Christmas Tree 2011

Amicalola Falls from Labor Day camping this year; Forks, Washington ornament from Jonathan’s trip to Seattle; Jacksonville Zoo ornament from our trip this summer; a White House ornament from my brother; and a candy cane bead ornament Rosemary made

Air dry clay ornaments that Rosemary and I made one day.

Glass ball ornaments. The top right is Ben’s hand as our snowman family, the bottom left is Rosemary’s.

New ornaments this year. Cars for Ben, an angel (from Rosemary) and the Family ornament for all of us, the little pink stocking for Charlotte’s first Christmas, the purple ballerina for Rosemary, and the photo of Charlotte.

Visit with the Pate’s

Rosemary and Ben spent a few nights with my parents last weekend. I drove down a day early to drop them off and to meet up with Becky and her kids. We’d tried to meet up a few weeks earlier in Gainesville and it ended up not working out. It was great to catch up!

Charlotte and Jacob hung out a bit on the floor.

And Rosemary and Abby enjoyed playing with the dollhouse.

Ben was around playing somewhere.

The Nutcracker

It was my turn in December to plan our co-op field trip so in keeping with the season, we planned to attend the school performance of The Nutcracker. Since it’s the school performance, it’s an abridged version of the ballet and only an hour long. There were about 25 of us from our co-op that attended. I’d love to go back and see the full ballet with Rosemary. I saw The Nutcracker for the first time when I was about Rosemary’s age with my Aunt Edith and remember it as a very special event.

Last week, Rosemary and I headed to the Phillip’s Center while Ben and Charlotte spent the morning with Emily.

We were there early so we snapped a few photos

Being silly waiting for the show to start.

But she did indulge me and smile sweetly for one.

We ended up pretty far back but could still see fairly well. They won’t seat your group until everyone is there but thankfully we were able to see.

We had a wonderful time and would love to go back next year.

The Buckeye

To me, it just doesn’t seem like Christmas unless there are Buckeyes. I think Ben agrees. I have fond memories of making these almost every year with my mom and my brother. The ones that I rolled were usually the biggest. This year Rosemary helped me make them for the first time. She was a great roller.

Buckeyes (this is a half-recipe but is always plenty for us with some to give away)

• 1/2 lb margarine
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 to 1 1/4 lbs confectioners sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 pkg chocolate candy coating

Using an electric mixer, combine margarine and peanut butter at a medium speed. Add vanilla. (I forgot the vanilla this year and you couldn’t even tell). Slowly add confectioners sugar until all is combined and a smooth dough forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate dough at least 1 hour.

Form dough into 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls (mine are never this small though) and place on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate peanut butter balls for at least 1 hour. This will make the next step so much easier!

Melt candy coating according to directions. Insert a toothpick into the top of one peanut butter ball and dip into melted coating, covering approximately two-thirds to three-quarters of the ball with chocolate. Place back on wax paper lined cookie sheet to harden. Repeat with all peanut butter balls.

I refrigerate our Buckeyes when they’re all done, but I know others who don’t. I like them cold and I feel like they last longer that way.

Charlotte at 11 Months

Sweet Charlotte continues to grow and charm us.

This month two more little teeth on the top arrived. She’s waving now. Charlotte continues to pull up and quickly crawl around the house. No where is safe from her and a favorite destination is Rosemary and Ben’s closet, where all of their toys are kept.

She’s a little Houdini and attempts to get out of any high chair straps, which is terrifying so Charlotte will be moving to the table a little bit sooner than her big brother and sister.

She continues to sleep and eat great. She’s still not on a lot of table foods, but we are introducing a few here and there. Charlotte’s a fan of anything that she can feed to herself. In fact, I’m pretty sure she tried to eat a live bug off the ground. So gross!! I got it away, but I’m not sure that I got it before she managed to swallow a leg.

Enrollment Management Holiday Party

Jonathan works in the Office of Enrollment Management, which is comprised of Admissions, Student Financial Affairs, and the University Registrar. On Wednesday we attended the Enrollment Management Holiday Party at the Harn Museum.

We got to see Christy and Toby at the party. I worked with Christy when I first started working in Assignments at Housing. She actually was one of the people who interviewed me. We shared an office for awhile and occasionally I would accidently slip and call her my roommate (which was ironic since Christy’s job was to work with roommate matching). Christy’s husband, Toby, works with Jonathan so it’s nice to have a friend at office events that we attend.

Lots of great food

A carving station

The kids did great. They had gone on a field trip to the Harn with Rosemary’s co-op so they enjoyed seeing some of the artwork again.

Ben REALLY liked this fruit punch…and the little coffee stirrer straw.

Charlotte, me, and Christy

I don’t know what Ben was eating, but he was very happy to be eating them!

Our family.

Ben’s Preschool Christmas Program

Last week, we attended Ben’s Christmas program. In the years Rosemary attended the shows were in the morning with just her class or one or two others, but this one was a whole school combined program. We arrived and dropped Ben off in his classroom then waited for the show to start. While we waited, we took a few pictures.

Rosemary took this one of us.

Miss Jan narrated the program

The kids marched in from the back. This was the best photo I got of Ben. He walked in with his hands in his pockets. So cute.

Our friend Evan

And Megan

Once the kids were on stage the parents filled the aisles to get photos. It was crazy.

Ben was over in this area and around the corner, so we couldn’t see him at all. But he did stay on stage the whole time and one of his teachers told me he sang the songs. We’ll take her word for it. :-)

Our handsome boy

We enjoyed some cupcakes and punch

Ben with Miss Debbie and Miss Judy. Ben loves his teachers. So do we.

Sounds of the Season 2011

Last weekend, Jonathan and I celebrated the 10th anniversary of when we started dating. His mom and dad came up to watch the kids on Sunday evening so that we could go out to celebrate. We started out with dinner at Northwest Grille then headed down to the university to see the Sounds of the Season Concert.

We arrived about an hour early and found this line. We easily made it in, but it was surprising to see just how many people were there.

I was part of Women’s Chorale while at UF so it was so enjoyable to go back. When I was a student, this concert was held in the University Auditorium, now it’s at the Phillip’s Center. It has a very different feel now and I missed the ambiance of the University Auditorium, but it was still a wonderful concert.

The last time we attended, Dr. Young was still the president and he referred to UF as the University of California…twice. Dr. Machen didn’t make the same mistake. And Jonathan saw several people that he knew from the university. Gainesville’s a small enough town that it’s hard to go to any kind of large event without seeing someone we know.

The concert was so enjoyable. Many of the songs were familiar from Christmas concerts that I had been a part of in high school and college. In fact, during Betelehemu (you can listen to a version of it here) I was so flooded with memories I had tears streaming down and I’m not really a crier. So many good memories and quite soul-stirring. I love that so many praises go up from what is typically such a secular setting.

When we got back, we got a quick picture. Not one of our best, but it was a great night out.

First Book Report

We are a part of a homeschool group that meets twice a month. Most meetings are parent-taught. The December meeting, however, was a chance for the students to share book reports. Rosemary chose to do her report on Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin.

This is the poster Rosemary made. And she really did it pretty much all on her own. I drew the lines to separate it into sections for her and held the yarn while Rosemary cut it for Mr. Whiskers’ beard.

The top left picture is of the Thanksgiving table with mismatched spoon, cranberry bread, and turkey. Then there’s a picture of a cranberry bush and cranberry bread. The last at the top is Mr. Horace. The book says Mr. Horace smells of lavender and Rosemary wanted to make her poster smell like lavender. We had some lavender scented oil that she dabbed on her poster. The bottom has Grandmother, Mr. Whiskers (with a tie under his beard), and Maggie. Rosemary wanted googly eyes for each one. She glued them on earlier in the week but we had to re-glue them at the library the day of.

Rosemary did a great job giving her report in front of everyone. Most of the kids are older and that didn’t seem to faze her a bit. I asked her questions about the book and she answered them. She wanted to make sure everyone laughed when she showed them Mr. Whiskers’ tie and they did! She didn’t like the microphone but tried to speak loudly so everyone could hear.

Rosemary and her friend, Lucy

After the reports, we headed to a nearby park for a Christmas picnic with the group. I feel like we’re now starting to get to know the other families better and Rosemary actually looks forward to co-op days!

MOPS Crafts

This year, in addition to just being a part of MOPS, I am on steering team serving as a discussion group leader and on the craft team. One of the crafts we did this year was a glass pendant necklace. Caryn, one of the other members of the craft team, had made them with another MOPS group she was a part of and suggested them for our group too. It was a fantastic idea. This past week my MOPS group got to make their pendants. It was rainy so things didn’t dry as quickly as we had hoped so I took them home to just glue on the bails; which also gave me a chance to snap a few pictures. The ladies were so creative! I love how they all turned out.

Also, for birthdays I’m making fabric corsages for each of the moms…all 78 of them. Thankfully, birthdays are spread throughout the year! I’m pretty sure I’ve never made that many of one thing ever before. I tend to get bored making the same thing over and over, but so far I’ve managed to stay on top of this and have about 50 done. I’m trying to make sure to have lots extra so no one has to take the last one. And since I’m just using up scraps, it’s been fun making them and remembering where each bit of fabric came from and items I made with it.