Friesencold

Okay, so I know it’s not about what we got for Christmas, but I still enjoy telling someone. Plus, it’s fun to show some of TJ’s work in pictures.

I’m going to pick up where I left off on the other post, after the MathStart books.

Bauer had just helped Cash open this Baby Einstein Take-Along Tunes music player. And yes, I picked out their Christmas morning clothes. Otherwise, Bauer would have worn his Slinky Pants again and who knows what shirt.

Cash loves music just like his brother. And look how this thing lights up!

Cash also loves having his very own Sigg water bottle that Gigi picked out for him. I don’t love that he drinks so much water from his Sigg that his wet diaper soaks through his clothes!

Two thumbs up on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics gear from TJ’s parents. TJ got a touque, I got mittens, and the boys each got cool long-sleeve t-shirts.

Cash likes the touque too.

Look at that face. Thanks, Nana, for the magnetic Cars, Plains, and Trains set.

We had to take a break for breakfast, but that didn’t mean the fun had to stop. Not much eating took place on Bauer’s end.

Cash, however, was all about the banana-oatmeal bars and of course, his smoothie. Thankfully he has started drinking from a straw and I can now give him his own smoothie each morning.

Back to the presents: Cash got a Fisher-Price farm set from Nana and Papa, which reminded me of Bauer’s John Deere tractor set when he was about the same age.

John Deere wasn’t left out of the mix this year because Bauer received a little John Deere carry-all with wooden handle from MaryMa and Granddaddy Lambert (his great-grandparents).

This is Bauer hugging his ABC stamp set from Gigi. He is thrilled to be able to do just what he wants with his stamps, even if it’s stamping them on top of one another (something I’d never let him do with my letter stamps).

What would Christmas be without books? Here, Bauer was pretty excited to get the Cynthia Rylant book Alligator Boy from his cousin Chase. Chase gave Cash Puppies and Piggies, also by Rylant. We are huge fans of hers, so those were two great picks!

Two other great picks were from TJ to me and Bauer. Both were books by one of my favorite authors, Alexander McCall Smith, who I just read a great newspaper article about that informed me he likes to be called Sandy. The books are The Girl Who Married a Lion (for me) and The Perfect Hamburger and Other Delicious Stories (for Bauer, but really for me to read first because I love Sandy so much, and then to read to Bauer).

Cash also got a book from TJ, that I knew nothing about. It’s the Bright Baby First 100 Words and it’s been a lot of fun already pointing to the bright colors and saying the words to Cash. He seems to really like the bathtime page.

My sis Holly gave Bauer a book by another of my favorite authors (hmmm, wonder who wanted that one?). Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s newest addition to her line of Cookies books is Sugar Cookies: Sweet Little Lessons on Love.

We haven’t quite finished our ABC verses for this year (Bauer just finished learning the T verse) but now we’ll have lots more to choose from on our next go-around with My ABC Bible Verses by Susan Hunt.

The Jesus Storybook Bible’s subtitle is “Every Story Whispers His Name,” and I love the idea of reading the Bible to Bauer (or myself) with that mindset.

And the book that wins the prize is Ginger Turns 30! created by TJ on blurb.com. It is a hard copy of my birthday blog, and it is amazing. See for yourself!

I love that TJ knows what I love.

My sister knows what I love too. No, not Hope (although I do love that). I love the PINK t-shirts from Victoria’s Secret. I especially love the color blue that this shirt is.

The shirt says it all.

One of Bauer’s favorite gifts was this Melissa & Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart, given to him by my grandmother and aunt and uncle (the Hilton Head clan). He has had so much fun deciding which chores will be his weekly chores, and I hope this is going to work a bit better for keeping track than the sticker method we were using and forgetting to use.

Here’s the aftermath and that’s before all the presents were even open. Bauer was still doling them out at this point.

Now we are officially done, and all Cash has to say is I love these new stockings my mom made, don’t you?

This year for Christmas, we wanted to do something different than we’d ever done before.

TJ and I remember so clearly one of Tim Sutherland’s messages at church last year about how he wants his two boys to leave home knowing that Christmas is about serving the poor, and that is what we want for Bauer and Cash (and ourselves, too!). For a few months prior to Christmas, our small group had been looking for a place to serve people in need on Christmas Day. We figured there was no better way to get the message across to our children that Christmas is not about getting stuff than to actually go out on Christmas Day and do something to help others.

We had the fabulous opportunity to partner with New Community Ministries, and after many hours of planning and preparation, we were able to do just what we envisioned our Christmas Day would look like, both for us and for those being served.  Not only did we involve our small group but we also emailed a bunch of our friends, many of whom were eager to get in on the action too.

Volunteers representing over 30 different families prepared food, purchased turkeys and hams, collected non-perishable food, donated toys and gift cards, collected boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables, and gave it all away to families living in poverty or in severe crisis situations (cancer, risk of losing home). Each “Secret Santa” family was assigned a child or children to purchase for. Nine of the families who purchased gifts or donated food were able to take part in making the deliveries on Christmas Day.

What a great day we had!

We met at COMMUNITY at 10 am to sort the toys and non-perishable food into boxes for each family. Then we had a group prayer, loaded the “Santa Bus” and vans, and were off by 11 am. We did a big loop from Naperville to Plainfield and back, making 6 stops in all, and delivering food and gifts to ten different families. We arrived back to the church around 3:30 pm with some tired kids, but it was definitely worth it!

One of the most touching stops was at a motel in Plainfield, where five of the families we served live. These families were so grateful to receive all the gifts and food. A single mom who has a learning disability and is unable to work, was so happy she started crying when she was given a prepaid cell phone. There were tears and hugs and laughs and to top it all off, it started snowing these huge picture-perfect Christmas snowflakes right as we were all standing outside delivering everything to them. I personally felt like they were giving me a gift by letting me experience the joy of reaching out and being in a place I imagine Jesus would want to be on Christmas Day.

Here we are sorting all the toys and non-perishable food items into boxes. These would soon be loaded on the bus to go along with the prepared Christmas dinners to be given to each family.

Santa Claus (a.k.a. the likable Henry Heller) was very well-received by all the children, including our own kids, at the different stops.  That’s Bauer in the gray coat on the left of Santa.

Santa handed out gifts to the young kids and teenagers alike.

We were able to pray for some of the families after giving them their gifts and boxes of food.

Here we are at the motel just before the snow began to fall. Tears of joy may have already begun falling at this point.

Here’s one of the families our family helped to buy for. It was great having our kids give to kids just like them.

We took a group photo after our last stop. Some of the families making deliveries had to leave before we got to all the stops, so next year, we should take the group picture after our first stop!

We’re on the bus, heading back to our starting point. Tired baby, happy Mom.

Thank you, God, for such a wonderful day. We are so rich with friends and so blessed that we were able to spend the day with them doing something for others. May this be only the beginning for us.

On Christmas Eve morning, Bauer and I made Christmas cookies for Santa. I just bought the Pillsbury roll of gingerbread cookie dough. It was quick and easy to roll out and let Bauer cut shapes out of. The only cookie cutter we had was a star, so we also used the Train, Airplane, and Fire Truck pancake molds that we’ve never used for pancakes before. The decorating of the cookies took a while, but I totally let Bauer do what he wanted, which made for one happy little boy. Unfortunately he couldn’t eat the gingerbread cookies since they were made with eggs, so I let him decorate a graham cracker for himself to eat.

Later on Christmas Eve, we attended an Open House at our friends’ The Hellers. The kids enjoyed playing together, the conversation was lively, and the food was very tasty. I brought home a recipe of a dish I enjoyed very much that evening and I look forward to trying it soon (and eventually posting it here).

Before leaving for the night, we had a little birthday party for Jesus. We all sang Happy Birthday and then enjoyed some sweets. Again, Bauer couldn’t have the cake-made-with-eggs, but thankfully I had tossed a granola bar he enjoys in the bag before leaving home. He was happy with that, although I do feel sad sometimes that we even have to think about allergies.

This picture is me washing the dishes before going to bed on Christmas Eve. I wanted the kitchen to be nice and clean for Christmas morning. What TJ wanted for Christmas morning was to make sure his camera was all set for pictures, which is why he was testing the camera on me in this shot.  I thought this picture looked so cool with all the different colored bowls, plates, and cups.

Santa and his reindeer enjoyed their gingerbread cookies very much. Bauer was excited to give Santa a glass of rice and almond milk mixed

Here’s a glance at how the stockings turned out. Bauer had arranged mine and Cash’s stockings on one side of the couch, and his and TJ’s on the other.

Before long, the stockings ended up here.

Cash had a ball with the Clementines that were in the bottom of his stocking. He was throwing them all around the room as if they were little orange balls to chase.

Cash was also pretty excited about his big gift from Santa – new shoes…..while Bauer was having a great time doling out the gifts.

This would make a great ad for Pedipeds, don’t you think?

Here Bauer is opening a couple MathStart books from my aunt, who is a retired math teacher. Great gift! See Bauer’s little pile of gifts he’s arranged for himself?

There are lots more pictures of the kids opening gifts on Christmas morning…I’ve just got to decide how many to post. My next post will be about what we spent a good chunk of Christmas Day doing, and here’s a hint – it wasn’t opening gifts.

Lots of pictures and lots to blog about. More to come in the next few days. I must do it in stages.

The week before Christmas, Bauer had a little Christmas sing-a-long program at his Parents Day Out. He didn’t do much singing along, but he and Cash sure did look cute in their matching sweaters. I love how they are looking in opposite directions.

Also the week before Christmas, Bauer got really into his Geo-Trax stuff again. He hadn’t played with it in months so it was very entertaining for him and even for TJ. Shown here are two amazing tracks these two amazing guys built.

The Sunday afternoon before Christmas, we went back to work on the Christmas Stocking Project. Bauer’s job was pushing the pedal.

TJ was the man with the plan, and he did a great job figuring out where to do the stitching of the white cuffs to the red stockings to make it all turn out right.

When it was my turn to do some of the sewing, I told Bauer he had to find something else to occupy him besides the pedal-pushing. I was afraid he’d go too fast for me. TJ said I did just fine.

Cash got in on the action, and was as happy as a lark with that orange Sharpie in hand.

You thought the next picture would be the finished stockings, but alas, they still didn’t have our names on them yet. That would be closer to Christmas before getting done. Stay tuned….In the meantime, TJ and I got away to downtown Chicago for the night of the 22nd to celebrate our 9th anniversary. The kids did great with our amazing babysitter, and we had a nice time taking the train, walking around the city, having dinner at Bandera, seeing the movie “Up In The Air,” and doing some shopping.

This Christmas, it’s not Here Comes Santa Claus! It’s Here Comes Ginger’s First Sewing Project.

TJ is a great teacher. And we are making something we can use in less than a week. Yay!

This was TJ’s stocking growing up. We are going for the same simple, old-timey look.

It was tough deciding between this Super Easy Snowflake Stocking pattern on the cute the purl bee website (although we wouldn’t have put the snowflake design on them) and this very basic Classic Stocking pattern on the Family Fun website. TJ liked the overall shape of the Classic pattern better, so we went with that template. I still like the Snowflake stockings a lot and maybe we’ll do those next year. Or maybe even these adorable ones!

It was my first time using a sewing machine, except for maybe my grandmother letting me push the pedal on hers years ago.

I was slow but happy.

TJ is a whiz on that machine! He learned to sew when he was in Home Ec in high school.

Stay tuned for the completed project. There is a deadline looming!

Two crafts in one day. Who am I?

Bauer had a friend over yesterday and we made “Snowman on a Stick” snacks.

Then yesterday afternoon, I worked on making these Christmas gift tags, similar to the ones my friend Hannah made and wrote about on her blog. I didn’t have sequins, so TJ went by Hobby Lobby for me before coming home. Bauer helped glue the sequins on the trees last night and then wrote his name on the bottom of each tag. The tags are going on the gifts for each of his Parents Day Out teachers. Can you take a wild guess what the gifts are? Fudge Babies, of course! I wrote the recipe on the back of each tag.

It was Bauer’s own idea to do one whole tree blue. He said this is for “Miss” Julie because “she likes blue.” I did the pink, gold, and silver tree and I liked how the color combination looked.

I know, I know, I already wrote about Fudge Babies here, but I really wanted to get the recipe typed up on my blog to make it easier for everyone to reference. Plus, since that last post, I’ve made the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Babies (a variation of the Fudge Babies) and they are just as amazing.

You’ll see I’ve listed some of the ingredients by weight as well (just as the creator of this recipe did on her blog). It is hard to know exactly how tightly to pack the dates to yield the precise measurement, but 230 grams is always 230 grams. I love my little kitchen scale and use it regularly for precise food measurements, so it is definitely worth the investment. I even dropped my scale off the kitchen counter a while back, and it no longer worked. I took it back to Bed, Bath & Beyond, where I had purchased it, told them what happened (my fault), and believe it or not, they happily let me trade it in for a new one. Here’s the exact one I have.

Recipe 27: Fudge Babies

1 cup raw walnuts (120 grams)
1 1/2 cups pitted dates (230 grams)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder

Chop/blend all ingredients in a food processor. Roll into little balls. Makes 24.

Recipe 28: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Babies

1/2 cup raw cashews (60 grams)
1 cup pitted dates (160 grams)
2 Dove dark chocolate miniatures (16 grams)

Note: I changed the chocolate part of the recipe a little bit; if you prefer to see the Chocolate-Covered Katie version, click here.

Chop/blend cashews and dates in a food processor. You can either blend the chocolate with the other ingredients or chop it separately, then mix the pieces into the dough. Roll into little balls. Makes 16.

I normally wouldn’t post twice in the same day, but I enjoyed this article I read from the paper today so much that I had to type out my favorite paragraph to share with you. The article by Mary Schmich, entitled “Christmas Ritual Gets Stamped Out,” was about why we are sending as well as receiving fewer Christmas cards this year than ever before. It was such a well-written, thoughtful, and engaging article that I clipped it from the paper (who does that anymore?) for TJ to read.

The paragraph I liked most:

There’s a calming ritual to sending a hard card. You put on some good music, fill a cup with cheer, root around in your battered address book and then commune for a while with your people, free of electronic jangle.

The interesting thing about the article is that it made me want to send real Christmas cards and not want to send them at the same time. I can’t explain it exactly, but something to do with the fact that we are so connected to people all the time that we don’t need to send them a card to tell them about our past year or show them our kids since they’ve already seen them on the blog on a weekly basis (and I like that!)…..while still wanting to connect to them in a different way than we do all year long by sending a real piece of paper they can touch with their hands and know we are just as real as that “hard card” and not just words on a computer or phone screen (and I like that, too!).

Clipping that article tonight made me want to flip through the paper on Sundays from now on and clip one thing each week that I think will be interesting to share with TJ (and possibly you, too!).

Bauer shared with us today what he is wanting from Santa this year. He named 3 things.

1) Thomas coloring book (meaning the Magicolor kind)
2) New scissors because he said his hands are getting bigger
3) New socks because he said his have holes (which they don’t, so I’m not sure why he said that)

TJ and I looked at each other in the front of the van, and just laughed that our boy wants a coloring book, scissors, and socks from Santa. Doesn’t he know he could ask for a trampoline, a new bike, or an iPod? We were both loving his small wishes for today.

My friend Meghan, who is in her 9th month of pregnancy (with twins!) recently asked for my opinion on what foods I would recommend eating during the end of a pregnancy and while nursing. I started thinking about it, and then I made a list, which was really fun for me. I realized that what I’d recommend during pregnancy and postpartum are the same foods I’d recommend to anyone, which is why the following Top 10 comprise a large portion of what our family consumes.

These are in no particular order, just the order they came to me on the day I was making my list. The pictures I took show most of the foods I’m recommending, although there are a few things we’re currently out of. I am going to follow the Top 10 list with 5 more foods that get runner-up status. Here goes…

Ginger’s Top 10 Healthiest Foods to Eat on a Very Regular Basis

1. Leafy Greens, especially spinach and kale – The pictured 1 lb clamshells are on sale this week for $3.99 at Jewel! Besides making spinach salads, I often add spinach to our smoothies. I’ve recently started adding kale into smoothies when I have it on hand, or I steam the kale to have as a side dish with dinner.

2. Ground flaxseed – I grind a quart jar full and keep it in the fridge. I add the ground seeds to our daily smoothies, as well as to hot dishes, such as risotto.

3. Berries, epecially raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries – Blackberries in 5.6 oz containers are only $1 each at Meijer this week! That’s compared to $2.50 regular, which I don’t buy. We like the frozen Wild Boreal Blueberries and the plain Raspberries from Trader Joe’s for smoothies.

4. Apples – Bauer likes them with the skin on now, so I just make sure to wash them well. These humongous Fuji’s (our favorite kind of apple) were just $1 a pound recently at Meijer. The lone green apple is a leftover Granny Smith that I bought to use in the cranberry-apple pie I made at Thanksgiving.

5. Beans, any kind you want! We especially enjoy black, pinto, kidney, and garbanzo. I have gotten away from buying as many canned beans since I learned to cook dried beans and freeze them. But it’s always nice to have some canned beans on hand. If you don’t know what you’d make with beans, check out the Recipes tag on the right side of this blog for some inspiration. We eat beans all the time, in all kinds of yummy dishes.

6. Raw almonds, raw walnuts, and raw sunflower seeds – I picked these three because they are the ones we eat the most of, and of course because walnuts are one of the stars of Fudge Babies. Almonds are most frequently eaten by Bauer as a snack which he simply calls “dates and almonds,” which is to say I cut pitted dates into thin ringlets and slide a whole almond into each ring. The sunflower seeds I use to make Dr. Fuhrman’s Bean Burgers but they would also be good sprinkled on a salad.

7. Coconut oil – I really don’t have the space to say all that I might say about coconut oil, but believe me, it’s top-notch for health. Check out the book The Coconut Oil Miracle if you’re interested in learning more.

8. Avocadoes – These are a staple food in our diet! On sale this week at Meijer for $1! Store them on the counter till they’re ripe, then store in fridge for up to a week.

9. Brown rice, oats, and quinoa - These are also staples for us. Did you know that quinoa contains more protein than any other grain? If you’ve never tried quinoa, you have to try this dish first.

10. Tomatoes – These are one of my personal favorite foods to eat. Bauer hasn’t been a big fan, but he’s coming around lately. Cash loves the tomatoes on Lou Malnati’s “The Lou” pizza. Fresh tomatoes are great, but some say cooked ones are even better for your health. I’ll take both!

Runners-Up

1. Dates – Deglet Noor and Medjool are the two varieties of dates I’m familiar with. I use the Deglet Noor pitted dates for the Fudge Babies and the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Babies (recipe to appear on blog soon). Michael’s Fresh Market has 2 lb containers of dates on sale this week for only $4.99 each.

2. Sweet potatoes – Bauer and Cash have both eaten these from the beginning. The only sweet potato I had in the house this weekend was the one I had steamed and put in the fridge for the kids. I keep meaning to try oven-roasted sweet potato chips.

3. Celery – I used to not like celery but over time it has become one of my favorite veggies. I always wash and peel the celery before I put it in the veggie tray. We like dipping it (and the other veggies) in hummus.

4. Oranges – Sweet! Juicy! Vitamin C! Juicy! Sweet! Unfortunately we ate the last couple of our oranges earlier this week, so I couldn’t take a picture. But I’m buying more tomorrow. It’s orange season in case you didn’t know.

5. Bananas – How could I not include bananas, as many as we go through?! Most of them go in smoothies, but Bauer eats one almost every night before bed, and Cash likes them for breakfast. I like eating bananas right after I buy them from the store because they are the perfect ripeness, or should I say green-ness, since that’s how I like them? Bananas are also great for making these Banana-Oatmeal Bars.

Now that this post is nearly done, I realize I could have spent a lot more time typing out all the different health benefits of each food shown above. But from all I’ve read and learned (and tasted) for myself, I know these 15 are all extremely healthy and quite delicious! I really hope you can incorporate some or all of them into your diet too.