It's Christmas here

On Saturday we went to get a
Christmas tree.

Our cartload of kids.

We found a tall and skinny tree, Nate put it on top of the car, and suddenly we became one of those families in a minivan with a tree on top.

Step 1 for tree set-up: remove bird nest.

Step 2: Add lots of matryoshkas.

Elin supervised.

Viggo certainly did his share of decorating!

According to Svea, we decorationed the tree. As in, "Wook, Mom, we decowationed the twee!"

All done! Viggo has been begging for a star for years. We found one on clearance. Hopefully we can trim the top off a bit because it's looking a little funny :)

Thanksgiving movies

Check out the Thanksgiving action!

Viggo sword fights with Uncle Seth - then it's time for Kung Fu with Sam!

Elin babbles away. Because Nate and I are genius baby-talk translators, we're pretty sure that she's saying, "Happy birthday, Grandpa Zeke!" It was Grandpa's birthday, after all!

When we prayed for the meal, we sang the Johnny Appleseed song. This is how we pray at the Stein's! And it never ceases to catch the kids off-guard. I love the looks of wonder and bewilderment on Viggo, Svea, and Emma's faces!

In the kitchen all by myself: Baked French Toast

Awhile ago I felt the need for something new for breakfast-for-dinner.
So here's something new: baked French toast.
Viggo insisted I put it on the blog.
We hope you like it!

I use lots of nuts and berries.

And raw sugar. Have you ever tried it? I substitute it in quite a bit of my baking. But you could certainly use regular sugar.

Butter bread, sprinkle with berries, nuts and sugar.

Cover the bread with more buttered bread, and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.

Pour egg mixture over everything and bake!

Whoops . . . I forgot to use the Pam :)

This is kind of sweet, so bacon goes perfectly with it! Vegetarians who read my blog . . . just look away. :)

Baked French Toast

8 slices bread
1/2 C or so butter, softened
1 C berries
1/2 C chopped pecans
1/4 C raw sugar
6 eggs
1 C milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla

1. Grease 9x9" pan with Pam. Preheat oven to 350. Butter one side of each piece of bread, and lay 4 slices in pan. Sprinkle berries, nuts and sugar on the top. Top with the rest of the bread and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.

2. Combine eggs, milk and vanilla. Pour evenly over all the bread. Cover pan tightly with foil. Bake for 30 minutes covered, and then 20 additional minutes uncovered or until golden brown. Serve with syrup, bacon, fresh fruit, etc.

Thanksgiving at the Steins!

We went to the Stein's for Thanksgiving. Yay!
I spent the morning making pies. Everybody else was either watching the parade or out getting vanilla ice cream.
We had such a great time with Sam and Jen, Sarah and Dave, and everybody else.
Lots of good food.
Martha Stewart-y kitchen moments.
Passed the baby around.
Dog poop on shoes I still haven't cleaned off.
Lots of fun.
So much to be thankful for.

Elin's first Thanksgiving.
We are thankful for YOU, Elin!

Thankful that we're a family.

Caterpillar Soup

I needed to buy some time tonight because I had a lot of stuff to do.
Viggo was busy reading.
And Svea was wandering around making mischief.
So - time to make Caterpillar Soup!

As you can see Svea is really having a good time.

Oregano, flour, salt, and water.

Soup for caterpillars.

Svea carefully spooned the ingredients into bowls of water that were conveniently located in the sink.

She added one thing after the next until it was perfect.

After Svea finished cooking, I decided that the best thing to do with that sorry concoction was to feed all the caterpillars, of course! So we went out on the porch and dumped it into the rhododendron. I thought that was the end of things, but then I heard Svea say, "I wait here to see 'em comin' eat my cata-pilla soup."

She was standing at the door waiting for caterpillars.

PS - I wish this genius idea was mine, but I got it out of the book Unplugged Play by Bobbi Conner. That book is worth its weight in gold!

Fun shopping today!

Viggo has the week off of school. Yippee! Time to do fun stuff.

Like go and buy toys.

I stopped and got a little something for myself too. *ahem*
Dunkin' Donuts gives out free munchkins to kids, so the V-man and Svea each got one and I had my pumpkin spice latte. All three of us get a treat - for 99 cents!

Hey, it just occurred to me that if we have 12 kids, we'll get a dozen free munchkins every time we go to Dunkin' Donuts.

How economical!

Maybe I should talk to Nate about this . . .

Then we headed here.

Generally I try to avoid this place.

But it's different when you go knowing you can buy stuff!

Obviously this section was our first stop.

Viggo drools over the many, many Lego sets.
He finally chose an Atlantis set.

I didn't take pics of Svea finding her item because things got kind of intense. We were in Toys R Us, after all.

Viggo and Svea take a ride with Fred.

Svea got to ride with Elmo and Zoe.

Wouldn't you know, Svea picked out a box of Lightning McQueen books.

Princess books?

That's sissy stuff.

This is the look I got from Viggo when I suggested he save his new Lego set and play with it tomorrow.

Elin plays with her new little ladybug book.

New Legos - what a treat!

Thanks for the fun, Grandpa and Grandma Daisy!

Getting well sooner

Svea got a card in the mail today.

Complete with singing chipmunks.

(She had a little accident last week which left some bottom front teeth loose! Poor baby!)

She LOVED it! Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Daisy!

Fresh off the Mayflower

Have you hugged a pilgrim today?

Just some pics

Elin sucks her thumb and plays with a little starfish at the same time.
She's such an advanced baby :)

Svea spends some time in her little book corner. The rocking chair was salvaged from our neighbor's garbage; Nate repaired a leg and now it is the place to sit.

Our big baby girl!

Sunday funnies

Today we went to Macy's. The kids and I. I had never, ever been to Macy's here. Because I never had a reason to go. I usually prefer to frequent Goodwill. (Their prices are more my speed.) But I had a giftcard!! I bought a new wallet. The last time I bought a wallet was in 1995. I figured it was time for a new one, so happy birthday to me! Thanks, Jim and Lois :)

After purchasing my beautiful new wallet, Viggo and Svea really, really wanted to go up the escalator to the Christmas department. So up we went. And what was up there, but a desk and stationery all set up to write to Santa!

So we wrote letters to Santa.

Viggo's letter read, "Dear Santa, I wood like Lego gis." (Lego guys.)

I think Svea asked for world peace.

Then they put their letters to Santa in an official Santa mail box. Even better, for every letter sent to Santa, Macy's would donate a dollar to charity.

We're just doing our part to make the world a better place.

One letter to Santa at a time.

It was so exciting to see all the Christmas stuff. And say hi to everyone on the first floor below.

Whoa! A Santa with soul! There was another lady in the Christmas section too. I think she was wondering who the nut was taking a picture of an African-American Santa.

What can I say? I thought Santa was a hoot!

Love you, Santa!

Viggo and Svea pose in front of a tree filled with pink ornaments.
It practically goes without saying that this was Svea's favorite tree.

After a trip to a park to play some soccer, we came home. Svea took a nap, and Viggo played in the backyard. After while I joined him, and he said, "Hey Mom, I caught some salamanders!"

He sure did! And a centipede or two.

Yucky.

I stayed as far as I could from that little red bucket.

Elin was outside with us too. She's been chewing on her hands a lot lately. Time for teeth soon.

She loved watching Viggo run around in the leaves.

And Viggo loved making silly faces!

Me and my littlest girl!

I hope you've had a happy Sunday too!