Wordless Wednesday

The 2018.

Cookie Fest

My Dad and Stepmom have started a new tradition since we've had kids. 

We call it Cookie Fest. 

Every year, they invite us over, for an early Saturday morning party for decorating sugar cookies. 

Oma and Opa hooked the boys up with Groovy Aprons!  

Our crew takes the required family photo (I love that we do this tradition every year too) before the kids get so sugared up they can't hold still for a photo.  

We had explained to Christopher on the way down, that because Oma had made 22 dozen cutout cookies for them to decorate, there would not be Black Cake.  Oma's Black Cake (aka chocolate) is Christopher's favorite.  And my stepmom is such a sweetheart, she makes him a cake every time he comes, because she knows it's his favorite.  He doesn't like it with a ton of icing, just plain.  And even though, she made a zillion cookies, and there was a table spread covered in all sorts of sugary decoration confections for the cookies, she still made him a cake.   And he loves him so Oma Black Cake.  He was so surprised that she made him a cake anyway.  Surprised me too. 

Jacob has got this down!  

He was seriously ready to dig in and decorate. 

Oma always makes sure there are plenty of non Red 40 options for Sam to decorate. Lots of Green and Blue things.  This year, she even made Black icing.   She didn't think we'd use it much, but everyone really loved putting black wheels, belts, penguin bodies. Everything.   

Sam is my color consultant, he has such a great eye for color and art.  He is quite serious about it.

Christopher likes to stick his tongue out ever so slightly while he works. Just like me. Just like his Opa.  Though this time, when I went for the picture, the tongue tip disappeared.  Well, I know he does it.   And I love it.  He was getting in touch with his artistic side today too! 

Sam insisted I take pictures of his favorite cookies.  This wreath, he was already to start eating.  He took a nibble off before insisting that I take the cookies' picture.   

Jacob didn't even put this one away before digging in.  

There were a couple of Jacob's cookies that look like he licked a bit before packing them up to take home.   I think he's going to be the only one eating them. 

My lovely nieces got to come down, even though their Mama was not up for driving. Opa drove up and back to Carmel to grab them so they could participate. They had a great time, and looked so adorable in their matching green sweatshirts.  

Turns out that this fella not only can build a house, he is pretty good at decorating a house shaped cookie too!  This was the first year Eric and I could decorate some too, since the boys were finally old enough to decorate on their own.  

My Stepmom received some excellent new ornaments for a gift. 

Buffalo Wing Ornaments!  

Of course, to true Buffalonians, they are just Wings.  

Still, what a great idea for an ornament.  Even better as a gift for my Stepmom. 

The kids thought they were so cool. 

Mmm.... Loganberry

MB gave us our first new ornament of the season, this excellent Loganberry ornament.   In Buffalo, they have this great soda flavor, Loganberry, it's a combo of blackberry and raspberry.  It's not grown there, but in California.  But this resort, Crystal Beach used to serve the soda.  Then restaurants made stuff like Loganberry ice cream, milkshakes, soda, syrup.  Everything.  So I'm a bit of a collector.  I've got a stash of Loganberry goodies in my pantry.  It just also happens to be enhanced with Red 40, so it's exactly Sam/Fam friendly.   More for me.   This awesome ornament came from the same ornament company as the Wings.   This place in Buffalo does ornaments as well as great Western New York Foods.  I miss Western New York.  I miss Grandma Pat, and Suzy.  And when my Stepmom gave me this Loganberry ornament, I cried.  I miss them all so much.  

Maybe, it might be time to go back.  You know, Jacob's has never seen Niagara Falls.....

By treelight

I'm not usually one for having time to practice a lot of fancy photography.  I try to, but I just don't often get a chance lately.  True, this Christmas has been the same.   Jake is sick, we haven't left the house in days, but  I wanted to try something new.  I found a tutorial on pinterest, on how to take pictures that result in star shine bursts of light, perfect for the holidays.  So I decided to give it a try, even breaking out the Tripod.  

This is our Disney Tree.  All the ornaments have some sort of Disney character on them, and the stuffies are holiday versions of some of our favorites.  No idea why we have 3 Poohs. ;)  

I set the tripod up, and cranked up the f-stop to 22.  I set the timer to 2 sec, so I could push the button and the camera would be done wiggling by the time the shutter opened.  I set the shutter for 30 seconds.  Oh yes, 30 seconds for a camera is a really long time.  No wonder we needed the tripod and a timer.  

So our main tree looks amazing. 

Again those settings were: 30 sec, f/22, and ISO 100.  

But by gum, it really gets those lights to sparkle! 

They called it the Starburst Effect - Oh yes it is! 

I messed with this one a bit, this one wasn't on the tripod, anymore but zoomed in a bit to capture the newest addition to our tree. It's Jacob's first ornament that we put on the tree.  

Each of us have ornaments with our names on them, from Bronner's in Frankenmuth, MI.  We've bought the others in person, but this year we had to order Jacob's and it arrived Just in time for Christmas.  

Happy First Christmas Baby! 

Deck the Halls

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A Top 10 of Festive Decoration.

1.  This year is a nifty year, we have a total of 3 trees (I know crazy) and one we designated as the Disney Tree.  So Christopher was thrilled to put his My First Christmas Winnie the Pooh ornament on that tree first.

2.  Chris puts up a star ornament he made in MOPS before Sam was born.  

3.  Sam puts on his own ornaments.  

4.  Sam puts his own My First Pooh ornament on the Disney Tree. :) 

5.  I watch happily as my boys all decorate.  I had overdone it a bit on Tuesday, and by evening, I only had energy to wrap one tree in tinsel garland I was done, I had to sit.  

6.  Cookie and Oscar!  My sister and I had this set of Sesame street ornaments when we were little, and I mean LONG AGO, when my parents were married.  To Each Other.  We got the set, and though they have seen better days, the kids and I still love pulling them out every year.  This year, Chris pretended he was Cookie, and he was going to eat Oscar and every other ornament and cookie he could find.  His Cookie Monster impression was Spot On. 

7.  Sam's first ornament.  My friend Cathy C. knit this itty bitty hat for me when I was pregnant with Sam.  It was his first Christmas ornament, before he even got here.  It may have fit him at the time, as he was the size of a tomato at the time, but not anymore.   

8.  Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bells Rock!  That's what they were singing as they decorated.  Then they started running around the house singing, and less decorating was happening, it was time for bed.  

 9.  Christopher finds "his ornament".  His special ornament from Bronner's Christmas store in Frankenmuth, MI that has his name on it.  He gets excited about that one every year too.  Going to need to order another one some time this year before next Christmas. ;)

10.  My contribution.  Aside from wearing myself out with tinsel, I sat and opened box ornaments. Then I waddled all these Silver Snowflakes to the upstairs tree and stayed there.  We've been collecting them, in our silver pattern since we got married.   Almost all caught up. ;)  

Thanks to Christopher for taking this picture of me.  In spite of looking like a hot mess, he always gets the best smiles from me, probably because I love him so.  It does my heart good to see him with a camera.  He's my favorite photographer.