Making Rolls

I was making rolls the other day, and I paused to get up to get something, and when I turned around, I found Clarissa helping. She climbed up on the chair by herself and found the rolling pin. She likes to do everything I do, it's fun to have a little helper.

Christmas Goodies

I made eclairs and cream puffs for Quinn's Christmas party with his lab. It was a lot of fun to make, and they even tasted good.

Clarissa and I were invited to decorate gingerbread men with some of her friends. They all liked eating the candy rather than putting it on the cookie.

Clarissa can't even stop eating the candy to take a picture.

Here's our little gingerbread family, I'm sure you can figure out that Clarissa's is the one with only one m&m. We sure had a lot of fun decorating them, thanks Becca.

We made caramels to give out to friends, it was a lot of stirring, cutting, and wrapping, but it was worth it. We had a lot of fun, we made about 300 caramels.

Wow, look at those shoes!

Here is Clarissa in one of her Christmas dresses, don't you love the white shoes? Clarissa took her shoes to daddy and insisted that he put them on her. Someday she'll hopefully learn what matches and what doesn't, but for now, why not wear the comfortable shoes!

Clarissa's Tree

We posted pictures of our tree, but neglected to show Clarissa's masterpiece.

We gave her own tree in hopes that she wouldn't touch ours, it works most of the time!


She had a lot of fun decorating it, well, one side of it anyway.

It's amazing to see how many ornaments can fit on the same branch!

Tag

My Sister-in-law tagged me a few weeks ago. I have been slow to respond, but I will now. Tiffany got tagged by one of her friends too, so look for her response soon.


Six things you may not know about me. . .

1) I hate chewing gum. For some reason it grosses me out beyond anything else. My disgust at gum comes from 20 years of bad experiences. I was always tall which made fitting your long legs under a school desk just a little bit of a tight fit. I often came in contact with the underside of the desk only to find a not so pleasant treat left there by a previous occupant. I also cringe when I see someone playing with their gum, twirling it around their finger, stringing it out, setting it on the corner of a table while they eat and then putting it back in, etc. YUCK!!!

2) I have moderately high cholesterol (Tiffany said this is a boring fact about me, but I'm a boring person, so I'm including it anyway). Well, at least I did in High School. I haven't had it checked since I was a junior. I often think that I should have it checked again, but I avoid it mainly so the result won't interfere with my ability to eat all the good foods I want. Which leads me into #3.

3) I love eggnog. I always know when grocery stores start carrying egg nog and when they quit (did you know you can get it until Easter). When I was younger and less restrained, I would occasionally find myself guzzling an entire quart of eggnog in one sitting. Partially because of #2, I now mix my eggnog with milk and restrain myself to the few days around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

4) I am a list person. Perhaps because I have such a bad memory that if I don't write it down on a list I will forget after about 3 seconds. In my experience there are two types of people, list people and brain people. Tiffany is a brain person. I don't know how she is able to keep everything straight, but she always seems to know where we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to do.

5) I have a recent fascination with trains. I like to watch them pass our house and look at all of the different freight cars. Last year I got to go inside an engine. Did you know that there is a toilet in a tiny closet in the very front of the engine. I guess everyone has to go sometime.

6) When I was in high school, I spent a day downtown Chicago with a friend. Some guy walked up to me on the street and started polishing my shoes. After he was done, he demanded that I pay him $3 per shoe. When we got home my friends mom said, "You are a nice guy and sometimes people take advantage of nice guys". Since then I have come to realize that what she meant to say was that "people pleasers" get taken advantage of. Although I hope to still be a nice guy, I am trying to eradicate my inherited people pleaser nature. It's not too easy.

I tag:

1) Rob (maybe you will actually do it if you get tagged enough times)
2) Greg B.
3) Janell
4) Tristen
5) Rissy Roo
6) Ben B.

Web of Blogs/Cheese

I found a lot of old (timeline not age) friends today weaving my way through the web of blogs. It is interesting how our paths cross. Some of my friends from different times and places of my life have ultimately met each other and become friends themselves. It is so fun to see what people are up to. Isn't technology wonderful.

Speaking of the wonders of technology. . . Here is a wonder that involves no technology. Each summer in Arthur, IL (Amish Country) there is the world's largest Cheese Festival. Now if you are anything like me, this is a temptation that cannot be passed up. Just to wet your appetite, some of the attractions are:

1) Free Amish Cheese
2) Cheese tasting (all varieties, I especially liked the cherry white cheddar)
3) A Cheese eating contest (you get to take home what you don't finish. I took a lot home)
4) Fair Fare (my favorite is the funnel cakes)
5) The international championships in Cheese Curling (like the winter olympic sport but with a cheese wheel)
And last but not least. . .
6) The ceremonial cutting of the cheese (they cut and serve a 300 lb block of cheese every day of the festival)


We had a great time and would be happy to have company with us next summer. Put it on your calendars now.

A Gift That Keeps on Giving

Dell, Kristin, Emily and Adam donated books to our local library in Clarissa's name for Christmas last year. It has been so much fun to find them as we check out books. Last week I just grabbed a bunch of books and when Clarissa and I sat down to read "Ten Apples Up On Top!" we were surprised to find her name inside. Thanks again for these books, I know she will enjoy finding these books over the next few years that we live here.

Deck The Halls!!!

I am a little obsessive about Christmas Decorations. When I was single, my brother-in-law, Dell, used to say that I was probably the only single, undergrad who had his own 6 foot artificial christmas tree. He had reason to tease me since he had to help me move it from apartment to apartment on a number of occasions.

I religiously wait until after Thanksgiving to let the Christmas Season begin. I cringed the weekend before Christmas when I had to go shopping for some new shoes. Every department store was already decked out with all their Christmas decorations and they even had a pianist playing Christmas Music.

I make up for it after Thanksgiving though. I can't get enough of it. I've had to tone things down a little since we moved to Illinois because I don't have hours to spend putting up the decorations. We managed to get some of our favorites out. Hopefully we can put a few more out over the season.

These camels are my favorite pieces of our Nativity Set.