Thursday, December 16, 2010

Taking a Christmas Break

Tis the Season......
For everything to happen at once!
We feel so lucky & blessed to have gotten an offer on our house in Nashville! Inspection went great and we are set to close on the 30th....
So in the next two weeks, not only do we have Christmas (and we attend 4-5 different Christmases in 3 days), but we have to:
~Finish our Christmas shopping & wrapping presents
~ I have a 4 tiered wedding cake due this weekend
~ 100+ custom designed Christmas sugar cookies due this weekend
~2 scheduled big dinners (1 with family, and 1 with a group of friends)
~ Oh and just......




PACKING!!!!

We've barely made a dent in our house in the packing department! And I have a fault in packing.... I want to go through everything & throw away junk that's been hiding in the back of drawers, old clothes that we don't wear anymore, make a list of things we need to replace in our next house (like 'Oh, I have hated this old file cabinet for years, I'm going to junk it, and purchase new ones for our next house....) Gives us a chance to purge & start anew...
Call it my OCD-ness, but I love to move, because it gives me a chance to organize. However, not necessarily on the time crunch that we are already in, but as Tim Gunn says, "Make it work!!"

And the worst part about it is, it's not that everything is going to the same place. Some of it has to go to storage that we don't need until our next house, some of it goes to storage, but in an easy accesible place that I will need to get to in the next couple of months, then some of it goes to the cabin that we will need readily available... Uhhhhh! Craziness around here!!!

So, we are going to take a little Christmas break from blogging. We are planning on going away for New Years this year for a relaxing 3 nights in a great hotel with a comfy King Sized bed, wonderful restaurants nearby, ROOM SERVICE!, and most importantly a spa downstairs from our room!! I told John that I didn't want us to get out of our robes except to go to the spa or to dinner. We plan on being completely useless this New Years and have a super relaxing weekend after the big move!

See you in the new year! And I will post some pictures of the holidays when we return, but I will leave you with my all time favorite thing to make for Christmas morning! These are the best things that will hit your mouth all year. I only make them for special occasions because they are the ultimate indulgence!

Neelley's Christmas Cinnamon Rolls
(*Note- These take about 3-4 hours to make from start to finish, but with lots of resting time for the dough to rise)


1 cup warm milk (110 degrees)
2 eggs, Room Temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 tsp yeast

_____
1 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted

________
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
a couple of spashes of milk

-Dissolve yeast in warm milk in LARGE bowl. Mix in sugar, margarine, salt & eggs. Add flour gradually & mix well. Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly wiith flour. (I pour the dough out, wash the large bowl, dry well, then spray a non-stick spray (Baker's Joy or Pam) in the inside of the bowl. Make sure that the bowl is covered lightly, but well with the spray. Put the dough back in the sprayed bowl, cover with a hand towel & let rise in a warm place (close to the oven or microwave, etc, etc) for about 2 hours or so... Until it doubles in size.

Once you see that the dough has doubled in size, take a small bowl & combine the brown sugar & cinnamon. Have the 1/3 cup of melted butter close by too. Turn out the dough on a floured surface & roll out to a 16" x 21" rectangle. (Doesn't have to be exact, but try to get it as rectangle shape as you can with it being as big as you can get it close to this size.) Spread the melted butter on the dough & sprinkle evenly with sugar & cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough & cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in lightly greased 9" x 13" baking pan. Cover & let rise for about 30- 60 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake rolls until brown, about 12-15 minutes. While rolls are baking, mix last set of ingredients (cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt & milk) in small bowl. Spread frosting on warm rolls (not hot!) before serving!

*Note- these make HUGE rolls- probably rolls that you would 1/2 with someone.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Christmas Decor Ideas- Day 2

Back to Christmas decorating ideas....
I love decorating, especially for Christmas, and I love looking at all the Christmas decorations.
Mailboxes~
I love to see mailboxes decorated for Christmas! This is such a wonderful way to give people a hint that your house is decorated just as fabulous on the inside as your mailbox is. Plus, it's people's first impression of your decor for Christmas! They see this before they even see the wreath on your front door (exception: if you have 1,000,000 lights on your house, then I'm sure they will be blinded by those instead of your little mailbox)
My mom always did a very elaborate mailbox display at Christmas when I was little, mainly made with fresh magnolia tree leaves and berries. It was beautiful!
Below are some inspiration pictures of mailboxes for Christmas:
Have you done anything to your mailbox?
Such a simple mailbox. Lowe's sells swags of garland.
Simply purchase 2 of them, and tie them on either side of your post.
Add a ribbon at top of each side to cover your wiring to hold them up!


Bigger is better in my opinion. I love how all the fresh garland is incorporated.


This ribbon is all over Columbia!
Lots of people have them on their mailboxes, wreaths, trees, and everything else!
And I love it!





House update

Well, big news on the house~ We have accepted an offer from a couple that wants to purchase our house!! There were a lot of negotiations going back & forth, but we got it all worked out! Halleljah!!!!
The inspection is scheduled for next week, and if all goes well, then that is the last step for everything! The want to close on December 27th (!!!!!???) However, I'm an impatient person, so this is okay with me. We have started to pack up some little things here & there. The biggest thing is trying to figure out what can be put in storage until we move (or find) our next house, and then what has to come to us while we live at John's parent's cabin for the next couple of months.
So, I'm sure your next question is: 'So where are y'all going?' or 'What are y'alls plans?'
Well, we are heading on down to Columbia. John's business is down there and the hour drive (each way, every day) has really been tiring for him. Plus, all of our family is down there.... (or towards that way.) We are planning on staying at his parent's cabin on the farm for the next couple of months until we decide what to do.
Build or buy? Build or buy?
Both have the upsides and downsides, and we are debating each of them.
Purchasing a home can be such a headache. Trying to find that perfect house is hard!! I have an open mind where I can walk into a house and see what it could be. I can imagine a wall being knocked down to open rooms up, or hardwood floors there (instead of ugly carpet), fresh paint & landscaping, etc, etc... John is not that way. And he's thinking that we will find our perfect house, in our price range, out there that is completely ready to move in to, without having to do any work to it..... (I know it is out there too, however, it's yet to be built by us, yet! :) )
As you can see, I'm leaning towards building, and John just wants to purchase an existing home. We will see where this leads us!