Holiday Baking

In between all the craziness of my surgery, traveling to Michigan for Thanksgiving, having my sister Kendra's family visit and the Donadieu family visit I managed to squeeze in some holiday baking on the one free weekend in between visitors. This is probably the only time of year you will see me bake, but it has come to be an activity I really enjoy doing with my family. Each year Xavier does more and more of it with me and I look forward to the day when Gavin can participate as well. (Although, both of my boys had their fair share of M&M's during the baking marathon)

Xavier was my sous chef. He helped frost and put the embellishments on the treats.

Xavier in action!

GOTCHA!

Meanwhile, Gavin kept getting anything and everything out of our pantry. While I was in the middle of making the dough Gavin made his own fun. He found a container of cereal and got comfortable on the couch to enjoy his late night snack of Rice Krispies. I didn't take a close up of the Rice Krispies blanket all over my couch.

The final plates. We made some brownies, Rice Krispies treats shaped in Christmas shapes like stars, stockings, snowmen, and candy canes, and our new favorite...Santa Surprise Cookies. I think this is my new go-to Christmas cookie. It has a mini snickers in the center and is dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with melted Dove dark chocolate. Delish!

I made 10 plates for friends and neighbors. The fun part was delivering them to everyone as a family. Xavier had a blast ringing the doorbells and surprising everyone with our cookies.

Happy baking and tasting your holiday treats wherever you are.

Year of the Gingerbread

This year seems to be the year of the Gingerbread. We have done a lot of gingerbread house-making activities. Xavier's school had a parent and child nativity gingerbread house making activity. I was able to leave Gavin home with my sister and spend some one on one time with X-man.

We sat with our friends Tina and Darius. Darius was in Xavier's class last year and is in the upstairs class this year. It was nice to be able to do this activity with him since Xavier doesn't see Darius as much this year.

Teddy Grahams posed as our baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and Wise Men.

A Night in Bethlehem

Our ward's Christmas party theme was "A Night in Bethlehem". Even though Santa wasn't really a part of the story that took place in Bethlehem the kids were able to sit on Santa's lap before the rest of the evening's program began. My sister Kendra and her family drove up from Michigan and arrived in time to join the fun.

Ava, Xavier's cousin was excited and a little timid at first, to see Santa.

After Gavin warmed up to Santa, we were able to get a family shot. This gentleman has been the ward's Santa Claus for many many years. He even was a Santa at a mall in our area for a long time. He makes a wonderful Santa!

Our ward had a delicious dinner and Tim, Xavier, and I had the honor of playing the roles of Mary, Joseph, and the donkey for the Nativity story.

The angel! She was perfect!

The Shepherds. The 'stache is classic.

Our little family, minus Gavin. We were the lucky family chosen because Gavin was the youngest child in the ward. However, since Gavin has outgrown the "baby" stage and is into the high energy, not-so-cooperative stage, we had to leave him in the nursery with one of the young women while we acted out our roles.

We still love you Gavin! He makes a fantastic donkey!

Gingerbread House Party

I've always wanted to host a gingerbread house making party. This year I decided to go for it. The night before the party I put together all of the graham cracker gingerbread houses. I attempted to use frosting to get the houses to stay, but it was not working all that well for me and it was going to take forever considering I had to make 8. I found a blog where the mom glue-gunned the houses together. So that's what I did. I know it sounds kind of crazy, but it did the job. The kids weren't able to eat the houses, but they could eat everything they put on it.

Xavier and his friends got their own bowl of candy to decorate their houses.

Collin and Gavin are just a couple months apart. They have a good time following each other around trying to keep up with the big kids.

This was the before picture, but I didn't get an after picture. Gavin pretty much sat next to Hunter the entire time we decorated the houses and ate his bowl of candy. Just picture a rainbow of colors running down the corners of his mouth. Heavenly.

Kohlmann. He is an Iron Man gingerbread making machine!

Xavier is a Jedi Knight. At least that's what he told me. From the looks of his costume, he's right- a Knight hat and a Jedi robe.

Martin. Trying to stay warm with his hat.

Lindsay and Baxter! Great smiles!

Nicholas. This kid has more energy than Xavier. I didn't think that was possible. Seeing Xavier and Nicholas together is a hoot.

T.J., Gina (mommy) and Natalie

Cutest kiddos ever!

Natalie can sure hold her own with all these crazy boys around. We had a ball and it was so fun to have a house full of rambunctious boys + Natalie and all the mommies. It's so fun to see how each one of them has their own little personality and how they all have a great time playing together.

My first Gingerbread house party was a hit. Next year maybe I'll have everyone build and design their own house/castle/cottage/cave/shack/mansion for a little more creative spin.

Zip, Zip, and Away

This story has been long overdue, but I have to write about it before it's too late. Well, it is too late, but I still have to document our first pet experience.

It all began when Tim, as the Young Men's President, was in charge of hosting their combined YM/YW activity. The activity? An etiquette dinner. Tim planned a nice dinner menu and simple decorations that included four glass bowls filled with water, neon tetra, and rose petals. I asked Tim what his plan was for the fish after the dinner. He said he thought they'd be a great first pet for Xavier. Ha! Well, I guess my hope to avoid the whole pet phase was short lived. But I guess it's easier than taking care of a dog. So I went along with this plan.

The fish is in the center of the bowl.

(As a side note: Tim and a couple young men coordinated everything. Tim did a pretty good job on this activity don't you think? I didn't know he had it in him being a guy and all. This is usually a female's forte.)

Xavier was thrilled to finally get a pet after many conversations begging for a dog or some kind of pet. He named his fish Izzy, Blitzwing, Bombshell, and Jack. We had the fish for about a week before we had to leave for Michigan. Tim decided to clean their water the night before we left town to make sure they'd be okay while we were gone. Within minutes of changing the water all of them went belly up. Oops! I think he shocked them to death. We didn't mention it to Xavier with the intent of replacing the fish when we got home from our trip. It was great timing in the sense that we didn't have to figure out what to do with the fish while we were gone, but unfortunate because we knew if Xavier found out it would upset him.

All was good until the second day we returned from our vacation. I was cooking dinner and Xavier was sitting on the counter keeping me company. The bowl usually sat on the counter near where I cook. Xavier glanced over in the spot where the bowl used to be and asked where his fish were. I was totally caught off guard and therefore did not think of a better answer than "Oh, bud, they died. I'm so sorry." Then I instantly witnessed my son's face completely crumble into despair. The tears just started coming down his face and all he could do was cry. I was not expecting him to have become so attached to these little fish. So, as soon as daddy got home, we took Xavier to the pet store to pick out a new fish. He picked a goldfish. After seeing his forlorn face for two hours, his smile returned and his spirits were once again cheerful. He decided to name his goldfish Zip! All is good in the world once more.

Zip was a great fish! The next morning as I was getting ready, Xavier said "Mom, I'm not going to tell you about the fish food. But I will tell you Zip is fine!" That's code for "Mom, you better check on Zip." I followed X into his room to find Zip swimming in a cloud of fish food. Lesson #1...mommy keeps the fish food and we feed him together. Fish was fed, bowl was emptied and replaced with clean water, and Zip was once again a happy camper.

Zip has been a fine addition to our family. Gavin loves watching Zip swim around his bowl and Xavier loves having some company in his room especially at night.

Well, you might think this story is over, but it is not. It gets even better. The Donadieu Family came to visit for two weeks over Christmas break. We were so excited to have their company. A couple days after Christmas Noah was putting the boys to bed. I was folding laundry and I remembered I hadn't fed Zip that day. I came upstairs to find Noah and Tim leaving the house. I was a bit perplexed. It wasn't basketball night and it wasn't guys night out. Kendra informed me that when Tim went to say goodnight to Xavier he noticed Zip floating at the top of his bowl. Yikes! Not again! Thankfully Noah and Tim saved the day by getting a new goldfish while the boys were sleeping. However, the goldfish was noticeably smaller than the original Zip. We hoped that this would slide by Xavier's keen little eyes. The next morning Xavier came down the stairs, looked at the fish bowl, and exclaimed, "Wow! My fish shrunk!" Phew. Crazy how that happens sometimes. Luckily he didn't take his logic a step further.

BUT the next day we found Zip number 2 floating at the top of his bowl. What the?????

Tim and Noah once again went on a pet store fish hunt. The original pet store informed us that the entire batch of fish had some bacterial infection and were dying rather quickly. So Tim and Noah went to 3 other stores only to find fish in a similar state. This time they didn't come home with a fish.

We were hoping X wouldn't notice until we could somehow find a decent goldfish. We put the empty bowl in our room hoping that out of sight would be out of mind for a couple days. Well, the evidence was discovered and all Tim said was that Zip got sick so we had to take him back to the pet store. We assured X that we would get a new fish.

And that is how the story went. Disaster averted for a fourth time and Xavier is at peace that he will be getting a new fish. Unfortunately I had intentions of taking a picture of X with Zip, but didn't get around to it before his departure from this world. I will be sure to post a picture of his new fish when it arrives.

Pre school Christmas program

Xavier was in his first Christmas program at school this year. He was so excited to be a Wise Man. He was happy to be able to have his two friends as his counterparts- Bryce and Joshua. During the first part of the program the boys sat on the very last bench in the meetinghouse and did a pretty good job of sitting still and waiting for their turn to see baby Jesus.

As the 3 Wise Men walked up to Mary and Joseph and the baby I couldn't help but smile with joy. I'm sure that is the same feeling the Wise Men had so long ago when they met Jesus for the first time, complete and utter joy. At that moment I had a swelling of gratitude in my heart for the wonderful person Mary was to bring our Savior into this world. Grateful that Joseph supported her every step of the way.

I love Christmastime because it is always a time to reflect. Reflect on the past year, reflect on years past, reflect on the relationships in my life both new and old, reflect on the future, reflect on lessons learned, reflect on personal growth, reflect on family moments, and most importantly on the miracles in life and what the Savior has allowed the world of souls to choose for themselves....to follow Him and make the world a better place or the alternative. I am grateful for the choice I have made and I hope I can persuade my children to do the same.

Xavier did such a wonderful job singing all the songs loud for all to hear. He is my music man and has such a sweet voice. He fills our home with a melody that doesn't get old no matter how many times you hear it.

Cinderella's Castle

My sister Kendra and her family came to visit for about 5 days, so we fit in a few Christmas activities while they were here. One of them was visiting Cinderella's Castle. I had heard about this place last year, but we didn't get around to seeing it. This year, I thought it a great opportunity to take my sis along for the ride. It was incredible!

This is someone's house.

We met the couple who owns the home. The wife passes out candy canes to all the visitors and the couple talks to everyone that comes to see their wonderful lights. As I spoke to the husband he told me that he has 6 grandchildren and they have been doing this light theme for 6 years now. It takes them 6 weeks to get all the lights up starting in late October. Wow! They were such a nice couple and they do it just to make others happy.

All they ask is that you donate money or nonperishable food that they will donate to the food bank.

Cindrella's Carriage

Beauty and the Beast

Snow White

They also had Aerial, Sleeping Beauty, Cars, and the Grinch. Xavier and Ava discovered the little playhouse in their backyard that was all lit up and ready to be played in. Xavier hugged the mini Christmas tree inside the playhouse and said "I love you!"

The kids had such a good time they didn't want to leave. As we drove away, Xavier said, "Mommy I'm sad. I didn't want to leave Christmasland".

It struck me that as I looked at those lights I was in awe. But then I thought about it from Xavier's point of view and I'm sure it was ten times as grand and beautiful in his little world. Then I smiled because he will remember "Christmasland" for years to come. It's a wonderful feeling to create happy memories for my children.

CHRISTmas

A couple nights ago during our family scripture study we were reading a passage in Jacob where it talks about not seeking for things of the world, but seeking after the kingdom of God. We discussed what that meant with Xavier. We talked about how things like toys are nice to have, but they are not as important as helping others and trying to be like our Savior. Tim asked Xavier what he thought he could do to help others. He came up with the idea that he would take all the money from his piggy bank and get food for people who don't have food to eat.

This teaching moment also happened to correspond with a discussion Tim and I had one night about giving a generous fast offering and what we felt in "dollars" that meant for our family. Reflecting on both of these discussions Tim and I learned a greater lesson from Xavier. It was so wonderful to see how Xavier was willing to give all that he had (all the money in his piggy bank) to help others in need. I began to think about how willing I am to help others when asked or when prompted. Do I complain when I serve? Do I see it as a burden or inconvenience? Or Do I see it as an opportunity to practice charity and develop Christlike qualities? This definitely was a moment for me to reflect on where my heart is when I serve and what I am willing to give up to help someone else.

It is this time of year that I find myself craving deeper feelings of peace, joy, love and charity amongst the hustle and bustle of the holiday madness. I'm grateful that Xavier has helped me to remember what this season is all about. It is a time to celebrate Christ and what He teaches us about charity.