Christmas and such

Here's a glimpse of our Christmas celebrations...

She is now an Ergo momma too!



This boy was so focused on his Legos.



Love him so!



Me, spoiled again this year...





She's ready for Christmas dinner at Grammie's.





I love her new hat.





A fearless gladiator!





This was awesome.  The kids spent a LONG time sitting at the table with Pappy, coloring and drawing.



You can't see who her smiles are directed toward, but she was clearly having a great time with Pappy.



Anything with buttons enthralls her.  Here she's trying to figure out the solar calculator.





This made me laugh.  The kids didn't know what "that thing" was that Grandpa pulled out.





We stopped at some outlets on the way home, and Elsa made her first purchase at Claire's.



PS...

...it's a GIRL!!

Christmas Traditions

I love the idea of traditions. I know friends who have special ones in their families, and I wish we did too.  I'm just not very good at starting or establishing them.  We're working on that.

In the meantime, we're just continuing a tradition that the Straubs have had for many years...homemade stromboli on Christmas Eve.

And truth is, we aren't even keeping this one...exactly.  Well, we cheated a little this year and had our stromboli one night early.  For the little ones, it's just too late to wait to make and eat the stromboli after we get home from Christmas Eve service.  So this year we decided to have it on the eve of Christmas Eve. 

We also decided that Vernors should be the beverage of choice with our stromboli from now on.

After dinner, the kids got changed into their PJs while I cleaned up the kitchen, and then we all piled into the car - with donuts - for a drive around the neighborhood checking out the Christmas lights.  This is a tradition that got started last year when Stephen was working crazy-long hours.  I needed something fun to do with the kids one Friday night, so we went to Shoppers for some donuts that afternoon and made our neighborhood drive in jammies that evening.

No pictures from our jaunt this evening, but suffice it to say that the "winning house" (meaning the one with the most junk - er, decor? -  in the yard) had a Santa who was losing his drawers.  That alone put said house at the top of the list.  

A Cupcake Tea Party for the Birthday Girl

Elsa, aka Miss Cupcake, turned 3 this week.  Time has flown by, and it seems like just last week that she was a tiny little bundle of a girl...

But she's a big girl now - even starting in the big kid Sunday school class this week.

She hasn't had a birthday party before, so we decided to celebrate with some of her little girl friends from church.  Of course, we had some little brothers along, and they served to liven things up a bit for us.  It was such fun, and Elsa didn't want her guests to leave when the time came!

I promised Grammie that I would take lots of pictures (like I really needed any urging!), so here they are:



Tea at Ten

 Our menu included --

Egg Salad Triangles

Ham & Cheese Hearts

Fresh Strawberries

Cherry Scones

Dark Chocolate Cranberries with Yogurt Raisins

Strawberry Milkshake Whoppers

(yes, really, and the kids loved them)

Chocolate Shortbread Stars

Raspberry Lemonade

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

And it should have included Petite Quiches - Lorraine and Florentine.  But in the flurry of activity this morning as we readied the table and foods, I forgot to pop them in the oven.  And so they remain in the freezer to be enjoyed another day.

Yummy-ness!



Pink Lemonade Cupcakes



Tea for the mommies



He was ready to eat!!

 

Her first experience with a real teacup





Smooches with a mouthful




Enjoying some Ham & Cheese Hearts





He came for the scones.


 

Cade with another little lady



Because I love his sweet smile...





A proper lady always eats with her fingers.




This little guy is one of our many Ergo babies at church.



Candle time!





She's ready to blow!




a Mini Pink Lemonade




the little ladies who came for tea




Our guests even helped to provide post-tea entertainment!





Wishing...

...that I had a picture to share for this post, but that will have to wait 2 more weeks or so. 

Last night I felt the baby moving for the first time.  It's early - not quite 16 weeks!  But it's been earlier with each baby.  With Elsa, I felt movement around 17 weeks, so I've been hopeful that it would be soon.  It's so amazing to finally feel that life moving around after all these weeks of knowing that I'm pregnant, but not feeling it (besides the nausea which has since passed - praise God!!).  Of course, just because I don't feel it doesn't mean that I don't look it.  I've "popped" earlier with each baby too, and I'm wishing that I could feel as though I have a legitimate excuse for looking pregnant already this time since it's a fourth baby.  But I don't.  I just feel fat.

Anyway, I'm heading to see the midwife today, and I should be able to schedule my ultrasound for 2 weeks from tomorrow. Then I hope to have a picture of this little one to share.  Maybe a profile or a foot or a hand... I can't wait!!

Best Dessert!

Something inspired me this afternoon to make Old Fashioned Apple Dumplings.  The "something" was perhaps the fact that I had left the Costco container of apples sitting on top of the toaster oven last evening when it was turned on thereby bruising the bottom of about seven apples.  Oops.

But in the end, it was all good because it meant we had Apple Dumplings for dessert.

We didn't have any dairy-free ice cream for Luke on hand, so we had to make a run to Harris Teeter (the nearest place that carries So Delicious Coconut Milk ice cream) for that.  While there, we picked up some wings for dinner.

Cupcake rather liked the wings.

See?

But she liked dessert even better.

We all did.  And there are three left.  But I'm wondering if there will still be three of them there on the counter tomorrow morning.



Basement Business

It's been slow-going in the basement these last few weeks.  We're still at the mostly-framed stage...which is where we were last time I posted about it. 

But now we have a deadline of sorts.  Stephen is having shoulder surgery in mid-January and will be unable to do any kind of manual labor for quite a while after that. So we're trying to get finished with the framing, electrical, and insulation before then.  After that, the drywall guys can come and do their thing, and the painters can do theirs.  Maybe he'll be recovered enough to work at the finishing after that.

In the meantime, we're enlisting all able-bodied men (and boys!) to help.

Yep, that would be Luke's first power-tool experience.  He was removing screws from an old shelving unit.  His brother desperately wanted a turn, but I think eight years old is young enough to be handling power-tools.  A five year old is out of the question!  He's better off vacuuming up the sawdust on the floor.

Christmas gifts

This post at Eat At Home the other week inspired me to do some easier-than-homemade-cookies Christmas gifts this year for neighbors and teachers and co-workers.

We put them together this afternoon. Luke didn't help because #1) he is allergic to milk products and there were lots of those included, and #2) he was lost in Narnia somewhere. So these two were my helpers...

It was nearly as much fun taking pictures of the finished product as it was putting them together.  Okay, it was more fun taking the pictures.  Next time I just need to use something white besides a wrinkly old sheet for the background.

Our recipes varied slightly from the recipes given at the link above.  We ended up with Banana Creme Pudding, Berry Dark Chocolate, Hollywood Black & White, and Strawberry Cheesecake.  I can vouch for the fact that they're all quite yummy!