Did You Know. . .

. . .that the secret to making perfect ornaments is using copious amounts of glitter?

This is just a small sampling of the ornaments the kids made today.  I think we may need to hang up the table and counters as well based on the amount of marker and glitter that ended up on those as well.

Christmas Baking

 

The making of Christmas goodies has finally started.  I am so not in the mood at the moment but this snack is one the kids can make entirely on their own without help from me. And they love it.  We made these last night and there are none left. 

Just lay out a bunch of pretzel squares on a baking sheet, top with a Hershey's kiss, pop in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes. Pull them out and put an M&M on top. Let cool and devour.  I learned this year (or perhaps relearned) that it is best to do the plain kisses in one batch and the white chocolate hugs in a second batch because of the differing melting temps. The hugs were very soft while the kisses were still a bit hard after 5 minutes. But they were all yummy.

Happy Birthday Alan

This may be just a tad early but I just couldn't resist sharing. Happy birthday, Alan. We love you.

Robert Crawling

This one was taken in the morning with better light. We don't have many lights in the living areas of the house so things get a tad dark at night. Hopefully you can see this one better.

Baby's First Christmas

Yes, this is child number 8 and the first one to ever have a baby's first Christmas outfit. We were blessed with another box of hand-me-downs and this was in the pile.

Robert on the Move

Ok, the lighting is a bit poor on this but hopefully you can see it.

The Tree is Up

Ok, I admit that I was more than willing to just forget to put the tree up this year.  It was stored somewhere very hard to get to, I was going to have to rearrange the furniture to find a place to put it and the prospect of keeping Gabe and Robert out of the tree was not an exciting one. But the children did not agree with me  on this one.

So when Dave came by last night to drop off dinner and try to fix the snow blower, we asked him if he could try to get the tree down for us. After the kids went to bed I rearranged furniture and set the tree up.  Yes, it is hidden somewhat in a corner.  I am hoping this will help keep the younger two away from it a bit.  No ornaments will go on until Christmas Eve so this is it for now.  This kids are happy, the snow blower is now working and I was able to enjoy a nice warm dinner made by someone else last night. Things are going rather well.