Kimberly is the Baudville Website Manager and star of our online product videos. She applies her knowledge of the web to create the ultimate online experience for Baudville customers.
As you may or may not know, May is a month filled with recognition opportunities! There are so many reasons to celebrate, such as Cinco de Mayo (stay tuned for my upcoming post on that), Teacher Appreciation Week with National Teacher Day, National Nurses Day and Week, Mother's Day, and Memorial Day, just to name a few!
March is a crazy month for our family. It's my husband's, mother-in-law's, and oldest son's birthday month and, let's not forget, the best time of the year to watch basketball. I'm not a huge basketball fan, but my alma mater is Michigan State, so I love to watch them in this tournament and see how well they do! Very exciting times and, of course, we have to plan everything around watching the games—food has to be game food and the drinks have to be flowing as we watch all of our tournament brackets blow up game after game.
Then, what else comes into play? Dessert. As you could guess, with three different people celebrating their birthday, they of course all want their own special treat. We also have cake lovers and cake haters in the family, so here's how it went down...
My mother-in-law requested a decadent chocolate cake that she devoured one day when she was helping out with the kids a few months ago. I had had some leftover cake on the counter that didn't have any frosting on it and when we came home she admitted that she'd been eating the cake and she was like, "Oh wow that cake is so good!" So, chocolate cake for the cake lover.
My husband, on the other hand, not so much of a cake lover, so he requested an Apple Pie. A good standby, and loved by most (except our very own Falon, who can't stand warm, cooked fruits—so crazy). I've made several of these in my life, but for some reason, I don't have a go-to recipe. Therefore, I used a new one that I had pinned awhile back. Oh wow, it turned out beautiful (the picture here is of the actual pie I made). I did use the Granny Smith apples as the recipe called for, but I didn't care for the tartness; my husband loved it, so I guess that's all that really mattered.
My son, being the almost-big 10-year old, said he'd wait until his actual birthday for his special treat, so I'll be making red velvet cake tomorrow for him. Not with cream cheese frosting, it's got to be classic white frosting. Heaven forbid.
All in all, another year of successful pie vs. cake. Everybody was happy and tummies were full. It's a win-win. Let me know how it turns out if you try out any of these recipes!
In 2008, I was pregnant with my youngest son and my due date was actually on MY birthday. MY BIRTHDAY. My special day. Hmmm...I thought, how cool would that would be to share such a special day with him. But then I started to think: oh, it's really not going to be a special day for me at all if he has the same birthday. So, knowing that I was having a C-section, I opted to go in the day after my birthday. In hindsight, the next day is just as bad as the same day. My birthday is always spent getting ready for his birthday. As I get older my birthday's don't need to be a big deal, but deep down I still want that day to be special that day to special for me in some way.
I think that most of us feel that way, and, as Falon mentioned in her "2 Ways to Celebrate Your Employees in 2014" blog post, celebrating employee birthdays is one great way to recognize at the office this year! Take this opportunity to do something a little extra for them, especially since this may only be their only time to feel special that day. It doesn't have to be a huge party or disruption, but making sure you recognize them can be such a great boost for a great day.
A way to make sure everybody gets celebrated and not forgotten is to have a birthday sign-up sheet each month or quarter that has upcoming birthdays on it and team members can sign up to be responsible to take care of that person's day. At my previous employer, we just had monthly celebrations where the team would get together at the beginning of the month and we had a little party with cake and cards to celebrate those having birthdays that month. Whatever works for your office—just try and do something!
So, yesterday was one of my teammates birthdays. It was actually her 25th birthday, on the 25th. She's now a quarter of a century old and she was taking it a little rough. I got her a card, and put a few decorations above her desk to draw attention to her so people would know it was her birthday. And of course, as you know, I love to bake and I thought what a great time to make her day a little special with a birthday treat! I decided to try a new recipe since that's how I roll. Not sure what I would've done if it didn't turn out...luckily it did, and she loved them. I put them in a central location by her desk with a Happy Birthday sign so everybody could be a part of the day!
Kimberly is the Baudville Website Manager and star of our online product videos. She applies her knowledge of the web to create the ultimate online experience for Baudville customers.
Happy New Year friends!! We are already off to a great start here at Baudville, launching over 250 new products to help you with your employee recognition initiatives! We are so looking forward to knocking your socks off this year with products and ideas to help you shine at your workplace.
As Falon mentioned in her post yesterday, Top 2 Ways to Celebrate Your Employees in 2014, birthdays and anniversaries should be a shoe-in for recognition at any organization. But then, adding in a few fun holidays doesn't hurt either, right?
So, that brings us to Valentine's Day...which as you know is less than a month away! We all love to be loved or at least thought of on this special day, if it's at home or the office (or both, come on, let's be honest, we want it to be both).
Over the holidays, I tried a couple of new cookie recipes, and I have to say they were both winners. I love it when a new recipe is awesome, don't you? I pinned them both to the Kimberly's Kitchen Pinterest board, so make sure to check it out. My ultimate favorite was the Raspberry Almond Shortbread Cookie from Parent Pretty. WHOA! I had given a few of these cookies to one of my girlfriends and she made them at home twice already. Oh, so good.
They are the perfect sentiment for this upcoming Valentine's Day, so make some for your team or family and they will definitely feel loved. Also, we have a great free download for Valentine's Day that you can print, cut out and attach fun little sentiments around desks, cubes or offices!
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Kimberly is the Baudville Website Manager and star of our online product videos. She applies her knowledge of the web to create the ultimate online experience for Baudville customers.
One of my most favorite things about the holiday time is COOKIES. Every year, since I was a little girl, my mother and I would make holiday-shaped sugar cookies and frost and decorate them together. We always had the rule that every cookie had to be different, which made it extra-fun coming up with new decorating combinations!
To this day, we still come together every holiday season to make cookies. And now my two boys join in and they have so much fun together making messes and memories. We even invite one of my son’s friends over so he can bring cookies home to his family.
Homemade treats are a great holiday gift option for co-worker gifts, boss gifts, teacher gifts, and for anyone on your list that you just want to give a little gift of thanks. I always like to grab the cute little treat boxes or bags from my local store and wrap them up for easy gift giving!
What are your family or office traditions that you look forward to every year?
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Kimberly is the Baudville Website Manager and star of our online product videos. She applies her knowledge of the web to create the ultimate online experience for Baudville customers.
Kimberly is the Baudville Website Manager and star of our online product videos. She applies her knowledge of the web to create the ultimate online experience for Baudville customers.
