Gearing Up For Christmas

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

I deep-cleaned most of the apartment today in preparation for Thanksgiving and Christmas. While Jarred and I will decorate our tree Thanksgiving morning, I went ahead and put up a few decorations in the main living area. I didn't really get to decorate last year for Christmas and the little that we did, I wasn't able to enjoy considering I was working nonstop during the season. I'm really going to enjoy this year, that's for sure!

This is Louie's tree! Perfect size -- 3 ft tall!

I spent some time wrapping bars of soap and metal tins to make little decorative gifts to go under his tree!

Grandma made this quilt. So glad I have one since I grew up with Mom keeping hers up all year round.

Our bare tree. I wanted Jarred to go ahead and put the tree up so we don't have to deal with it come Thursday morning.

I'm sure I will be posting more pictures of our decorating projects. My creative juices are flowing and I think I'm channeling Ashley Ann a bit. J and I are taking a trip to Hobby Lobby tomorrow night!

Embrace the Camera Thursday

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

It's Thursday again! And it's time for me to Embrace the Camera! Click the button below and play along too!




This is my second week participating in Embrace the Camera and this time, I grabbed my 'child' for a quick photo:

Never mind that as soon as I had Jarred snap the picture (on my cell phone) LouieBlue jumped at the noise of the capture tone and a nice struggle ensued. He won with a paw to my eyeball. Major foul Lou.

Embrace the Camera Thursday

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

So after a few months of reading Emily's Embrace the Camera posts, I'm finally participating. I really hate taking pictures of myself. I don't mind other taking photos of me, but when I point the camera in my own direction, I seem to always get the angle that shows way up my nose. Or I scrunch my face and get the illusion of a double chin from where I had stitches when I was 4 because I jumped off a kitchen playset and busted my chin. Such a talented child I was.... at always having bruises and scrapes and boo-boos, right Mom?

I guess I'm bending Embrace the Camera's guidelines a wee bit since I don't have children yet and I have a spouse that is [alot] camera shy. So my Embrace the Camera will have to be pictures of just plain ol' me. Maybe I can get LouieBlue involved some weeks but that's highly improbable as well. That dog is the biggest weenie -- he seriously runs away whenever I pull out the camera.


Waiting for Jarred to get out of work Wednesday evening. We just got new phones on Tuesday and I was having fun with the camera checking out all the color tones. I'm a pretty big fan of sepia myself. And no, I'm not purposefully striking a diva pose. I have a bad habit of having hair fall in my face. Blame it on the cowlick. That I probably still have. Hence the bare forehead. Bangs are a dangerous thing on me....

Favorite Christmas Songs

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

I love November and December. My favorite time of the year. Seriously. I love the warm fuzzy feeling I get from the Christmas spirit. I love putting on soft sweaters and my Uggs (yes, I wear them. What about it??). I love putting up our Christmas tree and hanging our garland and ornaments. I love everything about the season.

When I took a semester off from school and temped in an office, I got to put in my headphones, blast my iPod and file papers all day. And you can sure bet that beginning November 1st of that year I began my playlist of Christmas songs. I even bough a new Christmas album to kick off the season with.

So here's my own list of favorite Christmas songs. Most of these you have probably heard, but maybe some you've forgotten. Maybe there are a few surprises in there!

10. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas


This song can only be sung by Frank Sinatra. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Christmas easy-listening at its best.

9. O Holy Night


Sung by Nat King Cole. This is the version I have on my iPod. I love it and will sometimes fall asleep to it. Absolutely the most special Christian song about our savior's birth.

8. Carol of the Bells


Tough call, where 'Carol of the Bells' really stands in my Top 10, but it will always be there. I couldn't find a good version with the lyrics, but I found this piano version to be beautiful all the same. And who doesn't love Home Alone's 'Carol of the Bells'? I made it my mission one year to learn all the lyrics to this song.

7. Linus and Lucy


One of the best parts of Christmas is when 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' airs on TV. It's my dad's favorite. And thought this song might be considered 'Christmas' enough, I still love it as a song for the holidays

6. The Little Drummer Boy


Sung by the Vienna Boys Choir is music to my ears. This was one of my first favorite Christmas songs.

5. Parade of the Wooden Soldiers


Not the best version, but I couldn't embed the original. I'm not sure whether I love the song or the animation more...

4. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen


This song had me at the first lyrics:

Let nothing you dismay,

For Jesus Christ our Saviour

Was born upon this day,

To save us all from Satan's power

When we were gone astray

3. Bring a Torch Jeannette, Isabella


This is a new favorite. My favorite version is Mannheim Steamroller's, but it's not on YouTube. I featured this video last year and I still love it. Look up the lyrics. They're beautiful.

2. The First Noel


Nat King Cole again. My second favorite Christmas song. And my first traditional Christmas song. I remember when I was younger, I got *NSYNC's Christmas album and played this song over and over. How embarrassing.

1. While You Were Sleeping


Absolutely my number 1. This song never fails to bring me to tears every. single. time.

Lead Me

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

Sanctus Real's 5th album has been out since early 2010, but this song has been passing around the Internet for a month or so now. Heard it on one of the blogs I follow and wanted to pass it along.

I'm Back with a Touchy-Subject Video (Ack! Glenn Beck!)

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

Okay. Let's talk.

I know.

I haven't posted in a while. Ouch.

But I'm back.

And feeling pretty good.

I just took a test and I think I did well.

And one of the blogs I read featured a great video clip from Glenn Beck's radio show yesterday.

And it's almost the weekend.

Score.



P.S. I promise to be back more often. Sweary-swear.

My Review of Hi-Hat Cupcakes

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

Alright, so I'm sure many of you who read my blog are also fans of Bakerella. I think the woman is awesome and I was dying to try the Hi-Hat Cupcake recipe she featured. If you don't know what these little cuties look like, seriously, just click on the link.

I'd like to start off my review by saying that these are awesome cupcakes. They are so rich, so make sure you have some kind of drink ready.

I'd also like to say that this is no simple recipe and it does take a while. But it's worth it. If you have a free day, make them!

Sorry for the lack of preparation pictures. My hands were full.

I followed the directions for the cupcake batter perfectly. I was a little concerned that the batter had developed into almost a whipped cream consistency. I was skeptical that the batter would actually bake correctly. But the cupcakes baked up just fine, albeit flat on top. But that's what you want for these cupcakes. It was a little difficult getting the cupcakes out of the muffin pan, so I had to tap the sides of the cakes and then flip over the pan to get the cupcakes to fall out. Mom and I had a naked cupcake (without any icing) and they were unbelievably light and fluffy. They are perfect all by themselves.

I stuck the cupcakes in the refrigerator to cool and began making the icing. The directions were quite difficult and involve a bowl placed over a simmering pot of water while you beat the icing with a hand mixer for almost 15 minutes. It was super hard. But once I finally got the 'stiff peaks' that the directions were looking for, I was pleased.

And then I tasted the icing. It was basically homemade marshmallow fluff. And tasted like toothpaste. It was terrible. I threw out all the icing immediately. *shivers* It was that bad.

So I used my trusty buttercream icing recipe:

2 sticks unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Powdered sugar

Cream the sticks of butter in a mixer until butter color is a light yellow. Add the egg yolk, then beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on low, add powdered sugar until you get your desired consistency.

I use almost an entire bag of powdered sugar to get a very dense frosting. I thought that would harden up better in the freezer than a whipped frosting.

I put the icing into a piping bag and squeezed the icing out onto the cupcakes. I didn't get very much height because the icing warms up because of the heat of your hands. But it turned out for the best because most of my family hates a lot of icing :) So maybe I should call them Lo-Hat Cupcakes!

I put the frosted cupcakes into the freezer for 10-15 minutes while I prepared the chocolate chips. Make sure you melt more chocolate then you think you'll need. I thought I had melted enough, but didn't.

I dipped the frozen cupcakes in the chocolate and immediately stored the cupcakes in the fridge to harden up.

2 hours later... and I finally remembered to take pictures:



Yeah, it's good. I mean, with the changes I made, of course!

By the way, who loves my cake stand? I made it today! Mom and I went to a cute antique shop in town and found the candle stick holder and the plate, which came with a matching server. How awesome is that???