Revelation

This is what I heard at 3:30 am...Mom, there is a roach in the bathroom(Katie). Well, use my bathroom(mom) pitterpatter Stephanie, mom says to use her bathroom(Katie yelling up the stairs to Stephanie) pitterpatter (Stephanie coming down the stairs) I already used the bathroom. pitterpatter THUD-- I ran into the box(Katie's comment after running over the laundry basket in my room and dumping all the folded clothes in the floor)... I just love this kind of drama in the middle of the night!!!!

Christmas Cookies and the before

Today was our day to do our traditional Christmas cookie decorating. This year I was excited about the prospects of really enjoying it as the girls were able to do most of the decorating. I was right and it turned out to be wonderful fun despite the hours right up to it. Let me share about the hours prior to... I thought I was doing great. I had the steaks marinating and the twice baked potatoes ready to go back in the over. The sugar cookies were all mixed up and in the fridge waiting to be baked. I was ready to get dinner on and then on to the festivities. Then I had a revelation...it would be a better idea for me to actually bake the cookies so we could decorate them after dinner instead of standing around waiting on them to cook/cool. So, I pulled out the dough and began to cut the cookies with the cookie cutters(Disaster #1) The dough was too gooey and was impossible to work with. Thankfully I had a sugar cookie mix in the cabinet. I quickly whipped that up and will use the other to make mexican wedding cookies instead. With the cookies baking and breathed a sigh of relief. The grill was going and I was waiting on Chris to call and say he was on his way home. When he called, I put the potatoes in and headed out to put the steaks on. (Disaster #2) I discovered the grill as now off--the gas had run out. So, I decided to stick the oven on broil and hope for the best. The steaks turned out good and dinner proceeded as planned(thank goodness). Next up was the decorating which did not come with any disasters. The girls did a good job(for a 4 and 3 year old that is). They glopped icing on and poured sprinkles everywhere---but they had fun. No yelling, fussing or fighting and all had a good time. Enjoy the pictures. Stephanie decorating her cookies That's Katie's cookie--not just a glob of icing! Katie licking the knife. Daddy enjoying the fruits of our labor--he did decorate a few. Stephanie eating and decorating at the same time. Katie eating that gooey cookie

Catching up with November

I realize that it has been an extremely long time since I posted. Let's just say I am a slacker. We have been extremely busy and I'll be brief as I tell all that we have done.... Chris went to the Swamp(University of Florida) we several of his friends and the girls and I headed to mom's for Disney on Ice. We had a blast and the girls loved every second of the show. We had our Sunday school Christmas party the weekend before Thanksgiving. Yes, I know it was early for a Christmas party, but we planned that way to try to keep th ings less hectic thru the season. We had a great turn out at the party and we laughed so hard that many of us cried. It was a great time of laughter and fellowship. We put up one of our trees before Thanksgiving to get a jump start on decorating since we were going out of town for Thanksgiving and are having a party at our house this weekend. The girls got to open their traditional Christmas pjs and also received their ornaments for this year. Katie got an ornament of Sleeping Beauty as this was the once princess that she was enthralled with at Disney. Stephanie received an ornament with three of the princesses as she was just thrilled with all of them. Chris got an ornament of ESPN guys! I received a tweety and sylvester ornament that was just adorable(I love Tweety and Chris has given me several tweety ornaments over the years). Stephanie had her class party the Friday before Thanksgiving and I was able to take off work so I could be there. I of course left my camera at home(shame on me), but will hopefully get the pics from someone else. Her class dressed up like Pilgrims and the 3 year olds were indians. They were all adorable. Finally, we headed home to my mom's for Thanksgiving. We ate at my aunt and uncle's on Thursday and had traditional Thanksgiving at my mom's on Saturday night with some friends. My husband was greatly dissapointed that we are venturing elsewhere for Thanksgiving(we have never done this in all our years of marriage) so my mom satisfied him by cooking at home as well(turkey, dessert etc). Actually I think mom had planned on it anyway. I actually did most of the cooking this time around. I made the pies, turkey and dressing and Vicki made the macaroni and cheese and sweet potato casserole. It was all wonderful...again.. We had the chance to visit with some friends and their new baby both Thursday night and Saturday night. I had seen H., but no one else had. The girls were thrilled with him and doted all over him. As you can see, we were very busy and the busyness hasn't stopped. Our house is all decorated now with 2 trees, wreaths, and lights and tomorrow I will begin the cooking for our annual pharmacist party. I'll try not to make the next blog as far apart as this one. Enjoy a few pictures....