Sacrilegious??

My 1 year old loves music of any kind, and loves singing everything he can remember. His latest favorite is a camp song I sang as a young child. The boys and girls always had a competition to see who could sing their part the loudest. It's the "Hallelujah" song.

"Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah"
"Praise Ye The Lord."
"Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah"
"Praise Ye The Lord."
"Praise Ye The Lord."
"Hallelujah."
And so on...

I've been singing this to my 1 year old while we rock for a few minutes before bed. He's starting to sing with me.

So tonight I sang: "Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah"

Then I stopped to see what he would do.

He belted out: "Craa-zy Lord"

Close. But not quite. We may have to work on that line before he's allowed to sing in church.

Memorable Holiday Moments

I am really loving the holiday season this year. I don't know if it is because of the age of my kids, or that my Christmas shopping is pretty much done, or the list of fun holiday get-togethers coming up soon, or because I am not teaching a room full of holiday-spastic kids, but I am SO EXCITED for Christmas. So, in the spirit of the season, here are 10 fun memories of Christmastime.

1. Trips to Illinois to grandpa and grandma's house. One year we traveled the 600 miles there and then got stuck in a blizzard one mile from their house. We weren't sure if we were going to make it or not, but we finally got through!


2. Christmas Eve kid programs. They weren't of any great quality, but they were fun to be in.


3. Candy sacks and oranges for all of us after the program.


4. My very first (and only) Cabbage Patch Kid. Her name was Renetta and her birthday was October 1.


5. Finally having an excuse to eat a lot of junk - and mom and dad usually letting me.


6. My first Christmas after getting married. We had no ornaments at all to put on the tree, so we bought little kid "stained glass" ornaments and spent the afternoon together painting them. We still hang them up!


7. Christmas Caroling in -20 degree weather. It's at those moments that you decide nursing home residents need much more Christmas caroling cheer than anyone else in the world.


8. Trip to Branson with good friends and no kids (we didn't have any yet). An ice storm arrived the first night we were there, shutting down nearly everything in the entire city. The only restaurant open was Ruby Tuesday's and the only business open was Walmart. We swam during a thunder ice/snow storm and the electricity went out, locking us out of our hotel rooms. We played Phase 10 and watched CMT all weekend long. It was great!


9. Nursing my baby by tree-light. Just when I was SO TIRED of getting up in the night with our newborn, it was time to set up the Christmas tree. Being able to sit in the living room with only the tree lights on for the 3:00 a.m. feeding made being awake bearable once again. It's a good thing the little guy figured out the skill of sleeping through the night before the tree had to come down.


10. Christmas of 2006 - stuck at home with two little boys with fevers. Granted, the kids were sick, but we still decorated Christmas cookies and enjoyed a leisurely Christmas together without having to rush off anywhere. It was our first Christmas with two children - it just felt complete.

Happy December!

BEFORE

AFTER

There is still a lot to do -- finish trimming out the window, wire a phone line, put up the hall light, install a handrail on the stairs, put in door knobs...but at least it's usable!! I AM SO THANKFUL for my husband and all the work he has put into this, which is basically every detail except installing the carpet. It made for many stressful evenings, but now seems worth every one of them.

Random Thoughts

The basement is scheduled to be carpeted tomorrow. I have been counting down to this day for many, many weeks. Stay tuned for drastic before and after pictures.

The reindeer cupcakes were disappointing. The cookbook neglected to mention that if you put the reindeer faces on the cupcakes and store them in a container for any length of time that the oreo cookie will get soft and the pretzels will no longer be crunchy. I probably should have known that.

Thank goodness today's "fun Christmas thing" was Take a Special Christmas Treat to a Friend. How convenient that we had cupcakes around. Wonder how that worked out so well?

My five year old and I went on the great toy clean-out today. We went through his toybox, shelf, and three living room toy baskets. He helped me decide (with a little parental persuasion) which toys to keep, which ones to pass down to little brother, and which ones to pass on to other children in need. I was proud of his willingness to get rid of stuff.

I've learned it's never safe to say "I'm done Christmas shopping." Every time I speak those words, I think of one more gift I need to purchase. I think I may need another girls' shopping weekend to finish shopping.

If I'm not alive tomorrow it's because my husband read what I just wrote about another girls' weekend.

I have been introduced to flylady.net. She overwhelms me. But I will say that at least my sink is clean, my dresser tops are not cluttered, and I completed the "throw away 27 pieces of paper" task for today. Ahhh, I can sleep tonight.

Kitchen Crazy

I've updated my "kitchen" status. After accomplishing this feat, I am no longer kitchen challenged, I'm just crazy.

A friend of mine told me about a tradition they do at Christmas time. They come up with 25 fun Christmas things to do -- i.e. make cookies, go look at lights, take a special treat to someone -- and they draw out one thing each day of December until Christmas. So, last night (we got a late start on this tradition), we made a red and green chain with 22 things to do between now and Christmas. It was no easy task coming up with 22 things.

Here was today's "fun Christmas thing" -- Reindeer Cupcakes.

I had two little girls here today, and they were excited to help us with this project. This is what we sounded like:

"Can I eat some chocolate chips?"
"Can I eat these red things?"
"Oh, these are spicy." (from three year old who then spits it back on the table)
"Does anyone want to watch a video?" (me)
"How many white ones can I have?"
"My eye won't stay on!"
"This is fun."
"Achoo. Achoo." (Yes, she just sneezed all over the two reindeer faces she was working on.)
"Can I eat more chocolate chips?"
"Is anyone ready for a break? You can watch a movie." (me)
"I'm waiting for more white glue stuff."
"How many pretzels can I have?"

After they had each completed three reindeer faces - minus the antlers because the white "glue" was still too soft -- I made the executive decision that it was rest time in the living room for the these little people. Whew.

I then spent the rest of my afternoon assembling reindeer faces, making cupcakes, frosting cupcakes, and putting the reindeer on top, all while grumbling about Christmas traditions.

Then the little people saw them. You would have thought I had just built a ToysRUs in the backyard. They were excited.

Christmas traditions really are worth it, even if it seems crazy.

The Reward

See, they loved them.

Very much.

Although, the "popsicle" concept didn't work to well for little guy.

And yes, I know they would have loved them just as much if I would have bought them at the store.

Kitchen Challenged

I have never proclaimed to be a good cook. Or even remotely knowledgeable about anything related to cooking. But I can at least keep my family fed and decently well-nourished. Today, however, one would have to wonder about me.

My son has been begging me to make strawberry popsicles again (we did this one time this summer) and I finally agreed to do it today. Why not? It's at least 37 degrees outside.

So I started searching for the recipe. Where would I have put a popsicle recipe?

Under appetizers and beverages? No. But I found a missing muffin recipe there.

Under snacks? No. But there was my playdough recipe.

Under cookies and candies? No. But I think that is where ham and potato casserole landed.

I was getting desperate and just started looking in every category because obviously my filing system was not that reliable anyway.

Twenty minutes later I still had no popsicle recipe. I know, most of the world could probably pull off strawberry popsicles without a recipe, but I was not that brave. I had searched through every possible category and even my 2nd recipe box - the one that holds the recipes that people have given me on cards so gigantic they don't fit in a regular box - to see if somehow it had jumped in there. I was about to give up and suggest something else when my five year old said to me, "mom, last time we made popsicles, didn't we use that kids cookbook that grandma gave us?"

Ah hah. I'm glad someone in the family still has a brain. Maybe I can train him to be the cook of the family.

Another 20 minutes later we had everything combined, poured into the little cups, and ready for the freezer.

The recipe said to freeze them for two hours and then put in the popsicle sticks. I even set the timer so I wouldn't forget.

I guess I need a louder timer. Guess where the "popsicles" (really just frozen stuff in a cup at the moment) are right now?

Sitting on the counter THAWING so I can put in the sticks. I almost tried a hammer, but it's too cold to go to the garage to find it.

I do not remember popsicle making occupying my entire day last time we attempted the task. Oh, what we do for our kids. They better love them. They will love them. They don't have a choice.