Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened

 This was my casual Christmas Day outfit yesterday…

Inspired by this photo of Rihanna in the September 2013 issue of People Style Watch

 Super simple allowing the coral bauble necklace to pop…. 

My mom put this 'wonder woman' bracelet in my stocking. She always things I am a wonder woman doing sooo much and I think of her that way too. :)

 Sweatshirt - Forever 21

Jeggings - Kohl's

Necklace - Etsy

Nude Heels - Steve Madden

CHRISTMAS DAY:

I am sure our christmas was no different then so many other families with young children. Waking up at the break of dawn (6:30 AM for us), kids opening up gifts in a crazy frenzy with short breaks in between to eat and more strong coffee for grown ups. Then you are left with a living filled with clouds of tissue and wrapping paper and bows and ribbons all over. Gifts piling up left and right and kids who are so overwhelmed they don't what to play with first…

It is all happy memories. 

Our big family was very short numbered this Christmas with both my brother and sister and their families out of town. My in-law's away and other family members who have moved away.

So my mom and I decided to take it super easy and left over from their dinner the night before.

Therefore I had this idea of making all the xmas pintrest foods I had found…

Breakfast was Snowman Bagels….

 Bagel spread with cream cheese including the whole topped with blk olives for eyes, baby carrot for nose, cut up red bell pepper for mouth. Broccoli and string cheese ear muffs. 

And the best thing is kids did eat all of that stuff so they got a bit of veggies in the morning too...

FoR morning Apps while opening more gifts:

Green Apple Xmas Tree

 Sliced green apples sprinkled with red sugar cookie decorating topping. Raisins for lights and cinnamon sticks for the bark… The original photo had a star fruit as a topper but i couldn't find it at Von's so I made it out of red bell pepper.

Also, Fruit Santa Hats

 This was pretty easy, and the combination tasted amazing when you put the whole thing in your mouth.

Green grapes topped with half a slice of banana and a half strawberry and a mini marshmallow….

As a side dish next to our left over roast and ham sandwiches, 

Broccoli and Cauliflower xmas Tree

 The original had this raw but I steamed the veggies so they were a bit softer and easier to eat. The cauliflower is supposed to represent snow.  I also drizzled olive oil and lemon juice on top and sprinkled with sea salt which kind of looked like snow too….

And for Dinner/Afternoon Appetizers,

Santa Crackers

 These were a pain to make but delicious.  Use round crackers topped with cottage cheese for the beard. Capers make the eyes and nose and sliced celery for the mustache. The recipe called for dry salami for the hats but I forgot to buy that so used cold cut turkey instead. Putting the cottage cheese as the trim was pretty hard. And the capers were slippery little suckers.

Christmas Tree Pita Wedges

 This was also pretty yummy. The spread is made out of guacamole and sour cream and chopped parsley. The lights are cut up red bell peppers and stick pretzels for bark…

Reindeer, Snowman and Xmas Tree Cracker Platter

I couldn't find square crackers so I bought rectangle flat bread crackers and cut then in half. 

Hummus is used like a glue for all of them. Blk Olives for eyes and cherry tomatoes and bell peppers and capers and cucumbers. We topped the trees with triangle cheddar cheese.  

Mom and I had fun making these although she kept questioning why were spending so much effort to a crowd that probably wouldn't appreciate it but I enjoyed it. 

Here are some collages from our Day….

Giving Thanks

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING to those U.S. Followers!

I had a super busy day of cooking and sharing with family.... Managed to snap these in between though!

Sweater, Belt, pantyhose - Forever21

Skirt - Mango (about 15 years old from Turkey)

Shoes - Newport News

Earrings - Asos

First here are photos form YESTERDAY's activities:

 My friend had come over for a playdate and we took the kids on a 'nature hike' to collect sticks and leaves and pine cones for thanksgiving table decorations...

 Of course in my neighborhood every single house pristine yards that were cleaned up for the holidays with not a stick or leaf on the ground. Finally we found one yard that was not 'cleaned' and did their cleaning for them!

Then at home had the kids paint and glitter some of the pine cones...

I had seen this in someone's blog from pintrest and adopted my own version of adding almonds on top of the corn. Our dried leaves were not the best but they worked somehow...

Knowing how much cooking I would do on Thursday I set the table on Wednesday....

And this was my friend's idea: you cut up leaves from construction paper and have the kids and your guests write what they are thankful for and tie them to this vase of branches...

And this was another art project we did. Traced and cut the kids hands on scrapbook pages of their choice and glued them. These are the hand prints of our 4 kids to remember the day! :)

TODAY:

My mom and the lady staying at her house came over at 10 AM and we cooked non stop until about 2:30 PM! Had a whole mishap with the oven over smoking when we put the turkey in and had to stop and my mom had to clean out the oven but somehow we were still on our target time of 4:30 to eat!

Tried all these new gourmet recipes where everything was made from scratch. Such as the fried shallot rings to top the green bean casserole.

The Cooking Team after we showered and dressed!

Guests writing what they are thankful for on our little branch tree:

So pretty at the end. After dinner we read all these. Translating between Turkish and English...
The funnies one was my daughters where she said she was thankful for 'playing dress up with my friends at pre-school'. :)

Here are some of the dishes....

Here is my silly husband with the turkey:

With my Dad...

After dinner the kids put on my son's kindergarten costumes to put a little skit. They actually didn't say much but they were so cute and fun to watch...

 Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours....

And now I am off to the midnight black friday sales....