christmas recap

Happy New Year! Yup, I'm kind of late on my Christmas post, too much quality family time going on!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and got to celebrate it with the ones you love. I sure did...here's a quick recap of my Christmas:

I celebrated Christmas at my parents with my cousins. This was our tree with all of the lovely wrapped gifts!

This cute little ball of fur is my sister, Pinky! [Pinky is my parent's dog, therefore, Pink is my sister] She was decked out in the cutest Christmas outfit.

You can see her outfit better here as she greets the rest of my family by the door.

We had our hearts set on opening presents Christmas morning in our pajamas but our parents made us dress up for photos. I quickly changed into some comfy sweats right after this photo!

the cousins...and me on the far right

Oh yeah and it snowed!!!!! I don't think I've ever truly had a White Christmas, that I can remember at least.

Hi Mom! She thinks she's taking a picture of me with her iPad...she's not, she's taking a mini video. Poor thing took accidental mini videos of us opening presents all morning!

sorry so blurry but you can actually see the snow flurries

I introduced my family to Tim Tams and most of us mastered the Tim Tam Slam. You need to try these cookies! They originate from Australia but you can find the Pepperidge Farm version at Target for a limited time during the winter months. I didn't see any more of them at the Target closest to me so I had to check other ones near by. I cleared out a couple of the Target's of their Tim Tams supply. It wasn't all for me! I shared with my family. Honest!

And of course I had to do a Christmasy mani. This is Sephora by OPI's Pushing Your Luck. I got it on clearance at Sephora for $5! I really like this red. Some reds look orange on me, but this red actually look red. Sorry for the cropped image. My cuticles were so dry. I forgot to moisturize before taking this shot.

On my ring finger is a fun little Christmas tree as an accent. I taped off the tree part and used Nicole by OPI's Green Up Your Act for the tree and Finger Paints Twisted as ornaments and mattified it. I used Orly's Luxe for the gold topper.

How was your Christmas? Did Santa bring ya anything good? I should have asked Santa for a nice camera or classes on how to take better pictures with my old school camera haha

homemade peppermint marshmallows

For the past few years, around Christmas time, I've been making homemade treats for my coworkers. This year I decided to make homemade peppermint marshmallows so I can cross it off my 30 before 30 list.

I have been wanting to make homemade marshmallows for so long. I think I've always been intimidated by the fact that you have to use a candy thermometer and work with hot sugar. I have a fear of burning things, especially myself!

I decided to use Alton Brown's homemade marshmallow recipe. It got really good reviews and other bloggers seem to like that recipe too. I can totally see why. The marshmallows tasted like little peppermint pillows of air from Heaven! No joke! Making marshmallows from scratch was so easy too! The hardest part of the whole process what waiting for the marshmallows to firm up, which took about 4 hours. I was able to wrap up all my Christmas gifts while waiting.

Now that I am no longer afraid to make marshmallows, I'm completely excited about all of the possible flavors of marshmallows to try! If you too have been intimated by making homemade marshmallows like me, don't be! You can do it! It was super easy! Just make sure you read over the recipe a couple times and make sure you have all of your ingredients measured and ready to go. That will help a a lot. Oh and get a candy thermometer! I got mine from Hobby Lobby for only $3.99 (that price is without a coupon)!

Peppermint marshmallows with hot chocolate...perfect combo!

Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows
adapted from this recipe from Alton Brown

Ingredients

• 3 packages unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup ice cold water, divided
• 12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• Nonstick spray
  
  Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.
• 
  
• In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.
  
  Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the peppermint extract during the last minute of whipping. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows.

Combine the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.

When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan. Drop red food coloring onto the marshmallows and use a toothpick to swirl the food coloring on the marshmallows. Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners' sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

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my not-so-christmasy christmas wreath

I finally got a chance to put my Christmas wreath together. I used to make wreaths for every type of occasion or season but the time flies by so fast I can barely keep up. It also doesn't help that I only had one wreath to use to change up every time! I figured that Christmas time is not a time to skip making a wreath.

This was my Christmas wreath last year.

Pretty simple. I like peacocks. They're so beautiful. Especially love their peacocky colors.

For my wreath this year, I used the same grapevine wreath, peacock, white poinsettia, and Christmas picks plus added a white feathered boa and a few new picks.

I didn't really know how I wanted the wreath to look like, so I just put the boa on and randomly stuck everything on.

There was glitter and feathers everywhere! But that's ok because I love the way the wreath turned out!

It looks like a whimsical wintry wonderland.....that will never happen in Texas! Today's high temperature was almost 80 degrees!

Do you put up a wreath for Christmas? or make ones for certain occasions? 

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