Christmas Cookies

One of our Advent calendar activities was to make Christmas cookies. I love making Christmas cookies, but am glad Jer takes the reigns and gets things going. He called his mom and got the old recipe that his Grandmother Max use to use. We do this every year, as we are really bad about remembering where we put last year's recipe. (Carol get use to this :)

Victoria was able to break the eggs this year all by herself and took a little control about how to make the cookies just right. "You have to stir them like this!" she explains to her sister. 

While the cookies were in the over, the girls changed into their pajamas. We set up icing stations. Once they were ready, I talked about my memory of my Grandmother making tons of Christmas cookies- she made them for an army- if you think about the nine kids she had and all their families. I have a picture that I showed them of her and her cookies (thanks Aunt Colleen.)

Let the icing begin.

I think my favorite part was watching them lick their fingers.

Victoria was so meticulous about the placement and colors of her sprinkles and icing. Her final cookie rocked!

Bella stopped icing after one cookie to reap her rewards- note the blue icing on her face. Then it was on to cookie number two.

They both slowed down to take a break.

The girls finished after about 3 or 4 cookies, then it was off to bed, while Jer and I finished the rest of the cookies.

We found our elves Shirley and Curly enjoying our cookies the next morning- note the blue icing on Curly's face.

Camping in December- Why I Love Texas!

With gorgeous weather in the 70s we decided to go camping in December. The only problem was finding a campsite that allowed fires- the majority of parks are under burn bans. We chose Lake Tawakini, about an hour and a half East of Dallas.

Bella finds her walking stick.

I love going on a nature walk and seeing all the Fall colors.

The lake level was way down because of the summer drought. The girls took their shoes off and wrote their names in the mud with a stick. Then we played Frisbee on the giant bank of the lake.

Why you don't play Frisbee next to a lake.

How to carry a muddy Frisbee.

Bella finally found a tree to climb- she was looking everywhere and growing disappointed until this. She quickly came down once she heard the word Smores.

The girls told me that they wanted to teach me some new dance moves. I have never laughed so hard!

We woke up at the crack of dawn and the girls climbed some more trees.

We had a really great time, but honestly it was a whole lot of work, for a very short time. That mixed in with the grimy feeling and lack of sleep (from a raccoon waking me up outside) really makes me appreciate my life. As soon as we got home; everyone showered and took a nap. I think I'm good for camping... until next December.

 

By the way, this morning I woke up and it had snowed half an inch outside. This is why I love Texas- the best of both worlds.

Nativity Drawings and Christmas Lights

The Knights of Columbus at our church held a poster contest about the true meaning of Christmas. I asked Victoria what she would like to do and she said she wanted to do a drawing of our Nativity scene. This is my old Nativity set from when I was a kid. She drew it completely on her own and colored it with pencils and crayons. Then with fancy letters wrote: To us a child is born. Merry Christmas!

Bella of coarse also wanted to draw the nativity scene, but she chose to use crayon and watercolor.Not bragging, but I love their pictures!

One day after school, I caught the girls reading to each other in front of the fireplace. I had to snap a picture because lately it seems like there's been a lot of arguing and it's nice to remember these sisterly moments.

On Friday our dear friends Jay, Julie, Braelyn, and soon to be Grayson, came over for our yearly tradition of dinner and Christmas lights. We ate some spaghetti, loaded the kids in the van (in their PJs complete with hot chocolate sippy cups), and toured the area for Christmas lights. In the Frisco town square they have an amazing light display set to music.

On Saturday I went to help out with the neighborhood toy drive. Later the girls came by and we got our picture with Santa on a neat ornament. The weather was amazing so we took off to go camping. See my next post.

Thanksgiving and more

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we had a pizza party over at our house. Dave, Denise, Quinn, Dave, Tanner, Tessa, Carol, Dick, Josh, Renae, Caleb, Chloe, Keira and our family celebrated the season with pizza and pumpkin pie, and all the appetizers.

Josh, Renae, Caleb, Chloe, and Keira came down from Colorado for the entire week of Thanksgiving- the kids saw each other every day and had so much fun. We made a gingerbread house (that lasted all of 5 minutes). We had our pictures with Santa, then went to the "Maze" beside the Allen mall and goofed off in front of the giant Christmas tree- every 5 minutes a new Christmas song would come on and the kids would dance and perform their gymnastics to it. We also went to go see the movie Wreck It Ralph and went to the Frisco Commons park afterward; as well as playing and spending the night over at our house and Grandma and Grandpa's house.

 

We had Thanksgiving over at my house this year. I made the turkey the night before- a first (all by myself)- I only left the gizzards in, but it tasted great!

We have so much to be thankful for...

 

Since we will not be seeing Josh and Renae this year on Christmas, we exchanged gifts with them the day before they took off. I was happy to get my Christmas tree up so fast. We bought a new one after our 10 year old one refused to light anymore.

We're going to miss these smiling faces!

Carol and Dick came with us to Breakfast with Santa sponsored by our church St. Francis. Jer worked with the Knights of Columbus and baked a TON of yummy pancakes.

Here's our picture with Santa. Victoria told me that she didn't like this Santa, because he wasn't the "true Santa- his eyebrows were too bushy"- that is why she refused to smile with him.