Days 3 and 4 of snow...and some cookies

We continue to live in a world of snow and ice!  The thick layer of ice on top of the snow looks rather like fondant on a cake -- rounded and smooth over every surface.  I took some pictures to try to show the glossy layer of ice...

 

 

 This picture didn't turn out well, but you can see the night-time reflection of the street light on the ice of our front yard.

 David was in need of a playmate today and Abigail was not feeling up to playing outside, so I bundled up and went out with him.  We went sledding, traipsed around the yard enjoying the crackle of the ice, and had a snowball fight in our wooded area.  Someday he'll realize that it was a labor of love and not a result of any great desire on my part to get cold and snowy! :)  We did enjoy the one-on-one time, though.

And in warm and tasty news, today I supervised David's first independent baking effort.  He did marvelously and we are all enjoying the fruit of his efforts!  He made his great-great Aunt Myrtle's Molasses Crinkle Cookies.  I love to see something repeated down through the generations!

Our family Christmas

Since we were away from home for Christmas Day, we celebrated our Christmas at home the Saturday before Christmas.  We had a thoroughly enjoyable day together...

Our babies on "Christmas" morning

This year we gave each of the kids a small allotment of money to let them Christmas shop on their own for Daddy, Mommy, and brother/sister.  They took their shopping very seriously and did a great job choosing.  Here is Abigail with her daddy and the favorite candies she chose for him.

We opened our gifts from each other as well as our gifts from our New York family.  Here are the kids opening their ZhuZhu Pets from the Midlars.  David is exclaiming, "OHHHH!" and Abigail is telling us at length how they both have really wanted one for a long time and how did Aunt Connie know they wanted one?!

 David opening his Nerf gun from Grandpa and Grandma O'Gorman -- his face says it all!

 Abigail opening her "grown-up" jewelry box and a new necklace/rings from Grandpa and Grandma O'Gorman.  She was so pleased and felt like quite the young lady!

Abigail's gift from us was a Samantha (American Girl) doll.

 David's was a Lego set that he has been drooling over for a long time.  Once he got a glimpse of the corner of the box, he went nuts!  I had to share this picture because any of you who know David will recognize that this blur of motion is a very apt rendering of our boy!

 After gifts we did stockings...

 ...and then we went on to things that made us all very happy.  Bruce immediately took a nap. :)

 David set to work building his Lego thing. (Mindy was very happy to have all of her people home and in pajamas, which meant that we weren't going anywhere anytime soon!)

 Abigail practiced her make-up skills with the new set from her brother.

 I headed to the kitchen to make homemade cinnamon rolls...

 ...so that we could sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

 We had a really wonderful day together -- a very nice calm in the midst of the holiday storm!

I am thankful...

...for the beautiful autumn weather and colors, for a houseful of family (my parents are here!), for plenty of fresh apples, and for hands that are currently functioning enough to make these, my most favorite dessert in the whole wide world...!

The carpet is clean...but the inhabitants are walking petri dishes!

Wow, here we are on summer break and I'm still getting behind on posting! Oh well...here is a smorgasbord of the rest of the week! Wednesday we got together with a friend I haven't seen in about ten years, who has now moved to this area. I took my camera, but unfortunately...forgot to take pictures. Whoops. We had a great time and picked up right where we left off, as it were, and I'm glad to have reconnected! When we got home Wednesday afternoon, David fell asleep, and when he woke up he was running a high fever. He has the cold/bronchitis thing that's going around...the one my mom has...yuck. Bruce started it Thursday morning; he's slowly gotten worse until now he's coughing like crazy, and he woke me up early this morning to check his pulse and, sure enough, he was in a-fib. He came out of it shortly thereafter, but we're keeping a close eye on it. I'm glad it's Saturday so that I can nurse him and keep him resting all day. He and David sound like they're trying to cough a concert! Thursday afternoon the carpet cleaners came. I have decided that (yes, Mom, you were right) the Quaker look makes it a lot easier to keep a tidy house. I think I just might let everyone pick two or three items to keep and everything else can go. :) See how tidy it is with everything out...even most of the furniture?!The carpets look so much better! Eventually we plan to replace it with hardwood, but there's a lot of area to cover and won't be a cheap project, so in the meantime we're trying to coax the carpet into looking somewhat decent. Word of wisdom...if you ever move to Georgia, DON'T get ivory carpet! Ours came with the house and I thought it was so lovely when we moved in, but with our red dirt, no matter how careful we are, it's bound to get nasty, especially with a dog and two kids. (If you've never experienced our red clay-dirt in person, here's some insight: during school this year, David was drawing a picture and was trying to decide what color crayon was closest to the color of dirt -- he was so excited when he found a near-perfect match -- heavily-applied burnt orange!)

The kids camped out on my bed while the carpets were drying. They watched a bunch of Rocky & Bullwinkle on the computer and enjoyed the unconventional setup of their own little island!

While they watched, I managed to sneak in a few minutes to read and relax...but Abigail got the camera and caught me!Abigail liked the extra space for dancing!David (who has been fully clothed and wrapped in a blanket, as well as not very hungry, both of which are signs of just how sick he is!) wanted homemade waffles for dinner on Thursday, so Abigail helped me make them, and she even got to do the beater all by herself for the very first time.

Yesterday Karen came over and we sewed. I finally did some more work on my current quilting project and then did some handsewing-mending. It was a peaceful and pleasant day...between our two schedules, it has been quite a while since we got together for a sewing day and I've missed it. I think that catches us up...and now I'm off to soothe fevered brows and pour more water down hacking, coughing gullets...!

My birthday pictures

My birthday was lovely...thanks for all of the birthday wishes!

My best gift of the day was that Bruce left work early and had an extra two hours to spend with us! It was wonderful. I also thoroughly enjoyed my birthday dinner (filet mignon, sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, wild rice, Italian bread). Note the marvelously-decorated dining room...the kids were dismayed that I hadn't decorated with anything other than the "happy birthday" sign, so they went to the basement, dug out the streamers, colored pictures, and then decorated all by themselves. It was so precious!!!

...and with my birthday dessert -- Raspberry Crumble Bars! (they were delicious despite the fact that I dumped almost 1/2 cup of sugar on my feet and then, in the melee, forgot to mix more sugar with the raspberries...typical!!!)(...don't knock my hair...I got caught in the rain and wasn't about to spend time re-doing it just for pictures!!!)

Saturday stuff

Today while Bruce and David went to the store to pick up some last-minute birthday stuff for Abigail, she and I enjoyed some girl time. We colored princess pictures, played dollhouse, snuggled, painted her fingernails, and watched Anne of Green Gables. I've also sewed a birthday surprise (sorry, no pictures 'til after Monday because she notices everything on the blog these days!) and made birthday cupcakes for her to share at children's church tomorrow... ...I've also done a bunch of laundry and now I'm off to finish folding and ironing.

The kids are outside; David is working on his ever-morphing "project" and Abigail is riding her bike.Bruce and Molly are taking a nap -- er, watching college basketball. :) All in all, a nice Saturday!

"3/4 complete" celebration

Today we completed 3/4 of our school year!

We celebrated by making cookies, frosting them, and sprinkling them on 3/4 of the top. Well, that was the goal, anyway. Some of the sprinkles didn't show the distinction very well, and Abigail didn't like that idea and instead obsessively sprinkled the entire top of her cookies. Oh well, we celebrated -- and that was the main point! Here are the kids (pardon our bedraggled appearance -- it's pre-bath as well as post-long day, sandbox-time, and frosting sampling!), and also some of our "3/4 cookies".

This week in the kitchen...

Every Wednesday, we bake something during activity time in school. Besides ending up with a fun snack to share with Bruce (who works at home on Wednesdays), the kids are learning how to bake, as well as practicing their reading and math skills by following the recipe. Yesterday David chose the recipe and (since it was a simple one), he got to give all the recipe instructions without me double-checking the information, which made him feel very grown-up. We made Oven S'mores and they were good. Other than Bruce vehemently disliking being sticky (he's a bit obsessive-compulsive about it) and Abigail making a royal mess of herself while eating them, they were a hit! (Every one else had one...I ate five...!)

This week in school...

...we read "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" and then made the accompanying recipe for Mud Moose Muffins (or something like that). We had to make two rounds' worth of batter, because after the last step -- pouring in some peanut butter chips -- I looked down and saw a maggot floating on the top. Whoops. A half-used bag of baking chips don't last very long in the south. Thankfully, I had another bag -- and enough of all the ingredients -- so we mixed a second batch and they turned out great...and without any extra protein. :) On a side note, the apron Abigail is wearing is the one I won in a giveaway from Rosemary back in December. Yes, I know I'm behind...I have yet to post about it...but I thought I'd better let Jessica cool off a bit before I mentioned it again. :) I was wearing the apron for this project, but Abigail insisted that she needed to try it. It looks particularly cute over her pajamas! Yesterday we completed day 117 (out of 180) -- hooray for us!

New Year's Day festivities

Yesterday was everything New Year's Day should be...family, football, food, and relaxation! As is our custom, I was asleep long before midnight on New Year's Eve, and (lo and behold) it was still 2009 when I woke up in the morning. :) We spent a quiet day at home; Bruce watched football and did work; I puttered around and even took some time to lie on the couch to get my hair done by my resident pint-sized hairdressers, read a book, and watch football;...the kids played, buzzed around us, challenged us to some Hungry Hungry Hippos, ate nonstop, and were happy to have everyone home together. Since I had clean oil left from the Krusciki, I decided to try my hand at homemade doughnuts. They weren't quite the superior caliber of Krispy Kreme's "HOT NOW" (can I say that, or is it a trademark infringement?!), but they were close enough to make it well worth my effort! They're delicious and it was fun to do. I also started cutting fabric for my Psalms quilt. A happy way to start a new year!

Another generation of Krusciki

One of my most vivid memories of my childhood Christmases is eating my Grandma Minota's Krusciki (pronounced kroos-chickee), a traditional Polish pastry. I never had the pleasure of making it with my grandmother -- only the pleasure of eating the fruits of her labors! -- but last year one of my aunts shared the recipe with me. Today my mom and I -- amidst lots of laughs and taste-testings -- made a batch, and it's delicious. It was nice to have this 'connection' with my grandma...it's been a lot of Christmases since we ate hers (she passed away in the fall of 1997), but we felt honored to be carrying on this family tradition in our branch of the family. Below are some pictures of the Krusciki (there are no pictures of my mom and me because we were still in our pjs!!!)...

The dough ready to go into the fryer (these ones are kinda ugly, but they're the last ones, so they're made out of the leftover scraps of dough!!!) In the fryer Getting their powdered sugar dusting Finished and put in the big speckled pot just like Grandma's used to be...and when they were done, David came in to try them and dumped powdered sugar all down the front of himself...and so another tradition of my childhood comes full-circle!

Christmas cheer inside and out

Yesterday's prep work... Today's accomplishments... A felt Nativity for the kids to play with and tell the story of Christ's birth. My mom made one of these when my brothers and I were young, and I always loved to play with it. She bequeathed the pattern to me and I started this set three or so years ago...but here it is, finished, and while my kids are still young enough to enjoy it! Well, almost finished...it needs some ground for everyone to stand on, but I don't have enough of the brown that I want, so that'll be added next time I go to the store. (It also needs a better hanging system, but packing tape worked for the picture!) I finally put up the outside Christmas lights today. The first year we were here in Georgia, I was putting up the lights wearing only jeans and a sweatshirt -- with the sleeves pushed up -- and I was reflecting on the year that I put up lights on our house in Chicago when it was bitterly cold and sleeting and my hands were frozen stiff. Upon that reflection, I told myself that I would never complain about "cold" again. But...it's been cold down here this year, so I've been putting off this up-on-a-ladder-in-the-wind job! Nonetheless, it's done now. Phew. (...and there was no sleet to contend with, thankfully.) Bruce has been working on making his annual batch of Banket, an absolutely delectable Dutch pastry filled with almond paste. He makes it from scratch, and although it's rather labor-intensive, I deem all of his hard work well worth it. It's good stuff!