They've been working on for a full week straight. Designing, cutting, sanding, painting, assembling, weighing, testing. To be fair, and allow each the level of participation they desire, two cars were made. The son's car, and the dad's car. Both enjoyed the experience immensely. Both learned a lot for next year.
The whole family went out to support Sam at his race. We were all thrilled with how his car turned out. Sam really wanted a Jayhawk on his car, not just red and blue paint (pictured above, far left - red and blue with blue wheels). We were able to use temporary tattoos for the Jayhawk decals on the nose and tail of the car. Worked really well and a clear protective coat kept it from rubbing off.
Both cars won lots of races. Sam placed 5th in the Boy Scout division and was so pleased with his car!
GR's car raced in the open division. He worked really hard on his car ... using a sweet design he found on line, spending lots of time in Bob's workshop getting cuts just right, and the final touch - a special color changing paint. We are all very proud of his car ... and were all pleasantly surprised when it won ... race, after race, after race.
Yesterday, Anna turned 18 months and we've started the process of going to nursery. She did very well today, but I'm not holding my breath (and well, since I'm really typing this on the 1st of March, let's be honest, she's not gone back unless her daddy is with her, oh the long road we have a head of us). She looked super cute yesterday with her hair all done up and wearing a "fancy" dress (Rebecca's first Christmas dress - what were we doing putting a 9 month old in a size 18 month dress ... first time parents I guess). I of course didn't get pictures before it all went down hill, so today I sat Anna down after doing her hair and took a few pictures. I'm including some outtakes so you can see just how expressive this kid is. Ahhh, she doesn't have any words -- none -- but she can sure convey what she wants to with her face.
Oh the snow! WOW! What fun the kids have had!! And I found snow pants in the next three necessary sizes. Apparently, the last time I purchased snow pants I needed 5T ... ahem ... yeah, that doesn't even fit Sam now.
So ... the kids four day weekend was spent playing out in the snow with their good friends from up the street. Oh how I will miss these kids being able to play with each other next month. While I'm really looking forward to the space that country living will allow, the appeal of the neighborhood and children being able to arrange/transport themselves to and from play dates, I am really going to miss this, and so are they.
Tonight we - actually I guess it was really only me, GR didn't get home until the night was well underway, hummm anyway - got a taste of what it would be like to feed 8 children 10 and under. The oldest three are the same ages, roughly speaking. At most they are about 6 months apart. So here's our family if we'd had three sets of twins:
I managed to satisfy all but one child's taste buds with chicken enchiladas. I was pretty impressed by that turn out.
Last weekend while GR and I were packing and moving boxes, their family invited the three big kids to stay for pizza at their house - so very unexpected and very generous. School was canceled for tomorrow making it the perfect chance to return the favor. Plus the girls were itching to make a new special dessert and this was a great chance to share it with everyone:
It's inspired by dessert parfaits they saw in an American Girl Magazine from the library. But it's basically a variation of Death by Chocolate - one of GR's signature desserts. Brownie bites, crushed Girl Scout Thin Mints, chocolate pudding, topped with a bit of whipped cream and a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips. Yum!!
Kansas got 8-10 inches of snow Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and then the day after Christmas. Being out of town, some good friends paid someone going door to door to clear our driveway along with others in the neighborhood (widows, single parents, etc.) less likely to be able to do it on their own. With the huge pile of snow heaped along the curb in the front yard, the kids wanted to make a snow cave. GR spent an hour this morning with a shovel and a few gardening tools digging out a small cave for the kids to play in ... perfect! If the temperatures hold, I think I may be sent to the store in search of snow pants later today. The multiple layers the kids have been donning for the last 24 hours really only keeps them warm and dry for 30 minutes and by 45 they are inside pealing wet frozen clothes off the body.
If the little ones weren't barking like seals they'd be out there too!
We're letting the kids stay up late (They strongly petitioned to be allowed to stay up until midnight, and we strongly denied their petition.) and we played four rounds of Blokus Classic, one of several games the kids got for Christmas. So much fun for everyone to play! A little after nine we sent the kids to bed, I kissed GR good-bye (he's spending a couple hours with the youth tonight at their activity) and I am going to make a valiant effort to bring my blog up-to-date so yes your blog reader is going to freak out and no I don't expect you to read many or any of them.
I've read so many well written New Year wishes today ... I know mine will not come close to being as eloquent. Last year I choose my new years wishes carefully, wishing all a blessed new year, knowing the year, as each does, would bring immeasurable happiness, joy, love, trial, pain, heartache, and sorrow. I am grateful for the tremendous blessings 2009 brought, for the many tender mercies of the Lord, in my life.
In the same vein, I wish you all a year of strength. May 2010 bring you strength in body, mind and spirit, strength in character, strength in relationships, strength in motherhood ... ah the amazing year we will have if even a 10th of this wish is granted!
My brother, in jest, challenged Daddy to blow out his candles using a party horn blower. He did it, twice - counter clockwise and then clockwise - without catching it on fire.
Well folks if you were hoping to get a Christmas card from us, I can tell you right now it won't be coming in 2009. I'm thinking, "we've moved cards" with our new address around Valentines Day might be nice. All of us crowded around a mound of moving boxes could make for a charming picture ...
So let this be our heartfelt wish to you and yours for a very merry Christmas! Know that we love you and cherish our association with each of you whether you are near or far. It's been great fun opening all your wonderful cards, reading your Christmas letters, and seeing how much your beautiful children have grown, while you haven't aged a day!
We are looking forward to spending lots of quality time with family both here in Kansas and in St. Louis over the next week. We are all looking forward to talking with my sisters who live far far away - I am so grateful for amazing technology that makes it possible for time and distance to vanish even for just a handful of minutes.
I'll leave you with pictures from some of our Christmas Eve festivities with GR's parents:
Playing B-I-N-G-O! This was great fun and a game we could play a few rounds of, walk away and come back to repeatedly throughout the day. Diane picks fantastic prizes (could be done in lieu of stocking stuffers if you have an older crowd) ... chocolates, hand lotions and sanitizer, small pocket games, flash lights, cars, lip gloss, etc.:
Birdseed Wreaths:
Very fitting since it's snowing right now, and 'it doesn't show signs of stopping'. Use refrigerated bread sticks, roll into a ~10 inch snake, brush with egg white and roll in bird seed. Connect ends to form O or wreath shape. Bake bread as directed on the wrapper. Thread string through, tie a knot to create hanger. Hang on branches of trees for birds. .
We are mailing holiday packages this week, and so this evening we made a couple batches of our favorite holiday candy ... square pretzels topped with melted Rolos and M&Ms:
I'm hoping to also make peppermint bark, having now found white chocolate chips made with coco butter, but we'll see how the week plays out.
On a side note. Yesterday I woke up to no voice .... whispered, clapped and snapped my way through the day. Answering the phone was a joke. More than one person thought they'd dialed the wrong number. Today my voice worked enough that I could teach preschool, but after talking nonstop for 90 minutes, my voice was pretty much done for the day. Thankfully I sound much worse than I feel - I just hope it stays that way!
Friday night was the Ward Christmas Party, we dressed in our jammies to enjoy a 'ride' on the Polar Express. The evening was really well planned out and everyone had a wonderful time.
This year did have some unique challenges which, from what I hear, caused quite a stir among some ward members. I've gotta say, it is quite interesting being on this side of the Bishop ... oh the things people say ... any hoo ...
Our activities chair moved in November, and the ward budget got killed earlier in the year, consequently there was no one to plan the Christmas dinner/party and zero budget, and I mean zero budget, to fund it. The Young Men organized the evening and made assignments for activities. The dinner was potluck (we used real plates and silverware from the kitchen), and thanks a handful of families who went above and beyond their single dish assignments we had an amazing meal, and no one went hungry!
The Young Women did the decorations - reusing decorations from previous years and adding toy trains to the center of some of the tables. The Young Men did the setting up and helped the Young Women with washing the dishes. Primary (with the help of the Activity Day girls) had cookies for children to decorate. The Relief Society provided face painting - hands down the largest success of the night!, and a small bell ornament for the children to make. The men took care of putting up all the tables and chairs and sweeping down the cultural hall floor.
Saturday started with the brunch - what a great year! We were small in numbers this year, maybe 50-60 women. Only a handful of my friends were able to make it out this year, but we had a great time chatting and talking about holiday plans. And my Mom came out again this year with my dad! That is always such a fun surprise to have them walk through the doors and share this day with us! I think Diane and I are slowly finding a better balance in how many savory appetizers to provide and how many sweets to prepare. It's hard cutting back on the sweets, because there are so many good recipes! But the ladies to have their favorites, and neither of us has time to make something that isn't going to get eaten, even if it is super yummy.
On the heels of the brunch was a very special little girls baptism, so as soon as Mom and I got things from the burnch cleaned up we raced off to the church to meet up with GR, my Dad and the kids, and give our special baptism girl, lots of hugs and birthday wishes. Then I practiced with the ward choir for the Christmas program, GR sent the kids home with my parents. And we swung by a local holiday sale where a friend was selling some of my burp cloths and pillowcases along with her Kansas beef, so I could pick up the leftover product.
We spent an hour or so cleaning up the main floor of the house, trying to get everything from the ward party, the brunch and the sale put away. Then my dad helped Sam write a talk for Primary Sunday morning, I pulled together my sharing time for Primary, and GR got the last little bit for his fireside Sunday night taken care of. GR and my Dad fed the kids dinner while, Mom and I went shopping for ornaments so we could attended the ornament exchange at Katrina's. More great food, belly laughs, and great ornaments! Then it was home again to finish up sharing time, mom made banana muffins for Alex's nursery snack, and we all hit the sack.
GR and I got woken up by Emily at 3am. Rebecca threw-up on the top bunk and poor Emily got splattered in the face with vomit. What a way to wake up! While the girls showered, GR and I spent 45 minutes getting their room cleaned up, carpets steam cleaned, and laundry started. Rebecca stayed home from church with my mom and Anna.
Sam gave a wonderful talk. I'm saving the "notes" he wrote to help him remember what he and Grandpa prepared. They are charming and sweet in his six year old script. My sharing time worked relatively well despite waking up with a drippy nose and seriously sore throat. I could barely sing the base line, so choir was out for the afternoon. GR's youth/parent fireside on pornography this evening (with all three wards) went well. It gave parents and youth lots to talk about. And it looks like the three bishops are considering having it be an annual thing.
I'm looking forward to a quiet week. This weekend while extremely fun, was a bit much. And considering my throat isn't getting better, and my nose has already gone through one double roll of toilet paper in 24 hours, I'm thinking it's a good thing I'm only responsible for sending cookie decorating supplies to the kids holiday parties Friday!
For me the real start to the Christmas season starts with two things, The First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and the annual Christmas parade downtown. We worked hard to get everyone out the door early so we could get a good parking spot - note for next year 6:30 am is better than 7:00 am. We pulled in just after 8 and got a great spot, but it wasn't on the parade route. Grandma and Grandpa pulled in around 7 and got the very last spot.
It was a very cold, brisk morning. GR made a large batch of hot chocolate we stored in our "soccer" thermos, and I loaded up the back with quilts and fleece blankets, fearing the kids would never make it downtown for four hours if the temperatures held in the low 30s.
We started our morning with a lovely breakfast at the local bakery ... the kids all ate cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. While GR, Anna and I had a more "traditional" breakfast of eggs and hash browns. Note we all still fit in one booth! With how quickly the kids are growing, I doubt this will be possible next time we go in for breakfast.
Alex and Sam were in serious need of haircuts. There hasn't been time to get into have Ann cut their hair, so we stopped in at the local barber shop downtown before hooking up with Grandma and Grandpa to see the Gingerbread house display. This years Gingerbread houses are fantastic! The houses are donated by different members of the community, then placed in categories, judged and auctioned off to benefit the local Boys and Girls Club. It's a serious fund raiser that brings in big bucks for the charity. One of the gals from Diane's church group did a gingerbread house with her "little sister" and their house took 2nd place in their age division! We love walking around and seeing the many, many creative houses. It's always exciting to see houses built by people we know. This year, our friends Jeanie and Jeff did a fantastic Blue Clues house!
The parade was excellent - I'm sure I say that every year. Thankfully mother nature showed mercy on us and the glorious sun came out kept us nice and warm - for a cold day in December - making it perfect parade watching weather for December. Everyone sat in the back of Grandpa's truck with their cups of hot chocolate. They didn't even dig into any of the quilts we brought - something we haven't had to do in many years. Anna spent the first half of the parade in her stroller on the front lines of the parade. She vigorously waved at each participant and yelled "HA!... HA!" to them as they rode past.
This team of eight horses pulling a large wagon was one of the most impressive rigs in the parade:
We finished out our adventures with lunch at a local deli, not downtown.
Sam got a model car from his soccer friend Alec as a birthday gift back in July. Thinking it was a really involved model project we kept waiting for a day when GR had a couple of hours to devote to Sam and the car. Today was the day, after much waiting and asking and waiting and asking and waiting and asking, Sam got to put together his race car! It took a grand total of 15 minutes. The car looks amazing. Sam couldn't be more thrilled, and his parents learned a valuable lesson ... not everything is really as involved as it seems in our heads.
The only Black Friday Sale I shop is the Joann's sale. Black Friday means seriously cheap flannel, and well, I use a lot of flannel. Mom and I go every year no matter where we are for Thanksgiving. Last year was the first year we skipped it ... I had lots of flannel from the year before that I hadn't cut into and couldn't justify going. Most of that same flannel still hasn't been cut into, so again, we seriously considered not going. BUT the girls need jammie pants and I didn't have flannel that's really suited for 8-9 year old girl jammies. And really, for $1.49/yd you can't pass up a chance to add just a few more yards.
We had a lovely time with family and friends in our home, and are so grateful to each of them for spending this special day with us. The meal was delicious and simple, with everyone's favorites ... turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry jello, fruit salad, green beans, carrots and even roasted brussel sprouts (Katy brought them and they were quite yummy!). And Daddy made six pies ... two pumpkin, two blueberry, and two apple!
Since it isn't really self explanatory from the pictures, GR smoked the turkey this year. First he soaked the turkey in a simple brine (I think it was Paula Dean's recipe) over night. Then wrapped it in Hickory Smoked Bacon (not quite 2 lbs covered a 12lb bird) and then smoked it with apple wood for roughly 6 hours. Ahhh, it was amazing! Very moist with a slight hint of sweetness to the meat. I expected the bacon to really flavor the turkey but it didn't. We'll definitely be trying this one again.
I don't always focus well, especially when my feet are held to the fire by deadlines, and often get distracted by other "more exciting" things. Yesterday afternoon and this morning, when I should have been cleaning my house and preparing for tomorrow, or sewing pillowcases and photographing them for this weekends sale in the shop, I started something new to go above my mantel...
The inspiration and directions came from this tutorial. The pine cones, from the neighborhood park the kids and I went to for playgroup when they were off school. While they played, I picked 1/2 a brown paper grocery sack full. It wasn't quite enough, so GR picked more for me this morning after purchasing our new dishwasher* and I was able to finish it up after lunch.
The directions say to use a Styrofoam wreath form. Styrofoam wasn't on sale when I went to purchase a wreath, and I wasn't willing to pay $7 for a small wreath form when a larger straw wreath (~14" in diameter) was 1/2 off, costing a grand total of $1.80. I wrapping the straw wreath in brown calico from the gifted-to-me, box of vintage fabric, securing it to the form with lots of straight pins. It worked like a charm, and means I can return the $4 can of brown spray paint.
I love the way it turned out, even though it isn't as nicely staged as hers. Mine really needs some stylizing help ... Sara I so wish you lived next door! Maybe when I get the nativity up and some greens on the mantel it will help anchor and define the space ... who knows.
If you have access to pine cones and like this look, it would make a fantastic handmade gift. Just make sure you have lots of similarly sized small pine cones, a hefty supply of hot glue and block out a good 3 hours to glue all these puppy on - or choose a slightly smaller wreath.
[* We finally gave up on the old dishwasher. I know after all that waiting and heartache, we finally decided to walk away and sever our ties. GR was completely fed up; he's the family dishwasher. Same problem, dishes, especially glasses on the top rack, coming out in worse condition than going in. Sears had some good pre-Black Friday sales and we found a good middle ground dishwasher made by Bosch, that will suite our needs and be one more added "feature" to the house when we go to sell in February.]
I'm enlisting the girls in helping me do some of the brunch baking this year. They are loving it and doing a fantastic job. They tested a new pan I found that does mini bundt cakes. The portion size is perfect - smaller than an actual slice - perfect for the brunch. Invitations go out via evites this weekend. If I happen to miss you - please come anyway - December 12th, 9-11am @ GR's Mom's house.
The Saturday before Thanksgiving continues to be Gingerbread House day at Grandma & Grandpa's. We invited friends to join us again this year and many were able to join us which made the morning a lot of fun. As I've mentioned before we try and include new families each year and we had lots of new additions, young and old, to our long standing family tradition.
The weather this week didn't help my gingerbread much. It's been unseasonably warm - fantastic for kids playing outside, not fantastic for gingerbread that needs to be brick hard. With Emily's help, we made 5 batches on Monday, and by Friday, after sitting out on the counter all week long, they were still VERY soft. Typically a week on the counter and those puppies are dry and ready to get loaded up with all the candy a kid can cram on the roof. An additional 15 minutes in the oven Friday night and the gingerbread, albeit slightly smoked, was ready.
I still make my gingerbread using Sharon's recipe from 30 some years ago. At some point I might go to the kits, but when you need 5 houses, even buying them on sale ... well I'd just rather put that money toward something else. I got three of them done before the kids got home from school and then Emily made the remaining two before dinner. Now that there are multiple bakers in the house, I can foresee years when the kids each make their own house - the whole blessed concoction.
Thank you to all who were able to join us!! In all we had 14 kids decorating houses and two babies sneaking candy. I think that's a record for this branch of the tradition. We had tables set up everywhere. Rebecca is already planning out next years house, and Sam has requested an additional batch of gingerbread be made so he can build a garage. Yeah, it's a good thing they are getting old enough to bake their own.
Before I share pictures, I will mention, that this year I decorated a house. The kids didn't quite know what to think of that, Mom decorating a house. It raised lots of questions. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I promise to share pictures, but not right now - I need a reason to get you back here.
I need to speak with our photographer ... we don't have a single picture of the kids looking at the camera with their houses. I have pictures of other peoples kids and their houses, but not ours. There's something slightly wrong about that isn't there?
The candy ... this picture doesn't include the candy canes, pretzel sticks, marshmallows, sanding sugars, chocolate Santa's, or ice cream cones ... that all has to go on a separate table.
The assembly ... we had mostly homemade gingerbread this year ... just a handful of kits. The gal assembling houses in this picture works with GR. Her husband had never done a gingerbread house before - today at 30 something, he helped make three.
Today became a bit crazy busy with kid festivities... I as in charge of playgroup this month and scheduled a little Thanksgiving activity this morning, quickly followed by the school kids Thanksgiving feasts at school. Add to that the special snack Rebecca requested to take to school today for her party today, and it was a late Wednesday night.
In preparing for playgroup I found some really fun activities that I thought I'd share. Only two made it to our playgroup agenda, but the others might be good activities for your kids in the hours leading up to the feast.
Gobbling Turkey Apples (snack) was a huge hit with the playgroup kids and something small fingers could do pretty easily.
Paper Cup Turkey - I'm thinking these will make great place cards for our Thanksgiving table!
Alex, Anna and I finished up early at playgroup and headed to the elementary school to eat the annual Thanksgiving Feast served at lunch. We had a good time sitting with each child and enjoying lunch together, and I'm really glad we were able to continue this little tradition with them.
Late yesterday afternoon Rebecca explained that her class had earned a movie party and they could bring snacks to class if they brought enough for everyone. She had some elaborate plan to make sugar cookies in the shape of hands to look like turkeys and asked to make the sugar cookie dough. I handed her the recipe and she made it, stuck it in the fridge, and ran off to Activity Day girls. There wasn't time to make hand-print turkeys using sugar cookie dough, even if I do have a hand cookie cutter. But I was able to pull this off (pretty stinkin cute if you ask me) and thankfully it was an acceptable substitute:
We're changing things up for Thanksgiving this year and I'm hosting. Everyone's bringing a little bit of the meal and we're doing a bit of furniture rearranging to fit all 14 of us, but I'm excited to celebrate one Thanksgiving in this house before we move on to larger spaces next year.
At the end of September, I was approached by the editors of Modern Handmade Child to write an article on Simplifying the Holidays for their November/December issue. Modern Handmade Child is an online magazine written by the EtsyKids Street Team. Weeks before the editors asked for article ideas and I "opened my big mouth" and made this suggestion ...
Ways to simplify the holidays and still make them meaningful and memorable. Budgets are tight, and so are schedules. We all want to have a intently meaningful holiday but what do we need to do to obtain it? Surprisingly, it doesn't mean we have to buy our child the latest and greatest toys, blowing our budget with just one purchase, nor does it mean we have to go to every party, bake 1000 cookies plus 10 gingerbread houses to deliver to the neighbors, and buy gifts for every Tom, Dick, Harry, Mary, Sally, and Jane we come in contact with during the year. Share 5 ways to simply the holidays, strategies for cutting back in areas that are only adding to your stress level, not adding to your enjoyment of the season - namely spending quality time with your friends and family.
Either they liked the pitch, or they were desperate for articles. I have yet to hear from the editors if the article was what they expected or not. But it's out there. You'll find the article on page 87-91. Side note: GR laughed hysterically when he heard what the article was about. Apparently, he doesn't think I'm very qualified ... the holidays are anything but stress free for me. Maybe this year I'll be able to practice what I preach.
The whole family went out to support Sam at his race. We were all thrilled with how his car turned out. Sam really wanted a Jayhawk on his car, not just red and blue paint (pictured above, far left - red and blue with blue wheels). We were able to use temporary tattoos for the Jayhawk decals on the nose and tail of the car. Worked really well and a clear protective coat kept it from rubbing off.
Both cars won lots of races. Sam placed 5th in the Boy Scout division and was so pleased with his car! 
