Benefield Christmas

Today Jackson, Rosie, and I celebrated Christmas in our home for the first time as a family. We had the best day! After having breakfast at the house we let Rosie open her stocking. She loved pulling her toys out and playing with her new stuff. We went to church, had lunch, and then finally broke down and swapped gifts. Jackson got me a piece of our crystal and a new awesome camera!! He got some stuff for our ski trip, a belt, and a kayak. Getting the kayak picked out, home, and somewhat hidden was a job in and of itself so I was proud. Then we cooked a celebratory dinner of lambchops, potatoes au gratin, and brussel sprouts. Here are some much better quality pictures than usual to document the day!

Our tree and Christmas card banner...

Sweet Rosie with one of her new toys...

Jackson and Rosie trying out the new kayak!

Rosie taking a swig from the hose...

Our delicious dinner and wine from my new crystal goblet.

Merry Christmas! Hopefully I will learn how to actually use my camera soon so I can have some good blog pictures!

The End of the World

Jackson proposed the day before the last predicted world end date (May 20,2011). I guess he wanted to make sure to lock that down just in case. However, if possible, I feel even happier today. If the world were to melt away at some hour today, at least I'd be happy with the life that God has allowed us to create together. I know this all sounds super corny and sappy but looking at life can sometimes make me feel that kind of happy that always sounds cheesy when you talk about it.

I'm feeling extra sane today after finishing "Gone Girl," a mystery with a whole lot of crazy happening. It's intriguing to say the least.

If we are allowed tomorrow, which let's face it, we are never promised no matter who does the predicting, Alicia and Dan are visiting and Jackson is off work the whole day. I love when Saturdays actually feel like a Saturday. Then Sunday we are having our Christmas with each other before heading to Ozark the following day. It is hard to even mention Christmas without talking about what I got him because I'm so excited! It's crazy to me because while much of marriage feels the same, our first married Christmas together feels different and new like we've never celebrated a holiday together before. I will report back about gifts after exchanging.

Our little Rosie must have stepped in a hole last week or something because she was limping. She has been on anti-inflammatory this week and goes back to see Dr. Katie this afternoon. I think she is fine but we are overprotective parents of our first furry child and you can never be too careful! I never realized how quickly one becomes a "crazy dog person that thinks her animal is a person" until now. But she is just so cute I can't help it.

Holiday Happenings

It's crazy to think that finals are over and Christmas is here. I couldn't be happier though! This weekend I celebrated by attending a baby shower, a wedding shower, and Christmas at my house in Haleyville with my family. While my family does a trip rather than Christmas presents for adults, this was our first Christmas with babies old enough to know what they were doing opening gifts. I had the best time watching Hannah open all the presents for her and Sally.

Jackson and I got Sally an outfit with pink owls on it and an owl lovey. Hannah opened the lovey and decided she wanted to go night night. She is the sweetest baby. I also made bow hangers from some white frames I found by attaching vertical ribbons. Hannah and Sally each got their own since they both have so much dark hair!

We gave Hannah some play doh and a cleaning cart with a mop, broom, vacuum, etc. Hannah "cleaned up" the whole time we were in Haleyville! I don't think her parents are going to have to worry about her cleaning her room later on.

Scott and Rebecca got some toys for our baby, Rosie as well. We gave them to her when we got home and she played with them until she passed out. She likes to hoard as many toys at once as she can. Here she is laying on top of both of her new toys at once. I think she gets afraid that we might change our mind and take one away.

In other exciting news, my brother-in-law got engaged this past week! Jackson thinks I'm a soothsayer since I called when this would happen about a year and 1/2 ago. We could not be more excited for Brandon and Laura!

My Brother

Happy Birthday to my brother, Carter! Although not super close in age, I feel so lucky that we are super close friends. I love being in the same city so we can get together easily. Family being here is a big part of what I love about Birmingham. I can't wait to celebrate with you!

Thought I would post some oldies but goodies in honor of Carter's birthday.

Love you, Carter!!

Thanksgiving

Our family is thankful for so much this year! Jackson and I are thankful each day that we are married to each other. We are also thankful that Rosie came into our lives this year. For our first married holiday season, we are incredibly thankful that both of our families live close enough to see them on holidays. This year we are heading to Greensboro to Jackson's brother's house for early Thanksgiving with his whole family. Then we are making our way down to the beach for Thanksgiving with my family. I can't wait to visit with everyone and I'm sure eat way too much.

Speaking of eating, this year for Greensboro I am making 2 unhealthy but delicious Paula Deen recipes.

First a broccoli casserole:

Servings: 8-10 servings
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 35 min
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients 

2 10-ounce packages frozen chopped broccoli, cooked and drained
1 cup Mayonnaise
1 cup Grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 10 3/4-ounce can condensed cream of mushroom soup
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 cup crushed Ritz crackers
2 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 13 by 9 inch baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl combing, broccoli, mayo, cheese, soup and eggs.  Mix well with a metal spoon.  Place the mixture in the prepared baking dish.  Top with the crushed crackers and pour the melted butter evenly over the crackers.  Bake for 35 minutes or until set and browned.

And second, Paula at her finest with a Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake (sans nuts)

Servings: 20-24 servings
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 50 min
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients 

1   (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
3 to 4 tablespoon cocoa powder
1   egg, plus 2 eggs
1   (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1   (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
Butter, for greasing pan, plus 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Lightly grease a 13 by 9-inch baking pan. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 egg, and 8 tablespoons (1 stick) melted butter, and stir until well blended. Pat mixture into prepared pan and set aside. In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the remaining 2 eggs, and the cocoa powder. Lower the speed of the mixer, and add the powdered sugar. Continue beating until ingredients are well mixed. Slowly add the remaining 8 tablespoons (1 stick) of melted butter, and the vanilla, continuing to beat the mixture until smooth. Stir in nuts with a rubber spatula. Spread filling over cake mixture in pan.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the cake; the center should still be a little gooey when finished baking. Let cake partially cool on a wire rack before cutting into pieces.

Finally, at my family Thanksgiving I always make REAL (no jello or shortcuts) banana pudding. It is a  little trouble making sure the pudding mixture doesn't burn and gets to the right consistency, but it is so worth it!

what you need

3/4

cup  sugar, divided

1/3

cup  flour

Dash  salt

3

 eggs, separated

2

cups  milk

1/2

tsp.  vanilla

45

 NILLA Wafers, divided

5

 bananas, sliced

make it

HEAT oven to 350°F.

MIX 1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in top of double boiler. Blend in 3 egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water 10 to 12 min. or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

RESERVE 12 wafers for garnish. Spread small amount of custard onto bottom of 1-1/2-qt. baking dish. Cover with layers of 1/3 each of the remaining wafers, bananas and remaining custard. Repeat layers 2 times.

BEAT egg whites on high speed of mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread over custard, sealing well to edge of dish.

BAKE 15 to 20 min. or until lightly browned. Cool slightly. Top with reserved wafers just before serving.

Happy Thanksgiving!! 

Holiday Treats

This holiday season I discovered the Candy Cottage. What is Candy Cottage you might ask? Well, it is plastic, washable, reusable, snap-together gingerbread house. I think it is one of the most brilliant creations because the house part of a gingerbread house is always tricky. To me it made the whole thing not worth it. Too difficult! Plus, the plastic house can be used for all sorts of holidays. I first saw it decorated with Halloween candy as a haunted house! The Candy Cottage is sold at various shops or online here.

http://www.candycottage.us/SnapsnSeconds.html

Today, my trusty helper Hannah and I tried it out. While a lot of the decor wound up in Hannah's mouth, we had fun decorating our house. Here we are working away.

Here is our finished product.

I'm excited to decorate for some holidays in the future!!

Weekend Projects

This weekend was a rare treat. Not only did we not have to travel, but also Jackson didn't have to work Saturday morning. We celebrated by playing with Rosie, attending church at IPC, and doing some projects around the house. It was so nice just to have some time to get things done together.

Last weekend Jackson bought a new lawn mower with a bagger to do work on our mounds of leaves. However, the day he planned to work in the yard it rained. So this weekend we finally got to see how it runs. It definitely beats all that raking we did last year!!

Meanwhile, I got to work on a couple of projects I've had in mind. We had yet to put up any of our wedding pictures so I got a set of white frames from Pottery Barn and went to work. Our hallway is now full of pictures of us on the happiest day!

We also have been needing some hooks for coats, keys, etc. by the door so I picked up a kit at Target and topped it with our wedding gift from Seaside, a picture of the Seaside Post Office.

Finally I'm most excited about the fire pit I bought for our back porch. Home Depot had it for $39.99!! I couldn't believe it. I also was amazed at how easy it was to assemble. I did it myself and that is saying a lot. I can't wait to fire it up!!

It has since been relocated to our porch. If anyone wants to come have some wine by the fire, be my guest!

Updates

So, I've been a little behind on my blogging lately. Sometimes life just gets a little hectic and some things have to take a back seat. To make up for lost time, this post might be a little longer.

I didn't realize until this year just how many parties there are surrounding Halloween. It is rivaling Christmas. Jackson and I attended a party for my law school and another at my brother's beautiful home. Neither of us are big on dressing up and being uncomfortable all night so we try to find ways to be as cheap and comfortable as possible. We went as Penny and Sheldon from Big Bang Theory. I dressed in a makeshift cheesecake factory waitress outfit and he wore his Bazinga shirt. Easiest costumes ever so I'm pretty proud. However, Rosie, Hannah, and Sally stole the show this Halloween. They were a bumblebee, an owl, and a pumpkin.

Somehow in the year and 1/2 that Hannah has been alive I forgot how much babies sleep. Sally loves some shut eye.

In other news I took the MPRE on November 3rd. It was just as much fun as any standardized test. To forget all about it and enjoy the rest of the Saturday, Jackson and I went to my college roommate Rachel Wilson's wedding. It was such a joyous ceremony and very Rachel. I'm so happy for the beautiful couple!!

This past Friday, Rosie went to visit Dr. Katie to get spayed. Jackson and I had a hard time being without her at the house for a night but she took the surgery like a champ. She doesn't seem to know that anything happened to her. Keeping her calm is the most difficult part for sure! Rosie only knows play mode. However, the first day she did get some extra sleep. I took full advantage of the extra cuddle time. 

The election for Jim Hughey went really well. He held a 9 percent margin the entire time. Of course he accepted his position with class and grace. I'm so impressed with his character and I think that anyone who came in contact with him felt the same way. Thanks to all of you who voted for him!!

Finally, the magazine that our wedding is in is out in stores. Pick up a copy of Gulf Coast Bride or look at it here http://gcbride.printrelay.com/fall2012/#/26 to see memories of my favorite day to date. I can't believe it is immortalized in print :)

Welcome, Sally!!

Last night I got a text at close to 2:00 that my brother, Scott, and his wife were on their way to the hospital to deliver sweet Sally. Yesterday was her due date and since we all expected her early our family has been on the edge of their seats and jumping each time a phone makes on a noise. After a restless night for all, Sally finally made her grand debut after 8 this morning (Don't remember what the exact time was!). As an overly excited aunt, I rushed to the hospital to meet the tid bit. Turns out, she's not so tiny. Sally Grace Hughes weighed in at 8lbs 11oz and 20in long.

Meet the newest love of our lives!

She loves her Mimi already!

Sunning under the lamp

I'm pretty sure I have a Leigh Middleton doll at the house in Haleyville that looks just like her. She could not be more perfect! Scott and Rebecca are both excited, exhausted, and overall healthy. More pictures to come! 

Puppy Friends

Rosie had a visitor yesterday and she was SO excited! My friend Casey and I were finally able to arrange to get Rosie and her puppy, Cole, together to play. Rosie was thrilled but scared to death for the first 15 minutes because Cole is 3 times her size (or more) and almost as excited to be running around as she is. After a while Rosie decided that Cole was not going to attack her and took that as a green light to pester Cole to death. Most of the play date went something like this:

Rosie was in Cole's face like "Let's Play!" the majority of the time. However, with the assistance of a tennis ball and a treat we finally got a few cute pics of them looking somewhat calm.

Rosie had the best time with her friend Cole and can't wait to play again soon! We were just happy that they got to work out some energy! After Cole left Rosie laid around the rest of the night exhausted.

Rotten

One of my closest cousins is named Robin, but is known to my family as Rotten. Yesterday she turned 25! It's hard to believe that we've been friends for a quarter of a century. Love you, Rotten Robin! Happy Birthday!!

Speaking of birthdays, the Hughes side of the family is spending every second on edge that our phone might ring to a call saying, "It's time!" Sally should be making her appearance any day. She will, no doubt, be spoiled upon arrival. I can't wait!!

Happy Birthday, Alicia!

Happy Birthday to one of the greatest friends a girl could have! Thanks for always making me laugh.

A birthday funny just for you...

And a montage because I'm missing my friend...

Happy 27th Birthday, Alicia! Love you!

Cheers!

Yesterday the Benefield clan got some great news! Jackson got a promotion at Wells Fargo! I'm so proud of him and happy that his hard work is paying off. So, we busted out the champagne for a celebratory drink.

Rosie was feeling a little left out of the festivities, so she got some champagne too!

Rosie's champagne was complete with squeaker inside. Congratulations Jackson!