holidays in NYC

2 days ago I took the kids into New York to enjoy some holiday sights and sounds. We had such a great day! We visited Rockefeller Center to see the tree and the ice skaters, viewed the Saks window display, went to American Girl Place, had lunch at my friend Kendrya's favorite NYC pizza place, and then topped it all off with a stop at Dylan's Candy Bar for a Buddy-the-Elf-worthy ice cream treat. We took a few taxi rides, which was thrilling for both the kids. Really such a fun day!










Can you tell they're kinda excited?

Little Helpers

Oh yes... we have been baking! Rolling out the dough is definitely the favorite step.

Letters and Numbers

I'm just waiting on 1 more missing address, and all the Christmas cards will be out the door! I decided to do a letter this year and am hoping that at least some people find it funny and not too dumb. You really have no idea how long I debated about this.... in the end I went out on a limb and did it. I thought I'd get it copied off at Staples because it would be quick and easy.... and cost over $100!!! But Staples can suck it; our printer kicked into high gear and did the job just fine.

95% of wrapping is done; the 2 boxes I have to ship this year will go out tomorrow or Saturday. Tonight is holiday party 2 of 5. Next week will be all about Christmas activities and baking! This is what my Must-Bake List includes thus far:

Anna's pb cookies
Mama Eunie's pb balls
cut-out cookies (decorated)
spicy oatmeal crisps
white chocolate-macadamia nut-cranberry cookies
peppermint bark
popcorn brittle? (a new recipe, still a maybe)
chocolate-dipped almond meringues

Are visions of sugarplums dancing in your head yet???

Annie

Last week I took Anya to her first show at the theater -- we went to see Annie! She was SO excited, and loved the whole experience! However, since the stage show is not exactly the same as the movie version, she kept telling me that songs and characters were "in the wrong place." And her beloved Punjab is not in the show; she missed him. She even stayed awake until we got home (at 11:00!). Asher insisted on having his picture taken by the tree too, even though he didn't get to come to the show. It was a girls' night out.

'Tis the Season

Only December 2nd, and we are in full Christmas swing. The tree is up and decorated, and the other Christmas decorations are up too (although I do still plan to get a tiny tree to put in the kids' room). We had a Christmas picture taken and visited Santa yesterday. It was pretty cool seeing both kids so excited about seeing Santa -- even Asher ran right up to him this year!

What makes if feel like it's officially the holidays? Clementines, cookies, and gingerbread lattes. Watching Elf and listening to holiday music pretty much round the clock. Trying to put aside all non-essential activities and focus on enjoying the holidays with the kids, and living it through their eyes. Cocoa and eggnog also help to make the season bright, but we haven't had any of either yet. Note to self: buy eggnog.

I'm done shopping, I think. On our first visit to Santa today the kids asked for exactly what I thought they would, but we have several more visits with Santa to go, so if they come up with something unexpected I might have to go out again. And I'm waiting on a few gifts to arrive in the mail, but otherwise it's time to start wrapping.

I wrote a draft of a Christmas letter yesterday... I'm trying to write one that gives essential info yet is funny. I tried, but I'm still deciding if it's funny or just dumb. My goal is to get cards out next week, finish wrapping by next week, and then have a week to BAKE!

There's a verbal snapshot for you of where we are in our holiday festiveness. Soon I hope to post some optical snapshots, taken on my new digital camera (my Christmas gift, purchased by me for me on Black Friday).

last week's hike at the resevoir

John Adams

Trip and I just finished watching the HBO miniseries on John Adams, and I highly recommend it. We both thought it was pretty great! It's 7 parts, but I didn't get bored of it at all (although it's a lot to watch in the few days we had it from the library). Totally worth the time, fan-frickin-tastic acting and great music too. Stuff like that reminds me of how poorly we know our own history. It's really quite pitiful. I might have to capitalize on the aftermath of watching this and bone up on my American History.

Purple Jellyfish and Bob the Builder had a happy Halloween

Pretty Pumpkin Cookies

open letter

Dear Pumpkin Fairy,

Today at the Halloween party I drew a ticket out of a bowl of ghosts made of tissues and won the big prize! The prize was a big pumpkin bowl full of candy all for me! Just for me and no one else! My mommy seems much less excited about my prize than I am. I know she says candy is a special treat and not very healthy for us to eat and I know that you come to my house on Halloween night and take away lots of my candy and leave me a toy and I was thinking maybe if I leave you out my extra prize bucket of candy you could just leave me an extra toy. I do love candy but I also do love toys and last year I remember you left me a very nice Care Bear, and so maybe I will just eat 1 or 2 pieces of candy from my special prize bucket and leave the rest for you and you can bring me an extra toy. Thank you very specially!

Love,
Anya Campbell, age 4

Pumpkin Patch

Asher and Mommy Make Apple Butter

We made SO many batches of apple butter and applesauce this year to can. Asher was quite the trooper, always wanting to help (and by help, I mostly mean eat apples). I think the peeler/corer/slicer was the main appeal; this year he was strong enough to crank away on it.