I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the new tea menu at one of my all time favorite places, Starbucks. This is Teatopia afterall, but these days, there isn't much tea talk around here. :-) When I started this blog, my days were filled with cooking adventures and time spent inbetween college classes in cafes curled up with a good book. I was a coffee and tea-aholic, but now, I'm mom to two and things have drastly changed around here. They are good changes I think, but I thought for old times' sake, I'd throw in a tea post.

When the lovely holiday drinks left the Starbucks menu this year, they were replaced by a fresh new line-up of tea drinks! Yippeee!

Apple chai, vanilla rooibos lattes (rooibos is doubly awesome because it's only grown in South Africa), berry tea smoothies, London fog lattes (made with Earl Grey), wowwy wow! I can't wait to try them all. Good thing I got a few Starbucks gift cards for Christmas. The holiday season left a hole in my pocket, but I'm covered with my gift cards, at least enough so I can try all the new tea drinks.

Let me know if you've tried any and which ones you liked. I personally have only had the London Fog, and it was really good. I've made them at home before, but I think there's was better. They steamed the milk and that made it really nice and smooth :-)

This was by far the most amazing Christmas yet. Not only did we have another wonderful addition this year, but Olivia was so much more excited this year. Every year I regret not doing more holiday activities, but this year, I crammed tons of stuff in: making goodies, going to our church's Live Nativity, taking Olivia to our town's Christmas carousel, having their photos taken, going to a light show. It truly was a blessed holiday.

The food from the Christmas party we hosted turned out great. I was proud I managed it, but I carefully planned a menu that let me make stuff in advance or I never would've pulled it off. :-) I ended up deciding on ranch roll-ups, a pumpkin cheesecake ball, spinach dip, butter cake, ham pate, scones (which didn't turn out too well), cucumber sandwiches, etc.

Here was the spread:

Here's homemade eggnog, which I brought to a brief boil before immediately chlling so there'd be no risk of salmonella:

Here's my sweet grandma:

Christmas Eve was very special this year. We went to lunch, spent lots of family time, and Olivia tried out the new swing set my dad built.

In the evening, we went to my parents' house for a party where we ate, sang Christmas songs, and read from the bible. My uncle Michael snuck into another room to call Olivia and pretend he was Santa, but Olivia wouldn't talk to him. She loves the idea of Santa but was too scared to talk to him on the phone.

While I'm on the subject of Santa, I hope the magic lasts many years for Olivia. She's is too wise for her own good. She already asked me questions like, "How come all the Santas look different?" and then it moved on to, "Is that really Santa or is that just a guy dressed up as Santa?" Yes, at two years old she actually asked me that. When I was an older child-- maybe around 7 or so, much older than Olivia-- my mom told me that the mall Santas were nSanta's helpers, but Olivia was already suspicious. She misses NOTHING. We can literally pass by a restaurant we ate at a year ago (when she was a year and a half) and she'll say "That's the place where I ate the potato soup." It's freaky. She's so analitical and well beyond her years, but that's not necessarily a good thing. I believed in Santa for longer than I'm willing to admit, and I want that for my children, too. More importantly though, for a little one, her faith in God is precious. She says grace every night and when someone is sick (like my sister was this week), she'll tell me to pray for them. She told me we should pray for the little girl we bought gifts for whose name we took off the tree at the mall. She didn't totally get it though because everytime I'd buy a gift for someone, she'd ask me if it was because they didn't have any money. :-)

Anyway, James and I were up very late on Christmas Eve setting everything out. I hadn't put bows on anything when I wrapped, so we did that and James set up the kids' train set (which is Little Tykes brand and safe for Liam) and Olivia's easel. Every year we take a picture of the tree on Christmas Eve with everything under it. I love these pictures. Everything looks so magical.

Christmas morning was so awesome. Olivia's face was priceless. Liam didn't know much of what was going on, but he enjoyed pulling bows off everyone's gifts and messing with the wrapping paper.

Olivia's favorite gift was the Barbie Dream House waiting for her at my parents' house.

More holiday fun in the box that my new BLUE comforter came in. :-) James decided that he liked it more than any others we saw. It looks great, but it's darker than it was in the picture and isn't quite as simplistic as I'd hoped.

I'm sad Christmas is over this year, but as Olivia said, I shouldn't be sad because I have her and Liam. :-)

We really need a new comforter. I know I blogged about this when we moved earlier this year, but we never ended up replacing it. Now it's starting to fall apart and I'm scared the next time I wash it-- which is often with the kids getting stuff on it-- it's going to completely fall apart. Darn shabby chic set at Target. It's been a piece of crap.

Anyway, I have fallen in love with a particular set, but James is pretending he has some sense of style and wants to keep shopping for something else. :-) I think this is PERFECT though. We have super dark wood furniture and walls painted so lightly blue you almost don't notice the color. James is worried this is too blue, but I think it would pop against the dark wood and the simplicity of the pattern wouldn't make the room look smaller. It's also majorly on sale!!!

Ok, tell me what you think. Do you love it or do you vote for us to keep shopping?

There's also this one in mocha that we both kind of like:

Anyway, I'd love your opinion.

There's definitely no shortage of humor in our home, especially since we had Olivia. She cracks me up constantly!

I love to hear funny things kids say, so feel free to share yours in your comment if you leave one. I used to have a co-worker who had the funniest child ever and every day I'd ask her what her daughter said the night before. They were always hilarious! When I was little (around Olivia's age), I asked a Chinese waitress how she could see through the eyes. My parents wanted to die. I know that is so NOT politcally correct, but I was 2 and I didn't know any better. I also hadn't seen too many Asians in the small town we lived in at the time. :-)

Anyway, last night, we had mommy/Olivia time in the tub in our master bathroom, and she started talking in an unusual way. Her words almost sounded British and she was very consistant in the way she pronounced everything. I asked her about how she was speaking, and she said, "Mommy, I have a new accent!" I asked her more about it and she said, "It's called boa-leg." Even today she's been speaking "boa-leg." Her creativity astounds me. I was shocked she even understood what an accent was, much less was able to create one and maintain it consistantly.

The other funny thing she did was the other night, when we were decorating Jesus' birthday cake. "Why are we making a cake for Jesus?" she asked. "Jesus is in heaven, so I guess we'll have to eat it for him." It cracked me up. BTW, making a cake for Jesus is going to be our newest tradition I think. :-)

Today is my dad's birthday, so I'm to make a squash casserole to take over my parents' tonight. Christmas post (pics and all) is coming. Santa brought me a new laptop, so I'm trying to get it set up so I can upload my pictures and everything.

I have tons of mouth-watering food pictures from last night's party, as well as pictures of Olivia and Liam, but for now . . .

I'm wishing you and your family a blessed Christmas!

I need to scan my copies so you can see pictures without large numbers on them, but as it is, I'm rushing around trying to get things ready for the Christmas party we're hosting tonight. I made homemade eggnog (but cooked it like thin custard so it's salmonella free!), ham pate, spinach dip, scones, and much more! I'll be postng pictures soon. For now though, two out of the three loves of my life:

Click below to see them all. The last of Olivia is too funny. She's making a monkey face. I almost ordered one because it's cute!

http://picasaweb.google.com/scottjonesphotography/HannahChambers?feat=email#

OK, so I've been reading the Twilight series which I'm reviewing for the awesome people at Hachette Books.

Ok, people. RUN TO THE BOOKSTORE NOW!!! I could NOT put this series down. I sacrificed some much-needed sleep to read these books and I actually got through all four in about 2 weeks. I was hooked. I felt like I did when I was reading Harry Potter-- I got sucked into their world. I loved the romantic aspect of this series. Edward Cullen is seriously sexy.

I'd definitely recommend the series because it really encompasses a variety of genres: romance, fantasy, suspense . . . the list goes on.

I'd also like to recommend Brad Meltzer's THE BOOK OF LIES. It reminded me a bit of THE DAVINCI CODE in that it's action-packed and the based on historical information (though it's fabricated by the author) but still very interesting. It's suspenseful and I really enjoy the guessing game of such novels.

I just had the kids' first professional pictures taken together. We did some of Olivia when she was little, but they were crappy and I always figured I'd get better shots myself for free. This time though, I wanted some great quality ones I could enlarge and I wanted the professional looking Christmas background. I also sadly realized that I don't have ANY pictures of all 4 of us and Liam is already 6 months old. Either James or I am always behind the camera so we have none with both of us and the kids. I didn't grow up in a picture taking family. We always took some on special holidays, but my parents rarely bring a camera to anything, and I've gotten into the terrible habit of not remembering mine.

Yesterday we went to a first birthday party for a friend of mine's little boy and we had a great time. Olivia even stopped playing with all the kids to come and tell me she had to poop and then she held it until we found the bathroom. She's doing so well! Anyway, my friend's house is an old but fully restored house in the historic district downtown and it was awesome! I am definitely inviting myself over again so I can really get a good look without all the people blocking stuff.

I am 95% done my Christmas shopping and I am putting off the few little things I still have to do because I hate the crowds. I used to not mind so much but it's hard to maneuver around with both kids in tow. You can pretty much forget trying to get anywhere with a double stroller the size of a dang boat because there are too many people, many of whom are too busy to notivce me and will literally let the door slam in my face. Speaking of stroller, I want to get a double stroller, but in the meantine, I scored another single (one for each of us when we take the kids out in the evening). My neighbors are moving and put there's out by the trash. It's in great shape and so I went over and took it. I think it's my first trash find! Maybe there's something to dumpster diving, who knows?

Olivia is terified of Santa still, but she's thrilled he'll be bringing stuff to the house. We're trying to make Christ the focus though, which isn't easy at this age when Santa is the main thing she sees. We've been to the Christmas program at our church though, as well as the live Nativity, and we're going to bake a birthday cake for Jesus next week that Olivia can help decorate.

I've been thinking about something a friend of my mine is doing: she's decided to tell her 3 year old that Santa isn't real, but that he's a fun character like Mickey Mouse. They still took him to see Santa, but told their son that they buy the gifts, not Santa and that Jesus is most important. I want to find a balance while still doing the whole Santa thing, but I can see my friend's point: it's easier to have Jesus be the focus when Santa isn't. What do you think about that?