Mother-daughter tea

Gwen and I were invited to a Mother-Daughter tea on New Year's Day. (this is why we had the big practice tea party with Grandma).  Gwen was super excited and decided to wear her Christmas dress and I asked her if she wanted to do her hair in the hot rollers.  She said yes!  She wasn't pleased with the length of time the curlers were in her hair, but I tried to keep them in for as long as possible.  One thing I know about my hair is it starts out big and then falls, was pretty sure Gwen's would do the same.  

BIG HAIR!!

I combed it out a little, and she was ticked at me, but her hair is actually cut to curl out, so I just brushed it out a little. 

Ready for the party!

She and her little girlfriends had a great time.  They got to paint a little tea pot and cup, drank hot chocolate, ate little sandwiches and put on a play.  It must have been a lot of fun for her, she asked if we could go to another one the next day.  My friend has said she would like to make this an annual thing, I hope so, it was fun to chat with the Moms and watch the girls and their "play".

Christmas 2011

We had a very good Christmas this year.  Mostly quiet and lots of quality play time.  The kids tried to change up Christmas lists Christmas Eve, but they seemed to really enjoy the toys that they received and haven't mentioned the ones that they tried to change up for.  They played all day with their toys and are still playing with them.  I put together a slide show of pictures, but sadly it has taken me a week to save it!  The website was down and every time I tried to save it, the thing crashed.  Finally this morning I saved it!  So, FINALLY I am posting this. 
We decided this year to do a standing rib roast.  Not only was it super easy and fast, it was very good.  I think it was a nice "light" dinner compared to Thanksgiving, which is nice because who wants to slave in the kitchen when there are Legos and new toys to play with!  
It was a good Christmas for all, we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2011 - Free Slideshow Maker

Preparing

The time is here, to prepare for Christmas, and we are almost ready. Breakfast is made, cake is cooling, presents are being wrapped. 

But, I've been told it is time to get ready for Church.  So, I guess it is time to get the kids in from outside and find out what fits. 

The kids are excited and a little crazed today.  I guess that is to be expected on Christmas Eve, isn't it?

Who wants to take bets that Nate will fall asleep on the way to Church? 

That should make a for a fun evening! 

Oh, I almost forgot, the shrimp is thawing!  YUM!  Still have to pick up some bread though.  I would have made some, but Mom said it was too much work! 

Hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday season! 

Happy Christmas Eve! 

Christmas cookies

This weekend, in my utter craziness, I decided that our Mother's group should host a Cookie Decorating party for the kids of our Church.  Fortunately, everyone I talked to was on board!  A couple Mothers and I got together Friday night and made 10 batches of cookies, which translated to over 600 cookies!  We had about 35 kids RSVP, but you never know, and we might have just been making batches, throwing them into the fridge and then we counted and realized we had 10 batches!  We used the Church kitchen and had a great time.  Thank goodness for the convection ovens and my friends who so graciously stayed late to help, we couldn't have done it without them! 
The next morning we made some frosting, laid out the cookies and said get to it kids! 

I forgot to figure on the little kids and their love of frosting and sprinkles, many of the cookies were towering with frosting and sprinkles, which would be cool if the kids were just making these for themselves, but we decided to have them make some and donate some for the home-bound parishioners. 

 We decided to use royal icing and put it in plastic bags and cut out an end for them to squeeze onto the cookies, we had the kids bring their own sprinkles.  The bags worked well, for the most part.  We had a couple that split when we were trying to push down the icing and we had a couple that came out the zip part. But, we had no complaints and some kids stood there for the whole time just making cookies, I was impressed.

Everyone told us how great of an idea this was, and how much they loved it.  How well organized it was and all that, which was slightly hilarious, because we didn't do anything to organize it, really, just made cookies and frosting.  We also had the kids decorate bags and make cards for the home-bound.  They did such a great job and it was such a fabulous way to spread some cheer. 

I hope that the home-bound all get their bags and cards, the kids sure had fun doing it! 

It made for an exhausting couple of days, but well worth it! 

Final Christmas post for 2010

I have been quite busy and appear to have quite the backlog of pictures. We'll see now that I have a couple of calm days coming, if I can clear out the backlog. Starting on Tues though I will be starting back at the gym in the evenings, so fitting blogging in will be a bit of a challenge again. Such is life. We are done with visitors for a while, we had my Aunt and cousins and my MIL visiting. Both were short visits, but we packed fun into both I think. Sadly since they were short visits I didn't get much of a chance to take pictures. I guess I will get to that later.
I took pictures of the kids sleeping in their new beds but sadly didn't post the pictures for my Mom, sorry!
Gwen and her new Dora baby...
We went out after Christmas and took advantage of the post Christmas sales. We got some lawn ornamentation. I like it. Sadly Rudolph is about the dumbest thing I have seen, they make this outdoor lawn thing and then they make the plug a type that needs to not get wet! Seriously, the cord isn't very long either, so we are going to have to "rework our theme" for next year, not that that is really a surprise to us though.
And yes, that is my daughter with no coat and no shoes standing out in the cold, she is apparently hot blooded/warm-natured, I don't know, she often swears she is warm and walks around with no shirt on, even though I don't have the heat very high.
We have a lot of lights to fix and work out for next year, still no word on who won the contest. I saw our fiercest competitor 2 weeks ago and she said she hasn't heard anything either. She has been checking the website obsessively. We got the newsletter yesterday, but no news about the lights competition, how very disappointing! Oh well, we enjoy doing it, and that is all that matters!

Merry Christmas!

I've decided instead of going through the Christmas pictures, I would just put all the pictures in a slideshow, you can look at them at your leisure, you're welcome!

A couple things to note, Gwen woke up at about 7:15, I could hear her little foot prints and I said "who's there" she said "Santa's been here, he's left us presents". We thought we would eat breakfast open presents, nope we opened presents they played and then Eric and I ate breakfast, around 9ish they decided to eat. When Gwen opened her presents she said "IT'S WHAT I WANTED" for almost everything, even though they weren't on her Santa list. Needless to say she loved them all and she was very excited. It was funny and cute, and made me realize these are probably the perfect years for Christmas. Nate was beside himself I don't know if his little hands could carry anymore. When I was putting him to bed he asked if Santa was coming again with presents...I suspect this is going to be a lot like Halloween for him, he is going to try to wake up every morning and look for presents! We had a good day, everyone stayed in PJs, no real fighting, and no entertaining needed, lovely! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Figgy pudding

I asked Gwen what she wanted for Christmas dinner and she wanted figgy pudding, she was adamant that we have figgy pudding. So, I made figgy pudding. Who am I to challenge her? Several people have said to me that I am a good Mother for doing this, and I don't think of it that way. I have been thinking of this concept, what makes a person a good Mother? I know several people who I feel like go above and beyond the call of duty. People who we don't know how they do it and wish we could too. But we all have areas that we excel in, and areas that make us so nervous and relieved we don't have to worry about as parents, if push came to shove we would step up for our kids, or I am sure I wouldn't be friends with you. ;) And in the general scheme of things I am not sure making figgy pudding is all the great, but I did it and Gwen tried it and we all had a Merry Christmas, in our PJS.



So, what was the verdict? Figgy pudding, not really that hard to make. Easy, really, the hard part is the steaming of the pudding, my recipe called for a bundt pan covered in foil and then secured with a rubber band, then putting it in a 12x17 pan carefully pouring in boiling water covering the whole thing with foil and steaming it. And that wasn't the tricky part, the tricky part was making sure it was done, we couldn't find a rubber band to put around it, so we fashioned a piece of copper wire...it was kind of a pain, but it worked out for us. So, how did it taste? It tasted liked fig newtons with out what I am assuming is the newton part of the fig newtons. It was too seedy for Gwen and I, but the hard sauce made it yummy! I won't be making it again for a while, and if I do, let's just say I will try to de-seed some of the figs!

Random

This is going to be a random post with random pictures, they probably won't relate to anything, but you should know no children were hurt in any pictures, or stuck, for long!
In the following picture, please excuse the laundry pile, waiting to be laundered!
The past couple of days have been busy, I have been scurrying to finish Christmas cards and get them sent. Which I think I finally finished. I think that sending Christmas cards are becoming a thing of the past, if my excel sheet shows any indication, either that or out of sight out of mind...I don't know which, but I still do them and give you 2 years, if I don't get a Christmas card 1 year, still on the list, but 2 years in a row...off!
We have been watching Christmas movies, and during this movie Gwen was scared, which for some reason means she watches from somewhere not on the couch, usually in her room, but the view to the TV is blocked by the tree, so she had to sit here!
Nate fell asleep during said movie, he slept the night through, it was about 7p when this picture was taken!
I have been told by the bank 5-7 business days until a NC certified check will be processed which I am sure complicated by the holidays...so while I consider the Jeep sold, Eric still is waiting. Although with all the paperwork and info we have on this lady seems to me that everything on the up and up, especially since the woman and her fiancee seem to own a used car dealership! Eric does wonder if they are just going to resell the thing, but who knows!
I have realized that I don't have any cookies for Santa, so on the docket today, making cookies for Santa. I feel like staying home today and going no where, so that is what I am hoping to do. I paged through my Dec issue of Southern Living with Gwen and she picked out 2 cookies to make...I have all the ingredients so we are going to try them!
Gwen made this hat during her preK "celebration" she is very excited it jingles! I also stupidly asked her what we should have for Christmas and she is adamant-it is not Christmas with out figgy pudding! I usually make a cake for Christmas, so what the heck, all though I have heard reports that the figgy pudding is terrible, and I was considering making another cake, but I guess now that we are making cookies, I won't have to make another sweet!
I was on my way to a playdate yesterday morning when Eric called and said I can't finish the Jeep can you come home? I was already about at their house so I stopped at the door and said, sorry we can't stay, here's some candy, Merry Christmas! She generously offered to watch my kids so I could run home and help Eric (I guess when you have 7, what is 2 more?) I decided to let her watch the kids, no point in disappointing all those kids right before the holidays! The kids had a great time and wanted to go back today, but as I already mentioned, I am not driving anywhere today, if I can help it! I think I had another random thing to mention, but I can't remember it now!

The lights!

Now that I have gotten the Christmas cards out and have finished candy, I can now veg out in the evenings, and by veg out I mean work on the blog and exercise...although I think that my veg'ing will be short lived since Christmas eve is soon, I guess in 2 days...is that right? I am so out of sync! When Eric finished his portion of the lights, he made me run outside in the cold down the street and fortunately I had brought the camera so you can see the view also. (Amy this is for you!)Eric tells me his intent was if someone is at the end of the street they will look down and see a bunch of lights and say "Gosh, I've got to see that!"
Here is the side view, Eric and I discussed him fixing the half strand of the icicles that aren't working, but I thought if he fixed it we might blow more fuses...next year we must work on our strands/outlet.
This is the almost finished look...this is after we finished everything, but sadly the garland lights I put around the garage door didn't stay up, and I don't feel like going out and fixing them all the time, so sorry, this is what it currently looks like with wreath and mailbox lit! No word on who won the neighborhood contest, but we suspect that the voting was low and they don't know what to do! I guess we will find out eventually, my neighbor hung some lights outside around her door, influenced by our awesome light display...I guess that is reward enough, cheering someone up and spreading the joy of Christmas lights! So, Eric and I will continue to plan for next year and we look forward to going out after Christmas and picking up some cheap stuff on clearance for next year...I hope I am not the only person out there who looks at the lights planning for next year...I saw a outdoor light timer that goes you can set to go on at dusk and off at dawn or at any other time, that I have my eye on!
Today we sold the Jeep. It happened so quickly, we are a little in shock! But it certainly was a nice Christmas present for us. Eric might be a little freaked out and miss the Jeep. But we will adjust as we have with everything else.

Cookie decorating

One of the things I most remember about Christmas is having the neighborhood boys come down and decorate cookies with us. I don't know why the sisters that were my age didn't come down to decorate, maybe they did, I don't remember. So I decided to have my friends that have kids Gwen and Nate's age to come over to decorate cookies on Saturday. Gwen and I made the family cookie recipe on Friday, I doubled it! Nate was so excited on Saturday, he sat in the kitchen at the table for about 45 minutes before everyone got there. And then my friends arrived with their kids. There were 10 kids here, although I guess the 2 youngest being 1 and under don't count? They were here, but they didn't do any decorating or eating... I took some pictures, but I seemed to have missed one of the little girls, she was on the wrong side of the table for me.

The kids didn't color as much as I thought they would, so I decorated the rest of them really fast before the icing melted. The kids seemed to have fun then we pushed them all outside to run off some sugar. I think at most the decorated 5 and ate most if not all of them. Gwen really showed her stuff. It was a lot of fun, but I was pooped for the rest of the day! Eric even made dinner!

The Tree!

This weekend we came home from Church to find that Daddy had put the tree up...so we decorated the tree on Sunday. I was determined to get every decoration on the tree, we have a lot of decorations and Eric thought I was being a little ridiculous, but I did it! With the help of the kids of course.
Not only did Gwen decorate the tree with me she also did the garland, can you tell? Maybe not in this picture, but you'll see...
It is also easier to put every decoration on the tree when Gwen put every decoration on one branch.
See how proud she is!
Gwen had a play date the other day and the girl told me that her tree was prettier than ours....I was not offended, I think it is funny. They apparently buy a real tree, which I imagine it is much nicer than our fake tree, but ours has personality!
Nate helped Eric diagnose the lights.

Plans

I had what I thought was a rather humorous phone call from our neighbor. She called to make sure she hadn't offended us because she made a comment about how she doesn't have to use lights in certain parts of her house because of our light display! That was not the case at all, we weren't offended, we were just blowing fuses because we may have put too many lights in the series...oops! As my Mother has reminded me, it is a work in progress and it might take years for us to perfect our lights display. I thought I would take a picture from last night and show you where we would like to "grow" our lights display. Poor Eric worked on it for about an hour last night, I'd feel sympathy, but I was making candy and stirring the pot the whole time! Here is what we have so far, minus the arrows. So last night Eric worked on adding those 2 sets of lights at the top of the 2 trees. Eric has told me he was going for height, so that when people down the street ride around looking for lights, will see the sheer height of lights and drive down the street to look! You can see Eric in the picture, the green circle above his head, I am hoping we will put a lit wreath there, I don't think I am exaggerating it's size! The green arrows around the garage door, I am hoping to put lit garland there...we have it, we aren't using it, I say why not! Maybe we should also use it around the mailbox. The yellow arrows where we would like to get something to line the drive with, like these or these or some other pathway lights that are not candy canes (because our neighbors have those and we don't want to copy!). If you see the lavender arrow you can see Nate's snowman lawn ornament, sometime it is there sometimes he grabs it out and chases things with it, also we have a half working set of net lights there, Eric is going to fix those, I think. Eric would like to get some kind of lawn ornamentation, but we can't agree on that, we would put it in the dark space to the left of the picture. I am also thinking that the right of the house would be perfect for me to shine the AU on the wall, but Eric would probably want to do some Christmas thing that say happy holidays or something.
I can totally see why my Dad totally got into this, man it is fun. I remember half listening to him while he talked about his plans. So I recommend if you have the slightest competitive personality you might not want to get started putting up lights, or you will start competing randomly with neighbors, sure our neighborhood is having prizes this year, but I think we would compete no matter what! To look back at what we did last year you can look here and here and picture them together.