abc book

My mom had this super fun idea to make an alphabet book for her five grandkids using pictures from our family to show things that begin with each letter. My brother has three kids and my sister has two kids and the five kids span five years of age: Penelope is 1, Sonna is 2, Simon is 3, Mara is 4 and Claire is 5. One, two, three, four, five.

We worked this weekend picking our digital papers and lettering and these are my first two pages. The picture of Simon in the doll bed was a hysterical morning at my parent's last thanksgiving when apparently he got out of his bed and couldn't find it again, but found this doll bed and fell back asleep! I still laugh out loud when I see that picture. And Claire had a similar experience when she (at her own house) fell asleep in Betty-the-dog's bed.

I've got fun pictures that mom has gathered for all 26 letters and I'm so excited to put it all together. I'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I have found my favorite cupcake recipe ever. Check out this color explosion. I've already written about how I'm not super afraid of food dyes, and my love for this cupcake confirms that I absolutely have no fear. What I do have is pure joy from the rainbow of color found in this cupcake.

This cupcake is dedicated to my mom, who is celebrating her 63rd year today. I love you so much mom and hope you have a fabulous day. She should...She told me that today she plans on driving around delivering amaryllis flower bulbs to friends in the area. That basically sums up my mom...giving gifts to others on her own birthday. And then tonight she's going to the st. olaf christmas concert. Lovely. So here's to a wonderful, happy birthday. Love you, mom!

C is for Cookie

Well, Monday was the cookie swap. And it was once again, fantastic, wonderful, delightful and the perfect way to kick off the Christmas season. My sistah, Lisa, invites ten ladies and we each bring 12 dozen packaged-for-delivery cookies. The morning begins with breakfast while sharing our cookie story. Usually, at least one person will have had a minor catastrophe while trying to make her cookies and this always makes for good story telling. Prizes are given for the best stories. This year the two prizes went to Deb who made Krumkaka for all of us using a krumkaka iron over her stovetop, one at a time. She won for her patience and stamina! And another prize went to Jill who made cookies that went in the oven at 400, and then the oven is turned off while the cookies take shape for the next SIX HOURS! Her prize was obviously given, again, for the time she put into her cookie. Sara was definitely in the running, since she drove from Denver and arrived home at 4 am the morning of the swap. Thankfully her cookies were in the freezer, and she looked really good for four hours of sleep!

Lisa decorates the house beautifully, with plates and name cards set out for each of us to display our cookies. This leads to a morning full of sampling. Amazing. The morning progresses with games and basically, there is just a lot of laughter that follows. We played one game where we had to guess the price of 13 different cookie ingredients and then add up how off our price guesses were. I was off by $18.78. I was the biggest looser. :)

This was Lisa's fifth year hosting the cookie swap and each year a group picture is taken for our recipe book that holds everyone's cookie recipe with a picture of each cookie. It's quite the organized and well executed event. Thanks Lisa for another morning that far surpasses Disney World for me.

a few more thanksgiving pics

We had a lovely thanksgiving at Kyle and Lisa's. This was the first year that my family and Rory's family teamed up for one shared meal. The last five years, Rory and I have had thankgiving dinner at 1:00 and again at 5:00 with our two families. I love that I always get to see both families on every holiday and that it works out this way, but I must say it was SO GREAT to get to eat the meal this year and then not have to go anywhere. We got to just lay around and read the paper and play Mexican Train and 20 questions. My folks and my grandma came and it made for a lovely dinner and loving company all around.

I have to get the recipe for these whipped sweet potatoes with toasted marshmellows. I remember the first holiday I had these and it changed my life forever. Lisa did not disappoint...look at those golden marshmellows!!!

more bath bombs...

Thanksgiving evening, the guys all went to movie about the end of the world, and the ladies went to Michaels for craft supplies. And then we came back to make fizzy bath bombs. Except this time, they sort of actually did bomb. I'm not sure what we were doing or not doing, but I think it had something to do with a lot of talking and laughing and being distracted and not adding oil to one batch and looking at favorite websites while we were making the other batch. Whatever the reason, these bath bombs were pretty crazy. The white batch were so saturated and sticky that we couldn't get them out of the molds. The pink batch was so dry, they turned to powder when we opened the molds. These on the plates turned out, and for that I am thankful. :)