Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Holiday Preperations

The tree is lit, the presents are neatly wrapped below, the stockings are accumulating more and more goodies, and the Christmas lights are glowing way out here in the midddle of no where. Chrismas is in the air around our little home.


This year we decided to go with a fake tree since Mary is at the lovely age where EVERYTHING goes into her mouth. I can just imagine her with a mouth full of spruce tree needles and trying to dig those out every five minutes. So instead, we went with this little guy and perched it up on my sewing machine to keep little hands away which has worked out quite nice.


I would like to introduce you to "Hoo" and "Oot." They're new ornaments from my MIL, and they're the hit of the Christmas tree. Hubby especially loves them, though of course he'd never admit it to anyone outside of this house for fear of ruining his manly reputation.


Hazel was begging for me to make some goodies the other day so I decided I'd make some Sour Cream Cookies. Adam is in love with these and I wanted to take a shot at using cookie cutters for the first time so I thought, why not? Well, as you can tell from the picture above it wasn't a success the first time around. I rolled out the dough a little thicker than usual because we like these soft and fluffy rather than crispy but they puffed up a little too much. The second go round was better (below).



They sort of look like snowflakes and a snowman right? Maybe if you squint a little?


Yesterday and today we've woken up to some thick fog and lots of frost build up. Its so pretty when it does this, but on the other hand the power lines are covered in frost and the power is out for the time being so we're running on generators.


 One day while we were out and about being tourists for the day, we stopped at the local Scadinavian store (there's a lot Norwegians up here in the north, me being counted among them) and I came upon some board books. I just love board books because they stand up to little hands and roughness better than regular books. Anywho, I found a couple classics from Jan Brett, who I just love, and this new book called, Who is Coming to Our House.  Its a story about a mouse who tells all the animals in the barn that they will have some visitors to their home very soon. The animals clean the barn and get ready for their company. Who comes you ask? Well, Mary and Joseph and of course the birth of baby Jesus. I just loved how simple the message of the book was and it has quickly become one of my new favorites for the kiddos.


On a final note, look at my splash of color. After seeing how well my mother-in-law's Christmas cactus has done, I decided that this year I would give it a shot and see what would come. I don't know when she'll bloom but I'll try to keep her alive until then and share with you.


I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and blessed New Year!

3 comments:

Gumbo Lily said...

I sometimes think the "build up" to Christmas as just as much fun as Christmas Day! Can't wait to see that Christmas Cactus in full bloom. Looks about ready to pop!

Jody

Anonymous said...

Your tree is pretty! I tried to talk my crew into a small tree... But they didn't go for it.

Hint of Grace said...

It's so much fun decorating and baking for Christmas! Your tree looks very nice. I love the little owls too- they look so neat on the tree!