Christmas baking

yesterday jack and i went over to my grandparent's house next door to do a little Christmas baking. my mom organized the event.:) she made 7 swedish tea rings (like a big ring of cinnamon roll), date crumbles, and she coached my grandfather in the making of 2 batches of date cookies. and that was just up until the time i left at 3pm. there were still special k bars and nut goodie bars to be made, i gather.

i whipped out a bunch of my old standbys, sandbakkels. they are norwegian cookies you press into little tins. the cookies taste like almond sugar cookies. they are shaped like little tarts that you are supposed to fill up with jam. yum. i had them at my wedding reception. made by me!

i also made 2 scandinavian almond cakes -- one for me and one for my gram. she has a very messed up back and could only watch us bake, and rock jack to sleep. that was sweet. she sung him a lullaby and i got it on video.

i also made a triple batch of banana bread. i don't know why, but i like to give it to people in the Church for the holidays.:) weird compulsion, i know. i like to slip the pastor a loaf when i shake his hand after a service. i like to make little muffins and such for the widows and spinsters and other sweet older friends. don't forget the widows and spinsters and poor on Christmas! i was a spinster until very recently, and i have been poor. they need loving!

today i am determined to finish my Christmas shopping. i also have a coffee break birthday party for my grandpa at 10am. he is 75 today. he's a sweet guy. he loves to rile up jack. then at 1pm i have a w.i.c. appointment. then at 4:30 i have a work Christmas party. bring on the cheese tray!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

jack sits with santa

jack sat with the mall santa dec. 8th. we were first in line and i was very excited. jack was asleep in his stroller when we got there.:) i woke him up, and as you can see, he was ready to greet santa with a big cheesy grin. but where is santa's grin?... there's not much to excuse the absence of a smile with the very first child of the day. a good child at that. yet, maybe one of his reindeer died that day or maybe he has irritable bowel syndrome from eating all those cookies. we may never know.

i really dig those gloves though. he might have got them as a gift from mickey mouse. also, that is a real beard.

if i don't get around to it telling you before the big day... HAVE A VERY MERRY CHIRSTMAS FULL OF GOD'S ABUNDANT BLESSINGS AND A HAPPY PEACEFUL NEW YEAR!!!

jack's first mall santa

i took jack to get his photo taken with a "real" santa saturday. we were there 30 minutes early, so i did a little shopping at bath and body works first. ho ho ho. when i got back there still wasn't a line. i was the first, and only one in line when santa showed up. weird. jack was a doll and the photo turned out nice. i get it next saturday. i bought a 5x7 and a bunch of buttons and keychains for Christmas gifts.

here is a cute photo of my dad on santa's lap when he was a little boy.

paris hilton shows love to the oompa loompa

apparently there was this oompa loompa dressed character at a night club where paris hilton was and he got trampled. the lovely miss hilton stayed by his side until the ambulance arrived.

CRAZY!

i love it.

i own both versions of the chocolate factory movie. love them both. oompa loompas forever.

jay's mom once called them "oompa oompas". classic jan davis. i love that, too.

"bringing up baby" right

yesterday a very nice lady from Church gave us this photo she took of dan and jack. in the photo dan is carrying jack out to the car after a service. it must have been a very hot summer day the day of the photo. jack must have been about three months, judging from the onesie he's wearing. it is so sweet to see dan carrying around his little baby boy. note the burp cloth tucked under daddy's arm.

baby's first illness

poor jackers has a cold. he is all congested and is coughing. i am feeding him more frequently and trying to help him get lots of rest. he looks so pathetic with crusty boogers in his nostrils. little nostrils that have never known crusty boogers.

after i nursed jack for 20 minutes today, i sat down to eat my own lunch. i made a fabulous casserole last night. i just made it up. pasta, cream soups, broccoli, cauliflower, hamburger, mozzarella cheese, etc. the highlight of the casserole is the breakfast sausage. really! well, mr. jack was eyeing up my plate. then he started whining and reaching for the plate. so i cooled off some food and gave him a tiny bit. that was it. he wouldn't let me eat in peace. he pigged out. it was fun feeding him bits of mooshed up broccoli and cauliflower and watching for reaction. i think he really loved the cheesy sauced pasta. he was grinning like a fool. he kept whining for me to feed him more. i am so paranoid he is going to choke. but, he is working this eating thing like the man he is.

next i gave him some white grape juice in a cup because i remembered how dan was giving him some of his skim milk last night because jack was begging for it. well, he loved the juice, but he is not very good at drinking. it's a start. i see i need to be buying sippy cups.

"movin' on up"

wow. i checked in on my old pcc friendly acquaintace, marian macipinlac, yesterday and found out that she has recently renovated her seattle home. that is an understatement. i exclaimed, "holy junk" and startled my baby when i got a peek. i have a link to her blog here on my blog. if you appreciate diy, architecture, interior design, or oogling expensive homes, you should check it out. she has the old and new floor plans posted, and lots of gorgeous photos. it is unbelievable. i am not sure, but i suppose she renovated it as a "flip". i.e., 1. buy a home, 2. renovate, 3. sell at a tasty profit. let me just say, a $300,000 profit sounds pretty sweet. although, from what she's said, it sounds like they did a lot of the work themselves.

like marian said, who doesn't love chandeliers in the bathroom?

ingvar kamprad

check this out. the founder of IKEA, ingvar kamprad, is a billionaire. he drives a '93 volvo and flies coach. i love hearing stuff like that.

the question is this... is the volvo tricked out?:)

isn't he a cutie? don't you just want to pinch his cheek?

i bet he eats herring.

check out the necklace. stud.

"mama"

jack just said "mama" again. and this time he wasn't upset! he was just sitting on my lap.

peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips and oatmeal

jen asked for this recipe. it is a fantastic cookie. nacho libre would say it is "especially delicious". i love nacho libre. but i will save that for another time.

1. preheat oven to 375.
2. mix 2 1/2 c. flour, 1 1/2 t. baking soda, 1/2 t. salt, 1 c. butter, 1 c. peanut butter, 1/2 c. sugar, 1 c. brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 t. vanilla, and i put in about 1 c. oatmeal and a ton of chocolate chips.
3. bake about 10 minutes.

the cookies are heaven when warm. very crumbly. watch out!:) they stiffen up and are good for dunking. my boys are dunkers.

mele kaliki maka

is that how it goes? well, it isn't exactly a "bright hawaiian Christmas day" for my step-son. but, it is his birthday. HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY, ANDY!!! you lucky lucky boy. he is in honolulu, hawaii with his aunt and uncle and cousin. he gets his choice of activity today: snorkling, boogie boarding, surf lesson... killer! he is probably looking at diamond head as we speak. he is probably soaking up some salt water as i type. he is probably getting tan as i sit here contemplating the unreality of it all. there is a ton of snow here in rural mn land right now and the temp is about 14 degrees.

this is the hotel they will be staying at in a few days. it is the marriot in kaui.

what's in a name?

i have decided to name jack's little plush blue butterfly carter's crib toy, "muhammad".

jack wants to type.

9',k,k 9 uftg g gh5asc

hey, that's pretty good! looks like a sentence!

teenage wasteland

tomorrow my step-son, andy, turns 13. i threw a big bash for him sunday night. i learned that a truly impressive pasta dinner for 16 is really hard to pull off by yourself. i made a box of spaghetti and a box of fettucini, 3 jars of sauce with about 2 lbs. of hamburger and lots of herbs, sauteed onions and mushrooms, 2 bags of salad, and 4 large loaves of garlic cheese bread. i was hotter than a volcano, disheveled, and my kitchen was a wreck when i finally got to sit down and eat... about 30 minutes after everyone else was eating.:) i heard later that andy had commented, "why didn't we just have pizza?". well, your oh-so-clever step-mom was trying to make a tasty cheap dinner! yes, next time we will just have pizza!!!

i made two cakes. the vanilla cake with vanilla frosting i cut up and shaped into the number "13". i tinted my own icing. let me tell you, that was a very hard frosting job. the raw edges of a moist cake don't take icing very well. why didn't i just make cupcakes and shape them into a "13"? well, that's just the very same question i asked myself... as i pulled the fresh baked cake from the oven. too late.

side note: have you seen the way teenage boys are wearing their hair these days? more like it is wearing them. andy's hair is so long now that it is past "peter brady" and more like a bowl cut. no defined side burns, just all swooped forward. it also reminds me of how balding men sweep all of there hair in back forward. swoop swoop.