‘Tis the Season for Holiday Prep

This ginger-y, lemon-y cake = holiday goodness. (photo by Lisa Hubbard)

Things are moving into full swing around here now that it’s December:

* the Christmas cards are here and ready to be addressed.

* the tree is en route in the mail (yep, we order it for delivery to our home).

* the kids have been to see Santa at Macy’s (surprisingly manageable, really).

* the stockings and decorations, including Groovy Dancing Santa, have been unearthed from the depths of the storage space (thanks, babe!).

* I’m getting ready to make a personalized Santa video for the kids via PNP, Portable North Pole. We did this last year and it *blew* their minds. (It is very cool.)

* and the holiday bake-fest is on.

So far we’ve made:

* dark chocolate almond clusters with sea salt

* chocolate chip cookies with sea salt (both salty finds via This Homemade Life). Couldn’t decide which chips would be best to use, so I divided the batter into three batches and tried semi-sweet, milk, and butterscotch. After serious methodical sampling — hey, somebody had to do it — I have to say I liked the milk chocolate the best. The salt is a great foil for the sweeter chocolate.

* this super-awesome gingerbread cake with lemon curd and whipped cream. Made the house smell great! And the kids loved it. Via the December Bon Appetit.

Happy Holiday Prep, mamas!

Related:

Cutest Christmas Tree Skirts for 2011

7 Recipes for a Perfect Holiday Trifle

Cute Paperless Holiday E-Cards

 

December 18 – 19: Weekend Links for Brooklyn Mamas

Ho, ho, ho!

I’m not done with my Christmas shopping, and I bet you aren’t, either. (If you are, I don’t want to hear about it.) So buying presents is on my weekend agenda. Jasper has a very modest wish list — ear muffs, orange slippers, red markers. Magnolia, on the other hand, has requested a magic wand that WORKS REAL MAGIC. If you have any ideas about how to make that happen, then I definitely DO want to hear from you….

Now on to the weekend….

Robot Kit, Garnet Hill, $4 today

Things to buy:

Stocking stuffers for the kids — Garnet Hill has a cute list of ideas, including this Robot Kit, which is the sale of the day. Regularly $15, today $4.

Fabulous French stuff from Basic French — love them. Basic French will be at the Brooklyn Flea through December, 22, so you’ll have the chance to buy from this online shop in person. Expect gorgeous housewares, adult and children’s clothing, luxe soaps, cute shoes, and random vintage finds. All from France, of course.

Some little something from Anthro — as noted above, you can take an additional 25% off SALE clothing, shoes, jewelry, and accessories through Sunday, online or in-stores.

via A Child Grows in Brooklyn

Things to do:

Get a personalized video message from Santa — seriously, you have to do this for your kid! It’s free, easy, and totally cool. Jasper and Magnolia were both mightily impressed, and with good reason. If your kid’s name is fairly common, Santa actually speaks it — he said Jasper, but Magnolia wasn’t in his database of names…. Still, their names were in “Santa’s book” and they got to see pictures of themselves and Santa mentioned specific individual details, including a gift they each want. You may have seen this elsewhere this week — I saw it on A Child Grows and Chrissy spotted it on Cool Mom Picks — definitely take the time to do it. It’s PNP, the Portable North Pole, that makes the magic happen.

Stop by the 3rd Annual Lyceum Holiday Marketplace, via Mommy Poppins. Don’t know that I’ll get any shopping done there — depends on how cool vs. just crafty the goods are — but the kids can see a live version of A Charlie Brown Christmas. $10

Good luck out there with those gifts — happy weekend!

Related:

Melisa’s Christmas list

Chrissy’s Christmas list

Great Gifts for Kids

Great Hostess Gifts