Merry Christmas!

Ready for Santa!

Gingerbread "Festivity"

Our gingerbread projects, on two different days, didn't start out "festive", but I'm afraid ended that way when Rowan had complete meltdowns because they both didn't go exactly how he had imagined. The house didn't look just like the picture on the box, and we didn't have any candy for the gingerbread people, as they had had when he decorated his gingerbread man at school.

I was only able to keep my temper for the second meltdown by documenting this tragic face (taken post rolling on the floor, kicking and screaming).

It was too late in the afternoon for good light in this photo, but I still had fun playing with the tree bokeh.

Rowan's Holiday School Program-2010

A few weeks ago Rowan's school had their holiday program. He was a little nervous beforehand, but did really great. I found it interesting that the school did not have a Halloween party since not everyone celebrates Halloween, but that they did sing some religious songs for the holiday program. Maybe they figure that since there was a Hanukkah song in with all the others it was okay?

Morning in San Francisco

The morning before Thanksgiving we spent a little bit of time in San Francisco. Not too long, because we were worried about afternoon traffic getting out of town, and we were also all a little grumpy from not going to bed until (at least) midnight the night before. We made a quick-ish stop at the Ferry Building where we got donuts (egg free!), chocolate, bread, and cheese. After that we went to the Golden Gate Bridge for a quick walk before heading to Santa Rosa.

the bay bridge

Ro outside the Ferry Building

Niamh's first donut ever! Complete with four-year-old attitude.

I wanted a picture of all three kids together in front of The Bridge, but that wasn't in the cards.

Little Bird

"Mama, when I jump it feels like I'm soaring like a bird!"

12.6.10

St. Nicholas visited our house last night, leaving the kids a few treats,

three new figures for the nativity scene,

and three new Christmas books. This year Muriel received Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree, Niamh received The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, and Rowan received Christmas Day in the Morning.

We ended the morning with Italian peppermint hot chocolate and a sad, sad attempt at making eggless St. Nicholas bread. I thought that a sweet dough like what is used for cinnamon rolls would be a good substitute for what the bakeries in Morges make. Cook's Illustrated has a recipe for quick cinnamon buns that don't have eggs. It sounded perfect! The recipe though did not have yeast, which made it more like a biscuit dough, which is very hard to shape into little St. Nicholas men. So next year I will try again, this time with a yeast dough!

Static Electricity

The static electricity in our house since we came back from CA has been out of control. It's not only doing crazy things to the girls' hair, but every time we touch a light switch we get a nice jolt of electricity. I hope that this won't last the rest of the winter!

12.1.10

Happy first day of December!