Advent Calendar Days 5-11

I'm back for days 5-11 of our advent calendar! We had a loy of fun getting the house ready for Christmas this week. I swear, every December I have a perma-smile on my face until the New Year. I just love this time of the year... everything is so magical! Doing these activities as a family has really gotten us all in the holiday spirit and we couldn't be more excited for Christmas! I definitely think the advent calendar is a new tradition that we will be continuing year after year!

Day five: We did a few small things around the house to get ready for Christmas! We hung our snowman sign on the front door, put our poinsettia on the porch, and finished our Christmas mantle!

Day six: We baked chocolate peppermint cookies together! Man, these cookies were absolutely delicious. Dark chocolate, espresso powder, and crushed candy canes. We all gobbled them up! Cayden had so much fun helping daddy stir the batter!

Day seven: Can you tell this is when I got my new iPhone? YAY! No more scratched camera! That day Mando and I made our handmade Christmas gifts. We make something handmade every year for our families and this year we made peppermint hot chocolate in a mason jar. This Starbucks hot chocolate is amazing by the way. I've had about 5 cups since then!

Day eight: This was one of my favorite days just because it was so cozy. We are lucky enough to have a fireplace in our room and I love taking advantage of it! We played a few games of Uno by the fire and listened to Christmas music. By the way, I got my ass kicked at all 5 of those Uno games! Who knew I was so bad? Haha!

Day nine: Finally! We got our tree! I was so excited to bring that fat little tree home and I spent the rest of the night huffing our Douglas Fir. There is NOTHING better than the smell of a fresh Christmas tree!

Day ten: The next day we decorated our tree. Every year we pick out a new Christmas ornament and this year I got the little matryoshka, the big C is for Corona (Mando's last name), and Cayden got an ice skating cow because he is OBSESSED with cows right now! I still need to get a tree topper... can't find ours from last year!

Day eleven: My mom's neighborhood always has fun holiday events, and we never miss the Christmas festival. Santa comes to take pictures with the kids, there's hot cocoa and cider, a horse drawn carriage, a band, and they even bring in a ton of real snow for the kids to play with! Last year Cayden was only a few months old, but this year he was all over the place dancing and playing. He had a blast! I'm so proud of him for not freaking out when he saw Santa. He was actually really excited!

That's all for now! We have lots of more fun activities planned for this week and I can't wait to share them with you all next Monday! What are you all doing to get into the holiday spirit? Hopefully this Christmas season is as magical for you as it has been for us! XOXO

My first Thanksgiving [in photos]!

So how was everyone's Thanksgiving? I've had a CRAZY week (more on that later...) and am just now getting around to blogging about mine. Seeing as it's now December that's a major fail, but what can ya do?

I won this 'GiveThanks' banner in a blog giveaway and I LOVE it! It has the perfect fall colors and I knew instantly that I would hang it behind the dinner table.

This is the centerpiece I made for the table. I measured the candle and cut out a circle with a sharp knife and then I hollowed out the pumpkin and rubbed allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon inside of it. My house smelled wonderful! Once the candle was in I started cutting leaves and berries from a fall leaf garland I got from Michaels and placed them all around the candle. It was so easy and I love how it came out!





















Cayden looked so cute on his first Thanksgiving! He was full of smiles!

















As you know I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time this year! I had so much fun putting everything together but it is HARD work! I woke up and started right away baking my annual cherry pie. I made the dough and let it refrigerate while I worked on the filling. I still haven't learned how to properly lattice the top so it always looks messy but believe me, it tastes delicious!





















The funny thing is that I was going by a 14 lb turkey recipe and failed to think that my 20 lb turkey might just take a little longer to cook. We didn't end up eating until 7pm but thankfully no one complained so it all worked out! The turkey turned out gorgeous and was SO yummy! I think it may have been my biggest cooking accomplishment yet! I was so mad at my mom because she picked it up and put it on the serving tray and totally mutilated it before I got a good picture, but I did manage to snap this one which shows how yummy and golden brown it looked!

All of my sides came out so yummy! Garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, , asparagus and of course stuffing!

To top it all off, I ended the meal with a homemade apple crisp topped with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce! I made this specifically for my sister who was too full to eat it in the end! What a brat!

The day was a success! I may or may not have Tweeted 'I AM THE THANKSGIVING MASTER!' that night... But everything turned out great and I couldn't be happier to spend the day with those I love most! Mando, my mom, my sister and I sat around the table and I made everyone say what they are thankful for. (Yes, I am that person. We sounded like a bad Lifetime movie!) Hopefully this can be a new tradition for my new family.

After dinner my mom stayed the night so we could wake up early the next morning and go shopping without worrying about bringing Cayden out in the cold. We spent way too much money of course but ended up buying presents for all the babies in the family plus some crafty stuff for me to make some presents! I seriously can't wait to get started!

Domesticated Delight Halloween Event - Cayden's first trip to the pumpkin patch and pumpkin gooey butter cake recipe.

Last weekend my family and I took Cayden for his first trip to the Irvine Park pumpkin patch. I was so excited to cross off one of my 4 Simple Goals and start a new family tradition! Everything is always so much more exciting when you’re seeing it through someone else’s eyes for the first time. I know Cayden is too young to remember this trip, but I have hopes that he will be able to look at the pictures and know that he had a great time with his mommy and daddy.

The morning of dawned cloudy and rainy, but I was determined to have a great day anyway. I dressed Cayden in what I called his ‘pumpkin outfit’ and we were on our merry way. First we met up with my sister, my nephew, and my mom at her house and we all carpooled to our location. Even though it was a bit cold and sprinkly outside it was very crowded! We did everything the place had to offer (that was baby friendly of course)… went through a corn maze, saw the ‘haunted’ house, visited the zoo they had on site, and of course picked out a big fat pumpkin to take home! I also ran into @ToniRaquel and little Lucy which was a fun surprise! I was snapping pictures like crazy… I think I was driving everyone nuts who was with me but it’s MEMORIES people! My favorite part was the zoo. I didn’t even know they HAD a zoo there! It only cost us $2 to get in (both the babies were free) and we got to see all kinds of animals including the cutest 2 bears in the world. They even had a little petting zoo where you can feed baby goats and brush their hair! We had a blast.

I’m so glad we did this with Cayden. I plan to take him back year after year until he’s begging to bring a friend along or protesting that he’s too old for that kind of stuff. I think family traditions are so important in creating a happy and secure child. I want him to love the holidays just as much as me!

(Make sure you check out a yummy pumpkin cake recipe below!)

















Pumpkins!
















A family portrait
















Isn't this the cutest shot ever?!?
















Playing in the pumpkins
















Chillin' with daddy
















My nephew... he was very excited!
















Grandma and her boys (Can you tell she hates being photographed? Now you know where I get it from)
















Cayden riding the horse
















The entrance to the corn maze
















My sister and nephew feeding the goats
















Mando and the baby goat
















Every time Mando took a picture another goat came to me!
















The cutest, fuzziest bear ever!




This time of the year my mom always make this Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake… it’s a doctored cake recipe from Paula Dean (butter ya’ll!). If you aren’t familiar with doctored recipes, it’s basically just taking a boxed cake mix and adding some other ingredients to make it even better. I actually prefer this method (for cakes only) because I find that cakes made from scratch never come out as good as boxed cake mix. This method is the best of both worlds.

The pumpkin gooey butter cake is yummy and perfect for your Halloween or Thanksgiving get-togethers. I like it because it’s not your average pumpkin recipe… the gooey center is really different and I love the sweet pumpkin flavor. It’s definitely a decadent dessert so unbutton your pants and enjoy!


Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 egg
• 8 tbl butter

Filling:

• 1 package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with fresh whipped cream and enjoy!

Domesticated Delight Halloween Event – Fall Traditions (Guest Post)

Now that I have a family of my own it’s important for me to start family traditions and create memories that will last a lifetime. It was actually one of my 4 Simple Goals for this year. I’ve decided that one fall tradition I want to start is a trip to the Irvine Park pumpkin patch. I’ve actually never even been to their pumpkin patch so this will be a new experience for me too, but I’ve been there during fall and it’s beautiful. Also, friends of mine who have been there have told me it’s the best place to go pumpkin shopping in Orange County so we are definitely bringing Cayden this year! They have hay rides, train rides, bounce houses, face painting, tractor races, hay mazes, a haunted house, pony rides, games, and of course a pumpkin patch filled with photo ops! It's the PERFECT way to spend a fall day with your family! I can’t wait!

Which brings me tooooo.... the first ever guest post on Domesticated Delight! Jenn from Apple of My Eye Designs (she’s the only who designed my blog and did a fab job!) and also Double Duty Mommy graciously volunteered to tell us how her and her family spend the Halloween season.


I try to go all out for my daughter and make her Halloweens into great memories. I’m not a crafty mom so doing home-made projects with my daughter have pretty much always been out of the picture, but I will buy store-bought projects that are 1-2-3 EASY to do projects. One of the main “projects” we’ve made a tradition in our family is buying a Halloween Gingerbread House. I used to think Gingerbread houses were only for Christmas until I saw a Halloween themed one in Michael’s a couple years back. Of course it comes out looking like…lets just say it does not look edible, but it was fun and my daughter always likes decorating it.

Last year was the first year my friend Andria (@mommydoula21) and I did what we dubbed our Halloween Baking Extravaganza! We created Witch cookies, Spider, ghost, and Franken brownies, skull cupcakes, and mummy dogs! It was so fun and of course delicious. We are already planning out next baking day for this year’s Halloween. Now we just need to think of some more creative baking goodness!
















Another one of our new family traditions is to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Disney keeps it pretty Halloween traditional and Mickey’s party starts from 7pm-midnight. You specifically have to have a special wristband or at 7pm you will be kicked out of the park! We live in Orlando, FL so anything Disney is always in our radar. The Halloween Party is a fun family filled event that only Disney can put on. There is a special parade, villain themed shows, and of course the safest Trick or Treating on the block. This year will be our 3rd year in a row going as a family and Kendall’s (the newest addition to our family!) first year attending.
















And finally, a tradition for my family is Sea World Halloween Spooktacular! A fun event with dressed up sea creatures galore plus non-stop trick or treating. The Spooktacular event is held from park open-close so if your kids are young then you can still enjoy the event during the day. Last year we went twice because it was so much fun!
















Our oldest Makenna is already asking when Halloween is. She was Tinkerbell and Snow White last year and she cannot wait to dress up as Alice In Wonderland this year! My husband and I are just as excited because now we have Kendall to enjoy each and every holiday with and this being her very first holiday we are sure to make it extra special for her.

I hope whatever you and your family does for Halloween is a safe and fun one! Enjoy!

Thanks so much Jenn for sharing your Halloween traditions! And everyone who comments on this post telling what they do for Halloween gets an extra entry into the giveaway of their choice!

Don’t forget to keep checking back to Domesticated Delight! A brand new giveaway will be posted tomorrow and you still have time to enter this giveaway!