Cate lost tooth number two. The Tooth Fairy was just as kind to her and left her two $1 dollar gold coins in her pillow.
I was in a bit of a fender bender during rush-hour traffic on may way home from a difficult work day. The "funny" part about the accident was that I crashed into a guy I went to grade school with. It's not my ideal way of reconnecting with fellow alumni, but oh well. Both of us were safe and he was very nice about the whole thing. Given the age of the car, it was deemed "totaled". I now drive a sporty Toyota Matrix.
Our Annual Cookie Baking night was Friday, November 20. This is the first year without Aunt Lola, who passed away in April, so it was a bittersweet evening for all of us. My nephew Nick came back for the second year and dear friend Jen came as a special guest this year.
Cate was a huge help in quickly getting all the Hershey's Kisses on the peanut butter blossoms. I think her tiny fingers gave her a nice advantage.
In total, 9 varieties of cookies are made, of which 5 are rotated through one oven...yielding over 2000 cookies each year!
Last Monday, after a very frustrating weekend with the kids, we instilled no TV weekdays. To replace the TV time, we have Family Fun time. Max is fascinated with my beads, so Monday night we all made a piece of jewelry. Max wears his self-made bracelet daily.
Friday, December 4, Kyle and I got out for a date. We enjoyed dinner and a Chris Botti concert at Orchestra Hall. We had box seats just to stage right (I think it's stage right, right?). Chris is an excellent entertainer who effectively showcases the talents of his group mates (such as it would be for a jazz ensemble) and special guests. He's also a good story teller.
On our way home, it occurred to me that this particular evening, being the first Friday of December, marked the 19th anniversary of our first date. My how our lives have changed...
We continued our Family Fun time by making gingerbread cookies together. I'm sad, yet proud to admit that I made the dough and icing from scratch. The kids had fun choosing which cut-out to use.
Last night, we finished off by decorating the cookies. Being the aspirational thinker I am, I had delusions that I could decorate the cookies as swell as the ones pictured in the Betty Crocker magazine I got the recipes from. So when the kids got distracted and dumped sprinkles on the cookies, I "fired" them and proceeded to finish the job myself.
Then reality hit. I was no better than they were. It doesn't help that I don't have a steady hand, so the piping became more of a wavy line. I then called in cool-hand Kyle to help out. His finishing touches were much more of what I was looking for.
Oh well. They're just going to get eaten, right?
Well, the first storm of the season is barreling in. We'll have to pull out the shovels and get the kettle on for hot cocoa. Looks like movie nights are in our near future...
Stay warm and safe!
2 comments:
Baking with kids is stressful. I remember on year my sister and I were particularly "helpful"/horrible during a cookie making session. My mother burnt some cookies and exclaimed "Jesus Mary and Joseph!" Saving our delicate ears from what she really wanted to say I'm sure. Being a natural born smart a$$ I said cheerily "And the Three Wise Men!" She gave me a look that should have stunted my growth for years :) We too were fired. I think we stopped decorating Easter eggs that year too.
Your cookies look wonderful though! And for a moment I thought your car was smiling at me, like serial killer smiling at me. Creepy.
why sad? -
"We continued our Family Fun time by making gingerbread cookies together. I'm sad, yet proud...
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