‎"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving." -W.T. Purkiser

I have much to be thankful for.  I am thankful for my family of three, of the laughter that comes out of this house, for our impromptu adventures and our late night scheming; I am thankful.

I am thankful for my baby boy, so happy and sweet, with his constant smile, his infectious laugh and the pure, unadulterated joy he has brought to my life; I am thankful.

I am thankful for my husband, my better half, my soulmate; I am thankful for companionship, for his nearness, he is my rock; I am thankful.

I am thankful for the roof over my head, with it's cozy beds and inviting couches, for it's walls that hold so much joy and laughter; I am thankful.

I am thankful for family; for their advice, company, long phone calls, for the laughs we share, for their generosity; I am thankful.

I am thankful for my job, with its constant challenges and excitement; my students continue to teach me everyday; I am thankful.

I am blessed, so therefore it goes without saying that I give thanks to God everyday for my numerous blessings.  It is not enough to say thanks to God; to honor Him I must show Him I am thankful by being a good steward of these blessings.  By raising my boy love Him, by honoring my husband every day, by doing the best possible job at work, by being a good sister and daughter.  To whom much is given, much is expected.

That being said, I have so much to be thankful for.

Dessert Extravaganza

This year we're going to my mom's house for Thanksgiving and I was put in charge of desserts.  This made me happy because there were several recipes that I had been filing away, waiting for the opportunity to try them out.  So, the lucky folks that are coming to dinner at my mom's house(and there are a lot of them and not all speak English, so I am also there in a translating capacity) are going to be my guinea pigs.

I am bringing four separate desserts tomorrow, each inspired by a different chef.  My theme is pumpkin because, well, I love pumpkin.

• Pumpkin bread pudding by Bobby Flay.  I modified slightly by omitting the bourbon (didn't have any on hand) and instead of the vanilla cream anglaise we're doing good ol' fashioned vanilla icecream.  Sometimes Bobby Flay can be a bit...unsouthern, if that's a word.  He uses Yankee ingredients at times that I am not comfortable using, let's just put it that way.

• Black and tan chocolate pumpkin trifle by Rachel Ray.  Matt got me a subscription to her magazine three years ago and they just keep coming!  I usually find one or two recipes per magazine that I like, but there are times I take issue with her ingredients too.  The word "parmigiano reggiano" can grate against my ears.  This trifle is layered with chocolate cream, pumpkin cream, toffee and chocolate wafers...so good. It will be a nice change from pies and cakes.   (Bonus points to you if you are thinking of the Friends episode where Rachel Green makes the trifle...best episode ever.)

This is not the trifle I made.  This is from Rachel's website.

•  Pumpkin Cream Pie by the Pioneer Woman.  Last year, the Pioneer Woman practically provided our whole Thanksgiving meal.  I had to include one of her pies in here, and this seemed like the perfect one.  I didn't want to make a traditional pumpkin pie, so this one seemed like a nice twist on tradition.  What do I not love about the PW?  She's totally my style of cook.  I omitted the whiskey from this too; we just don't have the hard stuff around the house.

• Pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling by my mom.  I got this recipe from my mom years ago and always make it.  This year was no different; and I can tell you already it's going to be delicious.

You want to see how I was able to do all this cooking today?

I gave this guy an empty box, a few tupperwares and he was happy as a clam.  He would push the box around the island, babble to himself and even showed us how he likes to sit on top of the box...and get down...all by himself!!

I also must really thank his daddy because I was very occupied in the kitchen today and when the box lost his intrigue, he came to the rescue.  He also took pictures of the desserts that I haven't uploaded yet, so I will post those too.  Happy eating!

Surviving the Holidays: New Mama Style

Before I became a mom, the holiday season wasn't something that I had to "survive."  I would simply go through them like any normal time of year.  Now though, these holidays have been creeping up on me and yes, they must be survived.  Appreciated, relished, enjoyed...and survived.  Here are some ways I maintain my sanity during these wonderful, stressful days:

1.  Go with the flow.  The baby will not smile for the Santa picture, the Christmas lights will get a knot in them, that holiday package will get returned to you and the cat will find a way to climb up the Christmas tree.  Roll with it, laugh at it.  Any minor disaster is not worth the stress.

2.  Mind your manners.   We love the holiday season because of all the sales it brings, but sales can bring out the worst in some folks.  People will steal your parking space, be ugly to sales people, bump into you and let their kids go absolutely nuts.  Don't even acknowledge their behavior.  Just think, "My mama raised me better than this.  I am a mother now.  I must behave in a way that I would want my own son to behave."  It's hard; especially for a hothead like me, but again, is a stranger in Target really worth it?

3.  Take some time for yourself.  Every mama needs time for herself.  Every mother, young and old.  It's called self care and it's extra important during the holidays, when many more external stressors are triggered.  So, go get that mani-pedi, that massage, get your hair done and don't feel guilty about it!  If you don't take care of you; who will?

4.  Take some time for your spouse.  The holidays are tight for everyone and date nights may be nonexistent during this time.  Even so, take time for your spouse.  Can't go on a real date?  After the kids go to bed, have a pretend date at home.  Make a fancy dinner, eat it together and converse about things other than work and kids.  Afterward, play some games or watch a favorite movie together.

5.  Spend time with your family.  During the holidays it can feel like we're constantly on the go, from this relative's house to that relative's house, and sometimes it can feel like you haven't spent any quality time with the people who live in your house.  Before going to Grandma's or Aunt Patty's house, take time to build your own family traditions and to slow down a little bit.

6.  Capture those precious moments.  You'll never get *this* holiday season back and next year, your kids will be one year older. Take pictures! Remember this; cherish this; it won't be back again.

7.  Plan meals.  This may seem like a hassle but believe me, I can attest to the simplicity of your nightly routine when you know exactly what you're going to make.  The same goes for holiday meals; plan, plan, plan!

8.  Budget those gifts out!  Remember that life goes on after the holidays and that the daily expense of life during the holidays is still there.  Set a budget for what you can realistically spend on other people and stick to it.  Money issues cause the most problems with stress during the holidays!

9.  Do fun things.  Every city has fun, holiday related activities to participate in.  Take advantage of them to break up the monotony of constant shopping.  I noticed today that our children's museum is offering Christmas themed craft classes for the month of December...Toph is too young for those at this point, but trust me, I file ideas like that away for next year, when we'll need it!

10.  Simplify the Christmas card process.  Oh, Christmas cards.  Growing up, we would have to each sign our names to all 75 that we were sending out.  It would take forever and the cards were always generic.  These days, sites like Tinyprints help use create personalized Christmas cards after just a few clicks.  The people on my Christmas card list have watched us year to year go from newlyweds, to expecting, to a family of three.  Plus, no signing involved!

Tiny Prints provides stylish, modern and unique stationery from photo cards to personalized greeting cards to thank you cards and business cards. Offering exclusive designs from the nation’s top designers, easy card personalization, a powerful preview engine and top-notch customer service and paper quality, their designs have been lauded by numerous television networks, publications and celebrities. With Tiny Prints by your side the Holidays will be a cinch! They offer adorable Thanksgiving Cards, Christmas Cards, Hanukkah Cards, and even New Years Cards. All fully customizable and personalizable.

There you have it; the top ten ways this mama will survive this holiday season!  What do you do to survive the holidays?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Tiny Prints blogging program, making me eligible to get a $75 Tiny Prints gift certificate! For more information on how you can participate, click here.

I am really backlogged on blogging here; turns out blogging goes out the window when you have a little guy who won't be still for anything.  I don't mind though; he is all over the place exploring and banging around.  I love it.

We are Thanksgiving Break in the Kelsey house....aaaahhhhh.  So nice.  Right now, Toph is asleep, Daddy is watching football and Mama is trying to catch up on blogging.  I have no idea where to begin though!

I'll just let some of my most recent pics tell our stories:

Toph got to spend quality time with his Grammy and her corgies, who are over the moon at finally being able to play with him.  They love him.  And, he loves finally having an animal who won't ignore his very existence, like this guy:

These two have a love/hate relationship.  Meaning, Toph loves Pippen, Pippen hates Toph.  Oh well, Pippen is going to have to get over it!

I love that he can pull up now.  I love when he greets us like this in the morning or after nap.  What I don't love about this is when he does it in the middle of the night when he should be sleeping.  Sometimes, he's verifiably in pain; those ears and teeth can bother him something fierce.  Other times though, he just wants to play.  Oh well; still cute at 2am (but I can't reciprocate the big smile).

He continues to be so handsome.

Took his first bath in the big boy tub.  The kid loves a bath.

Here he is blatantly rubbing it in our faces that we haven't put a gate up yet.  My baby; he might as well be getting ready to climb Everest in my eyes.

He loves the dryer and really wants to get in there.  We'll tell him that he loved doing the laundry when he is 16 and doesn't want to do chores; we have these pics as proof!

The Hunter and His Prey

The baby spots it's prey; slowly, he begins to pursue his query.

He arduously moves toward the feline, aware that any sudden noise could scare the cat away.

The cat catches the child's scent, quickly, he retreats.

Time for one last sneak attach behind the stroller; sadly, the cat is ready for him and appears ready to attack.

The feline retreats to the kitchen to annoy someone else while the baby is left to ponder where he went wrong.

This and That

We may or may not be done with this ear infection.  We're still on antibiotics, we're still pulling on our ears, but the last two nights of sleep have been awesome and we've heard no moaning throughout the night.  We're eating like a champ (seriously, I don't know where it all goes but the kid loves his food), we're crawling reaaaalllly fast (seriously, they call me the baby-chaser), and we're pulling up on everything and then trying to climb it (seriously, he's giving me heart attacks).

Life is good.

Halloween was good, he was in bed by 6:00pm (a little early but since discovering his new found love of crawling and pulling up he thinks he's too cool to nap).  We went to the local pumpkin patch the week before Halloween:

Forget the pumpkins.  The kid's favorite part of the pumpkin patch was the hay.  Specifically, hay in the mouth.  What you don't see is mommy flapping her hands and rushing over to get the hay out of the mouth.

We have a new game around here.  We call it the boing game and it is played perfectly well with the doorstopper.

Remember my post about toys?  Yeah, this is one of the most entertaining things he's found in awhile.  And they're everywhere in our house! Instant entertainment.

Toph thinks his daddy is the funniest guy in the world.

 

He also thinks his mama is not a very good videographer.  He's right; I'm better in front of the camera. 

Toph loves to play with remote controls.  This worries his daddy, the king of the remote in this house.

We introduced rice rusks to Toph; he loves them and now will not let us eat a cracker or anything that resembles his rice rusks without giving him one.

On weekends, mama likes to try and sleep in, but Toph doesn't know the difference between weekdays and weekends; he only knows he nurses at 5:30am.  He then plays everyday in his crib after that. He will go to sleep however if he comes in bed with mama and daddy for the rest of the morning.  So, on weekends that's what he gets to do.

Guess who likes to take pictures of this?  Daddy, that's who.

Speaking of sleeping babies, ever seen one who's fallen asleep in the middle of dinner?

Now you have.

You're welcome.