The Waters Family Has Been Grinched

I hope Carrie won't mind if I borrow the word she coined to describe someone or something that is trying to steal your Christmas spirit. The Waters family has most definitely been "grinched." Since the Friday before Christmas we have struggled with food poisoning, a sinus infection, pink eye, ear infection, another round of antibiotics for the first sinus infection, and one adult with a sinus infection- bah, humbug! Just kidding. With the exception of Jim we are all on antibiotics and eye drops and hopefully on the mend. So, if you haven't seen us around in a while its because we didn't want to share the funk with anybody. We will definitely be praying for a healthier new year.

Merry Christmas 2007

Christmas Eve Morning at The White House

No, we didn't have breakfast with President and Ms. Bush. :) Our precious friends the White's had us up for fun and food. Its always a good time. We love them so much and have been so blessed through the years by their friendship. Meredith has been through more with me than Im sure she cares to remember but she has loved me through it all-- they are a precious, precious family!!

Ralph made us some of his homemade chocolate chip pancakes and we talked, opened presents, and just enjoyed being together. We love you, White family!

From Food Poisoning to Fun

We started our weekend off with a bang. About 9:30pm Friday night, Avery got terribly sick and bless his heart was sick until about 4am Sat. morning. We stayed in all day Saturday to try and catch up on our missed night of sleep and to help Avery recover his strength and for most of the day Sunday. By Sunday mid-morning Avery was as good as new.

My friend Lori came up with a fabulous scheme. :) Several months ago I blogged about what high quality prizes you get for fundraising. Avery got a clown wig, glasses and nose for selling "smart cards". I put a picture of Jim (Harve) on my blog dressed as a clown. I e-mailed it to Lori. She decided how fun it would be to print this picture out and make all of us shirts -- we planned to meet at a restaurant wearing our shirts under our jackets and take our jackets off at one time surprising Jim wearing his clown picture.

Its amazing that between the two of us, Lori and I kept four boys 6 and under from blurting out the secret. It all worked out and Jim was very surprised. I sent him back to the car to get my purse I had conveniently forgotten and when he returned we were all sitting there with our Harvey (Jim) the clown shirts. We had our waitress take our picture to remember the occasion.

Then we were able to go back and visit with our good friends, Lori and her family. The only drawback was that Aidan was not feeling well and we didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked. We love you guys!

We hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Ornaments Part 2

Christmas Cookie Ornaments Part I

This is so fun and so easy. This is our first year making Christmas Cookie Ornaments but I think judging by how much fun it was (and we haven't even gotten to the painting part), it will be a Christmas tradition.

Recipe for cookie dough

Mix together 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt and 2 tbsp of vegetable oil

Slowly add 3/4 to 1 cup of water and stir and knead until you get the desired consistency.

(I only used 3/4 cup of water)

Roll your dough out thin and use cookie cutters or mold with hands to make shapes.

Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour. Time may vary depending on how thick your cookies are.

Let cool then paint and decorate as desired.

This recipe made about 24 cookies for us but I guess the size of the batch would depend on how big are your cookie cutters.

Here are our cookie ornaments- I'll try and post the finshed product too.

Christmas Break

Its 2:30 on the first day- well not really even a day- Avery had 1/2 a day of school- of Christmas break. We've already painted wooden snowmen, dipped pretzels in chocolate, and the boys have made a fort. I hope to help them make cookie dough ornaments tomorrow and I bought one of those boxed Make Your Own Gingerbread house kits. My boys have to be occupied or someone ends up doing something that could either cost a lot in home repair or require a visit to the ER.

If you all have planned some crafts or activities for your kiddos during this time, I would love to hear from you. So, what are you going to be doing during Christmas break?