Snowflake Soiree

Lucy's dance school hosts an informal recital every December at the end of the Fall/Winter semester. It's held onstage at a local theater, but there's no fancy costumes or all-out stage make up. It was held yesterday afternoon and, like last year, Lucy's class gave a ridiculously cute performance. They may not have  known all (any) of the steps, but they looked so happy to be there, faces full of smiles. Even the girl who kept yawning.

Check it out:



Not to get all braggy or anything (said to denote that bragging will now follow), but I'm just blown away by what a performer Lucy is. She clearly had no idea what she was doing. She absolutely did not know the steps of the dance. Yet she stood there, smiling and serene and graceful, completely capturing the mood of the song and the ability to look good doing absolutely nothing. Between that and her flair for dramatics (every stubbed toe is a cause for transfemoral amputation), I think we may have a born actress on our hands.

Some stills from before and after her performance:

Backstage beforehand

The rest of our weekend was filled with tantrums (from both kids) and lots and lots of cookie baking. I think I went through 12 sticks of butter. I'm waiting for a few gifts to arrive at our house so I can package up a couple of boxes to mail out to family members, and I have a few more gifts to wrap and put under out tree. But I think I'm done actually BUYING gifts, as of today. That, my friends, is a nice feeling. Bring it, Christmas.

Final Christmas Rundown: Kids' Gifts and Cookies

Kid Gifts

I'm not feeling any inspiration for a post describing the kids' Christmas gifts. THEY seem excited enough about them, thankfully, but I'm just sort of "meh." I guess because I'm not 6? Anyway, the short version is that they got toys, and they like them. I would recommend them to others for purchase, if pressed to comment on that. I know that Finn and Lucy will play with these toys for about 3 more days, and then abandon them in favor of whining at me that they "have no toys" and "want to watch T.V." But so far, they've been pleasantly "into" these toys.

In brief, Lucy got a lot (A LOT) of Disney princess stuff (Santa brought no less than 3 costumes, among other things), and Finn got a new race track (a Nano Speed Turbo set, which is new for us, but I refused to have Santa bring a Hot Wheels set because they are all designed to stick to a wall) and an Imaginext Space Shuttle. They were happy enough for kids that kept finding new things to add to their Christmas Wish Lists as little as two days before Christmas (as if) - I was sure there would be disappointment, but neither one of them brought up anything they wish they had received instead.

There were also other random small things, like new Magic Tree House books, jewelry, Monster Trucks, etc.

OH! I almost forgot that there is ONE kid gift I am excited about. We bought our very first (and hopefully only, for a long time) family gaming system - a Wii. It was our gift to the kids (and ourselves). We got the original one, not that new confusing one they've been advertising lately (WiiU?). We have a Sports and Sports Resort game pack, and we also picked up Just Dance 4. We've all been having a lot of fun with it, more than I thought we would. Lucy's attention for playing is still only about about 2.5 minutes, but Finn can already do a lot of things independently/intuitively, so I'm sure she'll catch on in the next year or so.

Oh oh! I also meant to mention a couple of things we got for nieces/nephews that I would really REALLY recommend. The first is the Richard Scarry Busy Town board game:

I like it so much that I inadvertently got it for my sister Kristin's kids both this year and last year - luckily I had a sneaking suspicion that I had done this, checked (and confirmed), and was able to turn around and give it to my sister Stacey's daughter instead. Busy Town for everyone! It is a cute game that is way less frustrating for kids (and parents) than Chutes and Ladders or Candyland (no going ALL the way back to the beginning for anyone).

I also found a couple of non-traditional "Princess as the strong heroine" books that I gave to my nieces Penny and JoJo, and now I'm thinking they may need to be a birthday gift for Lucy. They are MUCH better/more interesting than the drivel Disney puts out. One book is called The Apple Pip Princess, and the other is The Paper Bag Princess.

Finally, my newest niece, Alexa, is just a year old (ALMOST! A few days and counting!), and she is preceded by two much older brothers. Her house is sadly bereft of girly things. To help her start the battle against the hockey equipment and Nerf guns, we gave her this hilariously adorable Little People Wonder Woman toy:

Is that not one of the cutest things you've ever seen for a 1-year-old?

She also got a Hello Kitty hoodie, because every girl should have one of those.

Cookies

Since I'm ready to be done with writing about Christmas, I'm going to mash my Christmas cookie report-out onto the bottom of this post. I went nuts on Pinterest, pinning about a dozen different cookie and candy recipes with the intention of making them all. Reality set in, and I had to scale back my plans a bit. But I still managed to make about 6 different types of cookies. They were all good (hard to beat the butter-sugar-flour-vanilla combination), but some were definite keepers. I'm just going to post a link to the original recipe for each one rather than including the recipes themselves here (credit where credit due, yo), but I will make a note if I substantially changed anything.

Roll Out Sugar Cookies: This is my second year making these (pictures from last year are here). They are delicious, and fun for the kids to decorate. For frosting, I just used the recipe on the Dominos confectioner's sugar box. I made a double batch and then used Wilton gel food coloring to make a bunch of different colors. I will definitely continue making these.

Chocolate Roll Out Sugar Cookies: This was my first time making these. The dough was really hard to work with (I chilled it for the required amount of time, but it almost seemed TOO long, because I had a tough time rolling it out), but the cookies tasted awesome, so I'll probably make these again. These were decorated at the same time we did the regular roll out sugar cookies.

Soft Almond Sugar Cookies: These are not roll out cookies; instead, they are formed into balls and then rolled in Turbinado sugar. They were so soft and yummy - another definite keeper.

Chocolate Chunk Peppermint Pudding Cookies: These were SO GOOD. This is a recipe where I had to make some substitutions. I couldn't find Devil's Food pudding, so I used regular chocolate pudding. I also searched high and low for the Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips the recipe called for, but could not find them anywhere. So instead, I bought a few bars of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Peppermint bark and chopped them up. They worked great, and the cookies turned out to be one of my favorites.

Thumbprint Cookies: I think these were my absolute favorite cookies. I made them with strawberry preserves, apricot preserves, and lemon curd. They were awesome. I may need to double the batch next year.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies: These were almost too rich for me. I guess I prefer a little flour in my cookie (they are flourless, which is great for the gluten-free crowd). Not sure I'll make again.

Peppermint Kiss Sugar Cookies: I think I prefer the version of these cookies that are made with peanut butter cookies and regular Hershey's Kisses. Too minty for me, but the kids loved them. I'm on the fence about making them again.

So there you have it - a rundown on the 6 - no wait, 7 - God, I have a problem - batches of Christmas cookies I made this past year.

These pictures were taken when I was only 3 cookie types in to the baking process. Also, what does it say about me that I wrote much of this post while watching the latest Biggest Loser episode?

I may need an intervention next year.

Gift List - Grown Ups

The excitement of the holidays is over  for another 11 months - so sad! But before *I* move on, I thought I would share some of the details of our holiday preparations, in the event they help you (and me) next time around. I'll start by sharing the gifts we (me and M., since I made him do some of the shopping) got the adults in our lives, which might seem like a very "stuff" centric/materialistic post, but I've never been one to shy away from the reality that our Christmas is very heavy on the "stuff" aspect of things. Family, food, and a smidge of religion, too, but clearly STUFF. Hopefully I'll follow up with additional posts on what we gifted to the kid crowd and the gads of Pinterest-inspired cookies I made. No promises, of course (you should know that by now!).

The Siblings

First up is the under-30 crowd, otherwise known as my brother and his girlfriend. My siblings and I don't normally exchange gifts, but this year I decided to do small gifts "from Finn and Lucy" for each of them anyway (AND my brother also decided to get gifts for my sisters and I, which led to one of my favorite gifts of the season - my very first, but probably not last, infinity scarf that I heart with a passion. I call this Christmas "the year of the infinity scarf," subtitle "and also beermaking"). I didn't get gifts for my brothers-in-law (sorry, guys!), but since this was our first Christmas with my brother's girlfriend, and she was very far from her own family (they live in Columbia, as in the country, and not one of the many US cities), I got her a small gift, too.

For Andrew (my brother): This T-shirt from Skreened that I found hilarious and irresistible

Am I the only one who finds the teeny arms of the T Rex to be absurdly mockable? No, I'm sure I'm not.

He also received a set of mustache bottle clings/reusable labels that you can use to mark beer bottles and whatnot, capitalizing on the recent mustache craze. I cannot for the life of me find a link to an image online, but I bought them from the dollar section at Target.

For Christel (his girlfriend): I picked out an infinity scarf from Kohls with a colorful chevron pattern that is apparently no longer available, though I did manage to track down an inactive link with a photo of it here.  A little birdie (my brother) told me that she is a fan of watches, so I also got a cute (*I* think) fashion watch that picks up one of the colors in the scarf (the watch is also no longer available, but I managed to find yet another dud of a link):

Onto the over 30 crowd. I couldn't resist giving my sister Stacey this adorable bracelet from Banana Republic (you should note that pretty much all the gifts I gave the women in our families I either already owned, or secretly wanted for myself. Including this bracelet):

At the time it was available in black, red, or camel, and I got it in red. Seems only the camel color is available now, but still VERY cute.

Kristin was gifted... An Infinity Scarf!! See? The Christmas of the Infinity Scarf. I got hers at Kohls, and the internet is unable to yield me any photos or links to this item. SO while I cannot show you what it looks like, I can tell you that it was a somewhat gauzy/crinkly dark green scarf with threads of gold running through it. Which may not make it sound lovely, but it is (and work appropriate in all but the most formal of environments).

My sister-in-law received the same red bow bracelet I gave Stacey, along with a "Cozy Colorblock Scarf" from the Gap:

This scarf is, of course, no longer available - seems to be a theme here. But whether or not you can actually purchase the same exact scarves I have, the take home message should be clear. Scarf = Great Gift. Infinity, regular, doesn't matter. Buy scarves, people.

Finally, rounding out our siblings, M. picked out a fleece-lined flannel from L.L. Bean for his brother - the perfect layering shirt for ass-cold Wisconsin (spoiler alert: he got one for his dad, too. And I bought him one, since he so clearly pined for it):

This is the one M. bought his brother, and that I unknowingly also bought him. His dad received a red/navy one that is, of course, no longer available. But red is an important color in Wisconsin (go Badgers!), so good thing it was available at the time - my father-in-law's wardrobe is about 96% red, so this way he can coordinate the shirt with other items he already owns :-). Clearly we will need a flannel photo shoot the next time these three get together.

The (Rest of the) Parents

My siblings and I always go in together on group gifts for our parents, because they literally are "the people who already own everything." Seriously - they don't know how to deny themselves anything, so any time we come up with a great gift idea, it usually turns out that they already own it. Since we struggle so much, we've stuck to coming up with just one gift that works from all four of us. So far, no complaints....

My mom hinted (OK, we asked) that she'd like some hand hooked pillows made by a very specific artist to complement the rustic decor of the lakehouse my parents have up in Maine. A lakehouse that heavily features, among other Maine/wilderness themes, moose. These pillows are NOT cheap. $80+ bucks a pop, which I would never spend on throw pillows for myself. But these were not for me, they were for my mom, and they were a Christmas gift, and they are incredibly cute and fun, and really, that's what Christmas gifts should be. Fun things we would never think of getting ourselves. We got her two, one with an image of a moose (of course), and one with an Adirondack chair. These pillows are so wonderful that we had a really hard time just picking two, and would have loved to buy the whole lot. Eh, maybe next year, right?:

My dad received the new Amazon Paperwhite Kindle - the man who has every device imaginable (TWO iPads! TWO!) had managed to kill his Kindle, and had nothing to take with him into the hot tub to read (talk about first world problems, I suppose... but definitely wouldn't want to accidentally drop the iPad in there!).:

You already know about the fleecy flannel shirt my father-in-law was gifted, which just leaves my mother-in-law. I waffled back and forth a lot about what we should get her - clothing? kitchen stuff? A scarf?? In the end, I decided to go with an immersion blender, since I'm so in love with the one M. got me for our anniversary:

To go with it, we got some handled soup bowls from Sur La Table (in red, of course),:

and I scoured Pinterest to copy out a few recipes that we enclosed in a Christmas card (um, not pictured, because I don't remember EXACTLY which recipes I sent. But they all sounded fabulous) that heavily featured use of an immersion blender.

Finally, we sent a gift basket to my maternal grandparents who live down in Florida. Christmas isn't the same without them, but the trip from Florida to Massachusetts is just not practical for them anymore. So we Skyped and called and sighed and felt more than a little sad they weren't with us, and we gave them a Dean and Deluca gift basket to help make their own holiday feasts and entertaining a bit easier. The exact basket is no longer available (it was called "Fresh from the Country"), but it featured things like their babka bread, jams, some cured meat, etc. Nothing they had to bake or mix themselves, and I'm told the bread was very, very tasty! So no link or picture for you, but all the other gift baskets they still have look just as lovely.

So that's the rundown of the adult shopping we did for Christmas (aside from the gifts we got each other). I think we did pretty well (and best of all, the last gift was purchased by mid-December!). Maybe they'll help you next year when you are trying to come up with gifts for everyone on YOUR list.

Holly Jolly

Christmas, In Brief:

We had two - one with just the four of us, and another extended one that involved my entire family, separated by a rather lengthy car trip. Fun was had all around, and we even got sleep! Except that night in the hotel when all four of us shared one room, and Lucy coughed a lot. But all the other nights, sleep! And fun! And presents, oh so many presents. M. and I did exceptionally well with the gifting, I think. I got him a new hobby (beer making!), and he got me, among other things, a fabulous new winter puffy coat that magically doesn't make me look puffy, and a tripod. There was a little snow, there were a lot of cousins, there was even some church time (ack! we survived, but barely! Note to self, next time, don't sit in the balcony!). We drove home on Thursday (a very long, long drive), and we're now faced with the prospect of reintegrating into real life again tomorrow.

Christmas, In Photo:

I could go on and on, but instead, I shall overwhelm you with photos and go to bed, because it is late. I have no photos from our little Christmas at home on Saturday morning, these start with Sunday afternoon in Massachusetts:

 

My mom dug out my wedding dress and veil for Lucy. The dress is sadly pretty stained, but the veil looked as beautiful as ever. Doesn't she look saintly?

 

Since it came down to her ankles, I wouldn't let her wear it for very long.

 

Tried to capture an "artistic" photo on the sly.

 

Looks much better without flash. Would prefer it if Finn was in focus instead, though. Too bad he moves so damn fast all the time.

 

This is my two-year-old niece Josephine. Isn't she cute?

 

This is what the kids wore on Christmas Eve. Lucy is wearing an old dress of mine, a velvet jumper. Finn wore this sweater for exactly 5 seconds after we walked in the door from church, then whipped it off in favor of the Angry Birds T-shirt he had on underneath it.

 

Needless to say, I didn't have much luck getting them to pose prettily for me.

 

My mom and brother somehow managed to color coordinate on Christmas Eve.

 

After a big dinner, stockings were hung (by the chimney, with utmost care, of course). Finn is the only grandkid to have a stocking knitted for him (by one of my dad's co-workers) - such privileges are often afforded to first grandkids. Everyone else had to pick a generic stocking from a pile.

 

Lucy picked the one with Rudolph (or "Redolph," as she likes to call him).

 

Then my brother read all the kids "The Night Before Christmas."

 

They MOSTLY listened intently, and there were only a couple of potty breaks and other random interruptions.

 

The kids fell asleep, stockings were stuffed, and morning came. Surprisingly, not as early as I thought it would. We actually had to go into Finn and Lucy's bedroom to rouse them. Here are the kids waiting to bust into the closed family room to see if Santa came. Santa had zip-tied the door shut just in case there were any midnight wanderings...

 

Once the stockings were emptied and the Santa gifts were properly played with, we all got out of our jammies and moved down to the living room to open family gifts.

 

The display of gifts was a tad overwhelming in an "embarrassment of riches" kind of way.

 

Lucy waited patiently to open her gifts, and helped Bumpa with his.

 

Finn got a little antsy that he had nothing to open (since we had already exchanged gifts, he had fewer than his cousins), but finally scored with a new Angry Birds backpack and the Lego Star Wars game for his Nintendo DS.

 

My dad got a new hat.

 

Some of you may have seen a similar photo on Facebook - me snuggling with a happy Lucy.

 

All the girls received a sack of girly princess things (nailpolish, tiaras, rings, wands, necklaces) from my brother and his girlfriend. Here is Penny modeling the tiara and wand.

 

My siblings and I gifted Mom with a couple of rustic looking hand-hooked pillows for the Maine lake house - the moose was a must.

 

Me and my oldest cutie.

 

The night before we left Massachusetts, I headed over to my wonderful friend Natalie's house for a little kid-free get-together. Here is a photo of my two sisters (Stacey on the left, Kristin on the right).

 

And one of the group of us - me, Amy, Stacey, Natalie, Kristin, and Helen in the front. It's hard to believe that we've known each other for almost 30 years (since first grade!!).

 

Back in Maryland, I unpacked one of my gifts from my mom - a real, honest-to-goodness, Le Creuset dutch oven - and made a pretty kick-ass vegetable soup. I love, love, love this pot!!

 

And M. started his first batch of beer.

 

In just a few weeks, he won't be holding a Sam Adams, he'll be holding a... hmm, a what? Clearly, we need to come up with a name for this brewery. Anyway, soon he'll be holding and drinking his own homemade beer (and so will I! I get extra bonus points for helping M. start a new hobby that ALSO benefits me!).

Hope you all had wonderful holidays, too. See you next year!

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells

Ever feel like Christmas shopping is less about the people on your list, and more about the obligation of gift-giving? I know this makes me sound scrooge-ish, so I'd like to assure you that I really do like giving people gifts, especially gifts they actually like. But Christmas shopping - I don't know, I just find it harder and harder to enjoy it each year. I think part of it is the idea of having a list of people to buy for. And I should note that I don't actually have a written list, this is more of a mental/metaphorical list. There are so many people to shop for, and I'm terrified of forgetting someone (Note to self: You really should have an actual, literal list). The list of people I buy gifts for has grown exponentially in the last 6-7 years, and I just cannot keep track. Nor can I make up my mind about what to buy anyone.

So instead of enjoying the shopping process, I race from aisle to aisle, website to website. Is this the right gift? Well, *I* like it, but what does that mean? Would anyone else? Is it too much? Not enough? Should I get one more thing?

Christmas shopping is a nightmare for the indecisive.

And it really seems as though everywhere I turn, I truly am being asked to add to my shopping list. For example, kids bring daycare, and daycares have teachers that deserve to be gifted at the holidays. All 4 of them (since each kid has two), and then there's the support staff and director that shouldn't be left out. Not to mention the charity drive at work, and the charity drive at daycare, and the secret santa toy Finn and Lucy will each have to bring to the daycare Christmas party, and the check for the cleaning lady, and the bonus for the cat sitter, and the gift card for the babysitter...

So, hey, Merry Christmas!

Sorry, maybe I am a little Scrooge-y after all.

I have decided that if reincarnation is a real thing, I'm going to be reincarnated into a profession where people are obligated to buy me gifts at Christmas. Target gift cards, here I come.

Eh, I'm kind of in a bad mood lately, which is likely coloring this post and my Christmas attitude (it really is my favorite holiday, swearsies). I am completely lacking in all motivation - dieting, exercise, work, being a good wife, being a good mom - I am not having success or enjoyment in any of those areas of my life.

But I got my hair cut today, and that made me feel better. And it is not entirely the result of the hairdresser's comment that I have a head completely free of gray hair (yes, it is true, and yes, I am knocking on wood. And yes, I did let her know that as the mom of two young children, I felt as though the gray was certainly on its way), but that didn't hurt. So maybe things are looking up.

Hey, pictures!


Trying on big bro's Halloween costume


Getting ready to gab on the play phone


Posing with Optimus Prime, a new toy obsession courtesy of McDonald's


Guitar lessons from Dad


Lucy demonstrates questionable babysitting skills with Curious George


Aargh!


Friday was Pajama Day and Bring Your Teddy Bear to School Day - aren't they cute?!

And, lest you think that Lucy is a complete angel who never gives us any cause for irritation, a little clip of a Lucy tantrum. Brought on by we can't remember what, but good god, it is hilarious. Also note that before M. got the camera out, she was actually kicking the floor.