Holiday Crafts

With Christmas just a few days away and orders filled I found time to do a little crafting for myself, or rather the family.

Take a good look at this beauty! I'm not even the slightest bit modest about this blanket. This is my best yet. I made it in about 3 days...and all because I was walking through the fabric store and happened to see some really adorable fabric I couldn't resist. The flowers are made of minky material, so my little niece will be so very cuddly warm in China. Tell me you don't love this quilt!

And here are our new Christmas stockings all hung by the fire with care. I wanted something fun for the kids, but at least meet my need to coordinate...if they couldn't be beautiful.

Portraits

Heather & Jojo

Nicole & Steve

Christie & LonnyI'm so thankful for my husband, sisters and brothers-in-law!

Christmas Came Early

All the kids had a gooey fun time decorating a gingerbread train, which they got to only nibble on later...due to hypersensitive mothers too tooth decay.

Tada!!! Here are all the grandchildren in their hand made pjs sitting for a group picture in front of the Christmas tree. Aren't they adorable? They got to open this one present on "Christmas Eve" so they could all come together the next morning to unwrap the rest looking oh so cute.

Christie got very creative this year with her gifts for the kids. She made silhouette ornaments for each. I absolutely love these...and they look so classic on the tree!

Thanksgiving

We had a great feast at Grammy's and Papa's house this year, and only one turkey. Typically we have had two to three. But this years was a doozy, tipping the scales at a hefty 25 lbs. That was one big bird!
Look at all those cute faces. Can you imagine, Kate and Audrey are missing from this picture.

And how about these turkeys? A song comes to mind..."Gobble gobble gobble, fat turkey, fat turkey...." Man was that dinner good!

Japanese Art Museum

We finally had an opportunity to visit the largest privately owned collection of Japanese art in the country, or possible the world (don't quote me on that, but it's supposed to be something impressive like that).
As you can imagine the possibility of the boys touching something and breaking it was too much stress for me so I demanded that they were to keep their hands in their pockets...Christopher was caught being mildly rebellious.

Here the warriors, or at least the shell of them, sit all lined up like you would expect the armor of English knights of old to be.

This was Christopher's favorite helmet. Pretty intimidating isn't he?!

The bonsai garden was really beautiful. This was my favorite piece. This is a miniature replication of a really old forest. It's amazing how the artist made young set of trees look hundreds of years old...gnarly branches, lightning struck top, depth and space by arranging larger in front and smaller in back...impressive!

Kuri Manju

My absolute favorite holiday treat...and it takes about 3 days to make, and I am the only one who is crazy enough in the family to do it. This recipe was my dad's mother's recipe...and I have never tasted the equal of it any where, including famous Japanese bakery's. Don't you wish you could have one right now?

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Time marches on. It's been a couple of years since we visited the aquarium and where there once was an old empty run down lot now stands a large beautiful hotel suite.
It was homeschooling day at the aquarium...and surprisingly it was not packed out, so we actually got a chance to get a decent spot at the feeding times.

Joshua: "Be the ray. I am the ray!"

Can you say "Fishy face?"

Children's Discovery Museum

Wow! I missed all the events of November! I have to backtrack now. At the begining of the month we went to the Children's discovery museum in San Jose. The kids had a blast touching and running and "discovering" all over the place.

Steve is not in prison...just picking up some mail at the post office.
Here is postmasted Christopher picking up the daily delivery.

And here is Joshua on the recieving end, eagerly awaiting the work load.

How's this for up close and personal. Christopher is checking out the snot on the bulls nose.

Row, row, row you boat...

Harvest Festival

We went to a wonderful little Victorian Harvest Festival today with the boys. For about 2 hours the boys busied themselves with activities from apple bobbing...

to making candy apples...

to pumpkin painting...

to games...to treasure hunts...

and music!

It was a full afternoon of fun with friends and making great memories!

Orange Balsamic Glazed Chicken

This was a really good dinner and it was really easy to make. And just look at how beautiful it looks. I'm not always so pleased with my attempts at new recipes. Try it and let me know how you liked it!

Orange-Balsamic Glazed Chicken
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray
Prep Time: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time: --
Cook Time: 15 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts or any combination of light and dark meat
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 to 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves chopped
1/3 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 scallions, whites and greens, finely chopped
4 cups baby arugula
Directions
In a large pan, heat the extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high to high heat.
Season the chicken liberally with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. When the oil is hot and ripples, add the chicken and brown for 5 minutes, then turn and sprinkle with rosemary. Cook until the chicken is tender and cooked through, about 5 minutes more.
In a small bowl, stir together the marmalade, vinegar and stock and pour over the chicken. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and becomes a thin glaze. Add the scallions during the last minute of cooking time. Arrange on a serving platter and serve topped with arugula greens.

Pumpkins

We got to go to the Reedley pumpkin patch with the home school group this year. It was a little cold, but a lot of fun to be with friends.

Here are a few of the regulars in the group with younger children. The group seems to have grown this year.

Five dollars got us a story, a hayride and a pumpkin. Who says a dollar won't take you far these days?

And for some reason Christopher just couldn't smile right for the pictures. I may have clocked him in the mouth with a pumpkin so that he got a fat lip, but he should have just been able to shake that off...right?!

PBS Station

We have been very busy with field trips for the homeschooling group. Last Thursday we went to tour the PBS station in Fresno. This was the boys very first real life train trip and they were running all around with excitement. From the train station we walked about a mile to the TV station, and managed not to loose or kill a single child. However, Joshua did end up with a scraped elbow.

We got the tour the sets and see the control room where all the behind the scene stuff takes place.
Afterwards, we went to the Fresno Metropolitan Museum to explore some more. We weren't allowed to take pics in the fine arts museum but here we are having a bit of fun in the hands on area.

Jukebox

My best friend, Wendy, sent me a marvelous gift just in time for my trip this weekend. I head back to the beach on Friday for another 48 straight hours of pure unadulterated scraping! With the increasing populartity of the Cricut, the chance of mixing up mine with someone else's just decreased from 99.9% to 0%. With this handy little machine every cartridge I own is at the tips of my fingers (literally)! I can't wait to get started! Thanks Wendy, I'll be rock'n and roll'n all weekend long to the music of my new "Jukebox".

Joshua's 1st Day of Preschool

Joshua had his hair cut at a salon for the first time for his first day of school. I took a picture of it knowing that he probably wouldn't let me put goop in it again...I was right. He says that he likes his hair soft, not poky.

Joshua has been so excited about preschool that he endured a physical and 3 shots without a single tear...something that has never happened before.

He knew just which apple had his name on it.

And he knew just where to sit to gain access to the play dough.

At the end of the day, when asked "What was your favorite part of the day?", he said emphatically "PAINTING!!!!". (Something Mom always put off by saying "not now" or "it's too messy") "I LOVE PRESCHOOL!" said mom and Joshua together.

I'm High on Speed

My friend, Kim's dad, Jim...the same one that took Steve and I on our first cross country ski trip, took us on our first speed boat tubing ride. What a blast! Now I have to say that Jim is actually Pastor Jim but don't let that fool you. His passion for adventure is as daring as ever I met. Here in these pictures he was driving so fast that I couldn't even lift my head off the tube. As I was plastered down all I could do was laugh/scream uncontrollably. We did get some major air at time as well only to be yanked back down to hold on for dear life. I do have to admit that it is much more fun having someone (another girl) screaming next to you on these rides instead of (some guy...Steve) analizing the environment to predict what the captain of the boat will do next to knock you off.