I guess it's a little late

But here's your FHE idea for today!  It's so dear. 

And hopefully your kids aren't prone to crawling all over the couch and fake burping...they might get more out of it that way.  Even if they are that way, I defy them to not take a little something away from this.

Merry Christmas!

All I want for Christmas

is my two front teeth.













Then I could wish you Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread's for Suckers

My mom and dad came to visit a few weeks ago (as did Matt's parents and sister...but we're getting there one post at a time). One of the highlights of their trip was making Christmas trains. We discussed making homemade gingerbread for about a minute and then struck upon graham crackers! Voila! Seriously, until your kids are old enough to care about having an authentic gingerbread experience, go graham! And even then are there lots of kids who do care about an authentic gingerbread experience? Hmmm.

Another debate we had that lasted about 1 second was whether the boys should build and decorate the train or just decorate it. Answer? Just decorate it. Always just decorate it at these ages. Sure creativity and building skills are nice things to develop, but again, not that day in our household. Dad was commissioned with the train building while the rest of us adults pondered if the kids were even going to want to decorate them. I mean, the eternal question of decorating a train with candy is: put the candy on the train or in your mouth? We assumed that the answer was in your mouth. Always in your mouth.

Much to our delight (and surprise) they dove right in! We pointed out some strategically piped frosting as good sticky points for their candy and they got busy.




























The boys had a great time choosing what to put where and, well, eating candy. Apparently the two are not mutually exclusive!




























Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for this fun and tasty activity. Veeery tasty.

The Nativity

I'm trying to post from the unending backlog of pictures and memories residing in my hard drive. To say nothing of my need to blog about our recent trip to Alabama. (So warm and fun...did I mention warm?)

But let's dig a little deeper into my archives. Get ready for some joy.

As many of you know we spent Christmas in Chicago this year. We missed being with extended family but enjoyed not traveling. We also felt how special it was to begin our own little Christmas traditions.

Christmas Eve equals a reenactment of the Nativity for me (a tradition from my side of the family) and as we weren't interested in reinventing the wheel we gathered our costumes and had us a pageant. We "performed" about a 15 second Nativity, as attention spans were short, and it was delightful.

Here's to our cast:

Mother and child (I hope this is obvious).














And (you won't be disappointed) Joseph/Shepherd 2 (Matt) and Shepherd 1 (Jacob). Note the shepherd's cane.














Merry Christmas in February!

To Make a Cookie

I don't know why I haven't blogged lately. Lost the vision? Tired? Busy doing dishes? Whatever it is, I am trying to edge my way back. I was just flipping through the incredible backlog of wonderful blog-worthy moments and this little series caught my eye.

These were taken when Grandma Jan, Natalie & Jackson were in Chicago. Grandma Jan is all about two things: photo ops and new experiences. So the making of sugar cookies was a must. These pictures just capture Nico for me and have to be shared. Thank you Grandma for making these moments happen.

He's observant, up for fun, a tad bit gullible, intent on his work and generally sweet, sweet, sweet. To Nico!































The first of many attempts at the dough.













See what I mean by gullible?













Fool me twice...













I love his calm, inquisitive demeanor as Grandma hands him the sprinkles. What delicacy. What grace. What refinement.













This sprinkling picture makes my heart jump for joy. Everything about it. I can almost hear his little mind saying, "shake, shake, shake".





































To the cookie...and to Nico! (The boogers really add a lot.)

Here's to a great December!

Look at what I'm getting for Christmas!

Shhhh! Don't tell!


















It's Nicholas's first Christmas and it's Jacob's first Christmas that he cares about it! Hip, hip hooray!

Watching Christmas

Growing up our family had Christmas traditions just like anyone else...but one of my favorites was our yearly watching of Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas.



It's, well, wonderful. It tells the story of Emmet and his mother, "Ma", as they try to buy each other nice Christmas gifts. It's very "Gift of the Maggi" -- Muppet style! (Sounds great, huh?) It's also a little bit country, which is oddly appealing. Anyway, I love it and Jacob does too! It's now his movie of choice. He simply calls it "Christmas" and I couldn't be happier.

If you'd like to experience some of the joys of Emmet Otter please go here. This is actually one of the lullabies I sing to the boys. Added bonus, this weird little montage of scenes from the movie has the "John Denver & the Muppets" (a great Christmas album) version of the song. Like I say, just the right amount of country.