o little christmas tree and a little something new

It's hard to believe that Christmas is just 11 days away. I went to a Christmas party last weekend and have two more parties this week. Have had gatherings with friends at a wine bar, tea-and-talk, and dinners, so it's already been a busy month. 

Our weather still continues to be all over the place; some days with sun, others with rain or just simply gray and dreary, and temps anywhere from the teens to the 40's. No snow though! Looks like we probably won't be having a white Christmas here in IL. 

Even though it's cold, Brian and I like to bundle up and go for brisk walks down to the lake when he's home from work. 

 There are hundreds of Canada geese on the lake...this was just a small bunch in the photo. 

 In my last post, I mentioned that we put up a small tabletop tree instead of a big one. I didn't show the tree in my last post because it wasn't decorated yet. Here it finally is, but you might notice that the lights don't go all the way to the top. There's a story behind that. I had decided that this year I wanted simple white lights, not colored ones like we put up every year in the past. I got a box of little white lights from Wal-Mart and they were way too bright. I wanted soft light. So back they went. Then I found soft white lights at Target and we tried those. The bulbs were too big for the little tree. It looked terrible. So those went back, too. I was done looking for "the perfect lights". I told Brian we'll just use what we have. So we got out the strand of colored lights, Brian wound them around the tree (he does the lights; I do the ornaments) and...they came up short. He said we needed another strand of lights and would re-do the whole tree and my reaction was, "No - I am DONE with lights!" Then he said he would take off the strand of lights and re-string those to try and make them go to the top. I just laughed and said forget it. Martha Stewart isn't coming over and I'm not a Big Blogger whose decor has to be absolutely perfect for photos and social media. It's one of those things where "good enough" is just that.

I'm putting my Christmas cards in this white box this year. We've only received a handful, but the quantity usually picks up as Christmas draws near. Do you still send Christmas cards? I sent out about 15 this year. I only send them to friends and family that live far away, or that are going through a particularly hard time.

All these items under the console table were vintage finds over the years, except for the tall wooden Santa. He was found at Goodwill many years ago. That little cardboard tube Santa by the sleigh holds matches. And the collection of four Santas on the yellow suitcase are actually wooden bells. One of my favorite vintage Christmas finds from last year.

 And now for a little something new...we had points from our Visa card that we had to use by the end of the year or else we'd lose them. We looked on the web site and couldn't find anything that we wanted or needed for the small amount of points we had. Then we came across this red Le Creuset tea kettle. Brian drinks tea in the morning (I like my coffee first thing in the morning), but we both like herbal tea in the late afternoon or evening during the cold weather. And I'm a big Le Creuset fan ~ plus red for my kitchen ~ yes! 

Have you have a fun and blessed weekend!

rise and shine

Now that it's almost spring, we are closer to more sunshine and longer daylight hours. Can I get a hallelujah on that one? I find I naturally wake earlier in the sunnier, warmer months, how about you?

As a member of the Wayfair Homemaker program, I have been compensated for this post. All ideas and opinions are completely my own.

The first thing I do when I wake up is start brewing my coffee and getting the cats fed. I'm not one to eat a big breakfast right away, but I do have a Lara bar with my coffee. In the late morning, I'll then usually have a fruit and veggie smoothie or gluten-free toast with almond butter and sliced banana on top.

However, on a weekend when Brian's off work, I sometimes make a breakfast casserole. These are easy to assemble the night before and then just pop in the oven in the morning. This recipe would also be perfect for overnight company. What's great about breakfast casseroles is not only are they easy to make and assemble, but the recipe is simple to adjust to anyone's taste. Don't like peppers? Leave them out. Prefer mushrooms? Add them in. Vegetarian? Leave out the meat. You get the idea.

I chose this beautiful Le Creuset stoneware baking dish from Wayfair to bake my breakfast casserole. Wayfair has a wonderful variety of baking and casserole dishes to choose from, which you can find here. 

It's the perfect size and depth for any kind of casseroles or even a small roast.

BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

4 cups peeled Yukon Gold potatoes, diced

7 slices bacon, cooked (or substitute cooked breakfast sausage or ham)

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 medium sized onion, diced

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil

8 large eggs

1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Sprinkle of paprika

2 cups shredded cheese, divided (I used 1 cup Colby Jack & 1 cup Gruyere)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Boil diced potatoes for 5 minutes, then drain & let cool slightly.  

While potatoes are boiling, saute the peppers and onion in 1 T oil until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.

Place cooked potatoes and vegetables into a greased 13x9" baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, then gently mix. 

In a large measuring cup, whisk the eggs, milk, salt and pepper, and paprika until eggs are thoroughly mixed. Add 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese into the egg mixture and gently stir.

Pour egg mixture over the potatoes and vegetables in the baking dish.

Sprinkle with remaining 1-1/2 cups shredded cheese.

Cover the casserole dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Take casserole out of oven, remove the foil, and continue baking for another 15-30 minutes, depending on the depth of your pan. The casserole should be set - not watery - in the middle. I found with this deeper Le Creuset dish, I needed the longer baking time.

Bring the beautiful casserole dish to the table...

Uncover and get ready to dig in!

Cut casserole into squares and serve with fruit for a delicious and healthy breakfast.

Maybe this breakfast casserole will inspire you to get out of bed earlier!
Have a wonderful week.

joyous, magical and busy

Well, it's over for another year. All the planning and preparing and then the holidays go

by in a flash. I said a few days before Christmas that I couldn't wait for it to be over, and

 that day is here. But truly ~ I had a wonderful Christmas and loved the time spent with family.

Christmas Eve, we met Brian's father and two of his sisters for dinner at a restaurant. The

 place was packed and service was a little slow due to the busyness, but everyone was in 

such a good mood that it didn't matter.  

 My sisters-in-law surprised me with a Le Creuset dutch oven! My mouth actually

dropped open when I opened this. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that

I love to cook. And since I cook a lot, I appreciate quality cookware. Le Creuset is my

favorite, but let's face it, who can afford it? Not me. The only piece I had before this is

a saute pan - which I won in a blog contest over a year ago. I use the saute pan all

the time and it cooks food beautifully and cleans up so easily. And the pan still looks

barely worn. I can see why this cookware lasts "forever" and can be handed down

generations. This gift - to me - is more precious than gems. Forgive the poor quality

photo...I took it with my phone the minute we got home. As you can see by the clock

in the background, it was almost midnight. Yes, I was excited.

After dinner, we then went on to my aunt and uncle's house. They host Christmas

Eve festivities at their house every other year when their son (my cousin) and his 

wife fly in from Washington. I had forgotten my camera and only took a couple

of photos with my phone, so no pics to post of the goings-on that night. I don't

 think you would be interested in seeing photos of my aunt demonstrating

 how to use squat toilets in China or us sitting around a dining room table discussing

the stock market and Sweet Brown videos.  

Tim had to work on Christmas Eve until Christmas morning at 1:00 a.m., so he didn't

get home until 3:30 a.m. He immediately headed to the kitchen and started heating up

food in the microwave, so that's what woke me up. I got out of bed and went into the

kitchen to give my boy a hug and talk to him for a bit. Between that and waking up

numerous times to use the bathroom and shoo the cats out of our room, I was thankful

that we could all sleep in on Christmas day. I made a breakfast casserole and the

three of us relaxed in the living room with our food and coffee, opening gifts and

talking and laughing at the cats playing in the wrapping paper and gift bags.

 

In the afternoon, we went to my sister's house for more festivities.

 What is with teenagers and not wanting to have their picture taken? My boys

did the hands-over-their-face thing too, when they were teens. We had a ton of

wonderful food...appetizers of smoked salmon dip and crackers, guacamole and

tortilla chips, spiced nuts, and party roll-ups, and then Italian beef sandwiches, 

ham, tamales, smoked rib tips and three-layer Christmas jello salad for the meal.

The jello concoction was made by my second cousin, Greg in memory of his mother and

 her sister (which would be Greg's aunt and my grandma) : they used to take turns making

 this dish for family Christmas dinners. Homemade Christmas cookies and my
 mom's homemade French Silk Chocolate pie were on the dessert table. 

With Tim being away at school now, he doesn't get to see his cousins often. And now

that they're older (Tim just turned 24; my nieces are 18 and 16), they all seem to be

much closer. I think when they were younger, the age difference was that Tim thought

of them as pesty little girls (even though he loved them). I love seeing their relationship

evolve, much like mine did with my cousin, Greg.

 Today I actually de-Christmased the entire house! I do this every year on the 26th.

 For me, Christmas is over and 3-1/2 weeks was plenty of time to enjoy the decorations.

I just kept filling up the laundry basket with decorations and Brian made several trips

downstairs to pile everything all over the bar. The hard part will be packing everything

away properly. We ran to Target in the afternoon in hope of scoring gift bags at 50%

off, but we were too late. There was nary a one. We decided on not using traditional

wrapping paper anymore and starting next year, will use brown kraft paper.We found out 

that wrapping paper isn't recyclable! Did you know that? But the brown kraft paper is.

 And it can be decorated in many ways with rubber stamps, doodles and drawings,

 stickers, ribbons, and other embellishments.

However you chose to spend your holiday, I hope it was filled with lots of love.

The best gift of all.