new year's eve preparations

We're getting ready for New Year's eve. I've done a good pre-New Year's tidy up (or at least as much as I'm going to do for now) and I'm planning our little family party. We're still trying to come up with traditions for New Year's eve, but last year's party was pretty fun and I think we're basically going to duplicate that.
I looked up what we made last year and shopped tonight so we can duplicate the menu. Here's what we're having--

:: cheese ball with an assortment of crackers
:: crudites
:: hot Mexican dip and chips
:: Babaloo chicken wings
:: guacamole
:: peppermint bark (I have the ingredients for this and still haven't made it this season. Hopefully I'll get around to it).
:: sparkling cider

Here's the recipe for the chicken wings. They were a big hit last year. I clipped this recipe from a parenting magazine years ago, when Jacob was still a toddler. I've rarely made it, but last year something made me remember it, and it was really good.

Babaloo Chicken Wings

1 package chicken wing drumettes (aka "party wings")
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. sesame oil (or just use regular oil)
2 T. orange juice
1 T. honey

1. Heat oven to 425.
2. Combine the marinade ingredients (soy sauce through honey) and pour over the chicken wings in a glass bowl. Marinate for 1 hour.
3. Place wings in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake 30 minutes, turning occasionally.
4. Set oven to broil. Broil 4 or 5 minutes, turning occasionally, until evenly browned.
5. Wings may be eaten hot, cold, or at room temp.

What are your plans for the evening?

holiday handmades :: part 2

Here are the rest of my holiday handmades. This year, I resolved to make fewer home sewn gifts (because my sewing time is so limited and honestly, I'm not sure if everyone is really into the homesewn creations as much as I am). These are the items I made a priority. First up: mama-made pajama pants for the boys to wear on Christmas eve night. This probably won't become a tradition (I basically have to beg my boys to wear pajamas of any kind), but they graciously wore these on Christmas eve.
And how cute they looked. These are made from a thrifted sheet that I thought looked Christmasy. Rainer ended up wearing his as daytime pants. The t-shirts are stamped with a tree and "Merry Christmas," using regular rubber stamps.
I had "make fabric gift bags" on my crafting wishlist anyway, but when Soulemama posted her tutorial for fabric gift bags, I was inspired to move the project from my "crafting wishlist" to the "I'm making time to do this" list. The fabric gift bag concept solves a lot of problems for me: I hate wrapping, it's wasteful and expensive, time consuming, and I really hate storing several rolls of wrapping paper from year to year. I'm looking forward to building up a whole stash of these so that wrapping paper will be a thing of the past for me, eventually.
And on Christmas eve day, the boys and I had fun making this button wreath. (We used this tutorial). The boys had fun helping me pick out green and white buttons and arranging them on the wreath. I hot glued them to the wreath form. The project definitely made me think about getting a low-temp glue gun so the kids can be in on the gluing fun as well.
This little wreath decorated my studio for a few days before being stored away for next year.

It's cold here! The low tonight is going to be near-freezing and for tomorrow they're predicting a high of 49! That is a super low high for us. I'll believe it when I see it!

the lovely after-christmas lull

We are enjoying the lovely peaceful days after Christmas SO much. As simple as one might try to keep Christmas, there is still so much to do, and so many expectations surrounding the holiday. For that reason, how nice it is just to settle into the days after, when there is nothing to do but play with toys, read our new books, and to putter about the house cleaning up. Which is exactly what we did today. The boys played incredibly well together for much of the day (giving me a little hint of the future, I hope, when they will get along better and be more independent) and I got a lot of work done (both yesterday and today) taking down Christmas, finding room for the new toys, and starting a pre-New Year's tidy up. It feels wonderful to put away the clutter of Christmas and to let the house open up again. As much as I loved our pretty tree and decorations it is incredibly uplifting to de-clutter once again. Looking forward to more of the same for the rest of the week.





Dieter decorated the winter book basket with little birthday icons because we have so many January birthdays here.

Two favorite Christmas memories from this year:
:: the boys dancing dancing dancing to their favorite Christmas music--so cute! That has continued into today. Not quite ready to put away the Christmas CDs yet.
:: the fun time Faith and I had one evening last week. Went for a movie, then dinner at Chipotle, a Trader Joe's run, and a very fun late-night trip to Michael's (did you know they stay open until 11pm during the holidays?). It was quite festive and rainy and wintry.

holiday handmades

One of my happiest Christmas preparations by far was making some sweet handmades for my children. I had ordered them a big house (a "gnome house" as we call it), and I knew I wanted to furnish it partly with mama-made gifts. Making these things was so so fun and exactly the type of quiet preparation for the holidays that captures my heart and imagination.

Above are a pile of felt rocks (like these, but crisper--with the blanket stitch done correctly this time--and some with real wool felt), a stump, and four knitted "gnomey blankets."


And I also wanted to make a rainbow of gnomes to live in the house (inspired by Ella's gnome rainbows that she does). For these I had mostly wool felt, which was marvelous to work with. I stitched them all down their backs with blanket stitch and it was meditative and soothing. I'm so thankful for the studio time I had to work on these gifts.

scenes from our christmas

Another Christmas gone by. We had a fun day, with gifts, brunch, a walk, and a delicious dinner at my parents house. Today was lazy lazy--playing with toys, trying to read a bit of my Christmas books, and having a belated Solstice tea and outdoor fire.

I'm anxious to start taking down Christmas and having a end-of-year clean up. Hopefully I can start that process tomorrow. New year's eve and birthdays are coming fast--I need to plan those too (especially Dieter's first "kid" birthday party--oh my!). I would love any birthday party suggestions you guys can offer. We're wanting to do a simply at-home party. Hopefully the trampoline will be front and center, but I need to have a rain plan as well. What fun, simple activities have you done for kids' parties?

Happy post-Christmas lull, everybody!

a merry christmas to all

We kept it super mellow today. We colored, cut a few more snowflakes, listened to a story CD that Dieter is really into right now, did a simple craft, went to the park, and picked up tamales for our dinner (and I made some beans and rice to go with them). In the evening we watched Father Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. All month, I kept saying I only planned to bake cookies if inspired to do so, and I never got inspired. But someone gave us a delicious tin of popcorn and we made hot chocolate with candy cane stirrers and all was well. Yum.

I loved Stephanie's post today.
Rachel has a wonderful post tonight too.

Have a joyous, real Christmas, everyone!

a christmasy hospital visit

Last week, Rainer had a brief (6 hour) hospital stay. He needed an infusion of immunoglobulins. He did great--and how lucky is this--it happened to fall on the day that Santa was visiting all the children in the hospital. I didn't think to take any pictures when Santa visited, but it was oh so exciting. I thought it might be scary for Rainer (Santa came with a large entourage--Mrs. Clause, one elf, and photographer, and one or two nurses), but Rainer really held it together.
In the down moments (most of it), we played matching games and I read him a few chapters of The Children of Noisy Village. The time went really fast. We were both tired, but happily engaged. He crashed in the car on the way home.

{with all his loot from Santa}

{they sent him up a fruit plate and Cheerios}

{we brought along stuffed art and games}

happy birthday papa!

Earlier this month we celebrated my dad's 80th birthday!

{Papa with some of his grandchildren}

Many of the family came, including my brother from Colorado and his son Will (on the left).
I made a chocolate cake and also this very easy fruit crisp (recipe from Lisa Leonard's blog). It was totally delish.
Faith and my mom did this fancy table setting. Faith folded the napkins in the "artichoke" pattern. My mom made a beautiful dinner with both steak and shrimp.

{me with my two brothers--it's pretty rare that we are all together for a picture}

My parents are both model retired people: staying active and busy. Things Papa has done in his 70's:
:: went back to school to earn his financial adviser certificate
:: volunteered--helping retired people with their taxes
:: stayed very active in Habitat for Humanity over a number of years
:: traveled extensively with my mother all over the world
:: is an awesome dad/grandpa to us all

Happy birthday, Papa! I hope your 80's are just as great!

inspiring me this season

I love all the woodland theme displays at Anthropologie this season. I could not resist snapping a few pictures while in the store.

{pinecone mobiles}

{tree of mittens}

{woodland stumps and mushrooms--the cute boys are mine}

{stump houses}

{leaf garland}