Shiny Baby New Year

We're off to Nana's in NJ to celebrate New Year's Eve. If past is prologue, we'll be asleep at midnight. But I thought we should do something to mark the holiday...and since I have my own baby New Year, why not dress him up appropriately! Happy New Year everyone.

Holiday Spirit

I love holiday decorating. It was a bit hard to get everything done I would have liked this year, but here are two places in the house that I love this time of year. I thought I'd better take a picture of them before the come down!!



The inside of our front door covered in all of the cards we've recieved.



The mantle with those awesome trees and the sleigh bell garland.

A Flexible Mind

Yes! He can concentrate!! This is Connor playing his new game, MindFlex, in which you control a ball that is floating on cushion of air with your mind. In fact, with your brain waves. It really works. Check this out!

There are five or six games you can play alone or two on two or in teams. As you'd expect, Connor is the best at it in the house. Aren't kids always quicker to catch on to new technology? Maybe someday he'll be able to take out the trash can just by thinking about it.

Our Best Christmas

Christmas this year was a low-key joy. Like that Gerber commercial says..."Having a baby changes everything." And it does. There's a bit less running around. There's a bit less time to do all that stuff that seems so important but really isn't (like putting the lights on the bushes out front or decorating a gingerbread house). And a bit more focus on just being together.



Connor woke up at about 6:30am with shouts of "He was here! He was here!". We made him get in bed with us and wait until 7am to go downstairs. Torture. But he killed some time opening up his GIANT sock in our room. Santa smartly hangs the sock on the upstairs railing outside Connor's room so that he doesn't have to go downstairs to the fireplace to get it and be tempted by all the goodies under the tree.


Palmer seemed to 'get it' right away and as his brother opened his gifts, he played with them immediately and was all smiles.



Connor made out like a bandit, but he earned his biggest gift--a Nintendo DSi XL by showing good behavior at home work time and not whining about it. He played Mario Kart on it yesterday, of course. But he also spent alot of time outside playing with his $20 Stomp Rocket and carried his $22 Beyblade set around the neighborhood. As night fell, we had to open up his new microscope and his MindFlex game which I'll have to post a photo of separately. It is very cool. He also got a new, bigger baseball glove for the spring season and an awesome Washington Capitals sweater that he slept in last night because.."its pretty comfortable for sleeping, mom."



Daddy got some new Tommy Bahama and Timberland shirts. A wallet and some socks. And the new Clive Cussler book, Crescent Dawn, which he has been kind of hinting about. I got a great neck massager, a new 21 quart stock pot, some kitchen knives, and a beautiful, special gift from Connor which I will also have to post separately.



We didn't have a big meal for dinner. We had a big breakfast of delicious crepes and then just picked at various appetizers and some brisket I made the day before.. We watched two movies and just hung out. Everyone was back in bed at 9pm.

The only things missing that would have made it perfect were Nana and LaLa. We missed them. Other than that, it was a great day. We hope yours was, too. God bless us everyone!

Christmas Eve II-The Jammies

Palmer is not amused. But here we all are in our new jammies--ready for Santa!

Christmas Eve I-Santa's Cookie

I sure hope that the Man with the Bag is hungry. And his little reindeer, too. That guy is the size of the whole cookie sheet!

Another Vist With The Man

Connor never had the 'official' visit with Santa this year--just that unofficial visit with the Gaylord Santa in his weird pajamas. So, on Christmas Eve we were off to the mall. Connor was happy that he got to see him...but Palmer was none too thrilled this time. Sorry, little guy!

The Bald Spot

I keep meaning to take a picture of it before it disappears forever. Here it is. It's the only spot on his head that still feels like newborn baby. I'm gonna miss it.

Retro Jell-o

I stumbled upon this Jell-o masterpiece on the web this week and just HAD to try it. I is simply too cool for school!

First, you make small trays of colored Jell-o in a Jiggler consistency. For those of you not down with the jiggle-town, that is two small boxes of Jell-o and two cups of boiling water. We made 5 different colors in disposable 9x9 Hefty baking pans sprayed with Pam.




Once they set, you cut them into cubes. Try to keep the sizes kind of uniform. I didn't do this so well, but with then next batch I will and it will look better.




Toss the cubes together gently and mix them up well. Aren't they spectacular?


Put all of them into a deep pan. Then, make the "cream" Jello- by softening four packs of Knox unflavored gelatin in a cup of cold water and mixing with two cans of sweetened condensed milk and three cups of boiling water. Let it cool down to close to room temp or it will melt the blocks a bit. Then pour it over the blocks and settle any errant ones down by gently shaking the pan a bit.




Let that set for a few hours and BAM! Jell-o magnificence when you slice it into pieces!


It tastes really great but not ice cold. Next batch won't include purple (grape), it just looks too dark. And what about red? How could I forget the red?

For a better blog post and a half size recipe (I doubled because I only had that big pan) check out
Our Best Bites. Happy Jiggling!!

The Nutcracker

C: Mom, we saw "The Nutcracker" in school today.
D: Really? Where?
C: In my classroom on TV.
D: Really? (I honestly am shocked that they would spend any classroom time on this...but that's a whole different post.)
C: Really.
D: Well, did you like it?
C: Duh. No.
D: Why not?
C: Umm. Mom. Girls in ballet outfits? IT BURNED MY EYES.

Thank You Mr. Zuckerberg

Santa's Favorite

Palmer got to see Santa today! Santa whispered in his ear--something about blocks and being a good boy. Palmer was mesmerized.

So was I.

Practicing

So, after Nikon School my motto is "No Auto". Easy to say. Hard to do. But I did get these two lovely shots today.