Shows, Trees and Cookies: Our Traditions

Last weekend was full of Christmasy things.  Saturday I had a show at the local Waldorf school.  It was a HUGE difference from my country club show a couple weeks ago!  The people were all pretty much hippies and actually buying for other people, not gaudy baubles for themselves.  I did really well and had so much fun, I will definitely be doing it again next year!

The day was so fun in part because I was with my friend Melanie.  She has helped at shows before, and I love to spend the day, sans kids, with her!  She is a great salesperson and always helps so much!  Another thing that made it fun was the music that was playing on the stage behind us.  A couple ren-faire looking guys were playing strange Turkish instruments and there was a belly dancer.  Again, completely different than my experience at the country club, lol! 

Sunday Brendan went out and got our Christmas tree.  I was upstairs napping with the kids, and I heard some commotion but didn't think too much about it.  When I came downstairs, there it was, our wet and cold tree!  After letting it dry, we started decorating.  The kids were in heaven, they just thought it was so cool to hang the ornaments!

 I had to laugh because the tree looks like it's about to burst through our ceiling.  It was a bit taller than Brendan had expected, so he had to cut off the top and now it looks jammed in there.  There are also some nice streaks on the ceiling from the branches scraping!  It wouldn't be a real tree without a little bit of sawing and cutting to make it fit in the room, right?

 After the tree was trimmed, we sat down (at our new dining room table found at the thrifts!!) to decorate our cookies.  This year I went the easy route and bought a bag of sugar cookie mix and a can of frosting.  Usually I do things from scratch but after seeing how well they turned out, I think I am going to be a mix cookie gal from now on!  I let the kids have two cookies at a time, gave them a hunk of frosting and a knife, and then we had sprinkles and colored icing to finish them off.  Otis just wanted to eat everything, and Ingrid was very meticulous with her sprinkles. 

 And now we have a couple more exciting weeks ahead!  My mom comes in on Thursday for Otis' birthday, which we will have a party for on Saturday.  Then next week we are headed off to a resort an hour up north.  They were having a "Santa Special" where all their suites were super cheap, and they have an indoor water park, too!  So we get to put the kids in bunk beds in a separate room and enjoy the fireplace after having fun at the waterpark.  I think this will also turn into another holiday tradition for us!

New Pals

More of the same summery goodness lately, made even better because we have made friends with the neighbors across the street.  They have a little boy six mo. younger than Ingrid and one just a couple months younger than Otis.  It's been instant BFFs around here! 

Today after nap time we had them over to play.  I'd made this paint I saw on Pinterest, which did not really turn out like paint so much.  It's simply flour, water, and food coloring, but all I had on hand was whole wheat flour, next time I'd try regular flour and hope for a better consistency.  But all in all it was a nice messy project for the kids on a hot day.

We had a pool of cold water ready to wash them up, and of course, popsicles.

The other day we stayed inside for the hot weather, and the AC must have been cool enough because we baked cookies.  I'd gotten some cookie cutters from Ikea that Ingrid desperately wanted to use, so we made moose sugar cookies.  They were delish.

A Messy Fun Day!

Today we changed our tunes!  It was a fun day, no crabiness and no yelling at all :)  So much better that way.  I had to clean up the kitchen and wanted to bake some stuff, so I gave Ingrid some stale cereal in a bowl, a wooden spoon, and a measuring cup.  She always has so much fun making a mess and eating it!

Then we made cookies.  I had to let the butter soften, so I scooped everything out ahead of time and it looked so neat and organized.  I pretended I was on a cooking show when we finally made the cookies.  They turned out amazing--whole wheat flour, oatmeal, craisins, raisins, and chocolate chips.  I had a little left of everything so we just threw it all in.  I put lots of cinnamon and cloves and they taste pretty darn good. 

We've been talking about getting a twin bed for Ingrid, getting her out of the crib.  Not sure if we're ready for that but we talked about it.  I took the side of the crib off today and Ingrid climbed up, brought all her stuffed animals, and sat talking and singing all morning.  Forever!  It was great.  She looked so cute having all the stuffed animals talk to each other and making the penguin waddle. 

We got some paintbrushes at Ikea yesterday.  Our friend Jami said her son did better with brushes than finger painting.  I think we can say Ingrid does better with them, too!  She went on for almost an hour painting by herself.  Fingerpainting had lasted ten minutes max.  Yay for cheap paintbrushes!

Yum--Cookies

We made cookies yesterday.  They turned out pretty great, if I do say so myself.  And the best thing is, they are vegan, whole wheat, and full of real chocolate.  Here's the recipe-I think I put up a similar one sometime but it bears repeating since I think it is the perfect cookie recipe.

1/4 c. oil

1/2 c. brown sugar

1Tb flax seed meal with 3Tb water, mixed and let sit for two minutes

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c wheat flour (or spelt flour)

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
chocolate chips or crushed chocolate bar
cherry craisins

I had some crazy good fair trade chocolate that I crushed and added, it made it so smooshy and gooey and got everywhere but it tastes so good!  Even Brendan said the cookies were really good, and he's a hard one to please if it's not a normal recipe...

Ingrid liked them too.  But she likes everything.

Frosting!

I made sugar cookies yesterday and we frosted them today.  Well, tonight.  After dinner, right before Ingrid's bedtime.  Perhaps not the smartest thing, as the first thing she did was grab a cookie out of the pan and shove it in her mouth.  Then she ran around screaming "cookie! cookie!" and now she's up crying in her bed not going to sleep.

Ah well, the cookies look good...