Toys

Am I the only one who has nothing better to do than write on my blog this holiday season? Just kidding. Jeremy is ice fishing up north right now, so the girls and I are holding down the fort for 3 days. We have had a nice relaxing holiday at home this year, spending time together as a family and playing with our new "toys." For us that's the Wii Fit (we love it) and for the girls, well, it's puzzles, books, paints, games, and dolls. Speaking of dolls, a late Christmas box arrived the other day for the girls.

Hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Only in Minnesota

First of all, happy anniversary to my parents! I really have no idea how many years it is, probably close to 40. Wow!

Second of all, if any of you are planning to come over anytime soon, don't expect any Diet Pepsi to drink. While my nephew Jacob is wearing shorts in Austin, Texas right now, we are dealing with pop freezing and exploding here in Minnesota (it was in the garage). Note to self: when the weather starts to get cold, bring all pop inside.

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at our friends the Holms. We went to church together, had lots of fun trying out Wii Fit, and had a delicious ham dinner. The kids all looked adorable in their outfits for church.

More to come from Christmas morning!

Divinity

The other night Jeremy brought me home a candy thermometer so I decided to make divinity for the first time. I didn't really know what I was doing (wasn't sure what "stiff peaks" were, etc) but it actually turned out pretty good. And mom was right, when it's ready to spoon out, you need to hurry or it really dries out fast. Here it is:

Leave me a comment on whether you like or dislike divinity (nuts or not? colored or white?) or if you've never had it!

Is there anything prettier than a Christmas tree at night? A picture can never do it justice, the way the lights sparkle and how the light hits the branches.

Moorhead

We just returned home from a snowy weekend in Moorhead, MN visiting our friends Mike and Em. The guys were hoping to do lots of ice fishing but that didn't really happen due to weather -- they only got out for a few hours on Friday. Oh well, better luck next time. What they did catch was delicious, though. Biggest crappie I'd ever seen.

We did manage to visit Mike's (I mean Dr. Olson's) office at Concordia, where he is a psychology professor. Here the girls are having fun feeding the rats.

My favorite item -- the rat guillotine:

The girls had tons of fun running the halls, looking at the animals, and playing and jumping in the end lounge.

Snowy Night

The packages of Christmas gifts are sitting here, ready to mail tomorrow. It's a wonderful feeling. That's the nice thing about having your family live far away; it forces you to have your shopping done about a week early, giving you a few days to actually relax before Christmas comes. I finished off the last gingerbread man tonight, so I think I need to make something new. If only I had a candy thermometer, I could try to make my mom's divinity. It would never be as good as hers, though. (Mom is probably laughing right now, since she is always telling me about her divinity disasters.)

I feel like I should be posting pictures of the girls playing in the snow or something. If only it wasn't so stinkin' cold outside! I did take Emily out for a few minutes today to play in the snow, but after a few minutes mom got cold and we came in. It's amazing how just those few minutes outside in the fresh air gave me a burst of energy, though.

Instead I'll leave you with some pictures of bathtime tonight. Isn't a nice warm bath the best thing on a cold, snowy night?

P.S. One more thing -- for those of you who've followed the story, I did receive my new Social Security card the other day with the name Stephanie Meg Brandt correctly spelled. Yea!

Getting in the Christmas spirit

Aunt Karen sent the girls these adorable shirts, so we wanted to show her some pictures and say thanks!

We haven't been up to a whole lot this week, due to coming down with sicknesses AGAIN! Will this sick season ever end? Bri is on medication for an ear/sinus infection and the rest of us are just dealing with congestion and runny noses, nothing unbearable. We did manage to make gingerbread men yesterday, which was fun. We also had Jeremy's district Christmas party last night; it was at The View near Lake Calhoun and the food was amazing (I think -- I couldn't taste it too great but what I could taste was wonderful.) Thanks Bernie and Heidi!

If you need a Christmas craft idea for toddlers (Bri is still high-maintenance with crafts but Emily is getting to be a better age for this), here was an idea in our MOMS newsletter this past week. Take a grocery sack and let the kids decorate it with wrapping paper scraps, ribbon, old Christmas cards, whatever. They can use it on Christmas morning to put small gifts in as they open them, so they don't get lost in the shuffle. We did this the other night and the girls had a ball.

One more picture for grandma Susanne -- here are the girls with their "Mistletoe" cats. They love them and Bri is always wanting to sleep with hers. Thanks!

Christmas cookies

On Friday we spent the day making Christmas cookies, the cut-out kind that have a million steps. Come to think of it, we made the dough Thursday and rolled/cut-out/baked/frosted them on Friday. The girls had a lot of fun but sometimes you wonder if it's worth the hassle and the mess letting them help. Answer: yes, it is. My mom always encouraged me to have little ones help in the kitchen; even though it's more work teaching them than doing it yourself, it's worth it. Here are some snapshots of our cookie adventures.

Besides making Christmas cookies this week, we also decorated the tree tonight (Emily only broke one ornament) and the other day set up the nativity scene (Bri thought it would be fun to throw the cow against the hardwood floor and break his ear off, poor thing.) The ear is now reattached and she hasn't touched it since, knock on wood. Wait a minute, that's how it broke in the first place.