Holiday Season Pt 2: Christmas Morning

Julia had dutifully put out milk and cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, but when she woke up Christmas morning and saw the empty plate and glass she accused Matt of having eaten everything before Santa could have any. Her doubt was clearly not related to Santa's existence but rather she doubted that homemade cookies could sit out unattended for more than a few minutes without getting pilfered by Daddy. She did, however, readily attribute the appearance of all the presents to Santa, and it was fun watching her opening presents with Liam (who, of course, was most interested in the wrapping paper itself and in pulling the ornaments off the tree). There were a few sibling moments of struggling over possession of the new toys, but overall they were really sweet to eachother, and we loved seeing their excitement over their new gifts!

Julia is very serious about taking car of her babies,
and she was so excited that they now have a big girl bed just like her.

Liam loved his new bike. He just needs a little more height on him before he can push it along by himself.


G-Da & Nana gave the kids this great puppet theatre,
and Julia & Daddy put on a show for us.


Now Julia (and Liam with some help) can jump out all that energy!

Holiday Season Pt 1: Deck the Halls, Aussie Style

I found it hard to get into the Christmas spirit. With the temperature each day well over 90 degrees (and often over 100), all the traditional Christmas activities really go out the window-- the mere thought of hot chocolate by a roaring fire is enough to work up a sweat in that kind of heat. But the real hurdle keeping me from the Christmas spirit was the thought of a fake tree. We have always had real fir trees -- filled out branches that smell wonderful and shed pine needles all throughout the house. You'd think that the Aussies would've come up with some new traditions for their decorations that are more suited to the climate -- a decorated palm, perhaps or tinseled plastic emus in the front yard-- but no--fake pines stand in living rooms and lights shaped like icicles adorn roof awnings (I even saw one house with a neon sign flashing 'Let it snow'...tell 'em they're dreamin').

Julia thoroughly enjoyed putting together the fake tree with Daddy.
She took her job of spreading out the branches very seriously.

Julia had made an angel at school,
and she proudly placed it on top of the tree.

Merry Christmas!

Morning Tea with the Perkins Family

Now that Cameron, Simone, & Flynn live in Dubai, we don't get to see them very often, but they are in town now for the Christmas holidays, and we had a wonderful visit with them this morning. Julia was a bit shy at first and Liam & Flynn had a brief tug-0-war over the dump truck, but overall the children played really well together, and we were able to catch up with our friends. After morning tea, all seven of us somehow ended up on the floor of Julia's room, and the kids were in heaven amidst the piles of blocks and blankets. We're looking forward to see them again in the new year for a trip to the Thomas the Train exhibit at the Ipswich Railway Museum (and hopefully a few more times before they head back overseas!).

How (Not) to Make a Gingerbread House

With exams over and Christmas rapidly approaching, I decided that we should do some Christmas baking and crafts to overcome the 100+ degree temperatures outside and get into the holiday spirit. I started off with something quick and easy-- Gourmet Rocky Road -- to take as an end-of-year gift for Julia's teachers (she had her last day of school on Thursday). I've never made rocky road and I don't even particularly like it, but this turned out really well and was a big hit at school and at our house (Matt has now requested a batch to take to the office next week). Fuelled by this holiday treat success, I decided that Julia and I could make a gingerbread house together (from scratch). The rocky road sugar high obviously had me a bit delusional, as I scoffed at the store-bought kits for $20 and proudly told Julia that Mommy could make one herself, and she could do all the decorating.

I'm not artistic, but I do consider myself somewhat crafty (enough to entertain my children at least). And I don't do fondant icing or anything, but I do own a piping bag, and I thought surely I could whip up a gingerbread house. So I pulled out my trusty Joy of Cooking to the pages (the fact that the instructions span 3 double-columned pages should have deterred me) and we got started (3 days ago). Here's how it went...

Day 1: Pour flour into bowl. Move canister of remaining flour out of Liam's reach. Add spices to bowl. Abort project with only dry ingredients mixed in order to clean flour off of Liam.

Day 2: (a.m.) Mix eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla, etc. Pick up screaming Liam (he was scared of the mixer). Attempt to add dry ingredients to butter mixture while holding Liam. Battle Liam for control of spoon. Lose battle (and half of my clean shirt) to Liam and the flour mixture. Next step, get Julia's hands out of the sugar ("Mmm...yummy, Mommy"). Abort project once dough mixed to clean off myself and the children and take Julia to school.

Day 2: (p.m.) Didn't have the called-for graph paper or spare manila folders, so cut out templates for house pieces (including a chimney!) with baking paper. Julia spent the whole time alternately asking, "What you doing, Mommy?" and "Why?". . . my answers to the latter rapidly digressed to something along the lines of, "Oh, just trying to emulate the housewife from a 1950's TV commercial, dear"

Day 3: (a.m.) Finally time to roll out the dough. Lacking the called-for 1/4" dowel rods to assess the evenness of the height of the dough. Decide to eyeball it. Realize that not having the 1/4" dowel rods is the least of my worries. Decide to skip next column of instructions pertaining to adding scalloped edges and clapboard siding and attempt repairs of gaping holes in cutouts instead. Put in oven to bake. Help Julia and Liam get dressed for the day. Race back to the kitchen after realizing I didn't actually set the timer. Rescue half-burnt roof pieces from oven and continue baking other pieces. Leave pieces to cool.

Chimney & door pieces

Day 3 (p.m.): No nap for Julia but Liam is sleeping. Now it's fatigue making me delusional as I beam proudly at the cooled dis-assembled pieces of the house and suggest to Julia that we'll just "whip up some icing" and get started decorating our creation. Turn now to page of instructions (only 2 columns this time) for Royal Icing. Get egg out of fridge. Get powdered sugar from pantry. Catch egg just as it rolls away from Julia's hand and off of the counter. Heat egg whites and some of the sugar for recommended 30 seconds then test heat to see if it's reached the optimum 160 degrees. Not there yet, return to microwave for recommended 30 seconds more. Test heat...180 degrees. Decide to ignore cookbook's warning that "it should not exceed 175 degrees". Finish making icing and place in piping bag. Pipe nice neat lines for "glue" as instructed and voila-- 4 sides of the house! Add roof pieces. Add roof pieces and hold. Add roof pieces and hold for longer. Abandon piping bag in favor of big free form globs of icing generously smashed into roof pieces for extra holding power. And we have a gingerbread house:

"Well done, Mommy!"
(my little cheerleader who has this whole time been eating icing as it falls off)

But about 15 seconds later...

"Here's money, Mommy. You go buy one."

We had a good laugh at the failed gingerbread house attempt, but as I started clearing up the dishes Julia's sugar high began to wear off and she was edging dangerously close to a total meltdown. When she's really tired, the best way to head off the tantrum is to ignore her, so I walked away to take sticky tea towels to the laundry room and was pleased to note that within about 2 minutes she had gotten quiet. I walked right back into the kitchen to find her sound asleep like this:

Talk about a sugar crash! I couldn't stop laughing! I wasn't game to move her though, so Liam and I played in the kitchen while she slept on the counter for almost an hour.

The Holidays Are Here-- Hooray!

I am now officially on holiday! I had my last exam this morning, and I think (fingers crossed) I finished on a high note for that class at least (let's hope the grades don't say otherwise). I may or may not get any extra sleep, but I'm looking forward to a break from studying and the 2-hour/day commute and some quality time with my family. Many catch-up posts to come...

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Thanksgiving - Part 2

Simon & Sarah stayed after Thanksgiving and got a chance to practice their babysitting skills (they have generously offered to take the children one night while Matt & I go to see Cirque du Soliel -- my birthday present). Julia adores Simon, but Sarah is definitely vying for top spot because in addition to the balloons (which were such a hit), she brought sparklers for Julia to play with (yes, that's right-- fire for the 2-yr-old -- we gave her a bit of a hard time). Such a hit though! Julia was fascinated and asked us to light one after the other--they were gone in a matter of minutes. Liam was a bit apprehensive of Julia weilding flames (smart guy!), and Matt & Simon got a sort of synchronized sparkler routine going but were a bit disappointed when Sarah, Julia, Liam & I weren't vocal enough in our praise of their skill.

Sarah got the bathtime routine mastered...not an easy feat with little Liam who LOVES the water and has absolutely no fear of (and quite enjoys) dunking his head (face first) into the water. Seriously, the little guy goes from sitting to belly flop and back to sitting in seconds flat and barely pauses from his happy crowing! Then Simon stepped in for storytime with Julia and did admirably at reading Fox in Sox (the Dr. Seuss tongue twister book-- just a sample from the book: "When tweedle beetles battle in a puddle with a paddle and a poodle eating noodles, it's a tweedle beetle puddle poodle noodle paddle battle...").

Thanks for hanging out & helping out! The kids loved all the attention, and Julia now frequently tells me, "I want to see Simon. And Sarah. Sarah has balloons." (you've secured your place, Sarah!)