Christmas Day!

Since Bethany had been sick on Christmas Eve and we were all pretty exhausted from a couple night’s worth of not sleeping, we decided to sleep in on Christmas morning and not go to church. We figured it was better for all of us if we did not over-do and risk more sickness, and not spread the sickness further – again.

I decided that Christmas morning deserves a special breakfast and I had found a recipe via my SIL on Pinterest for “sticky buns” using Grands Biscuits. It looked delicious! The directions said to use a Bundt pan, but I couldn’t find mine, so I used an angel food cake pan. That would have been fine. Except…

Well, if you’re smarter than me, you would have figured the problem out BEFORE you put it in the oven. The “sticky” part of the “sticky bun” recipe was pancake syrup and brown sugar. Which you’re supposed to pour on the bottom of the pan before you place the biscuits in a ring in the pan. And then you pour  more syrup and sugar over top.

Angel Food Cake Pans come in two pieces…a flat part with the tube that sits inside the second part, a ring with sides. Which is OK when the liquid you pour in is very thick and doesn’t seep underneath the flat part and out the ring onto the bottom of the oven.

Pancake syrup? Not so thick. The result?

Shortly after putting the sticky buns in the oven, I started to smell something burning. I checked, and found the pan dripping syrup onto the bottom of the oven! Smoke was pouring into the kitchen! I stuck a cookie sheet on the rack below the sticky buns, opened windows, and turned on fans. Soon, the syrup on the bottom had cooked itself to a crisp and I simply lifted it off with a spatula. My house was still pretty smoky and burnt-smelling, but the sticky buns ended up being very edible and delicious, despite losing half their sticky & sugary goodness out the bottom of the pan!

And that, my friends, is how you make a low-fat version of Christmas Morning Sticky Buns.

After we were induced into our sugar coma, since we had skipped church, we cozied up in the family room to finish the devotional story book we’d been reading for Advent, Jotham’s Journey. It was SO good. It was nothing like what I expected when we started it (picked it up for 25 cents at a garage sale on the recommendation of a friend) and we loved it. From what I hear, there are additional books and one for Lent/Easter! I can’t wait to read them!

Then it was time to get ready to host Christmas dinner! It was a small crowd, but we were looking forward to having my parents and my grandma come for dinner, gifts, and presents. The girls & I set out a treat table, made punch, and assembled a fruit tree as an appetizer! It was so fun and turned out awesome, despite how it looked when we got started…

Then everyone got dressed and we had an awesome ham dinner with my mom’s famous potatoes, pear salad, applesauce, veggies, and rolls. We are blessed.

We played some games, Skyped with my MI bro, and opened gifts from Grandma. Once the company had left for the evening and dinner was somewhat cleaned up, the girls had the opportunity to open the rest of their gifts under the tree!

Yes, I realize there are no pictures of Bethany. I don’t know how that happened. I promise I love her, too.

We interrupt the regularly scheduled blogging…

…to proudly and with gratitude and love announce the arrival of my new niece, Claire Elizabeth!

She arrived 11 days ahead of schedule, and in a HUGE hurry to see the world! I can’t wait to meet you in April, little one. In the meantime, behave for your parents and your brother, all right?

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Christmas Eve

About 4:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve morning, Bethany was the 5th victim of the stomach bug that worked its way through most of our family. We weren’t able to go to Coupeville for the extended family gathering because she was sick, which was a bummer, but by mid-morning she was feeling sort of OK, so we let the girls open their stockings in order to cheer them up a bit. We were bummed to miss our only opportunity to see cousins of any sort this year!

The highlight of the little girls’ stockings was the spinning toothbrushes with stickers for decorating! Bethany’s favorite stocking gift was the silver treble clef necklace and Sarah was excited about her Jamie Grace CD! We ended up with a pretty relaxing & family-centered Christmas Eve day,watching movies & playing games & reading books – whatever Bethany was feeling up for.

Later that evening, we attended the Christmas Eve service at church (Sarah played and I read a prayer & even Bethany felt well enough to go sit in the balcony) and then we went to Mom & Dad’s for dinner and our traditional gift-opening fun!

LOVED Sarah’s reaction when she realized her gift from Grandpa F. was a Kindle! A great series of pictures follows…

They LOVE their Kindles!

The roller blades the little girls got from Grandpa F. were also a big hit! They’ve been out roller blading several times during break and are getting pretty good at it…well, except for stopping. They usually just run off the edge of the patio onto the grass or bonk into the gate.

Bethany with her American Girl 1930’s circle camera from the MI cousins!

Dad opening his WA-state-shaped-cutting board from us and the CA family!

Mom reading her new cookbook with special recipes from Aunt S!

Mom seemed to like the picture window I put together for her with one of Dad’s old windows.

I took a quick shot with my iPhone before I wrapped it. I was happy with the simplicity and the way the pictures take center stage. Updates will come soon after the new baby arrives in MI, I hope!

We loved the simplicity of Christmas Eve Day this year, but not so much the sickness and the fact that there were not cousins and sleepovers and such. Hopefully next year!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my favoritist baby brother of all time!

We miss you & your awesome family LOTS!

Christmasy Odds & Ends

What follows is an assortment of photos from the month of December that really have no place of belonging, but are important photos none-the-less. Many were taken on my iPhone, hence the poor image quality. ALL are good memories.

Our finished tree

A little craft project I made for myself and the piano/violin teacher…get a styrofoam tree from the craft store, along with a wooden finial, pick up a glass candlestick for 49 cents at the thrift store, paint both the candlestick and the finial black with spray paint, use a circle punch to make many circles out of Christmas music, hot glue the tree to the candlestick, using a glue gun place the circles on the tree (beginning on the bottom, and layering as you go up), at the top place one circle down flat and glue the edges down and then make sure that the top layer of circles on the styrofoam tree sticks up over the top, then glue on the finial! It was REALLY fun and REALLY easy to make!

One of my favorite Christmas treats from Trader Joe’s

Another favorite Christmas treat!

This has nothing to do with Christmas, but isn’t she cute all dressed up for Colonial/Pioneer Day?

Elise’s Story Hour class came to sing to the mom’s at Bible Study. Always fun!

On December 16, I gave Ed his Christmas present a little early! It was supposed to be a big surprise, but there were several instances which gave him much to be suspicious about and in the end the only thing he was a bit surprised about was our destination. Ah well, it was a great evening! I bought him tickets to hear the Messiah in Seattle at Benaroya Hall, performed by the Seattle Chorale & Symphony!! Ever since we moved from Michigan, he’s wanted to see a real performance of the Messiah again, and we finally had the opportunity. It was a great night!

A very cool blown glass sculpture (HUGE!) at Benaroya Hall

The recital hall was not nearly as large as I expected, but it was beautiful and the sound was fantastic!

Unfortunately we came home to a stomach-sick Elise, (I had been a touch sick the day before), which was followed by a stomach-sick Sarah, Ed, & Bethany. The only one who hasn’t been sick is Becca…now that it’s been a week since the last illness, I’m hoping we are in the clear for now!

School Christmas Party #2!

After the white capes & red bows, most of the classes have their Christmas party. S&B are now too old for their mother to snoop around the parties with the camera, but I was able to help out a little with Becca’s party and snap a few pictures as well!

The parents of the students in Miss K’s class pooled their money together and bought her a new tall conductor’s chair…she has had one since she started teaching, but this fall it gave out on her. Her reaction to the card with the picture and the poem telling her about the chair was priceless! I think she was surprised and excited and blessed!

She’s showing Becca the card and the picture of the chair which will be assembled and waiting for her when she gets back from Christmas break. We can’t wait to see it either!

White Capes & Red Bows

Absolutely one of my favorite days of the year…the elementary Christmas program. Since the beginning of time (or at least since I was in elementary school), white capes & red crepe paper bows have been the traditional dress of elementary school children at the annual Christmas program. It’s corny and amazingly awesome and beautiful.

This year, I was WORKING on the day of the program, so I had the honor of escorting my kindergarteners over to the high school gym and helping them get their coats off before they ascended the bleachers and found their seat. This also meant that I was not able to be in the gym at the crack of dawn to save seats for the rest of my family. Ed had that duty this year and he did quite well – 4th row, center aisle. Good job, dear! Anyway, I *did* get to sit in the front row and so had a great view of certain things – not so great of other things, as you can see from the pictures!

These are my sweet Kindergarteners! I say “my”, but I’m just an aide in their classroom…but I still call them “my class.” I absolutely adore and love each and every one of them. I took this shot just after they all sat down and were waiting for the other Kindergarteners to come and fill in the bleachers below.

This, however, is my favoritist Kindergartener of all! Look at that corny grin – window in her mouth and flyaway hair. Love. it. all.

My sweet 2nd grader with one of her BFF’s!

She was ready to sing and boy, did she! Sang her heart out to *every* song!

Watch the entire elementary sing “For Unto us a Child is Born” here.

Here are all the Kindergarteners!

Watch the Kindergarteners sing “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” here. This was written just for them BY their music teacher!

Here’s Becca singing “Hot Chocolate” – obviously one of the favorites of the kids. I don’t have a video link for that one, but I’m asking around.

Watch the 2nd graders sing “Where did He come from?” here.

See – I didn’t have great angles to get shots of the many other kids we know in the program…this is one of the best.

During the last song, “Ere Zij God”, Becca & her BFF smiled and stared at each other the entire time. It was so cute. Later, her BFF’s mom told me that her daughter said, “I looked at Becca through that whole song because that song makes Becca cry and I wanted her to keep smiling.” Awwwww. And yes, it does make us all cry. You can read about why here.

And here’s the video of this year’s version.

Until next year…