Parents' Visit

The week after Christmas, my parents came for a visit. They had spent Christmas with my sister and her family in Texas, then came to spend New Year's with us. They flew in just hours before it was supposed to start snowing good.

We had a great time. The kids really enjoyed getting to spend time with their grandparents. We had a second Christmas, which the kids of course loved. There was of course, the obligatory eating out :-). There were the snacks and junk food. There was a father-son (meaning my dad and I) electronics shopping trip to Circuit City and Best Buy. We didn't end up buying anything but it was fun to look.

The first Sunday of 2009, we took the opportunity to have a family picture taken, since we were all in our Sunday best.

The picture above has been cropped to remove extra background. Also cropped out was an honorary member of the our clan - Micah. He and our boys are great friends. Can you see the mischievousness on his face?

More December 2008 Snow Pictures

Ben (left) and Will (right) helping me clear the walk.


Will and me.


Ben


Will


Ellie


So much snow (for us).


Ellie inspecting my work.

Sugar Cookies

As the just passed Christmas approached, I decided it would be fun thing to make sugar cookies with the kids. I planned to do it before Christmas but just never got myself together in time. It ended up being started on the day after Christmas. I say started because I did not plan ahead and had not read the recipe prior to beginning after supper. As a result I did not realize that the dough needed to chill for 2-3 hours, putting ready right about bed time for the kids. So we made the dough on Friday and actually made the cookies Saturday afternoon.

The kids' Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jenn had sent them some baking sets and a set of cookie cutters for Christmas, so it worked out well that we did the cookies after Christmas. The kids were very excited to wear their aprons, use their little rolling pins and put cookies on their little baking sheets. Thanks Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jenn!

We used food coloring to dye sugar for the toppings. We had three colors, one for each child. The cookies came out fairly good, given who was in charge. Stephanie had told me that it was all me. But she was kind enough to provide some advice and assistance whenever my desperate cries for help emanated from the kitchen. Thanks honey!

Ben's "gingerbread" man took up the whole sheet

Unfortunately, the pictures of the completed cookies are on the film camera and have not been developed yet. I'll post those when they become available.

World's Cutest Superheros