Super Heros

Hello and Merry Christmas Everyone! The semester is complete! I've passed my classes and I am satisfied with the outcome! I've baked all that I can manage to bake this year, including a new cookie called Orange Slice Cookies that include little cut up pieces of orange slice candies. They are different, tasty, but quite sweet... even for a cookie. I also made my usual Reese' Peanut butter cup mini cups, Peanut Butter Cranberry Cereal Bars and two loaves of Orange Cranberry Bread that were specifically for Max's pre-school teachers. I also bought the ingredients for my Macaroon recipe with the mini chocolate chips... but I have run out of baking motivation.... I'll be baking off some of these in the near future though because upon announcing to Chris that we would not be having any for Christmas, I got quite the showing of the pouty bottom lip... and something was muttered about them being HIS favorite cookies... blah blah blah.... Guess I'll need to rectify that in a few weeks.

If I can manage to get to bed soon... (I had plans to hit the sack 2 hours ago in hopes of not seeing the clocks change to the next day AGAIN...) we will have two nights until our visit from the jolly old elf himself. I'm feeling pretty relaxed about that after axing a few things from the MUST DO list (sorry Max, no hand knit stocking this year :( But you and your brother will both have them for next year.) All that is left on my to do list is wrap gifts and I also have an early morning trip planned to Market District for some yummy anti pasta makings for Christmas Eve. Chris and I will share wrapping duties Wednesday night together with some wine. There isn't anything to assemble so it should be pretty easy.

Today, I finally found the time to sew up some adorable gifts for my little guys... I'm ashamed to admit, I've never sewn anything for them *gasp* I really do feel terrible about this... Needless to say, come Friday morning they will be the proud new owners of two ADORABLE little super hero capes! I'm very happy with how they turned out. I did a google search for cape sewing pattern and this was one of the first few links to pop up: http://pukingpastilles.com/?p=57

After looking through her post and directions I quickly realized that her pattern was basically just an enlarged baby bib. Using her measurements I drew my own cape patterns out and went to work. I cut the pieces out during nap. Drew out the letters and cut those, and began attaching the letters to the circles and the circles to the outer cape layer. I got one cape sewn together and ready to be top stitched before it was time to put all projects on hold until after bedtime again. After the boys went to bed, I think I spent another hour finishing the two capes. I want to say the total time spent on TWO capes was 3 hours. It was VERY easy and I'm more than pleased with how they came out.


Again, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year! (oh and happy birthday to me lol).

i baked

we lost a family member this week, my great aunt Lillian passed away this week, she had been sick for a little while and she was VERY old. so we new her fate was not too far off.... just it's still sad.

i have a lot of memories of her from when i was little. she lived next door to my grandparents (maternal) in upstate new york in a house that my mother spent part of her life growing up in as well. at one point, they all lived together until my grandfather built their home on the property next to Aunt Lillian's. when we would visit my grandparents, i would always look forward to walking over to their house because it just seemed like the reception there was just a little bit more fun... not that my own grandparents weren't a great pair, but Aunt Lillian was just really special. she used to crochet slippers for EVERYONE. i had a pair that were two-toned light and bright violet. i loved them! i remember my mother wearing a pair too. i also remember sitting at her kitchen table while she wrapped christmas gifts complete with curling ribbon and bows. i used to dispense the tape. i remember sitting at her table at the lake too, playing cards and having a ball. she was a hoot and always made ya laugh :)

i remember a lot of things about her, she LOVED looking at old photos and remembering the good old days, her stories of how she worked at the restaurant and how times had changed. when you went to her home, she had to wait on you, she had to make coffee or a sandwich or warm up a piece of pizza or toast some toast. anything... she had she would offer it to her guests even when all we wanted to do was spend time with her and not have her wait on us.

aunt lillian passed away this week, my parents are leaving in the morning to spend time with family and attend services on Monday. i have decided to stay home with the kids, i'm sad about it. i really would like to be there for her and her family. so it goes.....

so, in my absense i'll be sending some baked goods. i made two of these this evening. and i documented with photos. i used chris's (fairly new) cannon g9. my camera has pretty much crapped out... so until we can purchase chris a new g10, i will be "borrowing" the g9. it will become mine on a permanent basis very soon.... i can't wait because if i do say so myself, these photos KICK it! (more crafty photos to follow after the weekend....)














more photos from this session can be found here.

christmas round up

chris and i were just discussing how stress free this break has been for us so far. there has been minimal running around for gifts, no one is making us crazy.... we have some simple projects to do around the house but really, it's all fun stuff (for the most part).

left to do on my list, finish knitting my dad's hat, it's coming along nicely and i've decided to add a few more rows of regular knit to the middle so that it's not toddler sized like my first attempt (see photo below), finish wrapping gifts, put ribbon on all of them, put some more greenery around the house, not sure who for, since no one will be coming here for the holiday but i feel like we need a few more decorations.... and last of all, i need to bake...

yes, i announced earlier in the season that i would not be baking this year but i have since been guilted into doing so. my parents were over the other night and i was mentioning me not baking and apparently this was the first that chris had heard of this horrible decision of mine... and he freaked out and said, "so i don't get any macaroons?!?!" in the most pathetic and whiny voice ever.... i said, "no, sorry honey, no baking means no baking..." he pouted. the next day, my mother calls me after witnessing this the night before and says, "you know if you husband wants you to bake macaroons for him you really should. he deserves it." of course i laughed at her... but then i decided that she's right and he does deserve it. he's been picking up a lot of slack around here lately by cooking like a mad-man.... i seriously can't remember what i cooked last. or when it was.... i know, that's horrible..... so my man will be getting macaroons. i just have to figure out when. i'm thinking it will be tomorrow. in addition to the cookies, i need to also prepare a quick bread for christmas morning at my parents. i think i'll do the same one i did last year, it's an orange and cranberry loaf and was super yummy. i found it on this blog last year, where i find a lot of my baking recipes, she's a wonderful cook/baker foodie and her recipes never fail me.

that in a nutshell is what needs to be done for the holiday. not so bad.

in other news, max is starting to run, sorta, only when he's in large open spaces :) that means our home when the floor is not covered with his toys and my parents store room since it's wide open and offers a wonderful place to run around. i also think he's getting another tooth, he's a drooly mess lately and ate a whole corner off of a board book yesterday... i keep poking around in there but i haven't found anything quite yet...

as for me, well, i'm just done.... put a fork in me... i'm done cooking this little birdie... i feel huge... i don't want to do anything, i don't want to leave the house, i don't want to see anyone, i don't want to cook, i don't want to run the steps, i don't want to carry max around, i don't want to do anything but sleep... sleep and sleep a little more. i've shut down. which is not good since on paper i still have a month and 1/2 left to go until my due date. that's a long time.... *big exhale*

other than feeling huge, i really feel pretty good, it's just the getting in and out of the car and getting max around and such is not fun. in fact i haven't taken him anywhere by myself (except to see my parents) in a few weeks. i've just worked it out so that either he stays home with chris or we all go together so that i don't have to lug him in and out of the car myself.

i am, however super excited about the holiday. we've got max some nice gifts, nothing too extravagant. but some thngs that i'm sure he'll enjoy. plus, chris plans to paint his new room today so that will be a new thing for him too. i think max is starting to realize that there is something going on in terms of the holiday too. he loves the christmas tree and really has been quite gentle with it. we tell him to only look and don't touch and he sorta listens. i think he also says christmas tree. it sounds more like just the syllables di da da. but that's a start right? he also knows what a choo choo train is and best of all is he loves his new knitted hat that mommy made for him, err sorta. it is a pattern for an adult but it's a little on the short side. so i added some i-cord after knitting it and now it's a hat for max. little does papa know that he and max will have matching hats this winter :) papa is going to be so excited :) i'll have to take a photo of them both with their hats on, on christmas day :)

i probably won't be back until after the holiday, so i wish all my readers a merry christmas. stay close to your loved ones and remember the true meaning of the holiday!