hope

There are 12 hours left in 2010. And I am filled with hope for the New Year. 

Hope that we, our family and friends will continue to enjoy good health and avoid hardship.  Hope that we can do things this year that bring our family even closer, and create awesome memories together.  Hope that our boys continue to grow, learn and thrive and that we, as their parents can always have the patience and understanding they need from us.

Hope that we never, ever lose perspective about how lucky we really are.

Happy New Year, from our family to yours.  May 2011 be overflowing with love, laughter and joy.

A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas Day started out rough for me.  I was feeling so terrible with the flu, and forced myself out of bed early to shower and tried convince myself I felt better.  The boys slept in until 8 am, I was surprised but it was nice to have that extra time to guzzle more Dayquil.  Once we all made it downstairs, the magic began.

In the early afternoon, we followed our tradition of  heading over to my Mom's to meet up with my stepsisters and brother and their families. 

Here are my handsome guys in the car, ready to go.

Mom and Robby with the boys.

Logan and Maya

Grandpa Robby

My SIL Jessica, and Maya

Logan and Cousin Asijah

Andrew, my brother Chris, my stepsisters husband Jay

Captain Rob!

The Christmas Feast

A wonderful Christmas.  We're so lucky, and so thankful.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve, Grandpa Joe and Grandma Bobbie came up for an overnight visit.  I came down with some sort of flu virus and coughed my way through the holiday this year.  I'm still feeling, well, like reindeer poop.  So disappointing, but not much you can do...   

I certainly wasn't at the top of my hosting game, but I tried to do the best I could.  My stepmom was a total lifesaver and picked up where I had to slack.  And I didn't even get a picture of her, ugh!  Since I was feeling so horrible, we had to skip taking the kids to the Christmas Eve service at church. 

Chris and Jessica came over for Christmas Eve and we enjoyed a nice evening together.  The photos of the whole family together are on my brothers camera, so once I have those I'll post later.  I wish I had gotten better photos of the cousins all playing together.

My Dad brought something special to share with all of our kids.  When I was a little girl, we had this brass angel candle thingy... you light the candles and the heat makes the angels spin and look like they are flying.  Here he is showing it to the kids.  He told Dylan he's now in charge of it every Christmas, since he's the oldest grandchild.

We had some festive libations and munchies...

We got Santa's cookies and milk ready, spread the reindeer food outside and got ready for a long winter nap. 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight.

cookie day

Yesterday, the official first day of the kids Winter Break, we spent the entire day dirtying up Grandma's kitchen baking  a whole lotta cookies.  A whole lotta cookies, and a whole lotta mess.  Aunt Jessica, Maya and Josh came over, we rolled up our sleeves and got busy. 

We made chocolate chip, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate Rolo pretzels, and old fashioned cut out sugar cookies.  I haven't made those in years and the flavor brings back so many good Christmas memories. The kids have fun mixing up lots of colored icing, and probably got as many sprinkles on the floor as they did the cookies.

Logan's gift

Logan's precious Christmas preschool program was this morning.  All month, his backpack has come home empty as they've been working hard on secret projects, gifts and songs, all to be unveiled today. 

My camera isn't great, and I had to do the best I could from where I was sitting.  He's 2nd row from the top, all the way at the end, red vest and white turtleneck.

They sang a whole list of songs, each one sweeter than the one before.  I adore his school and the work the staff puts into every program.  The kids learned hand motions for every song, and stood proudly singing their hearts out.

Logan loves to sing Jingle Bells. 

After the performance, each class hosted a party and the kids presented their parents with adorable homemade gifts.  These are the moments you live for as a parent.  His class had a special performance back in the classroom and every child had a line to say about the Symbols of Christmas.

Logan's line was "The Three Wise Men gave Jesus special gifts."  Forgive me, I shot this video portrait thinking I could flip it later but no can do...  Just think of him as laying down. 

You're my special gift, buddy. So proud of you.

O Christmas Tree

National Christmas Tree, Sunday December 19th.  Isn't it spectacular?

roasted root veggies

Today is the first official day of winter and I'm already missing summer produce.  Its going to be a long time before we'll be enjoying fresh corn on the cob, or delicious caprese salad.  So, may as well settle in and enjoy what the produce department has to offer right now.  And you know...root vegetables are actually quite tasty, inexpensive and nutritious.   

Before last week I had never eaten a rutabaga in my entire life, or a parsnip.   A rutabaga looks like a cross between a turnip, a potato and a beet.  Mine was more white than this one.  And you have to peel off the waxy outside.

And a parsnip looks exactly like a white carrot.

We love sweet potatoes (even the boys love them).  So last week I decided to roast them all up together. 

Its easy...  just buy a large sweet potato, large rutabaga, a couple of parsnips and some baby carrots.  Cut them all into 1 inch chunks.   Cut up some sweet onion for good measure... you can never go wrong by adding onion.  If you want to get fancy, add some fresh sprigs of rosemary. But if you don't have any, don't worry.  Put them all in a ziploc, add a couple TBSP of olive oil. Toss them til coated.  Spread out on sprayed foiled cookie sheet.  Add salt and pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Stir them up so bottoms don't burn, roast for another 15 or so til fork tender.

I have to admit, I didn't really like the parsnips.  But the rutabagas surprised me... kind of a cabbage potato sort of flavor, with a sweet tang to them.  And the whole pan full veggies cost less than $5.

raising boys

Somehow, Dylan has lived on this planet 7 1/2 years and had never seen The Wizard of Oz.  What kind of mother am I?  I don't remember what age I was when I first saw it, but I'm pretty sure it was before I was 7 1/2.  Well, we DVR'ed it last night (along with A Christmas Story which I will be quoting now all week) and settled in after breakfast this morning for some couch snuggling and movie watching.

We aren't fifteen minutes into it when Dylan looks at me, raises his eyebrows during the third or fourth song and asks "Is there going to be a lot of singing in this movie?"... and sighed.   He humored me and watched the whole thing. 

But I'm guessing I won't be getting him to watch this anytime soon.

By the way, these guys kill me!  I now have Andrew's next Halloween costume idea.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

The gifts are wrapped, meals are planned, the kids only have a couple of days of school left. All that remains is to sit back, enjoy the holiday and be thankful for this time together.

There'll be a whole lotta cookie baking going on at our house this week.  Its not that I even eat many of them once they're baked....just a few.   Really, its more about making something that comes from your heart and sharing it with people you love.

And I love me some peanut butter.

Peanut butter cookies rock, and these cookies take it to the next level with a mini-peanut butter cup in every one!  These are quick, easy and foolproof!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups

Completely unwrap the mini peanut butter cups, place them in a small bowl and place in the freezer while you make the dough and bake the cookies.  Freezing them makes them easier to push into the baked dough without crumbling and melting quickly.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; mix well. Shape into 24 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. They will easily press into the dough.  Cool and remove from pan. 

Makes 24 cookies, but you can easily double or triple the recipe..   You'll want more than 24!
 

sending our love

As the holiday nears, each day is becoming more and more of a whirlwind.  The kids both have holiday programs coming up at school.  There have been teacher gifts to buy and to bake.  Gifts to wrap and soon (hopefully, c'mon Snapfish!) there will be holiday cards to address and mail.  By the middle of next week, both kids will be out of school and we'll really be in the middle of the magic.  I hope it doesn't go by too quickly.

At this moment, I have this in the oven.  It just isn't Christmas until I make my dear Grandma Unklesbay's Party Mix.  Hers taste so much better than the current recipe you find on the side of the cereal boxes.  It makes a ton and is easily packaged up to take to a party, give as a gift, or just munch while you watch your favorite Christmas movie.

Another thing I love about this time of the year.... going to the mailbox.  Yes, its been 24 degrees out everyday lately but I still love heading to the mailbox to see which of our friends and family have sent us a card.  I love displaying them on a clothesline between our kitchen and family room, and I'm always sad in January when its time to take them down.  In the past, I've used them to make a collage for the boys of their friends and family.  But maybe this year I'll just keep the clothesline up all year. 

Its such an old fashioned gesture, sending these cards in these days of Facebook and email.   Not to mention expensive and time consuming.  But just like my Grandma's party mix, it just wouldn't be Christmas without the exchange of cards with our most dear friends and family.  I love the updates, and the thought that goes into every card to choose just the right pictures and words. 

I wish I had time to sit down and right a personal message to every single person on our list.  That ended when kids came, but its one reason I have this blog.  It would be impossible to sum it all up in one Christmas card anyway.  Or even a hundred.

ICE!

Yesterday, we enjoyed a great day at the Gaylord at National Harbor for ICE!  This years' theme is How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and it was hard not to be impressed at how the artisans carve 20 million pounds of ice into an extravagant display of color and life. We invited my Mom and Robby, making a day of seeing the magnificent decorations at the Gaylord hotel, walking around the shops and taking it all in.  We stayed until it got dark so we could check out the atrium of the Gaylord, all lit up and it even snowed inside!

Its 9 degrees inside the exhibit, so they give you these sporty blue parkas to wear over your other layers.  We weren't sure we'd feel very cold, since we already had our regular coats on, after 15 minutes in there, we were sure glad to have the extra layer!

 Ice slide!

ice tunnel!

At the end of the exhibit was a giant Christmas tree made entirely of Peeps!

After ICE, and lunch, we wandered around the harbor checking out the very cool Awakening sculpture and Peep store.

A walk- up Peep window!

Then it was back to the Gaylord for cocoa, people watching and gazing at the lights and decorations.  Spectacular. 

Their 60 foot Christmas tree, made of glass and suspended in the air.

Cocoa!

snow!

And, the sugar crash on the way home.