Entries from December 2009 ↓

Nobody told me how wonderful it is to be an aunt. I’ve met excited aunts but I have to admit, I never really fully got it.

Since my sweet little niece was born, I get it.

I love her almost as if she were my own daughter. It doesn’t matter that I only get to see her once or twice a month, my love is still there and still growing stronger every day.

The minute I scoop her up in my arms, I want to eat her with kisses. It’s that good.

And her cheeks are to die for. And her little squishy leg rolls to.

Yes, I love being an aunt. I really do.

Even my niece is not saved from me snapping photos of her. Or putting ridiculous giant flowered headbands on her head. Oh well, the price of love….

I got some money for Christmas.

I wanted four things with it:

1. a can opener (mine is 8 years old and I can’t believe it’s lasted this long! My mom said it must be a record for a can opener. It’s moody now though, and protests 4 out of 5 times you try to use it.)
2. a mixer (I had two and one broke so I threw it away. I accidentally threw one of the wrong beaters away with it. So for the last 3 years, I’ve had a mixer with only one beater.)
3. a toaster (mine kicked the bucket 2 weeks ago. I was forced to go to the Dollar Store to buy a $7 jobby that can’t even fit bagels in it because that is that was the only toaster in town. I will keep it as a back-up but it can’t be our main one.)
4. a new pair of sneakers (I can only wear sneakers 99% of the time anymore, and never bare feet, or my nerves in my feet kill me. I needed a new pair of sneakers to strictly wear inside.)

I went to Walmart. I couldn’t find the mixers anywhere. They were clean out of toasters (I guess it must be a hot Christmas item!). The can opener selection was greatly diminished. I did buy a pair fo shoes at the shoe store but they’re ugly. Comfy but ugly. (Such a sad, sad day for a cute show lover, like myself.) Next time I’m just going to shoot for wishing for things like allergy relief. (My allergies have been awful lately! WTH is up with that — I don’t think pollen is very prevalent in 2 degree weather!)

At least I have the Internet. I can always shop there…

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.
-Albert Schweitzer

When you’re waiting for your presents, that is.

Santa came early to our house.

In an act of spontaneity, ‘Santa’ came early this year. They He figured since Christmas weekend was to be so jam packed full, then why not have some extra time to focus on their his presents? Right? Right.

The kids were to die for excited when they came down and saw the early surprise.

Santa knew just what Warrior wanted: A Geotrax Airport! And boy, was he excited!

Fancy’s favorite gift was clothing. I realize we’re in trouble. It’s not that often that the biggest thrill comes from a new dress at the tender age of 19 months. It was cute though.

Forest is practically a teenager already, if age can be judged on behavior. He is too cool for almost everything and all he wants is video games. Check it out.

Video Game Dance:

It doesn’t take very long for all the pretty paper from the packages to overtake your house when you have three little people tearing into it.

PS: We had gotten home very late the night before and we left Warrior’s shirt on him since we carried him in alseep. We did trade out his pants for pajama bottoms though, thus the crazy attire. You’re not really looking at his clothes though, right?

The other day we made Oreo cookie truffles. I’ve made them before and they are so amazingly easy. Even better, they are incredibly delicious. I thought it would be a project the kids could join in on.

First, you take a package of Oreo cookies and put them in a ziploc bag. Then you proceed to smash them. Forest thoroughly enjoyed that part:

Fancy had to get in on the action as well. I think she felt very powerful with that heavy rolling pin!

Ta-Da! Oreo crumbs!

Dump the crumbs into a bowl:

Next, you take a package of softend cream cheese and you fold it into the crumbs. You have to use your hands for this part. So Mommy did it all by herself. (They were jealous of me.) Warrior wanted to take a picture of this part. I did a crazy contortionist move with my head because he doesn’t usually get heads in his photographs. Anyway, this is what it should look like when you’re done mixing:

Then you take the ‘dough’ and roll it into little balls. The boys actually did really good with this part:

We had to sacrifice a few for the cause, it’s true. Fancy could not keep her hands away from them! I figured one or two that were destroyed were better than 1/3 of them poked up squashed.

Then you take semi-sweet Baker’s Chocolate and melt it for dipping. (The recipe calls for 2 packages and states you will have quite a bit of left-overs. I only used one package and ended up only being able to coat the last few with a very thin layer.) No pictures of this part, I’m afraid. It was pretty messy (as you might imagine). In an attempt to make our truffles look more festive, I let the boys put a few sprinkles on the top of each one.

I wish I would have thought to take a picture of them after we peeled them off of the wax paper but I didn’t. They look really messy in the melty phase but they peeled off really nicely and looked surprisingly nice (for a kid project)! About half were nice enough to give to friends/family!

These get two thumbs up from us for both ease and tasty-ness factor!