Christmas 2013

Well our Christmas started just after the 25th officially arrived when Kari started walking down the stairs. I thought I heard something and started snapping my fingers to Holly as a "stop what you're doing, she's about to ruin..."

As I intercepted her halfway down the stairs, Kari asked if Santa had visited yet. She didn't seem to be totally awake so I tried to get her back into bed as fast as possible and let her know Santa wouldn't be able to arrive until all of us were fast asleep.

Just 6 hours later, Kari was back awake and in our room asking to get the day started. We got her to hang on for another 90 minutes until Bryce awoke. Before we came downstairs "officially" I asked Kari about her first attempt at seeing if Santa visited. She looked blankly at both of her parents and literally didn't remember getting out of bed at all. I think we officially have ourselves a sleepwalker!

The traditional Christmas Eve birthday cake for Baby Jesus.  This year's choice of frosting color: carrot cake.  I have no idea why.

 And the traditional Christmas morning picture on the steps.

So at 8:15 it was time to get the much anticipated madness started. Both kids were thrilled to see that Santa not only brought them plenty of gifts, but also ate two of the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies they made, and the healthy clementines in a bowl.

The next 90 minutes was a blur. Santa dropped off boxes that included a Karaoke machine, flip car, road grater, rubber band loom, nerf plane on a gun, among others.

Hair stylist Kari working on her first client.  

Today was a fun day with just the kids. Grandparents are either in other states or coming to see us through next week. we hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a wonderful time with your families.

This Year's Homemade Gift

This year's homemade Christmas gift got its start all the way back in August!  I had seen several articles on making your own vanilla and thought it was worth a try.  Plus, two summers ago one of the labs in my building was getting cleaned out for a remodel and boxes of amber bottles were up for grabs.  (Don't worry, the bottles went through the dishwasher twice.)

I was surprised to learn that pure vanilla extract is nothing more than vanilla beans, cheap vodka and time.  This is definitely not a project to start a week before Christmas!

This also made a perfect little project for Kari and I to work on together.  I split the beans and she dropped them in the bottle.  The embarrassing part now is when Kari publicly declares the need for more vodka whenever we're at the grocery store.

 I found the label printable here.

This is such an easy project I plan to make my own vanilla from here forward.  And, considering how much vanilla we go through in our house between granola and oatmeal pancakes, this actually should be a cost savings.

Staying Warm

It's hard to believe that it's already been a week since Kari, Grandmo and I partook in a gingerbread...ahem, graham cracker house class over at the park district.  We had so much fun!

The woman "teaching" the class had been doing this for 20 years and probably had 20 years worth of candy too.  One family there had been doing this with their kids for the last 10 years.  What a great family tradition!  I expect we'll be back again!

We've been having a lot of fires in the fireplace lately.  The other afternoon Kari and Bryce made their own campfire.