December Photo Project- catch up! December 11-14, 2008

Well I've been taking pictures every day and even loading them into photobucket, but I just haven't had time to sit and write blogs for the last few days.

So I'm compiling my December 11-14th pictures into a larger post.

December 11-12, 2008

We had some rain over the weekend and I ventured out to my winter garden to see how it fared after the torrential downpours. The lettuce was a little beaten down, but it has since sprung back up and looks about ready to pick!



A neat effect on one of my broccoli plants - anxiously waiting for it to flower!


Some water beads on a broccoli leaf



My eternal green onion bucket - which I'm sad to say no longer looks this good as Maddie picked most of the longer stalks today while she was making soup! She also tormented my rosemary...


Snowflakes as the sun was setting - the only kind of snowflakes we'll get here in Florida!



December 12, 2008

Christmas Reflections at DeFuniak Springs-






December 13, 2008

Our 4th annual cookie exchange was a huge hit!



A rare picture of Mike and I together and dressed up to boot!



December 14, 2008

We went up to Crestview after church to have dinner with my grandmother. We took a few family pictures of the four of us...
Maddie sang at church in the morning - so did I - and we all dressed up in our Christmas best.


Wyatt in his suit






Mimi and Maddie:

A big boy bed - well kind of...

It's been coming - the day when Wyatt would grow out - I mean climb out - of his crib.

He's actually been climbing out for about a week - thanks to the wise instruction of his older sister!

I wasn't ready to give up the crib - although Maddie was moved to a twin-size mattress on the floor when she was not quite 18 months old.

I liked having a place to use for time outs - for me and him! And it was nice to know that he was contained and not wandering his room playing with toys when he should be napping.

But it's no longer a safe containment system and I worry about him falling and getting hurt - so this morning during the torrential down pours I took the crib apart (it's still in the hallway since it's STILL raining and we can't get out to the storage shed in the rain).

Eventually he'll have a twin-size mattress on the floor just like Maddie did - but for now he's alright on the crib one - although it's so small!

I was very pleased that he went down easily for his nap today and didn't get up to play! Tonight at bedtime I had to go in and lay down and nurse him a little bit more and when I got up the second time he told me "Night Night" and "I love you too" and stayed with his little head on the pillow - pulling his Thomas blanket up close to his face.

Part of me wants to cry (and that part wants another baby!) because it's just another way that he's not a baby anymore. There's a small part of me that was ready, but it was more out of necessity and safety I guess.

I'm going to start crying if I keep writing - because there are so many precious things about my little ones that move me to tears (of love and frustration!). I'm just amazed at them - how they grow and talk and learn so much about life from each day. I love that I am able to be a part of their world as a stay at home mom - to experience the awe and wonder that fills their little eyes.

I am humbled by my children - always.

December 9, 2008 DPP

I really didn't take any interesting pictures for the 9th, but I snapped this self portrait of me and Wyatt LATE last night after I came back from speaking at a local Bradley Method Childbirth class. He had fallen asleep while I was gone and woke up the minute I walked in the door and was quite wired after that for a good hour...

December 10, 2008 DPP

Today was a horribly rainy and soggy day. It was dark when we got up at 8 a.m. and remained dark and nasty for the rest of the day. There was thunder and lightning and crazy mommies going stir crazy with equally crazy children.

I worked in Wyatt's room today - I'll post another blog about that in a few minutes probably.

Anyways - while I worked - the kids destroyed the rest of the house and Wyatt ran around dressed as a bug/spider/monster and carried around his drum - driving me even more crazy. He was trying to compete with the torrential downpour!

And he growled at you when you looked at him - because he is after all a boy - and delights in playing the monster!

December 8, 2008 DPP

Well I never did take pictures on the 7th and took several on the 8th, but didn't post them - so better late than never, huh?

I was determined to make a nice dinner Monday night and made fresh bread - only to realize that I had NO butter! So I improvised and used heavy cream and made my own fresh butter! It's easy to do - you pour some cream in a jar - I add a little salt for taste and shake until it gets so unbelievably thick that you don't think it will do anything - and then suddenly it sloshes and forms into a hard ball and the buttermilk is drawn out of the butter. It's pretty cool!

Some pictures of the process:

Christmas Traditions for our Family

We all have them - traditions entrenched in how we celebrated the holidays in our own families. When we grow up and have families of our own we find ourselves trying to keep what is important to us and our spouse and maybe even come up with a few new ones.

I'm interested to hear what your Christmas traditions are - so I'll start by telling you the ones we have for now.

• A real tree - no matter how much extra money it costs and how many trees died in the process - I will NEVER have anything but a real tree in my house! I love the smell - the fun of going as a family to pick out our tree and everything that surrounds it. We might not be able to drive out to the mountains and cut down our own as I did in my childhood in Montana, but a real tree is a must. There is nothing like the beauty of a perfectly shaped, wonderfully smelling, and full branches ready to hang on lights and ornaments.
  
• Stockings - These were HUGE in my family! Our stockings were filled to overflowing on Christmas Eve and I remember waking up early - like at 4 a.m. and being able to get my stocking when I woke up. Mike said they did stockings, too - but they opened them after they'd opened all the presents. We're going to keep with my tradition of opening them first - because I know the day is coming when Maddie and Wyatt will be up at the crack of dawn - or perhaps before and letting them open their stockings while Mommy and Daddy are still sleeping will guarantee us a little more sleep hopefully! Stocking are big with my best friend Becca, too and every year we fill each other's stockings - this will be our third (fourth?) year of exchanging stockings and we both have a blast filling them for each other!
• Christmas Eve Service- We always went to the service on Christmas Eve in my family and it feels weird to NOT go to church that night. Mike says his family never went to church on Christmas Eve, but we've made it a tradition to go as a family - with my parents and siblings. There's something magical and spiritual about the service and I always leave in festive and reverent spirits at the same time. 
• Christmas Eve Family Time - We tend to spend Christmas Eve with family. In years past we opened presents with Mike's side of the family and then headed over to my parent's house for snacks and to hang out. One thing we always did as a family when I was a child was to open one present on Christmas Eve. We still do this - whether it's at our house or at my parent's house. 

This year we're spending the night at my parent's house so we can have Christmas morning at their house - we made them all get up early and come to our house last year. My mom still likes to have Christmas morning at her house, but I told her since we're the only ones with little kids that there must be compromises now and I want my kids to have some kind of Christmas morning at our house. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate presents from Grandmomma. Some years she's here for Christmas, but last year and this year she isn't. I want to have a special time to open her presents so I think it will alternate between Christmas Eve and Day depending on where we are for Christmas morning and if she's with us that particular year. 

• St. Nick - this is a new tradition for us that we tried this year. St. Nick comes to check on little boys and girls on Dec. 5 - if they've been good he leaves them a small present in their stocking. If they have not been good he leaves nothing and they know that they need to get their act together by Christmas.
• Santa Present - this is one thing that Mike and I kind of disagree on. He wants all the presents to be from Santa and I want just one - bigger one - to be from Santa. I'm honestly not a big fan of Santa Claus - just because I know the magic must one day come to an end and dealing with that disappointment is breaking my heart already! For now - I'm winning - they get one Santa Present - typically left in their bedroom by "santa" and then the rest of presents are from mommy, daddy and family members. 
• Cookies and Milk for Santa - carrots for the reindeer.
• Going out to see the Christmas lights. We are blessed to have lots of options around here. This year we're making a point to do the Niceville Christmas display several times, ZOOlights and traveling to DeFuniak Springs to see the beautiful Victorian houses around the circle. There are also plenty of well decorated neighborhoods.
• Sharing with those less fortunate. It goes without saying that Christmas stirs many emotions for us and I am touched every holiday season to help as many as we are financially able. This year we did a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, bought presents for a little boy who wanted jammie pants - for our local Christmas Tree Star program at the church - and I've helped out a few other friends who have needed a little help - whether it was money or groceries, etc. 
• Celebrating Jesus's birth - This probably should have come first - and not last - but we do so many things to talk about the birth of Christ with the kids - especially Maddie. We have our Little People Nativity - and play with that - explaining the different "characters." We are also doing an Angel Advent Chain - her preschool sent it home - she looks forward to it each night. We sing traditional carols and read the Christmas story as well.

So there are mine - please share yours!

Hometown Christmas

Last night I joined my girlfriends at the Niceville Hometown Christmas festival. It was mostly a fun experience. I will rant for a moment here and tell you about our two rather unfavorable experiences.

It's cold outside and they were selling hot chocolate. We bought our hot chocolates and went inside the Community Center to warm up. As it sometimes happens - one of the kids spilled their hot chocolate and thankfully wasn't burned. The liquid, however, went all over a chair.

A lady - dressed as an ELF - came over and was quite rude to my friends - Christina - bless her heart - was trying to scrub out the chocolate from the blue chair - with a 20 lb baby strapped to her chest. This lady didn't once ask if the children were ok - or if she could help. She told Christina to get out of the way and MOVE! And at the same time she worried out loud about the carpet. I was standing there when she said - you aren't even supposed to have food or drinks in here!

My response to her - Well, it's cold outside, you are selling hot chocolate and there are no signs that say no food or drink in here.

Within 10 minutes, the grumpy elf returned with large yellow - handwritten signs scrawled with "NO FOOD OR DRINK" and plastered them on the doors.

My other complaint was that there were two beautiful trees inside the community center - and my daughter and her friend were admiring them and as curious toddlers often do - they gently touched the pretty ornaments. Some man - who I guess was responsible for the displays told them that the ornaments would bite them - which is a LIE and then complained to me that no one told him there would be kids allowed in the building and that it was all breakable and normally this building was reserved for adult functions.

Well - this is a family event and posting no kids allowed signs in the craft fair just isn't friendly. It was bad enough that we were treated badly because of a little spilled drink, but to then be complained to about kids being in the building put a rather sour taste in our mouths.


Fortunately there were plenty of other options there that were much more kid-friendly and we enjoyed ourselves eventually.

The kids loved the Reindeer Games and seeing some of the Disney princesses. I loved the hot, homemade soups for $2 a large cup!