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| [Art by Simon Dewey] "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given . . .and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." -Isaiah 9:6 |
Shortbread cookies with icing and crushed candy cane on top. They melt in your mouth. This is the third year in a row that I've made them--I think that qualifies as a tradition, don't you?
It's not my recipe, though. Here's the link (scroll down to "Peppermint Shortbread"):
Peppermint Shortbread Cookies
Healthy? No, but they're better for you than the cookies at the grocery store. Mmm.
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| {image by Royce Bair} |
Christmas is in full swing at our little house. We've been:
mixing...
Linus: Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?
Charlie Brown: This little green one here seems to need a home.
Linus: I don't know, Charlie Brown. Remember what Lucy said? This doesn't seem to fit the modern spirit.
Charlie Brown: I don't care. We'll decorate it and it'll be just right for our play. Besides, I think it needs me.
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| {photo by Etolane} |
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| [photo by amandacphoto] |
Since I've been trying to change the focus of this blog to the good things I find in my life, and the good things I want to remember, I am not going to tell you a story about how I tried to make applesauce ornaments yesterday and totally failed.
Instead, I'm going to show you these:
They don't make me particularly happy, at least not in and of themselves. But Little Boy received them as an early Christmas gift from his grandparents earlier this week, and he has worn them all day, everyday since. They make him very happy. And that makes me happy.
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| photo by Chris_J |
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| {Photo by jeffweese} |
I know Christmas is over, but I had to post this. It'll be a good one for me to look back on later. And laugh. So we visited Isaac's parents for the Christmas break. Isaac and his family (I was somewhere else that day, don't remember where) watched A Christmas Story while Little Boy was playing in the same room. I'm sure that 99% of the movie went over Little Boy's head, but one part stuck. And, thanks to that one part in A Christmas Story, Little Boy easily decided which ornament on his grandparents' Christmas tree is his favorite:
Yes, that's an actual Christmas ornament. And for the rest of our vacation, we'd hear Little Boy randomly exclaim, "It's a major award!"
I'm pretty sure I didn't post much about Halloween or Easter this year. I was too lazy busy to upload those pictures until waaaay too late.
So I'm trying to not do that with Christmas. This might turn out to be the only Christmas post I do, though. We'll see. If you're the gambling type, you can start making bets now.
Anyway, the Christmas tree. Isaac and I have been married for a bit more than five years, and we've always had a Charlie Brown-size Christmas tree. When we moved from Utah to Washington, we left our first little tree behind. And then when we bought a new tree...we got one that was maybe six inches taller than the old one. It's kind of becoming a tradition.
It's always Isaac's job to unfold the branches and put on the lights.
Pretty beads. We found them at the dollar store a few years ago.
Some of our ornaments--some are Little Boy's, some were given to us, and some were dollar-store finds like the beads.
Little Boy's face cracks me up. How could I not love that kid?
Can we open presents now?
I like it. It's a cheerful little tree.
"As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had so profound an influence upon all who have lived and will yet live upon the earth."
-The Living Christ
"During the hurry of the festive occasion of this Christmas season, find time to turn your heart to God. Perhaps in the quiet hours, and in a quiet place, and on your knees—alone or with loved ones—give thanks for the good things that have come to you."
-Howard W. Hunter
...is this:
His very own set of Lincoln Logs. That's Isaac's hairy arm in the shot--I'm a Lincoln Logs dunce (and my arm's not that hairy).
It's always been hard for me to picture things in 3D in my head. I just can't visualize a little log cabin easily enough to build it out of all those little parts.
But that's a good thing, because now Lincoln Logs are Little Boy and Isaac's thing. It's something for just the two of them to do together. And they do--they build little log buildings almost every evening when Isaac gets home from work.
...just kidding. I had a really awesome tip in mind for Tip Tuesday this week. But I forgot what it was. So since my bloggy plans have been thwarted by my own bad memory, let's all enjoy a photo instead.
This is my brother, who moved home from BYU in December, with Little Boy:
Cute, huh? There's no way you can tell this from the picture, but I'm pretty sure this was the first time Little Boy said more than two words to Thane--and Thane had been home for at least a week. Silly kid.
