handsful

Today has been a day of memory-inducing…foods! First, my sweet cousin Peg in NJ sent us an absolutely wonderful Christmas gift today. First a little explanation. I grew up spending summers in South Jersey visiting my grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin. One of the highlights of our trips (other than family, of course!) was always the food…Philly soft pretzels, italian ice, and Tastykakes! Fast foward to today…the box that arrived was filled with authentic philly pretzels (vacuumed sealed and ready to warm up!), Tastykakes (chocolate, my fav!), Herr’s potato chips, and Goldenberg’s peanut chew candies! Oh my!! Those pretzels were GOOD! For those interested, go to www.phillymemories.com. Thanks again, Peg!

Here’s the second treat for today! These cookies come from a recipe that came with my Mom’s cookie press that she received in 1963 for a wedding present. I can’t remember a Christmas without these cookies! I now make them with my kids (with explicit instructions to share with my Mom!) I bought a new press last year, thinking it would work so much better than Mom’s screw-type one. Wrong. I’m back to using Mom’s and it works like a charm. I lost count on how many we made! Abbey posed for this picture…and, then grabbed a cookie!

What a nice surprise to receive our December Secret Pal present for my CCAI group! Look at all the goodies…

The kids were so excited to be included in our December gift! They each received a bag of Jelly Belly jellybeans (absent from the above picture because they were immediately eaten!) and those great big lollipops! Don’t they look happy?

Thank you so much! I can’t wait to see Lainey wearing those pretty hair clips, tights, and socks.

Wasn’t it just yesterday that she lost her first tooth?? On 12/10, Abbey lost her LAST baby tooth. The very last one! That tooth joined her other ones in the little jar I’ve kept them in since that first little one fell out. Here she is, proudly showing the tooth in her hand and the gap it left. Just another sign that she’s growing up. Sigh.

My friend Jessica tagged me for this one! Her blog is under Life Is Goodunder my “Adoption Friends” links.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Summer camp counselor
2. Clerk for accounting office at the local power company
3. Teller for same company above!
4. Current job; homeschooling momma / stay at home mom

Four Movies I have watched over and over:
1. The Replacements
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. Notting Hill
4. The Princess Bride

Four places I have lived:
1. Raleigh, NC
2. NJ (city? I was a baby!)
3. Chapel Hill, NC
4. Jacksonville, FL

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. House!!
2. Supernanny
3. American Idol
4. Monk 

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. San Francisco, CA
2. Myrtle Beach, SC
3. Orlando, FL
4. Williamsburg, SC 

Favorite foods:
1. Mac n’ Cheese
2. Chicken and Pastry (it’s a southern thing)
3. Chipped beef on toast (I know, kinda weird)
4. Anything involving chocolate

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. at a spa, having a massage
2. on vacation anywhere, with just my husband
3. on vacation anywhere, with my husband AND kids
4. In China, meeting Lainey!

Hey, if you answer these and post them to your blog, let me know! :)

Thought I’d share a few photos of how we decorate for Christmas. You won’t find anything worthy of a magazine layout, but we love the things that we’ve collected over the years.

We seem to have a few snowmen, so I put them all together on the sleigh!

This is the table to the right of our front door. The Christmas cactus is in between blooming. We got a Thankgiving bloom and now there are tiny ones for Christmas!

This is my new Heartwood Nativity scene. I hope to add more figures to it. I bought this on clearance after Christmas last year. Gotta love a good deal. The Santa / Jesus figure we’ve had since before kids. One of our favorites.

The kids Nativity scene. They’ve had it for years and they love arranging the pieces.

The real tree in our front room. Hard to tell, but it’s nearly 9 feet tall…and FAT! No presents yet…guess I’m a “last-minute wrapper” this year.

Artificial tree in our family room. This one belongs to Randy…we call it his “NC State” tree. All the lights and ornaments are white and red, in honor of his college. The presents under this one are ones from my oldest daughter to us.

All those stockings! One for each of us, our dog Jack, and we’ve hung one in honor of our daughter-to-be, Lainey. See the Santa bottom right? A true Florida Santa in shorts and beach shirt! Another Nativity scene…we have lots of those (it is the reason for the season, after all).

It’s a little hard to see, but the ornament says “waiting for Lainey”. It’s hanging from her stocking that she’ll use next Christmas (at least we pray it’s next Christmas!)

Randy bought me the Roomba vacuum cleaner 2 Christmas’ ago. I love this thing. We have a black dog and light tile floors (as seen above!) all over the house. Black dog hair shows up really well on these floors! (Note to self: next house, dark floors) Not too long ago, Roomba slowly started losing battery power and finally quit about a month ago. The new battery came in the mail yesterday and today…he’s back in business! I love watching that little guy suck up dog hair. I’m easily entertained.

Leslie tagged us on her blog (“My Girls – Leslie” on my side bar) so, here goes! Christmas Questions!

* D: Donna R: Randy

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? D: Hot Chocolate R: What’s wrong with Mountain Dew?
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? D: We’ve never given gifts from Santa. The kids have always known he’s pretend! R: True – But we still normally put a few presents out where the kids can see ‘em.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? D: Colored lights on indoor trees, white on garland and wreath at the front door. R: Red and White lights on my N.C. State Tree, colored lights on the live indoor tree, white lights on the outdoor wreath and garland around the door, and colored lights on the drake elm outside. I’ve got a little Griswald in me.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? D: NO R: What she said.
5. When do you put your decorations up? D: A day or 2 after Thanksgiving. R: . . . is when we start, and then we normally finish a day or 2 before Christmas. Again, it’s the Griswald in me.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? D: Sweet Potato Casserole! R: Pecan Pie. It’s not dessert if you eat it first.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: D: More like “funny memory”…seeing the bicycle under the tree and thinking “oh no, I have to learn to ride that thing.” R: My brother and I waking up before daybreak, yelling down the hall to our parents, and playing a riveting game of “can we get up yet?” for about an hour.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? D: I have no memory of that! R: I don’t either . . . pretty sure my older brother had something to do with it, tho.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? D: When I was a kid, mom would let me open 1 present on Christmas eve! R: Sometimes D & I will open one or so the night before, but we always make the kids wait.
10 How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? D: Randy does the lights, then the kids gather around me and I give them ornaments to hang. R: Check . . . except for some particularly special ones that we hang up high to make sure they don’t get broken – ornaments from our trees as children, from my grandparent’s tree, etc.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? D: Love it, but never see it! (Florida!) R: I love it, too. Looks VERY pretty on T.V.
12. Can you ice skate? D: Tried to once…did okay. R: I can rollerblade. I’ve heard it’s similar.
13. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? D: Doing all those traditions with the kids…like, baking the SAME cookies that I did with my mom. R: And obviously doing everything we can to keep ourselves and our kids focused on why we celebrate Christmas and why Jesus came to Earth in the form of a baby.
14. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? D: My Grandmom’s chocolate pie R: Hmm…already ate the Pecan Pie for dinner, so I’ll have some of my mom’s raisin nut log for dessert.
15. What is your favorite holiday tradition? D: Taking a picture of the kids as they each hang their “Baby’s First Christmas” ornaments. And, reading an advent book each night with the kids. R: I’ll agree with Donna on the advent book (we read Jotham’s Journey, then Tabitha’s Travels, and are working on Bartholomew’s Passage this year). We loved doing a “Walk through Bethlehem” at my dad’s church in N.C. (the kids loved seeing my dad as a wise man), but we’ve missed that since moving.
16. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? D: Giving…love to see the person’s face as they open the box! R: Giving. Especially if it’s something the person didn’t specifically ask for, but you know they are going to love it.
17. What’s your favorite Christmas Song? D: Joy to the World! R: Hmm…I like Away in a Manager. I always picture my Abbey-girl singing it at the top of her lungs when she was 5.
18. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?  D: As long as it’s a non-traditional flavor (Jellybelly!), then I love ‘em. R: Not so much.

Join in the fun! Copy the questions and answer them on your own blog or email your answers to me! Merry Christmas…