Baking Buddies

 Admittedly, we did very little Christmas baking because of me being sick on Christmas Eve and Day.  I think that we more than made up for it this weekend!  Ms. Margaret gave us a batch of the best sugar cookies ever that she made with her grand babies--they were more like a shortbread and not too sweet.  She gladly shared her recipe with me, so Caroline and Emily joined me in the kitchen on Saturday with two sticks of flour, a cup of sugar, and a dream.
Caroline got so caught up in the baking spirit that she asked to make Amish white bread "just like Aunt Carrie did" all by herself.  I agreed and kept an eye on her progress, but Caroline didn't need me!  She remembered everything about dissolving the yeast in warm water, using an oiled bowl, and letting the bread rise.  And those two loaves of bread were some of the best I have ever had!

Christmas Day! 2013

Santa brought Caroline a doll carrier with Samantha doll and accessories and a doll chair so that her collection can join us at the dinner table.  Jason got his own broom since he likes to "borrow" Emily's all the time!

 Mr. and Mrs. Claus (a.k.a. "Tim" and "Jessica") were feeling under the weather Christmas Eve but were able to muster up enough gusto to put out all the presents.  I had this fantastic idea (said sarcastically) to start my Christmas shopping in August this year.  I thought, "I only get paid once a month, might as well spread out the costs so that it doesn't hit us all in one month".  Well, that's a great idea if you are organized and write everything down as you buy.  Otherwise, you end up like me and need NINE rolls of wrapping paper to take care of all the stuff you bought for the last FIVE months!  It was insane how many presents we put out for the kids!  It was almost embarrassing!  But the kids had a great time and Tim and I felt like overdoing it once in a while isn't such a bad thing....but lesson learned for next year :)

Santa brought Emily a baby doll changing station with crib, sink, and high chair!  Baby doll also got two preemie outfits (fit much better than doll clothes) and a new stroller!  Geet got the most awesome Razor scooter with big wheels that are made for pavement/gravel. 

Even the deer is thinking "Oh my, that's a lot of presents!"

Carrie's awesome stockings from last year made their second appearance, of course!

Milk and cookies for Santa

Emily on Christmas morning

Opening the jam-packed stockings

Garrett enjoying a little scooter time

Caroline discovering all of her American Girl gear

It's like "Where's Waldo?"--find the two kids in the pile of presents!

Garrett LOVED the musket pen that Tim and I got him in Williamsburg.  Uncle Josh got a similar one and I hear that it was a hit in PA too!

Jay-Bird's molars are giving him trouble, but he was pleasant for presents.  This picture was before the Advil wore off.

"I'm so excited!"

We made Cammy a picture book from 2013 titled "Cammy's Brag Book".  It had lots of pics of her and the grandkids from this past year.  She loved it!

Cammy got Caroline the American Girl cow Garnet, which goes with her Caroline Abbott doll.

Garrett was never one to turn down candy.

Aunt Carrie is the BEST!  Caroline got a gummy bear night light and a gummy bear pillowcase!  

Emily loves her pillow case with name, too, Aunt Kiwi!

Ummmmm.....let me explain.  Emily loved this "Supergirl" (that's what she called it) shirt from Target.  She proceeded to put it on with her new light up high heeled shoes (thanks Carrie!), baby doll in new stroller, and....nothing else.  

A stylish look for today's new woman!

Carrie really outdid herself this year in the "hand made" department.  She made this giant quilt for us which was amazing.  It now proudly resides along the back of the couch.  She also made us quilted totes in all of our favorite colors and patterns (like narwhals for Caroline!) 

After all the excitement died down, Emily wanted to get out her new Play Doh set from Cammy.

It was a breakfast set.  They had a great time making "waffles", "bacon" and "toast"!

Christmas Eve 2013

 Tim came home Monday with an achy belly and immediately went to bed for the night... at 3:30 PM!  I figured it was just a little stomach bug that would go away by morning, until I woke up that night, throwing up every hour on the hour for the next 12 hours!  Long story short, Cammy showed up Christmas Eve at lunchtime just in time to save my kids.  Timmy and I were looking pretty bad, but I never even made it out of bed for Christmas Eve festivities.  Tim was able to get himself together enough to help Camm take the kids to Peggy's house for Christmas Eve dinner.  Mary Jo, John, and Brooklyn were there to celebrate as well.  My little bug turned into a puking-fever-headache monstrosity that kept me in its grip until this morning.  So much for seeing the kids enjoy Christmas!  But Timmy was my photographer, so here is what he captured December 24, 2013.

Emily's first "selfie"

Emily's favorite present--Minnie Mouse microphone and guitar

This continued for the rest of the evening....

The duet continued once they all got home...

Emily's Music Program 2013

 Emily's preschool class took part in a little music program on Dec. 11th, 2013.  Each class (two's and up) sang a couple of songs and then the school age program did a finale of "Frosty the Snowman".  Emily's class likes to show off their compassion for diversity by singing some "Grouch and Santa" song that the teacher made up and a "Kawanzaa candles" song.  Once the candle song started up, Garrett rolled his eyes at me and said "Seriously?  What does a 3 year old know about Kawanzaa?"  But I guess it's all "love your neighbor/appreciate our differences" at the preschool.  The four year old class came out dressed as dreidels and sang the dreidel song, and I'm betting that 97.9% of rural King George is probably not Jewish.  I'm not saying that learning the different songs is a problem, and I'm not so close minded as to believe that we all have the same Christmas traditions, but it would have been nice to hear "Silent Night" and "Jingle Bells" from these little guys.
Right after Emily's music program was Garrett's band concert at the high school.  Then we had Caroline's music program this past Monday!  Busy, busy, busy!