Visiting sister and nephew :)

My sister Kathleen is up for a few days from St. Augustine, Florida. It has sure been cold enough, especially today with the wind that sounds super crazy, whipping through the trees outside. It is zero degrees withOUT the wind chill here, but 70F int he daytime in Florida. How's the sister handling it? She likes the snow, misses it in fact, but not too upset that her little one does not mind hanging out INside for most of the day. It has been REALLY cold, but you know(!), I really don't mind it even a little bit! Call me strange, not crazy, ok? :)
Here's Sharon (pronounced shah-ROAN) readying to leave for the night, asking to borrow the two plastic swords until tomorrow. He ended up waking up my dad bright and early by banging the swords on the metal footboard of my dad's bed. "Hell-O! Good morning! Wake up, Grandpa!!" He is just SO adorable!
Nice hat, Kathleen!

I tried to upload a movie of the boys (my three and Sharon) about a dozen times without any luck. Perhaps I'll try again, but here's what I got for now. Heh.

Christmas morning pics (I'm not done with this holiday yet!)

It was a great Christmas. I will not mention the fact that I arrived home late from work nearly two hours later than I should have...

Papa (aka my dad) came to visit in the evening. Here's the G man pretending to pull the pin on a grenade (So Dan's WWI and WWII lessons might be too detailed... d'ya think?)
Here's Gavin with his requested fake blood. He got a "medic kit" to go along with as well. Gotta love the expression of pain as he reaches the first aid kit *just* in time. lol
A self pic. I sure look tired. I had been up for 'only' twenty-nine hours at this point... By the time I was asleep it was after 9pm that night. But I had since received a NEW camera!! Oh the joy of a short delay between photos!! Thank you, my awesome Dan and boys!!
So we got lots of books. And GOOD books too! One of which is _The Dangerous Book for Boys_ (excellent, excellent). Others are _Sneakier Things to Do with Household Items_, also _Sneakiest Things..._ and _Backyard Ballisitics_ (potato gun, fire kite or tennis ball ballista anyone?!! Such fun planned for the Springtime!) Here's Dan reading one of the many Order of the Stick books we got. We now have a complete collection. But I think two (or even three) copies of each book would be better, as the fighting over who is reading which one, I cannot keep straight whatsoever...
The SamSamPjamPjam amongst all the wrappings! He appears to be happy with the box of doggy treats from my mom in law, eh? See, he's smiling!
Here's Gavin with his plastic army men set. It has airplanes, a helicopter, bunkers... He just loves it!
Ok here's the twins when they jsut opened their (our) OotS books.
Not too bad looking of a crew for Christmas morning, eh?!

Christmas eve gathering report :)

To start, here's a pic of me and my youngest, Gavin.
And next is a photo one of my awesome sister in laws, Holly.
And here is her husband and Dan's oldest brother, Mark, who I think excels at making faces for the camera. (no, really, I don't think I have a picture of him *without* making a face! :)
And now my Connorbug! Look at how long his blond locks are getting...Rael is munching on gummy candy before dinner. Green, white and clear gummy rings -- what better appetizer for Christmas, eh? :)
And the little man Gavin eating candy before dinner as well...
I could not get a good picture of Hannah -- she would cannily turn away from the camera just in time EVERY time! I got some very nice pictures of her gorgeous hair, though... :)
Here are they guys, Dan and Pete, in the TV room. You could probably substitute this photo for any Superbowl, Thanksgiving or Easter gathering. lol We're so lucky to have so many here, so often, able to gather together...!
And now here's my father in law and nephew, Ethan. Ethan, at the age of 17, has already flown solo in an airplane. Go, Ethan!
My mom in law, Claudette, and my dad at the dessert bar. There was apple, tiramisu. Yummm, tiramisu, thank you, Claudette!
And another picture of Hannah's shiny long hair. She was very good at dodging the camera!But not goo enough ;) My perseverance paid off! :)
Shortly after the thoroughly enjoyable family gathering and gift exchange, I had to work at 11pm, that is, on Christmas eve. This tradition is one that is as looked forward to as Christmas morning to me and mine. It was just lovely seeing everyone enjoying themselves, eating all the delicious food until we rolled out the door for home.

The day's weather was frightful indeed: the rain made everything slick with an inch of ice. I wish I had not cleared the sidewalk of the last bit of snow, let me tell ya, as at least that last bit would have given some sort of traction, instead of the ice covered concrete as slippery as heck. Well, I was quite worried that it would be a very busy evening, as a result, with all the falls and mvas, that also result...

So there were more than a few patients from falls, but that was a result of imbibing too much of the liquid holiday cheer, not form the weather. I was up all night, either way, and my shift-relief came in an hour late, so I arrived home by 1pm.

Amazingly, my kids STILL in their bedroom when I arrived home. Upon their awakening (Dan gave them breakfast, they went to the potty), they remained out of sight of the living room -- so they had not seen any gifts upn my so-late-arrival yet!

They "wanted to wait until I got home." How so very sweet and thoughtful is that?! You're probably tired how hearing just how awesomely thoughtful I think my kids are... Oh, tough patooties, then, you'll probably hear lots more before long :D

I hope you enjoyed your holiday. I hope it was happy!
xo

Happy Christmas eve!

Sending lots of love and hugs your way for the holiday!

xo Merry Christmas!! :)

The weather outside is frightful...

but the smell inside is delightful! Well, really the smell of cookies is delightful. It's too bad that right now I can no longer smell baking cookies anymore. Can't smell anything baking, cooking, anything like that. I have to point that out, as I rarely swell upon the negative... So much for the holiday spirit! I have yet to say bah or humbug yet, really ever :)

So here's what is completed so far:
Clockwise from top left: coconut shortbread, 5-ingredient-cake box cookies, peanut butter chocolate swirls, orange wheat cookies, chocolate chip bars.
Chocolates. Some are mint, some are white, some have peanut butter filling, most are dark chocollate!
Last is a pretzel rod dipped in chocolate and then rolled in crushed peppermint sticks. On the coling racks are the tahini thins. These will be quite delicious with tea.

So I *just* turned off my oven today. I turned it on at 10am, and it is currently 8:30pm. Even if you subtract the hour that it was used for dinner and not cookie baking, you might eaily agree that that is still many hours of cookie baking, eh?

Before today, I only spent a few hours in the afternoon for a couple days, planning and mixing. I just love the "new" (to me, anyway) cookie book found by my mom in law at the last library book sale. The book has SO many interesting recipes. And lots of great mix-now-chill-in-the-fridge-and-bake-later type cookies. I am usually more on the ball, but recent surgery, you know...

I even baked through a couple visits of family stopping, as well as a couple of lengthy phone calls from people not seen too recently. My brother and sister in law stopped by to tell me that Dan is to be at their house tomorrow evening for induction of their son to the ripe ole age of 21, a monumental birthday party for my nephew. Yep, I am now officially middle aged -- um, no, I'm not. You bite your tongue! lol Hey, if you have a nephew that is old enough, you have to be, right?
Anyway, Mark tasted the still-warm coconut shortbread, but they were not yet powdered with sugar, a fact that I nearly forgot altogether since I was planning to wait to powder them until just before they are packaged. I learned that my sister in law does not like coconut at all. Good to know. More for someone else, I guess :) I think they still tasted pretty good. It *is* shortbread after all! Butter, sugar, flour, still warm from the oven. Mm...

After lunch, my cousin came over with her two boys. But it was too cold for the kids to be outside for too long - hovering above zero degrees today! I guess we should count ourselves lucky for the quiet inside during the hour they were outdoors. Of course, warm cookies were ready and waiting upon their return!

At this point, I was finally done with The List (I am referring to Christmas cookies and candy) and the kitchen was mostly cleaned up already, and not wanting to break stride, we decided to add a batch of tahini cookies for after dinner dessert :) It's all good, really. This batch, at least, the kids and husband get to have at it, unlike the previous thirteen batches! What a mean mommy I am! Grr.

See what you miss not living close by?

More white stuff

Yesterday's snow was beautiful with the soft large flakes slowly falling down, even if it started falling *before* yesterday and didn't really stop at all yesterday...

Well, today's winter storm warning has the interstate down to one lane from three. There's already another five inches out there upon my awakening this morning. We're slated to get at least fourteen today! And the weather report includes fog. Yes, snow and fog! Eh? So I am canceling my plans to go to a holiday pot luck knitters gathering near Albany today. And, no, I still don't knit, but am currently nalbinding a small doggy coat. (It's a Viking craft.) I was looking forward to socializing, but if it costs me my car or life to get there... forget it! I'll just stay home and finish the Christmas cookies that I am behind on doing since my surgery. Last night I was up nearly all night with the itchy itchy itchiness of my sutures. Ugh! It's driving me CRAZY!! But at least it's healing! yay :)

But I digress, once again. Back to the snow. Dan informs me that those lovely snow banks in the photo yesterday were actually smaller than originally shoveled; Apparently the snow piles were too tall even for the diligence of my wonderfully helpful guys, so Dan pushed much of the snow off the tops and into the yard so my awesome ten-year-olds could continue to shovel!

Now that reminds me of when I lived in Lake Placid. If you are not aware, Lake Placid is in the mountains. The entire town is built on a large hill, except the tourist trap outlets and hotels along picturesque Mirror Lake. The street I lived on was on the backside of the largest hill in Lake Placid; it was a BIG hill too. It was only one-way in the winter, and that was up only, if it was open at all. When it was closed, it was a great sledding hill, as you could hear whilst still in the house the kids shrieking with delight as they flew past down the hill on the road. I would like to add that in the summer, when there was no snow, it was NOT a good place to learn to roller blade either.
When we moved into the house in mid-May it SNOWED. I was running around covering up all my lovely wood antique furniture with towels to protect it. Did you hear it was May?! I kid you not! Well, back to the huge snow banks. The yard was graded so it was flat, and so was the driveway, except there was at least twelve feet difference in height between the two. There was a staircase and a half to climb to get to the front porch from the driveway. We would throw the snow up up up into the yard since there was no place else to put it. Phew! I am exhausted just thinking about it ;) It was a very nice small house, and was one of the few houses on that street to have an actual yard. And the lovely alpine-ness of the area allowed all the great fuzzy green green moss to grow. You know, the kind that grows only so high, but spreads everywhere :) No need to mow during the incredibly short growing season (what is that? three months? lol).

The 13 inch snowman snow measuring stick that Gavin brought home from preschool last year would be quite buried out there in the yard today. Similar to my car keys that I lost in the driveway the day before yesterday... I am not holding my breath or anything, but I really hope I will find them in the Spring!! :)

Please excuse while I beam :)

So the adults in this household have been a bit "laid up" lately. It has been just a couple few weeks now...

On a different note, do you see the snow we received continuously over the past forty-eight hours?
Those snow banks aren't too small, eh? That fence is six feet tall and that is our minivan parked in the parking lot next to our house, mostly hidden by a similar snow bank. Some snow! And I have had nothing so far to do with the creation of these snow banks. And neither did Dan. How did they get that way, you ask? Well, let me tell you, please! My absolutely awesome children, Connor and Rael, made them! The past four days has seen them outside, shoveling in the near zero degree weather, shoveling, shoveling, shoveling. And, so far, amazingly, they are uncomplaining and diligent. Ok, excuse me - Oh my goodness, what wonderfully helpful children I have!! Ahem- pardon me, thank you for listening.
(Just so you don't think they are slaves or anything: Truly, the snow is fresh, light and fluffy. Gavin calls it sugar, which is actually quite heavier than the snow :) And the twins do not spend ore than a couple hours actually shoveling each day. And truth be told, they are pretty nearly there in moaning about it.)

Next is my snow-loving puppy, Samsam. He just *prances* in the snow. He reminds me of Snoopy with his happy dance!!
Lastly is a picture taken by the Gavinator of Sam rooting his nose around in the snow. You know, they both really love the cold weather!! It's too bad they have some form of sibling rivalry, I think.
Oh boy, we're going to have a very beautiful, white Christmas! I can only wonder what the snow situation is upstate, where we used to live...

Tree decorating at the In-Laws

Yesterday we were invited to Dan's parents house for dinner (yum), decorating and doughnuts! I sat a lot, watching them decorate, taking pictures...

For some reason, Gavin liked this ornament of a cat with wheels. OR he just wanted a picture of him with his mouth wide open...
Rael is having fun while he decorates the upper part of the tree.
And Connor had fun too!
Even the 'ole man' got involved for a few ornaments. Then the Boston creme doughnuts called too loudly for him to ignore...
Gavin just *loved* this dancing nutcracker ornament! It is the kind that you pull the string and the legs and arms bounce upwards. He thought it was just so funny! :)
I LOVE YOU!!! :) -- that's a sneak message from my Rael and I dare not delete it :)
And here's Missy, my in-law's little doggy dressed to look like a reindeer. She really does not like it, but she looks SO adorable. This is probably the only time she'll wear it. Maybe for a walk or two, if Tom can keep it on her head!
And then the doughnuts. We had these with hot chocolate and lots of mini marshmallows. Talk about sugar! But it is one of the nice Christmas traditions we have...
Here is a photo of Tom too. He was there, too :)

Do you have any fun holiday traditions?

Radiology Christmas Party!

Each year the radiologists invite everyone to Longfellow's for an evening of coworker camaraderie and really really yummy food. Nearly every single person there are people that I see either at the Christmas party OR at the hospital summer picnic. And this past summer I did not get to the picnic...

These are the few people that I actually see each time I am at work :) I am lucky that there is SUCH an *awesome* crew on the weekends!!

Congratulations, Hannah and Peter!

Today was a great day. Gavin kept saying it over and over and over.