If Only. . .

I'm a big Harry Potter fan (not like up at midnight to see the first showing of the latest movie fan, but a fan), and recently I've converted Matthew to my ways. Well, I didn't so much convert him as he converted himself. One day, Matthew was flipping through the channels on the TV, and he came across The Sorcerer's Stone. (Great movie, by the way) He loved it, and quickly discovered that I have the DVD of that movie. So now, he watches it at least once a week. I was watching it with him the other day, and I decided that I need some magical powers. At the end of the movie, Dumbledore claps his hands, raises his arms, and the Great Hall's decorations are instantly transformed. I would love to have that power. I clap, raise my hands, and the laundry's folded. Or the family room is cleaned up. Or my bed is made. I wouldn't use it for world domination or anything of the sort. Just to get stuff done around my house. Wouldn't that be great??

Or maybe I'll just be happy for a magical power that will help my kids get along.

Woo Hoo! Post 150!

According to blogger, this is my 150th post. Wish I could make it more exciting, but this is what you get. We had a pretty good Christmas. The boys got what they had been wanting.

We didn't get them too much else. I thought that the one big gift would probably be enough. I think we could have gotten away with just getting them the Wii and nothing else. :-) They've played it ALOT since they got it. Actually, they're playing it again as I type this. It is getting them up and moving. I played Wii Boxing today and ended up winded! It's hard work!

My parents and sister were here for Christmas too. It was fun to have family here for Christmas. This is actually the first time we've had family here on Christmas day. Last year we were up in Indiana, and the two years before that we were here by ourselves. I got a Honey-Baked ham for Christmas Dinner, (Manna from heaven is all I can say) and my mom made her Cheesy potatoes. Yum. We spent the day relaxing and watching the boys play Wii games (or playing them ourselves). Matthew is good. I mean, REALLY good. He beat all of us at pretty much everything. He has a lot of hand-eye coordination, and he picks up the games very easily. Even Nathan started getting the hang of the games. He has a tendency to get frustrated if he doesn't get something right away, but he was very patient and worked his way through it when he was stuck. I was very proud of him!

Hope that you and yours had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Cookie Time!

Today is December 12th. In exactly four weeks, I will be taking my Praxis exam on the Foundations of Special Education. I also have a Literature Review that needs to be done in a month. Plus, my school bag weighs close to 1000 pounds from all of the papers I have to grade before Friday. But did I do any of that today? No, of course not! I made these:

and these:

and even whipped up these for supper:

It's Christmas baking time at our house! Matthew helped me with the Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches while Nathan was at choir practice for the Christmas Eve service (http://www.christmasevegwinnett.com/ if you're interested in coming! You won't be disappointed!).



And both boys helped with the cut out cookies. (For a while at least)





Yes, that would be Andrew's hand you see at the bottom trying to sneak a scrap of cookie dough. He's very much like his mom! He was our little helper.


I finished by making potato latkes. Two other teachers and I served them yesterday to our classes to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah, and they were fantastic! I picked up some potatoes when I was out grocery shopping today so I could make them tonight. They were almost completely traditional, right down until the point when I served them with bacon. Not very kosher of me. :-)

Finally got everything cleaned up. Just in time to make my cinnamon swirl bread I always make for Sunday morning. Tomorrow, I'm going to make caramel macchiato thumbprints and biscotti. I've never made biscotti before, so wish me luck!

Come Back Tomorrow. . .

and see the pictures that I'm planning on taking as Matthew and I attempt to make cut out Christmas cookies together. It should be something to behold.

It's Up!

Amazingly enough, it's only December 5th, and I have my Christmas tree up. If you know me, you know that it's something I put off every year. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. A lot. What I don't love is getting out all of the decorations, putting them out, and finding a place for all of the things that are displaced because of the Christmas decorations. If I could go to bed one night and have little elves come and decorate my house, I'd be thrilled. But Matthew and Nathan have been bugging me to do it, so we got the three out, and got the lights and garland on it. We're going to put the ornaments on tomorrow. I even got lights on one set of bushes out in front of the house. I don't think they'll win any decorating prizes, but at least we don't look like the Scrooge family anymore.