Busy...

As my lovely mother has pointed out - it's been a while.

I was working some big hours before Christmas.

We had a fabulous Christmas. Cookies were baked and decorated, songs were sung, shopping, trees decorated, presents wrapped, presents unwrapped, playing with toys - lots of kid time.

We took the decorations down the day after Christmas (except the tree - because of course we have to do a birthday tree!) and they are already put away in our attic.

Did I mention our attic has about an inch of mold... nice!

Then more hours were worked.... then we had a little neighborhood party for Julia and her neighbor friends (a homemade peppermint ice cream cake that was delicious, and 18 people shoved into a tiny house with hyper kids!!).

On her birthday Julia had a fabulous surprise - my parents came from Arizona to visit!

We had another little birthday party at the pool at my parents hotel. More fun was had.

We had a great week with my parents with lots of good food. The kids had fun and loved every minute of time with them.

Since then we have whiny kids that miss their grandparents, more work, back to school, some sledding, a snow day (not out of school until at least 6/19 now!!) some really cold weather and now a big storm on the way...

Fun as always!

Lesson learned

I've recently learned that I need to give things another shot... even if it sucked the first time.

A long, long time ago I received a very cool Pampered Chef cookie press. When we lived in Arizona I attempted making cookies with my press. Let's just say it was a terrible experience.... melting cookies, nothing sticking and it ended up being a mess.

I decided that it was worth giving it a go - because darn it - other people can do it! So, the girls and I whipped up a batch of spritz dough... colored a pretty green and then loaded it into the cookie press.

Oh my goodness how much fun! Adorable little tree cookies in just mere seconds. The girls each got to shoot dough into little trees and squeal in delight.

They baked up great and are just awesome. Now I can't wait for other reasons to create more press cookies!!

it's beginning to look a lot like...

"I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. " ~ Charlie Brown

"Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy's right. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest." ~ Linus Van Pelt

"And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them! And they were sore afraid ... And the angel said unto them, "Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings o great joy, which shall be to all my people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord." "And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, and good will toward men." "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." - Linus Van Pelt

Someday......

THIS will be my pre-Christmas vacation...

Thanks to Scattered Mom for this tip.

Did I mention..

that my parents might be coming for Christmas!! Well, they might be coming NEAR Christmas.... which is almost as much fun!

Dan and I were thinking of keeping it a secret from the girls... how long do you think that will last?

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Eve Ya'll!

I'm sitting here in Arizona and working hard to find that Holiday spirit. It's hard when the weather is spectacular and your days are spent swimming in the pool and having drinks.

I spent the afternoon wrapping gifts and that helped and had 3 hours away from everyone to listen to carols and wrap everyone's things.

It's nice to be back in Arizona. It's amazes me how easy it is to forget the spectacular landscape here, and how little of the landscape you really see when you have green trees every where. I can't say I prefer one over another - I find them equally awe inspiring.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Things are crazy here. As in C R A Z Y.

I'm going to fess up. I failed my test AGAIN. By one point. yes. one point folks. So - I'm just a little bit of a failure. :) I'm going to take it again soon - I'm just not sure when.

Why?

Because we leave tomorrow morning for 2 weeks in Arizona. I can't wait. We had a huge storm here this weekend and have about a foot of snow on the ground. I love the snow and it does so much for my holiday spirit - but it will be here when we get back.

Thursday was a suckfest. I failed my test. Then it snowed and snowed - we ended up with about 4 inches. Then later that evening I was walking over to my neighbors house and literally fell upon her doorstep. I was carrying Em and so I had to do some serious contorsions to avoid falling on her and landed directly on my elbow. OUCH. Em was fine but I ended up at the doctor. They were going to send me for Xrays on Friday - but when I woke up I could move it - so I chose to skip the Xrays. My entire body is sore, and Friday was a litle scary since I was dealing with extreme dizziness but I'm on the mend.

We had our family Christmas here Saturday night. It was nice - the girls loved their presents and we spent all night singing to High School Musical Sing It. Holy hell that's fun.

So, we're getting ready to leave. I have about 10 loads of laundry to catch up on since Thursday and packing and cleaning. We're so lucky to have such great neighbors as they will be watching our place and taking care of the cat.

Well - I have to get back to work. Kids are screaming, laundry needs washing and folding and there has to be some sort of packing going on soon!

Blog worthy

Seriously, I think of 20 things a day to blog about, yet when I sit down to write any of them it just isn't there.

I'm dealing with some insomnia and the effects are always so ugly. It affects so many different parts of my life. I'm fine - just tired and grumpy. So really - same old same old.

I'm still studying for my exam - which has been scheduled for December 1. I can't wait.

We're getting ready for Christmas already. We won't be doing a whole lot of decorating this year. Maybe a fake wreath on the door, some candle lights in the window. Nothing exciting. We're trying to get most of our shopping done before December so that we can have the smaller stuff shipped to AZ for Christmas morning. The girls will be exchanging their gifts (we're letting them give the big gifts to each other this year) here before we leave. Our neighbors will be taking care of our place while we're gone.

Happy New Year!

I am still without a computer. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! It will probably be another week or two. Seriously. It's torture. I am having to do quick email checks on Dan's computer. Christmas cards sit here waiting to go out once I have addresses...

Oh - and how is this - I got the coolest present on Christmas (which was wonderful I might add!!!) - an Ipod shuffle. It is soooo little and cute. But - with my computer being an ass - I have no way to download my music on to it. Bummer.

So - in the time that we have been apart some wonderful things happened.... we had a beautiful Christmas (without snow!) and Santa was good to us all. My little girl turned 6 (gasp!!!) and we have already rung in the New Year with the girls and sent 2/3 of them to bed. Now it's movie and appetizer time. Have I mentioned how much I love appetizers?

If I have some personal time with a computer I might give you some of the details on the above happenings, but for now just know I'm thinking of ya'll and wish nothing but a spectacular 2007 for you and yours.

So much to say...

My computer took it's final nosedive into the dark abyss. Yes, after finally giving in and trusting the damn thing - it died. It is now in a lonely box on it's way to Texas to hopefully be repaired or replaced (thank you extended warranty!!!) but I will be without a computer until sometime the beginning of January.

We have been having a blast here and although we are slightly disappointed that our first New England Christmas will be sans snow - we are definitely in the fa la la la la'ing mood here.

We are trying our best to resume our traditions of the past and not be too tied to our "old" way. We were unable to locate our stockings in our jam packed storage unit and so although disappointed we were able to find great temporary replacements. Julia and I were not able to see the Nutcracker as was our tradition of the last two years, but we cuddled on the couch and watched the BBC's presentation on TV. It was funny that by watching it in the comfort of our home, Julia was able to ask lots of questions and really understand the story. The other tradition we were sad to part with was our annual ride on the Polar Express. We were even able to find a substitute for this as I was reading our little local paper and found a train ride on the local narrow gauge railway around Casco Bay with a visit to see Santa. We all had a wonderful time and Anna, who is entranced by anything having to do with trains (a train set is what she asked for from Santa) was thrilled by being on a "real train." Of course the promise of cookies and hot chocolate was also enticing.

The presents are purchased but not wrapped and I am pretty sure I will be spending part of the afternoon in my room wrapping - along with some serious time tonight.

We ran our errands yesterday so that today we could just hang around and relax. It's a beautiful sunny and unseasonably warm day so we'll probably add a long walk on the beach to our Christmas Eve traditions. Tonight we'll have a dinner that consists of appetizers and then take a long walk on around the neighborhood to look at lights and the stars. Then we come back and don our Christmas jammies and watch Christmas movies. Then it will be time to place our stockings under the tree and leave cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer. We're tracking Santa on NORAD. Then we'll all go upstairs in cuddle in bed and read the Night Before Christmas - and then hopefully the kids will be able to sleep. Anna is certain she will be seeing reindeer and I hope she gets her wish.

So although we have moved and things are different some things will never change and for that, I'm happy.

Cookies and cookies oh my

So - it's the big baking weekend here at the Dough house. Every year for the past 7 years or so I've hosted a cookie exchange. Since I have yet to meet anyone here in town this year I'm just going to be making small batches of a variety of cookies. I'll send some to work with Dan but I'm sure with the 4 of us we won't have much of a problem eating the rest!

We'll be making Sand Tarts which are a holiday must in our house, having been passed down through the generations.

We'll make a traditional frosted sugar cookie from a yummy recipe I got from my sister in law a couple years ago that is a great go to recipe.

We'll be making lemon snowflakes which is a cake mix recipe and you won't believe how easy and tasty they are. These were a big hit from my friend Andrea at my cookie exchange last year.

We'll also be making some oreo bark and candy cane bark from Notes from the Cookie Jar - Holiday Version.

We'll also be making the big gingerbread house. We made the little gingerbread graham cracker houses a couple of weeks ago.

Time to preheat!

Christmas

This is going to be one of THOSE posts... the long rambling posts that wraps itself around and comes back and detours and then maybe if we're all lucky somehow manages to wind itself back onto the path for a finish. Maybe. If we're lucky.

I love Christmas. Even though I'm tongue tied both spiritually and intellectually about how I feel about it. I believe but I don't. Deep down inside I do believe. I believe in a higher being. I believe in believing. In faith. Yet also somewhere down inside believes in a scientific method, in fact. I guess where I stand is that I don't want to reconcile the two. I like the safety net that my spiritual faith provides me. I NEED that safety net. So for now, until I'm someday ready to take that plunge 100% into either side I will peacefully (mostly) exist somewhere on the fence. I won't get into my feelings on organized religion, or how I feel about religion as part of our government or schools. Let's just say that I'm spiritual but not necessarily religious, although I want to participate in a religion. I love the altruism that is part of a lot of organized religion. I like the community, the common point that religion and more specifically a church provides. I just don't know. That's kind of the point. I don't know.

Now - back to my point, not that I have one. Christmas. CHRISTmas. I love it. I love all parts of it. Santa Claus, the story of the birth of Christ. The angels. The cookies. The pagan trees. The lights. The carols. The presents. As much as I abhor the commercialism behind it all - I buy into it. Giving of gifts, sharing of THINGS with people. Buying things. Gingerbread houses, decorations. I love it. Fa la la la la.

I tell my kids about Santa. I believe in Santa. I believe in the whole reindeer flying hoopla. I desperately wish it was true. I believe in the whole "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus." I have also told my kids that Santa brings us presents for Jesus' birthday. We give each other presents to share our love and celebrate the birth of Christ.

There is something magical about this time of year. Magical. Something that the commercial Christmas doesn't touch. The ooh and and ahhing from the back seat as we see yet another home decorated in hundreds of lights. The time spent together baking, cooking, decorating, singing and wrapping.

I love those quiet moments. That first day with the tree decorated, when the bright sun goes down and slowly the lights of the tree appear brighter and glow and then slowly fill the room. That smell of pine.

I also love the stories, the movies, the songs. Cuddling in bed reading about Santa and Jesus and snow.

Oh and shopping. I actually like the shopping part. Finding something that you think someone else will enjoy. Finding that gift that will make your child's eyes light up on Christmas morning.

I just love Christmas.

To the Asshat that jacked our tree:

To Mr. Asshat** in the decked out Expedition:

You saw my family pick out that little Christmas tree. You were standing two feet away when my daughter claimed her tree. You were even closer when we paid the Rotary man for said tree. You couldn't have missed hearing Dan tell me he was going to go get the car to load up the tree.

Then - when our backs were turned picking out a beautiful balsam fir wreath you totally jacked our tree.

You know what you did because you threw it in your truck and got the hell out of there in less than 2 minutes.

See Mr. Asshat you didn't steal the tree from me - you jacked it from my 5 year old daughter.

That's why, Mr. Asshat - you are indeed an Asshat.

Suck my butt,

Het Dough

**Thank you to Dad Gone Mad for the awe inspiring term - Asshat. You rock.

Tis the season to be jolly...

So - we didn't get the tree.... the two photo sessions were duds... but we have a new car!

We now have 2 light blue Honda's - we bought a matching little car for our van! They are so cute. It's a 1991 Honda Accord.

We have a space cleared and ready for the tree - but no lights and nothing to put down under the tree. We have wood floors for the first time - so what do people do about that??? water + wood floors + rental house = no return on the security deposit! So - once we figure that out we'll be picking up a tree and commencing the fa la la la las.

Julia and I did some crafts and we watched some Christmas movies and listened to Christmas music.

Oh - and I'm about 3/4 done with my Christmas shopping. YEAH ME!

We're hoooome

We had a great trip. As always it was too busy, too much driving, too many people we love to see, and not enough time. We were able to see my mom, Dan's parents and grandma, his brother and sister-in-law (SIL) and neice and nephew and my brother and SIL and my nephews. We have the cutest family. Seriously.

I was so happy to be able to attend my nephew H's first birthday party. I felt bad since it was our lateness that pushed back the fetivities into his naptime - but he was a trooper and was precious as always.

I think we packed well on this trip - although I actually forgot a couple of things, but I didn't feel drowned in clothes and excess like we had on other trips. It will however take us 3 weeks to unpack the van.

On our trip we visited Spicer's Orchard, and had a picnic lunch of Jimmy John's, and then the kids played at the playground, and we got to pet the prettiest little cow I've ever seen, and you know I love me some cows.

We also went to Birch Run where Dan and I tackled a BLT made with 1 lb of bacon (picture to come - and we are proud to say that we couldn't eat the whole thing!) and then did some shopping. Later that day we headed to Frankenmuth (aka, "Michigan's Little Bavaria") and did about 70% of our Xmas shopping at River Place and Bronners. The girls just loved Bronners - and really, what kid wouldn't, there are a million bazillion christmas lights and decorations. One employee told me their electric bill is $900 a day.

We spent an afternoon in Chelsea with my brother-in-law and his family. My SIL, T, made this cheeseball mix that was soooooooooooooooo good. It's Lemon Cheesecake by Wind & Willow. We dipped graham cracker sticks into it - and it was delicious. She made the mistake of telling be where to buy the mix - and I bought quite a bit of it for future use and gifts.

My other SIL, M, made the cutest little cake for H's birthday. I think she should go into business making cakes (I'll share a picture later once I find the camera and download some). She's really good at it - and it was super tasty too!

I'm committed to finishing out NaBloPoMo even though our travels left me unable to accomplish my goal of everyday. :)