A Group Of Stahrs

Ten on Tuesday

1.  After Thanksgiving, time didn’t slow for the Stahrs.  We spent the weekend gearing up for our Pop Pop Christmas.   It’s an actual holiday around here.  It’s not on a set day like Christmas but is dependent on when Pop Pop is available to be here and celebrate with us.  So we decorate the house and got our tree (on November 30 which has never happened in our house before since I’m usually a stickler for not doing anything Christmasy until December)

but it was done and it was fabulous.  After all a skirt is a skirt, right?

2.  The kids were pretty excited about Pop Pop Christmas this year.  I mean, who wouldn’t be?

They tore into their gifts and it was way too much but they loved it.  They are thoroughly enjoying all their new things and it’s been just grand.

3.  We also celebrated Pop Pop’s big birthday.  So with my new toys from Pop Pop, I made homemade spaghetti noodles (for the first time) with homemade sauce.  Then we had lemon drop cake with vanilla bean icing.

4.  Do you remember the last post about all those Thanksgiving treats for our little dessert party?  Yeah, I’m not gonna lie about purposely ignoring the scale the last week…

5.  So my birthday happens to be the day after my dad’s.  Jeremiah took the day off and worked very hard on my angel food cake.  He opted to go with the boxed version to make sure it would turn out this year.  He hasn’t been very successful with this cake the last few years.  In his defense it is a difficult cake to make and he has the altitude against him.  The cake turned out great and was very tasty with our chocolate fondue!

And although I can’t believe my actual number, 37 feels way better than I was expecting.  The kids are keeping me young and old at the same time! 😉

6.  On Pinterest, I found these Elf Warnings.  I downloaded and printed one for fun, thinking I would not really use it or maybe use it as a joke for the kids.  Jacob decided to see what would happen if he bit Max.  She did absolutely nothing but I felt he needed a lesson.  So Twinkle the Elf left a warning for him stating he saw the whole thing and that Jacob was not on warning to possibly not get any gifts from Santa.  Would you believe it actually made the boy cry?  He pinned the warning on his chore chart as a reminder to be nice to the dogs.  I can’t say that I’m sorry it worked.

7.  Today I made homemade fettuccine noodles with my pasta attachments.  They turned out so much better than the spaghetti did.  The kids even said it was better than the boxed noodles.  It was Jamie’s turn to help with supper and she had a blast helping me with them.  I love cooking with my kids.

8.  So 37 doesn’t make you more graceful.  You can still slip on the wet hard floor of your kitchen when you are rushing around trying to get errands done before picking kids up from school.  Turns out the desserts from the last few weeks actually didn’t add enough padding on my lovely saddlebags to not hurt when I hit the floor.  Ouch!

9.  I have mailed all of our Christmas packages out today!  I wish I could get the cards out too.  I’m only half way on those.  I still have to get things for Christmas here too.  Somehow Christmas kind of snuck up on me this year.  Does anyone else feel that way?

10.  I haven’t made any cookies yet.  I have made and packaged 3 batches of peppermint bark but I have made nothing for the kids yet.  I think I’m going to dial it down this year and only make a few things.  What are your favorites at this time of the year?  My favorite are sugar cookies, hands down.  They don’t even need to be decorated!

Happy Tuesday!