Santa's Cookies

Today was our annual cookie baking day so Santa would not go hungry on Christmas Eve.

Carter has been counting down the days until my parents would come over to get the annual tradition underway. He really enjoyed himself and of course his favorite part is covering the cookies with sprinkles. I stopped counting how many times we had to scrape the 1" of sprinkles off and have him 'do over' his cookies! Here he is making the inaugural first cookie cutout!



Do you like our coordinating aprons, Carter and I? Festive!



Olivia was not so sure about things, and she wanted the dough off of her fingers. She eventually enjoyed the shaking of the sprinkles and we gave her a small jar to shake and that kept her busy. Of course, she would shake once over the cookie dough, then a few times over the side of her chair onto the floor. By the time the jar was empty, most of it was on the floor. I gave up and just let her do it - the vacuum was close by! She mistakenly put a hunk of dough in her mouth and was not happy about it - then she refused an actual cookie that was baked because she thought it was the uncooked dough again. Hopefully she'll forget that experience tomorrow and enjoy a cookie! Here she is with my Mom...



She is not feeling so well today. I took her to the Urgent Care this morning and she has a double ear infection and bronchitis. We have Amox., a steroid and albuterol for the 3 x a day nebulizer treatments we have to give her. The medical equipment company came by this afternoon to drop off the machine - at least the guy got some cookies to eat on his way back to the office!

The end result! Can you tell which ones got a touch of sprinkles from a 7 year old?

Makin' Toffee

It's that time of year again, when a lot of us Moms bake goodies for the school staff, specials teachers, bus drivers etc. as a small token of appreciation at the holidays.

Tonight, was Toffee Makin' Night. We love this toffee and it never lasts long because everyone devours it. It's a unique recipe that my mother found years ago and it uses strangely enough, crackers!

It uses 4 ingredients, but it can be a little picky because you need to bring your sugar mixture high enough to crack stage, and not burn it. Or, the one complaint I hear a lot is that it was too chewy - which would mean that the sugar was not cooked to a hard enough stage. I've thankfully made this enough times (and screwed it up just as many before) to know what my sugar is supposed to look like when it's ready to pour.

It's a really easy and quick recipe you should try. Don't let the crackers scare you - no one knows they're in there until you tell them - trust me, the toffee is awesome!



Recipe for Toffee:
1 sleeve Saltine crackers (about 40)
1 pkg. 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 sticks butter
1 C packed brown or regular white sugar
Aluminum foil to line sheet
Crushed pecan pieces or any nut you like (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a large cookie sheet with foil and place the crackers to fit flat.
Bring butter and sugar to soft boil for 4-5 minutes in heavy saucepan.
Pour mixture over crackers evenly, spread if needed with a knife.
Bake in oven for 5-6 minutes (sugar will bubble and boil)
Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips.
Put back into oven for 1 minute until chips are softened enough to spread with a knife. (note: chips will appear to hold their shape even when ready to spread)
Sprinkle with nuts if using.
Put into the fridge to harden for 1-2 hours. Break into pieces. Enjoy!

Tip: If I'm making several batches of this, I put them outside on my deck to chill in the winter, instead of taking up fridge space!

Happy December

Wow - December's here already? I know I say that every year, it still feels like it came upon us so quickly.

The tree is up, and Olivia has already taken every ornament she can reach off and reorganized them. I will be finding ornament hooks in my carpet for years now, because every time she grabs one, the hook is nowhere to be found. My vacuum cleaner is not happy with this arrangement!

We already had our first snow of the season. Not much, just a couple of inches on the ground - enough to make it look pretty without being a nuisance.

Is your shopping done? Mine's not, and I'm very envious of those that shop year round, or have it already completed and can enjoy the rest of the season as it is without the mad dash to the store. I love the whole gift-giving part of Christmas time, but those that know me, know that I hate shopping. It's pretty difficult to avoid this time of year though. So I put on my Merry Best attitude and get it done. My favorite way is sitting right here, in my pajamas, hot cup of coffee or cocoa and the Internet at my fingertips. That's my kind of shopping! No crowds, no arguments from the children, no overheating in my winter coat inside the mall, no long walks in the frigid temps to the car, no traffic. Ah, sweet online shopping!

I like stalking the UPS and FedEx guys for my packages to be delivered too. One of my other favorite things about the gift giving season to do is wrap presents! Oh I love choosing the fun wrapping paper, the bows, pawing through all the surprises for everyone and sticking their tags on the boxes. All of this of course with Christmas music on in the background, the fireplace roaring and yummy smells coming from my Home For The Holidays Yankee candles.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas - Yay! Carter's already begun the countdown to our annual cookie baking day. It's on Dec. 21st this year, which happens to be the first day of winter and also the start of Hanukkah. He said so excitedly, "Mommy, we'll have to wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah!"....

Do you think all the Non-Jewish will be offended when he says that to people during that week?

I think it's cute - let's celebrate everything right? I suppose it's my job to inform him that not everyone celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas, but for now the joy it brings him to wish Merriness to all is priceless.

Baking Christmas Cookies

Yesterday was our cookie baking with my parents. This has been a tradition since Carter was born that we do together - we look forward to this every December!

Here are some photos of the day..... MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here is Mom with the kids before we started the mess...

Dad with Carter
Mom and Carter decorating some cookies
Olivia and Mommy
Modeling her new headband
Olivia making her very first cookie - an angel!

Examining some dough on her finger - not quite sure about this!

Birthday party planning....

January seems to be our lucky month for having a baby (no, we're not pregnant...). Both of the kids have birthdays next month - Olivia's is the 3rd and Carter's is the 18th. This means, that among all of the holiday hoopla we're trying to climb out from under, we have to plan a couple of parties. To wait until after Christmas would be too late - the 3rd of January comes pretty quickly. I suppose I should not complain, there are other days that could be more challenging - say, like December 25th - when one of my best girlfriends had her first baby last year. What a fantastic Christmas present for them! Yet, they will forever face the challenge of celebrating 2 major events on the same day.

There are some really cool things about being born on Christmas Day though. Besides, sharing your birthday with one of the most famous people of all time - Jesus, everyone is getting together on your birthday - noone ever forgets! And there will probably be double the gifts for quite a few years that the child can cash in on. How cool to have birthday presents wrapped in birthday wrapping paper - under the Christmas Tree! There are not many people that can claim that special day as their birthday - I believe that birth day was hand picked just for her, by Him. And I think it's pretty darn cool.

Now, back to January and my whining. We had our hearts set on having Carter's 7th birthday party at the "Carter's Toy Museum" that just opened here in our town. They have a small diner-style place to grab lunch, they have an ice cream parlor, the toy museum tour, and in the basement there are about 20+ coin operated toys for the kids to enjoy. And a carousel on the 3rd floor. Well, we went last weekend to check it out in person, and although I was really impressed, I think we'll have to save it for Olivia's birthday sometime. It was just too young of a place for a 7 year old's bday. More the speed for those under 5. Now the museum, that's for anyone older that can enjoy toys collected and played with older than the 1960's. Some really cool stuff to see!

Plan B: There's a new franchise that just opened up here in our Mall, called Ridemakerz. Have you ever heard of Build-A-Bear? Well, this is for boys what build-a-bear is for girls! Here, we will bring the boys to build a toy car of their own. They can customize it to their liking by choosing a style, a color, tires, rims, decals, license plate and special name for their car. They will build the car at the Ridemakerz "shop", and be able to take it home with them. The neat part too, is that at any time the boys would like to upgrade their cars' features (can even make it a remote-control car), they can bring it back to the "shop" and customize it further on their own. We will have cake etc. at the mall too and call it a day! Carter is really into the movie "CARS", so he wants a cake that is from the movie, and this place fits perfectly to the theme. It should have been Plan A from the start - but I just found out about it in our local newspaper, and I'm so glad! Looking forward to this!

Olivia - is turning *gulp* ONE! My gosh, seriously - where did this year go? It's been 6 years since we've been able to enjoy this baby stage with another child and it's been such a joy. She is so incredibly easy going and always happy, I could SO have 10 more if I was sure they'd all be this (dare I say...) easy! I'm sure I'll be chomping these words once she's more able to assert herself in the world (with a lovely sassy mouth she's sure to inherit from me, or learn how from her brother....) - but for now, pure bliss and we wouldn't trade it for anything. We'll have a family party here at home probably on Jan. 5th. I don't know much more than that, but I have a bullseye on the day, and that's something to start with right?


Here's a picture of her latest accomplishment - from bottle to SIPPY CUP!!!


click on photo to enlarge