48 hours of Christmas

I'm not gonna lie, I woke up Saturday morning and wondered if I should just call this Christmas a wash.  We hadn't had the cheeriest week and I didn't know if all four of us home together all weekend would just end in disaster, holiday or not.  So out of curiosity, I decided to document all 48 hours just to see in the end if our Christmas this year was a fail or not.  I started bright and early on Christmas Eve morning (and yes, this WILL be the longest, largest post in the history of blog posts):

Jared was off helping some poor Brasilian motorists so breakfast was up to me - and the kids.  Red and green chocolate chip waffles, anyone??

The kids ate while watching Thomas the Tank Engine and sitting at the kitchen table like Irish Setters.

For me, hot chocolate.  Breakfast of champions.

Then I decided to take some pictures of our tree ornaments to remind me of the some of our great Christmases past.

Wedding ornament.  Less than a month until year  seven!

A Brasilian keychain a bunch of random kids gave to me after meeting me in a park.

My leprechaun from Mr. Howard Williams of the Border Collies. 

Our first married Christmas, we made Jared's family make us ornaments  for our nekid tree.  Most of them have survived!  These are Danny and Anna's contributions.

The kiddos then decided to go play in the half inch of snow in our front yard (a Christmas miracle - there aren't 18 feet of snow out there!!).

The fact that we can get Forster in all that gear - heck, even a HAT is a miracle.  And the result of massive amounts of therapy (for him) and prayers (from us).  I teared up while slipping on his mittens - while I knew he didn't like it or feel comfortable, he was determined to do whatever it took to "GO OU-SIDE!!"

We managed to get a picture of them in all their gear, which I was super proud of.  And then I realized you can SEE how we managed to get the picture. Hi there!

Jared came out about halfway and took some pictures.  I'd been playing with the camera settings to get good lighting indoors and had forgotten to switch it out of manual, so the pictures came out super artsy.

See what Forster is doing there?  He spent almost the entire time eating the snow off his gloves.  I think he ate half the yard.

Then, lunchtime!  We'd done all this last Saturday too, so as we were going in Forster kept yelling "HOT DOG!"  He knew it was pigs-in-a-blanket and picnic time!

Oh, and also time to go for a wee jaunt in Daddy's snow boots.

Then without any prompting from me, Solei got out her violin and decided to do some fiddling around.  With only minimal amounts of me begging her to use smoother bows.

Then there was an incident involving playing a game on Daddy's new tablet and Solei's hatred of losing anything.

Was I going to let this be the final thing to derail our happy holiday?  NO!  You know what solves almost all ills?

Nail salon!  And also, playing with the camera timer!

There was a snack of popcorn...

... covered in industrial strength cheese powder. There was also some pie bakin':

And we bundled up to head for Christmas Eve dinner with some friends.

We had to hurry home for my favorite part of all Christmas - Christmas Eve and the retelling of the nativity story.

Of course after the part about the Wise Men, it's Solei's favorite part... one present each.

Does Solei know her brother or what??

Curly Temple!  Thanks, Gamma!

At this point, everyone was wiped so we prayed, snuggled, called it a night and vacated the premises to give Santa the space he needed.

Forster woke us up repeatedly all night, not because of anticipation.  So when I finally got up at 5:30am or so with him, I made him snuggle with me so Daddy could get a few more zzzzzzzs.  And when Solei woke up, she was sweet and didn't race downstairs, she just snuggled up to us on Forster's couch until Daddy came out and checked downstairs to see if Santa had stopped by.  It was a wonderful way to start Christmas, at least for me!

And then the mayhem began...

.... except there was no mayhem.  They were so excited to play with their first presents that there was no frenzy to get to the next one.

Oh, and one cool thing - Forster saw the unwrapped presents and said "open!" and actually ripped the paper off!  He's getting this present thing down!

We had to kind of rush them though - we had to get breakfast and all dolled up for church.

Blueberry muffins - breakfast of champions!

There was time for a good snuggle before church, though.  Forster was a little tired what with yelling at us all night.

Church was lovely.  The loveliest part was no 7:30am ward council and no other meetings besides sacrament!    Jared narrated the program and I played violin and wrangled the kids in between.  Then it was time to head home and continue the madness.

First up, throw on pajama pants I MADE!!  And then try to get a picture of the kids wearing them....

And when that fails, try at least to get one of each.

Jared played on his new toy...

...and then taught Solei about chemical reactions with yeast...

 ... and her nifty new science kit.  I'm glad no one asked me to try and explain anything to her.

That's where I took a power nap.  It was awesome.  Also awesome?  This was/is the front yard.

 That's December in Wisconsin.  YESSSSSS!!!!!!!

So the rest of the day was pretty uneventful.  There was MoTab on the telly:

... science that involved a magic wand and patient Daddy....

 ... Forster playing with his car track and cars ALL DAY LONG..

... super yummy home made pizza from Daddy...

 ... Skyping with people we super like....

 .. getting help from Daddy but mostly making  potholder all by herself!...

... still more playing with the cars (he's doing it right now, actually!)...

... feeling incredibly blessed to get to spend the holiday with the people we love most....

.... and feeling relieved and wonderful that we survived another Christmas season.  Together.

And now we're going to have Sarah and Alex here in a matter of minutes to play for a few days!!    We'll leave you with the video we made of Jared's mom's artwork with Solei and my recording of For Unto Us A Child Is Born.  Thanks to our wee Christmas album we recorded as a family, it was easy and thrilling to keep the reason for the season close to our hearts.  And hearing your 5 year-old belt out Handel - and then your 2 year old start up - is reason enough to celebrate.  Merriest of Christmases to you!!

Click.... take a pic

Had to post some super cute pictures I got the other day while playing around with the camera settings.

 

Bad wife that I am, I have to admit this last one is my favorite.  I snapped it right as Solei jumped on Daddy's lungs.  I love the raw emotion he shows... it's truly beautiful.

On Christianity:

Recently I have been told, indirectly, that I am not a Christian; that my faith is not placed in the right place.  I’ve been called a member of a theological cult, that I worship a different Jesus than everyone else.  That may be true.  Let’s review.

Here is the Jesus I worship:

The Creator of the earth – Job 10:8

Creator of Man on earth – Genesis 1:26; 2:4

Jehovah of the Old Testament – John 8:58

The Good Shepherd – Psalms 32:1

Born of Mary in Bethlehem – Luke 1 & 2

Only Begotten Son of God – John 1:14; Matthew 16:16-17

Increased in favor with God and man – Luke 2:52

Baptized of John the Baptist – Matthew 3:13

Taught the gospel – New Testament

Our Perfect Example – Mark 8:34

Sacrificed His will for our sins/ Our Redeemer – Matthew 26:42; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Galatians 1:4

Crucified on the cross for us – Luke 23:33

Was resurrected on the third day – Mark 16:9

Stayed and taught the apostles for 40 days  following His resurrection – Acts 1:3

Stephen saw in heaven on the right hand of God – Acts 7:55

Will return to earth again in glory – Matthew 16:27; I Thessalonians 4:16

Our Eternal Judge – I Corinthians 4:4

So, to those who claim that I worship a different Jesus I ask: If I worship a different Jesus, then what Jesus do you worship?

Stars at Night

Stars in Baraboo Wisconsin

October 22, 2011

Hey Alex!!

Guess what apples we found at the grocery store today???

Pumpkin patch!

I got to go with Solei's class to visit the pumpkin patch yesterday!

I don't remember going to one as a kid, why is it that now I feel like it's mandatory, at least for photo ops?  Maybe pumpkins don't grow in Colorado as well as Wisconsin.  Oh, and these things were literally on the vine.  We had to help the kids snap them off - and then they were tripping over the vines everywhere.  It was actually pretty funny.

There were a few ones that were all smashed in the patch, so Solei and I laughed out heads off and called them "squash."  No one found it amusing as we thought they should have.

After we gathered the pumpkins, the kids ran around the amusement farm.  It's a new term I coined.  I followed her around like all the other good moms who were like me, screaming at their kids to smile for pictures while they were trying to play.

This pose was her own invention.

This is her "AAAHHHHHHH SCARYYYY!!!!" face.

All in all, a lovely day.

chchchchanges

Floyd got some new specs!  Pretty nifty, huh??

Fall Squash Soup

It's fall again and that means that your garden may be full of these wonderful babies!  The problem is, what do you do with so many gourds???  I make an awesome soup!!

Here's how we do it.  First we start with two different types of gourds.  I do this to add some variety in the soup.  You can mix and match and create whatever you want with whatever you have available.  

Step 1 is to half the gourds.  This may be difficult - you notice the hammer off to the right.  Let's just say I find using tools to be more efficient.  

Once they are cut in half you have to remove the "guts" or "innards" or whatever you call them.  A spoon should work okay.  Keep the seeds if you wish to plan them for next year.

The next step is not required, but I like to do because it makes things easier later on.  I peel the gourds.  It doesn't make much difference in terms of anything except that when they are cooked I don't have to pull the piping hot "meat" out of the gourd.

I send out my adorable little daughter to pick me some green peppers.  I use two per each gourd.

These were grown in our driveway in a nice little planter that I made from a galvanized steel farm bucket.

The gourd is peeled, cleaned and ready to go:

I cut the tops off of the peppers and pull out the seeds and tops (they can be discarded.)

I place the gourds on a baking sheet together and cover them with oil to keep them from drying out while they are cooking.

The gourds are placed on the sheet with the peppers and one clove of garlic for each pepper.

Turn the oven on to 350.  Place the baking pan in the oven for between and hour and an hour and a half.

The garlic and peppers roast and the gourds cook.  Having them upside down allows the moisture to cook the insides very well and make them very mushy.

Once done you only need 4 more things.  Milk (you could also use a broth if you preferred), Salt, Pepper and a Blender (be careful, our powerful Black & Decker blender burned out while I was making this soup.  Depending on the size of the blender, you will likely need to make 4 batches with this amount of ingredients.

Put one pepper and 1 clove of garlic in the blender with some milk (maybe a cup). Blend this up and you get what you see below:

Take HALF of each of the halves below and slowly add bits of gourd and add milk to be sure that you keep the consistency consistent so you don't burn out the blender.  You should come up with a soup that is just a little thicker than tomato soup and just thinner than applesauce.  Add salt to taste.  Add a little black (or white) pepper to taste as well (not much here.)

You can add other ingredients to help season the soup as well.  Canned spinach does really well and creating a half and half soup of your gourd soup and tomato soup is also excellent.  Experiment with what you want.

Let me know if you have questions!