Category: Uncategorized (Page 60 of 201)

I have clear memories as a child, of writing thank you cards after Christmas.  It normally took me quite awhile–not because it needed to, but because I would drag my feet and complain, I’m sure.  But thank you cards are important.  And it’s also important to know how to write a proper thank you card. I still use that skill to this day: writing notes to my students, friends, family, and even teachers.  So, I definitely think it’s something that should be practiced.

Today was the day that I talked through the procedure with Chloe and gave her guidelines and everything.  At first she was overwhelmed and crabby, but once she saw it as sections that she could “check off” she was right on board.  I’m trying to let her learn and work on her own, with just a little bit of guidance.  Hopefully you’ll be receiving a nice thank you in the mail in the next couple of weeks–and hopefully it will make sense and you’ll be able to decipher her spelling!

First tooth (on the bottom) gone = check!

It was a monumental week here in the Friesen household–Josiah lost his very first tooth.  There was much rejoicing.

I asked if we could take a picture and he was insistent on posing “as a Monster” for the picture (hah!)  He looked at himself in the mirror after it fell out and he thought it really made him look like a monster.  It makes me laugh!

And of course, he got his tooth receipt, a tooth record (which is pretty much a glorified journal sheet)  and a chart to write down all the teeth he loses.

I’ll savor this innocent joy and excitement over the tooth fairy because I know it’s not going to last long.  Chloe discovered “the truth” just last year and I can tell she’s having a hard time keeping the knowledge to herself.  We’ve talked about it and she’s not supposed to spoil it for him… but I’m aware that she is a first born type A girl.  So, we’ll see how long she lasts!  🙂

I realized that I never posted Levi’s birth story because we ended up going back to the hospital so quickly with his infection.  So, if anyone is interested you can read it here.  I’m so far removed from it now that it’s strange to read all those details again.  It’s amazing that it feels like a life time ago but it’s only been 3 months.

Levi’s Birth Story

It has slowly become a Christmas tradition to get together with a few of my friends and doing a “Christmas Baking Day Extravaganza!”  We started 4 years ago with just 3 of us and have since bounced from house to house and have added a couple people.  So this year we had it here (putting that 2nd kitchen to good use!) and there were 5 of us.  It was crazy fun.  Emphasis on the crazy part.  With 5 people mixing and baking and timing and laughing and snacking it’s a lot of noise and chaos.  But so. much. fun.

And the best part is at the end we divide up the goodies, so everyone gets to take home a really wonderful smattering of Christmas goodies.   This year I think we counted 25  items.  Although, there are a couple not pictured below… one of those was homemade egg nog that we drank there and another was Asian chicken dip that we also ate there and finally there was a M&M bar thing that didn’t get cooked enough so it was mushy in the middle.

My contributions this year were:  Candy cane cookies, Short bread cookies (with the sprinkles in it), white chocolate cranberry fudge, plain chocolate fudge with pecans in it, chocolate toffee with nuts and white chocolate cranberry muffins.   I didn’t like the cranberry fudge, so I won’t be making that again but the toffee was delicious and the muffins usually turn out better than they did.  I made them near the end of the evening and the oven had been on for too long (we baking for about 7 hours) so it sort of scorched them.  Sad day.

Here are a few more random pictures from the afternoon/evening:

The calm before the storm…

Everyone hard at work.

Making cream cheese mints

Tara making peanut butter cookies

Goodies on every possible surface!

Starting to divvy up the bounty!

Stephanie took most of the picture that night, so I found a selfie when I took the pictures off of my camera. Ha!!

Evidence that there was Asian chicken dip! It was sooo yummy

Up to our elbows in chocolate!

Crunching the toffee

Josiah was THRILLED to have his preschool program earlier in December.  It was all he talked about for a long time.  And I was super bummed because it fell on a Friday night and I couldn’t take off since my recital was so close.  So I prepped him on how Tim would record it and I would get to see it later.  However, a few days before the program my 2 of my Friday night students cancelled so I ended up being able to go.  What a lucky turn of events, eh?

The program was all three classes combined together (there are two 4 year old classes and one 3 year old class) and it was the very first time they were all together.  As you can imagine it was a bit of a gamble as to how everyone would do.  And out of the 40-some kids only 2 (from the younger class) freaked out and ran to their parents.  Not too bad, all things considered.

I snapped this picture of them praying with the pastor.  I love all of their bowed heads.  And the two boys in grey striped sweaters are his two friends.  One is in his class and the other one (the one bending down to the floor as he prays, haha!) is in the younger class.

Of course, Josiah was not at all deterred by the size of the crowd.  He scanned the crowd for our faces and once he found us, his face lit up like a beam of sunshine and he started waving wildly.  In fact, he was so excited that he wouldn’t stop waving.  I walked to the back of the room and recorded a few songs (more like chants, really, since they are done a-cappella) and he continued to wave a smile in between almost every song.  It was hilarious.

Despite all the waving he really did an excellent job.  Grandma Patsy came along to watch and she said it was like watching a little Tim on the stage.  “The apple doesn’t fall from the tree” were her exact words.  And this little boy ADORES his Dad, so that doesn’t surprise me at all.

Here we go!  Another year freshly starting.

I stopped making new year’s resolutions a long time ago, but I always enjoy a fresh start.  That’s why I love turning the calendar page every month.   And why I love opening new containers of cool whip.   And why I love the look of a new blanket of snow covering all the ugly muddy mess below.  They are all so fresh and clean and inviting.

So, onto 2017 we go!

We’ve had a full month of Christmas festivities and busy schedules.  Ironically,  I was just starting to feel like I was getting my feet back under me again, but then with all the extra activities I let certain things go (like posting!).  Sorry about that.

So here is a smattering of pictures from the last month… Hopefully I’ll actually get to writing more about most of these pictures, but in case I don’t I want to at least share the fun in picture form!  🙂

I’ve started making my annual Christmas Candy for my students again, and this year I have the added bonus of having a 2nd kitchen!  Whoo hoo!  I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me until this week that I could use that for my candy making.

There is also a 2nd fridge down there that is basically empty for me to cool all my candies in–without having to empty the contents out first!  Yippie!  AND Tim made me these spectacular shelves (out of plexiglass) to help hold the molds so I can work faster.

Let me tell you, it’s wonderful.  🙂

So, I’m doing a little bit each day so I don’t have one VERY LONG day of candy making.   And since I’m using the downstairs kitchen I can leave everything out and not worry about needing to clean up in order to make supper.  Like I said… it’s wonderful.