flowers

After a great Christmas day, we ended our night walking around and looking at Christmas lights in the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood. Amy suggested we all wear Christmas hats and I thought that was an excellent idea. Looking good girls. We decided to skip the stroller this time. With 14 people, surely someone can hold each kid's hand. We did bring a wheelchair for some of the steeper hills. This house impresses me. All the warm white lights, with lots of yard decorations and pleasing colors. Trying to get some pointers one what to do next year. I like the poinsettia. The attention to detail is pretty amazing too. Here's a tree wrapped with red ribbon, and then a strand of lights wrapped precisely over the top of the ribbon. Straight lines of ribbon on the eaves and straight lights on top. Impressive. I think the garland on our house looks pretty good. T is inspecting their garland. Specifically the ornaments and flowers, seeing if they were added afterwards or if the garland came t...

It's been a fantastic Holiday season this year. We've done so many fun things. It's Christmas Eve and Christmas is almost here! With all of T's family in town, the kids have no shortage of people to hang out with or things to do. Time to make cookies for Santa! Their cousin Aubrey always makes them down on the ground with them, so the kids can help out every step of the way. They turned out great! Santa is sure to love them. The kids have been loving the advent calendar every day. They're sure to miss getting candy and toys every night after tomorrow. Being Christmas Eve, you always get to open one present (of mommy's choosing) early. Ian - It's the Lightning McQueen jammies I wanted! And Alli got some fun Tsum Tsum jammies. For the last month we've read a bunch of different Christmas books. On Christmas Eve, we always read the Christmas Story (this year from a children's Bible). And also The Polar Express. Once we got to the part about "the fir...

It all started back in 2014, making homemade gingerbread cookies . Since then, every Christmas I've tried to make something new every year. I've done homemade candy canes and fudge  and was having a hard time figuring out what to make this year. I don't remember what was the inspiration, but one day I just decided that peppermint marshmallows would be perfect!  The ingredient list is fairly simple. Sugar and corn syrup for the most part. Gelatin and water for the rest, with just a little peppermint and vanilla extract for flavoring. The gelatin starts off getting mixed with a little water. Marshmallows are pretty much sugar. Bringing the sugar and corn syrup to a boil. Time to mix the boiling sugar and gelatin together. Mixing the two together released a fragrance throughout the entire kitchen. Oh man. The smell was horrible! It seriously smelled like something was rotten. This I was not expecting. Theresa happened to be in the kitchen and was equally disgusted. So much so...