Out with a bang

If 2012 doesn't require stitches, I'll like it better than 2011.

We rang in the new year, as has become our tradition, with a Noon Year's Eve party at lunch time. But really, it paled in comparison to the party we had in the ER with Jacob later in the evening.

Maybe he heard us talking at lunch about how he hadn't had any major accidents. Maybe he heard me remark on how shocked I was that we hadn't made a trip to the emergency room with any of our rowdy kids yet. Or maybe his big sister just got a little overzealous with her door slamming.

What I know for certain is that shortly after dinner we found ourselves spending New Year's Eve in the ER at the local children's hospital. 

As far as family emergencies go, Jacob's in the lead now after severing the top third of his pinkie finger almost completely off. It was hanging on by just enough of a thread that the doctor was able to successfully reattach it, and Jacob's expected to make a full recovery. (In the words of the doctor: "It's not quite fully amputated. Kids are like starfish...they just grow new parts where they need 'em. This will heal up just fine.") Jacob did great, and has a whole bunch of stitches and a great big splint to show off in the church nursery.

Thanks to all who are praying for his speedy and total recovery. 

Oh, and Happy New Year.

Dads are more fun

We like having Daddy home on Christmas vacation. Because let's be honest...I'm a lot of fun, but not the spur-of-the-moment-backyard-canoe-ride type of fun. This is definitely my kids' new favorite way to kill time between naps and dinner.

Full circle

It was bound to happen sooner or later. My dear sister-in-law wisely observed that it's really not an official family get-together without a pregnant Christina shooting guns. So we made Christmas official, and took it a step further by letting our daughter in on the action.

I'm going to guess her need to join us in firing at inanimate objects in the back yard started sometime around my thirty-fourth week of pregnancy with Abby. But that's just a guess.

July 2007

She turned out to be a pretty good shot, for a four year old who doesn't aim before she fires. We saved her target and told her she could hang it up in her room. And next time I promised I'd let her use my pink BB gun.

Fit for a King

I feel like we've been standing at this counter mixing and baking for the entire month. Cookies, cinnamon rolls, pies, and any number of delicious confections have found their origins here, and the kids are more than happy to oblige my insatiable need to try every new Christmas recipe that comes my way.

Today's project? Preparing our Happy Birthday Jesus cake, to be consumed at our family Christmas Eve dinner (aka, Jesus' birthday party). Last year, Abby was emphatic that Jesus wanted a pink birthday cake, so that's what we made. This year, Caleb managed to throw some ideas of his own out there, and between the two of them, they informed me that Jesus would like sprinkles on his cake.

"How many sprinkles?" I asked.

"All the sprinkles," Abby replied.

I should have known. 

When it was finished, our fudge marble cake with dark chocolate frosting boasted nearly one and a half pounds of sprinkles. Two full tubs of sprinkles. All the sprinkles I had.

I'm pretty sure Jesus would approve.

Time for a trim

I am pretty certain my youngest needs a haircut.

If this was bedhead, I might be willing to let it slide. But this is his 6 p.m. look. The mohawk is still kind of cute, but the wings are a bit much, I think.

I'm going to need to fix those soon. If he'll ever hold still.

Tiny dancer, meet big ballerinas

Abby may have been a little disappointed to find out she wasn't going to be allowed onstage to dance, but by the time the real ballerinas appeared on the stage and the orchestra filled the theater with strains of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, she had forgotten all about it.

She sat mesmerized through the 45-minute version of The Nutcracker we attended with our homeschool group and was more than a little concerned about the fate of the Mouse King who was dragged off the stage after the opening sword fight.

"It's just a pretend mouse," I explained, noticing how upset she was getting. "He's not really hurt. He's just pretending."

"But she's a real princess, right?" she asked of the Sugar Plum Fairy. "And those are real ballerinas?"

"Yes," I assured her. And all was right with the world.

I'm looking forward to many years of sharing this holiday tradition with my little girl. Seeing this familiar ballet through her eyes makes it that much sweeter.

Christmas bucks

Caleb has no problem with Santa. It's the reindeer he takes issue with.

In fact, every time we've pointed one out to him, he is adamant that there are no such things as reindeer.

"That's not a reindeer," he insists. "It's a Christmas buck. See the antlers?"

There is no arguing with this guy. So we've all just given up, and now we have fun pointing out the cars dressed up as Christmas bucks that we see driving all over town. Even Abby knows she's not going to win this one.

"Look Caleb!" she'll say, pointing to a picture in her book. "Santa has a Christmas buck with a red nose!"

"That's Rudolph," I tell them. "Rudolph the red-nosed..."

Nevermind.

Just add sprinkles

Not all Christmas food crafts are created equal. Not everything is as awesome as the candy cane sugar cookies. Sometimes, the fun we have with our food is merely adequate.

Thankfully, my kids think everything I do is fantastic. (Or else they're really good actors.) And they were totally impressed this morning when I whipped out the sprinkles and dried cranberries and told them to decorate their cream cheese bagel wreaths.

Maybe we should stick to baking.

Eating issues

Jacob eats now. And for that I am very, very grateful.

But this is not how you eat a peanut butter spoon.

He's extremely picky, and there's no consistency to the foods he likes. Some days, chicken nuggets are the best thing ever. A day later, he won't go near them. He hates cheese. But he'll often eat macaroni and cheese (boxed only, not the homemade stuff).


He has a major sweet tooth, so if he goes a few meals without eating much of anything, we can usually get some calories in him in the form of some sugar cookies or egg nog. The only thing we can always count on him devouring is Mediterannean cuisine. Unfortunately I'm not much of a falafel or baba ganouj chef, so a few days of a baby on a hunger strike usually means I'm rewarded with a night off from cooking while we take Jacob out to stuff himself full of his favorite foods.

One thing's for sure. I have a feeling we'll all be much happier when he learns to keep his foot off the table so that he can actually reach his dinner.

Stinky Boy Feet

We call them Stinky Boy Feet.

Because that's exactly what they are. And all the boys in my house have them.

It might have something to do with the fact that my kids won't wear shoes. We leave the house with shoes, and good intentions of keeping them on. But somewhere out there, Jacob throws his down and Caleb gets his wet, and eventually we wander in from outside, shoeless, with muddy socks to prove how much fun we had.

And stinky boy feet.

Sun up till sun down

I can think of much better ways to spend an evening than helping Justin wash his car in the dark until well past my bedtime.

But I'm not a two-year-old boy, and apparently things like that are a matter of perspective.

Step one

It took about 10 minutes of undivided attention to make it happen. (Weekends with Daddy at home to help divide and conquer make small miracles like that possible.)

I wasn't there to see it, but Justin reports that it took just that short amount of time to motivate, instruct, and witness 13-month-old Jacob's first steps. It's amazing what kids can learn when you spend a little one-on-one time with them. 

I've been trying to teach the kid to walk for a good two months now, but by all accounts, my instruction has been limited to leaning him against a piece of furniture and hoping he'll follow me on two feet as I run off to see what kind of trouble his older siblings are getting into. 

By the end of the day, his new found confidence in traveling upright had him launching himself off of anything he could pull up on and teetering toward us with arms outstretched and a huge proud grin on his cute little face. Once he was within arms reach, he'd lunge toward us, propelled by momentum and excitement, and collapse into a big giggling heap in our arms while the whole family stood around and applauded his new skill.

I can see that being the third child isn't easy. But at least it comes with the perk of having your own personal cheering section every time you do something awesome.

Baking buddies

Something about being great with child makes me want to bake. A lot. Christmastime encourages this kind of behavior, which may serve to explain the excessive baking going on in our home in spite of the fact that I'm still in my first trimester. 

Who better to join me in my culinary adventures than another pregnant mommy with time to kill on a Friday morning? And that, friends, is how most of my kitchen, my entire dining room, and two-thirds of my small children got dusted with flour.

The mess was well worth it. The cookies were fabulous, but the friendship is better. 

World's Greatest Sugar Cookies

(adapted from peppermintplum.blogspot.com)

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

4 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

5 3/4 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and sour cream. Combine salt, baking soda and flour and add to mixture. If dough is sticky, chill it for a bit in the fridge before working with it.

Roll out dough on floured surface to about a quarter inch thick. (Don't make them too thin. I'm serious about this.) Use cookie cutters to make some really cute designs. Or do what we did...dye half the dough red and spend the rest of the morning trying to figure out how to make cookies that look like candy canes.

Use a spatula to carefully place each cookie on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes. Not a minute more. Take them out before they look done or start to brown on the edges and you'll have some amazingly soft and delicious cookies.

Transfer to cooling rack after five minutes. Frost when fully cooled.

Peppermint glaze

(adapted from food.com)

2 cup confectioners' sugar

2 tbsp light corn syrup

4 tbsp water

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Stir sugar, corn syrup, peppermint and water together. (Makes 1 cup glaze.)

Glaze will be thin and clear. If desired, add food coloring to create colored glaze. Stir in food coloring a few drops at a time until you reach the color desired. If peppermint's not your thing, substitute vanilla extract instead.

Unused glaze can be stored for a few days and must be stirred well each time you use it.