It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas.....

Don't you love December? We do and here are a few reasons why: Gingerbread houses. Unfortunately this year I tried to make it all from scratch and the pieces ended up being way too soft. Consequently, we never could get Jared's heavily decorated piece of roof to stay up. Not that it would have lasted very long in our house anyway....

An excuse to make and share large quantities of delicious desserts. The sharing is particularly important because it helps keep it off my hips. This year I tried my hand at a cream puff tower for our Christmas party at church: Family movie parties. My favorites include It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story and A Muppet Christmas Carol. Jared is a big Grinch fan (the old one). Emily is just in it for the popcorn and hot chocolate. Holiday decorations, in this case at the Zoo. No Festivus miracle this year, kids. Here you see the aftermath of the Feats of Strength:

Christmas cookies. Need I say more? OK, so this one doesn't actually have anything to do with December, but somebody's got to make sure we're practicing good oral hygiene. Jared is using his own tooth brush, by the way. Pretty clothes. Thanks for the dress Mom!

Merry Christmas!

Soft Pie: A Recipe by Jared Clark

At our house, Christmas is largely about food. Jared, even as young as he is, has caught this vision and is pleased to offer a recipe of his own for your.....er.....enjoyment. Bon appetite! For soft pie: Mix sugar, flour, eggs, salt, apple cider, pumpkin cider and juice. Stir it. Put it in a bowl (a strong circle thing). Put it in the oven and it makes pumpkin pie for Halloween (with ghosts, witches, etc.). It makes chicken for Thanksgiving and snowmen for Christmas.

Dear Santa,

I want a jungle toy and a Mario Party toy and a pirate toy, and a danja turtle* toy instead of a pirate toy. I have been a good boy. I can have some presents. I have a Santa hat - all the Santa things. Dear Reindeers, I want to live with you reindeers with a sleigh, a gingerbread cookie, and a snowman. Love, Jared *Translation: ninja turtle. We can't seem to convince him of the correct pronunciation.

I'm Back!

No doubt many of you have been wondering why I've neglected my blog for the past few weeks. My only excuse (and not much of an excuse at that) is that it is the holidays and we've been busy. Here's some of what we've been doing the past couple of months: In October we took a trip to Arizona for my 10-year high school reunion. Apart from reconnecting with friends, we enjoyed some quality time with my family, including a fun-filled afternoon skipping rocks at the river with Grandpa Arnett (a favorite past time of Jared's). We also enjoyed hosting one of Aaron's brothers and his family. Among other things they helped us celebrate Halloween: And for November Aaron and I passed around the flu for 3 weeks (this after getting flu shots): As if the flu weren't fun enough, I ended up with pink eye. Aaron couldn't get off work, so I ended up having to take the kids with me to the doctor for an exam so I could get a prescription. When we walked into the exam room, Jared could hardly contain his excitement. Mounted to the wall beside the sink was a box of purple exam gloves! (his favorite color and incidentally, something he'd been wanting since we saw a similar style of plastic gloves at Walmart). The nurse was kind enough to give Jared a pair to take home, which was probably the highlight of his week. In fact, he loved them so much I'm not sure he took them off much those first few days. This is how we found him after he'd gone to bed the evening he brought them home: Gratefully, we were all back to normal in time to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with friends: Since then, we've been gearing up for Christmas and enjoying the season. Jared and Emily have been poring over toy catalogs, preparing lists for Santa and otherwise waiting for the big man in red: A few more random shots: I love that my kids enjoy watching cooking shows as much as I do: Jared's latest form of entertainment. He calls it "throwing a party."

Emily loves to be in time out. Yes, you read that right. Here she is enjoying a little thinking time in the corner after hitting her brother. The funniest thing is that she actually stays there until we call her.

Helping Daddy with the dishes:

Jaredism #4

Today, I was talking to Jared about when he was a baby and asked him if he knew that once he lived in my tummy. He wondered, "Did you eat me?"

Evacuation

I'm tired and nervous this evening. Fires are raging, uncontrolled throughout San Diego county and though we are currently several miles from any of the major blazes, we still had a scare of our own this afternoon. We were just contemplating going for a swim, when a fire (source unknown)ignited the trees along a wall bordering our apartment building. We had less than 5 minutes gather our children and belongings, pile into the car, and get out.* Gratefully, it was quickly contained and tonight we are feeling tremedously blessed to be safely back home. *For a more detailed report, I'll refer you to Aaron's blog.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Am I the only person in the world that would rather make her own birthday dinner and dessert instead of having someone else do it for her?