Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

We're 5 days away from Christmas and 12 days away from the start of a brand new year. 2012 has been interesting. We made a big decision to uproot our lives from Tampa and move to Atlanta, my sister graduated from the University of Florida, we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary, two very near and dear friends of mine had babies and Mike and I became an aunt and uncle to our beautiful little nephew, Tyler. We took some fun vacations and met some new friends here in our new city. Though there were many good times, there were also some tough ones. However, we survived and it can only go up from here! We will be celebrating Christmas with family and friends starting tomorrow and are looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoying some time off. We also moved in to a new townhouse this weekend, which we really like. We'll be starting 2013 off with a fresh start and will hopefully have some exciting things to report ahead!

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year! Penny would like to send her holiday wishes as well and asked me to attach this pic. See you all in 2013!

Meet Tyler!

Introducing Tyler Dean Robinson. He was born on December 1st to Mike's sister, Michelle, and her husband, Mike (yes, lots of Mikes!). He's so adorable! We just love this little guy to pieces :)

A very proud Uncle Mike.

And a very happy Aunt Brie.

Check out that kid's hair!

Sleepy head!

Crackin' a smile:)

The many faces of Tyler:

                     Curious...                                         Happy!                                       Tough Guy!

Taking in all the Fall colors while I can!

Exciting news in the Gorecki family...we have a new nephew! Tyler Dean Robinson was born on 12-1-12. We got a call from Mike's sister, Michelle, at 4:30 a.m. and so we packed up and made our way down to Tampa for a few days. He's so absolutely adorable and we just can't get enough of him! I have some pictures that I'm putting together that I'll post soon. He's already such a little ham for the camera. I just love him :)

In the meantime, here are the other half of my pics from Stone Mountain Park on Thanksgiving. I'm going to miss these gorgeous red, orange and yellow leaves everywhere! I can't believe it's December and I might have to actually brace myself for snow in another month...

Always posing for the camera.

Goofballs :)

Where's Penny?

I love this one! The leaves almost looked fluorescent. I thought the purple, green and orange were so cool.

Gobble, Gobble!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We decided to do something a little non-traditional this year. Since Mike's sister's baby is due next week, we decided to stay in Atlanta since we'll be heading down to Tampa to meet the baby next weekend. Mike had the idea of going to Stone Mountain Park and having a picnic. Neither of us had ever been and the weather was supposed to be awesome that day (which it was). There are tons of trails and scenic areas there and bonus - you can bring dogs! I made a Thanksgiving picnic that included a special turkey sandwich (I roasted a turkey breast the night before and made sandwiches with that, Trader Joe's cranberry apple butter, Brie cheese, stuffing and a drizzle of gravy. It was GOOD!). I also made homemade potato salad, pumpkin pie and salad with dried cranberries, pecans, apples, feta and champagne vinaigrette. Everything turned out great and we had a wonderful time. And of course, Penny was dead tired by the time we got home. I took a ton of pics so I'll split up the pics into 2 separate posts.

Sugar Paws

Fall and winter are my favorite times of year to bake up a storm. One thing I will miss dearly this year is the annual cookie exchange that I've been hosting for the last 3 years with my girlfriends back in Tampa. My beloved KitchenAid mixer gets quite a workout come November! Over the summer, my mom bought me a set of dog bone shaped cookie cutters so I've been baking for Penny (and her friends) lately. A few weeks ago, I discovered a new store in the mall here called Sur La Table (which I could have spent all day in) and they had this ridiculously huge display of every shaped cookie cutter you can think of (martini shaped cookies, anyone?). They had some pet-related ones so I scooped up a dog house and a squirrel. This weekend, I whipped up a batch of pumpkin peanut butter dog cookies for Penny and her 2 friends, Winston and Mia.

The recipe is pretty simple, for those of you who want to whip these up for your pups.

Peanut Butter "Pupkin" Cookies

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat or white flour (I prefer whole wheat)

- 1 cup canned pure pumpkin

- 2 large eggs

- 2 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon 

- 1/2 tsp salt (optional)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients and mix well with electric mixer. Roll out no more than 1/2" thick. Cut into shapes and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 25 minutes (I prefer to use parchment paper on my cookie sheets - easier cleanup!). Cool completely on wire racks before giving to your pup.

*You can also add 1/2 cup of oats too, if you choose. If you do, be sure to add an additional 1/4 cup of pumpkin so the mixture will be easier to work with.

Watching TV, waiting patiently for her cookies to be made.

These squirrels are the cutest little things!

"Mom, are the cookies done yet??"

Let's see if they're "Penny approved."

 So far, so good!

"I love these cookies!"

Licking up the crumbs...

Lip-smackin' good! Hope your pups enjoy them too :)