Christmas Recipes

Every year, I make my grandmother's graham cracker fudge as a gift.  This year was no exception.  For easy finding (and for sharing!), I'm posting it here.

Graham Cracker Fudge

2 C. sugar
1 small can of evaporated milk
1 stick butter
1 package of chocolate chips
1 C. graham cracker crumbs
3/4 C. flour
3/4 C. chopped nuts
1 tsp vanilla

Mix graham cracker crumbs and flour and set aside.  Melt butter in pan.  Add milk and sugar and bring to a boil.  Add chocolate chips.  Stir to melt.  Remove from stove and add flour mixture, nuts, vanilla.  Put in lightly greased 9x9 pan.  Cool and cut.


I also discovered a new recipe this year that couldn't be easier but that I love.  Here it is:

Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark

1 C. brown sugar
2 sticks butter
1/2 bag of thin pretzels
1 package of chocolate chips
sea salt or kosher salt

Line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Spread pretzels on pan.  Melt butter.  Add sugar and cook for about 3 minutes until blended.  Do not boil!  Pour over pretzels.  Bake at 400 degrees for 4-5 minutes.  Sprinkle chocolate chips over.  Put back in oven for 45 seconds--not too long or chocolate will burn!  Remove from oven and spread the chocolate over the pretzels.  Sprinkle sea salt on top.  Chill at least 1 hour.

Hard to see it here, but I put it in snowman bags and added it to Yankee Trade gifts.  Yummy!

Enjoy!

VACATION!!!!!

Oh, thank God vacation is finally here!  I'm looking forward to spending time with all 3 of my boys.  It does figure, though, that as soon as we got on vacation Adrian decided that he was going to fight his nap.  He has been screaming for over half hour for the past 3 days when I put him down.  He never fought his naps before and, in fact, was always a better napper than Sebastian.  Now, after he finally does fall asleep, I'm lucky if he sleeps an hour.  It sucks and makes for a very long day when Adrian sleeps 45 minutes and then wakes up Sebastian too early, too.  I'm Ferberizing him again at nap time...today was better than yesterday--he slept after only a half hour of screaming, but this isn't fun!  I don't enjoy regressions.  Anyway, I know I have to keep to the schedule and keep at it.  I just had hoped I was done with all this sleep training business.

On Saturday, we didn't do much except go to Lowe's and buy a new dishwasher.  The old one that came with the house had to have been at least 20 years old.  It was ancient.  The thing didn't wash very well anymore, the soap dispenser would get stuck shut (so it would "wash" occasionally with the soap still inside the dispenser), and the rubber ring around the door to keep the water inside was all ripped.

We decided to forgo the $300 Lowe's installation charge and hope that our plumber friend would come to help us out.  Carlos disconnected the old one himself so that we could take advantage of the free haul away by Lowe's.  This is what he found behind the dishwasher.  First off, I'm not sure if that electrical business is legal??  There was no outlet, just a junction box nailed to the floor?  Is that ok?  The second surprise was water on the floor...one of the drainage tubes was leaking...who knows how long this leak had been going on.  I guess it couldn't have been too bad or we would have seen water damage downstairs on the ceiling.  In any event, I'm glad we bought a new one!

Actually, there was a 3rd surprise as well.  Mouse droppings.  SO NASTY.  We've never seen evidence of mice anywhere in the house (knock on wood), but they must have been able to enter through that hole in the wall and then they were trapped behind the dishwasher.  Hopefully that was from BEFORE we moved in.  I was so grossed out.

So, our electrician friend is coming Thursday to fix the electrical (put an outlet there so we can just plug the new one in).  Then we'll either install the dishwasher ourselves or have the plumber come.  I know it's probably not hard for Carlos to install it himself, but things with electricity and water freak me out.  If they are done wrong, they can be costly to fix!  We'll see.  For now, we have to live with a hole in the cabinets and the new dishwasher in the corner of the kitchen.

It was 60 degrees out Saturday afternoon so we took a walk with the boys around the neighborhood.  They enjoyed splashing in the puddles, and I let them because they had their boots on.

Yesterday we had a party at the Paones in the afternoon.  It was a nice party for Patrick's christening/Christmas.  There was a huge yankee swap with over 46 people participating.  We brought a big bag of pistachios from BJs and some Philosophy shampoo/body wash.  We took home a children's Christmas book and a bottle of wine.  Before going home we went to the Taunton Green to check out the lights.

We didn't stay long because it was starting to rain.  But the boys liked the lights and the Santa.

Adrian is screaming again--after only 20 minutes of quiet.  He does have a bad cough which seems to be keeping him awake/waking him up.  I gave him Tylenol before the nap to see if that would help (his throat MUST hurt with all the coughing he's been doing), but apparently it didn't.  I used saline on him earlier, too. It's going to be a long 2 weeks if this situation doesn't improve soon!

Snowy Weekend

What a strange weather weekend.  It's been about 20 degrees cooler than normal around here for the past week or so.  We were supposed to have a relatively big snowstorm this Saturday night into Sunday.  I was actually looking forward to it--I don't mind the snow when there's no where to go.  And I figured that if we got enough, it might stick around long enough for us to have a white Christmas.  It started to snow early Saturday evening, but by the middle of the night it was all rain, and it turned the snow on the ground to a slushy sloppy mess.  Then, this morning, it all froze over so it's a sheet of black ice.  And it doesn't look very pretty because the snow is now just slush.

Anyway, here's a rundown of a rather uneventful weekend.  

Saturday morning a mason came over to take a look at our chimney and make sure we wouldn't light the house on fire if we lit a fire.  He said it was clean and in good shape.  

We didn't do too much for the rest of the day Saturday.  We ran  a few errands to pick up Yankee Swap gifts and food so we could cook dinner.  Then we headed home and played and watched Thomas the Train all day with the boys.  The boys are still completely obsessed with Thomas.

They have a Thomas puzzle that their cousin "Kitchen" gave them.  They fight over it nonstop.  The other day, Adrian was kissing and hugging the puzzle.

Then he just put the puzzle down on the ground, put his puppy over it, and laid his head down on top.

Later that day, the boys played with the "blankie."  This game basically involves the boys climbing on top of this plaid blanket while Carlos drags them all over the floor.  They love it...the static makes their hair stand on end.

 Sebastian can spend a half an hour all by himself playing with Thomas.  He LOVES his trains.  Adrian is more fascinated with the TV show than with the trains themselves.

Adrian did my hair.  He's actually pretty gentle, and he has a blast fluffing it, pulling it, and moving it around.

This morning, after we cleared up from the storm, we hit Target to get a few odds and ends.  Nothing exciting, just aluminum foil, sandwich bags, trash bags. and parchment paper.  The boys enjoyed stomping in the puddles in the parking lot with their "new" boots.

Finally, this afternoon, Grumpy came over for a bit.  We lit a fire in the fireplace for the first time.  It was cozy, but hard to enjoy.  We put The Snowman and some Thomas episodes on my iPad so that the boys would stay in the room and not break everything.  They were good, but it wasn't really relaxing.  Next time, we'll light it after the boys are in bed.

The boys haven't been napping more than an hour for me and Carlos (they nap 2.5 hours for Natalie!).  So they went to bed at 6:30 tonight and fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.  It's only 8pm here, but I'm already sleepy.  I don't think I'll last much longer.

I read almost a whole book: Loving Frank about Mamah Cheney's love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was pretty good, but not what I was expecting.  I had no idea at all what the book was about when I got it from the library.  It had just been recommended to me.  This is the first book I've read for pleasure in quite a while.  I need to read more.  I forget lately how much I love to read.

I'm so glad this is the last week before vacation.  Only 4 more days with the kids and 1 (maybe 2 more) after they leave to wrap up ends.  Then I'm off until January 5!  Nice 2-week vacation this year...

Weekend Fun with "Mini" and "Crappy"

The boys are talking so much lately.  It's interesting to listen to them--you never know what will come out of their mouths.  My brother and I have called my mom "Mugie" for a while now, since high school probably.  The boys can't say "mugie" and it became "Mini."  And Grandpa is "Grampy" or "Grumpy," and they can't say "grumpy" perfectly--instead it comes out "gumpy" or "crappy."  It's common to hear them yelling, "Mini house!!" or "Crappy house!!" because they want to go to their houses all the time, every day. 

Mini came over to our house Friday night.  Here she is reading to the boys.  

Saturday we ended up in Hull.  We wanted to go thrifting at Wellspring in Hull and after going there (and scoring a really cool talking, light-up fire engine and a Percy engine for only $2 and a few books for only $1.75) we met my dad at the Old Ship Church in Hingham to go to a fair.  The boys enjoyed walking the wall, just as I used to do with my dad when I was a kid.

 When we got home, we took a walk around the neighborhood.  Nana, the boys love their hats that you made them!  And they match perfectly with their winter coats!

I told Sebastian to say hit to Nana--this is him waving!

Sebastian didn't want to put down his new Percy train so it came with us for the walk.  He stored it inside the Home Depot truck.

We finally turned the car seats around.  I hated to do it, but they get so angry when they ride in the car now.  They hate being backwards.  They were so much happier riding this way.  And I love being able to see them easier.
They have so much more room and it's easier for one of us to get in the van to ride between them now, too.

The Boys' Favorite Books at Two Years Old

1. Where the Wild Things Are ("Mike") by Maurice Sendak

My favorite line has always been, "Oh, no!  Please don't go!  We'll eat you up we love you so!"  The boys love that, but their favorite part (especially Adrian's) is when Max says, "Let the wild rumpus start!"  For some reason, they find that phrase (or the word "rumpus") funny!

2.  Little Wheels, Big Wheels ("Wheels") by Frank Fitzgerald

The boys say the man driving the truck is Papa and the woman with him is Mama.  Both boys think they are the one riding in the little red car.  The pictures from this book are a hoot--everything is so dated!  But I love it, and so do they.

3. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

How could anyone NOT love this book?

4. No, David! ("No, D!") by David Shannon

We discovered this one at a thrift store, and boy, do the boys love it.  They love seeing all the mischief that "D" gets into!

5. Tell Me, Grandma  Tell me, Grandpa ("Gahma Gahma") by Shirlee Newman

This was mine when I was little.  The boys find it very funny to watch the little girl laughing as she imagines what her mom and dad looked like doing all the things her grandparents describe.  Sebastian knows the book so well he recites the word "Well" ahead of me (As in, "Well, when we put her in the playpen...").  

6. Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

This book has a sort of poetry to it, and the pictures and words really hold their attention.

7. Bialosky's Christmas ("Osky") by Leslie McGuire

Also mine when I was a kid.  The boys love flipping through the pages more than they like me reading it to them.

8. Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever

Grumpy bought this one for the boys.  The particularly love the picture of the lawnmower on the back cover!

9. Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?  Bill Martin Jr. 

Another book that would be hard for a kid not to like.  The simple pictures and repetition are great.  This was the first book that ever held their attention, and they learned to turn the page at the appropriate time at about age 1.