Where Are All the Candles?!

We had a birthday cake for Jesus yesterday. I like doing this because it's a good concrete way for the kids to relate to why we have Christmas and bring the focus back to Jesus on Christmas day. And I don't know about other people's kids, but with my kids it usually brings up good questions, too. When I asked Lily if she wanted to help me make a cake for Jesus' birthday she asked if Jesus would come to eat it. Which was a good time to talk about Jesus wanting Lily to enjoy the cake for Him and talk about Jesus wanting good things for us. Later I let each child pick a color candle to put on the cake. Lily chose pink and Ryan chose blue. So I put 2 pink candles, 2 blue candles and 2 yellow candles to be neutral territory in the middle. So Ryan asked why there were only 6 candles because Jesus isn't six. I made the off-handed comment that I didn't have 2,000 candles (a rough general estimate, I know). Ryan said He's not 2,000 either, just like he would say "Nuh-uh!" when I say it's 12:30 instead of saying it's 12:28. My dad, who was standing near by, agreed that Ryan was right. Then Ryan said something very profound, but I'm not sure he knew how profound. He said, "Jesus is infinity!" Again, my dad agreed and a little dialog about Jesus and God being one went on. I plan on delving more into this with him, but what a great conversation starter, right?! I LOVE Christmas!

Waiting

I feel like there is so much to do yet I'm stuck waiting. I need to go to the store to get some food for Christmas. Yet, here I am sitting on the couch waiting to take Ryan to the bus stop because he has a 2 hour delay. I am not looking forward to going to the store 2 days before Christmas, but luckily I don't have too much to buy. I've got all the non-perishable stuff already. I also need to finish cleaning the basement and the rest of the house. Well, I don't have an excuse to not be doing that except that I'm worried if I get involved in doing something I'll forget about the bus. I probably should be cleaning...maybe I'll go do that. hahaha! I think I'll write more about Christmas prep instead.

I really like having brunch at our house Christmas morning. It's a nice mid-day thing and it gives us the chance to see both of our families on Christmas Day. This year has been a challenge with the snow. I feel like I spent my whole weekend dressing and undressing kids, making hot cocoa, cleaning up the wet clothes, hanging up the wet stuff, washing the dirty stuff and cleaning puddles left behind by the whole ordeal. I also had a project I was working on for a good part of the last 3 days. Then there is the fact that Ryan hasn't had school, so things are all out of whack. The messes are bigger the refereeing is constant and there is not a lot of uninterrupted time to do things that need to be done for Christmas morning...if you get my drift. Luckily one of our friends called yesterday to see if Ryan could play and since that made Lily sad we arranged for her to visit her Grandma and her dog "cousins."  That seemed to make everyone happy, especially me. I got a few hours of alone time and finished most of what I need to do with no one else around for Christmas morning. I still need to finish emptying the basement, but the kids don't know that is for any special reason. That is until Ryan reads this over my shoulder;-) I'd better get going!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Snow is coming! This is good news and bad news. It means that EVERYONE and his brother is out today either finishing the Christmas shopping they were planning to do this weekend or getting "I'm going to be snowed in for a week" supplies. I had to get Lily snow boots. If it snowed every year here I would have gotten them in the fall, but I've been burned by that plan before. When you are on a budget snow boots and snow pants don't make the cut unless there is going to be snow. Most of the time I just have the kids wear their sneakers, but all Lily's shoes have an open top. I guess she likes the Mary Jane look. This is all fine and dandy most of the time, but not in the snow. We got the very last pair of boots in her size. They were completely out of boy snow boots and had a very limited amount of girl boots left. It was a good thing we got there when we did! While we were there I decided to pick up some marshmallows for hot chocolate. The lines weren't so bad and people were generally pleasant. It was crowded and the parking lot was kinda crazy, but we made it out unscathed.
I also needed a few things from the grocery store, but my very thoughtful and wonderful mother called to ask if she could pick anything up for me because she was going to the store. I know how much she hates shopping and crowded stores, so this was a true gift. I am so grateful! Thanks, Mom! I have a friend who posted on Facebook from the line at the grocery store 3 times over more than an hour. I would have had a really hard time keeping Lily (and myself) in good spirits for that long in a line that didn't end with a trip on a flying elephant.
Lily also completed her potty chart last night, so we went to Chuck E. Cheese today, as promised. Getting there was a slow process. It's probably 2 minutes from our house on a normal day, but today it took me at least 20. I sat in the left hand turn lane through 4 cycles because traffic getting into the shopping center was so thick. There is a grocery store, a department store and lots of other smaller shops in the shopping center where our Chuck E Cheese is, so you can see why it was so crazy. Once we were there we had fun. Lily wanted my parents to come celebrate with her, so they did. They even played a game or two. They are such good sports.
Now that today's craziness is behind us, I'm looking forward to tomorrow. There is something magical about Christmas time snow. It really gets you in the mood to celebrate. I'm looking forward to watching the kids sled down the hill, build snowmen and try to catch snowflakes on their tongues. After they finally realize how cold they are and come inside we'll drink hot chocolate then cuddle under cozy blankets together. Well, that's my plan anyway. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Ease of Access

I put a basket full of clean, folded clothes in Ryan's room yesterday. Usually I will just leave stacks on his bed for him to put away. This morning I asked him if he had seen the basket. With a big grin he said, "Yes!" I figured he was just really excited because the Lego Star Wars shirt he was wearing was in the basket. He loves that shirt. We went about our morning and after Ryan was done getting ready I asked him to put his clothes away. To which he replied, "Why? They are easy to get to now." He was totally serious (and only a little bit fussy.) I guess he thought it was a new system for laundry in our house. That's probably why he was so excited when I asked if he saw the basket in his room. LOL

Blessings in Disguise

There are many blessings you get and give when buying form Angel Food Ministries. Most are evident, you save money, you save time, you get good food and most importantly by buying from them you make it possible for Angel Food to have the bulk buying power to offer people who need a little assistance the chance to buy quality food at discounted prices. All that is great, but this week I discovered a blessing in disguise. One of the things we received in our box was a package of pork chops. I don't like pork chops. I'm kind of a picky eater. [Those who really know me well are snickering under their breath, "kind of?! HA!"] Aaaaaanyway, I also don't like to waste anything, especially food and money. So I went on a search for a recipe to make pork chops that I could stand eating. I found three that I thought I might be able to force down. I showed them to Jay and he picked two he thought looked good. I ended up making Caramel Apple Pork Chops. [for those taking notes I took some suggestions from the comments and quadrupled the sauce and baked at 350* for 40 minutes] It was DELICIOUS! It made me actually want to go out and buy pork chops on my own to make it again. The strangest part is I don't like cooked apples(or any warm fruit for that matter). I thought I would just take them off and eat the chops with the sauce; but I tried a piece with the apples, partly to ease my guilt of making the kids try it, and I liked it. For scientific purposes I then tried the warm apple alone- I still don't like warm fruit. Weird, huh? So if you are looking for a good pork chop recipe or just a good new dish to try I highly recommend Caramel Apple Pork Chops.
I had a similar experience when we did a CSA(community supported agriculture) program where we didn't get to pick our food. [Orange Glazed Asparagus]These programs have forced me to get out of my food routines and try new things that I've ended up liking a lot. I think we all have our own food routines. Even people who like to try new things have often have their routines- pick one new fruit every time I go to the grocery store, try one new recipe a month, etc. We are creatures of habit. I think it's good to get out of your comfort zone every once in a while and try new things. You never know what you might discover.

Whatever You Want, I'm Going to do the Opposite

Here is an example of a typical conversation between Lily and me these days.

Lily: Can I turn off the stereo?
Me: Sure.
Lily: Well, I don't want to.
Me::shrugging:: Then don't.
Lily: Maybe I do want to.
Me: Silent...it's better than perpetuating the inevitable back and forth or picking a fight about something I don't care about at all.
Lily, turns the stereo off. Then turns it right back on.

Oy!

Between this contrary attitude of Lily's and Ryan's continuous fussing I'm about to pull my hair out.