Christmas Traditions

I love the traditions of my childhood and I am enjoying passing those traditions on to my children. And of course, establishing new traditions in my own home. Here are some traditions from my childhood that I am passing on to my children:

We always got a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve before bed. This year I sent my kids down to get their PJ's on and they were amazed that new pajamas had "magically" appeared on their beds! It was fun to play Santa's advocate.

On Christmas Eve, after a Family Home Evening lesson with the account of the Savior's birth in Luke 2, we always played board games, had a fire in the fireplace, and ate goodies. It is such a cozy memory. We did that this year as well. We taught the kids how to play Sorry and it was so much fun to play it with them now that they get how! What a fun age!

This Christmas we also discovered the magic of "The Polar Express" with children who truly believe. We discovered how much fun it is to get gifts for our children and help them pick out gifts for one another. It was fun to decorate Christmas cookies and have a game night with friends.

Other traditions include a dramatic reading of "The Grinch," and coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas morning. Everyone stays in their pajamas all day long, right? It was so fun to watch the kids go from one new treasure to the next all day. Audrey looked like she really wanted to just roll in the piles of wrapping paper all over the floor...that paper looked so TASTY!

The kids received so many fun and thoughtful and generous gifts: Hungry Hungry Hippos was the request of choice from Santa (Whew! That was only $13!). The kids also got nerf guns, new gloves, new coats and shirts and pants and socks, Build-a-Bear stuffed animals from a secret Santa, books, coloring books, puzzles, and so much more! I got some new kitchen items including a scale, new silverware and Chris got me a dock for my iPod! I suppose my new haircut counts as a Christmas gift as well. I am one step closer to being back to my original hair color. Oh yeah, and Chris himself installed a new (used), WORKING, and free dishwasher for me on Christmas Eve! I love having a dishwasher again! And I thought on a new budget, we would be having a simple Christmas.... Not so! We are too blessed!

Vacation Part 3: Tired

25 ft of nylon rope: $10

1 old tire: Free

add 1 ash tree plus 25 years=

Years of fun and many more miles: Priceless!

Book Review: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

My sister and I both read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and did a comparative book review. Here is the link.
Enjoy!

Michal asked me to raffle the Bingo game again, so the new winner is Teacher Eli!

Blog Plug

Hey! My friend is doing a giveaway on her photography blog. If you are in the Provo area and want to win a free photography session, click the link and make a comment.

Her portraits and beautiful! You won't be disappointed!

http://gemstonephotography.blogspot.com/2009/03/giveaway.html

Experiment in Deception

I am really excited to report that I just picked up this cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, at Sam's Club this week. I've heard about it before, and I thought, "Hey, if I can sneak some more vegetables into my kids diet without them noticing, maybe I won't notice them either!" The whole basis of Jessica Seinfeld's cooking method is to puree common fruits and veggies and sneak them undetectably into everything from macaroni & cheese to brownies, meatloaf to muffins. She sneaks some pureed cauliflower into scrambled eggs, butternut squash in the macaroni & cheese, and chickpeas in the chocolate chip cookies. You say it sounds gross? I guess we're about to find out!

The recipes are common foods that kids (and their parents) usually have in their repertoire, with the added twist of a little extra nutrition. In addition to over 70 innovate recipes, Jessica outlines instructions on how to cook and puree fruits and vegetables (handy simply for making your own baby food!), and with the help of nutrition experts, she breaks down nutritional guidelines geared specifically toward children. She also details what nutrients are found in each vegetable, thereby identifying why it is important to have a variety--then she provides approachable ideas for incorporating them into your and your children's diets. I found this particularly informative and important since children are so physically active and since their bodies and minds are in such a crucial stage of development.

I love her tips for approaching picky eaters and I found that I generally agreed with her opinions and tactics about feeding kids (and adults!) in general. I love that she is down to earth about what our bodies need and don't need, and her recipes tend to constitute a good variety of nutrition and flavor. Its amazing how inadequate our standard diet is in vegetables--particularly fiber (YIKES!!). A diet adequate in vegetables can provide more energy, better skin tone, smooth digestion, better eye and mind health, and so much more. Why has it taken me so long to get on board? I think this cookbook could change the world!

Usually, I flip through a cookbook and anticipate that I will only ever attempt to make 10% of the recipes, and maybe one ever makes it into our regular dinner rotation. Last night I went through all the recipes in this cookbook, and anticipate that I will try half of them. They all look and sound so good, and seem very nutritious. Stay tuned for my recipe reviews as I try them out!

I've already made a list of the basics that I need to add to my kitchen to complete some of the recipes in this book, and I'm prepared to head to the grocery store and start pureeing some vegetables. I'm going to start with Applesauce Muffins (with butternut squash or carrot puree), and I plan to bring them with me to our Relief Society cooking group tomorrow--we'll see if anyone notices the vegetable content!

I am so excited to try out these recipes and I have so much confidence that they will work that I want to share the joy with you! Leave me a comment answering these three simple questions--I'll pick a random winner on Tuesday the 19th and I will send you your very own Deceptively Delicious cookbook!

1. Do you think your regular diet (and what you serve your family) has
a big enough variety of vegetables in it? Is there room for more?

2. Would you feel comfortable "deceiving" your children by sneaking
vegetable puree into their favorite recipes? Or does the idea of being
deliberately deceptive bother you?

3. Do you think this would work for your family?

All in a Day's Work

Today was a neighborhood yard sale. In a close condo-type community like ours, it works very well for everyone to put their own sale out in front of their house and let the customers just shop from street to street. I didn't have all that much to sell, but for some reason I decided to have a bake sale. I made cinnamon rolls, rice krispie treats, and banana bread. I also put out a plethora of fabric that I inherited from someone in the ward--everything you can fit in a plastic grocery sack for $2.

Chris bought me a $2 chalkboard from someone else's sale to be my advertising, I traded 3 rice krispie treats for a coffee table, inherited a free TV, and traded fabric for baby boy clothes. It turned out to be a successful sale, based on the fact that I sold all my baked goods. And at 50 cents a pop, I came out with $40. I was going to say that I broke even, considering that in the process of trying to make a triple batch of chocolate chip cookie dough last night, I broke my hand mixer, but Mom pointed out that through my efforts, I got a TV, a coffee table, baby clothes, and a new mixer. I can live with that. Incidentally, hand mixers have a life span of approximately 2-3 years. This was my second mixer in 5 years.

Unfortunately, I've been eating junk food straight for 3 days, created a war-zone in my kitchen, and totally ignored my children. Tonight for dinner I had a simple, sugar-free club salad. I guess it was a good day, but man, I'm tired.

In the rest of my world, we finally got our laptop up and running, thanks to a terrific computer service in Orem I would recommend to all my friends (she even made a house call!) all for only $49 and the cost of a new hard drive. Leah is mostly potty trained but is consequently a sugar-aholic. My baby is 18 pounds. This week I traded in my babysitting money from the past month for a CHI! And, it is finally hot enough to need the swamp cooler running.

Until next time!

Giveaway at The Clean Plate Club

Here's my latest attempt to win something.

I'm entering to win a $50 gift card to Williams Sonoma! If I win, I'll get some kind of bakeware. I haven't really shopped around yet.

Here's the giveaway at The Clean Plate Club. Check it out sometime.

Here are some things I've won in the past that I never would have won if I hadn't entered:

A blog makeover.
An original Pachyderm Painting at the circus.
A Saturn custom road bike.
Some red nail polish and a lunch for two I won at my high school's Senior Celebration.

On the other hand, I've entered to win lots of things that I didn't win, including lots of free cars. Too bad I've never had any luck there...