Auld Lang Syne

The end of the year is upon us. I have no idea what they will do for the New Year's glasses at Times Square this year. 2011 doesn't have two eye holes, so yet another tradition gone (or perhaps a new one involving cyclops?). But I digress. Auld Lang Syne. It's from a poem and from the Scottish would literally be "old long since." More idiomatically, it's "days gone by" or "old times." So for auld lang syne loosely means for the sake of old times. So for the sake of old times, let's do a year in review (everybody else including the whole blogging universe is doing it, so why not?).

January: we began the hunt for houses, pinning our hopes on Frankenmuth, but it was one bust after another. Malachi turned two.
February: even after expanding our housing search, we were still at loose ends.
March: we took a break from looking at houses because we were getting nowhere fast.
April: I had another birthday and we finally found a house, just around the corner from our old one. It was a bit of stress to get things done in time to get the tax credit.
May: Gabe's birthday came and with it our first whole class party. The science themed party was quite a success. The new house got a new roof and we were still awaiting our closing date.
June: we became home owners. Painting and packing consumed the month. We started a garden. Matt and I celebrated ten years of marriage.
July: Matt's grandpa passed away. We were officially out of the old house and in the new.
August: Matt I finally took our anniversary trip to New Orleans, where we had our honeymoon. We also took the boys to Crane Lake for the first time and to three of five Great Lakes.
September: Gabe became a first grader. Chi went off to daycare. Matt was no longer a first year professor. :)
October: tried to figure out all sorts of ways to get to Washington D.C. for the Rally to Restore Sanity, but realized we were being insane to try to do it and stayed home to watch on TV. Gabe was Han Solo and Chi was the Cat in the Hat for Halloween.
November: Gabe was the Pizza Man for his Thanksgiving day program. Went to see Mom and Dad and much of the family for Thanksgiving.
December: finally got to Wicked. Gabe helped lead worship with the children's choir for Christmas Eve. Santa came. We also saw much of Matt's family after Christmas.

What will 2011 hold for us? Eh, who can tell. Hopefully we'll have a lot of fun along the way.

Merry Christmas!

Santa's a bit behind this year, but I have confidence his elf will finish everything up today. Cards went out, but late. You might receive one in the Christmas season. Or just consider it an Epiphany card. :)

The boys are bouncing off the walls, but it is being tempered by relatively good behavior right now. Funny Malachi story: yesterday he wanted a banana, but he didn't want help so he took it and ran off. Then I hear, "Aw man! It's locked!" So I helped him "unlock" his banana and then he took over.

Tonight, the worship service involves the kids. At our church the early Christmas Eve service is Christmas program/worship. So the boys have been practicing their singing. I don't think Chi is going to go up front though. He wouldn't stay during practice, so we'll see. This year the kids don't have speaking parts or any real dramatic performing; they just sing songs/carols in between parts of telling the story. So, they will just wear their Christmas sweaters and look handsome.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Winter Wonderland

December activities for the family included the Luminary Walk at Dow Gardens and a visit to the Santa House. The whole garden path was lit with luminaries and the conservatory boasted a huge display of pointsettas. It was lovely. The pictures can't capture it. The Santa House is Santa's home away from home during December. It is filled with all things magical and Christmas-y. It was a long wait, but the boys got to climb into Santa's sleigh, and tell Santa what they want for Christmas. When we went back outside, they got to see Comet and Cupid. They had real reindeer in a pen outside. Just two at a time for visits though.

Love and dying

Gabe got sick at school last Friday. It was the first time he threw up in a long time. I was trying to remember, and I think it's been about three years since it last happened. So, of course, he doesn't remember it. He really keeps things in perspective though. As he lay on the bathroom floor, he whined, "I'm dying!"
"No, you're not dying," I said, "but I know it doesn't feel very good right now."
"No. I really am dying! I know it! You just don't want to tell me."
Hmm. Seriously. Drama, much? I am happy to report the 24-hour stomach flu bug that went away with only a bit of puke (though clearly much emotional pain, I'm sure) did not, in fact, kill him. He is alive and well.

On a happier note, Chi said to me for the first time, "Love you, Mom." Kind of caught my breath a bit. I was tucking him into bed. I've just gotten so used to him not saying a lot of things that it never occurred to me before then that I had never heard him say that. I knew he loved us, of course, but it makes a mom kind of weepy to hear it sometimes.

Gingerbread Houses - A How-to

One thing that is so much fun to make with kids around the holidays is a gingerbread house because they just love the piles of candy to choose from. But who has the time and patience to make an actual gingerbread structure that will hold up to young kids' hands? So cheat. I had Gabe bring home four milk cartons from school. Milk cartons are harder to come by now-a-days, but a school will give them to you if you go in and ask at lunchtime, as long as you are prepared to dig them out of the trash yourself. Me, I let my kid do the dirty work. Crafty, I know.

After washing them and letting them dry. I hot glued them shut and then glued two together so I had one long ridge line on the roof.

Then I hot glued graham crackers to the milk cartons. You heard me, hot glue them. For mine I used half a graham cracker that I had to trim a bit with a knife to make it fit on the short end. I glued those on first.

Then one full size graham across the long side. There was a bit of a gap from the edge of the graham to the top edge of the wall, but this will be covered by the roof, so don't sweat it.

Next, the ends need triangles. This is a little trickier, but not hard. I took half a graham, laid it on my cutting board, and used the house itself as my template. I laid it on top and used a knife to cut it to size, and then hot glued it in place.

Last, the roof, each side needs a full size graham. The cracker is slightly larger than the roof itself, allowing for a little overhang like a real roof. When you glue them on, make them meet on the ridge line.

Now you need glue. Here's a good stiff frosting recipe that makes great glue:
Cast of Characters:

2 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tsp. water
Beat until frothy.

Slowly add 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition until you achieve something inbetween soft and stiff peaks. It will be thick and pasty. Perfect for strong glue.

Now the fun part. Use whatever candies you desire. (I rotated this picture, but it didn't want to stay and I give up. You get the point.)

Just plan on extra for eating. For the boys, especially Chi, it was easier to just cover a side at a time with frosting and let him go nuts adding whatever he wanted. If you wanted to be more sophisticated about it, you could just put the frosting where you wanted glue something on. But that's all there is to it. Fun and simple.
(Obviously, don't eat the graham crackers now that they have glue, but you can pick at the rest.)

Dot, dot, dot

Church was interesting today. Chi serenaded everyone with high pitched screaming which led to his banishment to the nursery, where in desperation for quiet, calm children, "A Goofy Movie" was enjoyed.

During the prayers I had a moment. I guess we were praying for all the things that sustain life like water and such, and I heard "the hair that encircles the earth." Hair? or maybe that was hare; there are a lot of bunnies. Oohh, AIR. That makes more sense. Pretty much giggled the rest of the way through.

During the Great Thanksgiving, the bulletin shows the start of the sentence, then ..., followed by the closing of the prayer. Gabe groaned, "Not the dot, dot, dot. That takes forever!"

Yeah, church was interesting.