If anyone needs leftovers, PLEASE come over ASAP!

Watching the parade

Warm cider-rum punch

Life continues to be good in our house, unless you are almost 2 year old, in which case you life is TERRIBLE.

Sunday:

The laptop doctor is in.

Sorry Mommy, you’re not as interesting as your iPad.

Obsessed.

 Monday:

Lemon poppy seed muffins. They’re the paleo version, so don’t be jealous.

Making rainbows at the post office.

This game is called “Help I’m trapped in the door!” and we play every time we come home.

Tuesday:

New favorite thing. It was broken by dinner time.

He voted. But he wasn’t happy about it.

Past my bedtime, but I had to see how it ended.

Wednesday:

“Naptime Mommy! Night night”. (No, actually, we’re at gymnastics.)

Eggplant and fennel salad. I wish it was a cheeseburger.

Life is SO HARD when you are almost two.

Thursday:

Stroller Strides is an adventure with this child.

I started painting the dining room. It’s not going quickly.

I don’t know what they were playing, but they were having a great time.

Friday:

I want to throat-punch whoever put the candy machines RIGHT next to the toddler play area.

Elevator rides are an effective bribery tool.

Respect the delicious smells of Christmas.

Saturday:

Lazy pants destroyed her room and then slept in.

Helpful little car pusher.

My perfect lunch: a Greek salad and a Diet Coke with NO OTHER PEOPLE. Plus also shopping.

I’m going to talk about this paleo/primal thing for a minute. Feel free to skip to food pictures.

Short update: I love it. I eat so many eggs I’m afraid I might turn into a chicken. I’ve lost 5 pounds, eat real butter and real cream, and am shocked at how little I miss most of my old diet.

Long update, in bullet point form because I keep thinking of things to add:

1. I am not technically following a Paleo diet because I still eat cheese. It’s closer to the Primal Blueprint diet, but I’m not sure I’m even doing that correctly. I don’t actually care very much about whether or not a caveman would have eaten it – I care whether or not it’s going to give me a migraine or make me feel like I’m dying (both things that happen now if I eat the wrong stuff). Being sort of lax with the rules mean I’m not getting all that magical fat-melting the interwebs seemed to promise, but it also means I don’t want to jump off a bridge.

2. Once I got through a few days carb/added sugar/Diet Coke-free my cravings for said things dropped off the map almost entirely. It’s like all the willpower I’ve lacked my entire life just SHOWED UP. Oh hey, Willpower, nice to see you. I could have used you back when my pregnancy cravings had me eating McDonald’s fries twice a day but whatever. I’m really glad the desire is gone because I am NOT making the whole family stick to my diet. Caroline basically does it on her own – she’d rather have eggs for breakfast than cereal – but Evan would starve without carbs. Thanks to my new willpower when I bought the kids special treat donuts after the Fresh Beat Band concert, I managed to bring one home, look at it for a while, then leave it for E to eat. I NEVER could have done that before.

3. I’ve thrown out all the rules about breakfast, lunch and dinner. Steak at 10 am, eggs and bacon for dinner, and eating any time I feel hungry is the new plan. Since I can’t count on easy, instant food I also do a lot more cooking (and dishes) and eat a lot more leftovers. Also, eggs. All the time.

4. I sometimes get this weird burning in my nose, like I accidentally inhaled water. I have NO idea if my new diet is to blame but it happens 3-4 times a day and it’s something that has never happened to me before (unless I really did get water up my nose). Dr. Google seems to think it’s an unrelated sinus infection, but I swear I’m not sick and haven’t been for a while. It might be my face rebelling against my diet (although my skin and hair seems to like it.)

5. My exercise schedule has been pretty sad (or non-existent) since E’s schedule changed back in August. I stopped running and haven’t been going to Stroller Strides. Now that I’ve seen a little success with the diet change I’m more motivated to see if I can amp it up with some workouts. I think it would make a big difference in my shape/jeans size.

6. I’m going to stick with it. It’s not so much that it’s some sort of magical cure-all weight-loss miracle plan, but just that I like it. I like drinking my coffee with real cream and I like putting steak on top of my lunch salad and I like eating eggs – all things I WASN’T doing before because I thought I needed to eat low fat to lose (or even maintain) my weight. This is better.

7. Still no plans to turn this into a blog about paleo/primal stuff, but if you want to talk about it I’m more than happy to on email or Facebook. Thank you to people who emailed me suggestions and recipes and blogs to follow – it’s been SUPER helpful!

8. Who can tell me where to get coconut flour? Don’t say Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods – we don’t have those.

So, to answer the title question, here’s what’s for dinner (complete with a lot of Google-fu to find the recipes):

1. Thai-Inspired Scallop Soup – The Primal Blueprint Cookbook (I KNOW I found this recipe online somewhere but can’t re-find it. It was totally amazing, so I might remake it and blog it)
2. Turkish Eggs – Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals (basic recipe can also be found here)
3. Smoked Salmon, Egg and Asparagus Roll-ups – Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals (just what it sounds/looks like)
4. Bison Chili – The Primal Blueprint Cookbook (just basic chili, no beans)

5. Artichoke & Green Olive Dip – Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals (almost the same as this one)
6. Nut Crackers – The Primal Blueprint Cookbook (This one IS online – recipe #2 here.)
7. Deep Dish Pizza Casserole – A Girl Worth Saving
8. Meat sauce over roasted eggplant – I made spaghetti for everyone else and just threw some eggplant in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. It was better than noodles.

9. Coconut Almond Coleslaw – The Primal Blueprint Cookbook (I was most meh about this one)
10. Bacon & Mushroom Dip – Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals (online here)
11. Zucchini Carbonara – Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals (someone blogged it here)
12. Chicken & Artichokes With Garlic Sauce – Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals (REALLY good, really easy, I’ve made it twice. There’s a version online here, but I used anchovies instead of fish sauce.)

I’ve also eaten a lot of broccoli made with this recipe I found on the Girl’s Gone Child blog and successfully replaced rice with grated cauliflower in both fried rice and jambalaya. Plus eggs. Did I mention eggs yet?

(Links in this post are not sponsored or affiliate links, just stuff I’ve read or bought on my own.)

P.S. ALSO, I made Jalapeno Popper Quiche last night (minus the crust) and it was SO FREAKING GOOD I didn’t even take time to eat a picture before E and I ate it all.