Santa Claus came to town!

Last night was the City of Dallas official Tree Lighting and Santa Claus was scheduled to make an appearance so we decided to go with our friends Pat & Katie so that Grace could see Santa. We got there at 6:30pm which was when Santa was scheduled to arrive but apparently he got there early this year so we missed his grand entrance on a motorcycle. Will have to rectify that situation next year! We stood in a long line for about 45 minutes before it was Grace & Ethan's turn to sit on Santa's lap. Grace was pretty excited and told him she would like "pink dress ups" and was thrilled with the candy cane he gave her. Ethan wasn't sitting still for anything, but at least I managed to get a few semi-decent photos. Enjoy these because I'm not really feeling like braving the mall to get over-priced pictures with Santa this year so this is it!

How to be a ballerina

Today Grace was telling me (and showing me of course!) how to be a ballerina:

First you have to stand on your toes. Then you walk around.

Then you walk around in a circle and sit on your blue dot. Then you stand on your blue dot.

Then you put your ribbon stick on the ground. Then you dance around the peoples.

And then you twirl.

Christmas Baking Has Commenced!

I have every intention of keeping up with my holiday baking this year and so far I'm off to a good start. Here it is the fourth day of December and Grace and I have already made two batches of Christmas cookies! Tuesday evening Grace helped me make candy cane cookie dough before she had to go to bed and I finished making them into candy canes and baked them that night. Yesterday we made painted cookies which is a holiday tradition. Last year Grace had the attention span of a gnat and only painted about 3 cookies before running off to do something else. This year she painted every cookie (with a little help from Mommy...I like painting cookies too!). She did a fantastic job and our painted cookies are beautiful! She even wanted to help me cut out a few cookies so she cut out a few. I'm just glad Ethan took a long three hour nap and therefore missed out on the entire messy process. I included the recipe below, it's really a fun cookie variety to make with kids.
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I even got bold and experimented with the timer feature on my camera so I could take some pictures of myself as well. I fear my poor children will grow up and wonder where Mommy was since there's so few pictures of us together! I'm generally the one behind the camera since I enjoy it but I still want pictures of myself with the kids every now and again. David enjoys photography as well, but isn't really a candid photographer kind of guy.

Painted Cookies
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients together and add to butter/sugar mixture. Chill for at least an hour before rolling out and cutting with cookie cutters. Paint cookies with Egg Yolk Paint and bake in 375 degree oven for 5-6 minutes.

Egg Yolk Paint
1 egg yolk
1 tsp water
Liquid Food Coloring

Our Tree is Up!

Sunday afternoon we took a trip out to our favorite Christmas Tree Farm here in Dallas owned by a really neat couple from our church. We found them the first year we lived in Dallas through a recommendation I got from someone at Indoor Park and we were super impressed the first year we went. Granted it was a Tuesday afternoon so we were the only customers, but we were still impressed that the Christmas Tree Farm is so well maintained and CLEAN! He cut down the tree for us, hauled it to the car for us, and put it in the tree shaker to shake off the loose needles before helping David tie it to the roof of the car. All that for $15 which is a steal!

This year we got a different variety tree then our usual fir and it's really pretty. I can't remember the name of the variety but it's kind of like a noble with hardier branches that hold super heavy ornaments but is full like a douglas fir. We like full trees here!

This year we were there on a busier day but it was the same great service. It's also fun that they take our picture every year and post last year's for us to take. It's fun to see how our family changed from last year! If you're in the Dallas area and want a good Christmas Tree Farm recommendation just ask us, you won't be sorry!

Grace wanted to wear her Christmas dress to pick out our tree really bad but I talked her into wearing her regular clothes with her pink cowgirl boots instead. Ethan liked walking through the trees and touching the needles, though he wasn't too sure about the uneven ground and mud.

We put the tree up in the stand in the living room as soon as we got home and put lights/garland on after dinner. We waited until after Ethan was in bed before we let Grace help us put the ornaments on the tree.

She really enjoyed putting ornaments on the same 3 branches which got to be a problem since they just won't hold that many! She didn't like the ornaments with hooks but did fine with the kind with loops. Our tree looks beautiful and we've had it lit all day today enjoying it! So far the kids are leaving it alone but I'm sure that won't be the case all month.

Turkey Weekend Fun

We had a fun turkey weekend with my Mom and brother, my Uncle Brad & Aunt Rhonda, and my grandparents up in Portland. We drove up Tuesday night so we could visit a little on Wednesday and got to see Quantum of Silence which was pretty good. My Uncle Brad and Aunt Rhonda made it to my Mom's house Wednesday evening and Grace made a friend for life with my cousin Randi. She thinks Randi is IT! Both my cousins are great with kids and Tyler toted Ethan all over on his shoulders despite the constant slime trail.

Thanksgiving dinner was super tasty and we all ate very well. Ethan really loved the stuffing and Grace liked the cranberry raspberry jello salad. I was shocked when she willingly ate cauliflower and broccoli without dip. Maybe it's a good thing the turkey took a little longer then anticipated since otherwise I'm sure she wouldn't have given all the veggies a shot! She also liked the pie, and just like her Mommy she had a piece of all four flavors! She kept eating the pieces I gave her and asking for more and I'm certainly not going to deny her pie. Far from it!

It was also fun to play a couple of our board games this weekend. We brought Ticket to Ride and Alhambra and Randi played both of them with us and won the first round of Ticket to Ride!

My Mom, Aunt Rhonda, Grandma, and I planned our shopping strategies late Thanksgiving afternoon before deciding to start at Fred Meyers at 6am. We hit the half off sock sale and got some other good deals before heading to the Town Center and then across the street to the Promenade where we eventually wound up at the Olive Garden for lunch. Man were we hungry for soup, salad, and breadsticks after 6 hours of hard core shopping! We even went shopping again Saturday morning because we're crazy like that. It was fun and I'm really glad I got to go since it's been several years since I've had willing partners.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's Pie Time!

I'm a big fan of pie. I absolutely love to make and eat pie so I usually volunteer for pie baking duties on Thanksgiving. This year I'm making two pumpkin pies, an apple pie, and a cherry pie. Yesterday Grace and I made a pumpkin pie for David to bring to work with him and it just about killed us not to eat any. Grace had her little heart set on eating that pie and I confess that I would have liked to have dug in with her! This morning she helped me make two more pumpkin pies before losing interest. I measure out the ingredients and she dumps them in and helps me stir. I couldn't talk her into helping me out with the pat-in-the-pan crust recipe I used for the pumpkin pies even when I told her it was just like playdough. She wrinkled her nose and told me it was NOT playdough and that was the end of her pie making. While the pumpkin pies baked in the oven I put the apple pie together and rolled out the pastry for the cherry pie as well. After a frantic freezer search I realized that I had sent David to work with a cool whip container full of cherries and not the cool whip he needed for the pumpkin pie! So I have the pastry made but not enough cherries to make the pie. I'll have to bring the cherries and pie pastry with us up to Portland tonight and finish the pie up at my Mom's tonight or tomorrow morning. Whoops!