Annual Henry family lights-less soup night

Our tradition of seeing the lights at the park and a soup party afterwards was kind of a bust this year.  We still had soup and hot chocolate, but because it was raining, a hay ride wasn't exactly sounding fun, and one of the kids broke her arm earlier in the day.  Our kids were very disappointed, but we shut them up with cookies and hot chocolate:)  Better luck next year!  It wasn't feeling the same without Grandma or Grandpa either.  These are the only photos I got of the night, but I wanted to record that it did still happen, just a watered down version.

I did, however, discover a yummy gourmet hot chocolate recipe that I tried out before our wrapping party with my sisters-in-law the following week.  It's a copy cat recipe developed by my neighbor, who is an awesome chef.  It's salted caramel hot chocolate, and I found the recipe here.  I'll repost it here too.

Salted caramel Hot Chocolate

INGREDIENTS

Hot Chocolate

3 Tbs caramel, lukewarm, plus 1 Tbs for garnish

4 Tbs chocolate ganache (see recipe below)

6 oz 2% milk

1 tsp hazelnut syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla syrup

Pinch medium coarse sea salt

Whipped cream


Ganache

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream



DIRECTIONS

Hot Chocolate

1. Coat inside of mug with caramel

2. In medium saucepan, bring ganache and milk to desired temperature

3. Pour into mug

4. Add hazelnut and vanilla syrups

5. Stir well to combine

6. Garnish with whipped cream, caramel and sea salt



Ganache

1. Scald heavy cream in medium saucepan

2. Pour into a bowl with the chocolate chips

3. Stir until smooth, then allow to cool

For time's sake, I used liquid caramel ice cream topping.  The thicker stuff would probably work better, as this stuff slid down the cup and ended in the bottom.  Oh, it was divine!  Pad-the-butt good, but worth it!

 

Cookie Exchange party

Our book club did a cookie exchange again this year.  It's always so fun to see what everyone brings!  I couldn't decide among all the yummy Christmas cookie recipes I found online, so I made 4 different kinds.  And, alas, I didn't take pictures of 2 of them.  Below are the triple chocolate peppermint cookies.

These are Thanksgiving Point's sugar cookies with buttercream frosting.

I also made peanut butter mice, and egg nog thumbprints, which look like deviled eggs.  Here's the wealth I came home with from book club.  The ones I tried were all very yummy!

Gingerbread houses

Irelynd's class party was the Friday before school got out, thankfully, since the last day got snowed out.  They made gingerbread houses.  I volunteered to help out, which I realized I've never done for her class.  I love being at the school with my girls; I look forward to having more time and opportunity to do so when the twins get into preschool. 

Hard at work constructing a Skittles roof.

And the finished product.  Voila!  The poor thing didn't last a week before being devoured.

Christmas program

Irelynd's third grade class did a Christmas program for the parents a few weeks ago.  They all had a part to recite.  I know I'm biased, but I think she did the best:)  She has a knack for putting expression into her reading that isn't usual for most 8 year olds.  They sang and recited poems for us.  Even the twins sat still for it...mostly.

Fun with D

Brighton often asks for "a fun lunch", so we had a D-themed lunch, with a D-shaped sandwich, donuts, Doritos, and dill pickles.  I've realized there are very few foods that start with D.  Geez, at this rate, we might get to G by summer.

Some day we'll laugh about this...

But it ain't gonna be today.  This is how we spent our Sunday evening.  Come on a tour with me and see what met my eyes as I decended after a paint-covered little girl.

That's our cooler and the back of a light fixture we were saving for the basement when we add the bathroom.  Not no more! 

That is my good folding chair.  Yeah, I'm mad about that one.  And the time out chair.  That seems fitting to have them sit on the chair they defiled. 

Like the 3 little handprints on the wall?  Maybe their calling card? 

My storage room got it, but hopefully nothing inside it did. 

That's the brand new Spiderman back pack Brighton got for his birthday from Aunt Patti.   

These are the master painters.  Oh, they had great fun slipping and sliding in the 4 cans of paint and primer they opened.

I don't know why Waverly has it on her mouth. 

And this is the mastermind/instigator/can opener.  Look at that expression; he knows he's in deep.  Those are a new set of pants.  Oh yeah.

Our solution to the whole mess was to strip the 3 monsters, and shut the basement for 3 days while the paint dries.  Then we'll tackle the mess and evaluate the damage.  To be positive, at least it wasn't finished space.  And paint comes off skin really easily in hot water.  Not so much the hair; poor Waverly is pink and gray for a few days.  I hope Brighton gets a child just like him one day.  And that we live a thousand miles away.

Dear Santa...

Thanks to a link from a friend, the kids typed up letters to Santa this weekend, and we dropped them off in the special mailbox at Macy's department store.  If you go to their website, you can decorate, type, and print letters to Santa.  If you then take them to their store and drop them off in their North Pole mailbox, they will donate $1 per letter to the Make-a-Wish foundation, which we absolutely love.  Before mailing them, I took some photos.  The twins had some help filling out their letters.

Irelynd's is hard to read.  It says "I want at least 10 petshops, 2 webkinz, an ipod, cute clothes, a camera, and a new bike." 

The Last Straw FHE

A few years ago, I saw this idea in the Friend and decided to adopt it.  Every December, for the first FHE of the month we read The Last Straw.  I found it online, but it's in book form, too.  Then we draw names and do secret service for that person for a week until we draw a new name.  We continue this until Christmas and see how full we can get the manger to make a soft bed for Baby Jesus.  Our girls copy the kid in the story and eat their papers every week.  We used to use a basket for the crib, but Scott made me this awesome manger this year to use.  He used some old tomato plant stands that we inherited from my in-laws.  They were falling apart after the summer.  I love the weathered look it gives the manger.

I love the attitude in our house when we do this.  I won't say all fighting stops, or even drops noticibly, but I love to see the acts of service my children perform for each other, and to see how excited they get to do something in secret.  It helps me understand Commandment #2 better, to love thy neighbor as thyself, and how our Heavenly Father must feel when His children love and serve one another.  It's been a great way to help put the focus of Christmas back on Christ.

Stained glass ornaments

I love blogging; there are so many creative, talented, amazing women to borrow ideas from.  My friend Janessa is one such women.  I saw this idea on her blog a few months ago, and we tried it one Saturday.  Because I really want to be just like her.  (She thinks she copies me, but it's really the other way around!)

We peeled all the broken crayons in Christmas colors and grated them into a bowl.  What a tedious, tough job!  Maybe our grater was really dull, but the kids all bailed on me and I had to finish it.  We did it though!  At the first we had 4 little sets of hands that wanted to help.  The twins thought it was wonderful that Mom was finally letting them touch crayons, and make a mess with them.

We ended up having to take turns grating because there were too many turf wars going on over the small space being used. 

After much tedium and a few grated fingernails, this was our finished product.  Kinda cute.  Thanks for letting me copy you, Janessa!  Keep the ideas coming!

Toddler Time

Today we did a toddler time activity, and I got really adventurous and included the twins.  We all lived to tell about it.  With inspiration from toddler boredom busters, we made these poinsettia pictures.  Brighton kept calling them "Christmas devotional" pictures, I'm guessing because we watched the First Presidency's Christmas devotional service on Sunday, and it's still fresh in his mind.  They were fast, easy, and the twins loved the green light to rip things.  That's usually a no-no that gets mom all red in the face.

Here's Brighton's finished masterpiece....almost.

And the twins'.  We had to add a lot more petals/leaves in order to accomodate all the tissue paper they ripped up.  When it's this fun, why stop with just 6? 

Keaton took his job very seriously.

Please notice the protruding tongue on Waverly.  See?  What'd I tell you?  Family trait. 

After Brighton was done, he had to "bam it".  Everything Brighton does involves bamming. 

Next was snacktime, so borrowing another idea from the same site, we made apple wreaths.  Here's Keaton's.

Again, very easy and fun for them to do.  Even the twins were able to do this.  Keaton was very meticulous in placing his cereal, and stuck with it until he was satisfied.  Waverly was less so, and had it eaten before it was halfway completed. 

Clean up is always fun.