Cookie Parties are the best kinds of parties to have.

My great friend, Karin, invited us over yesterday for a cookie party.  She asked us to bring over the ingredients and/or dough for our favorite Christmas cookies.  I decided to try a new recipe--candy cane twists.  I found the recipe in my family fun magazine.  They were easy to make and very festive!

We baked lots of Christmas cookies and ate snacks.  When they got tired of icing cookies, they decorated wooden ornaments to give to each other.  And this fabulous midwestern mommy living the sunny life in SoCal even had sloppy joe's cookin' in the crock pot to feed us dinner.  But I have to say, best part of the afternoon were wine spritzers for the mommies!  It was a lovely way to spend quality holiday time with friends and I can't wait to make this a new holiday tradition.

cute buddy icing his cookie in between taking a lick or two (or three...)

she even had special ones for the Star Wars fans. nothing cuter than a green and red Darth Vader.

hard at work in their aprons. their wives will appreciate this picture one day.

try to ignore his dirty face and glasses and just look at how cute his star cookie turned out.

now on to coloring ornaments and glitter glue!

peanut butter blossoms, candy cane twists, and a festive spritzer.

just a few of the beautiful creations.

our hostess with the mostess

the fab four

happy mommies after a spritzer or two (or three...)

Retro Christmas Pics: Part 2

This is Mrs. Graybill, my godmother.  Starting with my 1st Christmas, she gave me a Reed & Barton silver Christmas Cross every Christmas always with a sweet hand-written note.  She would also always call me on my birthday and sing me "Happy Birthday".  Mrs. Graybill has always been a part of my cheering section and my life has been blessed because of it.

Me and Lori in front my my grandmother's tree.  All I can say is thank goodness this picture isn't a close up.  My mouth was full of metal and I was wearing fake Keds and a teddy bear sweatshirt.  The early- to mid- 80's were NOT kind to me.  But honestly, were they kind to any of us?  I really don't think so.

Case in point.  Yes, that's a bow on our poor cat.  And yes, feel free to call me Sally Jesse.  Why am I sticking out my tongue?  I really have no idea.

One of my favorites.  This is me, my cousin Chelle, my step-brother Shay, and my best friend Blake.  Picture was totally unplanned.  Our parents had dropped us off at the mall and apparently we decided for some unknown reason to take a Christmas picture at one of those random kiosks in the middle of the mall.  I'm so glad we did because this picture is so random that it totally cracks me up.

Here's me and Mom getting ready for the high school Christmas formal, junior year 1989.  I was so excited for my first formal that I didn't even care that my mom was a chaperone.  I loved that black taffeta dress with plaid bows on the shoulders.  Now I couldn't even fit my left butt cheek in that tiny thing, but I would so love to try.

I bet you 100 bucks my mom still has that jacket in her closet.

Santa vs. Jesus

Last week I was helping the Monkey with some of his homework.  It was a speech about what winter holiday he celebrates with open-ended questions like "The winter holiday I celebrate is..." and "My favorite thing about this holiday is...".  He was supposed to answer the questions, draw a picture, and present it to the class.  And like all Kindergarten homework, it required lots of parental assistance.

Our conversation went a little something like this:

mama:  "Okay, Bud.  So what is the winter holiday we celebrate?"

monkey:  "Christmas!"

mama:  "That's right.  And why do we celebrate Christmas?"

monkey:  "To get presents!"

mama:  "Not exactly.  Yes you get presents, but that's not why we celebrate.  We celebrate Christmas because it's somebody's birthday.  Do you know whose birthday it is on Christmas?"

monkey:  "Santa?"

mama:  "Uh...no.  Not Santa..." (waiting to hear the answer)

monkey:  "Santa gives us presents!"

mama:  "Well, yeah...if you're a good boy.  But it's not his birthday and we don't celebrate Christmas because of presents or Santa.  Now think.  Where do we go on Christmas Eve?"

monkey:  (says nothing)

mama:  "Church.  We go to church on Christmas Eve to celebrate somebody's birthday.  Whose birthday  do we celebrate at church on Christmas?"

monkey:  "Santa's!"

Obviously my questions directed at helping him arrive at the correct answer were not working.  We were headed into a bad religious version of "Who's on First?"

mama:  "Monkey, we celebrate Christmas because it was the day that Jesus was born.  Jesus is the reason that we celebrate Christmas.  That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."

Now he was really confused.

He turned in his assignment and did a great job on his speech, but the whole Santa vs. Jesus misunderstanding has bothered me ever since.  We are a family that goes to church every Sunday (okay, not every Sunday but pretty darn close.)  I've read my boys stories about the First Christmas.  We even have the Fisher Price Little People Nativity set.  So where had I gone so wrong?

Looking around at my Christmas decorations, it dawned on me.  There was a whole lot of Santa and not enough Jesus.

Isn't that the way it is during the holiday season?  Lots of presents.  Lots of candy and cookies.  Lots of lights and decorations.  There are Santa suits for our dogs and snowman coffee mugs next to the Keurig. There are LEGO Advent calendars and homemade gingerbread houses.  But the real reason for the season?  Yeah, that poor guy was no where to be found.

So today I bought two of these.

Luke 2:11 "Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Every Christmas morning we eat cinnamon rolls and drink chocolate milk after opening presents.  And from now on we will be doing so using these plates.  Just a little reminder who's birthday it really is.

I'll give you a hint:  It's not Santa's.

Celebrating Forty at Bushwood.

The Golfer turned forty yesterday, or as the boys call it "The Big 4-0", and we celebrated in style.  We got all dressed up and went to our country club for dinner.  (I do indeed realize that saying the phrase "our country club" sounds all snobby and snooty and if you're thinking that you'd be correct.  But if you know the Golfer's profession--which most of you do--our belonging to a country club makes complete and total sense.)

In order to take the boys to the formal dining room for dinner, I had to buy them their first sport coats.  At first I was resistant.  I mean, who wants to spend a lot money on fancy clothes for your kids that they will grow out of?  Not me.  But as I said, it was the Golfer's 40th and all he wanted was a nice dinner with his family.  Jackets required.

Now in most fancy situations, I would be a little nervous about the boys acting...appropriately.  They are boys.  Boys are loud.  Boys are loud and silly, especially when they shouldn't be.  Luckily for me, yesterday I had developed quite a miserable head cold and was doped up on cold medicine which means I was very relaxed and could really care less how they behaved.  Plus, I felt like I was underwater and couldn't hear a thing.

But a funny thing happened.  They were very well behaved.  Even with all of the fabulous Christmas decorations (and as you will see from the pictures below, they were indeed very fabulous) they were better behaved than...dare I say it...than they have every been.  They sat quietly at the table with their napkins in their laps.  They used their manners.  They didn't beg to leave or annoy each other in any way.  When the carolers came by our table to sing (yes, there were carolers) they listened quietly.  They were everything that I have ever wanted my children to be.

I'm not sure what it was.  Maybe it was the Shirley Temples or perhaps their ties were tied too tight.  I'm sure tonight when I take them to Chick-fil-A for dinner they won't be nearly as well behaved.  But the Golfer and I did come to this realization last night: getting your kids all dressed up and taking them to a fancy restaurant is a good thing.  They learn to behave.  They practice using their manners.  They experience adult behavior.

We don't ever dress up anymore.  There's no reason for our boys to wear a sport coat.  But I think that this practice of acting like nice young gentlemen is going to be a very good thing.  So it looks like more dinners at Bushwood* are in our future.  And that's a good thing.

By the way, the Monkey liked his bow tie so much he wore it to school today.  With his Lakers T-shirt.

(*Okay, so that really isn't the name of our country club.  If you're a Caddy Shack fan then you'll recognize it as the name of the country club in the movie.  It's the "affectionate" name we given our club.  And one thing that Bushwood does really well is Christmas!  Not just a gingerbread house, but a whole village!  They don't mess around at Bushwood.)