Merry Christmas 2015

December 24, 2015Leave a comment

As the kids rode their bikes and I walked behind them with Mac, I couldn’t help but feel the warmth of the season. The sun was setting in the most beautiful way, there was a chill in the air and the sounds of kids laughing as they rode. It has been one of the best Christmas seasons yet!

Here’s what we’ve been up to….

We talked to Santa during Dad’s Pancake Breakfast after mass (it was a promotion Sunday so B had to wear her uniform). He might have been the sweetest Santa ever! Auggie snuggled into his lap and told him all about the things he wants – like a fire truck that he can ride on and squirts real water (“Santa” had his work cut out on that one….).

Our annual tradition of Zoo Lights (or YOU Yights as Auggie would say) lives on. Auggs was so unbelievably excited this year! It was the best. Don’t let that face fool you – he was mid sentence about how awesome the trees were and he couldn’t stop talking to take a picture.

For what we think is the fourth year in a row, Stephanie D, myself and our friend, Susan, braved the cold and crowds to go to the train park lights.

Look how little they were!

And so big now

We had Christmas programs and Advent concerts. Both of them sang their faces off.

We hosted Peter’s client party for 55 people (I think I’m still recovering) and attended a record number of parties – we’re very popular apparently.

And cookies. Holy moly the cookies. We went to a cookie decorating party, a gingerbread house decorating party and then because that wasn’t enough, we made cookies for Santa with friends.

There is a big difference in how boys and girls decorate cookies. B spent 45 minutes decorating 6 cookies very intricately. Auggie opened his sprinkles, dumped them on the cookie and shoved it in his mouth. Game over.

The kids had never done gingerbread houses before. They loved creating a little world out of candy. They also ate a ton of it, hence the faces.

Santa is going to be one happy camper this year.

I hope your season has been just as fun. Merry Christmas!!

Cookies Gone Wrong

December 8, 20114 Comments

Yesterday afternoon, Bay and I put on some Christmas music, lit a cinnamon candle and fired up the oven to make some Christmas cookies. B was thrilled to play in the left over dough, flour and sprinkles while the cookies cooked. It was a lovely afternoon.

That is until two cookies escaped the baking sheet and dropped into the oven where they broke into a million pieces. Crap. I decided to just close the door and let it cool before I attempted to clean them up. Until the kitchen began to fill with smoke.

“Why not let it self clean??” I thought. So I put on the self clean setting and returned to icing the trees. Until I noticed that it appeared we had a yule log in our kitchen…yup the cookies had ignited in the oven. I quickly turned off the oven and stepped back trying to decide what to do next – get the extinguisher? Call 911? As I contemplated, the fire quickly went out. Bay casually looked over from her sprinkling duties and said “Mommy, there’s a fire in the oven”. Yes, yes there is kiddo.

Despite our house smelling like a camp fire, all is well. The oven cooled and is no worse for the wear (I think). I cleaned out the chunks of cookie and it is now happily self-cleaning (I think). The windows are open, the fans are going and there are holiday scented candles burning so hopefully by this afternoon there will be no evidence of our almost fiasco.

When my cousin Will arrived last night to watch UofA and eat us out of house and home (I was prepared with 3 lbs of tacos) I told him what had happened. He responded “what’s with you guys and fire??” – referring to the grill fire of 2009. It’s nice to have family who cares about you.

On the bright side, the cookies were delicious! Chef Mini Wand does it again!

The Chef hard at work.

Check out that post nap hair.

Much like shoes, you just can’t have too many sprinkles.