Merry Christmas!

We had such an awesome Christmas, here are some highlights:

Here's how our holiday started....Grammy's car got stuck in our driveway because, oh, it was snowing again! It took a team effort to get it un-stuck!

Christmas Eve

Getting ready to eat Christmas Day

Ted and Baby Isabella

Opening more presents....

Will got a nerf gun, but Ted had to make sure it was "operating correctly"

Baxter and his festive jingle-bell collar.

Now ladies, for this next one, try not to be too jealous....

That's right, my very own extra-extending-snow-brush-ice-scraper-squee-gee. It's one of the most romantic gifts I've ever received from my husband. What a guy.

Hope your Christmas was great!

What's the matter with this picture?

So I've been waiting to do some baking until the last minute, because this family (mostly me) has already plowed through the million dozen cookies we had from the 'hood cookie exchange. I did bake FOURTEEN dozen sugar cookies. That's right, nothing fancy, simple yet scrumptous. I receive many compliments on them each year. I still wanted to do three more treats: 1. Pretzel ring kisses smooshed with m&m's. 2. Christmas bark. 3. Oreo truffles. Oreo truffles were introduced to me a few years ago by my dear friend Dawn. I could not believe that they weren't professionally made. I've tried making them for two years. I seem to forget each year how they turn out when I do them. Now don't get me wrong, they taste great, but you have to close your eyes while you're eating them. Because this is how they look:
When Dawn does them, and another neighbor in the exchange this year too, theirs are perfectly round, the chocolate coating is absolutely smooth, and they even drizzle white chocolate over the top. Mine on the other hand, look like diarrhea clumps. I was getting rather frustrated tonight while creating them, and the kids were very encouraging. "It's ok Mommy. I'm sure they'll TASTE ok!" "I LIKE how they look!" (That coming from the manure king). So, bakers extraordinaire, WHAT'S THE TRICK?

Because I was so consumed with this little treat, I let the pretzel rings sit on the cookie sheet too long. I can hold the sheet upside down, and they still stick to it. A little Christmas magic I guess.

Christmas bark is in the fridge cooling. Perhaps I'll have one success story tonight?

Snow, snow, snow

We had our second snow day of the school year yesterday, after a foot of snow. So there are the two alloted days...we may be in school until July doing make up days!! It's snowing again, but they are forecasting bitter wind chills for tomorrow, so today was the day to get outside.

Here we are, working on the McMillan family fort. Baxter liked to knock down the walls by bounding over them.Me and the workers. Actually, Anna and I went in earlier than the rest for hot chocolate!

Christmas Joy

This is our AWESOME Life Group from church
Last night, we went caroling at a assisted living facility in the Mt. None of us are very musically inclined, so we laughed our way through it and had a great time. Especially Ted.

Ted doesn't enjoy doing a few things. One is caroling. Or singing in general. Another is wearing a suit. And he also doesn't like having his picture taken. Here we are this weekend, before going out to a couple of holiday parties.

Doesn't he looked pleased? Zoom in if you can...

Oh, that's better.

Ring those bells!

This was the second year that as a family, we rang the Salvation Army bell. This year, I added the props, and several people said, "I've already given, but I can't resist your cute family." So get out there, groups, and ring those bells. www.ringbells.org

P.S. Oh no, there must be something wrong with Anna. As her Dad says, that poor girl!

Sledding in the Great White North

We already had our first snow day this week, which is not a good sign, (that's mighty early in the season!) but the day before was early release, and I had promised the kids that we could go sledding. Did it matter that is was freezing rain on us? NO!! Here was a group shot before the last run...

and the outcome of the "race"! On the snow day, the boys were outside for SEVEN hours working on forts, which were crushed by the snow plows a few days later.

Just Imagine....

I've had an awesome, very busy week. Many things I can blog about, but whoops, I didn't have my camera at any of them, so it will take my genius writing skills to re-create. Go ahead, sit back, and maybe even close your eyes. Oh wait, that won't work because then you can't read. Anyhow....
1. Cookies with a cause cookie exchange at church. This was an exchange with a twist. Instead of exchanging them amongst each other, we created plates for people we'd like to bless this season. It was a great idea! My plates went to our mail lady, who from the looks of it, will probably top the number of times she gets stuck at our mailbox this year. And, a friend who's husband lost his job was the other receiptient. The idea came out of what our church is doing this year, "The Advent Conspiracy." Check it out at www.advent.blackhawkchurch.org

2. Will's music program. Very sweet, but doesn't come close to West Side's extravaganza. But sometimes that was a little much!!

3. Dinner with four families from high school friday night. We had a blast. The moms were a-dancin', and the kids were a bit frightened! Husbands too. We ROCKED the house.

4. Our neighborhood cookie exchange. This, again to me, is a bit much. I had to make a dozen cookies per particpant. THAT'S 12 DOZEN COOKIES PEOPLE. And now I have that many sitting in my cupboard and cookie jar. Very dangerous for a stay-at-home mom, as I found out last year.

5. One-on-one time. A new tradition we've started, once a month, I take a kid, Ted takes a kid, and Grammy takes a kid. This month, it was Will and I. We went out to lunch, made homemade christmas decs, and HE taught ME chess. He won. He was also going to teach me PS2 "Need for Speed" but we ran out of time.

6. Today my Mom treated me to a Christmas concert by the Madison Festival Choir at the Overture Center. It was fabulous. The only bummer...on the way home I GOT A TICKET FOR RUNNING A RED LIGHT. It was NOT red as I slowly proceeded through the intersection BECAUSE THE ROADS WERE SNOW COVERED AND SLIPPERY. I'll be fighting this one in court on Jan. 8th.

So, there you have it. Just imagine! Thanks for reading!