TreasuresInTerraCotta

We spent the week cleaning up and finishing last minute tasks.  Our fun included hosting an Open House for Tyler's birthday.  My trick this year was to serve food that didn't require forks.  For some reason that made everything a lot easier.  We had deli meats and cheese on small rolls, a veggie tray, chips and dip, and chocolates and cream puffs for dessert.  Super easy! I promised Calvin we could put lights out front so he and I did that before the party.  He got a little tangled up!  ha I forgot my camera on the day I took Calvin to the planetarium to see the Christmas show.  Our big outing this week was initiated by my niece.  Her Christmas activity of choice?  Ride a city bus! I thought that was a fabulous idea, so I invited myself along.  To get from my sister's house to our destination (less than 2 miles away) would have required three different buses and taken an hour a...

Tyler found the problem, solved the problem with only a small amount of smoke and we're back in business! I guess this is the "third" tree I've decorated this year....certainly not a record and it's probably not the last for the year!  I even got to put the ornaments in different places so I'm getting to see some ornaments that have been on the back side of the tree.  Fun for me! Do you like to look at your ornaments and remember?  Maybe people decorate their trees with things that aren't sentimental, but many of our ornaments mean something. For as long as I can remember, my mom made it a point to pick up an ornament when we traveled.  A shell from a beach town, a wooden ornament from somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, or a trolly ornament from San Francisco.  I loved that tradition and carried on long into adulthood.  I picked up my own Powell and Hyde Cable Car on my own trip to San Francisco in ~1993. A paddle wheel boat from St. Louis, Missour...

I un-decorated the tree!  (Mostly) Can you tell why? Yep, the lights were on the blink!  And when I say "blink" I don't mean blink, I out.  So my super-hubby did some disassembling and he put his Electrical Engineering Degree to work!  Good thing he had a little helper.  Who was eating a Christmas Tree cookie for breakfast! Mom-of-the-Year, I tell ya! I guess I better go RE-decorate the tree.  Maybe I'll move all the decorations that were on the back to the front.  It's like having two Christmas trees this year!  

Tyler and Calvin spent the week working on a Boy Scout Pinewood Derby car!! Math....with M&Ms! Truman showing off his two (almost 4) new upper teeth, and the drool to go with it! I love playing cards with my kids. Dairy Queen Candy Cane Blizzards!  Shared with Grandma and Grandpa on the coldest day of the week. So they had a fire!  And we made paper snowflakes. More of those big teeth.  They really change Truman's looks.  It kinda makes me sad. I think the teeth (combined with the warm fire) were making his cheeks so rosy.   I made this beautiful Carrot Soup with a Tomato relish.  So yummy and festive looking.  The recipe calls for Tomatillos to make the relish, but I didn't have any so I just used grape tomatoes.  It provides a crunchy, tart and spicy kick to the sweet and creamy soup.  yummy!  Today I took the boys bowling.  Because, you know, bowling is an especially Christmas-y activity!  I LOVE bowl...

December 6 - St.  Nicholas Day  A picnic and play time at the park.  December 8 - Packing peanut snow pictures with the cousins (and some Play-Doh too) December 9 - Paper-chain-men and hand writing practice and a bowl of nature's treasures and lots of messes!    This day we also got to have breakfast/lunch with the grandparents at Millie's Pancake Haus and look at all their Christmas decorations. Watch the amazing soil-disk absorb the water and expand....this big, says Calvin. Plant amaryllis (which was already starting to sprout in the box). "It's Snowing!!" From December 7 - (in the background notice) full size tracings of the boys! December 9-10 - Uncle Ted invited Tyler and the older boys over for Pizza and Christmas-Movies Night.  So after the baby was in bed I got to spend the evening with Christmas music, tea and the sewing machine!   Being intentional about engaging in fun things with my kids ...