My Hawaiian Christmas Ornaments

While in Hawaii I bought a lot of souvenirs including: playing cards, a magnet, postcards and a 2011 calendar to adorn my cubicle at work. I couldn't help it! I've always been in love with all things Hawaii without ever having gone. My room in college was decorated Hawaiian with a Pottery Barn quilt to boot.

So when I saw these Christmas ornaments on sale at Macy's in Lihue, I  couldn't resist!



I love my Island Santa



In  2007 we began collecting an ornament for the tree to represent each year we've been together. I 'm so excited about our 2010 ornament below!











gotta have a surfboard ornament





Flip Flops or "Slippers" in Hawaii



Mele Kalikimaka!  

(Merry Christmas in Hawaiian)

Are there any special Christmas ornaments you have hanging on your tree this year?

2011 Planners

I love a good planner/calendar to keep me organized throughout the year. I can't function without one.

For a while I was using the Kate Spade planner.  It had everything I needed from monthly calendars in the front, weekly diary throughout and notepad pages in the back.

My Kate Spade collection 2007-2009

Then in 2010 "Kate" decided to leave out the weekly diary section which is my whole reason for needing a planner! Thanks "Kate" (heavy sarcasm). If you were to open the weekly diary section on any given week in one of my planners, you would see that it is filled with little reminders and to-do lists. I NEED this section. So I had to make a change. Very sad, because these planners are only $20-and are pretty much the only thing at the Kate Spade store that I can afford. (FYI-They still charge $20 without the weekly diary section; notepad pages replaced those).

After a lot of searching (just ask my husband), I found a great planner from papersource.com for $29.95. I love it! This planner has everything the Kate Spade had and more (even stickers in the back).  I may choose this one again if I can't find anything else. The only negative is that the cover didn't change for 2011 and the other color options aren't that great. Here's a link to the 2011 to check out the inside.

This is also what my 2010 looks like.

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So, I'm keeping my eye out for that perfect planner to get me through another year. I came across these day planners recently at Tiny Prints by Erin Condren.

I thought the below would be cute since I have a new last name this year that I'm still getting used to...



Taffy:Waterfall from $50 each.



... or this cute one that you can have your picture printed on the cover.



Zen Gems: Chocolate from $55 each.



I'll keep my eye out for some other ones since these are on the expensive end. I'll let you know what I find for 2011.

How do you stay organized? Let me know if you see something I might be interested in!

Our Thanksgiving

My husband and I love Thanksgiving. For some odd reason we love spending all day in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove. Strange, isn't it?
It's kind of become our favorite holiday other than Christmas, of course. It began in 2007, when I moved out to Arizona to live with him. It was our first real meal together and it was my first big attempt at replicating all of the amazing recipes the southern women in my family have concocted over the years. Guess what? It was a total success. I don't know if it was because the expectations were low, but everything tasted amazing that year! So we had to keep it up in 2008. Well, not only did we cook an amazing meal together on Thanksgiving, he proposed the next day.  In 2009 we took over my family's kitchen in Charlotte, and this year we spent it in our own in PA cooking for my husband's family. We love spending this time together, cooking the foods we love for the people we love. And more importantly, giving thanks for all of the wonderful blessings in our life.

So I wanted to share a few pics from our little Turkey Day feast...

I started out the night before baking the pecan pies. So bad for you but yet, so yummy!!




my little pecan pie montage



I also baked my sweet potatoes since it doesn't hurt those to sit out overnight. Timing is everything when cooking, so if you can prep the night before, go for it!

ignore the dirty oven

Onto the Big Turkey Day...


Mixing together all of the goodness that goes inside the sweet potato casserole.

the finished product was my favorite dish

Believe it or not, no pictures of the turkey this year but here's some of our side dishes...

broccoli & cheese casserole, with ritz cracker topping

my husband's cheesy baked mashed potatoes

We also had brown rice, green beans, stuffing, jellied cranberries and rolls.  

Now I'm ready for Christmas!! Bring it on!