DIY Decorated Porcelain To-Go Mugs

This Christmas, I decided to make as many gifts for friends and family as I possibly could. I wanted to give out personal and special gifts, and since I was extremely pregnant, I spent lots of time crafting!

These to-go mugs were super easy and fun to make. I first designed the images either on my computer or on a scratch paper. Then I traced them onto the mugs using graphite paper. (There were a few mugs I did without prepping, but for most I needed to). 

Christmas 2014

This post is similar to my Thanksgiving 2014 post, except for the one HUGE difference! Baby Emmett was here to celebrate with us! Most of these photos feature him... here's a little peek at our extremely special Christmas of 2014. 

Aunt Laney got to meet Emmett! She fell in love pretty instantly. 

Homet Christmas Morning Quiche Recipe

One of my all time favorite foods is Quiche Lorraine. Egg, bacon, onion, cheese, pie crust...what's not to love? Growing up, it was our Christmas morning breakfast every year. Once a year is not nearly enough, however. Since I got married and started my own family, we've had quiche quite a few times. I even started making my own crusts, and I've gotta say, they're pretty delicious. 

I won't lie and say this is easy or quick to make. The steps are simple, but there are a lot of them and it takes a while to make a quiche. It is SO worth it, though. My tip would be to make 2 or 3 quiches at once because they heat up so well and one just isn't enough! (I mean, look at that. Just look at it.) I am listing the measurements for one quiche, so you'll have to do your own multiplying. 

Emmett Douglas Jackson

Emmett Douglas Jackson is here!! I am obsessed. He is amazing. I've put our Christmas card/birth announcements below, we sent out two different ones. When I was designing them I just could not decide between the two, so we went with both! I had so much fun taking these photos and putting the announcements together! I've got to say, I have a pretty great model. 

If you're looking for some more details about little Emmett, click here for his birth story!

|| Posted by Kate ||

The Best Caramel Corn You've Ever Had

We made this popcorn 4 times this holiday season and it was absolutely delicious. It was buttery, fresh, sweet with a twinge of salt, and crunchy like caramel corn should be. We gave some away, ate a bunch ourselves, and definitely came up with a new Christmas tradition with this caramel corn! 

Combine 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup light corn syrup in a saucepan. Let it come to a boil for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 tsp baking soda. Stir together and pour over freshly popped popcorn (about 6 quarts). Mix thoroughly in a large bowl to evenly spread caramel. 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper, spread popcorn out and bake for 1 hour, stirring popcorn every 15 minutes. 

Let cool completely and enjoy! (Easy, right?)

Holiday Cardamom Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Christmas is a time for sharing. And gift giving. And love. So, with love, let me give you a wonderful gift by sharing the recipe for my absolute favorite holiday cookies (which aren't necessarily 'holiday' at all, I make them all year!). 

These cookies are easy, delicious and surprising. It is a basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe that replaces the cinnamon with cardamom, and let me tell you! The difference is both subtle and obvious. There is something decidedly unique when you take a bite out of one of these, yet they are familiar and homey. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add 1 stick plus 6 tbsp softened butter, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar to mixing bowl. 

Beat in mixer until creamy.

New Christmas Traditions

The weekend after Thanksgiving, the Homet clan decided to start a new Christmas tradition. We went over to Lakewood to Jim and Nadine's house (the same house I lived in after college..ah memories) and set up a little bonfire in the backyard. We also projected It's A Wonderful Life on their garage door and snacked on caramel corn, pizza and hot chocolate. After our Kansas winter last year, it felt crazy that we could be sitting outside at nighttime in November! California all the way. 

Here's some photos from our outdoor movie night. I can't wait to do it again next year with little Emmett walking around! 

IQR - Christmas Crush

It’s that time of year, boys and girls! The return of the ever popular Instant Queue Review. As part of my advent celebrations, I like to watch Christmas movies. You likely have a similar tradition. I mean, who doesn’t have a least one family movie they watch around Christmas? Even if it’s Die Hard, it counts. And now, after almost completing my class on Theology and Film, I feel even more equipped to assert my opinion as fact as I critique movies.

The rules are simple: 1. The movie has to incorporate some aspect of Christmas, this can be stretched to include other holidays, or generic winter themes, ie Snow Day, or 8 Crazy Nights. 2. The movie has to be available on an Instant Streaming Service like Netflix or Hulu. 3. The movie has to look at least a little bit terrible.

So, without further ado, sit back, relax, and enjoy a Lumberjackson Christmas tradition:

Instant Queue Review #1- Christmas Crush

Toward the end of the film I looked away from the movie, off into the distance, and just started repeating, "spaetzle, spaetzle spaetzle spaetzle."

I looked up to see Kate staring at me, like I was some sort of freak.

"Don't look at me like I'm a weirdo, somebody made this movie! They're the weirdos."

"Yeah, but that one guy is hawt."

Now, how did we get to this point you may ask? First, Kate made Spaetzle for lunch, so it was on my mind, and that word is a pretty weird word. Second, this film was so excruciatingly boring and absurd that me breaking out into a spaetzle chorus made perfect sense to me.

Christmas Decorating at the Lumberjackson Lodge - Big Bear Edition

A year ago, I posted photos of the first Lumberjackson Christmas! It was our first year of marriage, our first Christmas, our first home. So much has changed since then! Our first home is currently on the market, we've moved back to California and are living in Big Bear. We have a baby on the way, who is supposed to arrive on December 8th, our sweet dogs are in Missouri until sometime early next year, and we are spending the entire Christmas season in Long Beach waiting for our little Lumberjackson to arrive! With all of that, it doesn't seem practical to do a bunch of Christmas decorating... 

And yet, I thought it would be special to put up at least SOME decorations! It's a little early, but as Alex wrote about recently, our season of Advent has been extended this year. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to photograph a clean house and give a little tour of the lodge! So without further ado...

The kitchen! I love the size of this space and the nearly unused 70's appliances and the fact that our dining table fits in the middle of the room. I love eat-in kitchens. They feel so homey to me.

My parents re-painted the cabinets before we moved in here, they used to be a pretty awful wood (I normally love everything wood, but these just did not age well) and now they are bright and beautiful, and I especially love the pop of red on those lower cabinets on the right.

I've put up this little village ever since I lived in a dorm. It's evolved over the years with trees and better lights and glittery cotton for snow. It just has to go up every year!

Who Determines When The Snow Falls?

On Halloween night, it snowed. Apparently, this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced snow on Halloween. When I was younger and living in Kentucky there was a freak snow storm while I was trick-or-treating, but I don’t remember it all that well. And being in Southern California for most of my life, snow in October is not a common thing. Snow in general is not a common thing.

We got our seasons from the decorations at Disneyland and the seasonal offerings at the local eateries. “Pumpkin pancakes?! It must be Fall!” I think this is partly responsible for my love of all things Autumn and Christmas. I’m eating pumpkin flavored things the first Sunday of September, just because I wanna be in the spirit. I’m downing eggnog before we’ve even finished the Halloween candy. 

But this year is a little different. Little baby Emmett is due in December, so my Christmas plans are going on the back burner. Kate and I aren’t sure to what extent we will decorate the Lodge in Big Bear because we’re going to be staying with her parents when the baby comes. Since we can’t know for sure when the baby will come, we can’t know for sure when we’ll be heading back up the hill. There are so many questions, and so many unknowns. All because we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little baby.

So, when God blessed us with our first snow on Halloween night I decided to throw tradition to the wind and just go full Christmas. I’m extending the advent season by 100%. No longer will it be crammed into the space between Thanksgiving and Christmas, like Santa trying to fit in a coach seat. We’re moving him to first class! Making the advent last 2 whole months.

Now, I have my selfish reasons. I want to listen to Christmas music before it will be interrupted by newborn cries. I want to enjoy the smells of Christmas before they’re paired with fresh dirty diaper stink (read: stank). 

But I also think that this time of Advent is important. And this year may be the year that I understand Advent the best. Not just am I anxiously awaiting the celebration of the birth of our Saviour, I’m also anxiously awaiting the celebration of the birth of my first child.  

Christmas Decorating at the Lumberjackson Lodge!

This is the first Christmas for Alex and I as a family, and being in our first home, it is even more special. I wanted to share some pictures of what we did to decorate. I also wanted to capture the house in this festive state because it's so. darn. clean. Alex and I spent our Friday night cleaning the whole house until 1am. Now the countdown is on to see how long the house can stay clean!

Without further ado.. A Lumberjackson Lodge Christmas!

You've gotta have a little village at Christmas. You just do.