Merry Christmas & Happy Birthday!

Merry Christmas everyone!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my son Drew! He turns 2 today!

Out-Laws Anxiety

I've tried to come up with a way to talk about this without 'bashing.' My husband's parents are not nice people.....at least not to me. They have bad-mouthed me to my husband's friends as well as their own and their family members. Why??? Because I don't do what they want, when they want. Well, they like to control what he does through a 'well-intentioned' guilt trip. But, I wasn't raised with such passive aggressiveness. When my parents didn't like something, they told me straight out. There were never any guilt tactics used, what.so.ever.

But.....wanting your son to be over your house all the time 'hanging out' is a portion of what has torn me and my in-laws apart. I don't like to be told what to do, nor do I like being guilted into doing anything or guilted for not doing anything.Its almost as if they think since I married him, now they can just assume that I'm going to do things their way. As opposed to 2 different people coming together and compromising with mutual respect.

My husband is such a passive person, that he pacifies their complaining by just giving in. That's hard to bring a new person, like your wife, around who has never been around that type of interaction before. Needless to say, words have been exchanged with them and my husband  and somehow.....I'm to blame. His parents have been married for 27 or so years. He's also adopted. I've noticed that in the urban communities, adoption is kept as a taboo secret. This definitely has something to do with the guilt tactics used and felt.

I wish they could see the actions of themselves and not feel like they're entitled to feel the way they do because their his parents. So many boundaries have been crossed and this has been going on for 6+ years. I faked it until my first son was born. Boy.....motherhood really jumpstarts that 'don't treat me like a child, nor tell me what to do" attitude. They don't like that attitude. All they want is for us to spend more time with them than anyone else, go over their sister's and cousin's houses and visit their this and that. Umm...no. If we have not established a prior relationship with those individuals, then I will not be going over there just because you want me to or told me to.

Now, I have to go home and be around them while we ignore each other's attitudes for hours at a time. Prior to having my boys, it would be me talking to a wall for the first hour of the visit while my husband was in the basement. I'm always treated nicely in front of him though. I really hate being around them and it doesn't help that they make snide comments about me to his elementary school friends regularly.....those friends don't prefer me because of what his parents have said.

I refuse to play the same tit for tat gossip game (so I stay quiet - which appears to be seen as a weakness)......but I also would like to refuse to be around them. I really hope I don't lose my cool on them when one of their snide comments is made.


Please pray for my anxiety. Any advice is appreciated.

Christmas: Reflections Throughout the Year

My homemade Christmas Chocolatte! I mixed my coffee with hot chocolate and threw some marshmallows and candy cane on top! It was delicious! You gotta try this! This was inspired by my artsy friend, Marilyn!

Christmas Eve of 2010 - We went to Barnes & Nobles' storytime! I loved his "cheese!"

Our Family Christmas photo of 2010....and my pregnant belly.

Look, what the new year brought in!!!

Look! Now he "cheeses" too!

I think this may be a new holiday tradition! Cheese and wine! This cheese was amazingly delicious!

Bellavitano Espresso Cheese -- actually espresso on top!

I can't forget about my new Christmas cookies!!!

My latest Christmas craft that is completed is my little Jingle Bell Tree! I glued little acorns and bells to the tree. I wish I would've lightly sprayed it with my red glitter paint beforehand. I may still figure out a way to 'doctor' it up. Either way, every time I shake it, it sounds like Santa is coming, lol!

What's your Christmas reflection(s)? I'd LOVE to see them!

Regrettable Haircut....

Last week, I mentioned the haircut that I had gotten. Well, now I regret it. Mainly because I miss my length in my twistouts. The cut would've been cuter to me if I hadn't already cut bangs. My rule of thumb is: bangs with longer hair and no bangs with shorter hair.
Sigh....what the heck was I thinking????
Wellllllllllll, I was completely freaked out from the damage my post partum shedding has done to my edges. My edges are very thin and when I looked at them closely in the mirror (about a month ago), I saw ends with splits!

LOTS OF SPLITS! 

So, naturally I assumed it was like that everywhere. My hair growth has been pretty consistent for the past 2.5 years since I started my chemical-free journey, but I haven't seen any growth in the back for 4-5 mos. now. That's at least a couple of inches that I could have had, that I was afraid were split.

I guess I'm done crying over my spilled milk now, but the good thing is that my ends are fresh and rid of splits. I'm starting fresh. Again.

Its just hair anyways....
....but i'll probably be sporting some sort of braids this Christmas. :-/

When pulled, it seems to form an asymmetrical bob, with the shortest area (back center) reaching near the bottom of my neck and the longest area (sides) reaching my shoulder blades.

At least my hubby was supportive. He's so cute. He's learned the right things to say!

Peppermint Cookies

I had a 'cookie exchange' to go to with some other ladies and decided to make something holiday-ish. My oldest boy, Double D, really enjoyed sucking on the candy canes, but really wasn't into biting and chewing it. Its probably still a choking hazard anyway. He enjoyed making the mess......and of course there was peppermint juice EVERYwhere!

What I Did:
-Crushed about 10 miniature candy canes.
-Took a roll of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough and mixed in the crushed candy canes with my fingers.
-Scooped out each dough ball and put a tray of 12 in the oven at 350F for 15 mins.
-Melt 1 wrapped square of Baker's chocolate and mix with milk until it reaches the consistency you like. (I used just under 1/4 cup and let it thicken by taking it off the burner once it has started 'bubbling'.)
-After letting everything cool, I put the melted chocolate in a sandwich bag, cut the corner off and piped it on the top of the cookie.

If I could change one thing, I would've piped a thinner layer of chocolate on the top.
But they turned out delicious and were VERY easy to make.

I'm pinning this at Marilyn's P'inspirational Thursdays!

Shutterfly Photo Card - Embed and Get $10 off

 Shutterfly is running a special.
Order your newlywed or family Christmas cards ASAP.
Too bad we don't have our dog with us to be in the picture. I wonder if the owner is ready to sell him back. {scratches top of head}

Once you place your order....you're prompted with an option to "embed" or "post" your card on your blog and you get $10 off your next order {if another order is placed by January 31, 2012}. I plan to use that on a 2012 calendar.

Faith Love Family Religious

Modern greeting cards and party invitations by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Leftover Turkey Turnovers, Life Update and Liebster Award

I got my hair trimmed....well cut. 

I know, I know...for someone wanting their hair to grow that's not what you do.

I went to a curly hair stylist that had been trained by DevaCurl line's Lorraine Massey. It turned out okay. I didn't know how much my shrinkage factor really played. I wanted it short because of my split ends on my temples {thanks to post-partum shedding} which have really traumatized me. Seriously. 

Anywhoo, pictures to follow later.

My hubby still travels out of town during the week, so it's just me (and my nerves) a couple days a week, entertaining my boys and trying to keep them away from the computer. 

My blogging has been slow for this very reason. 

Not to mention, my soon-to-be 11 month old can pull the keys out of our laptop. I mean, "What the frank?"

Also, this is very late but after Thanksgiving, I used the leftovers to make Kimba's Turkey Turnovers and they were deeeeeeelicious! My hubby was licking his fingers and had to stop himself from over eating. He seriosuly raved over them throughout the whole dinner.

Last week, the lovely Ms.Chocolat  of Life After the Verdict, awarded me with a Liebster Award. Yay!!!

 I'm so happy that Ms. Chocolat awarded me this. I love reading her blog. Her simple and straight to the point posts always keep me coming back for more....along with always wanting to comment and chime in!

Liebster = Beloved {in German}

So now, I  get to nominate my top 5 beloved blogs and pass the goodness on during this holiday season. I've seen lots of awards being passed within the past few months, so I'm gonna try not to duplicate anybody.
I love reading so many blogs, but my most recent loves are:

Kiranda over at Mommyhood-Blog - love love her!

Arnebya of What Now And Why - very hilarious!

Keya at The Daily Life Of...Me - just awesome!

Kimba of Here's My 2 Cents -  delicious and easy recipes!

Nellie over at Brooklyn Active Mama  - ready to have her second boy!

Our San Francisco Thanksgiving Treat!

We decided to go to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. It was a somewhat last minute decision. My mom currently lives there and its actually my husband's favorite place to visit. We like to call it our second home. My mom can throw down in the kitchen, so the food was ridiculously good. We had turkey, gravy, macaroni and cheese, greens, sweet potatoes, and traditional cornbread dressing and cajun cornbread dressing that had andouille sausageas the kick. For dessert, we had a 3 layer red velvet cake. The food was so good, it made you wanna eat more even if you weren't hungry! I mean it was soooo good! Whew!

We go pretty often so we do our own thing and then do stuff together, while my mom watches the kiddos for a couple hours. This time, I ended up going to my mom's Afro Belly Boogie exercise class at 24-Hr. Fitness and it was a crAzY workout. I thought it would be nothing but other 60-yr old women not doing much. No, this was a class with Beyonce dance moves at 100 moves per second! I wish they had something like that in DFW because it would relieve any kind of stress accrued during the week. Anyway, we had a great time! Here are some more pics:

The best crab cakes and crab sandwich are here!

I had a lobster roll. It was good.

But the dungeness crab roll was better! Amazing!

 This crab roll was so good, my hubs had the cook come out so he could tell him just how much he enjoyed it. Yes, for real. The crab roll was tossed in warm butter and put on a big piece of sliced texas toast. It was scrumptious. We ate there twice and had both rolls the crab cakes. Mmmm!

Feeding and chasing the birds.

My boys on the pier.

My hubby is an avid golfer!

The crooked street!

Alcatraz!

Classic vintage!

If you ever make it to San Francisco, wherever you choose to dine, get crab and sol! The fish is so fresh and delicious! The main reason I love the northern west coast!

What's your favorite vaation spot that you call home?