The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘holiday’

So, Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn made Christmas history with their historical comedy flick Four Christmases. Well let me tell you, our holiday schedule would put those two to shame. My husband and I have over a half dozen Christmases to attend every year. This year, that number came to six, with one more to come.

Here’s our Christmas schedule, for this year at least:
Christmas Eve:
8:00 a.m.: My dad’s house
12:00 p.m.: My grandparents on my dad’s side
4:00 p.m.: My sister-in-law’s house

Christmas Day:
9:00 a.m.: My husband and I open presents
11:30 a.m.: My mom’s house
4:00 p.m.: My mother-in-law’s house

The day after Christmas, we were supposed to travel to my grandmas, on my mom’s side. With a threat of snowy weather looming, and me having to work Monday, we decided to forego the trip. The weather didn’t come as expected, but five hours on the road, and the possibility of snow? Too much to risk.

We still have to go to my father-in-law’s house and we are still working out that plan.

Shoo, now that you are up to speed on the agenda, I want to give you a snippet of what happened at each Christmas. I will kind of be like The Ghost of Kari’s Christmas, and give you a tour of our 6 Christmases, with one special snapshot through each one. Of course, if you want to see more, since I got an awesome new camera from Husband Claus this year, you can click on my Flickr link to the right and see the hundreds of pictures.

Dad’s House:

This year, for my dad’s picture, I want to show you the tree. The reason I chose the tree is because as far back as I can remember, my dad has gone on Christmas overload. We normally have 8 full-size trees in the house, one in each room and they all have themes. We have a tree that is all Santas, one that is all balls that are released in our town each year, a boy one in my brother’s bedroom and a girl’s one in my bedroom, just to name a few.

Well, this year, dad decided he wasn’t putting up trees, other than the ones in the kid’s rooms which were never taken down this year. We thought the Scrooge was joking, until we showed up Christmas Eve and found this:

This is the baby, miniature, puny tree that my dad put up for Christmas. If I give you his email, will you email him and tell him he’s a Scrooge??

Grandma’s House:

It’s a very fun time in our family right now, with a 2-year-old running the roost. My cousin’s little boy is ADORABLE! He dances, he sings and that’s what my picture from Grandma’s house is.

How cute is that? He found her cane and started singing the country song that’s lyrics go like this: “Rain makes corn, corn makes the whiskey, whiskey makes my baby, get a little frisky.” He also sang “Dingle Bells.” It was hilarious.

He took a major liking to me this year. It may because I kept taking pictures of him. Or because my husband and I got him an awesome Nerf, double barrel shot gun and a WVU baseball and bat (only funny because his parents are huge OSU fans). Now all of this was good and wonderful until he asked for me, and only me, to take him to the potty. I about cried. Luckily, it was a false alarm. He has a baby brother coming next month. They are good practice for when the hubs and I are ready.

Sister-In-Law’s House:

We always go to my SIL’s house Christmas Eve to exchange presents with my nephews. They head to their dad’s houses on Christmas Day when we have our family get together, so we spread Christmas out on that side of the family.

Now my sister is a cameraholic. She takes a cajillion pictures and scrapbooks with them. So, of course she snatched my camera.

That’s a picture of my nephews opening their presents. We were playing with all kinds of settings and she gave me a lot of good tips and lessons.

Christmas at Home:

My absolute favorite Christmas (don’t tell my family that their’s isn’t) is my Christmas with my husband. This is our 4th Christmas together. We have an awesome Christmas tree which is pictured below. I grew up with all white lights and a tree to match the decor in the room. This is definitely not that tree, but I couldn’t ask for anything different.

The picture that I’ve posted from my Christmas at home is one that you’ll rarely see of me. I normally don’t leave the house without makeup on (yes, I’m that girl). But this is one my husband took of me in my annual Christmas outfit that he picked out. One of our traditions is that after we open presents and start getting ready, he picks out, out of the clothes he got me, what I will wear on Christmas Day. The above pic is this year’s pick.

Mom’s House:

After we open presents at our house on Christmas morning, we head to my mom’s for brunch. One tradition we always have there is eating homemade waffles. I love breakfast on Christmas morning

This year we had a new addition at Christmas:

This little girl was a gift to my Grandma from my mom. She was one of 11 pups and boy when she ate, she ate. We hardly had time to even open the bag and start pouring before she got her nose in there (as you can see in the picture). Now, we named her Lilly the Lab Puppy, or my husband did. She was very cute, very active and loved dragging around Christmas bags. Lilly ended up going back to the farm after Christmas. She didn’t get along well with my Grandma’s other dog. She was a cute one though.

Mother-In-Law’s House:

Our final stop on the Christmas train this year was my mother-in-law’s house. And where my dad had a baby tree, my mother-in-law had a monster. Check out this bad boy:

We all, well except my husband, laughed at this tree. Last year her tree was ginormous and she said she wouldn’t get a big one like that again. This one is much bigger, believe it or not. She didn’t know that when she bought it. It was already wrapped up. It wasn’t realized until my husband went over to put it in the stand and he had to cut about a foot off the bottom just to get it in the stand. It took up about half of the living room, if you couldn’t tell from the picture.

Now we did miss out on one Christmas this year. We didn’t make it to my grandma’s, on my mom’s side. She lives about 2 1/2 hours away. There was a bit of snow in the forecast, so we didn’t go because I had to work Monday and didn’t want to get stuck. Unfortunately, it didn’t snow so we could have gone, but it was nice having an extra day alone with the hubs.

We do still have one more Christmas on the list. This weekend, we will head to my father-in-law’s house for a little Christmas lunch with him.

I hope you guys had a great holiday and made some special memories!

Well, it’s that time again! Honestly, I hope you are only reading this very early in the morning while you are waiting for everyone else to get up, or very late at night  your still so jacked up on holiday jitters and cookies, the rest of your family has gone to sleep. Although, I am glad you are here, I wish that most of you get this a day late because you didn’t have time to log on today! It’s Christmas!!

This is one of my favorite times of the year. So much happiness and love and fun and joy. Not to mention the excitement on people’s faces that show just how awesome you did at picking that one special gift for them.

Whatever you celebrate, I hope that you have a wonderful day. As *Nsync said, “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.”

And prepare yourselves! My husband and I have over a half dozen Christmas’ to attend this year, some of which are already under the belt, or the too tight jeans after dinner. Soon, I will give you all a picture tour of a Christmas whirlwind that puts Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn to shame in Four C hristmases.

Hope you have a wonderful day and thank you for being a loyal reader this year and hopefully many to come! I appreciate each and every one of you (yes, I check my stats on a daily basis).

Xoxo Kari

Sarah, who now goes by the pen name of Sadie Cool had a traumatic childhood experience when it came to love. She was taught, by her grandmother, that if you put a Kismet cookie under your pillow on Christmas Eve, you would dream about your soul mate and true love. For years, Sarah dreamed about Travis. She confessed her love, at the age of 15, while Travis was a little preoccupied, at his wedding.

Now years later, Sarah has one of the most famous children’s Christmas books ever and has been asked to come back to the sleepy little town where she spent her summers and Christmas’ with her grandmother. The same sleepy little town where she was embarrassed and scarred for life. But she can’t turn down the letter of a little girl, who says she is sick and her Christmas wish is to meet her favorite author Sadie Cool. (A letter that made me cry, by the way) And it just so happens that little Izzy, who sent the letter, is Travis’ daughter. Small world right?

Now Travis and Sarah are brought back together, by fate or maybe by plan from the First Love Cookie Club and they have a second chance at a love that didn’t quite work the first time around.

Cookie making, Christmas time and a reunited love. What more could a girl ask for in a book? From beginning to end, I absolutely loved The First Club Cookie Club. I thought there was going to be more cookie making involved, but what replaced the cookie making was much better. I’m not getting baby fever yet, but how could you not want a little girl as fun spirited as Jazzy to have as your own? That little girl is so strong, dealing with an asthmatic issue that means she can’t run and be free like all other little kids, but she is so sweet and grateful and loving and oh, I cried every time she had a little attack.

I’m a fate person, so I definitely loved the tale of the Kismet cookies. Who wouldn’t want to know at a young age who they were going to marry? Yes, whomever you dreamed of may be determined by a little boy or girl in your school and may keep you from meeting your real true love in the future, but it’s so magical and romantic.

I was a teensy bit shocked by the sex in the book. It wasn’t a lot, but what was there was intense. I know I am a grown up, but going from a YA book about high school and first kisses to something so serious, it’s hard not to feel like a prude.

There is one thing I would have liked to see in the book and that is recipes! There was a bit of baking talk in the book and some cookies that made my mouth water just hearing what was in them, but there were no recipes to coincide. The book was based around a cookie called the Kismet cookie. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one who wanted the recipe. On the Avon Books Romance Blog, they have added the recipe. Here it is:

Kismet Cookies

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 cups rolled oats

¾ cup shredded coconut

1 ½ cups dried cranberries
3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts toasted (optional)

Directions
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk flour and baking soda together; set aside.

Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1-3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny. *

*Yes, it’s painstaking but don’t skip this step!

Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in rolled oats, coconut, dried cranberries and macadamia nuts, giving dough a final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10-14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

Sleep with them under your pillow on Christmas Eve and dream of your one true love.

This was a great way to kick off my holiday reading and I definitely want to make these cookies, although I have already found my one true love *sighs*. I give The First Love Cookie Club 5 bookmarks.

ISBN: 978-0061988424
Published: October 26, 2010
Author Website
Kari got this book from NetGalley

When it comes to the holidays, I am like a kid looking through a Christmas toy catalog. And I’m like that from the day after Thanksgiving until the day after Christmas. I put my tree up as soon as my husband lets me, I program the stations that play Christmas music the day they start, I’m already about 1/3 the way done with my Christmas shopping, I DVR every Christmas movie I can find, and I watch Elf as many times as humanly possible in a month’s time.

Until last year, that was the extent. That was until I found that there were such things as Christmas Reading Challenges. I found one at True Book Addict last year, and another one is being held this year. Last year, I read 5 holiday themed books. Click here to see my list. Since I knew I wanted to take part again, I love to reading with the seasons, I have been stockpiling holiday books all year long.

Here’s a sneak peek at what I’ll be diving into this year, between at-home screenings of Elf:

 Icing on the Lake by Catherine Clark
Snowbound by Lindsay McKenna, Cara Summers and Laura Marie Altom
High Heels and Holidays by Casey Michaels
The Best Girl by Emma Harrison
Christmas Spirit by Amy Garvey
Last Christmas by Kate Brian

And lets not forget the ones I have on NetGalley:
Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber
The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde
Twas the Night by Sandra Hill 

There are three levels in this year’s challenge:
1 Book: Candy Cane
2-4 Books: Mistletoe
5+ Books: Christmas Tree

Considering I have 9 books already on the shelf screaming to be read, I went with Christmas Tree.

There are still a couple more that I would like to add to this list including:
Snow in Love by Claire Ray
Snow Queen by Emma Harrison
Suite Dreams by Rachel Hawthorne

Obviously, I have some pretty big expectations for just over a month, but I am really excited for this challenge and getting into the holiday spirit.

Are you stocking up on holiday books too? Have any suggestions for me?