Oh My Goodness, We Are Going to Get a Dog

First of all, we had a wonderful Christmas. I woke up Christmas eve morning early and went swimming, Adam and Jeff chopped wood. I stopped over all wet and hatted and visited the Caterers and Pete and Sheila—then we loaded up and headed over to my folks to eat not one, but two meals and spend the day together. We have a fun little tradition that my mom started called the code. Instead of labeling who the gifts are for, we make up some kind of combination code of whatever and label the presents as such. The kids and now the adults have to figure it out to know who each gift is for. Funny thing this year is that I did my own code and it was very similar to the one my mom did on her gifts. We must be on the same wavelength. The highlight for me was watching Johnny and David's expressions when they found out that they are going to be going to THAILAND with my mom in February. As follows: confusion, shock and in Johnny's case, fear. They are going to have a life altering experience and I can't wait for them to to come home and tell me all about it. The low point was telling all the kids constantly to stay away from the food dye. We are trying to do this together as a family, but it is not fun. We also popped out for a bit to look at a house for Lee and Chelsy. I hope they end up close by!

We woke up Christmas morning and I had one present wrapped for the kids. A giant dog toy and some pictures of newfoundland puppies. The kids are pumped. Then we headed up to Adam's folks for the day and opened gifts, spent time with family, Adam loves to play sheepshead and cribbage with his grandparents and brothers. I love to load up my prime rib with as much horseradish as possible. I always eat too much. 

So for the last two weeks I have been calling and emailing all sorts of breeders and doing research on what we think is the breed we want, a Newfoundland. I have admired these dogs for years and it finally feels like the right time to get one. I know that because I am probably wanting it just as much as the kids. What a switch! Anyhow, it could take months or we could have a pup in the next couple weeks. We will see! I investigated some dogs that were rescued and brought to an animal shelter, they seemed like they had some issues though and we were really hoping for a puppy. Just hoping that we find a great dog that will be great with our family.

Buckeye Balls

Over the last ten years or so I have made buckeye balls for Christmas in honor of my Gramma O'Malley. She has been gone 9 years this past week. I remember them as my favorite part of her very glamorous cookie tray. Who knew that creating a cookie tray could be such a work of art! It has been one of my favorite things to create over the holidays. This year is tough, we decided no food dye at all. White frosting, holly wreaths that look like cornflakes? not as fun.

During my Gramma's last months we spent a lot of time with her. My mom and I would head up to WI with toddler Anna and baby David. During one of these visits we planned and hosted a bridge party for her and her friends. I will always remember this party as a lesson in "how it's done". I got to see them sit and plan, and what dishes to use and how to decorate the mantle, center pieces, prepare food and delight the guests. My gramma was wonderful at this and so were her daughters. Whenever I host an event I think back to my bridge party lesson. 

Buckeye Balls

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

cups confectioners' sugar

4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Mix peanut butter, melted butter, vanilla and confectioners sugar and chill for 1 hour. 

Roll balls and chill

Melt chocolate and dip with a toothpick and let chocolate harden on wax paper.

A Good Game

Monday night David had a basketball game. His team was up against another undefeated team and it was the closest game yet. The final score was only 10-6. 5 of our points were David's—I was a proud mama.

A couple of month’s ago David tried out for the feeder team for the high school. The first year is fourth grade. At first when he tried out, I thought there was a lot of boys and that our chances weren’t that great, but as the week progressed and I watched how hard David played, I thought that his chances were good and we were getting excited. It was heartbreaking when he didn’t make it. I probably took it harder than he did. But I was so proud of his attitude and it has made this year of working and focusing on basketball a lot sweeter. He is really improving and I am watching the whole process with a big smile on my face.

The Soup is Good

Right before the barn sale we had to do a hard stop and finish our 25 meat birds. It was nuts. We had been so busy with so many more details to take care of that it was actually comical. Adam had Jeff and his buddy Brian come over. Brian brought his kids and together with our kids, they got the rhythm down and we wrapped it up by about 10:00. These birds were so much bigger than our summer birds and we took them a week earlier. The heat this summer was just so brutal. But combined with our fall birds, three families were able to go home with a freezer full of chicken.

I have been so busy lately that I have not made many things. Today I woke up with no huge tasks that had to be completed and I felt a little bit lost. This is when I start to bake. I got down the bread machine and continued to make stock from the chicken carcass that we had for dinner last night and then went out to the garden and got some kale. It is so warm this December. I love making stuff from scratch, just need life to slow down a bit for me to do it.

37! Marshmellow Competition and Basketball Shoes

This Friday Adam turned 37. We had a fun time. Sushi in the city with Lee, Chelsy, Lee’s roomate and Jeff. My folks had the kids all weekend, so we got to totally check out from our normal duties. They took the kids to their games and everything. We did get to see Anna score 6 points in her very first basketball game. Speaking of basketball, we are all in it this year. 4 kids and three games every Saturday. I managed to get Hudson and Johnny onto the same team for sanity. I enjoy watching the kids play whatever sport we are into at the moment. They all are growing and I love watching them develop through them all. In this past week, I had to buy 4 pairs of basketball shoes. They are not cheap and the bigger the feet the less I can find cheap shoes.

Last night was Luke and Elissa’s annual Christmas party. Chelsy and I rallied at the end of the marshmellow tower building competition, but we couldn’t pull it off—I am still strategizing about it. I did however guess the wheel of fortune answer that stumped most people. Earned myself a $25 gift card to the spa for that one.

Anna Gets an Ipod

Yesterday was Anna’s “Day of All Days”. She turned 11. For years my mom and I have taken her downtown on a girls shopping day and it has become our tradition. I typically do family activities in lue of birthday parties. (Last year was the exception, we had an eighties party for Anna’s 10th.)

This year we had a new member in our party. Miss Hailey joined us and wanted to take Anna to American Girl. It was sweet to visit the store with Hailey. Anna brought her doll and enjoyed looking at all of the cool things with her. I was nostalgic, knowing that my time in this phase was done. It was sweet to look back on the years and recall all of the memories that we had created together on these birthday outings. We eat at fun restaurants and bring treats in the car. Anna dresses up and we enjoy the time together. When we went to Bloomingdales my mom reminded us that this is where we had gone on my 10th birthday. At the end of the day we had a nice big dinner at Stoney River and I caved and she got an ipod—confirming the transition from little girl to big one. We ended the day at TJMaxx and Target—very typical for us and I brought home one extremely excited and tired eleven-year-old.