It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

The Christmas season is in full swing at our house. It's only the 11th I've already made a batch of caramel, three different kinds of fudge and a batch of cookies and two pies.

Plus all the snow and decorations and music and stuff.

First of all, James has the longest arms. His shirts fit him everywhere but the sleeves.

When we finally got a good amount of snow, these two were outside before it was fully light. It took 30 minutes to get the snow clothes out and on them and they stayed outside for about 15 minutes. Sigh.

I guess our weed covered hill is good for sledding even without a sled.

She's my only child that has never put up a fight getting her snow gear on. 

After school they played outside again until it got too dark. The baby and I watched from the warm kitchen.

I don't think there are many things cuter than kids in snow clothes.

Henry failed his kindergarten hearing screening back in September so I took him to see a district audiologist in October. Since then he's seen another district audiologist, an ear/nose/throat specialist, had a CT scan, and met with another audiologist. We discovered Henry only has about 30% hearing in his left ear. On November 30 he was fitted with a temporary hearing aid. I'll never forget the smile on his face when it was turned on and he heard through it for the first time.
I've mostly gotten over my mom guilt of having no idea that he was dealing with this his whole life. Henry has been so great during all the appointments--even at first when he didn't understand what all the fuss was about. He's been great about wearing it and never complains and is so responsible. His teacher even let him do a show and tell for his class to explain to them why he needs it and how it works. Justin asked him what he likes best about it and he said "My voice is louder." What a sweetie. 

On December 1 we busted out the Christmas songs and decorations.

For some reason which is still unclear to me, Sarah and Erica felt they needed to wear their matching polka dot dresses during decorating.

Erica doesn't see me....

Erica sees me.....

Erica acts like Erica

Ooooh fancy camera trick.

Justin and the baby spent decorating night chilling on the couch.

Erica had the honors of putting on the star.

James hangs out here a lot.

Macey's and Reams were all sold out of the chocolate Christmas countdowns this year. The sadness! To compensate we made our own countdowns with taffy.

Erica was really good at squishing her taffies into the globs of glue. She's not so good at eating just one per day.

I taught the kids how to make these candy canes out of pipe cleaners and beads. This is Sarah's which looks exactly like mine.

Here is Erica's interpretation. Looks like some sort of rainbow??

And Henry's. He told me it is green apple flavored.

James likes to chill under the tree and look at the lights. He also likes this shiny bell.

Yesterday he turned one month old. 

Sheesh he's a cutie. His hair looks reddish in this picture but it really isn't. It's falling out on top but what's left is pretty brown.

Here's how big (and bored) he looks in his car seat. He is growing so fast! He's been trying to smile but I think it will be a couple more weeks before we get a real good grin. I can tell his eyesight is improving by how he looks around and stares at stuff. He has a slept a 5 hour stretch (eats and then another 3 hour stretch) the last 3 nights which I appreciate. Thus, he doesn't always take good naps during the day which I do not appreciate but I understand. He can stay awake for a hour at a time, max. He gets restless around 7 pm each night but doesn't go down for good until 10ish. I'm his favorite person. He eats a lot and often and so must I. Mostly fudge.

December's pie of the month was Pioneer Woman's chocolate pie. This was a no frills, straightforward chocolate pie. Justin took one bite and nodded and smiled.

I even made the crust from scratch. I don't think the crust was great but pretty good for someone who has little practice with pastry and doesn't like pie crust.

And thus this pie concludes the Pie of the Month Club. Here are the pies.

Our favorites were the Luscious Lemon (but we already knew that because I'd made it a few times before) Raspberry Chiffon (I'd made that once before) Sweet Potato Pie (I made 3 in 2 weeks) and Justin would put this last pie in the "win" column.

Although it was my gift for Justin, it was a fun culinary challenge for me. I still don't think I'm a pie person because I don't like pie crust or cooked fruit but I discovered I really like sweet potato pie (on a graham cracker crust) and the meringue on the grapefruit pie was delicious and fun to make.

So what's next? I'm thinking 2017 could be "Year of the Cookie" and force myself to expand beyond the 4 tried and true cookie recipes in my rotation. Or maybe find random desserts I've never even heard of or tasted before. Stay tuned.