The Holidays Part One

I have to catch up with my posts so bear with me. Starting with Thanksgiving it has been a non stop landslide here. I am finally able to take a moment and focus.
Our Thanksgiving was fantastic. We had relatives come up from Hilton Head, my SIL and her great family. FYI She is also a true preppy and has fabulous taste. We went to visit them last Easter. My children were ecstatic to have their cousins here for the holiday.

As promised, here is a pic of our dining room table scape. We had 10 people to seat as the children were at another table so I kept the decor small so as to fit everything.

I.LOVE.MY.TABLECLOTH.

Is that awful to love a material object so much? I think I love the promise it holds.

I have been looking for something like this and I am so happy to have found it. The reason being is that I came from a family with not many traditions and I long to create these for my family. I have purchased this tablecloth (and my turkey plates) so that we will start a new tradition for Thanksgiving.

I know..I know..tradition is alot more than things but if you are starting a tradition there is no harm in making it beautiful as well..no?

So I finally started my turkey plate collection. I have wanted to do this for years. But for some reason or another (LIFE) I didn't until this year. The idea came to me again this year when I visited Homegoods (Who doesn't love this store?) and saw the great plates. So I bought enough to get my family started and will try to include another piece or two each year. I would love for one day to have my children remember and be influenced by how beautiful our holidays are. To have them look forward to setting the table each year with our Thanksgiving cloth and plates and come together as a family in thanks. Is this silly?

Anyhoo.. I was very excited to see all the children play tag football in the backyard. They are all finally old enought to play together this way. It was nowhere near organized but they thought it was football and they were having fun! I hope to set up some sort of Turkey Bowl that I read about in some of our great posts. I'd love to set up a parents vs. children tag game as an annual event. Here are some action shots of the big game:

We had a wonderful meal that my husband cooked! I know.. I told you he was Mr. Fantastic! He loooves to cook. Unfortunately, he works late at night so our family benefits from this love on the weekends and holidays when he has the time. And I must say he does put in alot of time and thought into his meal preparation. Here is an example of our feast:

We rounded out the weekend taking all the kids to a movie one day and Sesame Place's Holiday Events (for the younger ones) another day. Everyone had a great time. This one will go down in the books!

More to come!

EMB

I can not believe it has been tweny years since I have been to Paris. I swore to return sooner yet life ..well..happens. I was 18 and in my senior year of school. My bestie and I travelled with an exchange program and we stayed for almost two weeks. We did celebrate the dawn of 1990 in Paris.

It was amazing. And for as long ago as this trip was..I remember it like it was yesterday. Some things never leave you. I owe this trip to my love of avocados, creme fraise, champagne, (of, course!) brie cheese, chocolate croissants, and everything Paris!

So I know I am abit late but Happy New Year to all of you. May 2010 bring you much peace, happiness and love!

EMB

Oh..the weather outside is frightful...

Here is our Christmas House! We are bunkered down waiting to see how much snow we are to get tonight. Rumor has it about 20 inches. Which will be very nice seeing as we have not had a white Christmas where we are for years. Of course, the children are excited and after about an hour of getting them ready to go out in the snow..they lasted all of 15 minutes! Ha!

I am getting my posts ready to catch up! They include fabulous dinners, wonderful company, a few trees, decorations, and of course children! I am preparing to sit back and catch up on The Nester's Holiday House Tour and have some Bailey's whilst under the covers!

Have a great night,

EMB

What!? Where has the time gone?

I can't believe it has almost been a month since I last posted. I have continued to be c.RA.zy busy! I had hoped to follow up on my last post quickly but my camera has been on the fritz. Some pictures were lost and ultimately said camera died resulting in the new purchase. I still have yet to figure this new prize out so I will be posting soon.

I am however halfway decorated for Christmas. Yikes! Our house still has some projects going so I am finding it hard to draw the line between which ones to continue and which ones to decorate around. Last year we only had six days to decorate before Christmas because we moved. I am spending some time going through our decorations, organizing, tossing, and donating. It is amazing how much this stuff accumulates! I do have purging inspiration, though. Actually it is like a fire under my a*%! The fire is my new obsession called Hoarders on A&E. Holy Krikes! I can not believe how some of these people live! I ,of course, am now on a ranging decluttering streak.

I am not a hoarder..nor does my house look like ANYTHING on this show but I definitely feel the need to get rid of EVERYTHING that is somewhat questionable in my home. For example, I was a teacher. I also taught theatre arts. I have to some degree been taught to save everything.... in case you need it. I have saved all my teaching materials for almost ten years in case I go back to teaching. Now, everything is tucked neatly into boxes, et al. but it is alot of boxes in my basement that have a 50/50 chance of me using again.

Have any of you career women turned stay at home moms had this problem? Or is it just me?

For now, I will leave you with a picture of mantel last year. Thanks to The Nester's tutorial I will never look at garland the same way again. This year our mantel is under construction, I am sure I could pull this off again and hide everything. We shall see!

Have a great day!

EMB

Crazy Week

This week is an exciting week for me! First off...some Preppy bloggers are getting together Wednesday night to celebrate...THE LILLY PULITZER WAREHOUSE SALE! If you want to meet up, please contact Kappa Prep and she will forward you the details. I am so excited to meet everyone and to shop the sale!

Second, Twilight's New Moon comes out this weekend! I cannot decide if I should go at midnight on Thursday or a Friday Matinee. I will let you know.

Third, Project Runway's season finale this Thursday night. I am rooting for Carol Hannah. I think her dresses are great and I cannot wait to see her collection.


This week I will be baking for the children's school Christmas Bazaar bake sale. I will be trying some of Saucy's Sprinkles recipes like the mini candy cane hearts and Hopsy's cake balls as well as making chocolate covered pretzels! Again, I will let you know how it all turns out! We are new to this school and I am not sure of the workings of this event. I am the Home and School's Social Committee Chairperson but this event is not related. I am still figuring out where I want to be while helping out where help is needed.


And ..getting ready for Thanksgiving! I am so excited this year I found this platter at Home Goods

with some matching plates. I have always wanted turkey plates for Thanksgiving. My china is white with a silver edge and I wanted brown turkey plates so I could add in any color (or change colors) each year.

I also have a gorgeous tablecloth. If the day does not get too crazy I will take some pictures and post the tablescape. We are having everyone over and the holiday weekend is jam packed!


Lastly, we are finished installing our hardwood floors! My husband and I set out over a month ago to install hardwood floors in our foyer, dining room, mudroom, kitchen and family room. My husband was a big help =;) We chose Southern Yellow Pine in a 12" width. As of yesterday, the third coat of sealant was applied. I would like a darker look but we decided to wait until the spring to do any more coats. This is NOT our home...our home is in alittle disarray because of sealing the floor this weekend BUT this is exactly like our floors!

I will post before and after pics when our house gets itself together! (Hopefully by next week!)
Have a great day!

EMB

"Thanksgiving is a good thing. ThanksLIVING is even better."

-Great quote I recieved from a great friend!

Happy Halloween!

Our Pumpkin Toparies!

Our Little Wagon and the Gang!

Trick or Treat!