The Last Day of Christmas

I think we're finally done with Christmas. On the way home from our last gathering the other night Elena asked, "How many days are left in Christmas?" We had a wonderful time with everything this year- the food all came out good, everyone was healthy, and I didn't have to leave my house on Christmas day. We're ready for our normal lives back- "normal" being a relative term, of course!

Not a creature was stirring...

It has been very, very busy at the Becker house the past few weeks, hence the lack of updates. Of course, it's usually very, very busy at the Becker house; the getting-ready-for-Christmas busyness has just made it seem even busier than our normal level of busy. Above you see David (not) helping me with some of my cookie baking; in spite of his help, I managed to put out a respectable number of cookies.
Christmas morning dawned (actually, they started well before dawn) with what has become our tradition: the children get up at six a.m. and play Christmas carols on the piano until Matt and I decide getting up out of bed is less painful than listening to another rousing chorus of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" sung by children who don't quite remember all the words. This, plus the two-harmonica version of Jingle Bells that sent the dog running to hide under the bed, was far more energizing than a grande gingerbread latte.
I do most of my shopping online these days. In the little photo caption on Amazon.com, this stuffed tiger looked like a normal-sized stuffed animal. Imagine my surprise when a three-foot-high box was delivered by UPS with this guy inside it. If I had read the product description a little more carefully, I might have noticed the dimensions and realized how big it was. Elena loves him nontheless, and has named him Jacob.
The rest of the kids enjoyed their new stuff too. They got the usual assortment of legos, nerf guns, slippers, pajamas, and board games. Enjoy the little video of David eating wrapping paper!

It all comes out in the wash

This is what a watermelon flavored sucker looks like after it has been washed and dried with a load of whites. I know it was watermelon flavored because as I was posting these pics, the former owner of this sucker came by and said, "Oh, I was looking for that sucker. It was watermelon flavor." D'oh! We now have a large basket of slightly fruity smelling socks and undershirts.
This is a typical representation of the types of things I find in the bottom of the washer and dryer. Coins, nerf darts, guitar picks, legos, pocket knives, the unfortunate crayon or piece of candy, etc. In my old washing machine, I once found a whole cherry tomato, completely intact and probably perfectly edible, that a child put in his pocket while he was out in the garden and then promptly forgot about.
My children seem to be magnets for random objects. This is Joe's school cubby, which is supposed to contain only mother-approved school materials, which has so much other junk stuffed between the books that he can't pull anything out without causing an avalanche of miscellaneous stuff. If you need any nerf darts, or a joker for your deck of cards, or a rifle for a lego action figure, just look behind Joe's math books.

Oh fudge.

I make a lot of cookies- probably 2 or 3 batches in a normal week (just for my own consumption), and dozens upon dozens for Christmas. With the new baby this year and all the work we've been doing on the house, I'm a little behind schedule with my baking. While my cookies always (ahem) come out perfectly, I'm willing to admit that my attempts at candy making are a little hit-or-miss. Up above is my first batch of fudge from last week. Among other mistakes, I over-cooked it and over-cooled it before stirring, so it set up rock hard before I could pour it into the pan. This lack of perfection did not deter the children, who kept sneaking by to snatch chunks of burnt fudge until I got around to dumping it out.
My next batch of fudge came out just fine, as did the double batch of peanut butter fudge. I think my success caused me to become over-confident, because the next batch didn't come out so well. I made another double batch of regular fudge, at the same time I was trying to do several other things, and got distracted and made a rookie mistake that made it set up all grainy and icky. Another batch for the trash! In spite of having help from my girls here, the last (and final) batch of fudge came out great. Tomorrow, I'm going back to making cookies.

Eat it, kid

A few short clips of David not eating his baby food!

Happy Birthday, Dear Doggers

You may remember a post similar to this last year, when we celebrated Fly's first birthday. This year, she got a burger with two candles. Matt pinned down the dog, yelping and flailing (the dog, not Matt) while Paul lit the candles.
After a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday", the kids blew out the candles, and the dog ran off to hide under the bed, where she remained for the next four hours. She ate her burger later that night, alone, under the table.

Brrrr

These two are braver than me. It's been cooooooooold.

Tower of Babel-oney

Sometimes it seems that all my children ever think about is food. From the moment I come downstairs in the morning I hear cries of "when's breakfast?" followed immediately by "what's for lunch?" The big kids can, for the most part, prepare food for themselves if they don't feel like waiting for me to do it for them. Little Renee still needs my help, and today it seems she found a way to amuse herself while she waited.

Jingle all the way!

maybe this is why I get so many headaches....you gotta love the harmonica accompaniment!