Christmas Highlights

We hope you had an enjoyable Christmas. Ours was happy and filled with lots of family. Last week my cousin, her husband, and twin boys (5 months) stayed with us for a few days. Hannah loved her little cousins. I'm hoping she does well with a new little sister in a few months. I was afraid she would throw things at them or sit on them, but amazingly she didn't.

We had a few days alone and then my brother and sister-in-law and Ben's brother flew in from parts far warmer than here. We had brunch with Ben's Mom and brothers on Christmas Eve day. That night we had dinner with Ben's family and mine and then attended a Christmas Eve service. We came home and played games and put out the presents.

Christmas Morning

Here's Hannah opening her presents. She actually did fairly well at opening them. We had to start the paper for her and then she would tear it off. About the time she got it figured out she was bored and began carry her presents around and stack them up. She did however demand that each toy be opened after she unwrapped it so she could play with it. This caused the present unwrapping to go on for quite a long time. I'm sparing you from pictures of us after we had just woken up. Kids look so much cuter in their pajamas.

Hannah was lounging around in as few clothes as Mema Mary would let her wear while we got Christmas dinner ready. Here she is enjoying a movie. She (and as a result, we) watched Strawberry Shortcake far too many times on Christmas day. We tired to talk her into some Christmas classics to no avail.

We enjoyed Christmas dinner at our house with some of my local family.

I should have posted this awhile ago. Here's Hannah helping me wrap presents. She was kind of hard on the wrapping paper. I put a name tag on the first present for her Daddy and then she grabbed the pen and made her mark on the present. Some of the presents definitely looked like I had some help wrapping.

Daddy Requested & Hannah Approved

A few nights ago Ben suggested that I make his Grandma's candy cane cookies. I wasn't sure if I had ever had them and he couldn't tell me for sure what they had in them. I tried to call Grandma yesterday but didn't get a hold of her. I settled for some sugar cookie cutouts (that I have never gotten around to frosting) after looking on the internet for a recipe like his Grandma's. Really I knew it was a waste of time since they probably wouldn't be nearly as good.

Hannah and I got home from a little holiday outing when I remembered about the cookies again. I tried Grandma and got a hold of her. She was happy to give me the recipe and I thought I would share it. I didn't take copious notes as she was telling it to me but I will share with you what seemed to work for me.

Candy Cane Cookies (Makes 4 dozen)

1 c. shortening (I used 1/2 c. butter & 1/2 c. Crisco)

1 c. powdered sugar, sifted

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp. almond extract (I used vanilla)

2 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. red food coloring (I used food coloring paste until I liked the color)

1/2 c. crushed candy canes

1/2 c. sugar

Mix together. I found that half of this mixture was more than enough.

Cream together the shortening, powdered sugar, egg, and almond extract. Combine the flour and salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Divide the dough in half. Color one half with red food coloring. For each cookie take 1 teaspoon of each color. On a lightly floured surface, roll each color of dough out separately into a rope about 4 inches long. Twist the two ropes together and make a hook at the top in the shape of a candy cane. Make one complete cookie before moving on to the next. If you roll out all of the white dough and then all of the red they will be too dry to work with.

Bake for 9 minutes or until the edges have lightly started to brown. Remove from oven and sprinkle with candy cane and sugar mixture. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet, or at least until they hold their shape and you can move them to a wire rack. Enjoy!

When Hannah asked for a cookie yesterday I gave her an unfrosted sugar cookie cutout. I later found them partially eaten and laying around the house. Today when she asked for a cookie she got one of Grandma's Candy Cane Cookies. She proceeded to eat the entire thing and then ask for more. They are definitely kid tested and husband approved!

All Trimmed

We finally got the tree decorated. It has been up since Saturday with lights on but we have been waiting patiently for Daddy to help decorate it. Hannah was happy with just a tree with lights and one ornament. For some reason she requested that a snowflake ornament be hung on the tree. Do you think she remembers from last year? I doubt it. I also risked putting the tree out where we can enjoy it a little bit more. So far Hannah has only removed her own ornaments to pack around, and really it's the mostly the mitten we made yesterday.

The tree is always so loaded with ornaments that I generally skip the garland. Or it more likely could be that I never can remember to buy any and have used a rope (lasso) in the past. We like to get a tree from the local forest and not buy one in town. They are not nearly as full as a Douglas or noble fir but we still like the experience of going out and getting it. We don't even have the option of the you-pick and cut Christmas tree farms. On the bright side, it's super fresh when you cut it one day and put it up the next!

The Mitten

Hannah and I did a little craft project this afternoon. Ok, so it was mostly my craft project but I was hoping Hannah would help. I traced her hand and made this mitten from the tracing. I broke out the buttons and ribbon and we started to decorate. Hannah didn't actually want any buttons on her mitten. She thought it was more fun to put them in the jar. I also broke out my puffy fabric paint from high school and wrote her name and the year on the back. I was excited to find the paint was still good since it was pretty old as far as paint goes.

A pair of mittens would have made more sense but I hope we can make this a yearly tradition, and I think we will end up with quite a few before Hannah and the new little one lose interest. Admittedly this was not my original idea. The original post is from here. I have been visiting Crafy Crow to find ideas that might liven up our lives a little bit and that's where I found it first.

It will be fun to watch the mittens get bigger over the years and see how the girls decorate them.

Happy Thanksgiving & A Tree

Happy Thanksgiving! I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any pictures. It was a great day with family and good food. We had dinner with Ben's family and then my parents came down for a visit later in the evening. Hannah had a great time playing with her cousin Colton. She is still asking about him.

On Friday it is tradition to head up to the mountain to cut a Christmas tree. Most of the family came and we had a great time picking out a tree. There was disappointingly little snow but it made for an easy drive up the mountain. It was cool but sunny and quite a bit more pleasant than last year. Hannah got to explore snow and be in the forest for awhile. We packed a lunch of sandwiches made from left overs, hot chocolate, and cookies. Often times we have a bonfire, go sledding, and have snow ball fights. The younger generation isn't up for it yet and I guess as adults we were in a hurry this year. In a few years we will be spending most of the day playing in the snow with the kiddos.

Favorite Outfit

This is hands down Hannah's favorite outfit. Some time during the morning she asks to go oppy (potty). When she gets done she races out of the bathroom before I can get a chance to put clothes or a diaper on her. She runs to find her boots and sometimes her hat...and then it's time to ride!

Pictures & Check-up

Hannah had a check-up last week. She has been any where from the 10th to the 25th percentile for her weight. This time she moved up the 50th percentile, which translates to average. She's a little over 30" tall and her head seems to be growing well. Basically she's doing well. Here are some 18 month pictures for your enjoyment. Do you have a favorite picture? I always have a hard time deciding which ones to have printed.

Visitors

This group of antelope, I presume all gals, ran through our field the other day. They didn't stop long enough for a picture. I was out later where Ben was planting grain and I saw they were eating and laying in another field. We live pretty close what we call "the end of the earth" but don't get much large wildlife hanging around our place. I guess I can be glad that the trees and plants around the house aren't constantly being eaten. It was nice though to see these antelope passing through.

The Festivities

Little Miss Hannah was not excited about being a little lady bug. I tried wearing the antenna and putting them on her stuffed animals to help her warm up to them. She didn't like anyone wearing them including Papa's dog Sadie. We made our trip around to see the grandparents and she wore her costume for a few seconds at each place. I didn't get a picture of her wearing her entire costume where you could see her face so here's it is in two pictures.

Removing the shell.

Wearing the antennae for a bit longer than normal.

The carved pumpkin.

Catching Up

Here's what we've been up to the last couple of weeks.

Baking cookies. Doesn't she look pitiful. I think she was on the verge of getting sick. As a result I got to finish cutting out and decorating the cookies.

Watching the backhoe (a new favorite word) take out a tree and dig trenches for the septic lines.

I thought it would be more fun for Hannah to paint her pumpkin than watch me carve it. With all of the coloring that has been going on on the walls I thought painting would be right up her alley. I guess not. It must be more fun to do art on things that aren't supposed to have art on them. Paint doesn't seem to be her thing and she ended up watching me paint. So, before it dried I washed it off and decided to carve it.

Hannah thinking about helping carve the pumpkin. When I got the top off her first response was "yucky." It's a good thing we had Hannah because I must have been becoming a boring adult. The last time I carved pumpkins was with my college roommate and it had been a really long time before that. I guess having kids allows you to keep being a kid!

Stay tuned for the carved pumpkin all aglow and Hannah dressed up (if I'm lucky).