Corduroy pants and Pistachio nuts

Here is an example of a conversation when Mommy (me) is only "half" listening. I was wrapping a present when George comes and begins a conversation...

I hear him say, "What kind of pants am I wearing?" He really said, "What kind of nuts are these?" while holding a can of nuts they received as part of a gift.

I answer, "Corduroy".

George says, "What do they look like?
I think to myself, "What do they look like? Are you suddenly blind?"  I don't answer.

George continues on, "I don't think I am going to like the taste of these corduroys"

?!?!? Okay, time for me to pay a little attention and see a can of nuts in his hand. Laughingly I say, "No, those are pistachio nuts, NOT corduroys, those are your pants".

Christmas Card

I hope that everyone had a wonderful CHRISTmas with your families!

Last year I blogged about wanting things "perfect" and getting just the right family picture for our Christmas card. This year, amazingly enough we came much closer to that goal. I do think it is easier to take a picture of just the children as I can set them up as I want and snap away but I set this one up and my father-in-law took it for me. Now to work it into a blog header.

Friday Fotos

This Christmas season has been so busy that I haven't had the time to blog as I would like to. We celebrated with my in-laws this past weekend as they came to visit and see the boys in our church Christmas Program. We had a good time together and look forward to another visit in a few weeks for three birthdays. I'll post our "perfect" Christmas picture in the next few days. Here are a few pictures to share from this past weekend.

The boys received Cars p.j.'s from Grandma and Grandpa.

Our smiley baby boy at 6 weeks. His smile lights up his face and makes us all smile. He gained 5 lbs. since he came home from the hospital and now weighs 12 lb. 13 oz.

We didn't get any really good shots at the Christmas Program as it was dark but this has all of the boys on in their suits. I hope to get another one when they are dressed up but it is like pulling teeth lately to get a decent picture of everyone together. (One boy in particular does not like his picture taken -- but I won't name names.)

Cooking Class

The three oldest boys were able to take a fun cooking class last week. It was organized for our homeschool group with "Chef Paul" at a really nice restaurant in the area. They were excited about it seeing as they all love to help me out in the kitchen and haven't had as much of a chance lately. It is a series of classes and this one was making cookies and candy -- a favorite thing for children to make! There were two sessions and so my boys were in the 6 - 9 year olds.

They had so much fun and I really enjoyed myself! The class was very well organized and there were tables set up for a group of 5 or 6 children with a Chef at each station. The parents sat on the side and watched and were served coffee or water if desired. Chef Gary was at the table with my boys and interacted so well with them. The children each received a chef hat and had fun pretending to be a chef. They made sugar cookie candy canes, chocolate covered candy using a plastic bottle to squirt the chocolate over oreos and pretzels, and sand-art brownies in a jar. After the class the boys were no longer hungry for lunch as they had munched quite a bit on their creations. We are looking forward to the next class in January, breakfast foods! George is thinking he may want to be a chef when he grows up. Sounds good to me!

Rolling out sugar cookie dough to make candy canes with Chef Gary

George working on his candy cane cookie.

Re-Pete covering pretzels and cookies with chocolate.

Pete with his sand art brownie mix.

Odds and Ends

Nothing much new here. A few sick children which is the norm at this time of year. A couple of colds but thankfully not enough to keep them down. Tank has pink eye which I am trying not to let spread to the rest of the children. (Re-Pete just woke and I see he now has it too!) We are hoping that the germs clear out before Christmas. I try to send the boys out to play as often as possible so they get fresh air. My Dad has said that they weren't sick much as children but they were outside every day in winter.  Amazingly children do not seem to mind the 20 degree temps as long as they can play in the snow! (I'd rather sit by the cozy fire!) Missy Blue doesn't seem to enjoy the snow as when I sent her out last week in her new stylish snowsuit she just stayed in the place we put her, never moving. George said, "She won't move!" so he pulled her on the sled a bit but she ended up coming in and was happy to watch from the window.

Missy Blue was "Miss Destruction" yesterday. Somehow she went to bed the night before with the "stocking" her Grandma had given her for St. Nick. Needless to say when George got her out of bed in the morning her face was covered with chocolate and it was on her sheets along with many empty candy wrappers. Later that day she colored all over her hands and shirt with markers followed by pulling the roll of toilet paper covering the floor in a pile and dragging it out into the kitchen. I am hoping that was a one time episode and does not become the norm. It is a little too reminiscent of my boys!

I finally was able to update my blog for Christmas. I took a short video of Missy Blue "singing" with her Grandpa on Sunday. She loves music and will dance around and make a lot of noise when she enjoys the tune. We were at my parent's house on Sunday, as we are each week, and my Mom was playing the piano. Missy Blue started doing her version of singing and hopped on my Dad's lap to join him as he sang "We Wish You A Merry Christmas". If you hear Christmas music playing when you load my blog scroll down on the sidebar and pause it so that you can hear them.

We began Advent on Sunday night lighting our advent wreath and reading from "Jotham's Journey". We have had that book for years but this is the first time I thought that the older boys would really enjoy it. Of course they do not want to wait until the next day to find out what happens to Jotham. Neither do I for that matter -- but I can read ahead :)

We made our first simple Christmas candy last night melting hershey kisses on pretzel snaps and topping with M&M's. A bit messy but fun!

It snowed more last night as it has almost every day this week. It is beautiful and I cannot remember a recent December with this much snow this soon in the month. The children love it! I am not sure that my husband is enjoying snowblowing so often though!