Arsenic Hour and Fancy Pants...

This is a story that occurred at my house this past week. It is a specific night, but truly happens more than you could imagine. This is a period of time, just before dinner, when I am trying to cook and get things settled. It is that time of day when I am exhausted and soooooo over it and then everyone.melts.down. I'm talking all three girls are either crying, hungry, mad, fighting, or screaming. Or all of those things combined. My mother-in-law told me that it used to be called "arsenic hour." When arsenic hour occurs in my home, happy hour begins. 

Let me explain. 

So we get home from picking up Summer from Spanish class. I comb my pantry and fridge for possible dinner items. Fortunately I actually had a few options (shocking), so I start chopping some sweet potatoes quickly for fries and throw them in the oven. During this I have a sobbing Olivia on my leg (for no reason) and Layla whining and mad that she wasn't on my leg. Summer is sitting at the counter reading me her book for homework. I finish chopping and clean up (some of) the mess I made. I have burgers that I wanted to broil but I don't remember what temp, for how long, etc (my oven is fancy and gives you like 37 options for broiling alone). I text Matt but don't get a response, so I just pick a setting and throw them in the oven. There is a knock at the door. YAY! My dresses for the black tie event we are attending have arrived! I run upstairs to try it on ASAP (the event was that weekend so if neither fit I was going to be doing some frantic dress shopping). I try on the first size and it is huge. My heart sinks. I take a few deep breaths, and grab the second size. Okay, why is the larger size so tight? I yell for Summer to come help zip me. During all of this I text Matt to find out what time he will be home for dinner. Next comes the wrestling match known as getting the zipper up on the dress (I can't do it and my six year old can't. I was about to call a neighbor). CRAP, the burgers are in the broiler and trying to zip up this dress has taken FAR too long. I sprint downstairs (gown half-on) to open the oven door only to get burger smoke in my face. Fantabulous. Layla starts yelling from the bathroom that she pooped and needs to be wiped. I flip the burgers oh-so-carefully to not get anything on the dress after I inadvertently flung Olivia across the kitchen to keep her away from the hot oven. The current scene: Livi sobbing (she's fine, just miffed), Layla yelling from the bathroom about poop, me in a half-zipped gown, Summer trying to be helpful by comforting Livi, also crying because she is upset that Olivia is crying. The doorbell rings. Of course it does. I go to open it to some door-to-door guy (windows maybe?). His questioning look not only over my attire but of the sobbing, yelling, and smoke smell got me a quick out and I nearly slammed the door in his face. Gown gets almost thrown off, when I get a text from Matt that he won't actually need dinner and he will be home later. Ahhhhh of course. A large glass of wine gets poured immediately. Livi was still in her miffed state so she essentially refused to eat (her problem, not mine. She definitely won't starve herself). Who sobs over cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries? I didn't even get a chance to get a real veggie on the plate. I mean, seriously?

Everyone was put to bed promptly after dinner. 

The Holly Ball was a great time. It was fun to not be covered in yogurt and be fancy pants for a night. I spoiled myself by getting my nails done and my hair blown out and curled (my normal curly hair is such a one-hit wonder that I really didn't want to deal). Our neighbors were attending the event as well so we went to their house before we left. 

No, that is not my gorgeous tree. Ours is currently dying. Any suggestions???

Happy Thursday! 

BEST Egg Nog EVER and Gymnastics...

A food blogger I am not, nor will I ever be. But today, I am giving you all a gift. A very, very, special gift. You are the recipients of...

THE BEST EGG NOG RECIPE EVER!!!

Now I can take zero credit for this. If any of you were fortunate enough to know my dad, you know he LOVED food and LOVED to cook. He created and tweaked this wonderfulness over the years. I hope you all will enjoy this spiked deliciousness, but all that I ask is that you give him full credit. :o) I attempted to take pics while I was making it but I semi-failed. I put the ingredients and steps at the end as well to make it easier to cut and paste if you'd like.  

Dave Pyle's Egg Nog

-6 eggs, separated 
-1 cup sugar
-2 cups cognac (I use E & J brandy)
-1 cup light rum (Bacardi)
-3 pints light cream
-1 pint regular/heavy whipping cream (Baker's sweetened is in the original recipe but I haven't been able to find it.)
-1/2 cup confectioners sugar

-freshly ground nutmeg (optional)

1. Separate eggs. Put all yolks in one large bowl, three whites in a small bowl you can use a hand mixer in, and three whites in a small bowl or cup. This step makes a future step much simpler. 

2.  Beat 6 egg yolks until thick. Gradually add sugar, beating until light. (I use a hand mixer for everything until step 5)

3. Slowly stir in cognac and rum. Add ~1 1/2 quarts cream (all but one of the pints) and three egg whites (from small bowl), beating until VERY well combined.

4. In separate bowl, beat remaining egg whites until foamy. Gradually add confectioners sugar, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until soft peaks form when beater raised.

5. Gently fold in egg whites mixture and remaining cream into egg yolk mixture, leaving foamy puffs.

6. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve. Top with freshly ground nutmeg if preferred!

Dave Pyle's Egg Nog

-6 eggs, separated 
-1 cup sugar
-2 cups cognac (I use E & J brandy)
-1 cup light rum (Bacardi)
-3 pints light cream
-1 pint regular/heavy whipping cream (Baker's sweetened is in the original recipe but I haven't been able to find it.)
-1/2 cup confectioners sugar

-freshly ground nutmeg (optional)

1. Separate eggs. Put all yolks in one large bowl, three whites in a small bowl you can use a hand mixer in, and three whites in a small bowl or cup. This step makes a future step much simpler. 

2.  Beat 6 egg yolks until thick. Gradually add sugar, beating until light. (I use a hand mixer for everything until step 5)

3. Slowly stir in cognac and rum. Add ~1 1/2 quarts cream (all but one of the pints) and three egg whites (from small bowl), beating until VERY well combined.

4. In separate bowl, beat remaining egg whites until foamy. Gradually add confectioners sugar, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until soft peaks form when beater raised.

5. Gently fold in egg whites mixture and remaining cream into egg yolk mixture, leaving foamy puffs.

6. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve. Top with freshly ground nutmeg if preferred!

In other news, I now have a six year old and a two year old (well, and a three year old. But her birthday wasn't last week). I will get into the birthday madness in another post. The other major thing that occurred last week was Layla and Olivia started gymnastics. I thought I was totally genius and found a place that has a class for Layla's age at the same time as a mommy and me class for Olivia's age. I refused to go through what I have in the past (see here), so I thought this was the perfect solution. It turns out we were the only ones in both classes (good and bad), so while Layla was off with her instructor absolutely LOVING it, it was me and Olivia's instructor dealing with a psychotic bundle of energy, running after her sister and around the entire gym like a total spazz. It kind of appeared like I never let her out of a cage or something. There was definitely no need to work out that day (not that I do anyways, it just seemed like a normal thing to say). 

Practicing before her class.

Such a mischievous look on Livi's face... 

Happy Wednesday!!! 

Imaginary Characters and the Start of Holiday Mania...

So the holiday season mania has officially commenced. We had a marathon of activities that I will get to, but first I need to talk about some realizations I have had lately... 

So when you first become a parent, your stresses usually include things like lack of sleep, poop blowouts, nonstop crying, etc. I was well aware (and am still in the midst) of some of these, but I am beginning to enter the next stage. Since Summer started elementary school, I have been met with a whole new set of anxieties... the freaking tooth fairy, this Elf on a Shelf business, and Santa to name a few. I mean, the tooth fairy. So you're telling me that not only do I have to somehow sneak in her room without waking her up, but I have to stick my hand under her pillow to remove said tooth, put money under there, and sneak back out. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm not a stealthy ninja. That is like mission impossible. I of course have been a total idiot and started out with a high bar as previously shown: 

Tooth #2 came out while we were in Nashville so Matt's brother Ben and his girlfriend Sofi did an amazing job:

This week's effort: 

I mean, it is sort of artistic in a I-have-been-at-the-cold-Redskins-game-and-I-want-to-go-to-bed way. Okay okay okay, it sucks. And I was only able to like half-push it under her pillow. And I couldn't find her tooth. And I left the glitter and glue out on the counter. But I was able to slip those into my pocket this morning before she saw them. Fail. 

I cannot forget to mention that this girl has pulled out all three of her teeth herself. Matt and I were begging her to at least do it in front of us but she needed "privacy." Seriously? She does look pretty cute though: 

So this Elf on a Shelf business. I am going to have to set a nightly reminder to move that thing. I forgot a few (or maybe several) times last year and my lame excuse was, "Oh I guess the elf just really love it there." Yeah. Summer is going to be six this week. My lame excuse gig is coming to an end. And Santa. I mean, Summer asked if he had special tools to get through our chimney because we have a gas fireplace and you can't actually open the glass front to it. I never believed in Santa so I love that they do, and we always make sure they know the real meaning of Christmas. I bought a nativity set this year and they kind of look like oompa loompas. Matt laughed at me, but I think they are cute: 

Before I move on too much, we did have a great Thanksgiving. A wonderful dinner with neighbors the night before (that is going to be a new tradition):

A nice cozy breakfast the next morning. We watched the parade, and hands-down the most amazeballs moment of the parade was this: 

See previous post here if you have no idea why this is so phenomenal. 

We went to Matt's brother Scott and his wife Karli's house for the actual turkey meal. I learned a new after dinner drink that involves fire so it is even better: Spanish Coffee!

The next day we went down to Easton to Matt's sister's house for more eating. Olivia was totally mooching food from her cousin (shocker): 

We then had party on Saturday night at our neighbors. Good food and good people = Great times. 

The winner gets absolutely nothing for guessing which shoes are mine: 

We had another cozy morning on Sunday, with the girls waking Daddy up: 

This one cracks me up because I accidentally used the flash and clearly it didn't go over too well. 

We decorated some for Christmas and then Layla super conveniently locked the guest room door and shut it. And it is the one room that has a super strange key-required doorknob.

Notice no hinges are on this side of the door. Other than trying to pick it (failed) or busting down the door (not the greatest option), I thought we were going to have to call a locksmith. Enter Mr. Fix-it Uncle Ben who drilled into the keyhole: problem solved! Nothing is ever simple around here. 

Our last night of this marathon was the Redskins game. It was cold but not freezing, and a good time as always. 

We rounded out Monday morning with total disarray and exhaustion. Like I posted on facebook, it was 9am and Olivia was sitting at the counter eating chips in a shirt she had been wearing for two days, while I used a beach towel after showering since we were out of bath towels (a laundry issue). My biggest low (even more than my child wearing the same shirt for two days) was ravaging the fridge and eating a cold taquito. 

Gotta love the holidays. 

Happy Wednesday! 

Dave Pyle's Famous Egg Nog

A food blogger I am not, nor will I ever be. But today, I am giving you all a gift. A very, very, special gift. You are the recipients of...

THE BEST EGG NOG RECIPE EVER!!!

Now I can take zero credit for this. If any of you were fortunate enough to know my dad, you know he LOVED food and LOVED to cook. He created and tweaked this wonderfulness over the years. I hope you all will enjoy this spiked deliciousness, but all that I ask is that you give him full credit. :o) I attempted to take pics while I was making it but I semi-failed. I put the ingredients and steps at the end as well to make it easier to cut and paste if you'd like.  

Dave Pyle's Egg Nog

-6 eggs, separated 
-1 cup sugar
-2 cups cognac (I use E & J brandy)
-1 cup light rum (Bacardi)
-3 pints light cream
-1 pint regular/heavy whipping cream (Baker's sweetened is in the original recipe but I haven't been able to find it.)
-1/2 cup confectioners sugar

-freshly ground nutmeg (optional)

1. Separate eggs. Put all yolks in one large bowl, three whites in a small bowl you can use a hand mixer in, and three whites in a small bowl or cup. This step makes a future step much simpler. 

2.  Beat 6 egg yolks until thick. Gradually add sugar, beating until light. (I use a hand mixer for everything until step 5)

3. Slowly stir in cognac and rum. Add ~1 1/2 quarts cream (all but one of the pints) and three egg whites (from small bowl), beating until VERY well combined.

4. In separate bowl, beat remaining egg whites until foamy. Gradually add confectioners sugar, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until soft peaks form when beater raised.

5. Gently fold in egg whites mixture and remaining cream into egg yolk mixture, leaving foamy puffs.

6. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve. Top with freshly ground nutmeg if preferred!

Dave Pyle's Egg Nog

-6 eggs, separated 
-1 cup sugar
-2 cups cognac (I use E & J brandy)
-1 cup light rum (Bacardi)
-3 pints light cream
-1 pint regular/heavy whipping cream (Baker's sweetened is in the original recipe but I haven't been able to find it.)
-1/2 cup confectioners sugar

-freshly ground nutmeg (optional)

1. Separate eggs. Put all yolks in one large bowl, three whites in a small bowl you can use a hand mixer in, and three whites in a small bowl or cup. This step makes a future step much simpler. 

2.  Beat 6 egg yolks until thick. Gradually add sugar, beating until light. (I use a hand mixer for everything until step 5)

3. Slowly stir in cognac and rum. Add ~1 1/2 quarts cream (all but one of the pints) and three egg whites (from small bowl), beating until VERY well combined.

4. In separate bowl, beat remaining egg whites until foamy. Gradually add confectioners sugar, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until soft peaks form when beater raised.

5. Gently fold in egg whites mixture and remaining cream into egg yolk mixture, leaving foamy puffs.

6. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve. Top with freshly ground nutmeg if preferred!

Playing Catch-up, Evil Sickness and Randomness...

So playing catch-up is one of my all-time least favorite things to do. Back when I was in school, I would study crazy hard for the first test... because who likes to do poorly on the first one and then have to bring your grade up all semester? (Okay this is sort of a lie, I would study crazy hard for every test, be totally positive I failed, then would get an A. Yes, I was that annoying person. I'm sorry). So playing catch-up just sucks, which is what I am currently going through. I have been full-on sick (I may have said I was on death's door several times) for two and a half weeks. I actually just processed last night that I have most likely had the flu (really awesome nurse I am). You can imagine that literally nothing occurred in my house that was related to cleaning in ANY way. See example below: 

I'm not entirely sure what happened here. Or if a human is under there.

I had been super on top of things a few weeks back. I was legit prepping for Christmas already, due to the fact that I really, really, really wanted to have a nice, fun, activity-filled December with the girls and Matt. Last December I had just taken my increased hour position so things were nuts, and the December before that I had Olivia and was graduating from nursing school. Not the most relaxed of holiday seasons as you can imagine. This year I am for real determined to do things... like make ornaments, decorate awesomely, actually enjoy going to get a tree, craft time, etc. I wanted to get all of the gift-buying stresses out of the way so we could exist in a less-insane way. I also have two children with December birthdays which adds a whole new level of cray cray to the month. Enter the most miserable epic exhaustion/body aches/congestion/horrendousness with my hubs out of town for a chunk of it... and now I am back to square one AND I am trying to clean the pig sty known as my home. 

I won't regale you with the loveliness that was the four days Matt was out of town. I know I normally do, but last time it was pee ... this time it was poop. I'll end there. It was bad. That is all I will say. Praying it isn't vomit the next time he is gone. 

I feel like most things over the last two weeks are a total blur. I was fully determined that I was getting over my "cold" so I somehow powered through and still did a lot despite wanting to curl up in a ball and sleep/hide for nearly all of it. The following is a random assortment of things that occurred/pics I found in my phone and I am happy I took because I felt so bad and don't really remember anything. 

-Summer had her visitor's day for her ballet class. Totally adorable and so happy. 

-Some random pics that prove that they did survive with mommy just floating around or on the couch:  

She dressed like me (messy bun, pink sweats, white tank) and then acted like me (fell asleep). Love her.

That just does not look comfortable.

I love when they actually share things nicely.  

Lipstick anyone?

Who needs a charged battery when you have a little sister? 

Ahhh sisters. Fight hard, love harder.

-When Matt finally returned, our anniversary the next day. Seven whole years of marriage. No itch here! I was officially determined to enjoy the day and have fun, despite feeling awful. We ended up going out to watch the Redskins game, then to dinner that night. It was a great, adult, wonderful day with my wonderful hubby. I really don't know how I got so lucky to marry my favorite guy in the world. Like I said on facebook, I love him more today than I did on our amazing wedding day. :o) I have started and re-started a post dedicated to him but nothing really encompasses how I feel. I'll get it right sometime, I promise. 

We returned home to an adorable drawing from Summer. 

The bottom part is my necklace I wear that has each girl's initial. Love them. And Matt. Life is good. 

-I pulled it together to go with some neighbors to the last ever ACC home game at UMD. Being alumni and having been a diver there, I am especially sad that the Terps will no longer be in that conference. It was a great time tailgating despite the chilly weather. 

-I also pulled it together to go to the P!NK concert at the Verizon Center last Sunday with my sister and a few girlfriends. This had been planned for a very long time, and there was no way I was missing it. Now I definitely liked her before, but now I LOVE her... and feel a major need to go to the gym because that woman's abs were out of this world. Now I have been to many concerts in my life, but this was by far the most amazeballs one ever. Not only does she have an out-of-control voice and she did not lip-sync one single second the entire two hours she was on, but she did cirque du soleil-meets-phenomenalness the entire show. It was entertainment. She is a serious performer and I would pay a lot more money to go to see her again whenever she comes back. 

Love my sis.

-Bright and early the day after the concert (hooray), Layla had her Thanksgiving party at school. (I was so excited I signed up for cups and didn't have to actually make anything). She was thrilled that Matt, Livi and I came and we watched her sing a bunch of songs in her little pilgrim hat. 

Livi wanted to eat but Layla was trying to force her into the pic. 

My adorable little pilgrim.

-We got the girls' school pictures in. So stinkin' cute (I am biased, I know):

-So now the catch-up continues. And I am feeling better. I am so done with waiting for Thanksgiving to be over to decorate for Christmas, so I began yesterday: 

I called it, "Multiple Holiday Decor Disorder." When I posted this picture yesterday, I did get some fabulous ideas to just leave him up... including the grinch and Jacob Marley. 

So. There is the randomness that is this post. Maybe my brain will be a little more sorted out next week. Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Turkey Day!

Happy Wednesday!