{Christmas with the Reeds}

After a long, mostly exhausting trip to California. We had a few days to recuperate from all that traveling and what not. Just in time to celebrate Christmas quietly at home together. We went to church Christmas Eve then had dinner and watched It's a Wonderful life. Our family tradition. Riley stayed up and watched the entire 3 hour movie! I was surprised.  Even made Christmas cookies as well. Kinda looked like a cookie massacre though!

Christmas Morning just like any other Christmas morning. We get woken up abruptly by Riley barging into our room yelling "It's Christmas"!!
We had fun opening presents and then the cutest hubby in the world made us breakfast. Egg Nog French Toast and bacon! It was so yummy! Then we just laid around all day watching Christmas Movies together. It was very relaxing. Then the hubby topped himself and made dinner for us too. Bacon wrapped tenderloin, mashed potatoes, corn and rolls! Makes me hungry just talking about it again. I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Until New Years!!!

 

 

{DIY} Vintage Christmas Ornaments

Christmas is probably my favorite holiday! I love Christmas movies, Christmas decorations, Christmas lights, the list goes on and on. Last year I went all out on making my own Christmas Decor. Link HERE

I found this awesome wrapping paper last Christmas that became my inspiration this year. Yes! I did plan my theme/color scheme a whole entire year before. I wanted to get into this whole vintage feel into our Christmas. As you can see I went crazy at Michaels but I couldn't help it when things were 70%off either that or a $1.00 so Riley and I got crafty this weekend as we listened to Christmas music. Simply easy DIY ornaments. I just bought paint in my color scheme, as well as some scrapbook paper I already had, a hot glue gun and we went to town.

{Awkward and Awesome Christmas}....yeah Santa's out of the bag

After a long vacation in California we actually liked being all alone on Christmas Eve.
Of course we were late to church so we had to go into another room and watch everything on a screen. But by the the time we got home I had some super tasty carnitas in the crock pot. That's right we had ourselves a little Mexican fiesta for Christmas Eve. That's how we roll! I've made one time before I got it off of Pinterest from Skinnytaste.com too so not too fattening. You can find the recipe here.

We did our one present then watched It's a wonderful life with some egg nog of course. I keep forgetting that it's like 3 hours long. I totally fell asleep during the main "Angel Clarence" part.

AWESOME: During the movie we get a call that we are going to have another niece/nephew getting us to double digits now. A total of 10 nieces and nephews.. AAHHHH I'm sure there will be more to come too!

 

AWKWARD:

Ok so I have to admit that I don't do Santa... there are so many reasons of why I don't but my sister and I never believed in Santa and we were fine with it.. so I just don't see the point in it. Well of course every single kids Christmas movie these days is about Santa.. so Miss Riley starts to catch on and what's to ask Santa for a present and what not. I just ignore it, because I don't want to encourage it. Well Christmas Day comes after all the presents are opened Riley says "where's my present from Santa?" .......Uhhh YIKES! Exactly what I wanted to avoid. I quickly just say uuhhh that zebra. Then Dad (the husband) swoops in to save the day. He goes "Riley... Santa's not real!" I wasn't going to tell her that just because I didn't want her to ruin if for other kids. She wasn't bummed or anything she was like oh ok! We told her it was a secret though she couldn't tell anyone. But of course shes a 3 year old and as soon as Grandma asks what did you get from Santa... (don't know why my mom asked because we don't do santa lol) Riley says "Grandma Santa's not real!" like she was silly for even asking. Ohhh this kid cracks me up! She's so resilient! Don't have to worry about that now.. except other kids in the future maybe. OOPS!

{Holiday Baking} .....yum

Merry Christmas All!! I hope you enjoy some of our favorite treats to make! 





Recipes:

Philadelphia sugar cookies
Prep time: 10 minutes plus refrigerating
Bake time: 15 minutes

1 package (8 ounces) PHILADELPHIA cream cheese, softened
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
colored sugar, sprinkles and colored gels

BEAT cream cheese, butter, 2/3 cup sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Mix in flour. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

ROLL dough to 1/4-inch thickness on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes; sprinkle with colored sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheets.

BAKE at 350'F for 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on wire racks. Decorate as desired with colored sugar, sprinkles and colored gels.

Makes 3 1/2 dozen

 



Philadelphia cheesecake brownies

Prep time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 40 minutes

1 Package (19.8 ounces) brownie mix (do not use mix that includes syrup pouch)
1 package ( 8 ounces) PHILADELPHIA cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

PREPARE  brownie mix as directed on package.
Pour into greased 13x9-inch baking pan.

BEAT cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Mix in sugar until blended. Add egg and vanilla; mix just until blended. Pour cream cheese mixture over brownie batter; cut through batter with knife several times for marble effect.

BAKE at 350'F for 35 to 40 minutes or until cream cheese mixture is lightly browned. Cool. Cut into squares.

Makes 2 dozen

 


Double Delicious Cookie bars

Prep time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 25-30 minutes

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 (14-ounce) can EAGLE BRAND sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
2 cups (12 ounce)  semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup (6 ounces) peanut butter-flavored chips

*Butterscotch-flavored chips or white chocolate chips can be substituted for the semi-sweet chocolate chips and/or peanut butter flavored chips.

1. Preheat oven to 350'F (325'F for glass dish). In 13x9-inch baking pan, melt butter in oven.

2. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over butter; pour Eagle Brand evenly over crumbs. Top with remaining ingredients; press down firmly.

3. Bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars. Store covered at room temperature.  
Makes 2 to 3 dozen bars

They really do present quite nicely.. don't you agree :)

{DIY} Christmas Decor on a budget...

I've been hard at work all week making my own Christmas decorations this year. I have definitely been inspired by this side of the country. It's history and character etc. This is my first time doing the color scheme throughout the whole house. It's small enough that I can and it all works. First I wanted to make a banner for the fireplace mantle. I saw a few on pinterest and decided on this idea. I just searched printable letters and settled on this old typewriter font from Martha Stewart

cut out slightly larger circles from my own scrapbook party. I strung with curling ribbon that I already had too. Simple and cute and didn't cost anything.

 

 I had to take advantage of having this gorgeous fireplace mantle to work with this year. It's great to be living in middle of the woods practically. I just went outside grabbed a few twigs got some cheap white spray paint and put them in vases with fake snow I already had.
If you are planning on making any of your decor. I strongly suggest thrift stores like the Salvation Army or dollar stores. I got so much great stuff at the dollar tree. This wreath that I just wrapped with beaded garland that I already had. As well as these really cute stocking hooks, glass candlestick holders, fake flowers. I also just sprayed painted an old perrier bottle a friend left at my house.

 

Next I'm always doing some kind of creative centerpiece for the table. It's such a huge focal point during the holidays that I wanted something classic and elegant. As you can see I picked black, silver and white since I already had the ornaments and Miss Riley picked the purple.

During the week I went to the Salvation Army and found sooo much great stuff. I had to do my best to control myself and not buy the whole store! So much vintage glassware. I got these matching bowls as well as these silver trays. I just used ornaments and items from the Dollar Tree. I asked around my neighborhood for leftover wine bottles. I was going to paint them white but decided the green was pretty by itself. Oh the table runner was from the dollar tree too!

This gorgeous bowl I'm going to use for Christmas candy! Yum!