Out with the old, in with the new!

We are out celebrating but we want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!

P.S. There may be a few surprises in store tonight to share soon.....

Party Time: Food

This New Year's Eve we will be heading over to some friends' house for a party. Are any of you in need of a great appitizer / dip recipe to take to your NYE party? Here is the recipe for one of our favorite dips that we will be taking to ring in 2010!

3 Cheese Dip
2 cups shredded Colby cheese
2 cups shredded sharp Chedder cheese
2 cups shredded American cheese
4oz jar pimento
2 tablespoons mustard
2 cups mayo
1 tablespoon dried onion
Garlic salt to taste

Mix mustard, mayo, dried onion and garlic salt. Mix cheese with pimento. Put 2 mixtures together and chill.

After Christmas Sales

Lee and I were up early and at the good Target a little after 8:00 the day after Christmas. (The roads were still not the greatest here so Lee agreed to be my driver for the morning...thanks again Lee!) All the Christmas stuff was 50% off and I found some great stuff for next year!

I found this tube of silver ornaments for $5 and this ball of 28 silver and cream ornaments for only $5. These are very neutral and pretty so we will be able to use them for many years to come.

I bought these to go on our tree next year. I think the ball ornaments are very pretty and elegant. They were a little more expensive at $3 each but I couldn't pass them up! I already bought 4 of the hanging jewels earlier for our tree and really liked them. So at only $0.50 each I bought 4 more to add next year.

Next year I plan to make an Advent calendar. I saw it on one of my favorite blogs Bower Power (link is on the left sidebar) and fell in love with it. I bought a couple ornaments last week at Michaels for 50% off and found some more good ones on Saturday at Target for this project. The peace letters and deer were only $0.50 and the star (my favorite) was $1.50. I have a good star to this project now.

We also made a stop at Pier 1 on our way home. I have had my eye on these napkins but didn't want to spend that much money on them. At 50% off I snatched them up! I picked up two red ones and two white ones for under $8! I definitly think I can use them for more than just Christmas too. It was a successful trip and I can't wait to decorate next year!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you all get to enjoy time with family and friends and have a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Shopping

The Christmas shopping is almost done in The Cody House. We just have a few gifts left to buy (yes, we know there are only 5 days until Christmas!). Some gifts always end up getting left until the last minute. We work better under pressure. After a weekend of shopping here is what our tree now looks like…..

Our four days left of shopping are going to get cut short. We may only be down to two days. Iowa is supposed to get snowstorm #2 starting on Wednesday. Just in time to possibly ruin most of our holiday travel plans. Let’s hope the storm takes a turn and misses Iowa completely. We have enough snow and we definitely don’t need any ice!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (Part 3)

We are back for the third and final Christmas decoration post. We have a few more decorations to show you. We bought our first wreath this year to hang on our door. I found this one for half price at Michaels. It was just a plain evergreen wreath. To make it a little more festive and pretty, I bought a roll of this ribbon (also half price at Michaels) and just tied a bow around the wreath. I figure since this wreath is a blank slate, I could do something different each year to jazz it up.

Next, we have this simple arrangement on our kitchen counter. We have lots of counter space and I like to do something different in this corner every season/holiday. This Christmas arrangement cost a total of $0! The white serving platter was a wedding shower gift. I already had the bulbs and jingle bells from last year that I picked up super cheap. The candles were part of our wedding decorations. I just set the candles on the serving platter and placed the bulbs and jingle bells around them. I love to come up with new ways to use what you already have.


Finally, we have our white Christmas table setting. Like the counter arrangement, this table setting cost $0. The white pillar candles were from our wedding. I bought the white feather tree a few years ago on an after Christmas sale. The taper candle holders are from a November trip to Ikea (only $0.49 each!). I already had the silver bulbs on hand from a few years ago. (Side note: I have seen many Christmas decorating posts on other blogs using silver bulbs. Pick some up on an after Christmas sale if you can….you will definitely be able to use them for many years to come!) I arranged all these things in the middle of the table, pulled out the black placemats, and set the table. I pulled out our toasting glasses (zebra-like-print glasses) from our wedding since they fit the color scheme. I think this table would easily work for New Years as well. Happy Friday!!

A Delicious Treat

I absoutly love these Reese's cookies.

Step 1: Grap the cracker
Step 2: Peanut Butter on the knife
Step 3: Spread the peanut butter on the cracker
Step 4: Place another Ritz cracker on top to make a sandwhich
Step 5: Remove excess peanut butter with finger and eat
Step 6: Dip cracker sandwhich into chocolate almond bark melted with a double broiler
Step 7: Place cookie on wax paper to cool in fridge or freezer
Step 8: Eat

I have been known to eat a plate at a time. Easy and delicious!!!

-Lee

Pretzel Turtles

A few years ago, I found this recipe for Pretzel Turtles in a Rachael Ray magazine and it quickly became my favorite Christmas treat. They are easy to make and soooo good! Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Pretzel Turtles

One 14oz bag of soft caramels

One bag of pretzel nuggets

12oz of dark chocolate

2 cups finely chopped almonds

1. Unwrap the caramels, then, using a rolling pin, roll out each one into a 1/8 inch-thick oval. Wrap a caramel around each pretzel nugget, pinching the ends to seal.

2. In a double broiler over simmering water, melt half the chocolate, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Add the remaining chocolate, remove the top of the double broiler from the saucepan and stir until smooth.

3. Place the almonds in a shallow bowl. Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Using a fork, dip a caramel-covered pretzel in the chocolate to coat, tapping off any excess chocolate. Transfer the pretzel to the almonds and toss to coat; place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pretzels. Let stand until set, about 3 hours.

Holiday Baking

Lee and I have been doing a lot of holiday baking over the last two weeks. It has become a tradition for us to spend a day making some Christmas goodies.

This year we had some friends come over to help us. Here are a few "action shots".

Stay tuned for Lee and I to share the recipes for our favorite Christmas goodies!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (Part 2)

We are back with part 2 of our Christmas decorations. After the tree we moved on to the bookself in the living room. $6 was all we spent to decorate the three shelves.

On first shelf I just set two penguins that I got on sale at Kohls a few years ago.

I already had these three different sized vases, I just needed to find something to fill them with. Since the tree has blue and silver I tried to go with that. I had some extra small blue ornaments to put in the big vase. I bought a pack of small silver ones at Target to mix in with the blue. We bought a pack of peppermint candies at Wal Mart to fill the middle vase. I bought a pack of small and large silver jingle bells that were on sale at Michaels and filled the small vase with them. I had a few leftover ornaments so I just layed those out on the shelf around the vases.

A few weeks ago, Lee and I went to Ikea for the first time. We bought these three small vases there (for just a $1.99 each....I am in love with Ikea now!) Lee snipped some evergreen to put in each vase. Simple and festive.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! (Part 1)

Enough with the snow and onto the Christmas decorations! We only put up one tree this year. We don't quite have everything arranged/put away/bought from our wedding and moving here yet. Hopefully in the next month we should get everything settled so next year we will be able to put both trees up. I went with a blue, white and silver color scheme this year. We already had all these ornaments from last year, I just bought four new jewel ones from Target for $1 each.

I even made a few new ornaments for the tree. I just bought plain glass ornaments and white glitter from Michaels. Then I used some craft glue and spread it on the top of the ornament and sprinkled the glitter on. They turned out really good!

Blizzard Update

We are offically snowed in for the day! Des Moines has over 14.5 inches of snow and I think most of the city is shut down today. We made some more Christmas goodies last night (which I will share soon). This morning Lee made breakfast while I cleaned up the apartment and we are finishing the laundry. Snow days aren't quite as exciting when you are a grown up! Although, Lee is playing Tiger Woods golf on the Wii right now! Here are a few pictures Lee took when he went outside to check things out around 6:30 this morning. Hopefully we will be able to dig ourselves (and Lee's car) out tomorrow. Hmmm....we might have to venture out for a shovel!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

This is a picture of what is going on outside The Cody House tonight. Iowa is getting hit with "the storm of the century" right now. That is what one meteorologist called it on the news tonight. I hate the snow, but I am kind of hoping for a snow day tomorrow!

Go Pack Go!

Since the Green Bay Packers are playing Monday Night Football tonight I thought I would share some pictures of the game we went to. I guess I am not like most girls. I have loved the Packers since early elementary school. I had a Packers winter coat in 3rd grade. I don't miss a game. I was thrilled when Lee got me tickets to a Packers game at Lambeau Field for our wedding. The Packers beat the 49ers on a beautiful, usually warm day in Green Bay. (It was 60 degrees on November 22 in Green Bay, Wisconsin....we were very lucky!)

Lee and I by the Vince Lombardi Statue .
I think this is a must take picture if you are visiting Lambeau.

Tailgating at Brett Favre's Steakhouse

Lambeau Field

My favorite Packer.....Donald Driver #80

Thank you for taking me babe! You are the best!!

Welcome!

Welcome to The Cody House! I have been reading blogs for months now and decided it was time to start one of my own. Hope you enjoy!!