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.