It’s a wrap! Christmas is all over. Phew! Yes, that’s festive, I know. Actually, we had lovely Christmases at my parents’ on Christmas Eve, our house Christmas morning, and then George’s parents’ that afternoon and evening. I’m pretty tired though and declared at ten o’ clock this morning that I was not making dinner tonight.

The kids got a Wii from George’s parents, so we spent half the day playing with that (after tidying up a bit, which now you can’t tell that we did). George is sitting on the floor playing Guitar Hero III as I write.

Georgie asked me a couple weeks ago if I had hidden the presents pretty well. I told him yes (although they were all on the floor in my bedroom under a pillow, so the real answer was no), and he went on to say that he kept thinking he wanted to go looking for them so he could find out what they were.

This is the child that tells on himself when he does almost anything wrong (except terrorizing his sisters, which somehow passes unhindered through his sin sensors).

“Georgie, can you imagine how you would feel if you actually found your presents and looked at them? Don’t you think you’d spend the next two weeks feeling completely guilty and miserable?” I asked.

“Hmmm, I hadn’t thought about that.”

Then I told him that the presents were behind the toilet in the bathroom, and he promptly decided that he wasn’t all that interested in looking for them after all.

Oh! Here are the Christmas pictures George took this year in case you’re interested. This is the one that went out with our Christmas card:

And this was the one that he did just in case he couldn’t get the other one to come out how he wanted it to:

Amazing what a good graphics designer can do with a decent digital camera and some editing software (that would be George the graphics designer. I am the graphics messer upper). In case you were wondering, these were both done in our house and no, we do not have a glass floor.

Well, I am going to go scavenge some more leftovers and run another load of laundry. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and get a chance to rest over the next few days.

Rachel

Rachel

Today I made the startling discovery that my son didn’t know who Mr. Spock was. Appalled that my Dad (or brother or FIL) might discover this calamitous situation before I could rectify it (or I got disowned), I immediately decreed that we were watching Star Trek II today while I worked on my grandparents’ Christmas project.

Georgie immediately objected to this idea as he does all movies that are my suggestion and not his own, but I told him “tough torpedos” and he wouldn’t be watching anything else until he saw this. He growled at me and ran off to go play spies with Trinity before ultimately deciding that it would be better to just get my movie over with. Gee, thanks!

After the little girls went to bed, he sat down to watch the show. Anika
meandered in to see if Star Trek was anything that might potentially maybe be worth watching, and not only stayed for the whole thing but declared afterwards how much she loved it. Ha! At least one of them is properly indoctrinated now.

Georgie asked questions the entire way through the movie and was thoroughly horrified at the little bugs they put in the guys’ ears. He seemed even more appalled when I told him about my grade school teacher who used to wear silver earrings that looked disturbingly like the little bugs. Ick!

Then after clearly enjoying the whole film, he tried to claim that he didn’t like it (he does this following every activity now; it’s getting a bit obnoxious). Trinity spent the whole time on the computer looking up instructions for and making an origami Christmas tree.

At least two of them know who Mr. Spock is now!

Rachel

Or did you not notice that little fact? I’m very nearly done with my Christmas prep, which makes me very happy despite the fact that my house looks atrocious. This Friday and Saturday we did the photo shoot for our annual Christmas pictures, which did not do wonders for the tidiness of our home.

The first day we shot in the living room so George moved all the furniture around, put up his new muslin backgrounds he got for his birthday and a big studio light he borrowed from some guys he contracts for, and we spent most of the day shooting. Six hundred shots later, he decided he finally had something to work with! (Yes, it’s a digital camera). This was for the backup picture he was doing in case the main picture didn’t cooperate.

Then Saturday he moved everything out of the family room and put a huge box full of packing peanuts in there with the studio lights again and spent all afternoon shooting with that. The picture actually came out really nicely, but I can’t post it here yet because the people we mailed it to probably haven’t received theirs yet and I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I’ll post both shots next week. Neener neener neener, you have to wait. What can I say? I spend my days with five children. That’s a good excuse, right?

After the photo shoot was done on Saturday, I spent the rest of the day doing Christmas cards (70 for church; 30 to mail), and actually managed to get them all done. Amazing! I have two left to track down addresses for and then they’re completely finished. Phew! Nice to cross that off the list.

George put all the furniture back and got the packing peanuts all out of the house right away; but somehow when a few things are out of place, it’s like everything else in the house thinks it’s ok to be where it shouldn’t be so it goes running into the middle of the floor too. I spent most of yesterday Christmas shopping with my Mom (pretty much all done now) and was a total vegetable last night and for the first half of today.

Apparently my hip decided that walking around was not something it wanted to do so it’s been cranky all day. Anyway, when I came upstairs to work, the kids were cleaning up downstairs and George was on kid wrangling duty. I heard a lot of cleaning type noises (mostly George yelling, “go pick up that stuff over there,” and the vacuum running). I’m hoping this means the downstairs will look a bit better when I go back down there.

You know what? My nail polish looks really nice today. I’m sure you were dying to know that…. I painted them Christmas red a week ago Saturday and they lasted for a week without really chipping or anything. Then I redid them on Sunday and they still look perfect. I’m not exactly careful with my nails either. Filing the top of the nail with an emery board before you apply the polish and then finishing with a no-chip topcoat definitely seems to do the trick. Don’t let me forget that. I’m counting on you now! You’re my backup in case my brain gets stuck. Work, brain, work! Ahem, anyway what was I talking about?

Tonight I need to sit down and finish up my little project I’ve been working on for my grandparents’ Christmas gifts (yes, this means you, Grandpa and Grandma Shaw so I’m not going to tell what it is. Hehe. It might not show up in time for Christmas though since I’m not quite done with it). Anika’s gift will come in on Thursday or Friday, we need to get a stuffed doggie for Faithy, and then we’re all done with Christmas prep until next weekend when cooking starts for church, Christmas Eve at my parents’, Christmas morning here (I make special breakfast), and Christmas Day at George’s parents. I’m planning to start prep probably on Friday.

Well, I suppose I’ve blathered on long enough for today. I hope your Christmas preparations are going along swimmingly and you are able to relax a bit and enjoy the holiday. Merry Christmas!

Rachel

Uncle Steve! (George’s brother)

George and I managed to escape the other day for an evening, and Uncle Steve and Auntie Kathy came to babysit (Auntie Kathy is George’s sister. Steve’s wife Angie had a soccer game that night and Kathy’s husband was working late, so she came and helped out Steve).

When we got home, I noticed that the house smelled like cookies. No, Uncle Steve corrected me, not cookies. Muffins. Apparently Trinity had wanted to make something out of her little bitty kid cookbook that my mother bought her ages ago, and the something ended up being muffins (little tiny ones that go in her little tiny muffin tins). Being the wonder-Uncle that he is, Steve ended up helping her. Not Kathy (who I think was in playing castle with the other kids). Steve. How cute is that??? And that is why the kids beg to go to Uncle Steve’s house all the time.

This is the same Uncle Steve who put Cheetos in their macaroni & cheese when Trinity spent the night at his & Auntie Angie’s house. This was a huge hit, it seems, and I still hear about it regularly (this has been a year or two ago now). So, Uncle Steve, enjoy your award for the next twelve months; and if you’re lucky, you’ll retain your title next year.

Rachel

This is my favorite cherry pie recipe. I discovered that I have it in
my recipe folder but not on my computer, which would be problematic if
something spilled on my folder. Anyway, since I just typed it up and
have the recipe open, I thought I’d share it here in case you are just
dying to have a Cherry Pie recipe. You can also add 1T Kirsch cherry
brandy to the filling if you like. It does change the flavor a bit.
Enjoy!

Rachel

Cherry Pie 

Makes one 9” pie (serves 8 )

1/8 to 1/4 t. salt

1 c. sugar

1/3 c. flour *

3 cans (14.5 oz. each) red tart pie cherries (not cherry pie filling), drained, reserve juice

½ c. juice from cherries (you might not use all this)

¼ t. red food coloring (optional)

¼ t. almond extract (optional)

1/4 t. lemon juice

1 T. butter or margarine

Pastry for two-crust 9 inch pie (I cheat and use Pillsbury)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine salt, sugar, flour; mix well. Add sugar mixture to drained cherries; mix well. Stir in some cherry juice if the cherries and sugar look dry (you don’t want it to be too soupy, just mostly cherries with some juice), food coloring, almond extract, and lemon juice. Roll out half of pastry and line a 9 inch piepan. Pour cherry filling into pastry lined pan. Dot top of filling with butter. Adjust top crust, seal and crimp edges; cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake 50-60 minutes or until crust browns and filling begins to bubble (cover edges with tin foil for first 30 minutes to prevent over browning). Cool pie several hours to allow filling to thicken before slicing.

*Two tablespoons quick cooking tapioca may be substituted for flour. Combine sugar, tapioca, cherries, juice, food coloring and almond extract. Mix well and let stand 20 minutes before pouring mixture into pastry lined pie pan. Continue as above.

Ahhh, my Husband. Sometimes you just have to laugh at those goofy creative types. He’s spent the entire last month working his cute little petunias off on this massive work project. Last week he did a couple 18 hours and several 14’s. When he finally finished over the weekend, he looked like he had no idea what to do with himself.

Naturally, sitting down to watch a movie sounded like a relaxing idea, so he popped in a movie, fired up the DVD player, and up came…. Helvetica. As in the type font, Helvetica. My husband rented an entire documentary on a font and decided that watching it would be a good way to unwind after a month of not leaving his office.

It occurred to me that perhaps he rented this as some sort of visual tranquilizer or sleep aid; but no, he actually sat and watched the entire thing in fascination. I, on the other hand, watched half an hour or so (had to at least try) before retired to the bedroom to read my book on The Shipwreck of the Medusa (which isn’t the most interesting book either. Made a good tranquilizer….).

A font! Yes, my sweet Hubby is a graphics guy through and through. Everything he sees, thinks, or does is filtered through his internal graphics card, so I suppose I could see how he might find this subject matter appealing. Plus, I’d much rather have him enjoying oddball documentaries once in awhile than gluing himself to the TV for months on end watching one or more varieties of sports.

The part that I saw did contain some interesting information. For instance, the creation of the Helvetica font in 1957 was solely responsible for the change in print advertising that occurred between the 50’s and 60’s. Prior to Helvetica, advertisements were  hand-drawn cartoon people with hand-drawn lettering. After the advent of Helvetica, ads became much more sleek with photographs of the product above a typed tagline or description (in Helvetica, of course).

Interesting information, however, does not always necessitate a feature-length movie. If you are into graphical presentation of any sort, this movie may well appeal to you. Otherwise, it makes a pretty good sedative.

Rachel

P.S. Actually, George did celebrate the project completion appropriately on Saturday night by going to the Van Halen concert with our friend Mike. They both seemed to vastly enjoy pretending they were eighteen for a few hours.