
To all our family and friends, we wish you all the very best for 2010. Have a safe and happy new year's eve.
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I cut in to my yummy 'Christmas Cake', it is delicioius :-)



Here's Kristen throwing reindeer food out on Christmas Eve, just before bedtime...

Santa brought a new bike :-) and a new Nintendo DSi, Webkinz Timber Wolf, Zhu Zhu Pets, and lots of other goodies....




We packaged up the Doggy Treats that we baked last week for our furry friends.... Boo gave these 4 paws up so I'm sure his friends will love them.



I finally moved the black buffet in to the dining room, and remember the 'Ballard Inspired' shelf I was going to make from Traci's blog? Well that was done some weeks ago (I didn't take pics) and Jason hung it a couple of weeks ago for me. Right now I have all my hand painted Santas on it....

Here's a close up with the flash on so you can see the figures...
This year I put up a stocking for Jason and I too, this is a first, usually it's just Kristen hanging her stocking, and a small one for Boo, but I told Jason he needs to buy a little something to put in mine as I've got him a few little goodies to go in his. My new 'tradition' is that we'll wait til Christmas morning to open our stockings with Kristen. Jason's family tradition is to open ALL gifts on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas moring the kids get to open their gifts from Santa! I haven't opened a Christmas gift on Christmas day in over 13 years!!! This year I will ;-)
and the family room tree....

I still have a bit of Christmas shopping to do... I don't know how, I feel like I've been planning Christmas since July and yet I still have a ton of stuff to get!
I did it! I survived day one of the detox and I did really well. I didn't cheat, I'm happy to say, but I did make a substitution for dinner last night. The first day I was supposed to have tilapia for dinner and on day 3 I have turkey cutlet. Well I bought the turkey cutlets yesterday fresh, and the tilapia was frozen! So I had the turkey instead, and I'll have the tilapia tomorrow. Other than that I did really well.
So that was Friday night. Then on Saturday I thought I would just have a relaxing day knitting (I'm trying to finish off a Christmas gift for my neighbors), but Jason was out in the yard and after the frost we had that morning he was pulling up vegetables that were still in the garden! By vegetables I mean carrots! We still had a ton of them in the ground. Well he came inside and said we should get these things peeled and frozen or do something with them "like a carrot cake" he said. YES! why didn't I think of that, so off I went to get a recipe online. Meanwhile Jason thought it a great idea to surprise me with an early Christmas present.... I realized why after he gave it to me....
I've been wanting one of these for years. Kristen helped peel the carrots, I put a pan of them on to blanch and some others we shredded for the cake. Oh my gosh I loved using this thing to cream the butter and sugar, and well do everything really. The only thing I had to do was fold in the grated carrot! It is amazing. I love it. Forgot to take pics of the cake which was in a 13x9 pan so they were carrot cake squares with cream cheese frosting. Jason has taken the rest in to the office today, he thought they were delicious. I don't want to eat any more.... which brings me to the title of this blog (if you're still reading!).
A few months ago I bought the book 'The Flat Belly Diet'. After reading it through some I realized this diet wasn't really for me, it's based on 1600 calories a day for one thing, which is way too much for me to eat if I want to lose the extra 12 pounds that I've gained since the beginning of Summer! The other night though I picked it up again because I remember seeing a 4 day plan in it that will help 'jump start' your diet. I know December is a strange time to start a diet, but this 4 day detox actually helps eliminate bloat and has only 1200 calories a day. I have to be honest, it was the mention of 'bloat' that got me. Since I've gained those extra pounds I feel like I am constantly feeling bloated, not just after every meal, but even when I don't have a meal and just snack! I know I'm not eating healthy right now, so for the next 4 days I just want to try to see if I can. I'm blogging about it here in the hopes you will all hold me accountable, and it will motivate me to stick it out. I mean, it's only 4 days, surely I can do that? After the 4 days hopefully I will feel better and less inclined to 'binge' over the Christmas holidays. Anyone want to try it with me?
What do you think? I'm very critical of my own work and think I should have made the bottom tassel just a bit fuller? While I was making it I thought it was too full but looking at it now I'd like to have added a few more inches of trim.
This is the basic tassel (no ribbons) so I started with that first. I was going to make a Christmas one but I didn't want to pack it away so soon after the holidays so I made one I could keep in my dining room all year.
This is where I've decided to hang it (for now), on my black buffet.
Here's another close up. I think I need to change the ribbon it's hanging from, it's too skinny but I didn't have anything else at the time. I think I'll watch for Christmas ornaments going on sale and will buy some to make some holiday tassels for next year ;-) I don't know why but I'm rather 'smitten' with tassels right now!
And here it is.... doesn't that look delicious - and it was SO easy. I followed the recipe from the tv show and they simply mixed 2 tblsp of olive oil with some fresh rosemary (which I have in my herb garden) 2 cloves of garlic, some thyme and sage, salt and a squeeze of lemon juice (I used dried thyme and sage because I didn't have fresh). The cavity was stuffed with more rosemary and a lemon cut in to quaters. I roasted it for 1 hr 20 minutes and voila.... dinner was ready! Served with fresh green beans and a little mash potatoe.


I went one step further and sprinkled a little icing (confectioners) sugar on top before taking it over to my neighbors.
I have to say the cake turned out ok, the one thing that was totally off was the cooking time! The recipe said both 9 inch cakes would bake at 350 for 22-27 minutes!! Surely not? If any of you bake cakes often you'll know for certain that 22 minutes is not going to cook a very dense cake like this. My neighbor said she bakes her recipe for an hour! I didn't know this at the time so I just kept adding 10 mins to the cooking time, and finally after 50 minutes the cakes seemed done. The maple cream cheese frosting was very yummy.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends. I'm thankful for so many things in my life - For my wonderful family near and far, for our health, for my sweet hubby, our precious daughter, great friends, food on the table, a warm house (and a cool one in Summer!), my computer, for without it I would not have met so many wonderful 'buddies'. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, for leaving sweet comments and for your friendship. Most especially, I am thankful that God SO loved us all that He sent His one and only Son to die for us.