Christmas Cookies

Christmas creeps ever closer and I realized yesterday that I could not go an entire Christmas season without baking Christmas cookies. Derrick has already made a list of cookies to make in January, but it didn't seem right to save all baking until then.

Luckily for us, one of our favorite Christmas cookies are pizzelles. They don't involve a stove top or oven. All you need is a pizzelle maker (or in our case, a waffle cone iron that we bought a few years ago at a super discount price.) I pulled our anise extract as I packed the kitchen a few weeks ago, so all the ingredients were ready to go. The hardest part was finding an outlet that worked, allowed us enough space to set up our card table and was not over carpet. Our only option was the laundry room. So we set about making Christmas cookies while wedged between the washer and dryer.

The kids and I mixed the batter, but Derrick is our resident waffle maker, so I decided that he would also be good at pizzelles. Here is everyone waiting patiently for them to cook - one at a time.
We ate almost every single one of them as they came hot off the iron. We saved a few and have been munching on them throughout the day. Boy are they good. And, just a taste of the goodies to come when we have an oven again.

Meanwhile...Scott was bored with waiting, so he found a new hiding place. Too bad that will be closed in when we have countertops.

making progress

We are making progress! Here is a picture from last week when our sheetrock was installed. If you live in our area, I HIGHLY recommend our sheetrock guys. They patched our ceiling and you can't even tell where it was patched. They also mopped my floors for me before they left. It was the best clean-up job of any workers so far.


I spent the early part of this week painting. The painting is finished, but it looks half-finished. We only painted the areas that would be exposed. Derrick removed the pass-through counter top last night. All we have left on our list is to caulk around the vent pipe.


Installation of our cabinets begins Monday! We are so excited. I stopped by the shop earlier this week and they look beautiful.

We also have a new idea for our "breakfast/homework" area. I cut the cardboard template this morning and our cabinet guy just came to give his seal of approval. Now all I need is our granite guy to say it is OK.

More updates next week!!

kitchen renovation - demolition

We are renovating our kitchen! I've had several friends ask for pictures. Here they are:

Before:
(Do you see all those little cabinets on top? We had 54 door knobs! We won't have so many in our new kitchen.)
It's too bad that you can't see the coffee stains on the white cabinets just below the coffee pot. We won't have white cabinets either. Leslie & white just don't mix very well.

You can see that the door frame had already been removed at the far end of the picture. Derrick was so excited to demolish, that he started before I even took the "before" pictures.


Same view without cabinets or sheetrock. It took Derrick about two days to get everything out and into our carport. I helped a little and watched children a lot. They LOVED watching and "helping."
You should have seen us removing the long cabinets. Derrick used his old skateboard to prop one end of the heavy cabinets and "skated" them out the door and into the carport. (He knew it would be eventually good for something. Good thing we saved it all these years.) We only had to cut two cabinets - the refrigerator cabinet and the wall oven cabinet.

The best part was that Habitat for Humanity came and took ALL of it away to reuse or sell! Yay for saving space in a landfill!! Yay for saving our budget from having to rent a dumpster!! We still have eight bags of sheetrock sitting out there, but better than a carport full of stuff. We can haul them in a truck.

This is the BEST part of the demolition. We are opening a bit of wall space to make a little seating area. Unfortunately I don't have a great "before" picture of this view, but you can see where the wall used to be. In order to see what was going on in the dining room, I'd have to walk all the way around the corner. Now, I'll just be able to peep through the door. Great for keeping tabs on conversations between little ones.


The same view now that the studs are down. You can see our little Christmas countdown chains on the right (one is our family chain and the other is Kindergarten curriculum - Andrew made it at school.) That's the extent of our decorations in the main area of the house. It makes me sad not to have a big tree, but I know sheetrock dust covers everything. We set a little tree in the boys' room and our manger scene on Derrick's dresser.


The boys checking out what it will be like to eat at our new bar. You can see the tape outlines on the floor. You can also see that the electricians came in and wired last week.

Our floor guy is here today patching the floor. He installed the hardwoods six years ago and is having a hard time tearing up his own work. But I'm confident that he will make it look beautiful again.

We have our sheetrock guy coming later in the week and then I get to start painting!! Anyone want to come help? :)

Running Tradition

Traditions...its what Thanksgiving is all about. After all, there is no other day that I even allow green bean casserole on my dinner table, but I wouldn't do without it on the fourth Thursday of November.

So a big tradition in our family is running on Thanksgiving morning. I first ran the Thanksgiving Half marathon when I was in high school and have either run it or volunteered at the start line almost every year since.

Things change and traditions change...This year we decided to pass the torch to the next generation. (Yes, I know I'm a bit young to pass torches, but I did it anyway. I ran with Farley in my parent's neighborhood, so I also earned my turkey even if I did not earn a shirt.)

We shared with our little runners all of the traditions of race morning (except the 4AM wake up call).

Here they are patiently waiting for the race to start, as we arrived way too early.

A little warm up jog...


And stretching, of course...


Andrew even managed a smile as he stretched.


And, of course, lying down in the middle of the road as we waited for the race.


Andrew and Amanda ran the "Gravy Gallop," a 50 yard dash. They ran it by age groups. Here is Andrew's start.


You can barely see little Amanda in the center of the picture, just to the left of the lady in the blue sweatshirt. She galloped at full speed. She was so fast that my camera didn't have time to recover before she sped past me.

Scott ran the "Mashed Potato Mile."

The best part of any race is the post-race snack.


And the post race water.


You can see that everyone received a medal because they ran with smiles on their faces. :)

leaves

The kids and I had a great time raking leaves yesterday afternoon. The huge oaks in our neighbor's yard started dropping their leaves last week and our driveway was full. I raked the piles to the center of the driveway and the boys took turns zooming the leaves down with the snow shovel and a push broom. Andrew pretended he was riding a roller coaster.

Of course the most fun was playing the the huge pile when we were finished.











Even Farley joined in on the fun. He kept burying his ball in the pile and then digging to find it again.

Looking up at the remaining leaves on the trees, I'd say we have at least one more big raking day for the driveway in a few weeks. Derrick will cover the rest with his lawnmower.

Home for the Holidays

I'm quite sure this isn't as exciting as a child coming home from college, but we have some creatures who are home for the holidays...our roaches. Yes the kids were quite excited when Derrick brought them home last week.


The biggest question is where to store them...I mean, where to let them live.

I don't want them in the kitchen...or the dining room...or my bedroom...or really anywhere in the house. They are currently in the living room, but a little too low for my comfort. I just know a child or dog could easily lift the lid and let them go. Yuck.


And, Derrick brought home a heating pad. We read somewhere that they only mate when it is over 80 degrees. He wants little roach babies (since they have a limited life and he wants to keep them for a while), so he plans to warm their cage a bit. Ewwwww.

Best buddies

This was the scene at lunch today. Amanda insisted on having a picnic. Farley posted himself nearby in hopes of catching a crumb or two. He was successful in his efforts with at least one carrot and a few crackers.