Dear Santa,

Thank you so much for such a wonderful Christmas. Thanks (to all our family and friends) for such wonderful gifts. We received games, toys, gift cards, clothes, books and countless cards and pictures of all of those dearest in our lives. We hope that everyone's holiday was as great and blessed as ours.
Ryann:











Raye (too busy opening gifts to look at the camera):











Chris (poor thing didn't know what to do):








Clif received a new bike from Santa *cough*:












...and mommy got a couple of *ahem* nice gifts from Santa also:




















Little Santa also put (inside the purse) a wristlet for mommy to have. Yay for Christmas!

It wouldn't be Christmas without...

Eggnog and Rum cake.
So, I absolutely love eggnog. I know that some people have this weird aversion to warmed eggs in a drinkable sauce, but not me. Since a wee-widdle-lad my mom would always have her favorite brand of eggnog during the holidays. Of course, she would spike hers to make it even more special for her. What I remember is that it was thick and creamy, like drinking ice cream after it has melted in your bowl. Well, I don't know what it is, but I've always wanted to make a batch from scratch, and this holiday was my time to do so. After receiving THIS book from my friend, I found a recipe that I couldn't wait to try. It was actually a recipe for a 'Chocolate Cookie Crusted Eggnog Cheesecake.' I'll get to that recipe later, but I found a homemade recipe for eggnog within it.

Sorry, no "making-the-recipe-in-progress" photos this time, only a dark shot of the finished product. I've converted 2 non-eggnog drinkers into full-on egg-a-holics.

Recipe:
3 1/2 c heavy cream
6 large eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
pinch of kosher salt
1/4 c Myer's dark rum
1/2 c whiskey (preferably Crown Royal) or bourbon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Heat 2 1/2 c of cream over medium-low heat. Whisk the eggs with the sugar and salt. Measure out 1 cup of the hot cream and gradually pout into egg mixture, whisk constantly. Slowly pour the egg-cream mixture back into saucepan with hot cream. Continue to cook until the mixture thickens (until it coats a back of a spoon ~ 5 minutes). Strain mixture through fine-meshed sieve into large bowl. Let mixture stand for 15 minutes (stirring occasionally). Stir in rum, whiskey, vanilla and nutmeg. (at this point you can refrigerate for up to 3 days).

Use an electric mixer with whisk attachment to beat last 1 c up cream until soft peaks form. Fold whipped cream into eggnog mixture. Serve immediately.
**************************************************************
I call this next recipe: Rum-Da-Da-Dum Cake
This cake truly caught me off guard. Not only was this a very tasty cake... it was easy to make and had a wonderful flavor and aroma. The recipe is from HERE.

Chopped pecans (in the bottom of bundt pan)









Finished cake (cooling)








Rum glaze (cooking)









Finished (GLAZED) cake

Don't mind me...

... I'm just playing "catch up" with you all.

Let's see:
First there was the carrrot cake. Recipe here

I love the way the mixture looks


Here's the finished product, with a little chopped walnuts on the side


Ahh, gotta love cream cheese frosting...it's truly the best.

One small step for man...

... one GIANT step for Christian.

Chris took 4-6 steps on Wednesday (while hanging out with his favorite baby sitters).

Last night Chris took 3-5 steps while watching mommy and daddy play Mario & Sonic at the Olympics on WII.

Yeah... he's all growed up!

SFAMily Holiday Hoorah 2007

This past Sunday was the SFAMily Holiday Hoorah 2007 gathering at Wan's house. Thank you sweetie pie for opening up your home to us crazy gals. By far the best picture of the day was this one (and it's many variations)
Check out "K's" do!


The brunch was filled with great food, great conversation and even better presents. We exchanged 'normal' gifts as well as 'white elephant' gifts. Which I think is the only animal that was not given away as a poop dispenser

We even had our very own MIMOSA FAIRY



Check out the rest of the

SFAMily Holiday Hoorah 2007

(way too many to post here)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Our family ornament this year!
This year I stayed home and anxiously awaiting what my family would select as this year's holiday tree. Approximately one hour after leaving the house, the troops returned with Helen (I named our tree). She's beautifully FLOCKED (I love that word) and sits perfectly in the designated corner in our livingroom.
Here's pictures of Clif as he brought it into the house.











It was his idea to get a flocked tree.











It was the princess' turn to place the angel on the tree.











Our angel watches over us.











I love the way ornaments shine off of a tree at night.

What a get picture.

Fabulous Caramel Cake!

I got an early Christmas present from my good friend Amie. Her mom, who knows that I love to cook gave her an extra set of cook books to give to me. The books are all about Southern cakes, and let me tell you there are some SERIOUS recipes in this book.

My first trial was at this caramel cake. I have now learned the importance of having (2) of the same sized baking pans so that the end result isn't a cake that has 1 size significantly bigger than the other (oh, and it would help if I didn't use only one pan also - truly lazy).

Overall the cake was good. Very, very, very sweet though, so be careful. It was like biting into a sugar cube - seriously.

Recipe:
Yellow Cake -
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 cup milk
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Carmael Icing -
1 lb (2 3/4 cups) light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
7 tbsp evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 325. Grease (2) 9" pans. Combine butter and sugar in saucepan, and cook over low heat until butter melts. Stir well and let cool to room temperature. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in bowl, stir with fork and mix well. Combine eggs and sugar, beat on high speed, until light yellow and thick. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture only until flour disappears. Add the cooled milk mixture and the vanilla, stir well.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until cake is golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then cool completely on wire racks.

In heavy saucepan combine brown sugar, butter, evaporated milk and vanilla. Bring to a boil, stir well and adjust heat so the frosting boils and bubbles gently for 7 minutes. Let it cool for 5 minutes. Beat icing with wooden spoon until it thickens.

*************************WARNING********************************
This was my first experience with an icing that begins to harden when you start spreading it on the cake. You MUST frost the cake while the icing is a little runny. Otherwise you'll pull the sides of the cake apart trying to 'smear' the icing along the top and sides.
If the icing becomes too hard re-warm it back up with a little bit of evaporated milk.