Updates

This month is flying by at extra high speed, don't you all think? I'm off work for the rest of the week since I had vacation hours to burn (I know, poor me) and I'm hoping to catch up on some things I've been wanting to get done.

First off, I wanted to take a few minutes to share pics of a few fun things over the past couple of weeks since I last posted.

We visited Shamrock Farms, a local dairy farm that has an annual holiday event for the kids called "Joy to the Herd". It includes a tram tour of the farm, face painting, Christmas crafts, snacks, carolers and a visit from Santa. Lauren loved the "moooo cows" and it was pretty interesting to see how a dairy farm operates.






It was fun decorating the tree this year with my little helper. Here she is picking the perfect ornament to hang...


and figuring out where to put it.


The placement has to be just right...


I have to pat myself on the back for not re-hanging the ornaments she hung. I left them exactly where she put them. Anyone who knows me knows that was tuff! ;)

My favorite part of the Christmas decorations is this...the sight of Lauren's stocking hung between ours. I can't tell you how many times I've stared at this and thanked my lucky stars!



This past Sunday I reserved for baking. I started early by making a batch of the Ree's cinnamon rolls. Don't let all the steps to this receipe scare you away. It's definitely a production, but not hard at all. Actually, it was my first successful experience with yeast. My previous attempts at yeast recipes have always failed miserably. Here's the final product baked in holidays pans with lids for gift giving...


Yummy goodness...



These rolls were delicious right out of the oven and the tins we brought our neighbors were still warm, but I also brought a few tins in for people at work and I'm not sure how the rolls held up overnight. I'm thinking they are really something that needs to be eaten right away while warm or frozen then baked later.

After the cinnamon rolls, we made pecan pizzelles (an Italian waffle cookie that's made with a pizzelle iron). My Mom has made these for cookie exchanges in the past and a friend of mine wanted to learn how. They are labor intensive, but so worth it...light and not overly sweet. They are great with coffee and tea.

Then it was time to make butter cookies. It's a recipe from my Grandmother on my Dad's side and we been making them for years. I wanted to keep this tradition up with Lauren, so it was nice when she woke up from her nap just in time to decorate her own tray...





I love these cookies with the cinnamon candies on them. Something about the melt in your mouth butter taste with the cinnamon...yum!


Also on Sunday, Lauren had a play-date with her friend Lily and Joe took them over to the play ground in the wagon. Don't look they cute swinging together...





Oh, one more thing...we took Lauren to get pics with Santa on Saturday morning. She's seen Santa a few times already and has sat in his lap and talked to him. It seemed on Saturday she was a lot more apprehensive because of all the noise and camera lights flashing. At the mall it was all about getting the kids onto Santa's lap, getting the pics and getting them out. They didn't let the kids have even a minute of chat time with the big guy.



I do like that we can buy the pics on a USB and download them to the computer for scrapbooking and printing.

Well, that's just about it for updates. I'm hoping to get Lauren's gifts wrapped tonight after she goes to sleep so I can move onto other projects for the rest of this week. Have a good one!