The last of the Christmas pictures. I promise!

I can not get enough of this guy in a suit!

With a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal

I found these cute melting snowman cookies at Crazy Domestic. So we made them Christmas afternoon before heading over to my aunt and uncle's house for the big meal.

This was so fun to make. My mom and I had just as much fun as the girls did. Isaac missed out because he was napping.

Backtracking: Opening Gifts

I made Hannah and Genna coloring kits.

I made Isaac this camouflage cape.

Hannah's trying to figure out who the gift is for with her mad reading skills.

I made Isaac this giant bean bag out of an old Thomas blanket set that I got at a flea market.

Genna got this doll from my parents. She named her Rebeca.

I also used the same Thomas blanket to make this apron for Isaac.

I also made the girls sleep masks to go with their new jammies. Here's Genna's...

Most of our gifts to the children were handmade. We also got Isaac some boxing gloves and more tracks for his train set. The girls got a book each as well. They get quite enough toys from the rest of the family. No need for me to go buying toys from them for the most part.

Toothless Uncle Lou

Today Hannah finally lost her first tooth!


It is a sad day for mommy. My baby is growing up too fast.

Merry Christmas!

For unto us a Son is born

Thanks Poppy and Gigi for the Christmas outfits!

Last week before Christmas

We have visitors! We went to see A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater.

We went into the city one night, went to the National Gallery of Art, and then ate dinner at my uncle's office overlooking the city.

From the roof of the building, we could see the Capitol.

Then we went over to the National Christmas tree. This is our family, but our picture didn't turn out so great. But it's us, I swear!

We also went to the National Museum of Natural History earlier in the week. This kids are overly tired, mainly Isaac. All day today has been cooking, plus lunch and dinner with the family. Next time I am going to plan in more down time if I can convince my husband and uncle to allow it. They are big time goers!

Debut

Getting ready for the play...

The home-school nativity cantata went much better than I expected. Snow foiled a couple practices and our dress rehearsal was a little shaky. I was in charge of the angels and shepherds that had a lot of quiet waiting in the back for their parts to come. The shepherds were a tad difficult to control. Rambunctious boys. But in the end, they did pretty well.

Genna (angel) is entering the stage.

She's the third angel on the front row.

Hannah (1st king) is in the red cape. The day of, I threw her a purple costume together and they provided the crown and red cape. This is where she is saying her line, "Where is He that is born the king?"

Here they are giving their gifts to the baby Jesus.

Really bad picture, but the three kings are bowing to Jesus.

Here's the big ending where they sung Joy to the World. Genna is right under the big angel Gabriel.

Here is the beginning of the longest yawning angle ever.

Genna's still yawning. I was hoping people thought she was singing and not yawning.

Close up for the angel Genevieve...

Close up for the wise man Hannah...

It was fun, and I was especially thankful that my parents and Hannah and Isaac's godfather were in town to see it.

The son and the moon

We have so much stuff going on right now, but my camera was temporarily misplaced and we are so busy spending time with our houseful of visitors this week. So I will post when I can, but I am sure I will be back posting a lot after Christmas. However, Isaac just did the cutest thing ever (of course, I am so biased!) and I have to post it quickly so I will never ever forget it.

I got him out of his highchair and gave him a big squeezy hug. He said, "Mom, you're the best mom I ever had." This is not the cutest thing I am talking about. He says that to me all the time. I usually say that I am the only mom he's ever had, but this time I replied that he is the best son I ever had. Same rational...the only son I ever had. Then he said, "You are the best moon I ever had." Oh, why do they have to grow up?!

I have yet to get him to grasp the difference between the sun and a son. So I gues the whole "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," is really confusing to him.

As a completely unrelated short story, Genevieve was going to sit on the toilet to talk to someone in the bathroom while they brushed their teeth this morning, and she forgot to check if it was closed or not and fell right in with all her clothes on. What a nut!

What did I do?

Well, I may have just inadvertently and single-handedly created the worlds youngest by-choice vegetarian. You will need some background here if you don't know me. I was a vegetarian from around junior year in high school until I got engaged to the meat-eater of a man I am married to now. When we got engaged I started trying to incorporate meats into my diet so that I did not have to cook separate meals. I know some husbands will go with whatever is made for them, but mine is not one of them. He gets cranky if he doesn't get his meat. Anyway, the background you really need is not how I became a meat-eater again, but how I became a vegetarian. Or more importantly, why?

When I was very young (not sure exactly how old,) I went fishing with my daddy every summer. One summer, he taught me how to clean them, showed me the parts of the insides of a fish. I was fascinated by this (and it was the beginning of a love of science,) however, when the same fish found its way to my plate that night for dinner it was less than appetizing to say the least. And that was the end of all seafood for me. Fast forward a few years to church camp, maybe around twelve years of age. The boys all thought it would be funny to tease me, the unabashed animal lover, that we would be eating the camp pig for breakfast. They proceeded to make me a bet that I couldn't give up all meat for the whole week. Took that bet and won. Although my parents made me eat most meats, I was able to add pig to my will absolutely not eat list. Pork was gone. Fast forward another year or two, my Nanny taught me how to cook chicken fried steak, and it BLED all over the pan. Gross! Chicken fried steak and pretty much all steaks added to my list and I didn't touch them. At this point, things started dropping like flies, as far as what I would eat willingly. By the time I was a junior in highscool, there was nothing left but hamburgers and chicken breasts for me to eat and my parents finally allowed me to be a vegetarian. So I gave up the last meats and embraced new forms of protein. Like I said before, Brian changed all that, but not until that ring was on my finger. I ate meat a couple of times during college on dares, but that was it.

So that's the background for the current story IF you made it this far. I figured people who grow up on farms and see the cow or pig go from the backyard to the kitchen table probably never had these shocking revelations that led me to vegetarianism. So my master plan was to be very open about it from when the kids were very little and it would just be accepted that we eat animals for dinner every night. (Really every night only when Brian is here. Confession: when he was gone for the year we barely ate meat. Hey, I still have my preferences and I only changed for him.) So, when they saw me with raw meat and asked what it was, I told them, "It's pork from a pig and it's our dinner," with a smile on my face. Hannah's reaction was, "What! We're eating Wilbur?!!" Just kidding. Really she said, "We eat pigs? That's gross." Problem #1 I think I didn't think of this plan early enough and she is already too old to think it normal as bathing to eat pigs. Now she doesn't want to eat meat. Brian is desparately trying to brainwash her into believeing it tastes too good to matter where it came from and the whole circle of life bit. So far, we haven't had any out right refusals to eat the meat served to her. But I get questions as if she is planning to do that some day like, "Peanut butter and jelly (her favorite couldn't-live-without-it food) doesn't have meat in it does it?" She was even hugging the turkeys at the grocery store before Thanksgiving worrying about them even though it was too late for them. They were doomed to be consumed. Genevieve is still in this sister adoration phase and will just copy whatever Hannah does. Isaac doesn't seem to care one way or another. So maybe there is still hope for them. I just can't believe that a six year old would be interested in becoming a vegetarian. I desire for them all to be omnivores for the same reason I converted from my vegetarian diet. I want to cook ONE meal for dinner! I have enough on my plate (no pun intended) without having to worry about cooking a separate meatless protein every night!

Nativity Craft

I have been absolutely amazed at how much I can get accomplished without having to home-school the children. I have seriously cleaned my heart out. The kids have been running wild in the basement and doing some Advent crafts. Here is the first one, their colored toilet paper roll nativity scene. This one required little help from me except for cutting the toilet paper rolls.

A New Dish

There is this restaurant called Pandini's that sells these things called Lebrettis. They are basically mini pizzas folded over with less toppings in them. So I decided to try this.

Here's the final product...

Here's the means in which I achieved the Lebretti. Two upside down bread pans with foil under the Boboli crust. I made a full sized Lebretti and just cut it into sections.


This particular one is a breakfast variety with roasted potatoes and onions, bacon, scrambled eggs, and mozzarella with a little pesto sauce. Definitely a keeper!