Junkmas

What is junkmas? I think that picture says it all. Christmas Eve this year we celebrated junkmas at the Puzeys. It’s a holiday that Doug (Father Junkmas) has invented. Here it is in a nutshell (see picture below for rules...this was staped to a barf bag from an airplane...from last’s year) Oh...and the guys had an ugly facial hair contest too. :)
This kids picked out some hilarious stuff: Cheeseballs, oreos, tater tots, egg rolls, EZ cheese, gushers fruit snacks, twinkies, ding dongs, uncreusables, cream puffs... After the junkmas feast, the kids had a glow in the dark dance party and played a game of Shockball. Thank you Puzeys for inventing this holiday and inviting us in on the fun!

My Ornament

How cute is this? Cheryl nabbed this for me this year and I think it is adorable. Now it just needs cookie dough in the bowl. :)

25: Christmas Day

What a great day. We spent it at the Puzey’s again this year.
Here are the highlights: waking up early. watching the kids flip out over the presents & stockings as they came down stairs. stopping to play with toys. watching new movies. playing rock band. Ebelskivers and Norwegian Pancakes. watching the kids play with their new toys. Olivia dressing up like a princess. Owen playing with his AT-AT. Zac’s reaction to every present he opened. Happy kids. Lots of fun things to play with. Staying in PJs. Talking to West Coast family on the phone. Playing in the snow!

Miracle of Miracles it snowed on Christmas! After prepping my kids (who kept asking when it would snow?) that in Atlanta we don’t get snow on Christmas, the weather went and proved me wrong. It snowed enough to stick and even produce one short snowman and a great snowball fight in the back yard.

+ husband who is a kid at heart + son who is a kid = this picture of the ATAT in the snow.

2010 Christmas Card

24: Christmas Eve

Today was a great day! We went to lunch with our friends the Hinckleys so the kids could exchange their gifts. I brought the camera, but forgot to take pictures. :(
Then we headed up to Puzeys for more Christmas Eve fun. We made our traditional dinner of Autumn Chowder in bread bowls with Spinach Salad and sugar cookies, red velvet cookies, nordy bars and mint brownies for dessert. Afterwards the kids acted out the Nativity under Morgan’s direction. They did a hilarious job yet again and it’s fun to watch them each play their parts. Jonah was baby Jesus. Kate and Owen were Mary and Joseph. Zac was the wise men, Carter the donkey and Olivia was the angel.
Then the kids all put on their new PJs, read a few Christmas stories and went to bed.

23: Hair Pretties for Livie

For a gift for Olivia from Owen this year he and I made hair pretties for her. Obviously I did the work here, but he helped me pick out the ribbon, buttons and I let him help with all the gluing. I think they turned out pretty cute. :)

22: Brunch with Beth and Letter from Santa

This morning we invited Miss Beth over for brunch. We made crumb cakes, eggs and we used our new Santa mugs. We decorated the table and Owen made all the place cards. We had a nice time and she brought us a really sweet gift: Windchimes. Miss Beth loves to garden and her yard is beautiful and she has lots of fun gardeny things like windchimes and little iron statues and bird baths and houses, so my kids love her yard. Our chimes are now hanging on the eave of our house and we can hear them from the playroom.
After breakfst we went to play and the park and get some of our wiggles out. It was a nice day. One thing I love about Atlanta is that you can take your kids to play at the park on teh 22nd of December.

21: Christmas Shopping and FHE

We had a busy day: Shopping. Movie. Cookies for HT. FHE. Rocket ships. Candy Cane Ice Cream.
Today we finished up our christmas shopping by taking the kids to buy a few gifts for their friends. After a productive trip, we went to see Despicable Me at the $1 Theater. We all loved it. Once we were home we had cookies to make and decorate for Nate’s home teaching families. While I did that the kids busied themselves on the kitchen floor turning diaper boxes into rocket ships.
After dinner we had a Family Home Eveing lesson on the Savior and for dessert we made candy cane ice cream. It turned out really good. We took 2 cups of vanilla ice cream and put it in the mixer with one candy cane and a small handful of chopped up chocolate chips. Yum.

20: Stop the Clock

There are some days I wish I could just stop the clock. A lot of them actually. It seems like there is always more to do than I can actually get done in a day. Since Jonah came along getting ALL the laundry done or the WHOLE house spotless at the same time are much harder tasks to accomplish. And then there are full days that evaporate before my eyes, like today. Jonah & I took Owen to his friend’s Birthday party. Neccessary errands were taken care of. Miss Beth stopped by and I tried to get the kids to read Christmas stories with her, but they weren’t interested in that. I worked. I scrambled to get dinner ready and my self out the door to work. Work was BUSY and I got home late. Blah. Stop the clock.

19: Pancakes and MoTab

Today we dressed up in our Christmas Duds for Church. Nate and Owen wore their matching ties and I made a little bow tie for Jonah out of the same fabric. I tried to take a picture of us. That is not a very fun thing to attempt, but we tried anyway..
The kids took little cards and a few treats to their primary teachers at church. After church we had sprinkle pancakes for lunch. Today for Miss Beth we took her a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD and a card. I have been working like a maniac lately and I’m getting pretty tired... I am looking forward to enjoying time off with my family for the holidays!!!

18: Electronic Santa

Today we had a fun Saturday. At 9am we went to Owen’s basketball game. Then a few kids napped while I got our clothes all ready for church tomorrow. Then we made a few little gifts for our primary teachers and drew pictures for Miss Beth. Owen drew a picture of her in the snow and Olivia drew a car that looked a lot like a cat. Miss Beth loves cats so it was perfect. :) Then we downloaded a song from target called Electronic Santa and the kids started dancing like robots, which reminded Owen that he has a robot COSTUME* and so he ran and put it on and danced around to the music. A few bored Andersons and a video camera make for an entertaining afternoon. It was really funny and if I can figure out how to get the video from my video camera onto my computer and then onto my blog...nevermind. Just take my word for it. :)

*funny note. The robot costume was created by Nate and Owen just before Halloween. Nate, kind husband that he is, made it to see if Owen would choose to be something other than Darth Vader (which was breaking his mother’s heart) for Halloween. As I look back on that I laugh, and I think Nate and Owen are really cute.

17: Pre-K Christmas Party

Today was Owen’s pre-K Christmas party and Olivia and I went to help, read books and take pictures. Here they are (above) dancing around with jingle bells. It is so wonderfully easy to entertain 5 year olds. Olivia always loves going to Owen’s class and the teachers and kids all know her now too. They have a little reading corner and she just walks right over, plops down on a pillow and gathers some books.
Today for Miss Beth we made ornaments, one from each of the kids, and delivered them to her door. We also took our neighbors plates of cookies and Christmas cards. Lots of Christmas today...

16: Cookie Party

Each year now for the past 3 years I’ve thrown a cookie exchange party. I love doing this and tonight was the big night. Each guest brings 2 dozen cookies. One to sample that night and another to plate up and take home. This year about 16 people came and the cookies were fantastic. It’s a really fun way to try new recipes without having to do all the baking yourself. I made Nordy bites and mini peppermint cupcakes (so...not just cookie party, but any holiday treats really...). I try to think of a fun take-home gift each year and this year Cheryl came up with a great idea: Cake plates. We made them by gluing together candle holders and plates. I think they turned out really cute! It was a fun night.
The kids helped me get ready all day. We made the treats and cleaned the house. I tried to get a picture of them helping me, but they were both too busy to look at he camera... We all had our aprons on though and the treats all turned out great. With all the cookie party preparations we forgot to get a gift to Miss Beth, so we’ll have to double up tomorrow. :)

15: Letters to Santa and Glitter Art

We wrote a letter to Santa from the kids today, reminding him of what they’d like for Christmas. I came across this address sometime last year. I don’t know if he’ll write back or not...but it was a fun little activity. I also put Owen’s Christmas List’s on here. He went through several magazines, and we had to make two different lists. It’s fun to see how he writes. :)
Today for Miss Beth we made some glitter art. We printed out pictures Nate had taken when we were visiting my parents in Vermont and then put white glitter over the snow. It turned out really pretty. Glitter is always messy, but it’s so festive too.

Crush

it seems as though Owen has a crush. I first realized it one Sunday when he was asking me how to spell Charlotte. When I finished dictating it to him he handed his piece of paper to me and asked, “Will you draw a heart around her name?”
Charlotte is in his class and we are always writing her little letters and getting little drawings from her too. It’s pretty cute.

14: Ornaments and a Christmas Card for Beth

We finished Livie’s ornaments, now we just have to spray them with clear coat, once all that glitter and glue have a chance to dry. :)
Also, we took a Christmas Card over to Miss Beth today to wish her a Merry Christmas for day #2.

13: Cookies for Beth and Believe Blocks

This year we are doing the 12 days of Christmas for our neighbor, Miss Beth. I thought this would be fun for her, as she doesn’t have much family around her and has no kids, and a great way for our kids to think of others. We have small things planned for her each day, and I am not going to try and make this a secret, because we are not fast enough to get away from her door in time. My kid’s couldn’t handle her not knowing either. :) So today we took a few iced and decorated sugar cookies over for her.
Another project I worked on today, sans children’s help, are these blocks. I like how they turned out!

12: Pancakes

We often have pancakes for lunch after church, but to add a little holiday fun we added some Christmas sprinkles to our pancakes. :) The kids loved it and it was a fun easy advent activity for our day.

11: Little Trees

We put little Christmas trees in each of the kids’ rooms and let them decorate them with their favorite ornaments. Owen loved decorating his tree and keeps taking ornaments off of the tree in our family room and putting them on his tree. Olivia likes hers, but hasn’t had much interest in decorating it this year. One very early morning (too early for mom) when Owen and Jonah were up and I was half sleeping next to them on the floor in Olivia’s room (quite a stellar night at the Anderson house...) Owen decided to decorate Liv’s tree for her with her dress up jewelry. I thought it turned out really cute. I rearranged it a bit. The kids love their little trees.

Basketball

So, none of the boys really fit into their jerseys...but it is really cute to watch them play. Owen’s best friend’s dad is the coach and they have a fun time learning to play. It’s funny to watch them steal the ball and then look at us to make sure it was ok.

10: Ornaments

In lieu of going to the store to buy ornaments this year I thought we’d make them out of sculpey. We meaning me. I let the kids decide what they wanted and then did my best to make it out of clay. Owen chose an AT-AT (pictured above), Darth Vader (of course), a lightsaber and R2D2 (the most challenging for mom). Olivia wanted princesses. And for Jonah I made a donut. :) We finished Owen’s and are still working on the others. I’ll post pictures when we finish the rest too.

9: Teacher Christmas Gifts

Today the kids and I made little gifts for their school and church teachers. We used wrapping paper to make little bags, filled them with treats and then made ornaments and gift tags. They got a kick out of this and it was pretty quick and easy.

8: Pre-K Christmas Program

Up on the “bleachers” on the top row...far left. The only kid not in his Sunday best Christmas duds. I am a rookie mom. I had NO CLUE they were supposed to dress up. Oh well. The program was really cute and they sang their little hearts out for us.

7: Decorating Sugar Cookies with Friends

We had a few friends over for dinner tonight and then let the kids decorate sugar cookies. The ratio of sprinkles to sugar cookies was WAY beyond my personal taste, but the kids had a great time. I am still sweeping up the sprinkles off the floor, but that’s all part of the magic of Christmas isn’t it? I told my kids they couldn’t lick the knifes, since we had a community pot of icing and you can see Owen enforcing that rule (true to his personality) and Olivia not really happy about that. Oh the joy of siblings.

Sugar Cookies

Darth Vader Claus and Dear Deer Princess Olivia were my super helpers in the kitchen today as we made sugar cookies. We discovered that a bell cookie cutter is actually a darth vader cookie cutter, if you think about it. :) If you REALLY think about it everything can be drawn back to STAR WARS. We used Grandma Sigurjonsson’s recipe and made a delicious batch of cookies that we will decorate with our friends tomorrow night. Owen was amazingly helpful and figured out how to roll out the dough all by himself. Olivia?...well she looked really cute making that collossal mess.

5: Christmas Movie and Cousins

Any Sunday that we can we love going up to hang out with the Puzeys and have Sunday dinner. We always have a great time there. This week the kids watched Christmas movies together. My kids were thrilled to see their house all decked out for the holidays. It looks so great! I love going there, in part, because my baby is whisked from my arms the moment I get there and then returned to me begrudgingly as I leave. He is happy to be held and held and held and adored and cuddled. Everybody wins when there is a happy baby to be entertained.

My Reindeer Children

Rudolph Puppet Show and Santa

Today we went to the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts and watched Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. It was so, so cute! The characters and story are from the one I watched as a kid, so it was quite nostalgic too. :) The puppet show was fantastic and Santa was there too! The kids took the opportunity to whisper what they wanted into Santa’s ear and we tried, but this is really the cutest picture we took of our kids with Santa. Then Santa read us a Christmas story before we left. It was a great way to start out the holiday season.

3: Pumpkin Muffins

Today we used my sister, Jamie’s amazing Harvest Loaf recipe to make some Christmas Tree shaped pumpkin muffins. The kids loved this. I just picked up the muffin pan from the dollar spot and we’ve made muffins and ice cubes shaped like trees.
Here is the recipe:

Harvest Loaf
1 1/2c. flour
1t. soda
1t. cinnamon
1/2t. salt
1/2t. nutmeg
1/4t. ginger
1/3c. butter
1c. sugar
2 eggs
3/4c. pumpkin
3/4c. chocolate chips
3/4c. walnuts (optional)

Glaze
1/2c powdered sugar
1/8t. nutmeg
1/8t. cinnamon
1-2t. milk

Mix together dry ingredients. In another bowl cream butter, sugar and eggs. Stir dry ingredients and pumpkin alternately into the butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts. Bake in a large, greased bread pan (or 3 small). Mince 1/4c. walnuts and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350 for 65 minutes (large loaf) or 55-60 minutes (small loaves). Let cook and drizzle with glaze. Enjoy.

2: Gingerbread House

If it’s not obvious by now, I am trying to take a picture each day to document our advent this year. So this is Gingerbread House day. I had to let go of my illusions of control, yet again, in order for this to be a fun event for everyone. I just put the icing on the house and let the kids go for it and put the candy anywhere they liked. It turned out really cute and it’s now the centerpiece on our kitchen table.