The Aftermath.

Whew. It's over.
Did you survive?

We did, but I'm not sure our house did.
I'm still trying to dig out from the gift-unwrapping aftermath.
I think I might have seen a glimpse of my carpet today, but I'm not entirely sure....

And I'm still wondering why toys need to be secured in their packaging with 47 twist ties.
Really. Is that absolutely necessary?

But other than a twist tie injury here and there, we had a wonderful Christmas.

The boys received the only present they asked for
(which we had managed to convince them they weren't receiving...
hence the shocked look on Riley's face!)
They were beyond happy.

Avery was in princess-heaven and is up to her eyeballs in pink and glitter.
(And wait till you see what my dad made her. Crazy cute....)

And Santa even remembered me, despite being up to his eyeballs in grout.
Love that Santa.

And now Christmas '09 is one for the history books
and I am ready to get the tree back up in the attic and get my house back.
{I love it when the house is decorated, but I'm so ready for it come down.}

I hope your Christmas was lovely and warm and full of memories.
And that the remainder of 2009 treats you well.
Bring on the new decade!

Baking...With Children.

Baking cookies with the kids always seems like such a fun way to spend a day of Christmas vacation.

But baking with kids is actually...
let's see, how should I put this...
not relaxing.

There's a lot of refereeing.
And never enough mixing to divide between three people.
(Because each kid thinks they *NEED* to be mixing something all the time. Anything!)
And a lot of time spent cleaning up flour.

But the end result is always nice.

Fudge, gingerbread cookies, chocolate chip cookies (per Santa's request), pretzel hugs, and salt dough ornaments.
My shoulders were sore yesterday from rolling out dough.
(So sad. Work out, much?)


I'm guessing we'll have a pretty decent sugar high on Christmas.

What's your favorite Christmas treat?
Definitely my Pampa's fudge for me.
With my dad's peanut brittle a close second.

{And on that note: I will consume only spinach and tofu in January to make up for all of this December eating debauchery.}

That's a Wrap.

As of this afternoon...I'm done.
Done shopping.
Done stressing.
And almost done wrapping.

Thanks to my parents who took the kids overnight last night,
I spent quite a few uninterrupted hours here this morning
wrapping...
reading blogs...
drinking coffee...
and watching The Devil Wears Prada.
(I know it's not very Christmas-ey, but I love Meryl Streep!)


Since I'm done shopping, the next two days will be filled with baking.
I had Riley go through my Martha Stewart cookie magazine tonight and circle the cookies he thought looked good.
(I'd estimate 75% of them are circled.)

Tomorrow we'll bake cookies,
make fudge (Christmas isn't Christmas unless we have fudge),
and make some salt dough ornaments to give to cousins.

And I'll try to keep the kids out of his way:

Yep. Tiling the kids' bathroom.
Goodbye grody linoleum!
I'm so happy to see it go.
New flooring was just about the only thing I wanted from Santa this year.

(Well, that and a new necklace...but I'm pretty sure Santa is up to his eyeballs in grout.)

The Truth.

Here's the real reason that I may...possibly...sometimes let laundry pile up on my couch.

Not because I'm too busy...
sewing
blogging
making truffles
avoiding housework.

Simply because my sweet girl loves the full, comfy laundry basket so much.

Would you be able to deprive her of such fun?

The Dog Days of December.

When a less-than frigid day comes along in December...


you've got to take advantage of it.
Run, run, run.


{Isn't that shirt the cutest? Old Navy.}


Lucy was very appreciative of all the attention the boys were giving her.
And she is now snoring on the floor by my feet.
They totally wore her out.


Hopefully we'll get some more mild days when the kids are off the next two weeks.
Can you imagine two weeks of rain while the kids are on vacation?
Aack - a Christmas nightmare!

T-minus 8 days until the big day.
Are you ready??

Cookie Dough Truffles. You're Welcome.

Want to make friends and influence people?
Read on.

This holiday season, as you attend countless parties at school, church, work, friends' homes, you'll no doubt be whipping up a goodie or two (hundred) to take with you.

Put down your cookie cutters and your fruit cakes. This is the recipe to take.


These truffles taste exactly like chocolate chip cookie dough, except without the pesky raw egg/salmonella thing.


And trust me when I say that people love them.


Especially little people with ponytails.


Try them. Really. But be warned: I cannot guarantee that gluttony will not result from making these truffles.

Cookie Dough Truffles
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
(1/2 cup chopped nuts optional)
1-1/2 pounds semisweet chocolate candy coating (this is the Wilton brand that I used...you can buy it anywhere that sells cake decorating supplies)

In bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy.
Add the flour, condensed milk, and vanilla; mix well.
Stir in the chocolate chips (& nuts if using).
Shape into 1 inch balls; place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets.
Loosely cover & refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours or until firm.

Melt candy coating according to package directions. (I microwaved mine in 30 second increments.)
Dip balls in coating; place on wax papered baking sheets.
Refrigerate until firm, aprox. 15 minutes.
Optional: drizzle remaining candy coating on top, or use red & green candy melts like I did.

Makes aprox. 5 dozen


****************
Don't forgot...Project 320 is going on right now!
Help build a well with clean water and make a HUGE difference in many people's lives.
(And you can win some super cute things to boot. Win/win!)

Did I Mention He's Single?

This is my brother.
My cute single brother.


...who happens to be a super nice (single) coffee roaster.
Not a coffee shop, but a roasting company.
{Isn't that cool?}

Anyway...that cute single brother mentions one day to you that he can get you some burlap.
OK, a LOT of burlap.

Hmmm...burlap, you say?

So my cute single brother brought me over a *bunch* of burlap.

And here is the first of what might be a bunch of burlap crafts.


Isn't my single brother just the best?

::Fragments::

Christmas cards...(almost) check.
Need to run and buy a few more stamps.
I actually enjoy addressing envelopes and seeing the names of all of our friends we don't see often.
{Miss you Mari...Amy...Jenny....}

New (old) window
with lots of sentimental value.
I'm thinking of painting the frame....
The mantel's still a work in progress.

A paint obsession.
Avery loves it;
and I realize that I hate the smell of tempera paint.
She has used up all of the pink paint in about 3 days.

Why?
Because - to quote her - "I yike pink".


This has been a long week for us.
Avery gave us a little scare, but she's fine.
Gary and I may have some new gray hair, but she's perfect.

I read this a lot this week.
It's one of my favorites.
I'm a worrier by nature, so I go back to it a lot.
Maybe I need to get it tattooed somewhere.

Just kidding.
**Hip hip hooray for Friday!**

Water.

Have you heard?

It's *the* gift to give this season.

Too many people in this world have no access to clean water.
Something we all take for granted daily.

But we can help.
Julie had a vision, and there are many people working to make it happen.
(Me included.)
Find out more here.


Make a change in a real person's life: help build a well.
{And as a bonus: you can win some fun goodies!}

Money well spent, don't you think?

So Much To Do.

This time of year is beautiful...joyous...meaningful...and lovely, isn't it?

And also ridiculously scheduled and crazy.

Some days I feel like I'm just treading water.

Do you ever feel like you're spinning your wheels?
There are nights after the kids go to bed, and I look around the house and wonder, "What exactly did I get done today?"

Frustrating.
There's a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in.
{It will get done...right?}

And the last few days here have looked nothing like this:


They have been {{cold}}.
We actually had a few snow flakes today.
Snow?!?
The last snow I remember in this area was in 1986.
Brrr.

I am not looking forward to the electric bill next month.

And...decorated!

Whew - glad that's done.
Time to sit back...have a pumpkin spice flavored coffee...and break out the Christmas movies.

What are your favorites?

It's not Christmas unless we watch (hopefully multiple times) "The Christmas Story", "Christmas Vacation", "Miracle on 34th St." (black & white), and - of course - "It's a Wonderful Life".

{And does Gary ever loooooove watching oodles of Christmas movies all month. Almost as much as he loves listening to Christmas music non-stop!}

And I just bought "Elf" at Target.
Off to add it to the queue....

A Christmas Tea.

Don't you love a good English tea?

My new favorite Christmas tradition:

My mom, Avery (with Pooh bear), and I went to our second annual Teddy Bear Tea on Sunday.

It's such a treat: fancy dresses, Christmas carols and stories, lovely decorations, and the best goodies.


Avery thought it was fantastic.


Did you know lemonade tastes better when sipped from a teacup?


All was well until Santa made his appearance.
She's still not a fan.

Between the snow on Saturday and the tea on Sunday, I'm definitely ready for Christmas.
Except I'm not.
I have nothing done.
The tree's not up.
The boxes aren't even down from the attic.

Guess what I'm doing tonight?

Brrrr.

On the day after Thanksgiving I've never been one to get up at 3am and head to Target with bed head.
But I applaud those of you that do. I'm just not that dedicated!

So on Black Friday...we made it a White Friday.

We go to Tahoe every summer, but had never been in the winter.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm less of a 'skier' and more of a 'lodger'? Not sure.

Instead of fighting the crowds at Target we did a lot of this.

And this.
And this.

I think, possibly, that it's more work to prepare kids for the snow than it is for the beach.
By the time I dressed everyone in thermals, snow bibs, thick socks, mittens, scarves, jackets, and hats...I was pooped.
(I felt like that mom in The Christmas Story getting Randy ready to walk to school.)
I swear we had hundreds of pounds of snow gear.

And we needed all of it.
It was {{freezing}}.
And windy.
They closed the gondola up to Heavenly where we had planned on taking the kids tubing.
There were a lot of disappointed snow boarders walking around.

So we found our own snow park and sledded our hearts out.

And...just to prove I was there...and since Julie brought it up...and so my children will know I actually did go on vacations with them, too...here I am.

We made our way back down the mountain, and completed the trip in the only way possible:

It's a rule.
You must stop at In-N-Out on the way home from Tahoe.
(I think it's in life's instruction manual...I'll look it up sometime.)

The Day Before.

Today was a kitchen sort of day.
{Raise your hand if you spent some serious time in yours, too? I thought so!}

So of course where there is marathon cooking, there is also this:


Aack! My aching dishpan hands!

I made one old favorite...


and a couple of new-to-me recipes.
(Including my grandmother's marshmallow dip recipe. On my first attempt, I stupidly forgot to temper the egg whites before adding the boiling sugar so I ended up with marshmallow-flavored scrambled egg whites. Mmm!)

And of course (like always) I had some help.


And, yes...doesn't it look so picture-perfect here?

Be glad there are no pictures (or videos) or me screaming at the boys later in the afternoon for their non-stop wrestling/play-fighting/crying-because-someone-got-hurt-from-the-horseplay-after-I-told-them-to-stop-482 times.

{Cleansing breath.}

But...I'm still thankful. Even for that chaos.
And for the messes as well.


Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.
I'll be at the sink if you need me.

The Last Few Days...

The kids and I have been laying low and enjoying the down time.
OK...and eating our sandwiches on the fireplace.


Avery has discovered the joy of princesses and plays with these all. the. time.
She has been asking to take a bath at least three times a day because she likes them in the tub.


Sunday we celebrated Gary's parents 40th anniversary so the kids got to log in some time with their cousins.
(And with some mini flashlights.)


Don't they have a great view from their front yard?


Monday we all stayed in our jammies until dinner time.
And I'm not really sure why we got out of them then. What was the point?

Other than that we've just enjoyed a little rain and the soon-to-be-gone color.



The temperature is down and the swings have been empty more often lately.


So much to be thankful for.
And I'm definitely trying to be more conscious of it all this week.