Annual Christmas Tree Cookie Making

Tonight we did our annual baking of the Mirro cooky press green Christmas tree cookies that Andrew always made with his mom while growing up.  Our tradition is that I make all of the other cookies and candies by myself or with the kids, but Andrew leads the making of the Christmas tree cookies.  So, here we are all suited up in our Christmas aprons, which the chipper Christmassy person in the red shirt and gingerbread man apron made the entire family wear.  Andrew's confident enough in his masculinity to go along with my whims. 

Would have made a great photo...if it weren't for the front row!!  Uh, which photo is worse?  Both belie the fact that the boys actually were having a good time making these with us and instead make them appear either miserable...or constipated.  Come on, people, this is what I have to work with for my nice family photograph of us decorating cookies together! And one that I spent time setting my automatic timer for, too :)

Well, moving on....the posed picture is history and we are now onto making the actual cookies.  As I said, Andrew takes charge and I just go along with whatever he says for these.  I almost got put into time out for suggesting we use a different type of sprinkles for the decorating! :)

Our annual serious shot of Andrew and the boys, concentrating very hard on making perfect Christmas tree shapes.  I told Nate that he looked like he was about to fall asleep, at which he told me he wasn't tired and instead did what you see in the next picture....

How funny that Andrew and Ben are eyeballing him at his immediate change in demeanor! That Natey, always a character :)

Decorating....with lots of sprinkles!

Ta-da!  The finished cookies....well, decorated and ready to be baked.

Waiting patiently 7-9 minutes for them to bake...

Post-cookie-eating....and ready for bed!

Daddy and Me

I LOVE this picture of Andrew and his little girl!  What a coy little cutie she looks like in her daddy's arms, knowing that he is her biggest fan (and easiest guy to wrap around her fingers!). ;)

Organizing the Pantry

This pantry needs to be reorganized...badly.  Or so Abby seems to think!



The Freshie, caught red-handed! :)

First Hot Chocolate

Today marked the day when I offically let go of all inhibitions - both parental and neatness - and gave my nearly 14 month old baby some hot chocolate and a chocolate covered spoon to enjoy with her brothers.  What can I say?  I tried to pull the wool over her eyes when I gave her brothers mugs of hot chocolate with peppermint-clad chocolate covered spoons and gave her plain milk and Wheat Thins.  Uh, no luck there, Mom.  She gave me big sad eyes and just started to point at her brothers' snacks.  So I felt bad and caved.  To redeem myself, I did only give her about 1/4 packet of cocoa but oh, that chocolate spoon!

Here she is, happy as can be :)

Child Labor at Its Best

Nate and his little friend Brianna cleaning up the counters for me while I was watching Bri one day.  I swear, I didn't have anything to do with this, they wanted to clean entirely on their own.  Of course I'm taking advantage of this, though :). 

Piano Playing

This post is for Auntie Marian, whose antique player piano we currently have at our house.  Usually it stays closed but every so often, the kids ask if they can play it and they always have a fun time doing so.  This is the first time that Abby has joined her brothers on the piano.  I think she's having fun, huh?  How convenient that she was all dressed up in a pretty dress that day.  Looks like she is having a recital :).  So you'll see, Auntie, that your piano is being shown lots of love while it's down here in Pennsylvania!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I suppose it's safe to say that the very content of this post - preparing for Christmas - is the reason why I have not put too many posts up recently on the blog.  We've had a great month of December, putting up all of our Christmas decorations, baking, preparing for visits with family later this week and seeing many of our closest friends.  We've watched some Christmas specials with the kids, done some Christmas crafts and talked to the kids about Jesus' birth many times this month.  And finally the BiG DAY is almost here. 

Below are some of the highlights of this past month as we prepared for Christmas.  I love Christmas and just love going all out to make the holiday extra special.  I pray that you and your family have the most blessed and merry Christmas day!

Getting our tree.  We always go to Hague's, a local Christian-run nursery that hosts several events for my MOPS group.  So, we like to go there and support the owners and we think they have fantastic trees too.  This year, we opted for one main tree and a smaller tabletop tree for the kids. 

The boys with their Charlie Brown tree.  So proud!

Decorating the tree is very serious work.  Nate immediately took ownership of the little tree and dictated where all of the ornaments should be hung on this one.

Ben, on the other hand, decided to take control of the big tree and hang some ornaments on this one.  This was the first year that both of the boys were really into decorating the trees and looking closely at the ornaments.

 'O Christmas Tree...

 The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Our Snow Village!  Andrew's mom started us on this village when we first got married, and before she passed away, so it is very special to us to put it up each year.  The boys love looking at it...and turning it off and on!

The centerpiece I made at my MOPS Mom's Night Out.  Live evergreen, winterberry and pine cones.

Andrew and I sometimes like to pretend that we are grown-ups :) and have formal parties.  This year, we had a dinner party with the eight couples we see most often  We had a great time and it was so nice to get dressed up for once.  Good times!

I had these little favors to hand out to everyone as they left: hot chocolate bundles.  This included packets of hot chocolate, chocolate covered spoons and homemade marshmallows.

The guests all dressed up.  Us - woo hoo!

Corey and Angie...

 Randy and Julie...

Manny and Toni...

David and Barbara...

Mark and Heather...

Nate and Jen...

Steve and Amy...

Dave and Crystal... 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! :)

Souderton Christmas Parade

Last weekend, Andrew's company marched in the Souderton Christmas Parade so Andrew and Nate set out on a father-son outing to join in.  Ben didn't want to go and instead stayed home with me and Abby for the morning.  Nate was the littlest guy in the group and walked the entire parade!  He threw candy to the kids in the crowd and waved and said Merry Christmas to everyone.  There were a few laughs, supposedly, when Nate flung the candy backwards a few times instead of throwing it in front of him, due to the clumsiness of his large mittens!  He also threw candy to the curb a few times when there were no onlookers for about 50 feet.  Ha ha, what a cutie!  Here's our little helper in his Santa hat.  Ho ho ho!

Getting to the finish line....Natey is getting just a little tired out!!