More Christmas Fun

While picking up some chocolate chips last week, I happened across a bag of Andes Crème de Menthe baking chips! I love the Andes mints, so the possibilities of mint flavored cookies started spinning around in my head. I wanted a chocolate cookie, so I used my sister's Reindeer Patties recipe.

Saturday morning, David & I gave it a try. Since the mint chips had the green layer, I thought about calling them Grasshopper Patties, but I think we'll just say our reindeer have been eating grasshoppers! David, as always, enjoyed in his "helper" role.

Saturday afternoon, David & I helped Grandpa decorate his golf cart for the GV Christmas Parade. David thought it was pretty neat after dark. If you look closely, you can see Grandpa to the left side of the picture, grinning as he watched his littlest grandson.

Aunt Sissy said she enjoys seeing what ends up in our nativity scene. Today, a small airplane of pirates landed to honor the newborn King.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Today was our annual visit to Santa! David looks so big in this year's picture - 3 1/2 years old!


Elizabeth never would smile, but she didn't cry, either, so I consider this a good first visit to Santa's lap at a few days shy of 11 months old!


Here are their close-ups. Santa asked David what he wanted. David replied, "A Christmas card."

The first ever together-in-Santa's-lap shot (of my kids, at least!):

And this Mom thinks this is the BEST picture with Santa of all time:

Cousin Will even got in on the action... after some hefty persuasion from his friend Haden and from Santa himself! I was surprised by how persistent Santa was! Looks like Will might get more than a lump of coal after all!

Wanna see how David has grown? Check out his previous Santa pictures:

2006

2005

2004 (is a Polaroid in his baby album)

Angel Tree Plug

I grew up helping my Mom pick out presents for our Salvation Army Angel Tree child each Christmas. It's something that we look forward to doing each year. This year, David & I helped Grandma pick out her gifts, gifts for her Sunday School class, and gifts for our own angel. I hope this will be just one way that we can teach our kids to have a giving spirit.

Since I have your audience, I also wanted to plug the Prison Fellowship Angel Tree. This is another very worthy program: reaching out to the children of inmates and their families with the love of Christ. I didn't have access to a tree with angels on it this year, but found that you can give through the mail or online to help the ministry cover expenses and provide gifts for any child whose angel might not have been picked up. They even have an arrangement with Amazon.com to do your gift shopping online! Just a reminder, though, Christmas donations need to be made by December 17!

Wordless Wednesday: Reflecting Upon Christmas

For more Wordless:

Wordless Wednesday

5 Minutes for Mom

Another Great Prize!

5 Minutes for Mom is at it again with another great giveaway! This time they're partnering with Parents Magazine for a great prize package, sure to be the hit of Christmas. Click on over to check it out!

Best Friend Visit

This weekend we had a wonderful, but all too short, visit from my best friend and her family.

Sunday night we took them to walk through the Christmas lights at the Whistle Stop Christmas. The wind had shifted shortly before evening, so it was very cold and windy to be walking around, but the lights were great & the kids had a ball!

Have you ever tried to pose 4 cold kids, age 3 & under, inside a giant Christmas wreath? It's not the easiest thing in the world to do!

I wore Elizabeth in a carrier, wrapped in a blanket, under my jacket and David wore both of his hoods up!

Monday morning the kids enjoyed playing together at the house.

The girls enjoyed Tort, chasing him around, screaming, "Kitty!"

We got a BFF & kids shot, which I think qualifies this short visit as SUKA '07!

Aren't her girls beautiful? I LOVE their little dog ears!

Next summer we'll go visit them on the coast. I can hardly wait...

Tiny Talk Tuesday

We had some friends visit this weekend. Here they are in the chair Sarina and David are trying to squish Lavery!

David was laying on the couch one afternoon with his rump touching the plastic tub where he keeps his cars, when he tooted. (imagine the noise vibrating the plastic)
Mom: Was that you?
David, grinning: No, it was the cat. It was the cat purring.

While the girls were visiting, David chased them around the house trying to hug them saying, "I love you!"

After the company left, I asked David if he had fun playing with Sarina & Lavery. He replied, "Can say hello again?"

The weekend + Monday must have really worn him out, because he slept until 9:15 AM today!
Dad: You almost slept 'til yesterday!
Mom: Don't confuse him!
David: No cookies for Dad!

When looking at the pictures of our weekend, David said, "Can go see Lavery & Sarina again?" I promised we'd go see them this summer, which I guess was more of a comfort to me than him!

We've been playing with our Little People nativity set. Our Christmas question of the week is
Mom: What did the wise men bring to Baby Jesus?
David: The wise men bring to Baby Jesus presents!

See who else is talking over at Not Before 7. Mary is hosting a contest for Tiny Talkers this month, so join in her linky if you've got Tiny Talkers at your house! And I'll try to get our weekend pictures up this evening.

One more thing: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNCLE GLENN!

500!!! and the Tea

This is my 500th post!

I need to have some type of hooplah to celebrate, but I couldn't think of anything. Too much cookies & Tea going on this week, I guess. But the best thing of all, my best friend is coming to visit tomorrow!!! And boy do I need some time with my best friend! That will be my hooplah! Watch for pictures to be posted on Monday or Tuesday.

Want to take a little trip down memory lane to see just where this blog started? Click here to see our very first blogged pictures of David and the Christmas season two years ago! Just look how little he was!

Now on to today! It was the Ladies Christmas Tea at Grandma's church. Here I am with my Momma (aka Grandma), and my Sister-in-Law. Don't we look festive?! Look how shiny Lynne is!!!

Ladies getting together at a Baptist church = good food! Check out that cheesecake! Mmmm... it was wonderful! The food courses were served on clear plastic plates, sat upon our pretty place settings at each table. Here, you can see Grandmama's beautiful china showing behind the cheesecake. Click on yesterday's picture to see the entire table setting.

The fellowship hall was filled to capacity. I think I heard there were around 200 ladies there from the community, relatives (sisters, daughters, mothers, aunts, etc) , and a few ladies who'd moved off came back for the Tea to visit old friends. Marci Hatfield was the speaker.

Here I am with Dad's side of the family. I will list them in relation to Elizabeth, starting on the bottom row: Great Grandma Grana, Great Aunt Marlene, Future Cousin Suzanne, MawMaw. And on the back row: Me, Elizabeth, Cousin Rachel, and Great Aunt Jan. I think Rachel & Suzanne will be 2nd cousins to Elizabeth. Did I get that right? So from Grana to Elizabeth, that's 4 generations! Suzanne, Jan & I are married in.

We even had one more set of family there that I failed to get a picture of: Marie, Joyce & Emily. I think it was a very enjoyable day for everyone there. David really had fun in the nursery, too!

Peek-a-Boo & Christmas Tea

Grandma signed me (Mom) up to decorate a table for her church's Ladies Christmas Tea. Today was set-up day. I used Grandmama's china for the place settings. Maybe we'll get some pictures to post tomorrow from the Tea.

Cookie Exchange #3: Chocolate Chip

Dad's Favorite

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 stick of Butter Flavored Crisco
6 t water
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c packed dark brown sugar
1 T Mexican vanilla
2 large eggs
2 bags of Milk Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375*. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, beat Butter Flavored Crisco, water, both sugars and vanilla until creamy, but not too much. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Lick beaters well.

Stir in chocolate chips. Stick your fingers in it to make sure it still tastes right.

Scoop spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet or stone. Lick spoon.

Bake 9 minutes & take out just before they look done because they will continue to cook after removed from the oven.

The first batch may take a couple more minutes or you may have to adjust the baking time based on your oven.



Cool on paper towels. Test while still warm & gooey to make sure they turned out right.

Visit my sister's Virtual Cookie Exchange for more recipes!