Christmas

Stolen from Farrell, from Swistle.

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate preferred, but our local dairy's eggnog is really good.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Hmm, we haven't decided yet.

Colored lights on a tree or white? Colored, but I like white ones too.

Do you hang mistletoe? No.

When do you put your decorations up? Generally mid December, but lights are earlier. Definitely AFTER Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Au gratin potatoes. :P I haven't had them in years though, perhaps this is the year to recreate them at home.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, one.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? It's a hodge-podge.

Snow: love it or hate it? Love it, especially fresh. Don't like to commute in it, but don't mind driving in it generally. I don't like the end of it, when it's yellow/brown mush though.

Can you ice skate? Yep, though I'm not nearly as good as I used to be.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? Peanut butter cup bars. Not really a holiday dessert, but something we always (and only) ate at the holidays. I made homemade whoopie pies one year too...those were really good.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Singing Christmas songs.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? Mostly yuck! I love candy, hate peppermint.

Favorite Christmas show? How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Elf; Home Alone.

I'm looking forward to starting new traditions this year with our new baby!

Smiles

We still don't get too many smiles around here, but when we do, they are precious.

Merry Christmas

Thankful...I suppose it is more a Thanksgiving thought, but I was still so overwhelmed then from our first month home from the hospital with our little guy that I wasn't thinking very straight. As we rapidly approach our first Christmas with our little Daniel, I can't help but think how lucky we are. He came early and spent way too much time in the hospital, but is doing so well and growing like a champion. He's begun smiling and is just a joy. Even when screaming at 3am :-). I am so thankful that we are home with our wonderful little guy. I can't believe he's already almost 3 months old!

Nice

Naughty:-)


Happy mom and dad

Help

With having a baby so early, and being in an evening MBA program I've had a very busy fall. Throughout the program I've had a great group of team members. Most of us our still together this quarter and they have been incredibly supportive as I try to complete my most challenging quarter yet.

One team member in particular had a baby a year before starting the program and a second daughter one year in so has been helpfuly not only with school, but with wonderful advice on having a baby and balancing school and baby. She lent me tons of baby stuff including the sling - perhaps the most useful item for a newborn ever. She also managed to find time in the middle of the quarter to make a beautiful personalized baby blanket for Daniel and another team member's daughter. I am constantly in awe at how well she balances school, being a mom, work and craftwork. I can only hope to be so successful, though I'm giving myself a year to adjust to being a mom and working again first.

Baking

One thing I would really like to do more of is bake. I would like to cook too so that we would eat better, but find baking more fun. Right now it's almost impossible to find time to make anything from scratch, especially anything the least bit complicated, but I saw a recipe the other day for crisp salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies and cannot wait to make it. I generally don't like the trend of salt on sweets and am not a huge fan of white chocolate, but these look wonderful. Since my husband will be home for the next three weeks, I should be able to steal enough time to make these:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/05/crispy-salted-oatmeal-white-chocolate-cookies/