Merry Belated Christmas!

And Happy New Year!

As you can imagine, our December was very full of fun! I've been meaning to post some things for a couple weeks, but, alas, I never got around to it. So, at long last I'll share a few fun pictures from December:

Here is a picture of our gingerbread nativity scene - that turned out 100% different than how I had envisioned. First of all, the dough I made was basically useless. I could barely cut out the walls for the stable! So, I trashed the rest of the dough and hurriedly tried to think of different ways to make people. As you can see, we used marshmallows and toothpicks! We had dried fruit stones, caramel hay bales and miniature animal crackers for animals. See if you can find the fire with the spit over it... including the animal cracker cow. That, of corse, was Phin's idea.

A day or so later, the kids painted their paper-clay figures that they had made the week prior. Even Lydia pained her wee little hand! It was fun to hear them chatter amongst themselves about who they wanted to give each piece to.

Christmas eve was spent at Andrew's parents' house with many of the Aunts, Uncles and cousins. The kids had fun sledding (sorry - no pics), being VERY noisy, and of course opening presents from loving grandparents. That was complete and utter chaos!

Christmas morning we spent at home, just us! We put together puzzles, read new books, and tried out some new prizes. Then, in the afternoon, my family joined us for waffles! When I was a kid, waffles with berry sauce, whipped cream, real maple syrup, bacon, sausage, orange juice and whatever else we could imagine was the tradition for Christmas brunch. We turned it into lupper and made an afternoon out of it!

My sweet sister, Mae.

She gave me a gift that made me laugh and cry: First Aid Strips. It was a band-aid box filled with little pieces of paper that had quotes, inspirations, verses, and messages from her, Andrew and the kids. It was perfect! And, I can use it again and again on those dreary days when nothing seems to be going the way it should. Absolutely perfect!

My brother-in-law, Joe and niece, Ezibelle.

Ezi professes that I am her favorite Aunt (at least on her mom's side!)

So, there you have it! A glimpse into our winter holidays!

Kraut, Kookies, and Kicken Soup (Uh, Chicken)

Today was fun! We had some friends over to 'harvest' the sauerkraut we made; they had supplied the cabbage and carrots and we made it into kraut. We had a whopping total of 8 well-packed gallons! Whew! That should keep us all for a couple of months!

After the kraut-fest was finished, Andrew and I decided that it would be fun to make more Christmas cookies (since the ones we made earlier in the week disappeared WAY too quickly! And, no, we did NOT eat them all; we did give some away!) So, we cut out cookies, had naps and then decorated... but this time I did NOT get any sprinkles out! The mess was less and, once again, we had fun! Abigail was very detail oriented (at least at first), and even Phinehas tried his had at as artistic flare.

When we were finished I realized, with a shock, that it was 5:30 and I hadn't turned a single thought to supper. So I hurriedly made one of my favorite soups - Egg Drop! Here is how you do it:

Egg Drop Soup

1/4 cup of butter

3-4 cloves garlic

2 quarts of chicken broth

1 1/2 tsp salt

pepper

parsley

a handful of pastina (itty bitty, teeny tiny pasta)

4-5 eggs, well beaten

Sautee the garlic in the butter til soft;

Add the broth, salt, pepper and parsley;

Bring to boil;

Add pastina;

Reduce heat and cook til pastina is done;

Turn off heat;

Pour beaten eggs into hot broth while rapidly stirring the soup;

Top with generous portions of parmesan cheese;

ENJOY!!

We enjoyed this with cheese and crackers, as well as the Carpenter's garlic popcorn (yes, he is the Popcorn King, too!!)

Christmas Cookies

Early this morning the thin white clouds looked steely gray as the winter sun crept above the hills. The bare trees were sharply silhouetted in dark lines. I heard an argument break out; the chirruping and scolding was easy to locate. Six or eight little chickadees chased each other loudly around the stark trunk of a sleeping oak. Suddenly, heralded by the noisy birds, the morning light changed from cold and distant to bright and near. The steel-gray clouds transformed into silver and the dead silhouettes became regal sentinels as the little birds brought life to the scene. Even their scolding voices changed to teasing banter as they flitted around the trees. I felt my heart quicken and my sleepy eyes awake as once again I found beauty in a cold winter land.

Today we made Christmas cookies! I will share our recipe, as it is my favorite. I never was a fan of the doughy sugar cookies. These are lightly and lemony with a crisp hint of cinnamon and nutmeg – the perfect accompaniment to a hot cup of spiced chai. Yummy!

Lemony Christmas Cookies

Sift together:

2 c Flour

1 t Bkng. Power

½ t Salt

½ t Cinnamon

¼ t Nutmeg

Heat together til butter melts:

1/3 c Butter

3 T Milk

In Large Bowl put:

2/3 c Sugar

Add Butter/Milk mixture

Add:

2 Egg Yolks**

½ t Lemon Extract

Mix in Dry Ingredients.

Chill

Roll and cut out with cookie cutters.

Bake at 400* for 3 ½ - 7 min (depending on size of cookie and oven accuracy)

**set aside egg whites to make a big jar of egg nog to drink while cutting the cookies J

We put on some Christmas music, made the afore mentioned egg nog, and grabbed all the cookie cutters from the cupboard. As you can see, the children had a blast. And, I’ve decided that no mom of young children should ever even attempt to make Christmas cookies without another adult present. Today Katie, a friend of mine, came to help. Her cheerful presence made cookie time so much more manageable… as well as the ensuing mess. If she hadn’t been here, I would have been vainly trying to be sure that no messes were made (HAH!) and we probably wouldn’t have had such a fun time.

Before we started decorating, each kid ate one little cookie with promises of another one, this time decorated, after lunch. Lydia, the poor little fourth-born, so wanted to contribute to the decorating! Finally, she chose herself as ‘Quality Control Manager’ and casually swiped a cookie that had been lavishly decorated by Phinehas. I just couldn’t take it from her! (The fortune of being a fourth!) The other kids didn’t begrudge her a bit as they knew their treats were coming.

We really did have a lovely time!

The First Snow

Last night a winter wind howled through the trees and over the eves. The dark was thick and heavy - not thick enough to stop the neighbors flood light from seeping through our windows, but thick enough to stop the twinkling of the stars and the shining of the moon. We woke to a steady, dreary rain that fell in gray sheets and flooded out long dry crick bed. Then, around 10:00 big snowflakes mingled themselves with the rain and by noon a blanket of white covered everything. The kids bundled up and eagerly ran out to throw throw snowballs at each other. O! How I love the first snow! It is clean, quiet, and fresh and chases away the gray of late fall.

In celebration of the first snow, we decorated. One of my favorite things to do is cut green branches from various evergreens and bright rose hips from prickly bushes and create pretty things to add color to our house. The kids and I cut out the snowflakes - honestly, I only did 4 or 5 of them! Abbi and Phin did the rest! (Liam's contribution was tiny scraps all over the floor.)

Here is the Carpenter frolicking in the 'snowfall' - hehe!

Here are some pictures of our nativity scene - from Ecuador!

And one last one of our newest addition to the energy expending activities in our home: An indoor hammock!

The Marathon Weekend

We had a very busy Thanksgiving weekend, and though we are thankful to get back to ‘normal’ life, it was a delight to see so much family! It all started with Abigail’s birthday party, when my (Licia) family came for the day. Not only did we have a good time at the house with the children, but my mom, my sweet sister and myself all scurried out the door after the festivities and went to the Salvation Army Thrift Store – it was family day and almost all the clothes were half off! So, I completely switched out Andrew’s wardrobe, added a couple things to mine, and found a few more prizes for the birthday girl.

Thursday brought a morning full of preparing a few dishes to take to Andrew’s folks’ house for the big Turkey Day. Before we had our turkey dinner, Abbi had round two of her birthday gifts. As I said before, she received a pair of cowgirl boots (and a nice cowgirl outfit) but she also received a wonderful array of very crafty items that she has already tried her hand at – a little weaving set, beads to make necklaces, and some paint-your-own-ponies.

"Prizes for ME?!?!"

Cow Girl

Liamiah pushing Lilly

It wasn’t long until the majority of Andrew’s family started pouring in. Andrew is one of six children so now that they are all married there are twelve kids. Sarah, the oldest sister, waited a long time for Catherine (Kitty-Bob) the youngest; now both of them have four extra sisters – for better or for worse! In any event, we all have fun together. So, in the house for Thanksgiving Day there were nine grandchildren – 8 of which are age 5 or younger – and most of the twelve children. And, there was beloved GG: Great Grandma whose arms are always ready to hold any of her great grandchildren.

GG holding baby Lincoln

Andrew’s mom, Mary, did a wonderful job preparing ample amounts of tasty food – not only on Thanksgiving Day, but also on Friday and Saturday! Since most everyone was in from afar we made a weekend of it – lots of hunting, playing, watching mighty machine videos (and some girly tear-jerkers), playing with play dough, drawing, and good ol’ jibber-jabber. I’m sure the dishwasher paid for itself with all the dishes that were done! Mom did a great job of opening her house to all of us, making us all feel welcome. Thanks mom!

Lets see… Some highlights for our family were (1) Abbi’s boots, (2) Working in the Shop – our kids helped Andrew make a base for my piano table, (3) Tricks with Uncle Ben, (4) Story time with Aunt Sarah, (5) Play Dough – mom made a fresh batch on Saturday and I think it was played with almost all day, (6) an outing to Wegmans, (7) Sharing the fun toys that Grampa and Gramma have, (8) Seeing cousins, (9) Phin got to help cut up a deer, (10) Eating the deer meat that Phin got to help cut up… that is just a sample of the fun we got to have!

Now, believe it or not we didn’t get very many pictures. There were so many other cameras flashing all weekend that we didn’t really think to get ours out. But, we do have a fairly good shot of all the cousins lined up on the couch!

Lydia, Abbi, Angel and Ariel, Phin, Lincoln, Liam, Nathan, Micah

Phin and Lincoln

Hope you all had a fun Thanksgiving!