Catching Up

It's been a little while since I've checked in. Here  are some photos and a video to get you up to speed on what I've been up to.

+ We celebrated Thanksgiving at my parent's house. My mom sure knows how to host a holiday.

+ We got a new Puppy, Anderson "Cooper" Koneman. He's the sweetest!

+ Celebrated Christmas at home in North Carolina (watch the vid)!

+ Went on a family vacation to Disney World. I don't know who was more excited about meeting the princesses -- Addie or Jake.

+ Sweet little Ellie Pearl turned 1. Where does the time go? She's the happiest most lovable baby. Aaand girlfriend knows how to eat some cake!

.

Weekend Recap

This weekend was full of family celebrations. On Friday night we celebrated Addie's 4th birthday at an indoor trampoline park with some of her friends. Everyone had a great time!

Especially her dad.

Well, almost everyone...

On Sunday we went out for Easter Brunch and then Jake and I put our new dining room to use and hosted the family for an Easter egg hunt and a casual Easter dinner.

Oh, and there's this...

Sisters in sailor dresses 25ish years later.

Christmas Pup

A little dose of Penny cuteness to get you through your Wednesday. My mom got her these PJs and I kind of wish that she could wear them at all times. I tried to carry her around like a baby last night, but she was not having it. 

P.S. You wouldn't believe the amount of effort that it took to get this photo. 

Most of them look like this:

Christmas via Instagram

This weekend we decorated our humble abode for the holidays. Jake and I danced around the house to the Pandora Christmas station - each of us singing our hearts out. Jake's rendition of Mariah Carey's, "All I want for Christmas" could surely skyrocket him into Youtube stardom.

   I snapped some instagrams of our decorations. I failed to get a photo of Penelope in her Christmas PJs. I promise I will try my best to capture this before the season is over, it's a must see.

P.S. If you're wondering why the bottom 2 feet of our tree remain ornamentless? Her name starts with a P and ends with enelope.

No Place Lyke Home for the Holidays: Gift Wrap Guide

No Place Lyke Home for the Holidays will feature fresh holiday inspired ideas; from recipes, to gift wrap and festive decor - I'll be sharing my favorites this holiday season.
I've always been kind of awful at wrapping gifts. It may have sprung from when I was a child and would wrap random things around the house with toilet paper and give them to various family members as gifts.

Last year, I decided to take a stand. No more lumpy packages with enough tape to reinforce the Hoover Dam. I am a sucker for nice presentation, so learning how to wrap a pretty package was important to me.

I started with this video tutorial via Real Simple, which I found very helpful to get the basics down. Then I checked out this list of tips and tricks via my main woman, Martha Stewart. I ended up with the below monochromatic package using silver paper, silver twine and hand stamped gift tags.

This year, I'm hoping to be a little bit more adventurous. Below are some of my favorites from around the internet.

Think outside of the box for embellishments (tutorial here).

Let photos replace gift tags (via).



Give simple brown paper a little pizzazz (via).

Use black paper and chalk marker to give a chalkboard look (via).

Add lace (via).

Do you have any gift wrapping stories or ideas to throw my way?

Thanksgiving 2012

We spent Thanksgiving this year at my parent's house with a mixture of friends and family from all over. My mom spent 4 days cooking and setting tables to prepare for our wonderful feast. 

My brother-in-law, Adam, flew in from NYC to stay with Jake and I for a few days (which was awesome!). Together, Adam and I prepared a range of sides including: roasted chili lime cauliflower, roasted asparagus with toasted pine nuts and lemon zest, sharp cheddar and bacon corn casserole, sausage stuffed mushrooms and cheddar sage biscuits. Also, Adam made a pretty epic pumpkin tiramisu.

All of the food that we prepared was combined with my mom's scratch made mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, English peas with pearl onions, two different kinds of stuffing (my favorite was the cornbread sausage stuffing) and cranberry chutney. The main events were smoked turkey, fried turkey and filet mignon.

F o o d   c o m a. 

 We washed everything down with my dad's "Thanksgiving Dinner" cocktail which basically tastes like the holidays in a martini glass. I will see if I can get him to share the recipe here.

My sister and her husband, Mike, are due with their second daughter, Ellie, in early January. Since Mike's family was in town, we decided it would be the perfect time to surprise Britt & Mike with a shower. Our theme was "Thankful for Ellie". My mom ordered an adorable pumpkin shaped carrot cake that read, "Thankful for our little Punkin'" and I made a bunting and a "Thankful Jar" for all of us to fill throughout the day and place in Ellie's nursery.

All-in-all it was a fabulous Thanksgiving filled with dear friends and family and no shortage of food, great conversation or laughter.

Special thanks to the movie, "Brave", for teaching Addie to bend over roughly 55 times throughout the day and yell, "Feast your eyes!" (pictured above). Side note: I think Addie loves Kellie even more than her Rudolph.

Major photo overload, but with good reason -- lot's of beauty to capture.

How did you spend your Thanksgiving?