Bits and pieces

A few things from December so far, in chronological order:

Memorizing a classic.

The first wrapped present: early in December, I tested the waters by wrapping one gift (for Jay and Rose to share), to see if it would withstand the rigors of pre-Christmas excitement. It was still wrapped a week later, so I figured it was safe to wrap some more.

I believe I’ve mentioned this yearly Christmas disaster…

…but I failed to recount our yearly Christmas miracle: my 20+ year old noodle angel survived yet another topple. I slipped in at the end of a Relief Society homemaking activity back when I was 5 or 6 and made this girl. She’s a tough old noodle.

Brrrrr… for nearly 3 straight weeks, the high was in the teens-to-low twenties. Every few days, Jay and Rose bundled up and tried again to brave it. They usually only lasted about 10 minutes in the frigidity (sweet--that’s actually a word!). Thankfully this week it “warmed up” to the high-twenties-thirties. When I ran on Saturday, I was wondering why my lungs felt so good. A peep at the thermometer showed that it was TEN degrees warmer than it has been in the past 2 weeks. You know it’s been cold when 28 degrees feels warm.

Christmas goodies! I discovered this delicacy last year: peppermint bark popcorn. Normally I’m a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas in general, but this popcorn was a find (recipe source: ourbestbites.com).

Jay the pizza. One of the library books we check out periodically is called Pete’s a Pizza. It’s about a Dad playing with his son Pete and pretending to make him into a pizza. Jeff made a Jay-za (hmm that makes him sound like a rapper…)

and a Rose-za (Ro-za)

One night I got to snuggle with Tate while Steph, Layne, and Jasen went to the annual Christmas lighted farm implements parade. We skipped the parade this year because Jay and Rose had too many late nights in a row and they went to bed long before the parade even started that evening. Plus the temperature was in the single digit range. I held and snuggled with that cute little Tater tot for almost 3 hours straight. We watched one of my favorite Christmas chick flicks together: While You Were Sleeping. Tate was too polite to tell me what he really thought of it.

Rose and I were all ready to make Christmas cookies last week. I put the butter in the mixing bowl and went to turn on Christmas music, and when I turned back around, Rose had a stick of butter in her hand and was eating it like a banana. GAG. I cut the teeth marks off and used it anyways.

I’m no baker. This batch about did me in. HOURS of rolling and cutting and scraping wonky shapes off the counter and I ended up with some very mangled pathetic-looking results. Jay and Rose lost interest after the first pan came out of the oven, so I was left flying solo for the rest of the big batch. Maybe it was the missing tablespoon of butter that Rose ate. Maybe the Force was just NOT strong with me that day, but Yoda kept burning. On a pan full of different shapes, the Yodas would all be dark while the others were white. It looks like the Force was not with Yoda that day either.

Thankfully, we salvaged some ok-looking ones for our festive cookie tin.

Heh, I waited just long enough to show this sad Yoda to Jeff after he got home from work before putting him (Yoda, not Jeff) out of his misery.

Jay wanted to take a picture one afternoon, so I clicked my camera onto its “easy” setting for him.

Then Rose wanted a turn—she had her finger over the flash. I love the purpley-pink sky in the back windows—the setting sun usually reflects gorgeously across the whole sky here. Those windows face east, and this was taken at sunset! I love the giant, sweeping sky here.

I had to crop this one like crazy. Rose forgot to aim, so we were peeking up at the bottom of the picture. Still, I wish I could take a picture with 100% smile-age. Rose must have a gift.

Our ward went all out with the Christmas party this year: A night in Bethlehem. The gym was lined with tents, each providing a different part of the meal: pitas, fruit, cheese, olives, juice, etc. It was intense. We all had to dress up. Jeff cracked me up with his shepherd headdress. He looked like one of the Libyans from Back to the Future. And he drove our van to the church. Every time I looked over at him, I busted up laughing.

I have to say, I wouldn’t mind wearing a head-cover every now and then. They are dead handy for hiding that awful wintry STATIC-head! Or a bad hair day in general. (or a bad hair year, like it’s been for me with all this “growing it out” nonsense). We didn’t stay very long at the ward party because it started half an hour before Jay and Rose’s bedtime, and I can only stand to mess with their bed time so many times in a month (it takes far too long for them to return to “happy and normal” status after one late night). This month only has about 1 late bedtime left in my quota: which will it be—Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve?

Jay’s handwriting has plateaued: it hasn’t changed much in the last year. But it’s pretty awesome anyways.

Can you tell which wrapping paper is the kids’ favorite? The Santa’s moustache-beard paper wins! I wrapped all the rest of our gifts on Sunday: gifts for the cousins, grandparents, and Jay and Rose. Our puny bedraggled tree can hardly stand all that action.

More baking—peanut butter blossoms are another cookie that is not considered Christmasy in my family, but in the White family you can’t have Christmas without it. I really don’t like baking. But these are pretty tasty (and they’re way better with a Reese’s on top instead of a Hershey Kiss).

GUESS WHO GOT HOME FROM HIS MISSION YESTERDAY?

Kyle! My dear brother! He’s an RM now. Adios, Uruguay! I stole this picture from Mel’s Facebook post. He called us last night! Yay! He sounded exactly like he’s been speaking Spanish for the past 2 years. Fancy that! We can’t wait to spend Christmas with the WHOLE Brown family!!! (side note: I normally try to moderate my use of exclamation marks, but a brother RM-ing it up caused me to throw caution to the wind and insert exclamations all over the place). WEEEEE!!!!

And…

YES.

 

A merry Christmas we wish you.

[I know, creepy…but I couldn’t resist]