Christmas 2008

The girls made out like bandits again this year at Christmas. They came over to our house later Christmas Day, after they had been with their mom's families and recieved presents all day long. The highlight of Abby's presents were the Littlest Pet Shop animals. She got a large box of them, and when she opened them we found out that she got them earlier that day from someone else in her family. O well, now she will a set to play with at our house. jeez, this is too much to keep straight :)

Sabrina got a sewing machine from her grandmother so from Santa at our house she got some remnants as well as some simple patterns so she will be able to learn to sew, as well as a gift card to JoAnn fabrics. I'll have to go help her spend it :)

Our family gift this year was 3 sleds and the Muppets second season set of DVD's. I got Sean the first set of Muppets last year and the girls loved it and watch it more than we do, so we thought it would be a great idea to get the next season.
Last year we tried to go sledding on innertubes and they popped and when we went to get sleds they were gone, none to be found anywhere. In January. gotta love retail. So this year Santa brought them. And it was 60 degrees on Christmas Day, and 65 on Friday and Saturday and 65 when we woke up this morning. And no, we don't live down south or in California, we live in the NORTH!!! I'm really hoping for snow sometime soon, so we can try out our new sleds. Maybe I shouldn't say that too loud, we'll end up buried like the poor people in New England.

Project Number 500 million-gazillion :)

My sister wanted handmade grocery bags for Christmas. Not sure why handmade, when you can get them at most stores for $0.99. I'm guessing mine will last lots longer, other than that I can't see why. But I thought I'd try one, just to see what would happen.

The bag on the right is the one from the grocery store that cost me a dollar. The one on the left is the one that I made out of denim and canvas. I thouht it turned out pretty well. After I took the picture I found some cardboard, put 2 layers together and then put denim over it and put it in the bottom so the bottom was sturdy and square. I was going to make 2, but once again, I misjudged how long it would take me to make them and didn't leave myself enough time. oops. So, maybe she will get the other one for her birthday.

Christmas cookies

I love making cookies and Christmas gives me a great excuse to make lots of them of many varieties! Today I finished 2 more batches to add to the 4 I did yesterday, all the while listening to Christmas music. The ever popular "party cookies" aka M&M cookies, and no bakes. 2 of my fave's that Sean doesn't like :) More for me. It cracks me up that I make certain ones only during the holidays. Like the orange cookies (which still don't taste as good as when Mom makes them), or the cherry nut nougats. I mean, those two are my most favorite and I really only make them once a year.

I think it might have something to do with the face that I have no one to help me eat them. Sean is a boring cookie person, he likes chocolate chip, and that is it. He is not a big cookie eater, and neither is Abby. Sabrina would help me, but I would probably eat them all before she got here. So, I don't make a lot of cookies during the year. sigh. So, for the last 2 days I have been living off cookie dough and loving it. yum, yum. It reminded me of when we were little and Mom would have the entire dining room table covered with newspaper and wax paper covered with cookies. And I would be sneaking in the kitchen to eat the dough out of the bowl. Yeah, like she didn't know that was what I was doing. The best cookies where the sugar cookies that we would frost. My favorite cut outs where the Charlie Brown ones, as well as the huge Snoopy dog house, although they never looked as good once you got the frosting on them. The cookies would be all over the table and we'd frost them using pastry bags, trying to follow the lines that were on the cookies. I might get around to some of those tomorrow. But they are soooo much work, I'll have to see how motivated I am when it comes to frosting. I might just have to do baked on sprinkles.

I think some memories might have been from the Mitch Miller CD I had in I (which Sean can't stand), or maybe it was Alvin and the Chipmunks. Both of which we would put on the record player (yes, the record player) and listen too over and over again while making cookies. Mom would actually limit the number of times Alvin was allowed to go on the turntable :) Ah, the memories.

Time to trim the tree

Since finals are now over we had time to decorate the tree so Sean put on the lights and the girls put on the decorations. While they did this tree, I put the lights on 2 of mine, didn't have time to decorate, but I'll get to that. And of course Abby was in the Christmas spirit :)I always love how when the girls decorate and most of the ornaments end up in one area.

While decorating the tree I remembered Christmas's from when I was little. I also was thinking about after reading my sister's blog and having a reminder of what we used to do. I remember one year we had a tree that was bigger around than it was tall. It was the ugliest tree, really it was, but we made it look beautiful, at least to a 5 year old it looked beautiful. We got it out of our back field and it was ours. If you remember last years post, I have at least 5 trees, all decorated, all with lights. I wonder all the time why I have a thing for Christmas trees. I think back to the few years when my dad wouldn't let us have a tree. We have no idea why, but he decided that we weren't going to have a tree and that was that and it went on for several years. Until we were older and got one of our own and he got mad. So maybe those years without a tree have caused me to hoard trees cause yet again this year I have 5 trees, 2 big ones, and 3 little ones.

Ways to torture your dog

I found these great antlers at Target. The dog is so big that I had to get him a headband for a person because they don't make antlers for dogs his sizw. As you can tell, he Loves the attire :) but he won't take them off, he just leaves them on. He is resigned to his fate, and hoping none of the neighbor dogs see him in this getup! Now, if I could just get the cat to hold still.

Abby put them on Sean, he loved them as well. Can't you tell :)
And then there is Abby, need I say more :)