Strawberry Santas

As I scoured pinterest for ideas for our Christmas party, I came across the cutest strawberry Santa's. Perfect!!! These were the easiest things to make. The recipe I found called for cool whip or whip cream. I decided to make them with cream cheese and marshmallow fluff.

Ingredients:
2 containers of fresh strawberries
1 package cream cheese
1 container marshmallow fluff
icing gel (for the eyes)

Aren't these hilariously adorable?

simple directions:
slice the green tips off the strawberries and slice them straight so the strawberries can stand on end. Slice the tip off leaving enough of the tip for the hat. Mix together cream cheese and marshmallow fluff and place mixture inside a plastic sandwich baggie. Cut off the tip. Squeeze mixture onto the main portion of the strawberry and use desired amount for thickness. For easiest construction, work as an assembly line. have all strawberries cut and placed with tops next to them. Then put center mixture on all of them. Then place all lids on top. Next step, put mixture on all hats and all strawberry bodies for the buttons. Lastly, use the icing gel for eyes. For best results, make sure strawberries are dry as if too wet from washing, the cream mixture will not stick.

Eat and enjoy!

Thanksgiving and gummy worms

It's already almost Christmas, but I didn't want to not post about Thanksgiving. We had a nice little holiday. We hosted and had my parents, Sean's mom, Sean's sister, my sister and my neighbor and his son for the holiday. Everyone brought some side dishes and the holiday went off without a hitch.

We deep fried the turkey and the weather was nice that the kids were outside a lot as I was getting side dishes cooked. We even got to introduce pumpkin pie to our neighbor's co-workers who were visiting from Japan. So fun to have everyone over and give people a family to celebrate with when their own may not have been available.

Also Thanksgiving weekend, my sister came over for a planned activity to do with Quinlin and Owen. Because she lives out of town, she wanted to have experiences with them that they will remember as they grow older. That day's activities was making gummy worms. The funniest was when she started out and the teacher that she is said "this is seaweed. do you know what seaweed does?" and tried a whole little lesson plan with it. Owen and Quinlin just wanted to get to the goods!

stirring the seaweed mixture

adding colored sugar

making interesting shapes

putting gummies in the sour mix

shaking it up!

yum, gummies

They had a really nice time doing it. We went to lunch afterwards with my cousin who was in town and then my sister was on her way back home (she lives out of town).



My trip to NY

I left on Monday morning for my flight to NY. I was excited to go, but am not a big traveller, so was a little intimidated going alone. I realized this was the first time that I had ever travelled alone. Ever! I had a co-worker drive me to the airport since it is relatively close to my office. I was at the airport at 9:35am for my 11:30am flight. I walked right up to security, no line at all, and then straight to my gate. My gate was oddly empty so I went to look at signs and grab a bite to eat. I brought my bagel back to the gate and sat down. I was alone for a while until 4 people showed up and then one other random passenger. They thought it was odd as well that we were alone. They did some investigating and we found out another AA flight was delayed from earlier in the morning and we were moved onto that flight. I couldn't believe we were never told about it and wonder what would have happened had they not inquired. would I have completely missed my flight to NY?

So, I waited at the other gate and we were being told that there were delays due to weather and to just hold tight. About an hour later, they said we could board the plane so I got on only to be told that LGA was now saying 1 hour delays. So, off the plane I went. I finally got back on and I think took off and landed in NY maybe only 2 hours later than originally planned.

I had a car service pick me up at the airport and my plan was to go straight to the hotel, drop my items, meet a few co-workers there and then off to the office. I of course had to take pictures of my hotel and experience so Sean could see everything. I wish he could have been there with me!

The hotel was really nice. Modern, fun, good location. Rooms were small, but it was just me so the size was fine. The bathtub shower had a transparent window next to the bed.

The hotel overlooked a little ice skating rink.

 The view from the bathroom.

The elevators played these cool little movies.

We stayed at the office briefly and then went to Park Bar for drinks and then to our dinner reservation. Dinner was at STK in the meatpacking district. It was amazing. Cool atmosphere, fantastic food and even better company. There were 8 of us and I had such a nice time.

 

the scallops

mini burgers

 My dinner- steak and filet. Amazing!

 lobster mac n cheese

 truffle fries

After dinner, one of my co-workers who lives in NY, went with me to see the tree. How could I not go to NY and see the tree and the ice skating rink at Christmastime?

The lego store at Rockefeller even had a display of the buildings and the rink. so cute.

 It was raining pretty consistently so we took a cab and dropped me off at the hotel. We drove through Times Square,

drove by Madison Square Garden,  and made it back to my hotel. The live it up person that I am was back in my room in time to watch Teen Mom 2.

The following morning, I went into the office and grabbed my co-worker and did a little more touristy things. We had some errands to run too, but first stop, go to the diner from Seinfeld.  

and we were hungry, so we ate there too. (different inside obviously then what was on the tv show but there were tons of pictures inside from the cast of the show) 

we did some shopping- Hermes, Bergdorf Goodman, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany

 hello pretty Kate Middleton inspired Tiffany ring...

I did some business items as well and then made it back to the airport for my 6:30pm flight. Got home about 8:30 and it was so nice to pull into the garage, see the door swing open with two little underpant only wearing kids standing in the doorway screaming my name. So nice to get away, and I had a blast, but so nice to come home!

In Memory of the lives lost in Newtown

What a terrorizing story on Friday. Horrific to think anyone could harm the innocent.

So much has been written about, so much coverage on tv. It's absolutely heartbreaking. The only thing I could think of was the quote from Fred Rogers to help bring some comfort:

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world." -- Mister Rogers



NYC here I come

I had big plans to update my blog this past week, and then put it off and put it off. I promised my most loyal reader (my sister) that I would update it as it has been forever... and then I got swamped. I want to write about our thanksgiving, what the kids are up to, places we have gone, our annual holiday party. So much to write about, but I'm leaving on a plane. Off to NY for my company holiday party this evening. So- just another thing to add to my list of experiences that I don't want to forget.

So in the meantime, an image of my tree to act as a placeholder for my neglected blog.