according.to.kim

Highlights of the week

• celebrating Christmas and Neil's birthday -- and enjoying all the good stuff mentioned in my last post!
• catching the bus just in time twice on Monday (before and after work), because (a) I didn't feel the least bit cold despite it being very cold out, and (b) not missing the bus is great in any weather.
• finishing my gift wrapping on Monday evening. It felt great to be so prepared a full two days in advance.
• hearing Madeline correct Junie B. Jones in the book we were reading. Junie B. said, "famouser" and Madeline said, "she should say more famous". That's my girl!
• showing Neil and the girls my office on the 11th floor. Not that it's very exciting, but they had never seen it before. It was not what Sophia had pictured.
• having a totally free evening on Tuesday. It seemed like forever since that happened, and I needed it.
• taking some of my shortbread cookies out of the freezer and finding out they're actually pretty good.
• feeling much better Christmas morning despite having some sort of stomach ailment Christmas Eve. That was a huge relief; I was worried.
• hearing and seeing the girls' reactions to their gifts. My favourite part of Christmas!
• receiving some gifts that were complete surprises.
• experimenting with my new 50mm camera lens.
• getting ALL of our Christmas decorations put away by noon on Sunday. Ahhhh! I am SO happy that's done. I do not like to start a new year with Christmas stuff lingering, and I have to work the next three days so today was the day.
• buying Madeline's birthday gift. It's perfect. Can't wait to give it to her! (We were able to do some shopping while the girls were at L&B's Sunday afternoon. Thanks again Laurel!)
• making plans for Georgia's birthday celebration. It's going to be simple and fun.
• surprising the girls with an electronic keyboard on Sunday evening. They wanted one so badly (especially Madeline) and we thought, why not get one while they're really interested. I would be thrilled if they learned to play an instrument someday.

Holiday/celebration recap

{I wasn't going to take the time to write this, but then I thought, someday I'm going to want to know what we did for Christmas in 2008 and I will be disappointed in myself if I look here and find nothing. To that end, I have written this lengthy recap for me and my family primarily, but of course you're welcome to read it if you're interested!}

Sunday, December 21: My side of the family (my parents and my brother and his family) came to our house for Christmas dinner. Turkey and all the fixings. (My favourite!) It was great to see everyone. We hadn't been all together since September. The girls were very excited to see their cousins and open a few Christmas gifts early. (I like spreading out the gifts too.)

Monday, December 22: As soon as I got home from work, we went to visit (Neil's) Grandma Louise at her suite in The Bentley. We stayed for two hours. The girls filled up on cookies, candy, and juice. They also enjoyed receiving gifts and playing in the hallway. Neil and I enjoyed some Bailey's and looking at old photographs with Grandma. I was happy to get some pictures of the girls with their Great Grandma.

Tuesday, December 23: Neil brought the girls down to the mall that's attached to my office building. During my lunch break, we showed them the big glamorous Christmas tree in the centre of the mall. They admired the chandelier at the top of the tree and took a quick look at Santa. (So glad they didn't insist on sitting on his knee; no time for that.) We shopped at Claire's for a few minutes as Sophia had some money remaining on the gift card she had received in early November. Their Christmas money from Grandma Louise was burning a hole in their pocket too, so they each bought a Webkinz. After sharing a couple of flat-baked pita pizzas in the food court, I took them all up to my office so they could see where I spend so much time. Sophia was delighted to see the Christmas "JOY" wall hanging she made in grade one hanging in my office.

Wednesday, December 24: We all spent the day at home together. It was nice not to have anything pressing to do, other than ensuring the living room was tidy for Christmas morning. Sophia was especially interested in checking Santa's location throughout the day on the NORAD website. Georgia's nose incident added a little unwanted excitement to our afternoon. Otherwise, the girls were all very excited about Christmas being here soon. After an early supper, we went over to (Neil's) Aunt Glenys's for a Christmas party. They had a beautiful spread of foods to munch on. The girls immediately started playing with another little girl (the only other child there). Unfortunately, I started feeling ill and we had to leave sooner than everyone wanted (but not much earlier than we had planned to leave anyway). We were home at 8:30. I felt too sick to do anything but go to bed, so Neil put all the girls to bed. Fortunately, I was able to get up a few hours later and help Neil do some last minute Christmas stuff. I didn't feel well through the night, but it could have been much worse (my stomach was turning and cramping, but that's all). I'm very thankful it wasn't a bad stomach bug.

Thursday, December 25: Sophia and Madeline went to the bathroom at 5:30 a.m. I called out, "get back to bed!" and, thankfully, they did. They didn't go back to sleep though! At 7:00 a.m. sharp, they ran to the living room. It was great to hear their excitement. Sophia's gift from Santa wasn't wrapped, so she knew what it was right away. He gave her a real electric guitar! Can you believe that?! Madeline was equally delighted with her Chipmunk Webkinz. It was exactly what she wanted. Then Sophia and Madeline ran to get Georgia. Sophia carried her out to the living room. She did not want to be awake yet! She put her forehead on the floor and wrapped her arms around her head while the other two tried to make her open her Santa gift. They started tearing the paper for her and finally Georgia perked up when they announced it was a Dora game.

We all proceeded to open the gifts under our tree. We did open one gift at a time, so we could all watch and see what the others received. The only exceptions were gifts from us to the kids that were identical, so we had them open those at the same time. The stockings were opened last and they revealed many little surprises for the girls. They were all thrilled with their gifts. (I was thrilled with mine too! I received everything I wanted and much more. Highlights included a 50mm camera lens from Neil and girls, a gorgeous ring from Laurel, and a very cute camera strap cover from/made by Shauna.)

I had planned to make this Ham and Egg Brunch recipe the night before, but wasn't able to do that, so Neil made it in the morning after the gifts were opened. It worked out fine. It was baked just in time for Laurel's arrival mid-morning, and was delicious. Everyone in my family loved it (which is pretty rare!). Laurel brought her laptop and set up a video chat with Donna and Lou in Texas. It was nice to see them on Christmas day, and the girls enjoyed showing them some of their gifts.

The middle part of the day was a bit crazy. The girls flitted from one gift to another, spreading the contents of several craft kits and games all over the living and dining room. Much too messy and chaotic for my liking, but what can you do? In hindsight, it would have been nice to scoop up some of those things (before the box was opened) and put them away for another day; however, I doubt that effort would have gone unnoticed (i.e., without a great deal of crying). Anyway, I escaped for an hour and took a much needed nap.

About 4:00 p.m., we went over to Neil's cousin's house for a potluck Christmas dinner. Rhonda, Laurel, G. Louise, and Ali's parents were there too. Dinner (turkey :-)) and dessert were delicious. (I was very happy to be feeling well enough to eat a full meal.) After supper, we had fun playing charades with Sophia's new Kids Charades game. Sophia was pretty good at acting out many things, and it's great that she could read the cards herself; she just needed a little help figuring out what would be effective sometimes. Madeline was so funny; she preferred to act out a whole scenario she had thought of, rather than something from a card. On our way home, we took Grandma Louise back to her place.

Friday, December 26: We stayed home all day, mostly doing things in the kitchen and playing with the girls and their Christmas gifts. I baked a chocolate cake for Neil's birthday, then helped Sophia (in her new chef's jacket) make Blueberry Buckle -- a recipe from the kids recipe box she received from us for Christmas. It was very yummy! (All three girls received a chef's jacket and recipe box from us.) Later Madeline helped me make frosting for the birthday cake. We also played Georgia's Dora ABC game and Sophia's Trouble game with all the girls. I printed and retrieved photos for Madeline to put in her new scrapbook, and worked on a mosaic craft with Sophia. The girls also watched Wall-E and Sleeping Beauty off and on throughout the day.

For his birthday, Neil just wanted to watch the World Junior hockey game at 6:00 p.m., so we ate supper before that -- ribs from Montana's and the rest of the meal (rice and vegetables) from our kitchen. We sang happy birthday, ate cake, and then Neil headed downstairs for the hockey game and we left him alone to enjoy it in peace.

Saturday, December 27: After a lazy morning, we went out to a music store to pick up a strap, case, picks, and tuner for Sophia's guitar, then we headed over to L&B's. Bronwyn had wanted to be present when the girls opened their Christmas gifts from L&B, so today was the day (she returned from Calgary late Friday). The girls were delighted to open more gifts (their sixth batch!) and very excited to play with Bronwyn after not seeing her for a whole week which is a long time in their world! With Bronwyn on drums (from Santa) and Sophia on her new guitar, they finally started the band they'd been planning! And now Madeline is begging for a keyboard! (We went back to the music store later in the afternoon and learned more about keyboards but didn't purchase one yet. We also picked up my Irish dance hard shoes at Ceili Surprise. They had my size in stock -- yay!)

We were scheduled to supervise the heated skating shack at an outdoor rink from 5:30-7:30 p.m. -- as long as the wind chill was not colder than -25C. Well, it was -23 at 5:00 p.m., so we went to fulfill our commitment (part of fund raising for a new play structure at the girls' school). I sure hoped it would be warmer today, but it wasn't unbearably cold and we had fun. We were all dressed appropriately and the shack was plenty warm enough (the only drawback to the shack was it smelled of beer and cigarette smoke -- blech!). Only Georgia's hands got a little too cold, so I let her put her hands inside my coat under my arms and she liked that. We all skated on and off over the two hours, and the girls also enjoyed the nearby slide, swings, and teeter-totter. We took hot chocolate in thermoses and marshmallows which added to the fun. Just a few other skaters used the rink while we were there.

***
Well, that was a quite a week. Fun, but awfully busy. I'm very happy that Sunday, December 28 is totally free of scheduled activities; however, I will be taking down the tree and putting away all things to do with Christmas. I'm ready to move on!

Merry Christmas!

Just checking in to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and happy holidays!

***
I'm so glad to be off work today! It has been a nice relaxing day for the most part. The girls have been watching Santa travel the world on the NORAD Tracks Santa website. If you haven't seen this before, check it out! It's a lot of fun. They also loved getting special video messages from Santa today through Santa's Portable North-Pole console. Ahhh, the magic of the internet.

***
The girls enjoyed making the foam houses shown in the photo above. I have to share a little story that's slightly related... This afternoon, Georgia let out a scream in the living room and then sneezed several times. That was very strange so I thought I'd better take a look up her nose. Sure enough, there was a piece of white foam stuck up her nose. We tried a few times to get it out with tweezers, but she would not stay still enough even with Neil holding her head. The foam shape was quite far up and I didn't want to make it worse, so we decided she had to go to a clinic. By that time, she was very upset and didn't want to go. As we wrestled her into her coat and boots, she was crying pretty hard. Voila! Her crying helped push the foam shape down a little bit, so I was able to grab it with tweezers and she didn't have to go to the doctor after all! (For inquiring minds, the foam shape was a rectangular box, about 1.5 cm long and 0.5x0.5 cm wide.)

Highlights of the week

• remembering the anniversary of getting Sherlock. It was 12 years ago on December 15. It's hard to believe it's been that long... but at that same, his old age is becoming more apparent. He moves slowly and his breathing is getting heavier. Poor guy. (Okay, this is making me a little sad. Moving on...)
• cuddling with Georgia in the morning. When she wakes up, I am usually sitting at our desk which is directly in line with the bedroom hallway. She comes out of her room at the end of the hall and runs to me, her little bare feet pattering on the hardwood. I pick her up, and she snuggles right up to me, burying her head in my shoulder to shield her eyes from the light of the desk lamp (she says "the sun is too bright"). She stays there on my lap tucked in my left arm for a couple minutes until she wakes up more fully. I love this routine.
• attending cheerful and treat-filled Christmas activities at work... the executive open house, lunch with my director-level work group, and coffee break with my immediate work group.
• receiving Christmas cards, photos, and letters in the mail and by e-mail. I love getting this mail at Christmas time and I so appreciate the thought and effort involved. Thank you to all who sent Christmas mail this year! (I totally understand the flip side too. I used to send out an annual letter, but haven't managed to do so the past few years.)
• getting through enough of the Slip Jig in my dance class (finally) that my teacher wants me to start learning hard shoe after Christmas. I still have some steps at the end of the dance to learn, but apparently I have learned enough to move on! What this means is I'll work on hard shoe for 30 minutes and then soft shoe for about 60 minutes (including 10 or 15 minutes of warm up) every Tuesday.
• hearing about Georgia wanting to use the potty and actually using it! Neil called me at work a few times to announce that Georgia had successfully peed on the potty. This is great news because she had not been interested at all for many months. We're not in a big rush, but it is kind of exciting to think that we're getting close to the end of buying and changing diapers -- after eight years!
• listening to the girls chatter as they admired their gifts under the tree (although at one point we had to threaten to put them in the closet if they didn't stop pulling them out into the middle of the living room.) They've spent quite a bit of time looking at the gifts, counting them, arranging them in certain ways. They certainly want to open them ASAP, but they're enjoying the anticipation too.
• knowing that even though I can't take a whole week off over Christmas (b/c I have no vacation days left for 2008), I only have to work two days and then three days over the next two weeks. I will really enjoy having a five-day weekend and then a four-day weekend. (I am taking Jan 2 off; fresh batch of vacation days!)
• catching up a little via facebook with a friend I haven't seen in over 20 years. It was really cool to hear from her after all this time!
• receiving Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert from my manager for Christmas. I was quite surprised. Love a good surprise! I'm enjoying the book too!
• hosting Christmas dinner for my side of the family (my parents and my brother's family) on Sunday, Dec 21. We were pretty well prepared, so it went well. Still hectic in the last hour before dinner though! I don't think that's avoidable with turkey, etc. It's been a long time since we hosted a family dinner on my side. I'm very glad they all made it here, despite the extremely cold weather and recent illness in their households.
• watching some of my nieces and nephews open their gifts from us. I really love that part of Christmas. We exchanged gifts with our YG nieces and nephew on Sunday. I was very pleased that they agreed to open their gifts one at a time, youngest to oldest (Sophia was last of six). That was fun, and totally the way to go in my opinion! (I want my kids to do that on Christmas day too.) We also had B open her gift from us on Friday (because she's gone to Calgary for Christmas) and she seemed quite delighted. :-) I don't think she was surprised though because Georgia had told her what she was getting several days earlier. (Remember, G helped me wrap gifts last week. Li'l turkey!)
• seeing the cute scrapbook page that Madeline and Sophia whipped up Sunday evening with the scrapbook kit Madeline received and the stamp set Sophia received that day. I will take a picture and post it sometime over the holidays.

Looking forward to 2009

I don't recall ever being so eager to start a new year. Over the past month or so I've been thinking a lot about some things I want to accomplish in 2009. I've been making some plans for next year and I can't wait to get started! Most of my plans revolve around reducing clutter and chaos, getting organized, and maintaining a positive outlook on life. I look forward to:

• Taking A Life Well Crafted - Audio only (Jan 1-Dec 31) and learning all the good stuff this class has to offer. I'm sure I'd enjoy the craft projects in the full version, but I want to focus on some other things this year. The audio-only version will be great because I can listen on my iPod when I'm away from home and it won't be too time consuming for me.
• Taking Organizing 101 (Jan 13-Mar 3) and working on purging and organizing some seriously overcrowded and and disorganized spots in my home throughout 2009 and beyond. This will be a major focus for me. I NEED to reduce the amount of stuff in this house! I think taking this online class will help me stay motivated and provide some great ideas.
• Taking A Library of Memories (Feb 12 -Jun 3) for the second time (for free!) (which means I've already done a lot of the initial learning and set up) and continuing to manage and filter my digital and printed photos and memorabilia. This is such a great system. It has already helped me immensely and I'm nowhere near finished dealing with my backlog of photos, etc.
• Starting to learn hard shoe Irish dances beginning Jan 6. I was thinking I would start later than that, but I finally learned the Slip Jig "good enough" in December. My teacher is so eager to get me started on hard shoe, she made me agree to get hard shoes and start learning right away. I'm getting excited about it now. My classmates say hard shoe is FUN!
• Getting five weeks of vacation!!! I will mark fifteen years with my company in 2009 which means I get an extra week of vacation starting in January. I have been looking forward to this for a long time!

I have a couple of scrapbooking projects in mind for 2009 too. None of the online classes I listed above involve making scrapbook pages (except the last four weeks of LOM) -- which is great because there are a lot of other things I want to get done in 2009, but... I still love scrapbooking and I don't want to put it on hold completely.

I like doing things that have an element of routine or commitment to them. It helps me stick with it and I find it very satisfying to complete projects like these (e.g., my photo-a-day project in 2007, September 2008 daily album, any online class I have paid for). So here's what I have in mind for 2009 (either one or both; haven't decided yet!):

• Gratitude journal. This is a project that involves making one scrapbook page a week (or bi-weekly or monthly) featuring one photo and a little journaling about something I'm thankful for. I would use the same layout each time, so there would be no thinking involved in the layout itself. I got this idea from Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life workshop at BPS.
• Twelve of twelve. This is a project that involves taking 12 photos on the 12th day of each month and making one scrapbook layout using those photos and some journaling. This sounds like a good way to capture one year of "everyday life" in my family and I think it's pretty doable. I got this idea from Cathy Zielske and others. Again, I would use the same layout to reduce the thinking and time involved.

Okay, I guess that's enough thinking about 2009 -- for today anyway! We're hosting Christmas dinner tomorrow and I have lots of work to do!

Highlights of the week

• hearing about Georgia's first time on skates (although I really wish I could've been there!). Neil went to help Sophia's class with a skating trip and he put Georgia in Madeline's old skates so they could all go on the ice. She squealed in delight as he pulled her around.
• learning the word indefatigable from a book I'm reading to the girls (Gooney Bird and the Room Mother by Lois Lowry) because it describes Sophia so well. (Great book, by the way.)
• having a two-hour dance class on Tuesday. I worked on my Slip Jig, then we learned three new Ceili (group) dances with the advanced class: Haymaker's Jig, Bridge of Athlone, and Siege of Ennis. Fun!
  
• listening to Georgia's heartbeat by putting my head on her chest as she slept. It's been ages since I listened and she won't let me near her with the stethoscope when she's awake. Her heart rate was 51. I do hope it's a little faster when she's active, but I guess I won't find out until her next appointment with a cardiologist (hopefully January; haven't received a letter yet).
• finishing my Christmas shopping -- including the school's "adopt a family" (12 families actually) Christmas project which we only learned about on Friday afternoon.
• Neil making a cheese ball* for me to share at work on Thursday. He and Georgia delivered it to my office downtown. What good service, huh?! The cheese ball was a hit with my coworkers.
• having Friday off work. Thank goodness because I had a million things to do and I was able to cross a few things off my list. This month is just nuts.
• wrapping several Christmas gifts while the girls were at school Friday afternoon. Georgia was a good little helper. She was very excited about it, but didn't insist on doing too much. It was a little tricky trying to keep her from seeing a few gifts though.
• making and eating this yummy snack: vanilla yogurt topped with cinnamon, sliced bananas, and chopped pecans. I am definitely making this again.
• teaching Sophia how to make coffee for me, complete with the right amount of cream and sugar. I have a Keurig  single cup coffee maker, so it's easy to make coffee and the kids think it's fun. (I love that coffee maker! Perfect for me because I'm the only coffee drinker in the house.)
• visiting friends in Pilot Butte on Friday evening. We hadn't seen them for much too long (since last New Year's Eve). We had a good visit and their kids are similar in age to ours, so they had fun together too.
• attending our Irish dance school's Hawaiian-themed Christmas party on Saturday afternoon. There was a little Irish dancing, hula-hoop and limbo contests, fruit punch, pizza, and other treats. I made Sally's Coconut Snowballs for the party and they were great!
• going to Bushwakker for a drink with the beginner and advanced adult classes and our Irish dance instructors on Saturday after the family party. I enjoyed a glass of Blackberry Mead, only available at this time of year.
• getting a bunch of housework done on Sunday while the girls spent the afternoon at their cousin's house. Not my favourite thing to do on a Sunday, but it is good when we can get more done than usual.
• registering for a couple online classes and making plans for 2009. I'm looking forward to the new year! More on that later.

*Spicy Cheddar Cheese Ball

1 cup low-fat grated cheddar cheese [we used regular OLD cheddar]
1 cup light cream cheese
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp VE Louisiana Hot & Spicy Dip Mix [i.e., Epicure Selections; let me know if you need some!]
1 cup chopped walnuts [we used pecans]

Combine the first four ingredients. Form into a ball or log (or two), and roll in nuts.

[I must also recommend serving this with my most favourite cracker of all time: Crunchmaster Multi-Grain Crackers (from Costco).]

Highlights of the week

• Seeing the girls excitement about starting our Advent calendar and then their enjoyment of the Lindt mini chocolate truffles we filled it with. I heard, "These are sooo good!" Even to young children, they're noticeably better than cheap chocolate, heh. (We bought just enough so Neil and I can each have one a day during Advent too. I wish they were a little bigger though!)
• Submitting my Corporate Fitness Challenge activity log. I logged 920 minutes (just over 15 hours) in November. That's 30 minutes a day on average, which I think is pretty good for me. Logging my activity actually did make me try to exercise a little more than usual.
• Making Overnight Oatmeal* twice this week. I hadn't made this for several months, but I love it. Thanks again for the recipe, Maureen!
• Chatting with Georgia when she first wakes up in the morning. She's so chipper right out of bed and says cute things like, "Look at the tiny penguin in my hand!"
• Sleeping through the night Monday night. No one (not even the dog) woke me up. This is extremely rare.
• Having thoughtful conversations with my coworkers about politics, racism, and more. We often have interesting conversations during our coffee breaks. It's great to have great coworkers.
• Watching Madeline and the other Sparks decorate a Christmas tree at a retirement home on Tuesday evening. My dance class was canceled so I had the opportunity to attend the Sparks Christmas party. (Sophia had a Brownies Christmas party as well.)
• Donating new and used items for the Christmas Charity Challenge at work. I was very pleased to move those dolls out of our house so quickly, and Transition House is such a good cause.
• Getting more Christmas shopping done. I don't have a huge number of people on my list (just my husband, my girls, and six nieces and nephews), so it's not too difficult. Plus, I like shopping for children. I'm almost finished. (Except I'm leaving all birthday shopping until after Christmas which is new for me.)
• Receiving alumni registration info for the 2009 session of Library of Memories (starts in Feb). I can take it two more times for free, and I'm looking forward to resuming the tasks involved since I put them on hold to participate in other classes this year.
• Listening to Madeline read Pinkalicious at bedtime. She doesn't actually read it, but she likes that book so much, she committed quite a bit of it to memory and enjoys "reading" it to Sophia and me.
• Getting eight hours of sleep on Thursday night (b/c getting more than six hours is even more rare than uninterrupted sleep), after a couple of very bad nights. (Sophia has been the main culprit lately. Sometimes she wakes me up to tell me she can't sleep. Grrrrrr!)
• Decorating our Christmas tree. I love our eclectic collection of ornaments. We have several that were given to Neil by his mother, those we've purchased for our girls over the years, numerous miscellaneous ornaments, and many hand-crafted by my Great Grandma Georgia, my Great Aunt Carrie, my cousins Sydney and Tanys (when they were little), my friend Cheryl, and, of course, many made by our children.
• Overhearing Sophia and Madeline's comments when Neil accidentally boiled over a pot on the stove: Sophia said to Neil, "Everybody makes mistakes," and then Madeline added quickly, "Nobody's perfect. Right, Sophia?" It just sounded so funny coming from them.
• Attending the St. Nicholas celebration at the church hall this afternoon. Sophia and Madeline sang two songs with their K4J group: Silent Night and Spread the Good News. They all wore angel costumes and were adorable! Many talented singers (a choir, two quartets, and a soloist) also took the stage and sang many Christmas carols. It was beautiful. I love Christmas carols!
• Seeing the look on Sophia's face when St. Nicholas, dressed elaborately in a red and green bishop's hat and robe, arrived at the celebration to give treats to the children. Priceless!
• Hearing myself say, "Madeline, put your boobs back on the tree." (Well, I've never said that before!) Does this require explanation? She had taken a couple of round Christmas ornaments...

*Overnight Oatmeal - Apple Cinnamon

2 apples (peeled, cored & sliced) [I like to use Granny Smith]
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3c brown sugar
2c old-fashioned rolled oats
4c water [I prefer to use 3 1/2 cups]
pinch of salt

Mix the apples, cinnamon & sugar in the bottom of the slow-cooker.  Sprinkle oats over the apples, them pour in the water & salt.  Don't stir ~ just leave it alone.  Cook on low setting for 8-9 hours.

The girls' 2008 ornaments

These are the ornaments we bought for the girls at Rogers Pass Discovery Centre in the summer. They're handmade and were attached to cards stamped with The Flying Zebra "Winterpeg," mb. (and a phone number). Couldn't find anything on the 'net, so that's all I know.

We put up our Christmas tree and decorated it today. It was fun except for the girls being terribly impatient as I tried to unflatten the branches, arrange lights on the tree, and then get ornaments out of their containers. Once they got to start decorating, they loved every minute of it. I used to do a little rearranging; now I really don't care. You should see the clump of ornaments where Georgia was busy decorating! (I only insist on handling our most precious and breakable ornaments myself and I hang them out of reach.)

Those blue LED lights look crazy in this photo! They're really quite subtle in real life and don't appear to cast much light at all. And there are actually very few blue (and green) lights on the tree relative to yellow, orange, and red. This is our first year of LED lights. They will take a little getting used to but the power savings are worth it. I have to add, Neil and I prefer white lights, but the kids love the "rainbow" ones so much, we put coloured lights on the tree for them. We have white lights on the house and twisted through a garland inside the house.

Related post: The girls' ornaments

Design Your Life, Weeks 7-9

Here's what I made during weeks 7-9 of DYL (layouts and concepts provided by Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life workshop at BigPictureScrapbooking.com). I really like these pages! (Note: You can click any image to enlarge it if you wish to read the journaling.) Just three weeks left in this class.

Related posts: Design Your Life, Weeks 1-3
Design Your Life, Weeks 4-6
Design Your Life, Weeks 10-12

I made shortbread

And I'm trying not to feel like I wasted my afternoon off.

The cookies turned out okay, but the process was painful. I think my first mistake was doubling the recipe. The recipe says "This can be doubled using one pound of butter and four cups flour solidly packed." (The single recipe calls for one cup of butter and two cups of flour.) Well, I guess I misinterpreted "solidly packed" because I had way too much flour. The dough was so dry and crumbly there was absolutely no hope of rolling it out. (Next time -- if there is one! -- I think I should mix the butter and sugar together first and then add less than the full amount of flour to ensure the dough isn't too dry.) At that point, I had two choices of course: dump it all in the garbage or add some butter. I really hate to be wasteful, so I decided to add butter, but had lost all enthusiasm knowing the shortbread would not be tender after all that mixing... Nevertheless, I forged ahead. I added a blob of butter I had softened in the microwave and mixed it in. It looked better. Then I rolled and cut squares with a ruler and knife because I don't have any cookie cutters in appropriate sizes or shapes. At least that part was quick. But not as appealing to me (or fun) as the scallop-edged circle and square my mom always used! Anyway, I got them in the oven and was careful not to overbake them, so they turned out in that sense. They are a little tough though and I think they're a little short on sugar because of all the extra butter and flour in them... but they're okay. I guess I learned some things today, but it may be quite awhile before I attempt to make shortbread again!

P.S. The girls don't even like the baked shortbread (they did like the raw dough). Now I really feel like cleaning the living room would have been a better use of my time!