Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas has new meaning now that we're parents.  It's neat being on this side of the whole occasion!  Christmas was perfect this year.  My mom and Keith were here, everyone was happy and healthy (thank goodness the stomach bug swept our house last week!), and the time we spent with family was priceless.  My mom stayed at our house on Christmas Eve since Dave was working-we put out gifts and made food for Christmas day, stayed up entirely too late, and both ended up taking Benadryl at 1am to force ourselves to go to sleep..haha...Christmas morning was wonderful.  Ellie was really excited when she saw all of the gifts and proceeded to take all of the bows off of each and every gift before we started opening them. 

She liked helping to open the gifts far more than I thought she would, and got excited about each of her gifts.  She especially liked the ride-on toy that Grandma got her.  She sat on it before we even took it out of the box. 

Here are a few more pictures from the morning...

Heading out to Uncle "Poppy" Wayne and Aunt Kathy's house...

In case you're wondering...this is a carrot...

we're getting molars...

Whoops...we burnt the broccoli casserole...



There are more pictures coming from my mom's camera, but I don't have them yet.  The day was great!  Can't wait for next year!

SNOW!

After last year's unprecedented snowfall of 4+ feet, you'd think that we'd be all snowed out in these parts, but I still can't help but love the first snow of the winter!  Yes, it was only a few inches, and it did make my ride home on Thursday night no fun at all, but my little snowbunny got to play in it, which made it all worth while!



Tis' the Season!

Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE Christmas!  I love the music, the family, the decorations, and of course that feeling you get deep in your gut right around this time of year-that magical feeling that Christmas seems to bring back, even as an adult.  All of that becomes even more important now that I get to be on the parent side of it all.  I get to be the one to make that magic happen for Ellie.  I love traditions.  We started our first family Christmas tradition last year when we went to Barnes and Noble on Christmas Eve to buy our copy of The Night Before Christmas.  This year, we decided to start making ornaments for the tree.  For anyone who's interested in making some super cute, super cheap holiday ornaments, here's a great "recipe!"  

Ingredients: 

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

3/4 cup of water (give or take a little)

5-10 tsp. cinnamon (for color and scent)

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients together.  Add the water, little by litte, until a dough forms.  If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour.  If it is too dry/crumbly, add a little more water.  You'll find a happy medium! 

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to stiffen up for about 30 minutes. 

On a floured surface, roll out the dough out to 1/4"-1/2" thick.  Use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes that you want.  Use a straw to punch out the hole that the top for ribbon. 

Place the cut out shapes on parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet.  Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour until the ornaments are dry.  Allow them to cool. 

Once the ornaments are cool, decorate them!  We used Ellie's handprints to make Santa Claus! 

Thread ribbon through the hole and hang your ornament on your Christmas tree!