Decorating the Tree

R had so much fun putting ornaments on our tree this year. Here we are unwrapping ornaments. We happen to have a ton of ornaments still in individual boxes, so there was a lot of J and I pulling an ornament out and then passing it to R to hang up. J and I hung all of our really delicate glass ornaments, but R absolutely loved putting up J's collection of Disney ornaments, which were his from when he was a kid--I think he got a new one every year or something.

Here's the finished product!

We did this while RUS was napping which made it easier since there were way too many things he couldn't get into while we were doing this. It really feels a little silly because R has been so excited and into Christmas, and we've done a ton of fun things this month--crafts, our holiday party, baking, baking and more baking, decorating, having fun with Vlay, our Advent calendar, etc. and it's really 99% R and only a tiny bit RUS.

Next year we'll have not only more pictures, but I hope he'll get into the whole thing a little more!

Visiting Santa

After writing her Christmas list, R was dying to share it with Santa, so we planned to visit him when we knew he would be in town--he made a stop at the orchards we love on Dec. 11. We got the kids all dressed up, R had her list all ready, and we headed on out.

J wrote a little bit about our visit already so I'll just throw up a few pictures.RUS was not at all interested in sitting with Santa or Mrs. Claus--we got only two pictures with both kids and this is the best one. In the other one RUS is full-out screaming (red face and all) with a cracker in his mouth--I gave him some munchies in case those would keep him occupied. That really didn't work. He put the food in his mouth and proceeded to scream.

So I took RUS and R had a nice conversation with Santa about all the items on her list.
Then she got candy canes for herself and for RUS and we headed over to the craft area where she decorated a picture with Christmas stickers and letter stamps. She had so much fun! I can't wait until RUS is old enough to be excited about Santa, too!

Do You Know All Your Festivus Facts?

I got 4 out of 6 on this quiz.

Snowflakes!

We love Christmas decorating around here. J's favorite is making a few new snowflakes to add to our collection each year. Here are some photos of J and R working on new ones for this year's display!

It all started with Pierce Brosnan welcoming us to South Korea

So J and I did the math: from leaving our house to walking back in the door we were gone for 120 hours. 63 of those hours we spent on airplanes, in airports or otherwise in transit. We only spent 57 hours actually in Japan with my family.

Here's where the adventure started to feel "real"--when we arrived in Seoul for our connecting flight to Japan.

We--J and I, my parents, A, M, and Geg, were all on the same flight to Japan so we met up at Incheon. The Seoul airport is actually all kinds of awesome. The only down side is that there were these periodic "smoking rooms" filled with people smoking, and walking past them you'd be assaulted with the smell of cigarette smoke.

RUS took his first two steps today!

It's been coming--we've been saying for a couple weeks now, "any day now, he's going to take that first step!"

Today, it happened! and J and I both saw it. RUS was holding on to J's hands with both hands, then J let go and he stood alone for a moment and then definitely moved both feet, one foot and then the other, and moved forward maybe half an inch. It counts, though!

RUS has been getting more and more confident with standing without holding on to anything, and I've seen him stand independently for 30 seconds or more while playing with toys in both hands. I wonder how quickly it will be before he really starts trying to walk!!

Here's a photo of him looking at our Christmas tree with Grampie at our holiday party:

Of COURSE There was Karaoke

at my brother's wedding. And of COURSE I plan to write a blog post about it . . . this year. There are literally 2,000 pictures to wade through, which is no excuse, because this was one of the biggest events of the year, not to mention my life, and I'm embarrassed I haven't created a blog post, or ten, about this event yet. More will come, I promise! But here's a sneak peek.

Pre-Party Pictures

Cookie Table and Cold Punch:
Vegetable Tray, Fruit Tray & Cheeseball & Crackers:
Gingerbread Cookie Decorating Station (this was a huge hit with the kids!):
Applesauce-Cinnamon Ornament painting (also a huge hit, but very messy!):

Cindy Lou Who

So Grammie and Grampie let R watch "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" about two weekends ago when R was staying at their house. R absolutely adored the movie. Ever since, she's been asking for stories about the Grinch, and for us to tell her the story about the Grinch who didn't like Christmas, or the Grinch who wasn't nice and then he was nice at the end, and so on and so forth. She loves when we embellish the story. Once, because I was so bored of telling the story of the Grinch I started with "Once upon a time, there was a cloud . . . " She started to get upset because of the unorthodox beginning but I managed to calm her down by asking whether she watned to tell the story or whether she wanted me to tell the story. And then I said that the cloud was blocking the sun from the Grinch's dark, dark, cave and, well, the rest of the story is history. R has also drawn countless pictures of the Grinch in the morning at school, and I've had to tell the story of the Grinch to her friends at school so often that they know the story as well as R does by now.

So when J let R wear her fancy green dress to school the other day she wanted to be a princess. Princess Cindy Lou Who, in fact. And she wanted me to give her Cindy Lou Who hair.

Here's what I came up with:(just for reference, here's the Cindy Lou Who from the movie--played by a 6-year-old Taylor Momsen):

Party Update

So our holiday party was awesome. And the number 1 requested recipe is this:

Crack Candy
Saltine crackers

2 sticks (1 cup) real butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 bag (12 oz.) chocolate chips

Cover a cookie sheet with saltine crackers. Melt butter and brown sugar--bring to a boil and let cook until mixture gets frothy (about 3 minutes or so). Pour over crackers. Bake at 400°F for 4-5 minutes. It will bubble. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let chips sit 5 minutes. Use the back of a spoon to spread chocolate evenly across crackers. Refrigerate at least 1 hour then break into pieces to serve.

This tastes like toffee and is absolutely delicious. I will post pictures of it from our party once I get them uploaded to the computer.

Really Fun Christmas Quiz

I promise more pictures will come soon--we still have to talk about decorating the Christmas tree, meeting Santa for the first time and sharing R's Christmas list with him and Mrs. Claus, and all kinds of other fun holiday things. But no time for that right now. So here's a really fun Christmas quiz.

I scored 60% for 159,000,000 points! Post your score in the comments!

I won an AWESOME giveaway!!!!!!

This is going to be RUS's ornament this Christmas! I'm so excited!
It's an ornament from This Fine Day, a really, really cool etsy shop featuring handmade wooden crafts. On the back I'm going to ask her to write "RUS 2010."

Baking Update

I'm really quite proud of myself.
Sitting in my freezer right now are:

VEGAN TREATS
1 batch french buttercream
1 batch snickerdoodles
1 batch peanut blossoms
2 batches chocolate chip cookies
2 batches sugar cookies
1 batch buckeyes (to be fair, J made these)
1 batch reese bars
1 batch russian teacakes
1 batch candy cane cookies

NON-VEGAN TREATS
1 batch gingerbread people and christmas trees
1 batch french buttercream (tinted green and red)
2 batches rice krispy treats
1 batch peppermint bark
4 loaves applesauce bread

STILL TO BAKE
4 loaves applesauce bread--DONE!
1 batch non-vegan peanut blossoms--DONE!
1-2 loaves cranberry-nut bread
1 batch peanut butter chocolate pillows

THINGS I'M ON THE FENCE ABOUT
1 batch kolczakis
1 batch chocolate peppermint bark cookies

Any other suggestions? A, M, Surf, Cali, Geg--any requests for things for me to send to A&M's for our holiday gathering??

Eat Your Vegetables

So, when R and RUS went to visit Santa Claus yesterday (more on this later), I listened in on R's conversations with the jolly old elf. She had brought along her Christmas list (see previous post) and Santa and Mrs. Claus ran through each thing, saying oh, you like princesses? You like Penguins? etc. Then Santa said to R, "Have you been a good girl? You listen to Mommy and Daddy? You eat all of your vegetables?" Mrs. Claus meanwhile said, "Now, don't be disappointed if you don't get everything on your list. Santa has a lot of girls and boys to visit."

Fast forward to that evening's dinner, which consisted of some leftover macaroni and cheese, Grampy-style, some quinoa, and a couple of Chicken Nuggets. As she's eating, R turns to me and says, "Daddy, there's no vegetables. Santa said to eat my vegetables." Taking advantage, I pulled out some carrots for her to eat. While munching on these, she turns to me again and says, "Do we have any broccoli? It was with great reluctance that I admitted we did not have broccoli, but I assured R that we would get some soon.

Today, R spent all day at Grammy and Grampy's house after sleeping over there last night. They filled us in on what R had been up to that day. They said it was funny how R kept saying she wanted to eat each of her foods that day "without any vegetables." She wanted her cereal and her eggs and her fruit all "without any vegetables." I kind of wonder if she's testing the boundaries of Santa's omniscience.

Introducing Vlay

A mysterious package arrived in the mail on December 1st. It turned out to be an "Elf on a Shelf." The elf comes with a book that explains the whole story. Basically: if you've ever wondered how Santa knows who's been naughty and who's been nice, this is how-- he sends an elf to live at your house and keep an eye on what's going on. Every night the elf flies back to the North Pole and catches Santa up on everything and then comes back to your house, but always lands in a different location than the day before.

R named our elf Vlay. So far Vlay has been turning up in some pretty unique places. Once he was sitting on the boxcar of the train that circles our Christmas tree. Once he was sitting on the clock. He's also appeared on the tree itself, hanging from our wind chime (yes, we have a wind chime hanging in our kitchen), and on various shelves.

R is getting really really good at finding him in the mornings, although she does have some anxiety about "the naughty list" so mostly we talk about what good things Vlay is going to tell Santa.

R's Official List for Santa

She has already showed the list to Vlay (more on him later) and announced that she is going to bring this list with her when she meets Santa this coming weekend.

Let Baking Season Begin!

This is R licking the beaters after our first baking session of the holiday season, two days after Thanksgiving. She's licking French Buttercream batter off of the beaters.

Since then, I've been madly baking in preparation for the upcoming holidays. Sitting in my freezer right now are:

2 batches of chocolate chip cookies
1 batch of peanut blossoms (but I definitely need to make another batch of these)
snickerdoodles
2 batches of rice krispy treats
2 batches of sugar cookies--these are among my favorites because they're so festive.
4 loaves of applesauce bread

Here we are working on the sugar cookies together. R had a blast with her own set of dough and cutters and roller. I eventually broke out another big rolling pin for her to use when she got tired of using the small one.

Our Tree is Up!!!

Our first ever bigger-than-a-breadbox Christmas tree is up!!! And I absolutely love it.Isn't it PERFECT? We bought lights super-cheap on Black Friday and all the ornaments are special--including a whole bunch that Grammie and Grampie gave us from their collection, all the ones from when J and I were little, as well as the start of R and RUS's ornament collections. The only thing that we're still missing is a tree topper. I'm going to look for one at the after-Christmas sales, but for now the tree is wearing a "Baby's First Christmas" hat that I bought in the Target dollar bins after RUS was born last year.

Thanksgiving Crafts

Leading up to Thanksgiving--pretty much ever since Halloween--we've been talking with R about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and what it means to be thankful for things. One of my favorite things to do this month has been Thanksgiving crafts with R, not least because they've made absolutely perfect decorations for our kitchen windows.

Looking at our windows, you see R's Thankful Wreath right in the center. To make this, we traced her hand on construction paper and cut out about 15 or 20 of them. Then, on each hand we wrote something she was thankful for (click on the picture to enlarge it so you can read the hands). We then glued each hand to a paper plate with the middle cut out.

Immediately to the left of the wreath is a pair of turkeys R and I made--actually the very first Thanksgiving craft we did. We cut out big circles for the bodies (R drew hers, the blue one, and I drew mine, the orange one). Then I cut out feather shapes. She helped me sort them into piles of large and small feathers: large ones for my large turkey and small ones for her small turkey. Then she and I cut notches into our feathers and glued them to our turkey bodies. I cut out wattles, beaks, and feet and we glued those on too. She brought home some beads from day care that she wanted to put on her turkey, so we added those, too.

Then J helped R make the very large turkey to the right of her Thankful Wreath. We put some paint on a paper plate for her, let her mix it up with her hands, and then make handprints on construction paper. Then I cut out the handprints and R and J glued them to a paper plate, along with a turkey body. They drew on the turkey's neck and eyes, and glued on a beak, wattle, and feet.

And then in the bottom row, starting on the left, R drew a turkey for RUS on a painted paper plate; she decorated a turkey at school saying she was thankful for "my mommy," and she drew--totally on her own--at school, the turkey in the middle. Then we've got an assortment of Thanksgiving cards the kids received from Grandma and Grandpa and Grammie and Grampie.

Speaking of Thanksgiving cards, we had a LOT of fun making these! R and I colored on two pieces of white paper and then watercolor painted over the crayon markings. Then we traced her hand and cut out enough hands for all our cards, glued them onto orange construction paper, drew feet and glued on tiny beaks and wattles, and signed the backs. They came out so great!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

We had a wonderful day with Grammie and Grampie over at our house for a huge meal. Grammie made about half the food at her house and brought it over, while J prepared the tofurkey along with several side dishes (many of them involving potatoes).

Thank goodness for Grampie, who came over early and helped entertain the kids, including helping R dress up like a princess. She kept saying she was Tiana (from The Princess and the Frog) because she had on a green dress.We didn't eat until after 1 p.m. and boy, R was so ready to eat that even while talking on the webcam with Grandma and Grandpa, she really wanted to have someone pull her chair back up to the big table. She must have sat there for more than half an hour waiting for us to get all the food ready and sit down and start eating!

Here's our table--we had SO MUCH food, but it is seriously one of my favorite meals of the entire year, and the leftovers are decadent. They are already almost gone! I can hardly believe it.
After the meal we all sat around and looked at Black Friday ads from the newspaper. RUS got in on the action by throwing ads on the floor and then pushing R's chair around the kitchen and dining room.