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Showing posts from December, 2009

December recap

My friend Melody did a fun post a few days ago where she dumped her camera and found how busy her family had been in the past month. Well, I don't need to dump my pictures to find that out but thought it would be fun to remember our month too. Journaling in pictures is so much more fun (to me!) than using a pen and paper -- although I have plenty of those laying around too. . . Margaret's ballet center allows parent observation once a quarter and December had one of those dates. It is fun to see how much she's progressed from time-to-time. Our kids had their annual Christmas program at school early in December. The first night were grades K-3, the second night grades 4-8 so we trekked up there both nights. Frederick is in the front row (8th from left, if there is a grandparent blowing up the picture on their computer). They sang "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth". He hasn't lost a single tooth yet. (One was pulled about two years ago. . .h

Another season behind us. . .

We are back home after a whirlwind few days. It's always so nice to go "home" and see everyone and eat well and visit and relax. . .and then it's so nice to come back HOME and step back into our season of life as 6. We almost always have discussions about why we live here and everyone else lives there when we get home. And they go something like this: "We left because you wanted to" "You like your job here better" "Are we depriving our children of their grandparents by not being closer?" "I love the weather here -- hate the weather there" "We like the peace and isolation from the 'real world' that we have here" "We don't like not having the opportunities for our children that bigger cities have" "I like getting out of that traffic -- I always forget how bad it is" "I wish I was there to help. . .but know it's good that I'm here or it would consume me" "I

He came!!!

JESUS CAME!!! The prophets told of His coming and today, we get to yet again celebrate God's fulfilled promise to all mankind! I don't know what time the kids got up. . .we went to church last night then asked them to allow the adults to sleep until 8 a.m. Tom and I got up then and Margaret was still sleeping!! When we got downstairs, baby Jesus had already been put in the Nativity (we mail Santa baby Jesus each year so He can be our first gift of the day) and Thomas & Marie had already looked up the Bible versus Santa had left them. Aunt Kathy didn't get up for another hour so they had that time to wait. . .and wait. . .at 6, 7, 9, and 11 it's still hard :) Gifts were passed out, opened, pictures, and fun! Marie had such a good time explaining the baskets to everyone who got them (3 were passed out on Wednesday night). I was frustrated because the playing cards that I had ordered for the baskets never came, but since I had them sent up here when they come they will

Let the Festivities Begin!

We packed up yesterday afternoon and headed the 300 miles north to family for Christmas. The family gifts turned out GREAT! I'm really happy with them and I think the kids are too. Four families are getting the canvas baskets and then my dad and stepmom will get this: And my sister-in-law, the most practical one, will receive the plastic tote. We wrote letters to everyone and signed them, then wrapped and packed. We made chocolate-covered pretzels (ala My Kitchen Cafe ) and the peanut butter ritz crackers dipped in candy coating (forget where that idea came from???? I've seen it millions of times though) and packaged those things up and put them in tins in the baskets too. The kids really enjoyed making those and I enjoyed doing it with them! Time to head out for our first celebration!!!

My family's favorite dessert

PEANUT BUTTER PIE is, by far, the most-requested dessert in this house. We are celebrating our Christmas with just the 6 of us tomorrow and yet again, this was the request for our Christmas dinner. I almost always have the ingredients on hand! This is what you need: 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter8 oz. cream cheese, softened 1 8 oz. container Cool Whip 1 tsp. vanilla 1 cup powdered sugar 2 tbsp. milk 1/2 bag of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips 1 graham cracker crust (I use the +2 servings size) Mix the peanutbutter, cream cheese, 3/4 container of the Cool Whip, vanilla, powdered sugar, and milk together until the consistency is that of pudding. I usually don't put the milk in straight-away and use enough to make this consistency. . .2 T is usually about right though. You don't *need* an electric mixer for this but if you have one, might as well use it! When everything is well blended, stir in 1/2 bag of the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. Put all of this into the prepared pie