Holiday madness

I know I've been missing in action lately and I'm sure you all you moms find it much harder to have spare time when you have a very active and curious toddler.  So let me see how far I need to go back and give you little updates to what we have been doing.  

For Halloween - we decided to go trick or treating at our local mall since they hand out candies at a time that won't ruin his sleep time.  It was so fun to see him run around in his Darth Vader costume enjoying his freedom and didn't care for candies at all.  Lots of our family joined us which made it even more fun!

Soon after Halloween, I started decorating for fall and getting ready for the big Thanksgiving dinner we are having at our house.  It's always so funny how much work we put ourselves to getting ready for a few hours of gluttony and I always wonder why we do it but then do it all over again the next year.  I guess when it's all said and done it's really about what we should be thankful for and for me it's always health and family.  I'd rather have the stress getting ready the house for the family that I have than the opposite.  Lukas was the star of the night and was very well behave and social.  Of course the night ended with lots of left over and very much comatose from sugar and food.  

 This is the half of the spread.  I wish I took some pics of the desserts because had so much..

 I am very proud of this dish I made.  It's Italian Polenta layered with home made pesto that was added to a bechamel sauce under a layer of home made marinara and served with crostini.. It was so yummy that I regretted giving away left overs :/

My sister who was in charged of the main thanksgiving meal made a turkey roulade wrapped in bacon! and boy was it a HIT! Ugh all this food reminiscing sure it making me so hungry.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the quick update and I'm sorry that I haven't been around lately. Lukas is growing up so fast and added "cats and oh wow!" to his vocabulary.  He's much more of a big boy now than a baby which is an everyday reminder how precious and important every single day is.  I am decorating for Christmas now and will post some pics as soon as they are done!  

Prepping

Now that the chilly weather is setting in and the holidays around the corner I have been testing a lot of recipes and seeing which one is worthy to be served for gatherings.  One of the easiest and wonderful recipes I've tried is how to make marshmallows.  It's such a fun thing to make and nice treat (along w/ hot coco) to send off to your guests after the night is done.

One of Lukas' favorite treats is madeleines that I get from a coffee shop and after a few times of buying some I thought hmmm..why not make it myself? So I invested on a madeleine cake pan and started baking.  It's truly amazing how much you save money on baked goods when you make it yourself. 

I think that one of the best things that you can put on a goody bag is something that your guests can eat the next day and think of your party while having it.