Christmas Fun

Ben insisted on sleeping in his playpen on Christmas Eve, even though he hasn't slept in it in months.

Presents are opened - let the playing commence!
Ben talking to relatives, wearing his snazzy new Thomas the Train slippers from Aunt Betsy

Columbus Zoo Wildlights - we braved the cold and the crowds to see the 3 million twinking lights. Okay, we mostly went so Ben could ride the carousel and see the huge model train exhibit.

Ben on the carousel. He looks eeirly like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story."

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

This was our first Christmas by ourselves and it turned out to be pretty fun. Initially we decided to only get Ben little presents since he doesn't quite get the whole Christmas thing yet, but caved and bought a train table. We had our first experience assembling a gift on Christmas night and stuffing our own stockings. Here's how the night went:

5-8 p.m. - Had four other families over to share scones and sausages, a Haws Family Christmas Eve tradition. I'm not a fried food fan, but the turned out great, thanks to Andy the chef. The adults played a rousing game of Cranium while the kids romped upstairs. For the record, the girls won. Unfortunately, Andy and I both missed questions where we had to spell words backward. So much for being the 4th grade Tri-Cities spelling bee champ. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of that part of the night.

8:30 p.m. - Read "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," the Christmas story from Luke 2, sang a few songs around the Christmas tree and put Ben to bed.

9 p.m. - Andy goes to to work assembling the train table. Note that he is looking at the instructions. Following them was another matter.

9:45 - Andy takes a water break to reenergize for the task ahead.

10:30 p.m. - We eat the Twix out of my stocking as a celebration that the train table is almost done.
11 p.m. Presents under the tree, stockings stuffed, and table finished. We then proceed to each open two of our presents from under the tree since Ben won't care what we get on Christmas morning.

11:30 p.m. - Two tired Christmas elves.

Our stocking stuffers - The toothbrushes are a Haws thing and the fruit is a Dockum thing. Growing up, my siblings and I always got a bottle of Nalley's kosher baby dill pickles and I got a whole pineapple. Just for the record, it's very anticlimactic stuffing your own stocking.
Wrapping a few last-minute gifts

Rice Crispy Thiefs

Last week we babysat Ben's cute friend Nessie and I decided to make some Rice Crispy treats,. When they were done, I put them at the back of the stove to cool so the kids couldn't get them. Yeah right. I came back downstairs a few minutes later and found that they'd pushed the kitchen chairs up to the stove and were eating the rice crispy treats by the handfuls.

The view when I walked in on them.
Outsmarted by toddlers. :)

...You probably think this post is about you

Very interesting. In Forbes Magazine's recent survey of America's Vainest Cities, guess what city came out on top. None other that Salt Lake City, UT. I guess big hair is just the beginning. :)

http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/29/plastic-health-surgery-forbeslife-cx_rr_1129health.html http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/29/plastic-health-surgery-forbeslife-cx_rr_1129health_slide_2.html

Allergy update

Yes, this is a boring entry for most of you, but we made some discoveries this weekend that should make our lives easier. Ben has been tested twice for food allergies and has come up positive for a multitude (milk, eggs, nuts, rye, wheat, oats, etc.). Turns out some of them are false positives. He snuck a peanut M&M on Friday night and we waited with EpiPen ready to stab him when he started swelling or turning blue, but no such tragedy occured. Same story with eggs. I made some wheat-free muffins, but included eggs just to see if he'd react and he didn't. Hallelujiah! Now I can quit feeding him Rice Crispies so often. Everytime I serve them and find myself on my hands and knees afterward cleaning up each miniscule piece, I swear I'll never buy them again.

Thank you for sharing

During breakfast this morning Ben proclaimed, "My boogers hurt me!" It seems like his aversion to me touching his nose has morphed into painful crusties. He then tried to wipe his nose on me, but I was laughing too hard to care.

P.S. On a totally unrelated note, I just want to say that Ben likes curry. As a parent who struggles trying to get him to eat anything since he can't eat most foods due to his bazillion food allergies (see entry above), I can't believe that he likes both curry and grapefruit. Definitely not the two most popular foods. I'll have to post the recipe for the curry soup we ate. It's my new favorite soup, thanks to my new Cuisinart food processor. Yes, I spoiled Christmas and opened a present early, but have been drooling over this handy gadget for years and couldn't wait. All you HBS alums, refer to the 2007 Girls' Night cookbook and it is documented for posterity my aspiration to own said product.

Oh, What do you do in the Wintertime?

Get your face painted at the local Thomas the Train store (imagine hundreds of little boys running around)

Sit in a laundry basket and eat a whole carrot while we wait for the oven repairman to come

Chase around the house with your Dad who tries to get you to talk on the phone to your relatives

Go to the Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Ohio Statehouse and get scared when they fire a real cannon

Play in the rice table and bury your cars

Gather all your most treasured belongings (baseball/tennis balls, Cars blanket, toy pot, Thomas trains) and push them around the house in your shopping cart in preparation for life as a bagperson

Hunt for rocks in the snow with your dad and have the all-important job of lantern holder (Andy needed rocks for an object lesson in Primary)

Get put to work to earn your keep

Lay down and ask for a foot massage from your grandma (he gets this from Andy).

From Israel, with Love

My long-awaited package arrived today. Kira, my little sister who is spending the fall in Israel as part of the BYU-Jerusalem program, bought me an olivewood nativity (with my money, mind you). I've been wanting one ever since I went to BYU-J in 2000 and was too short-sighted and cheap to buy one of my own. Sadly, the stable got broken a little in the mail, but nothing a little hot glue can't fix. I think that it looks great. My favorite part of the whole thing was that the cute Mr. Baghdadi who sent it wrote "A gift from the Holy Land" on the outside of the box.

Holiday detox?

After four consecutive days of gorging myself at holiday get-togethers (two of which included a progressive dinner and a full-scale recreation of Thanksgiving dinner), I told Andy that I am on holiday detox. If we get any more treats, I'm taking a bite and then throwing the rest away. I have no qualms about wasting food to benefit my waistline. Despite my intentions, tonight I had so much to eat that I must chronicle my gluttony. This feels very Bridget Jones-esque.

In addition to the soft tacos we had for dinner, for "dessert" I had:
A bowl of soup
A big bowl of bacon and blue cheese salad
Two graham crackers
A large piece of bread with honey
Four Hershey miniatures (two with peanuts, two without)
Two bowls of raisin bran cereal
A glass of Crystal Light

I'm just going to roll over to the fridge now and spray Cheez Whiz straight into my mouth.

Fat Turkeys are We

If you move, they will come. This year we hosted Andy's family and our friends, The Jensens, for a wild and crazy Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone had a food assignment, lest you worry that anyone slaved away all day. I cooked my first real turkey (with help from Andy, his Dad, and his twin sister) and it turned out grand. The secret: Oiling the skin; massaging the inside and out with herbs, fresh ground pepper, and kosher salt; and using a turkey bag. Here's our holiday, in pictures. They're in reverse chronological order because I can't get the picture upload software to work.



Gorging ourselves silly

The best part of Thanksgiving comes after the meal. I love to pick the turkey apart and get all the meat off the bone.

House elves, busy at work
Turkey love (and a mouth full of cheeseball).

A feast prepared and all Ben wanted was a Thanksgiving grapefruit.

Everyone loves a good cheeseball (except for me)

Princess Charlotte and Charlie


Emily, Pete, and Betsy on potato patrol. They tasted divine, thanks to the Barefoot Contessa recipe.

Tagged

So I'm a blogging newbie and I guess this is all the rage. Here's everything you probably didn't care to know about me.

Jobs I've Had:
*Paper filer in a law office (My sister, who is now a lawyer, had the job before me. Isn't nepotism grand?)
*Gym supervisor for the Kennewick Parks and Rec. Dept. (sat in a school gym and did my homework while waiting for teams to finish practice so I could lock up. Got the job b/c I knew the school principal)
*Parking lot attendant at Utah State (Upside - free parking. Downside - $5.15/hour)
*Intern at the USU Public Relations/Marketing Department
*Intern at the Utah Farm Bureau in their communications department. Wrote articles for their monthly newsletter.
*Account manager at two PR firms in Phoenix

Jobs I'd Like to Have Someday:
Writer for the Wall Street Journal, a travel magazine, or other interesting publication
Katie Couric's stand-in
Book critic
Travel guide
Adjunct communications professor

Movie's I've Watched Over and Over:
Casablanca
About a Boy
Room With a View
Oceans' 11

Some Favorite Books as of Late:
From Beirut to Jerusalem
Pride and Prejudice
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Harry Potter (of Course)
Angle of Repose

Favorite Things to Do:
Read the paper
Read a good book cuddled up in my bed
Walk/jog with a friend
Have a good conversation
Watch the sun set and be outside in general
Go bargain shopping
Travel and explore new places
Learn something new

Places I've lived:
Cedar Rapids, IA
Nyssa, OR
Kennewick, WA
Logan, UT
Jackson Hole, WY
Jerusalem, Israel
Salt Lake City, UT
Tempe, AZ
Boston/Cambridge, MA
Dayton, OH
Hilliard, OH

Favorite things to eat:
Chocolate in all its varieties, especially baked
Coffe Chip and Chocolate Oreo ice cream from Handel's
Seafood
Freshly baked bread with honey
Italian food with lots of garlic
Ethnic food (Thai, Indian, etc.)

Places I'd rather be:
Getting a pedicure
Sitting in a hammock on a warm summer day reading a book or relaxing
Shopping (alone)
Grand Teton National Park
Traveling throughout Europe
New England in the Fall
Driving along the Maine coast
Arizona in the winter
Sydney, Australia

Words I Love the Sound of:
Cacophony
Onomotopoeia
Gesticular
P.S. Andy hates the words "fluids" and "pamper"

Who I'm Tagging:
Bekka
Kira
Trine
Jenn Knight

Veteran's Day Parade

We watched the Columbus Veteran's Day Parade downtown and enjoyed beautiful weather. It was so fun to sit on the curb, wave flags, and collect candy. We even made it onto the local TV channel, which filmed us an interviewed my friend. I'll upload more pictures soon, but there were marching bands of varying skill, a Sherman Tank, classic cars, and lots of other military vehicles. The piece de resistance was the ear-splitting cannon salute by the local Civil War reenactors, which scared Ben. Reminds me of another book - Confederates in the Attic, by Tony Horwitz. A hilarious journey through the modern South that shows that the Confederacy isn't really dead.

Where's the Beef?

Ben and I took a little trip to the OSU Farm this week and had some close encounters with livestock. As the state land grant institution, OSU owns farmland for teaching and research, but because of urban sprawl, the farm is surrounded by big box stores. Ben was distraught that we couldn't see the pigs, but they wouldn't let us into the swine facility because of the biohazard risk. It reminds me of a book I read this summer, The Omnivore's Dilemma. A thought-provoking story about how our food is produced and the implications to society, the environment, and our bodies.

Ben wanted to draw on the chalkboard in one of the buildings.

Ben and his little friend Nessie, a fiery redhead. Sorry, Madi!

Gobble Gobble

My mother-in-law sent these charming Thanksgiving placecards in the mail and I can't wait to make them. They're from The Paper Source, and appear to be a fool-proof craft. All of Andy's family are coming to Ohio for Thanksgiving, so we can celebrate in style. To rhapsodize about The Paper Source, they have the most exquisite stationery and I loved stopping in at the store in Boston on Boylston Street whenever I ventured downtown.

William Tell Overture

I downloaded the William Tell Overture and Ben spent almost half an hour today galloping around our house to the music, along with Andy. The best part is that the live recording we have includes the audience clapping along with the music, so you feel like you're almost at the performance. I wish I had a picture to accompany this, but of course my camera's batteries died just at that moment. Murphy's Law in action. Or maybe I'm just becoming my mother. Every time we had a big event (a school dance, performance, etc.) her camera would die and we stood there waiting while she scrambled for new batteries.

Millions of Readers Can be Wrong

I know I'm swimming against the current here, but can someone PLEASE explain to me why these books are NYT Bestsellers? Insipid dialogue, a clunky plot, and poorly developed/ unlikeable characters are just the beginning. She takes 500+ pages per book to cover what could have taken 100. Most of it is spent with Bella oogling over Edward (my recent favorite line: "His eyes were like liquid onyx...") - Gag! After hearing glowing reviews, I read Twilight, and found it stragely compelling, but definitely so-so. I went on to New Moon, hoping the author could redeem herself, but to no avail. I wasted 10+ hours of my life on these books and refuse to read the third. I'm sure someone can give me the plot in a minute or less. If you are a Stephanie Meyers devotee, please let me know what you like about these books so I can find some heretofore overlooked redeemable qualities.

My biggest regret is that I gave my 16-year-old sister a copy of Twilight before I read it. Kaylee, my apologies and feel free to sell it on eBay or give it away at a white elephant gift exchange.

Eyes Lips Face

For those who have not yet discoverd the budget-friendly beauty buys at Eyes Lips Face (E.L.F.), they have a great sale going on right now. Even at regular prices, their makeup is only $1. I got a ton of it last week and am trying to overcome my makeup-retardeness. At this price, I can afford a few mistakes. www.eyeslipsface.com.

Cookie Cutters

After a few visits to the Andy Haws Salon, Ben got his first official haircut today at a fabulous kids' haircutting place called Cookie Cutters. http://www.haircutsarefun.com/index.asp. The salons are mostly in the Midwest, but lots have opened up recently in Utah. They have movies to watch, the kids sit in car-shaped chairs, there is a playground inside, and they get a balloon and a sucker when they're done. My ideal salon would have a 30-minute shampoo/head massage and a chocolate fountain.