Of Late

In December, we celebrated two birthdays in our house.  For Jon's, I made Snickers Cupcakes.  They were pretty much the most amazing cupcakes I've ever made.  Everything was made from scratch (well, that is, except for the Snickers bars), and I added a pinch of coarse salt on top for that salty sweet combo.  Yep.  They were awesome.

We also celebrated Christmas.  Here are a few little shots from Christmas Eve.

 The girls got to open one present...

which was matching owl pajamas! (Kappas in the making?)

And now that we're home, we're plugging away at some projects around the house.  I have submitted one grant and am working on another one (which is taking FOREVER).  And Jon has finally finished a project he started in August:

Isn't it great?  The picture doesn't show it well, but the color is cranberry.  Now we can finally unpack the dishes we inherited that have been sitting in boxes since my parents delivered them in May.  We have also finished tiling the backsplash in the kitchen...now we just need to grout it, and I think our kitchen will finally be done!  With those things out of the way, we are dreaming of other projects...like building a dining room table, shelving units in the basement for storage, dry walling a room in the basement...things like that.  And I'm thinking of goals and projects for 2012: putting together a reading list, making a cleaning schedule, and trying to decide if I should train for a triathlon.  

Advent: Days 10-11

Day 10: Go on a sleigh ride.
This is another reason why I love our neighborhood.  At Christmas time they have a community Christmas party/potluck, complete with sleigh rides through the neighborhood.  We weren't organized enough (extraverted enough?) to go to the potluck, so we just went on the sleigh ride.  Laurel thought it was pretty much amazing.  My personal goal for next year is to know enough of our neighbors that we will feel comfortable going to the potluck portion (I know, I know, that's how we meet our neighbors by going to these things).  I also think that the sleigh ride will become one of our Christmas traditions as long as we live in this neighborhood.

Day 11: Bake cookies with mom.
I got most of the cookie dough ready while Laurel was napping.  She was pretty excited to put on her apron and help.  As per my usual m.o. we were crunched for time, so we had to end our project before I could make icing and let her decorate them.  Maybe that will happen this afternoon.  Maybe.  Maybe not. I was hoping for some really amazing cookies in my life this year...so far I think they're only so/so.  And I now have lots of only so/so dough left in my fridge.

Advent: Days 3-9

Our Advent adventures have continued.  Here's a quick recap:

Day 3: Put up the tree and put the lights on.
Day 4: Decorate the tree.

Day 5: Make a Christmas card for Grammie.

Day 6: St. Nicholas Day!  Open stockings!

Day 7: Open and read a new Christmas book.  (We opened "A Star for Christmas")

Day 8: Make a paper snowflake.  (note for future years: practice first...it's been a while).

Day 9: Mail Christmas cards.  (Laurel and I walked to the post office, and she got to put all of the cards through the mail slot, which she thought was pretty great.)

Day Two: Make Cards for the Cousins

My sister-in-law started a tradition where the cousins all make Christmas cards for each other.

Making Christmas cards with a two year old is a fun (interesting?) adventure.  She definitely had fun using the glue and the stamps.  When we asked Laurel what message she wanted us to write to her cousins, she spouted off random phrases.  I would share them here, but I don't want to ruin it for the recipients of the cards.  I hope that, even though we live miles away from the Boston cousins, our kids will grow up knowing their cousins and having lots of fun when they are together.

Advent Calendar: Day One

Yesterday we did the first activity on our Advent Calendar: Set up the Nativity Scene.

Our Nativity Scene was a wedding gift from our friends, the Claders.  It was made in Mexico (a place where I went a few times with the Claders, and also where Jon and I spent our honeymoon), and depicts the characters in the Nativity Story from that perspective.  The shepherds carry sheep as well as chickens. Everyone's clothes are brightly colored.  And there is no white baby Jesus.  I love it--I think it brings a tiny bit of the world into our living room.

Last night we brought up from the basement the shoebox that it lives in 11 months out of the year.  Jon sat at the table with the box, and handed a figure, wrapped in newspaper, to Laurel.  She then ran to me, in the living room, to unwrap it and help it find its home on our bookshelf.  Back and forth she ran, excited to see what was hidden in each new little bundle of newspaper.  As we put them out, we started to name them: This is Mary, she is Jesus' mom.  This is a shepherd, he takes care of sheep (and chickens).

I was surprised how much Laurel liked this activity.  It was a good reminder that simple things, small things, can become significant things when done with intentionality and in relationship.