Christmas Baking

Following the gingerbread house on Saturday, we decided to do a little Christmas baking. Paisley was anxious to help.

Her job: roll the cookies in crushed candy cane and place them on the trays.




At one point she combined several balls of dough to make a GIANT cookie.


... and then made a snowman.


Once all that was done, we watched the cookies bake.


We're saving some for friends and family, but we also sampled them (including Paisley's giant cookie).


Tamara will share the recipe for these cookies in the next few days.

Gingerbread House Building and Decorating

We decided this year was the year to start making gingerbread houses. :) Paisley's really into helping with baking and decorating (and building and fixing), and pretty much everything. She's also very into posing and saying "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE"













She was very good about using the candies as building materials rather than eating them, too. We snacked on leftovers when construction was complete.

Christmas

Going to post one big post today, as I'm going to be busy with business work for a week or so. :)

Trying on all her stocking stuffers



Unwrapping gifts:



Doing her new puzzle with Grandpa




Her new John Deere Tractor Train





The family:











Playing with her new John Deere Barn Band:





Looking for more gifts:





New hockey stick from daddy (and new jersey for G & G):











New doll:



Now book:



Tuckered out Daddy:



Actually, going to do this in 2 posts... you'll have to wait til tomorrow for the rest :) Pre-scheduling.

Another Holiday Recipe

Last year I had candy canes laying around... I never eat them. So I took a ziploc bag, a hammer, and an old pillow case. Tossed the candy canes in the ziploc bag (freezer bag, heavy duty), then put it in the pillow case and started banging them to crush the canes up. Then I made Rice Krispie squares, and added in the crushed candy canes. They were DELICIOUS! I made a tray for at home, and I made a try for Josh's office. At the office, they were gone before 9:30 (there was about 3 squares per person). Good use for candy canes, and a great festive treat. I used the Christmas Rice Krispies too, so it was nice and colourful.

Despite all the thinking I've been doing on Christmas goodies, I still haven't done any Christmas baking. Maybe because I feel I should do my other projects first....

Lack of Christmas Gifts

This year I had planned to make ALL our christmas gifts for people. Then came December, and I thought, well most people I'll make theirs, and buy a few, as I don't have time. We leave in 5 days..... I've completed 1 present. Yes only one. I think I managed to cover all the bases now... but a lot of people will be getting partially assembled presents with the promise of completion in January....... or February. I have no one to blame but myself. I planned to work on it during naps, and after Paisley went to bed for the night. Well evenings, more often than not, I found myself curling up on the couch and watching TV, and quite often having a nap. Nap times I found myself using that time to clean the house, and do the mandatory things around here.

Oh well.

Christmas cards are the exact same story. Maybe I'll have them mailed by New Year's! Where has the time gone. I did fill all the card orders I had in a timely fashion though, just slacked and procrastinated on mine!

So if you don't get a card.... you'll get one eventually. Don't give up on me yet!

Christmas Outfit

cpais5, originally uploaded by tyeoca.

Trying on the Christmas Outfit

CPais7, originally uploaded by tyeoca.

Christmas Outfit

CPais8, originally uploaded by tyeoca.

Christmas Outfit

Cpais3, originally uploaded by tyeoca.

Christmas Outfit

CPais, originally uploaded by tyeoca.

Trying on the Christmas Outfit

CPais4, originally uploaded by tyeoca.

Thanks Mom and Dad Y.

My lighting gear, a Christmas gift from Tamara's parents, arrived in the mail today. I've now got some lighting umbrellas, stands, wireless triggers, and a few other little goodies to further develop my photography.

Here's my Pentax flash shooting into one of the umbrellas:


And me tinkering with the flash while it's attached to the stand:


Here are Tamara and Oakley posing under the new lighting:

Today was the international Buy Nothing Day. Convieniently it is the same day as Black Friday. Our club had a stuff swap on campus. It was a store set up, but no money was exchanged.. just items. Kinda cool. Unfortunately today was also the big Country Christmas Craft Show at the Exhibition Grounds. Over 177 craft booths! :) I did go, and I did buy a couple of items (as gifts of course). I also wanted to scout it out, since I plan to have a booth next year for my cards. Last year I had said I wanted a booth this year... but I'm still in school. So next year... I have it in writing now... that I WILL have a booth at the craft show. There were 2 other card booths there this year. One of which the cards weren't very nice and they were charging $4 a card. The other one had great cards. :) I would considered mine to be on the same level as theirs. They were charging $3.50 a card. So I scouted it out, and both booths were selling a number of cards while we were there, so YAY!

My cats have been fantastic lately. I thought they'd be all over the tree, but they just leave it alone. Actaully they've been napping under it, but not disturbing it. Which is wonderful.

At this point, I think there is no way I can fail any of my classes. I think I'll even get through chem with a somewhat decent mark (my lab is definately going to drag up my mark). In lecture I'm sitting at 56% (higher than I thought), and she gave out a make up assignment which is able to add 6%to the top of my mark. So say I only get 50% on the assignment, I will be sitting at 59%. Which means I only need above a 40% on the final. :) which I can guarentee I'll get. So YAY!!! No chem worries anymore. With th lab factored in, I should get 65-75% on the course in the end. YAY for lab, even though it is a very brutal lab.

Ohh and I charged up my cell phone for the first time in,.... 8 or 9 months! They're threatening to cut me off if I don't use it soon. So I figure I'll carry it this week, and one day I'll call Josh to get him to pick me up!

I was reading yesterday about christmas trees and the environment. Artificial trees (which I have) are bad in that they have so many chemicals in them. Which really isn't bad, until it hits the land fill. Real trees, well.. you're cutting them down and killing them. Now being a christmas freak, christmas just isn't christmas without a christmas tree. So it gave a solution. In some cities you can rent a tree. It's a really neat idea. You pay a rental fee, and the tree comes burlapped up (roots), and after the holidays, the tree is picked up and gets planted within the city, whether it be a park, a schoolyard or something! It's brilliant! Right now this program is available in San Fransisco and Portland. Hopefully it takes off elsewhere for next year. If you have a real tree... make sure to recycle it at the end of the season!