I just wish one of my quick little energy spurts would happen here soon.

1. What is your first food memory?
I remember eating Cheerios at the bar in our kitchen, sitting up high on the stools & being told not to twirl the chair.

2. What was your favorite dish/food as a child?
My mom’s mashed potatoes. I still love them.

3. Name one of your mini’s favorite foods:
ha! I can’t name just one…Strawberries, rice, peas, lettuce, noodles, cucumbers. If I did a meal with all that combined I’d be sure to have her eat it all!

4. What was your mini’s first solid food? Did they love it or hate it?
rice cereal and applesauce. I remember her really going for it!

5. What was something you were excited to make for your mini for the first time?
The aforementioned mashed potatoes. Since they are my favorite food. My husbands big one was pizza. Luckily for our fragile egos she loves both!

6. What is your favorite food memory?
The yellow cake on my 4 year old birthday. I just remember it being so good and super yummy. We were not a household that ate a lot of cake so your birthday cake was a pretty special event.

7. Your mini’s birthday party : All out theme with perfect kid food ala Martha? or Quiet family home party with scrumptious cupcakes? Something in-between?
Quiet home party with delusions of grandeur. I usually have a big plan and then get down to the wire and have to punt. We always have yummy food! I think it will be better when she can help with the planning. Good thing she’s Ina Garten’s biggest fan!!

8. Name one thing you absolutely love to make and eat when you are feeling like a kid again:
Brownies or fudge. We used to make fudge for Christmas presents at our house and it was so good! I can never make it as well as my mom did.

9. Name something you ate as a kid that you now look back on and wonder “what were my childhood taste buds thinking??” :
Kraft sliced American cheese with ketchup on it. I know it is SO gross!! But hey what did I know?

10. Name 3 things your mini loves (doesn’t have to be food related):
Totoro, Kiki, babies, animals, letters & numbers

Shanna over at Pink Trees sent me the most amazing box of goodies!

Here it is all spread out! The apron is lovely and the overlay is removable! So you can cook in it and then pop the lovely dotted organza and it will look like you have never seen the inside of a kitchen. Here’s the breakdown of items: recipe box, recipes, vintage ornaments (3, so CUTE!), set of make your own disney frames for my daughter, pot holder set made to look like a sandwich, corsage pin & a lovely card, oh and of course the APRON!

Here are some shots of the swag!

It was so wonderful to open this box! Thanks to all at What’s Cookin’ and to Shanna! I was honored to receive your gifts!

It’s really hate filled is what I don’t understand. These people are pretty normal, regular people who would be my friends if I “knew” them. Randomly calling them bitches or making fun of their children with crudely photoshopped pictures is so … I don’t know…gradeschool I guess. The children are beyond off limits. The author claims to be a parody site but I don’t see that from the writing. It’s just ugly. I find it hard to believe that someone WANTS to put out this kind of negative energy in the world.
I’m not sure what I wanted to accomplish with this post. I guess I am just struggling to find the sense in a 30 year old woman who wants to spend actual time being a mean asshole to people she doesn’t even know.

1. what kind of holiday party food do you like best? finger food buffet or sit down multi-course style?

Wow I really like both kinds, but the finger food is better at a party for me. There is more time to chit chat with everyone when we all are walking around getting tiny yummy bites of great food!

2. do you make/use those little name cards for your table seating or is that just another little something that magazines are trying to add to our already long holiday to-do list?

God no. I have place card holders but I never use them. As a matter of fact I should get them out and polish them they are so tarnished!! I do love the idea though.

3. do you miss sitting at the “kid’s table”?

Sometimes. At least then you got to laugh and be super silly and eat until you could eat no more. AND not worry about the cooking!

4. any particular holiday party traditions that you like to do every year?

Well we put up a pumpkin for halloween and make sure to put up a christmas tree as soon as my Thanksgiving feast is over! I consider Halloween the start of my holiday season and with a viewing of The Nightmare before Christmas we are off and running!

5. Which is your favorite winter holiday?

Thanksgiving. no question. I love the food, I love the family and I love to count my many many wonderful blessings.

6. do you make or have you tasted any good egg nog recipes…whether using it in a dish or as a drink?

I am an egg nog fool. I will drink the crappiest of crap egg nog and be so happy! It tastes like christmas to me. I make a super killer egg nog that will knock you OUT but so gently you won’t even know what happened!

7. fruit cake …. do you love it or think it should be used as a door stop?

Door stop.

8. What do you like to do to get yourself in the holiday sprit (ie. certain music, visiting certain seasonal sites, enjoying winter weather, ect.)

Really what gets me is the weather. And it doesn’t always cooperate her in GA. When the air is crisp and the sky is so blue and it is chilly enough for a fire which smells FANTASTIC btw, a little mug of cocoa and some great music on the stereo. That is holiday to me. We also watch “christmas” movies like “A Christmas Story” and “The Preachers Wife” (the GOOD version with Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven), “Miracle on 34th street” (Natalie Wood version please!) and stuff like that. It’s a fun way to get into the spirit of the season.

9. What is your favorite holiday song and who sings it best?

Oh gosh. I love churchy christmas music, like Handel’s Messiah but I think my favorite is “Carol of the Bells” which is, I think, a song by Charles Stanford and I love to hear it performed by any good chorus. My favorite contemporary Christmas song is “Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas” performed by Judy Garland. Meet me in St. Louis is a great movie and has a wonderful Christmas scene.

10. Any ideas for interesting holiday themed parties? (Even if it’s really out there — like renting a snow machine and having everyone build snowmen if you live in a no-snow areas!)

We love to do a tree decorating party or an ornament making party. That’s a great one to do with kids and adults.

Seriously? They want to keep our kids from critical thinking EVEN MORE than they already DO??!! Thank the gods I don’t live in Florida and if our stupid ass Georgia Senate gets any ideas I’ll be camping out on somebody’s lawn.

Thanks to Blogging Baby for the tip.

“trying to find a LYS (*local yarn store) that felt good in every way — big enough inventory to inspire, not too crowded, nice employees who don’t make you feel like you’re annoying them (or embarrassing them) when you go to buy your apparently uncool yarn choices, or whatever (ugh — hate that).”

Aha! This is a great description of Why Knot Knit is my lys. And I don’t say that because I now work there, I say it because it was my lys of choice BEFORE I would even consider working there. It’s really a nice place and if you are in Atlanta and into knitting you should come by!