Christmas 2021

I hope you all had the merriest of Christmases this year! 

Our Christmas was different and quiet, but I had so much fun watching my girls enjoy their day.  

We had such a wonderful time on Christmas Eve with our church, celebrating the birth of our Savior.  It was so nice to have visitors in church, and a very full church.  We had a candlelight service which was very nice.  We stayed rather late, so by the time we came home, we were all very hungry and didn't get a chance to get a family photo by the tree, which has become a sort of a tradition.  

I snagged this photo of the girls though, before they had a hanger fit.  

One of the dear ladies at church gave Gwen and Lucie gifts: these new dresses!  When they woke up Christmas morning, they begged to wear their new dresses.  Another lady at church gave them the fuzzy, Christmas socks they're wearing.   

I made a crescent roll/cinnamon sugar breakfast with scrambled eggs.  We ate, and then I had the idea to do a scavenger hunt for Gwen and Lucie to find their presents.  

I remember when I was growing up, my parents would do elaborate scavenger hunts (which could include hiding spots on the entire 5 acres) and we would hunt for our presents.  Sometimes there was a present with each clue...other times your present stash would be at the end of the hunt for clues.  

I loved it so much and each Christmas I have fond memories of them. I had Dan draw some clues

Then I went and hid the presents at the locations. 

We explained what they were to do, then I went with Gwen while Dan went with Lucie to find their presents.

Here's Gwen, looking for a present under the piano.

And Lucie found hers under the rocking chair!

Gwen, at the manger scene.

Gwen even had some in the bathtub!

This is Lucie, finding her final presents.

Then we let them open the presents they found.  

This year, I found quite a few nice things (keep in mind, my kids are 3 and 2) at the dollar tree. Don't think I'm a cheapskate.  I just know my girls and I know that they'll enjoy something that costs $1 just as much as they will something that's $25.  Plus they get overwhelmed with too many new things at once.  So we got them about 10 dollar tree things each.  Plus I got them some things they'll share, like new hair bows and baby doll bottles with the disappearing milk and orange juice.  

Gwen, opening her pretend jewelry.  She loves it so much.  

 

These are $1 dolls from dollar tree.  I got one for each of the girls.  Each doll comes with a purse, comb, shoes, and necklace and outfit. Sidenote: has your local dollar tree raised their prices yet? Ours is $1.25 now for every item.  I did my Christmas shopping for the girls before that happened though.  Whew!  hahaha

One of the guys at church got Dan this present!!  It's a remote controller backhoe!  Yes, Dan is 34 years old.  But Dan LOVES remote controlled toys...I attribute it to the fact that as a child he didn't get many gifts like this perhaps?  Whatever the case, he thought it was a fun gift and enjoyed driving it around, trying to pick up wrapping paper and bows off the ground with the bucket (Of which he was unsuccessful). 

Mimi (my mother-in-law) made and sent these hats for the girls!  They love them and wear them each time they go outside.  Okay, Eliza does not love hers...but she never loves hats.  :-)

After we finished wrapping presents (We have not actually finished FINISHED yet- we are saving a few of the girls gifts from friends for later when the "new toy" fascination has worn off of the $1 items), we drove to Queensbury and ate lunch at the Asian buffet (of all places!)  

The price was very steep...I suppose because it was Christmas, they gauged their prices because they knew they were the only place open.  

But it was nice!  I enjoyed eating the food on the buffet!

Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Christmas!!!  Did you do anything special?  Please let me know if you have any neat traditions!  I'd like to implement some new ones next year and need fresh ideas!

  

Life in the now...

In my last post, I said that I would show you all pictures of what Dan made me for my Christmas presents!  Well, I have had these old family photos from my mothers side of the family for several years now, but just haven't been able to find the right sized frames for them.  I mentioned it to Dan one day that I really wanted to frame these pictures.  He asked to see them, and then made me these frames, using wood from our old house in Baltimore and wood from the brush area behind our house here in New York. 

 

I love them so much!

 

 

Taking pictures of pictures sometimes ends up looking odd because of all the light in the reflections. 

Those were for sure my favorite Christmas gifts! 

 

 

We have been keeping ourselves busy!  Last week, Dan found an Amish family in Whitehall who owns a sawmill and sells truckloads of firewood for cheap, so he went and got two pickup loads full.  It was cheap because they were still log-sized.  So we spent a day cutting it up, and carrying it down into the basement of our house downtown. 

 

 

My next post will be updating you all about our house downtown.  I haven't posted about it before, but we purchased another fixer-upper.  Check back in the next few days for a long post about that!

 

 

When I went to visit my family at New Years, my dad gave me a huge box full of apples.  So I made applesauce one day.  Dan absolutely loves applesauce, so it worked out perfectly!  I've been saving up every emptied cottage cheese and yogurt container for a few months now.  I knew they would come in handy...I just didn't know what I'd end up using them for!

 

 

And the last two pictures aren't really news or anything, but just things I wanted to share. 

 

The other day, I couldn't figure out what to have for lunch and raided the fridge to see what I could come up with that wouldn't be too hard or take too long.  I found two packages of those canned crescent rolls that are buttery and delicious.  I had bought them for a Christmas party in the beginning of December and ended up not needing them all.  So I decided to make a Stromboli with them.  Since I didn't have any ham or sausage or pepperoni on hand, I used bacon. 

It was amazing. 

We ate the whole Stromboli in one sitting.

 

And the other morning, I decided to try making egg and cottage cheese pancakes.  My midwife reminded me that I need to be making sure I get enough protein, so cottage cheese is my go-to protein food. 

Anyway, they were delicious! 

 

So that's it for this post.  Again, check back later if you'd like to see the fixer upper we bought in downtown Granville!