Ella's Merry Christmas

Thanksgiving weekend wrap-up

I can't believe tomorrow is Monday already, back to work and the regular schedule. I've been enjoying some time off this past week for the Thanksgiving holiday.  We spent Thanksgiving in Chaska with Jay's family and had a great day.  Ella was excited to go to "Papa Paul's" house (that's what she kept saying all morning...)  We brought sweet potatoes using a new recipe I found here http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-casserole-ii-3/detail.aspx  (they were delicious!)  And....I made Turkey cookies!  Oh yes I did!  It was fun....but I decided to make them late in the day on Wednesday so my frosting color choices at home were limited....hence the "sort of" brown color (really looks more orangy in the picture) and lack of details.  Oh well.  They were still delicious!

I attempted some cute pics of Ms. Ella on Thanksgiving using my (supposed to be awesome) new "smart phone" however they look like crap (sort of like the cookie picture above - what are those squares!?!!) And I noticed that my earlier mobile posts using pictures from my phone look terrible too.  So.....I'm not loving this new phone of mine and sort of wish I'd held out for the iPhone 4.  I have some time yet to do a switcheroo....we'll see.

The rest of the weekend was VERY lazy for the Abbas household.  I think it was the dreary weather?  I just wasn't motivated to do much.  We did get the Christmas tree up and the house decorated, including a newly added tree upstairs this year decked out with the yearly family ornaments my Grandma Alice got each year at one craft show or another.  Those are very special to me so I am excited to have them!  Photo to come soon.

Here's a picture of the 2011 downstairs "big" tree.  Ella was a big helper decorating the tree this year.  What a difference from last year!  She wanted to help hang the ornaments and she keeps telling me to look at "her" Christmas lights.  :)  I think this is going to be a really fun holiday season with Ella.  She's very inquisitive and makes us appreciate the season by taking it all in through her 2 year old point of view.  We've got the Elf on the Shelf, which I'm planning to introduce on the 1st...should be interesting to see if she gets it or not.

I also have to tell you about this super crazy lazagna recipe I made today - Butternut Squash Lazagna!  Recipe was from the Martha Stewart SiriusXM radio Thanksgiving cookbook, and the recipe is by Emeril.  OMG!  It's really fantastic.  I should have taken a picture for you all to see.  It was a lot of work though - like an hour?  I had to break up all the steps because I was tired of being in the kitchen.  Thank goodness the end result was worth all the work.  Even Ella ate it up!  I could try to link the recipe to this post, but that seems like a lot of work right now, so search for it online if you want it!  It made a huge pan (I don't have a "lasagna" pan, so I had to use my roasting pan b/c it wouldn't fit in anything else!  At least dinner is now ready for tomorrow night too!

Our afternoon

We spent the snowy afternoon being silly, making chex mix and chocolate zucchini cake.
The chex mix of the day is called PB and Chocolate Blast (from the back of the box). Yum!
And the chocolate zucchini cake is delish too. The genius thing about the recipe I used is the top was sprinkled with chocolate chips to eliminate the need for frosting! Love!  I've never made anything with zucchini before. Didn't realize it's like a squash....
A few pics...

p.s. this is another mobile post so I can' t be sure how the format will turn out.

It's snowing!

It was bound to happen sooner or later...
Ella & I are making chex mix and zucchini chocolate cake today. Pics later. We are obsessed with the chex mix recipes on the box! Delicious!

Ella & I

Ella & I on my birthday.  Doesn't she look excited to take a picture?!?

The 33rd Year

Well, 33 years old! My hair is showing more greys and I swear I'm getting a sun spot on my cheek!  But so it goes. People are having babies at 45 these days so I'm not freaking out (yet).
I had great bday weekend full of shopping with my mom & sister. Kaila made me a sweet bday cake! She's really talented with the cake decorating.  She made it to look like a Dooney & Burke purse.  The picture really doesn't account for all of the different icing colors and detail that she did.  And it was delicious! Yes, I am an adult and I requested funfetti cake!
Hoping you can see the picture in this post. This is my first attempt at mobile blogging!
I have a few pics of Ella to share but of course the camera battery is dead!
.More soon.

Halloween Night

Ella had her first Halloween trick-or-treating experience last night.  She did great and had a lot of fun.  When we started out, I asked her what she was supposed to say when we got to the door (i.e. Trick or Treat).  Ella said (as serious as can be): CHEESEBURGER!  HA!  No, Ella, that's your costume!  It was funny.  She got the hang of it and said Thank you after every house.  We were only out about 20 minutes or so and then we handed out candy at home, where Ella started to say to the kids "Have fun!" as they were leaving.  Too cute!  Yet again, she wasn't in the mood for pictures, but I got a shot of her & Jay walking up to the very first house.

 And after we got home, she played with her trick-or-treat sized Playdoh!