Christmas Recap

Our Christmas was magical and fun and everything I ever hoped it would be.

The girls loved getting dressed up in their Christmas finery for church.  When Jilly saw this picture she said, "Oh!  My hair looks so beautiful!"  Modesty is not her strongest suit.

We drove down to Richmond on the 23rd and on Christmas Eve we went back to Short Pump Mall to see the big Christmas tree.  While our family was all together we crammed in for a family selfie. 

That night we did a family nativity, played Christmas songs on the chimes, and opened Christmas jammies.  My early-to-bed girls were exhausted with all the festivities; Mattie fell asleep while I was taking pictures and Jilly was asleep about 2 minutes later.

Christmas morning was a blur of presents and excitement.  We've officially entered the Barbie stage (oh help me!) and the girls got 8 barbies plus a unicorn.  Most of them were princess barbies, which I consider not quite as bad as real Barbies so I have found some solace.  They also got a variety of other toys and some darling new outfits- spoiled as ever!

(the first and only picture I took of the present-opening.  Too many gifts to worry about pictures!)

We spent the rest of the day playing with new toys, going on a walk, having our traditional fondue dinner, and going to see Christmas lights downtown.

Cherry Walnut Bars

My mother-in-law is the Queen of Christmas Treats.  She has a whole arsenal of delicious Christmas recipes, and you better believe her four boys make sure she makes every single one every single year.  Since we are very sadly not going to see her this holiday season I'm trying to give Bryan a teeny tiny taste of what he's used to.

One day I made a dozen batches of chocolate chip cookies- a dozen batches of a dozen each.  Some were for a funeral and some for a baby shower, but our family ate an embarrassing number of the leftovers.  Next I made gingerbread cookies at Jilly's request.  We made and delivered these to many of our friends.  We had Santa's Cookies- a tasty recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip M&M cookies that my friend gave me.  And on Saturday morning I made gingerbread waffles.

But of all the Christmas delights, Cherry Walnut Bars are my very very favorite.  I had never tasted these until I married into the Martinez family but I immediately fell in love.  One year all my dirty, rotten in-laws (kidding!) ate all the cherry walnut bars before we got there and it just about ruined my Christmas.  I've since forgiven and let them know I will fight to the death for my annual cherry walnut bar (or bars... or the whole pan)  This year I made cherry walnut bars for the first time and they weren't quite up to The Queen's standard, but still delicious.

2 1/4 cups sifted flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup softened butter

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 (12 oz) jar maraschino cherries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 tbl softened butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup flaked coconut

Mix flour, sugar, and butter til crumbly.  Press into a 13x9 pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or til crust is lightly browned (it took me a bit longer than 20 minutes.)  Blend eggs, sugar, salt, baking powder, and vanilla.  Drain and chop the cherries, reserving the liquid.  Stir chopped cherries and walnuts into the mixture and place on top of baked crust.  Return to oven and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool.  For the frosting: combine 1 tbl softened butter and 1 cup powdered sugar with enough cherry liquid to spread.  Frost, then sprinkle with coconut.  Wait til icing is firm to cut into bars (confession: I couldn't wait so they were pretty gooey but still delicious.)

fa la la la Friday Five

I way overestimated what I could accomplish this week.  I'm equal parts giddy about Christmas next week and terrified that it's coming so soon.  I'm going to have a busy, busy weekend.  But, nonetheless it's Christmastime!  And we're full of spirit and excitement and everything wonderful.

1. On Saturday morning they had a Breakfast with Santa at the YMCA.  If friendliness toward Santa factors into your naughty or nice status I'd say these girls are in trouble.  But they did enjoy the crafts and yummy breakfast.

2. There's a street in Baltimore where every house goes all out with lights.  It's called "Miracle on 34th Street" because the street happens to be 34th Street.  On Sunday we packed some hot cocoa in thermoses (which we didn't even need because it was the warmest night we've had in a while) and walked around enjoying the lights.  Mattie loved pointing out every "Mee Mou" (Minnie and Mickey Mouse) of which there were surprisingly quite a few.  And we had to take a picture of this crab- my girls are terrified of crabs and since they're the unofficial (maybe official?) symbol of Baltimore we see them everywhere.

3. On Monday evening we invited friends over to make gingerbread houses (and by gingerbread I clearly mean graham crackers.)  I made royal frosting, which worked like a charm (3 egg whites, 4 cups powdered sugar, and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar.) Jilly and Bryan got really into it and built a house, a tent, and another cool structure.  And Mattie ate her weight in candy.

Can't you tell Jilly loved it?  I swear she did but would not smile.

3. Jilly finished her first session of ballet and they had a little show on Tuesday.  They did a cute dance to "In Summer" then at the end Olaf surprised them all.  Of course, Jilly was terrified and wouldn't get near him.  Afterward we went to Chick-fil-A to celebrate and the Santa Cow was there. Surprise, surprise, Jilly was not a fan.  But Mattie was brave and went with me to say hi.

5. Jilly has been helping me gather costumes and props for a little nativity we're doing in Primary on Sunday.  It is wonderful to watch her fall in love with the story of Christ's birth.  I am so grateful for the Gift of Christmas and the magic it has brought to our home.

merry and bright

I absolutely love all the Christmas excitement in December

And this past weekend was one of our best

On Friday night we decorated our Christmas tree

Jilly had been looking forward to it all day long and made a pile of all the ornaments she wanted to put on the tree 

(which included every ornament we own.)

In the end she decided to share and let us each put up a few of our own.

^ self timer picture, which is how we should do all pictures because my girls will actually look at the blinking light!

On Saturday we drove down to Washington D.C.

We dropped the little ladies off at my sister's house and Bryan and I went to the temple.

We had been for a couple weddings, but hadn't been back just the two of us since our wedding 7 years ago.

Afterward we ate Cafe Rio at Katie's house then took the girls back to the temple to see the lights

It was raining and Mattie was asleep half the time

but it was so beautiful and peaceful there- no better place to be at Christmastime!

^ babysitters extraordinaire

Christmas Advent Ornaments

Last year my friends Shauna and Jana posted about making mini Advent Ornaments, and I suddenly needed to make some of my own.  I actually started way back in September, but wasn't very dedicated to the project til November and then I found myself sitting at my sewing machine late into the night November 30th so I could finish the tree in time!  This was an enormous project and left me with stiff and sore fingers many nights but I really enjoyed it, and I'm so thrilled now that it's done!

The pattern can be found here, and was immensely helpful.  I realized that I liked the simpler ornaments better because I was able to make them look better.  So I skipped a few of hers that seemed complicated and instead made a little Baby Jesus in a manger (got this idea from Shauna), a star, and a light bulb.  I wasn't crazy about the tree in the pattern either so I copied Jana's.

My favorite part of the project is that Jilly loves it as much as I do.  Every morning in November she would ask if I had finished an ornament the previous night and get so excited to see my progress.  Now there is an ornament in each pocket of my Advent Calendar (so glad to finally have a purpose for it!) and it's so fun for the girls to pull one out every morning.  Hopefully these ornaments survive for many, many years!

haul out the holly

+ The Little People Nativity is once again the best Christmas toy ever.  My only complaint is that it only comes with one Baby Jesus- we need two so my girls will stop fighting!

+ For Family Night on Monday we told the Nativity story
B: "Christmas is Jesus' birthday"
J: "What??  I thought Halloween was Jesus' birthday!"
B: "Why did you think that?"
J: "Mommy told me."
Riiiiight.

+ Jilly calls the angels "fairies" and I'm still trying to decide how necessary it is to correct her.

+ We ate some Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe-Joe's one night and I could tell Jilly wasn't crazy about them because she only ate half a cookie.  The next day she asked me if we were going to eat more of those cookies with toothpaste in them.

+ Bryan's favorite thing to tease me about (from the long, long list of possibilities) is my totally uncool taste in music.  But, when it comes to Christmas music I reign supreme.  If you haven't listened to the Peaceful Holidays station on Pandora then you are missing out- it's especially perfect for bedtime.  Also, this is amazing.

+ I'm not ambitious enough to do an Advent calendar with activities for every day in December, and I don't have the energy for Elf shenanigans every night, but I can handle Christmas books every day.  I wrapped them all up because my girls think it is so, so, so exciting to unwrap a present.   Between our collection and the piles I've brought home from the library we have enough for each girl to open a book every day.  We open them first thing in the morning and it's the best way to start our day.

+ One of my favorite parts of an East Coast Christmas is all the candles in the windows.  I bought these and they are awesome because they turn on automatically every night at dusk and then off again when the sun comes up.  I grew up having to run around to each window to turn the candle on so I am basking in this newfound laziness.

+ Speaking of laziness, I've become a couch shopper.  I've always loved shopping at Christmas time because of the excitement, decorations and all the fun things to see, but this year it's not worth it.  I'm the biggest baby ever, but it is such a haul to bundle my girls up in coats, hats, mittens, run out to the car, take coats off to buckle them in car seats, drive to the store, then have to get out right when the heat has finally come on, bundle everyone back up, run in the store, strip layers off.  I'm exhausted just typing it.  So, I buy everything online.  Thank the heavens for Amazon Prime.

A California Christmas

All of Bryan's brothers and their families were in town for Christmas.  There were bike rides, an endless supply of treats, Christmas traditions, movies (Saving Mr. Banks is wonderful), bowling, family pictures, BYU bowl game, presents galore, and lots of blurry iphone pictures (sorry!)  Best of all was getting to be with family; when I asked Jilly what her favorite present was she said "Kirra!"  

Christmas Sunday-

Matching doll and girl dress-up-

A doll house of her own-

Christmas Eve jammies-

After opening her sleeping bag Jilly spent the rest of the morning snuggled inside 

Puffs- doesn't take much to make this girl happy

One of my favorite gifts- a quilt block from a quilt my great-grandma made

Go Mighty Cougars (the girls were so, so good, Mattie slept for half the game and Jilly loved cheering "Go BYU!" We just wish the outcome had been different...)

Best part of the game was getting to catch up with Lisa

On Christmas Day I finally got out my real camera for a few pictures of the girlies-

It was a very merry week

merry and bright

There really aren't words for how magical this December has been; we've been having a marvelous time with our little family.  On Friday we got a babysitter (Mattie's first besides my mom who doesn't count because I trust her with my children more than I trust myself) and I gave her entirely too many instructions (Bryan was giving the "let's get out of here" signal behind her back as I rambled about bedtimes and allowable snacks.)  We went to our Ward Christmas Party, which was a fun ugly sweater (or ugly t-shirt in our case) party.

On Saturday we went on a family date to the mall and to Mimi's Cafe for lunch.  We got lots of Christmas shopping accomplished, ate a delicious lunch, and enjoyed the beautiful decorations.  Plus, Santa happened to be at Whole Foods while we were there.  This time Jillian was terrified and wouldn't go near him unless I came so we got a family shot with Santa.

 On Sunday night we made gingerbread houses.  As usual, Bryan was the creative genius of the family.  Jillian was all about a Christmas project that involved candy.

 Also this week we made salt dough ornaments of the girls' hands.  I love that we'll have these ornaments around for a while to remember this special year.

On Wednesday night we surprised Jilly with a visit from Kirra.  They spent the night and on Thursday we played at the park, the boys went biking, Kristen and I went shopping, then we all went out to eat and to Dovewood Court (a cul-de-sac nearby where every house has an awesome light display.)  They went on to Bryan's parents' house but we'll see much more of them next week.

Over and over this month I have been overwhelmed by gratitude.  How lucky to have two sweet, happy, and healthy girls, and a nearly perfect husband.  I'm so, so happy to celebrate our Savior's birth with these people I love so much.

Merry Christmas friends!

five fact friday

1. Mattie is Jilly's little shadow these days.  She loved getting to "ride" (we never actually turn them on) the train with her sissy, and then she pulled this hilarious face.

2.  I think I've mentioned this recipe before, but last night I made Indian Butter Chicken and it is the bomb.  I love it because it's quick to make- only takes 30 minutes (if you subtract time used to appease little girls.)  Also, it tastes delicious.  Last night when everyone else was eating cookies for dessert I instead opted for cold leftovers.  That happens exactly never, so you know this stuff is golden.

3. At preschool this week we played Don't Eat Pete!  It had absolutely nothing to do with our letter of the week, but was fun.  The kids semi-understood the game, except 90% of the time someone gave away who Pete was so the person who was "it" usually got to eat all the marshmallows before getting to Pete.  When Bryan came home we played again, but this time with m&ms so it was even better.  (You can find instructions and a game board here)

4. Bryan ordered a cord online for his computer and asks me every.single.day. if it came in the mail.  And the answer is always no.  Then last night he finally told me that it only cost ¢99 and is coming from China.  So I'm pretty sure I'll be answering the "has it come yet" question til 2015.

5.  This morning in her most somber and pleading voice (and, to her credit, not at all whiny) Jilly said, "Mommy, I just can't wait for Christmas.  Can I pleeeeease open a present?"  Apparently the Christmas season is a little too long for three year olds.