What we have been up to lately....

First off, here is where we were 2 years ago at Christmas time. Funny.

So, what have we been up to lately....well, we have been busy, but having lots of fun. We had friends over on Sunday night and we made noodles. Chip made the best dough ever, and Reder had the most fun running it through the pasta maker:

We got a package in the mail from Aunt Sue and Uncle Roger, with a present to open right away. How fun! It was a Nativity Scene (or Activity Scene, as Reder says) made of stuffed baby Jesus, Mary, etc, so the kids can actually play with it. They love it! Ruby, stop making that face!:

Here we got it all set up:

Ruby has discovered a new way to sleep. Well, maybe not permanently, but this is how we found her when we checked on her the other night before we went to bed. She is half in her window seat, and half in her bed. You'll notice Dougie's little blue head on the right, covered with her "hot pink blankie", as she says. Maybe she was tucking him in when she fell asleep!:

Jill told me the other day that she and Wally were going to dip pretzels in almond bark. I thought that was a great idea, since it would be fun, easy, and supply instant gratification for kids. We tried that today. Here we are saying "We love pretzels!":

Ruby got a little over-zealous with the sprinkles. I just had to take a picture. Don't worry, all my friends out there, I will not pass out these pretzels to you as a treat, as my kids' potentially dirty fingers touched every lick of them! (except for Papa, whom I gave a bunch of the ones I did):

Reder was sure proud of his work! This was right up his alley:

I must say though that almond bark is absolutely disgusting. It is almost all saturated fat. We only dipped a bit of each pretzel (mostly because it's easier for kids that way), but I'm glad we did since you only get a tiny bit of it with each pretzel.

Tomorrow Reder is making gingerbread houses at school. Quite often they ask for Mom helpers to assist in activities like this. I have yet to help out. Sometimes I feel like I help out with so many other things my kids do, I don't want to do this one too. Plus I would have to wrangle Ruby the whole time I'm helping so in the end I might not be helping at all!

Last night we had the AED Christmas party. It was absolutely wonderful. One of the guys Jason works with offered his house to host, and Deb did all of the cooking. We had prime rib, salmon, potatoes, green beans, and a few fabulous desserts. I hope we do it that way again next year!

Tonight I had this itching to watch Home Alone (Steffany, was it you that mentioned that the other day?) but Netflix doesn't stream it, so guess I won't be doing that. Maybe I'll clean up my disaster of a living room instead. Oh yeah, and today I got my hair all chopped off. Feels great!

Nighty night!