Post-Christmas update

We survived the Christmas rush and what a blast.  Isabelle was awesome this Christmas - totally getting into opening presents.  I think she liked opening the presents more than anything else.  Gotta love being three!!!  We spent Christmas in CT with our families.  Talk about Christmas festivities - three days long and still going......Hope everyone had a great Christmas too!

In January, I'm going to read 'Out of Africa" with a newly formed friend founded through another blog.  She loves 19th C literature too.  Of course, Out of Africa is not 19th C, but it is one of the very few 20th C and later books I read and liked.  So many people just like the new stuff.  Alas, I find it rather tedious with rare exceptions.  BTW, the book is a million times better than the movie!!!!!!  It's an easy read (for those 

not accustomed to reading "heavy" stuff) and truly grasps one attention throughout the book.  Highly recommend.

(Favorite Christmas Gift)

(Walking with Daddy Christmas Day)

Two days until Christmas

The mad rush is upon us in our household.  It is two days until Christmas and baking, last minute items and giving homemade gifts to friends is well underway.  I love this time of year, though I wish it were warmer!!

Enjoy a nice cup of hot cocoa, or this fantastic recipe for Chocolate-y Christmas Cafe au Lait (www.Foodnetwork.com).....ENJOY!

Chocolate-y Christmas Cafe au Lait

This is a take-off of sorts on Cafe Brulot, Hot Chocolate, and Cafe au Lait. Both the Cafe Brulot and Cafe au Lait are served in New Orleans, the Brulot after dinner, and au Lait with breakfast. Cafe Brulot consists of orange peel strips, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and sugar being ignited with liqueurs in a large bowl to which black coffee is added. Traditional cafe au lait is scalded milk and black coffee simultaneously poured into a cup or carafe. Both are served piping hot. And the chocolate added to this gives the coffee a definite hot chocolate twist, sure to please all age groups. For a stronger coffee flavor, add another 1/2 cup hot coffee to the mixture.

Prep Time:

10 min

Inactive Prep Time:

10 min

Cook Time:

6 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

8 to 10 servings

This is a take-off of sorts on Cafe Brulot, Hot Chocolate, and Cafe au Lait. Both the Cafe Brulot and Cafe au Lait are served in New Orleans, the Brulot after dinner, and au Lait with breakfast. Cafe Brulot consists of orange peel strips, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and sugar being ignited with liqueurs in a large bowl to which black coffee is added. Traditional cafe au lait is scalded milk and black coffee simultaneously poured into a cup or carafe. Both are served piping hot. And the chocolate added to this gives the coffee a definite hot chocolate twist, sure to please all age groups. For a stronger coffee flavor, add another 1/2 cup hot coffee to the mixture.

1 1/2 cups whole milk 
2/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar 
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder 
2 ( 2-inch) cinnamon sticks 
1 strip orange peel, about 1/2 inch by 3 inches 
10 whole cloves 
2 to 2 1/2 cups hot brewed strong coffee 
1/4 cup cold heavy cream 
Ground cinnamon, for garnish 
Cocoa, for garnish

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the milk, 2/3 cup of the sugar, and cocoa until smooth. Add the cinnamon sticks, orange peel and cloves and bring to a simmer, stirring, to dissolve the sugar and prevent the cocoa from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Simmer for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whip the cream with the remaining 1 teaspoon sugar until thick and frothy, and peaks form. Set aside.

Strain the milk mixture into a coffee pot or carafe and add 2 cups of the hot coffee (2 1/2 cups for stronger coffee flavor, to taste). Pour into cups or small mugs and top each with a dollop of the sweetened whipped cream.

Serve immediately.

Been awhile

Having fun by candlelight Friday night!

There is nothing to make the holidays more stressful than a good old fashion major power outage!  Yup, on Thursday December 11th, we lost power due to a nasty winter ice storm that hit NH the hardest (over 600K people w/o power in NH alone!).  Our power was not restored for eight days.  Luckily, Isabelle and I headed to CT on the 13th and stayed with my Mom until Saturday.  Just in time for a Nor'easter of a winter snow storm.  Two winter snow storms in three days with over 2 feet of snow all together.  Certainly will be a white Christmas here!!!

We did manage to have some fun and even hit the snow yesterday while it was blustery and snowing........I'm going to be busy 

with making cookies, finishing Christmas cards etc...so off I go....

Eating birthday cake with Cousin Erica

Grandpa's Birthday dinner - Happy 75th Birthday!

Design Mom contest - check it out!

Wow, Gabrielle of DesignMom.com is having a great 12 Days of Christmas giveaway.  It starts tomorrow (12-12) and ends on Monday (12-15).  To enter - merely check her site out tomorrow and make a post.  How simple is that one?!  

Plus, if you have not checked out Design Mom in the past, Gabrielle has some awesome (and I mean awesome) giveaways, advice, comments etc. 

Don't wait - go there now and tomorrow!

Click on the following link to take you directly to the fun: http://www.designmom.com/

Apple verses Microsoft

This is too good not to share!  As everyone is well aware, I am the proud and happy own of a new iMac from Apple.  Totally in love with it too!  So, I am learning all the applications, and one such app is Pages - Apple's version of Word.  Rather than reading the manual or downloading it from the internet, I decided to call Apple customer support.  Who will know better in less time it will take me to read the info than customer support...right.....

Wrong!  Apparently, customer support at Apple uses, are you ready, MS Word not Apple Pages!!!  The customer service guy had to contact the application specialist on how to do what I wanted (basically, how to save to my memory stick and be able to open and attach the document....nothing earth shattering).  

After laughing for quite some time, I hope that Steve Jobs is not too upset that his friend Bill has infiltrated is own customer support people.  Ahh, the power of Microsoft....

Wonderful Weekend

(Dinner with Isabelle and her cousins)

The weekend started with a bang!  Saturday we hosted our first-ever Holiday Open House.  We had over a dozen people come and say hi and enjoy some holiday cheer.  Then on Sunday, Al's family made the trip up to see us.  As you can tell, Isabelle loves playing with her cousins!

(Isabelle with her cousins - Michael and Erica)

Sister update

I am so proud of my sister.  She is a wonderful person, and apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so.  She was recently interviewed and spotlighted in the November 2008 issue of Connecticut Libraries.  To read the article, visit http://www.ctlibraryassociation.org/Newsletters/2008/nov2008.pdf, and go to page 9.  Though, the picture is not one of her best....sort of looks like she is getting over a cold or just waking up ;-)  Though, I will not hold it against her - wasn't her fault that the professional photographer was not available....hahahaha.....

Way to go Ann!

A friend's blog

The great thing about blogging and social networking is you meet great people and sometimes discover people you already know are doing the same!  I recently joined another group (Amherst Moms), and the coordinator of the group has a blog as well.  She has a fun one describing life as a mom to her children, dogs and husband....very cute!  Check her blog out at www.holyboogers.today.com.  Plus, she's lucky enough that she gets paid for every click on her blog, so go check her out!!

Today will be spent getting ready for tomorrow's party.  Talk about last second, I finally decided this morning what I will be making...so off to cook and do all the final touches to make the house warm and inviting. 

Yesterday was a blast.  Isabelle and her friends destroyed my house and had a great time doing so!!!  They painted, glued, ran, screamed and giggled the afternoon away.  Isabelle crashed

 about 30 minutes after everyone left.  She was so tired and slept with a smile on her face :-)

(One quiet moment)

(Having fun playing and creating)

(Before everyone arrived - the art play area)

iMac is here and cooking with Isabelle

My budding chef and I decided it was time to use some bananas that were not going to be long for this world and make some yummy homemade muffins.  Isabelle *loved* being able to pour, mix and spoon throughout the experience - as clearly noted by her BIG smile

I am also thrilled to announce that this is my first posting using my new iMac.  Some things are intuitive while others, well, let's just say I called Apple support three times last night and have the toll-free number close at hand.  I usually don't get this excited about electronics, but WOW, I really like this thing.  Very easy to use and takes up so much less space....great for those of use who do not have a lot of space to spare.  

Still getting ready for Saturday's Holiday Open House.  Starting to get some of the finishing touches accomplished.  I wanted (and have done) to fill a vase or glass with lemons and cranberries as a center piece for the dining room table.  I was just about to go out and buy what I wanted to use when I discovered I already had something....a vase from a long time ago.  Sometimes being a bit of a pack-rat can be to one's advantage!  I'll take pictures and share.  It looks stunning!  Get creative this holiday season and see what you have laying about to use as decorations.  You may surprise yourself as I did to myself!

Awaiting my iMac

Today is the day my new iMac arrives and I am waiting with bated breath. Everyone I know who has one raves about it. Being this will be my first iMac or computer from Apple of any kind, I hope it is as good as noted. To complete my Apple set, I will need to get the iPhone....not sure about that one yet....iMac and iPod are pretty fine right now.

The Holidays are Here

(Possibly the picture for our Holiday cards)

Thanksgiving was really great. Spent time with both my Mom and Al's family, and it was really very nice. Isabelle had a blast playing with her cousins...as any kid should! Now, I am prepping for both Isabelle's "kid" birthday party (Thursday) and our Holiday Open House (Saturday). This month is a busy one. Every weekend something is going happening, and the weekdays are no less busy. Dinner parties here and the like. Wow, when January comes around, I'll be bored!

Joined FaceBook, and was amazed at how many of my friends are already a part of it. Also joined Twitter....though no one I know is on it as of yet...working on that one!

(Isabelle and I)

Over the weekend, we went to purchase our Christmas Tree, and had a lot of fun doing so...as the pictures below indicate. The house is almost all decorated. I have decorated an artificial tree in our screened-in porch, and it looks awesome. Used red and gold decorations only, and it looks grand!

(Isabelle in action!)

(Helping Daddy find the right tree)