Santa Cookies and Premeditated Caninicide, Almost

Before...


And after!




Some friends back in AZ had a cookie exchange and posted pictures on facebook. This was one of the recipes I fell in love with (the little Santa faces are soooo cute!). So in a moment of domesticity I baked and decorated. And decorated and decorated and decorated. I seriously underestimated the time it would take to make these puppies. But it was worth it, I still love them! There are about 40 cookies, so I have to be sparing upon distribution. Last night I spent another hour or two assembling teacher gifts to be taken to school tomorrow. Today, our dog Ivy (yes, the cute snowball-laden one from the last post) got up on the table and ate three of the teacher gifts and consumed at least 3 of said Santa cookies.


The evidence speaks for itself.



"Please forgive me, won't you?"
The jury is still out on that one...

S N O W !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a great snowstorm today. It began this morning around 6:30 with lots of wind. By the time Joe and I got up (9:30ish...) the world was covered in a beautiful white blanket. By 10 all five kids were outside bundled from head to toe in snow gear, throwing snowballs and having a blast. Hannah was in by 10:10. The rest stayed out until noon or so. Even Ivy joined in! Her fur on her feet gathered up snowballs as she played, so we gave her a warm bath when she came in. (spoiled little dog) :)

Festivities, Merriment, and the need for a Maid

Happy December! I am really getting behind in my blogging, and it certainly isn't due †o lack of activity around here. The holidays have swept us up like a tailwind and are carrying us along. Fortunately, I love the chaos of the holidays as long as it is punctuated by stillness. Still waiting for the stillness...

So far this season, we have had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner hosted by Steph, decorated our tree (which, when purchased for our condo in '94 seemed so big, now seems almost Charlie-Brownesque) put up the lights, played in the snow (we've not had much, but I think God is easing us into the Utah winter- I'm not sure we own a shovel yet), spent a day at PCMC while Hannah had an endoscopy, attended the Festival of Trees, attended (and Brad, Lindsay and Nathan participated in) a live Nativity production called Journey to Bethlehem hosted by our church, scant amounts of shopping, and spent many an evening warming our toes by the fire. Still to come: an evening with the Tabernacle choir, caroling with our neighbors, LCA faculty Christmas Party, Zoolights, Elementary Christmas Program, Christmas Eve dinner and fun with family, hosted by the Cross Clan and HOPEFULLY, some good skiing.

We also were glad to have my friend Jen and her family here for a week. They are hoping to move up here soon, and we hope they will! They stayed in Park City so we spent a day up there. It started to snow a bit on the way up, but cleared up and was beautiful. The kids swam in the indoor pool and we ladies (CR and Amy and their kids came, too) lunched out. (Note: eat a big snack before lunch in Park City. Food is expensive and very small. Paid $12 for lunch. Drank water. Was still hungry. Helped kids polish off cheap snacks back in Jen's room) The guys went to see Quantum of Solace, and gave it pretty good reviews. Said no fun gadgets, though, which truthfully are my favorite part of Bond movies.

I hope I'll get better at blogging regularly. Teaching hs kids really is worth reporting- some crazy things happen! I feel like I'm managing two families, one with 5 kids and another with 80. Some days I wonder what the heck I'm doing, but today was the kind of day where I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

Results from Hannah's endoscopy: eosinophils in the distal portion of esophagus, bad. No signs anywhere else (stomach, duodenum, intestines), good. No reason for flare-up, confusing. Medicines to keep flare-up from returning, expensive. Hearing Hannah remind us to give her said meds 3x/day, hilarious. Opinion of new GI Dr., very good. Opinion of PCMC, excellent.

Oh, and I won't post pics of my house, but the title of this post gives you an inclination of its state right now. Where are the Merry Maids when you need them?

I'm having trouble getting the slideshow to embed. Will post pictures later.