Thursday evening Derek and I came home to a shredded papery mess.  It seems that our little fur ball of terror, Wrigley, just couldn’t wait another day to open Christmas presents….so she tore into two freshly wrapped packages under the tree.  Thing is, neither one were for her.  DANG DOG!

Thankfully, she only shredded the wrapping and boxes.  The contents inside remained mostly unscathed.  There were some teeth marks here and there, but nothing to cry over.

This was a big scare since we have a BRAND NEW couch coming in the next few weeks.  See, we had to buy a new couch since SOMEONE ate the last one.  Hahmmm! Hahmmm!  Remember this post?  It’s been about a year since she has destroyed anything but a dog toy, and we thought it was time to go ahead and buy a new non-nasty couch.  Wrigley, please don’t prove us wrong.  Pretty Please!

One of the presents she tore into contained perfume.  I really hope it was her nose that led her to this trail of terror, and not her overactive puppy brain.

Since we have kind of an earthy/natural Christmas theme going on at our abode.  I’ve had the itch to make some of these terrarium ornaments for our tree.  They require zero care.  Well almost zero.  If you have animals like mine you gotta make sure they don’t clobber the Christmas tree, and break your beautiful creations.

I found this quick and easy little project on Design*Sponge (love that site), and wanted to share their “how to” for these Mossy Balls of Joy.

What you’ll need:

– clear glass ornaments

– dried moss

– twine

– pencil

– q-tips

optional- twigs, butterflies, feathers etc…

1. Tear off a small piece of moss and moisten slightly (this helps to keep the moss from crumbling a lot of dust inside).

2. With the eraser end of your pencil, gently push moss into the opening. Repeat this a few times until you have a forest floor on the bottom of your ornament.

3. Add any extras and poke with your pencil to style things as necessary.

4. Bend a q-tip and clean any debris stuck to the inside walls of the ornament.

5. Attach a piece of twine with a bow and hang.

Pumpkin Creme Pies

Here is the pecan pie I made.  I didn’t have enough time to let my crust set up because I cooked it the morning of.  I forgot that it has to be refrigerated for at least an hour before rolling it out.

Geeez Jen, how could you make such a rookie mistake?!? It still tasted wonderful.  It was just the presentation that was lacking.

Pecan Pie w/ a wonky crust

Ya’ll’ve (wow! a double contraction….NICE) seen my Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie so I didn’t take a picture of it this time.

Puff Pastry-Wrapped Brie

And here are just some pictures of the fun we had that day.  This is my nephew, I call him JD, but his name is Jerry.  What a face!!!  Love this kid.

I don’t know if it is like this in every family, but the guys in mine are Deviled Egg-aholics.  It’s bad!

This is what the tray looked like in the 1st 3 minutes…yup, it was full.  We made them promise not to eat anymore until dinner started.  To make certain they each got two more; the boys decided they should be in charge of egg distribution for the remainder of the evening.  I was the Deviled Egg moderator.

My in-laws came over to celebrate with my family, and that always makes for great conversation.  After dinner, due to a lingering sinus headache, I went upstairs and passed out for like 2.5 hours while the guys all played Call of Duty :: Modern Warfare 2.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for my loving and amazing husband, my two precious pup pups, and my family…both new and old.

I just ordered the cutest little wooden advent calendar from DabberDoo’s Etsy shop.  I can’t wait to have kids so we can fill each little drawer with a treat for the countdown to Christmas.  Super fun Davenport tradition in the making!

I also picked up some adorable hand painted rusted tin snowflake ornaments from the Nesta Home Etsy shop.

We’ve got a somewhat natural X-mas tree style.  I think these will go with the cute little woodland creatures, and simple glass ornaments we already have.

The mail man delivered my December Better Homes and Gardens mag, and let me tell you this issue is chalk full of wonderful holiday recipes and gift guides.  I mean it is page after page after page of wonderfulness.

I already had in mind the desserts I wanted to bake for Thanksgiving, but my after I read this issue of BHG my list has begun to grow.

Here is what I have in mind so far….

Puff Pastry-Wrapped Brie

Pumpkin Cream Pies

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

Pecan Pie w/ Homemade Butter Crust

Now I ask you…jealous much?  Don’t worry I’ll save you some.