More to come

Did you have a good Christmas? We sure did.  Hope was healthy.  That's all I cared about.  This picture was taken late at night...hours past Hope's bedtime.  That sums up our Christmas. Fun, but wow.  I'm tired. She's tired. Woody is, as always, ready for some more action!  I'm trying to make a slide show of our Christmas pictures.   I hope it'll load on here.  See ya later. Enjoy your holiday leftovers!

Cabin Fever

Well, It's day 5 of Hope's fever virus.  Her fever finally broke this morning, but she's been a PILL! Still not eating and extremely tired and fussy.  So am I.  Woody may need to check me in to some type of facility so if you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know what happened.

You try entertaining a fussy sick 2 year old during the winter sometime.  It's how I'm earning my medals for my Mommy battle armor!  Several times I've thought about declaring it Christmas morning just so we can get out all of her new toys to have something to do.  The only thing stopping me was that they are being stored at Papaw's house right now.  I did have these sock puppets stored away from her birthday.  I just had a hunch there would be a day when we'd need a project.  Hope was thrilled with them.  They were fun to make and they are fun to play with.  She makes them sing along to the Christmas music.  I did take her out yesterday.  We went to the pet shop.  Not many people there to infect at 9 in the morning, but that seemed to be prime grooming time for the dogs.  It was a hit.  We watched them (behind a glass so even the groomers weren't exposed to us) for an hour.  We also saw kittens, birds, reptiles, fish and little rats -who wants a rat for a pet?  Grammy is coming in about an hour to give me a break, so don't feel too sorry for me, okay?

Weather Reports

The big story around here has been the snow/ice we've had this week.  All week we've had snow or ice.  The only day with enough to really play in was Sunday night/Monday morning.

Little kids and snow are just a good combination!  Too bad this snow is all powdery.  No good snow balls or snow men yet.  Maybe next time...

Why don't kids mind being cold outside?  I was FREEZING!  Hope was all smiles.  We only stayed out a few minutes but she would have stayed out a lot longer.  I had to bribe her to go back inside.

I bribed her with candy making.  "We'll go make candy snow." I said.  Divinity was what I had in mind.  This is only the third time in my life I've made it.  Once in a food science class in college, once when we were first married and then today.  Turns out, it's kind of tricky.  There is boiling sugar/syrup to "hard ball stage" which I do the old fashioned way as I don't have a candy thermometer.  And, there is beating egg whites to stiff peaks then working very fast to get the stuff out of the bowl before it hardens.  Here's a tip for all you kitchen aid owners....switch attachments.  Don't beat the candy with the same whip you used to beat the egg whites.  See those flat discs....that's not what we're going for.

This is more like it.  All I did was change to the paddle attachment and voila!  Snow balls of divinity!

Turns out, Hope loves the stuff! Goody! Growing up, my Granny always had divinity at Christmas.  It's a staple of my childhood Christmas memories.  Besides the kitchen aid tip, I also learned to add nuts.  Whew! That kicks it up.  It's yummy in the same way that the Halloween mix with candy corn and peanuts is good: salty/sweet, chewy/crunchy.  Go make yourself some! And if it doesn't work out: blame the weather.  That's what all good divinity makers do.  "It was too humid!" or "It was too dry that day." Either way, blame mother nature!

A side note: unfortunately, we have recently been under the weather lately at our house.  The nurse said there's a fever virus going around.  We've got it!  It's been over 50 hours since I've left my house.  I'm going crazy.  And I'm on a sugar high. 

Christmas Craft Time!

This idea came from Grammy:  We are wrapping our presents in white paper (I used craft paper instead of slick wrapping paper so the paint would stay on better and dry faster) then letting Hope paint the presents.  She is having a great time.  If I have a color scheme at all in my decorating, it's red and white so this "matches" my decor as well.   We started out using sponge stamps, but it didn't go so well, so I just decided to give her a brush and let her go for it. 

Coupon Craziness

For some, it's a hobby...they have blogs about it, they have notebooks for it, they teach classes on it.  For me, it's just something I do to help with expenses so I can continue to stay at home with Hope.  It's couponing.  And, it's once again taking over my life in an unhealthy way.

These are just the men's deodorants.  There are 11- not counting the one Woody is currently using nor the one he stashes at my parent's house.  I've gotten carried away.  Last time it was cereal.  This time it's men's deodorant.  I only have one spare for me.  Why so much for Woody?  Because it was a good deal, that's why!

When I realized we could play domino's with our deodorants, it was time to stop.  BUT if you need some, Kroger is running a great deal on Gillette this week.  If you clip coupons you can get it for $0.66/each.  If you don't clip coupons and you are running low...call me.  I'll share.

Hanging of our Greens

The Christmas season is here.  Woody and I kicked it off the wrong way.  We weren't Black Friday or Cyber Monday shoppers, but we did go to Toys R Us a week before Thanksgiving and it was enough to make us feel like skipping the holidays all together.  So, I'm on a mission to reclaim the joy of the season.  Sparkling two year old eyes have a way of helping with that also.

We had a stay in our jammies day and put our tree up over the Thanksgiving holiday break from work. 

Maybe Mom and Dad weren't feeling like decorating, but Hope sure was! She went right to work.  We never showed her how to hang the ornaments or even told her that they went on the tree.  It was pure instinct!  She's a decorator at heart.  This is also a good picture of Hope's hair.  What color do you think it will turn out to be? Red? Blond? Brown?  I don't know, but I like it.

Her first choice in ornaments.  The vintage Cookie monster.  Not sure if it was made by Woody's mom or grandmother, but we have a set of Sesame Street characters.

She really stuck with it.  I've told you before that her attention span is not normal for toddlers.  The entire bottom of the tree was done all by her.  Sure it's not even and gets rearranged daily, but I leave it just like she did it.  The big clumps of ornaments make me smile.

And we are also celebrating Advent.  I don't have an Advent calendar nor do we have any real family traditions (yet) but I'm trying to be creative.  John sent us some Bible readings for the Advent season and we read those at dinner which we eat by candle light (Advent Candle- light that is. On the first week of Advent with only one candle we still need other lighting).  Our pastor's sermon this week was about anticipation- the anticipation of Christ's birth is normal Advent mediation, but he put the spin of anticipating Christ's second coming.  I liked that focus for our first week of Advent and I made these cookies to help talk to Hope about it.  I don't have plans for next week yet, but I'm sure it will involve food.  My teaching methods always do.