Christmas Cookie Sugar High

I hosted a mini-cookie exchange today, and it was a lot of fun.  I decided to try a new recipe- Oreo Truffles, and they are delicious!  Crushed Oreo mixed with Cream Cheese covered in chocolate.  How can you go wrong?

I also made a more traditional cookie.  We always referred to them as Snowballs in my family, but they're called all sorts of things- Russian Teacakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Swedish Teacakes. 
The kids played for a while and then went on a sugar binge.  It was like Christmas a little early for them with so many options.  Here's a little sampling of cookies......

In case the sugar in the cookies wasn't enough we had a little hot chocolate station for the liquid sugar fix.  I know Nathan was in heaven although he wasn't much into the hot chocolate.  He just wanted cookies and more cookies.

And here's a look at the Table Runner actually on the table.......

 

Project Table Runner Completed!

My task for the week was to finally make a Christmas Table Runner.  About 3 years ago I made a couple of Christmas Star patches with the thought that a table runner would be nice.  Of course, I had no idea how to make a table runner back then, so it got stuffed back in the closet.  As each Christmas would roll by Joel would ask, "What ever happened to making that table runner?"  My reply was always, "Um, next year?"  Well, I took out the patches (they were actually too large to work for our table), and I suddenly felt the urge to start over and make a real table runner.  Here are the results......

 (that's my coffee table- not kitchen table- to give you an idea of size)

Baby Thompson #2

Here's a hint as to the gender...... this is the quilt top I made for the baby (yes, I had a feeling for a while, so I went ahead and started a quilt).

 Yep, we're having a girl!  I figure that I did my duty to perpetuate the Thompson name with Nathan, so now we can have a girl. :)  As of right now we're going to name her Emma Irene Thompson.  (Irene was my Grammy's name).  She may not end up looking like an Emma, but for now, that's what we're naming her.

Fenced In

Nathan is now free to be master of his own domain, because our fence was installed yesterday, and I'm very happy and relieved to have it.  I felt bad for the workers because it was so cold out there and it was snowing.  They also had to hand dig a lot of the post holes because of all of the roots from the trees.  They did a great job though and actually got it all done in one day.  You can kind of get any idea what it looks like from a second story window.  Now all I have left to do is bundle all of the remaining tree limbs.  Bleh.

Haiku by Jo

My friend Jo Kemble recently started a business and had an open house last night.  It was fun to chat with the girls and I also got myself a new diaper bag (Nathan has done a number on the current bag), and a couple of rosettes for my niece since she's celebrating her 3rd birthday this week.

 Joel made me promise not to make it too feminine since he uses it as well.  He was good with everything except the flower.  We'll have to do Rock Paper Scissors on that 'cause I think it makes the bag. :)

  Happy Birthday, Mellie Bellie!  You're growing up way too quickly for your own good.

Decorations

I love decorating for Christmas, because for some reason the home feels even more homey. (Is that even a word?  Well, I suppose it is now.)  It just makes me happy and festive when my house is decorated.

The tree is up, and Nathan keeps "oo"ing and "ah"ing.  So far he's been content to just point at the ornaments, but I know it's just a matter of time until he'll want to play with them, so the breakable ornaments are all at the top of the tree.  Luckily he's still small enough that he doesn't care if it's a big tree or not, so we can still put it up on the end table and have it be mostly out of his reach.

We also got our Nativities out.  Nathan loves pointing at Baby Jesus and the animals.   

And of course there's the cute nativity (on the left) that my mom brought back for us from Puerto Rico.

Ornament Traditions

When Joel and I got married my mission president's wife sent us this ornament with an explanation of a tradition they had in their family with choosing ornaments each year.  Joel and I decided to do the same.  Each year we choose an ornament that has a specific meaning for us.  At first it was a fun way to try to fill up our barren tree, but now it's so much more fun each year looking at all of the ornaments that bring back memories.

We started with these ornaments from our honeymoon in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  We stayed in a cabin that was Smokey Mountain themed with tons of black bears- hence the 2 ornaments.

Another example would be our glass Hershey kisses.  We bought them at HersheyPark Candylane to remember our time living in Hershey and also as a reminder of taking my Select Choir to sing there every Christmas.

We also try to remember to get an ornament to remember our vacations- this one is from our trip to Williamsburg, Virginia two years ago.

This year Joel and I got a Buckeye Brutus because of our move to Columbus, Ohio.  Nathan's ornament is from the Columbus Zoo, because it's just about his favorite place ever.

Well, enough reminiscing-  I'm off to go sing some Christmas Carols as we decorate the tree.

Potter Review

We went to see Part One of "The Deathly Hollows" last night, and I have to say that it was intense, time flew by, and it did a really good job of sticking to the book.  I'm glad they've decided to split the book into two movies, so that they can do justice to the intricate plot. 
I will say that it was by far the scariest and darkest of the Potter movies yet.  My major complaint was actually about the movie viewers- not the movie.  A family with 3 children (I'm guessing ages 8, 5, & 2) sat in the row in front of us and I seriously could not believe they brought a toddler to this movie.  The poor boy is going to have nightmares for weeks.  It was most definitely not a kid's movie.  I mean seriously- I jumped quite a few times (the snake part, for instance) and it's all about destruction and death.  Why in the world would you take your little children to see that?  Ok- I've said my piece.  The movie was good.  Joel said it was probably his favorite of all the Harry Potter movies, and now all there is to do is wait for the final installment coming in July.  While I'm waiting for that I can enjoy the next installment of Narnia that comes out at Christmastime.  :)