Category Archives: Holidays and Seasons

Deck the Halls

Posted in Holidays and Seasons by

It actually was a lot easier than I had envisioned it to be. For some reason, I was remembering decorating from Christmases Past as being hard work and taking all day. But not this year! Maybe because I was a woman on a mission – you see, I was trying to get it all done during Munchkin’s nap!

Here is the before picture:

There’s my family – CJ having his coffee, Isabella running around and Samson begging for food. Typical Sunday morning. Also, notice that one of the canvas paintings on the wall, next to the TV,  is upside down. This is where I point my finger at CJ. He does that on purpose to see if 1) I notice and 2) I will fix it. Yes, I’m a little OCD and yes normally that would bug me to no end. But what he didn’t realize is that I actually like it better that way. Ha! In your face buddy!

Anywho, that is how the living room looked around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, right before I laid Munchkin down for her nap. Then I got to work! First we had to re-arrange the furniture. Normally we put the tree in the space where the curio cabinet is but that was before we had a curio cabinet. Now we can’t put it there so we figured it would go in the corner, and hence the bookshelf and couches needed to be moved. So we did that and vacuumed in the process (by the way, we got a new vacuum on Saturday and it totally rocks! This was CJ’s anniversary gift from me. I know that seems akin to a husband giving his wife a blender but believe me, he actually requested it).

Here is the living room after moving the furniture but before decorating:

Then it was time to start bringing up the boxes. Instead of hauling them all up at once, I did it one at a time. Figured that way, if Munchkin woke up during the decorating process, I wouldn’t have this huge pile of stuff taking over the whole room that I had to somehow keep her away from. CJ extracted the Christmas Tree from its storage spot while I did that – no small task either.

CJ left to run some errands and I worked and I worked. I got so into it that I actually forgot that football was on, and more importantly, that the Steelers were playing! In my defense, they weren’t on t.v. so I didn’t actually miss the game. Still, I’m usually johnny-on-the-spot about turning the NFL games on right at noon on Sunday, regardless of who is playing.

God was on my side because Munchkin napped for 3.5 hours!! I was able to get all the decorating done during that time! YES! Here are some of the highlights:

Nativity

Close-up of hurricane vase with ornaments

 

Isabella's friends

 

Dicken's Village

 

Candy dish

 

Stockings

Once Munchkin was up, it was all about spending time with her, which was great. Besides, I needed the break. After she went to bed, CJ and I tackled the tree.

Took us about 2 hours to do it because we had a few bulbs out and we have so  many dang ornaments! But I love going through each one and cherishing the memories. Some I’ve had my whole life (cute story: my parents were closely watching their pennies when my sister and I were babies, and couldn’t afford ornaments. So, my mom took the mobile from one of our cribs and made each dangling animal in to an ornament. We still have them and they are some of my favs), others were gifts from  last year (like the one in memory of CJ’s mom who passed away or the “new mom” one for me). I’ve started labeling them with the year, who it was to and who it was from because it’s easy to forget.

Finally it was done and looked great. I am a stickler for not having any “bare spots” (there’s that OCD again…) and I think we filled it up well this year. True story: way back when CJ and I were dating, we were snuggling and kissing on my couch when all of  a sudden I jumped up, ran to the Christmas tree and re-arranged a few ornaments to cover a bare spot. He didn’t think that was very romantic of me. *shrug*

Here I am hanging the first ornament!

And here’s the finished tree!

I was exhausted by the end of it but in a good way. I love, love, love having the house spruced up for the holidays. Feels so cozy and happy. Munchkin loves it too. She got a big kick out of the talking Santa and the dancing snowmen we have. Seeing her face with all these new discoveries is priceless.

Tonight we tackle the family picture for our Christmas card…last year we had to take like 20 of them because Samson kept hacking or moving or licking or running away. Case in point:

He looks like he’s about to eat the baby! Notice the look on my face that says “I”m going to keep smiling even though I don’t know what the hell you are doing dog!!” Munchkin is even looking at him like “Wha?” Eventually we gave up and cut him out of the pic. Sorry dude. Hopefully both he and Munch will cooperate this year. Lord help me.

That’s the way the cookie crumbles

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons by

Again I start a post by saying that I am exhausted. Baking cookies is hard work. I have a new appreciation for those who work in bakeries. I’m a wimp who sits in a chair at work all day. But, it’s fun too.

The Annual Atencio Women Christmas Cookie Baking Extravaganza commenced at 10 a.m. My mom, sister and I each had a handful of recipes we had chosen to bake and had 7 hours to do it (which was when we were meeting up with the rest of the fam for pizza). No problem, right? Well logistics tends to slow things down. There are only so many cookie sheets, pans, measuring cups, and spoons. Not to mention there is only one oven. So…there were times when we had a line of 5 cookies waiting to be baked and at a stand still until they could get in the oven.

We made a total of 11 today (6 of which were mine). My sis and mom are going to do more during the week but I wanted to get all mine done today because I knew I wouldn’t have much time otherwise. Here is a sampling of some that we did:

Chocolate chip cookie cups filled with M&M’s. The cool thing about these is you can fill them with anything you want, to correspond with the season. Aren’t they pretty?

Biscochitos, which are a traditional Spanish cookie (my dad’s family is from Spain). There are a few cookies we have to do each year and these are one of them. My dad’s mom used to make and ship ’em to us from Colorado. No one makes ’em like her, but we sure try.  

Dark chocolate cookie kisses. A new take on a traditional recipe. My sister also make the traditional ones, which are a peanut butter cookie with regular Hershey’s kisses on them.

Sugar cookies (well, at least a picture of the cookie cutters). Another old standby!

Salted Nut Roll Bars. These are my dad’s favorite so we have to do them. They’re quickly becoming my fav too which is odd because usually I go for anything chocolate. These are a perfect blend of salty and sweet, with marshmallows, peanut butter, peanuts, and rice krispies mixed together on a cake base. Mmmmm…..

The three of us exhausted after all the baking. We always have a lot of fun and I love that we have this tradition. It’s something that both my sister’s daughter and my daughter will join in someday. Just another reason to love the holidays!!

Thanksgiving

Posted in Holidays and Seasons by

I am exhausted. These last 2 days have been packed full and I am feeling it. I’m not complaining though. I absolutely LOVE this time of year and this is a good kind of exhaustion.

CJ "yamming" it up!

It started Wednesday evening after I got home from work. We did our usual family stuff and then after Munchkin went to bed, CJ and I got busy cooking. I made mashed potatoes and CJ made candied yams. It was really fun to be in the kitchen cooking together. We haven’t done that in a while. Usually one of us cooks while the other entertains/watches the kid. So it was nice to have that time together. After the food was prepared, we played Wii for a couple of hours. Haven’t done that in a long time either. Seems like there’s not enough time to play anymore. Nothing like the impending holidays to bring out the kid in you!

Thursday all the family gathered at my parents house (CJ’s dad joined us as well). We ate and played games and napped (well, the guys anyway) and ate some more. There was interpretive dancing (of a cat…long story and I do have video but promised my mom I wouldn’t post it), booty shaking (this was me), Lego building, football watching and at the end of the day, when we were home and tired, lots of snuggling.

Our little fashionista!

Thanksgiving is my absolute most favorite holiday for 2 reasons: lots of yummy food and a kick-off of that magical feeling in the air that comes with the holidays. I also love the time to stop and reflect on what I’m grateful for. There really are too many things to name so I’ll hit the highlights – my wonderful husband, my amazing daughter, my loving family and supportive friends, having a great job, being healthy and happy, and just having an overall awesome life. I am truly lucky.

Another big part of yesterday was scouring the Black Friday ads. My sister and I hit the stores early every year. It used to be we’d go out to get all the great deals. Now we just go for the fun and excitement (and still some good deals). It’s our thing and I like that we have this tradition.

I was up at 2:45 a.m. this morning and out the door by 3:05 a.m. Usually we have a list of 4 or 5 stores to hit and some that we have to get to early for some kind of doorbuster. This year it was narrowed down to 2 stores and there really wasn’t anything spectacular we had to have. I did have my eye on a digital camera so we started at Wal-Mart so I could get it (and I did)!

The first year we did this we met at Younkers at 4 a.m. (that was back when the doors didn’t open until 6 a.m.). We wanted to get some gemstone jewelry that was advertised for $15 each. It was COLD that morning and I was all bundled up in a big poofy yellow coat. My sister almost couldn’t find me because I was like a little Eskimo. When the doors opened it was a mad dash and I literally had to shove people out-of-the-way to get to what I wanted. The jewels were all gone in a matter of minutes. Another year we split up and I went to Best Buy while she went to Shopko. I got to BB a couple of hours before open and the line was already wrapped around the building. Some people had even camped out.

This year was very tame. No elbowing or shoving or madness. We didn’t even have to wait outside because Wal-Mart is open 24 hours so we could go right in. We hit our 2 stores and were done by 7 a.m. Easy peasy. We both commented that we felt the tiredness more this year. Not sure if it’s because we’re getting older or that we have families now or what. It was still a ton of fun.

Now it’s time to get the house ready. Tonight before bed I’ll pull out all the Christmas decorations (won’t put them up until Sunday). Tomorrow is the Family Cookie Baking Extravaganza! This is where my mom, sis and I get together and bake a gajillion Christmas cookies. It will take us all day. I’ll try to take pics of the creations because they are all pretty and yummy!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Cheers to you!

Election Day

Posted in Holidays and Seasons, Isabella/Munchkin by

I will be so glad when these elections are over and the political ads can stop. I find them so annoying and all they do is make me NOT want to vote. As a result, I really have no idea who is running in Nebraska/Omaha and what they stand for. It’s bad, I know. I should pay better attention and actually CARE, but I don’t. I really just want it to be over.

Why can’t there be a politician who doesn’t slam their opponent and resort to name calling? When will some “average Joe” run on actual values and good ideas? Is it even possible?

Despite my “anti-political” feelings I know that it is important to vote and I encourage everyone to get out there. It’s our duty and our right.

On another note, here are a few pictures of Mummy Munchkin!

Look out! She'll kill you with her cuteness!

 

The mummy walk

 

Our little family

 

Ready to call it a night after some trick-or-treating