Christmas with the Cousins

Saturday we headed to Heather's in the morning for our Christmas celebration with her family.  Her dad and step mom flew up for Chili on Friday and Saturday worked out the best for my parents and us to come to her house.  Baylor and I had to stop at their Wal*mart to pick up some photos I need for Christmas gifts.  They were the closest store that would take my one hour photo order and thankfully we were going down there anyway.  It was not very crowded for the Saturday before Christmas and we picked up a few last minute items and headed to Heather's.  Baylor loves Connor's play room and brought out his favorite toys right away.

 

Brigid did not wake up until nearly lunch time and she was ready to play.  She ran off to where the boys were and the three of them commenced playing chase with her. 

 

Heather switched her old living room and dining room before Halloween and she is going keep it that way.  Her dad had bought this diner bench before he moved south and it has always been in the living room anyway.  This year it was the kids table and they enjoyed eating together. 

 

 

As did the adults.  I am standing behind my parents and I was sitting next to John.  Mom and I brought food also and Heather made the ham, mac and cheese, homemade applesauce, and sweet potato casserole.  Mom brought fruit salad which has always been Heather's favorite.  I brought cheesey potato casserole and Brussels sprouts.  I also brought appetizers consisting of beer cheese dip, chipped beef dip with assorted crackers, and Greek pinwheels. The meal was wonderful

 

Heather bought this hat for Brigid a long time ago and was waiting for the photos this year for her to wear.  Apparently sh wanted nothing to do with wearing and this was the first time she wore it long enough to get a photo and she even smiled.  I am glad I caught the moment. 

 

We had the kids open up their gifts and I think everyone enjoyed what they received. 

 

 

 

I made Brigid a tutu for one of her gifts.  She did not want to wear it but as her mommy had a good time with it.  I am sure she will like to dance around in it some day. 

 

Connor really loved the RC truck we bought him.  Baylor loved to bash into it while it was driving past.  Connor was not a fan of that action and I had to have a talk with Baylor, several times, about not bashing into the truck. 

 

While the boys were playing us girls worked on some Oreo truffles.  Brigid would not stay with anyone else than Mommy so I put her on the counter to help.  Other than all but spinning in her seat she was a good little helper.  With the extra chocolate we covered animal crackers and she dropped them into the bowl for us. 

 

She even helped me with the white chocolate truffles. 

 

And then she found the green sugar and then it was all over the place.

 

We quickly cleaned it all up and was right with her world again. 

 

After the truffles were done we headed home.  Baylor was asleep in minutes and did not wake up for another 12 hours.  In the morning he went right for his new presents: a fire truck (Santa must have told Aunt Heather he wanted one because that was one of the two gifts he asked for), a new helicopter, a shaving kit(he shaved his legs this morning), a puzzle, and a big dart gun.  All real boy toys and all very well played with already! 

 

 

 

 

Movie Night

 

A few Fridays ago a local grade school had a movie night.  Steph invited Baylor to join her kids for Madagascar 3. We went to her house for dinner and I stayed with the kids for a while because she had to go over earlier to help set up.  She is very active in PTO and all her kids sports.  We piled into the minivan at 6:30 and headed around the corner to the school.  It was Baylor's first time in a school and he was pretty excited.  Jammies were optional and he chose not to but we did have his sleeping bag and a back pack.  He was pretty stoked about bringing a back pack but did not know what to put in it.  We had his jammies, a wooby and his raccoon. It is a small school but the floor quickly filled up with kids from first to fourth grade. 

 

 

We sat on the side while Robin and Gavin found their friends.  The PTO had popcorn, water, juice and other small snacks and nothing was more than $.50. I think we had two popcorns, a juice and a water. 

 

The movie started at 7 and by 8 Baylor was asleep (he had not napped at the sitters).  At 8:30 I was carrying him out to the car where he fell asleep on the way home and again on the couch when we arrived there. 

 

At least he had fun on his first visit to a school! 

Christmas Cookies

Mom and Dad came up Thursday to watch Baylor on Friday.  Mr. Pete had a knee replacement on Tuesday and Mrs. Brenda was off all week. Since they were going to be here we decided to make our Christmas cookies on Saturday.  Friday night as I was cleaning out the back of the baking cupboard I pulled out bag after bag of assorted chips and such.  I filled my largest tub over flowing. I posted on Facebook that I had enough chips to last until the end of the world and since that was happening on Friday I had better get to baking. 

 

 

Saturday morning came soon enough and this was what I saw for most of the day.  That and the oven door. 

 

My helper was eager enough in the beginning because he had requested black (chocolate) Christmas trees for Santa and he was going to help me with them.

 

I bought dish towels last year after Christmas at Target to make aprons for the kiddos and Monday night I whipped out all four of them.  Baylor had to put his on he said because that made us chefs.  I had mine on naturally as did Grandma.  Baylor told her she was a good chef's assistance. 

 

Spiderman even helped to roll out the dough. 

Finally it was rolled out enough to start cutting out trees.  Each tree had a star on the top and were decorated liberally with sprinkles. 

 

We gave Grandma jobs she could do sitting down such as filling cookies or dropping them on the to cookie trays. 

 

After this we were too busy for more photos but we had the oven on for 13 hours, used 4.5 lbs of butter, two bags of flour, a ton of white and brown sugar, over a dozen and a half of eggs.  And when I turned off the oven I still had a dough for the roll out cookies in the fridge.

 

On the plate are Petite Peppermint Sandwiches, Gingerbread Pinwheels, Fudge-filled Irresistible Peanut Butter Cookies, Minty Cocoa Fudge Sandwich Cookies, Snickerdoodle Cookies.  Eggnog Sandwich Cookies, and Chocolate Caramel Cookies.  Also on the plate but made by Mom earlier in the week are Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut-butter cookies, Pecan Sandies, Maple Pecan Cookies, Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

 

And here is the pile up of them.  I took a cookie tray to Nana Heidi's and Steph said she does not have time to make cookies so we hooked her up with two contaniers full.  Lori is going to take a tray to work and I will also.  We will share with the neighbor's for Christmas and then I really want them out of here!!  I like to make them but I don't want them around to eat. 

 

Sunday morning we made the roll out cookies with lots sprinkles. 

 

 

While I was baking Baylor was playing with the truck.  It was a fort, a playhouse, a pirate ship and maybe a few more incarnations I missed out on.  It has a locking arm but it is not fool-proof.  We wedged a wooden hammer in the gap to keep it up for good.  He packed it full of items he needed on his adventures!  

 

 

And I finally remembered to take a picture of the back yard. Nothing going on back there.  Friday is the first day of Winter and possibly the end of the world.  I guess we will see on Saturday! 

Nearly Caught Up

Saturday was the Christmas Aunt's meeting at DiAnn's house. Mom and Dad were not able to go because Dad is having trouble getting around. He found out he needs his right replacement knee replaced and they cannot do it until January.  And he has a hernia that needs repaired after that.  So on top of my usual biscuits, I had to make the sausage gravy.  It is not an Aunt's meeting with out these two items.  If fact when Aunt Betty found out Mom was not going to be there her first reaction was oh no there won't be any sausage gravy.  Lynda assured her I had brought both.  I had also made Eggnog Cinnamon Pull Apart Rolls.  I love eggnog anything and combined with cinnamon rolls, yum!! 

 

Brigid was her usual adorable self and went right away to play with the other kids.  It is wonderful the way the other kids love to play with the little ones.  Rachel especially took over with the kids this meeting. 

 

 

They were all playing in the living room and the older girls were taking pictures so I sent my camera out and they took a few for me.  Eli is holding Brigid, Connor and Baylor, and Rachel is holding Paisley.  She is LaDawn's first grandchild and is a month younger than Brigid. 

 

DiAnn brought the rocking horse to the tree and they took photos of the little girls on the horse. 

 

For years DiAnn and Leslie have told the story of the orange styrofoam ball with sequins Leslie made when they were younger.  And years ago I bought a mess of sequins for next to nothing.  I have been moving them around the basement between floods, remodeling and just moving stuff.  This year I made it a point to buy styrofoam balls and brought the sequins to the meeting.  Around the table we sat pinning tiny a sequins with tiny pins, talking, laughing, and having a good time.  The older women were sitting in the dining room and we could hear them talking, laughing and having a good time.  It was a wonderful memory in the making.  Lynda came out and told us for the first three years of the Aunt's meetings they always did crafts.  But they stopped because they would spend so much time talking they never finished them.  As we were sitting there working and talking we got a taste of why women would having quilting bees and such.  It was so nice having our hands busy, spending time talking about more personal stuff than we usually do, and feeling closer to each other. 

 

Eventually the older crowd was getting antsy to exchange gifts but we wanted to do a photo first.  For posterity's sake here is everyone from back row left to right: Lynda Wilt, Kathy Miller, Betty Hersey, Bobby Zimmerman, Sis Zimmerman, Heather Hazel, Leslie Strayer, Joan Neuzem, DiAnn Edwards. Left to right again first row: Dick Hersey, Lauren Anile, Kay Snyder, me, Baylor, Brigid Hazel, Connor Hazel, Eli Strayer, Aaron Strayer, and Klaudia Edwards.  They make up a wonderful family I am blessed to be a part of. 

 

Sunday Baylor and I went to SKH to see the reindeer.  We have gone the last three years and he was still excited. 

 

It was Star again, Dasher's cousin. 

 

This year she did not rush off the kids and let them pet her before running off to Santa. 

 

Santa gave out lolly canes, which he still loves.  But just the little ones.  I picked up a few more around the store for later. 

 

We found the stuffed deer again this year.  Is it wrong that we do the same things every year?  I need to find a few new things to do I think. 

 

This sparkly gem reindeer was new! 

 

We bought a beautiful silver sparkly 48 inch tree, bird seed, and an Old World Santa ornament for the tree.  I love my new tree, one cannot have enough trees in my humble opinion! 

12-12-12

Well, I guess I should post something today but nothing really happened on this momentous occasion.  I went to work, came home, cleaned the basement and made some Christmas aprons for Baylor and his cousins.  But I have a few things to catch up on though. 

 

The Sunday after the Gingerbread party we put some decorations up outside.  We have had the polar bear in the basement for years.  In the last flood the box was destroyed and he has been in a bag for the last four Christmas'.  I knew Baylor would love him so we put him up between us and the Browns.  Baylor loved him so much he gave him a cuddle.  Mandy came out and told us she really liked our bear.  Baylor told her not to worry because it was not a real bear.  I love that he is so thoughtful of the safety of others! 

 

 

 

Wednesday I used my last half day of vacation and I met Baylor and Lori at a local bowling alley.  They had gone there the week before and Baylor really loved it.  They were eating lunch when I arrived and he had apparently chatted up an elderly woman there for her bowling group.  She told me he was a really sweet little boy as I walked by with him on our way to the restroom.  She seemed very smitten with him.  Lori said he was talking to her all about bowling. 

 

He had his technique down for bumper bowling.  The threw the ball so lightly I was amazed it even made it down the lane. 

 

 

On my first turn I bowled a strike! 

 

Lori has her own ball and shoes.  We shared the the ball but I had to suffer with rental shoes that were too slippery.  I was afraid I was going to blow out a knee sliding down the lane.  The holes in her ball are not right for me either and my knuckles are still sore and swollen feeling a week later.  I hate being so old!

 

 

 

We found the ramps and brought the shortest one for Baylor to try.  He still was not interested in pushing it head down the lane but he did pretty good lining it up all by himself. 

At the fifth frame Baylor was ahead of Lori. 

 

But I have Lori a few pointers on her swing and by the end she had pulled ahead of him by six pins.  I still beat them all even though I did not break a 100.

 

Then Baylor wanted to show me the arcade games.  Glimpses into the future I suppose.  This driving game was good for him because he never died no matter how many time he ran into the walls or off the cliffs. 

 

Lori headed home and Baylor and I did a bit of shopping.  We went to the Salvation Army where we found a three foot tree for Baylor to have in the TV/guest room downstairs.  We went to three other stores before heading home and he was a real trooper about the whole trip.  When we got home he was excited to decorate his tree. 

 

While I was wrapping gifts he found tons of ribbons and bows in the ribbon and bow tote. In past years I would never be able to find my Christmas ribbons and have to buy more or I would hit the after Christmas sales and buy some more.  And I have been to the Ofray ribbon outlet a few times and they are so ridiculously cheap it is so easy to over shop there.  He was quite pleased with his work.

 

It looks nothing like that now because it is redecorated just about every evening.  But he loves it just the same.  Like his orange soda mustache?  There is no sneaking that treat.