"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day. And I believe in miracles."
~ Audrey Hepburn

12.26.2010

Making Christmas, Making Christmas...

I know I am supposed to say something sentimental and profound
about Christmas and family and the gift of giving, but let's be serious...
we all know the best part about the holidays is THE FOOD!

It's not just the eating of the food (which is wonderful in itself) but it is the tradition,
the communion, and the excitement that goes into making it. I love the hustle and
bustle in the kitchen and I love the sound of our house full of people,
all gathered to keep our traditions alive and to enjoy each other's company.

I'm sure one of my sisters will put all of the pictures of my family's
holiday festivities on Facebook, but I wanted to share with
you all of the especially delicious parts of our celebration :)


On Christmas Eve's Eve, we made tamales. 




This is a something we have done every year, for as long as I can remember.
It is always a fun process because you can't exactly make tamales alone --
there is far too much work that needs to be done, and the only logical
way to do this is to have LOTS of help in the kitchen. We always have
aunts, cousins, and family friends over and it always turns into a huge party.


 




Once all the tamales were done (which we worked on from 9 AM 
until 5 PM), we started to make gingerbread houses! 



We usually all make our own gingerbread houses, but there were just too many people 
over! Instead, we decided to make it into a competition: boys vs. girls. 



Everybody who was not participating was standing in the kitchen, 
observing the chaos. Alec, however, just ate all of the candy.

 

Oh, who are the girls to the right, you ask??
The one on the left is a cousin that may as well be our fifth
sister, since we've spent so much time together. And the girl to her right
is her little sister that none of us have seen since she was about four years old!
It was so crazy to see her again. Don't they look alike?
That is why I love the holidays. 

Anyway, here is the boys house:


Santa's sleigh with a bag of toys on its back. 



Striped back wall. 


And the girls house:


A bench next to their snowman.


And an ice skating pond in the top left corner!


They had a candycane back wall. 


Needless to say, the girls won. 
THEIR PRIZE????


A tamale. 


My nephews, who were on the boys' team, brought over their brand new quad, 
which was an early christmas present from a bunch of family and friends. 

 

They looked better on it than I did. 


Every Christmas Eve we bake cookies. 


Our family friend, Gilbert, drew this picture of us while we were cooking.
Isn't is awesome. He wrote his phone number on the picture
so I think he wants you to call him if you want him to draw one of you...


Anyway, here are some of the traditional cookies we always make:
(I would link to the recipes but we get them out of a cookbook!)

Magic bars.


Mexican wedding cookies (we call them snowballs). 


Mrs. Field's famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. 


Peanut butter cookies. 


I decided to get fancy and make an apple pie
I made it entirely from scratch... I can't believe it.
(resources: 1, 2, 3)

(before baking)



(after baking)


Not gonna lie, I haven't tried it yet. 
There were just so many sweets and my stomach couldn't handle one more thing. 
I am going to try it tonight though, a la mode :)


I also made some chocolate truffles. Gluten-free. Dangerously chocolatey.
I made another gluten-free item... but I am choosing not to share with you
because it was so chocolatey that we literally couldn't eat it. Poop.  


Michelle made these gluten-free peanut butter cookies,
which were only made with FOUR ingredients, and
happened to taste way better than the other, gluten-ey ones.


Finally, Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are some gifts I wrapped, very prettily might I add.



And some pictures of the fam...














That is all. 

Hope your
 Christmas was
as wonderful
as mine!

We are now off
to the mall to
exchange a few things...

Happy Sunday :)







12.19.2010

All Wrapped Up

So I know this kind of makes me sound like a crazy grandma, 
but yesterday I made a scarf. Like the whole thing.

I don't know if you have ever made a scarf before, but crocheting and/or 
knitting something is usually a week-long process AT LEAST. I simply 
parked myself in front of the fire place and crocheted for about 12 hours straight 
(a special thank you to Shrek 2, Superbad, Pineapple Express,
Titanic, and Shrek 2 again for keeping me entertained).

Gotta love rainy days! This means I accomplished goal...
#041: Make myself a scarf.

finished product :)



Woohoo! Oh and guess what?!!
I followed your advice and made it deep purple. 
Thanks for the help :)
I also bought some gorgeous teal yarn so I just may be 
making another one during my winter break. 

I basically just alternated a row of alpaca weave stitches with two
 rows of single crochet stitches, and repeated that pattern 4 times. 
I was very nervous for the result but I am actually really
pleased with how it turned out! I love the texture.


(P.S. check out my awesome crochet stick. ITS PINK)

CLOSE UP! Flash is too strong...





This was a fun goal. I put it on my list because
 I am obsessed with scarves and I like feeling self-sufficient.
Also I like to have random skills. 

I.e. "Hi, my name is Marcella. I can tie a tie, speak spanish (kind of)and crochet!"

hehe