Cookies

One of my favorite childhood Christmas memories is celebrating the start of Advent season at Canaan Moravian Church.  We would have a big potluck after Church, then the kids would decorate sugar cookies, make ornaments, and the adults would make the beeswax candles for Christmas Eve service.  Since today is the start of Advent, I thought we would start the same tradition in our family.

I made sure I repeated the story of my favorite Christmas tradition to the kids repeatedly. 
They like it when I do that.

I was expecting the kids to decorate 2 or 3 cookies before getting bored. They did much better than that. I think Megan and Eric did around 8, and Jonathan did a few more that. Don decorated one or two, but there is nothing to show for his. We had a very messy table when it was all done.

*FULL DISCLOSURE*  These cookies are not, um....germ free :-).  Especially the ones that Megan made.  It's just inconvenient to wash your hands every time after licking frosting off your fingers.

 These are some of my cookies...

 These are Eric's

 Jonathan's

 And Megan's (her brothers may have helped with some, but she did most of it by herself)

The Tree

We put the Christmas Tree up on Sunday, since we are going to be gone for Thanksgiving when we normally do it.  The kids did most of the work this year, and they are even starting to spread the ornaments out instead of clumping them all in one area.  The big question was how the cat would react to the tree.  I have been having flashbacks of our first year with Archie, and how the tree only stayed up for 3 days.  Trudy is a much calmer cat, and it probably helps that she is 7 (I think).

Canon Elph 100 Power Shoot

I cashed in my Blue Cross reward points for a nice little gift card to Wally World and bought a new digital point and shoot camera.  I wanted to get a smaller camera for The Trip.  Don and I plan to do some 'divide and conquer' touring when we are at the parks.  This way each of us can have a camera.  I'm sure Don will take as many pictures as I will.

I haven't had much time to play with it.  These are just a few pics from the past week.  I don't even know if I had the flash on or not.  The boys are working on their Raingutter Regatta boats.

pumpkins

We decorated our pumpkins with paint markers this year instead of carving them.  Huxley was here, so we gave him a pumpkin, too.

Loot Update

This morning I noticed Eric's tote from Trick or Treating last night was at the top of the stairs....unemptied.  My tally is not accurate.  Eric's tote accounts for approximately 15% of our candy stash.

Trick or Treat

Beautiful beautiful beautiful day for Halloween this year.  I think it was in the low 60s.  The kids did not need jackets for trick or treating.

Miss Wickham...errr....I mean Waldo.  The other side of the twin home belongs to a haistylist who's front lawn is decorated with mannequin heads.  Megan did not trick or treat at that door.

 Not too often you can trick or treat in ND in flip flops

The Loot

We made our usual route through the neighborhood, visiting the homes on our street, making sure we stopped by Mr Shreve's and Miss Wickham's, as the boys claimed they had special treats for them (which they did).  Then, we walked past Johns Drive and 4th St and went to 5th St where all the action is.  We saw lots of the boys' classmates. 

As is tradition, once we get home we dump all the goods out on the floor.  Then, Mom and Dad in their anal retentive-ness sort the candy.  Yes, we sort the candy.  Here is the tally for 2011
Reese's PB cups-30
Kit Kats-26
M&Ms- 22
Snickers-25
Almond Joy-3
Baby Ruth-9
Hershey's-27
Skittles-23
Tootsie Rolls-72
Laffy Taffy-18
Ring Pops-5
Dots-6
Root Beer-2
Butterfinger-3
3 Musketeers-10
Whoppers-11
Milky Way-5
Milk Duds-5
Twix-8
Twizzlers-13
Snickers-16
Heath-2
Pez-3 packs
Pencils-3
Miscenllaneous (Pretzels, popcorn, granola bars)-25
Fruit Snack-8

Tally was taken after the kids all had a few treats.

Leaves

 After being forced to have nice smiles, the kids all made some silly faces

 Jonathan DID NOT want Megan on his back..."Mom, get her off of me!"

 He is even less amused to have his brother on his back

Megan has been waiting and waiting to jump in the leaves.  The trees haven't given many up yet, but there were at least enough on the lawn to make a Megan sized pile for her to enjoy.  She tried to help Nature a bit by pulling the leaves off the tree and adding them to the pile.  The boys took a little break from backyard football play as well.