Merry Christmas...

Our visit with Santa was brought by the Fort Belvoir Fire Department on the Wednesday night before Christmas. Santa was kind enough to visit all the children on Fort Belvoir and hand out candy canes to them.

Thursday we made Gingerbread "girls and mans".

We opened our stockings on Christmas Eve.

And then once the kids were tucked in tightly to bed... Santa came. When taped with our video camera using night vision, he actually was pretty convincing... to our children.

Then Christmas morning came...

Home for Christmas...

Bryant got home Wednesday night and just in time to cuddle with his boys and then get ready for Christmas.

She's Got Skills....

The skills...

Whewww, all that work and then it was time to perform. However, our little Ballerina wasn't feeling very well... she had a runny nose and was sleepy. So she didn't give it her all, and was distracted very easily. ... the same with her tap dance. I took videos of those dances too, but the file was too large to upload. Boo :( She really did do very well, seeing how she did not feel well. Can't wait for the big performance in the spring!

Weighting In...

Eli is finally getting over his miserable weekend. That little boy had his 6 month shots on Friday morning and sure enough, just as always, they were followed by a low fever and just plain misery. He is now feeling much better, with the exception of a snotty nose, and currently is snoozing away for an evening nap. Here's his stats:

• Weight: 16 pounds 5 ounces, 53rd percentile
• Height: 27.4 inches, 91st percentile
• Head circumference: 17.4 inches, 75th percentile

"I can not believe she did that!"

...that was the main phrase spoken between Bryant and I this evening. But, then again every girl has her own story.... I think it's a right of passage. This is what I'm talking about....

I was upstairs hanging a curtain and both Nathan and Gracie were downstairs. Gracie is playing a computer game and Nathan is playing Legos and watching Gracie play the game too. I hear Nathan say (with no alarm in his voice or any type of urgency at all), "Mom, Gracie's cutting her hair.". I think, no she's not, she knows better than to play with scissors... she must be playing a game that involves cutting and styling hair. And Nathan says nothing else, so obviously there is no concern... and I'm almost done hanging this curtain, I'll be down there in a minute to see what's going on, if anything is. A few minutes pass, then Nathan runs up the stairs yelling, "Mom, Gracie is cutting her hair!!". I run down the stairs and see this... Gracie is sitting in the computer chair with a pair of kid scissors in her hand and some nice long locks on the desk, Bryant is on Skype. This is the funny part to me. Bryant called the home computer on Skype and Gracie answers (since she's already at the desk). The first thing Bryant says is, "Gracie are you cutting your hair?! " followed by "Nathan!... Nathan! Go get mommy!!!". And me I'm upstairs hanging a lovely curtain... this cracks me up! Luckily she didn't really do any noticeable damage, so I won't need to take her anywhere. But, apparently she thought it was time for her hair cut... funny thing is that I was actually planning on going this week!

See, no damage. Well, not unless you really look for it.

Give me a yard of fabric and some chocolate and just see what I can do...

We have our tree skirt on the kids' tree. A yard of fabric, some scissors and my sewing skills got us to this point.... Please don't expect fringe or fluffy white stuff attached around the edges. We are just lucky that this turned out decent and not into some ill-shaped nightmare!

I also need to share with you this wonderful Chocolate Bread. It is heaven in a chocolate form. The picture isn't too fantastic because: 1. I've been hiding it in the fridge from my children and 2. They have ate all but these last 2 pieces (so, I don't have much to work with). Here's the recipe. Happy Holiday cooking!

And then there's these two guys. I love this picture, they look so much alike! And Eli's shirt is great but, Nathan is the one with chocolate on his face!

Christmas Countdown Begins...

December 1st... it's my fathers birthday and it's the day we begin counting down to Christmas.... 24 days left.

Today we made Coconut Cookies. Enjoy.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350*. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture and then mix in the coconut. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8- 10 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

We are hoping to share more of our baked goodies with you this month... afterall tis the season!

Happy Birthday Dad!