Comfort Bug

Miri has discovered that changing from jammies into clothes in the morning or from clothes into jammies at night can be a little bit of a chilly experience ("because it hasn't had enough time to be next to my warm skin and get all warmed yet, so it feels really cold to me"). However, she learned the trick about warming up clothes by placing them in the dryer for just a couple of minutes. She requested this pre-warming service last night for bed....

She waits as her entire outfit goes 'round and 'round in the dryer for a minute or so. Yes, even the underoos!

Then she quickly puts on her underthings, realizing that the heat doesn't last too long,

 

pulls on the warm pants,

shuts the dryer door,

and is snuggly warm and ready for bed!

Time with our Favorite Guy

Equine Guy, that is....

After a day of shopping together for fun things, we were sure to get home in time for The Most Important Thing of the Day -- a Shorty Ride! He was filthy, but he obliged us nonetheless. We had a great warm-up walk along the driveway, and then we hoofed it up to the second pond. We haven't taken a horse there yet, so it was all new, and it was really great! He was alert and attentive and listening to us and all the critters around us.

 

We hope to be able to find a reasonable price on a round pen (uh, and a level place to put it) soon, so that we can do some more training with him. He's the greatest thing ever.

Miri is a Western-Helper Girl

Miri loves to go to the barn with Mommy, even at night. It might be because it's a fun opportunity to use a flashlight. And she loves to feed special treats to the animals. She's getting so grown-up, so quickly.

This was her outfit for school recently - we called her Ninja Horsie Girl. All black, rhinestones across the shirt neckline, roper boots, and a pink, blingy cowgirl belt (more rhinestones required, apparently). She can rock it!

Cookin' Up a Storm

Aleaha is a very good helper in the kitchen. Very capable and skilled. She had a goal (all her idea!) of making homemade bread over the Christmas break, and her big criteria was "no machines" - she wanted it to be 100% by hand. (I had to convince her that using the oven to bake it was not cheating, and there was no solar device that was going to make this work.)

OK, sweetie, warm up your muscles, because that's what bread dough wants!

She starts to get the bread flour incorporated.

 

Gives it a little elbow grease, while her sister keeps her keen eye on the camera (such a ham!)

She did a fabulous job kneading.

 

  

Wonderful results. Guess what we had for dessert after dinner?? Oh yeah, white-bread, carb-guttons we are! But I'm not calling it "trashy", cuz it was homemade, afterall. Doesn't that count for something good nutritionally??

 

She also helped prep the garlic for marinating tomorrow night's dinner (wow, it's nice to have the time to think ahead!)  In goes the unpeeled clove...

 

Crush-n-roll, baby!

Out falls the peeled clove. Voila!

 

Taking a Break, Together

It's so lovely to have some downtime. This isn't the time of year for enjoying vacation time outside (it's been really cold and foggy), but we can still do lots of playing.

And cooking projects, like homemade pasta!

She chose Lemon Basil.

Yum.

 

And grabbing some treats while out-n-about on errands.

And just time relaxing and going for walks -- together.

Quiet Christmas

Back down to just the four of us, Christmas morning was relatively calm. The girls waited for Mom & Dad to have a cup of coffee in hand before digging into the stockings.

"Aww, look, Mom, I got fwoot! fwum Santa!"

A Prayer Bear from Gramma Patty.

 

With every item Miri unwrapped, she proclaimed,

"Oh, thank you! I've been wanting one of these for years!"

 

Shorty gave Aleaha a framed picture of the two of them. She's still trying to figure out how he wrapped it.

Santa brought a fun racetrack for Miri, but it was somewhat advanced, so our in-house expert had to be summoned for assembly assistance.

Santa brought Lego Friends for Aleaha, and she went right at it!

Lest there never be a photo of Miri being allowed to "do cwafts" at home, here is proof! It's even acrylic paints!! And we even survived!!!!

Family Visit!

We were very lucky that all the family could come to our house again this year to celebrate Christmas. We had a houseful, and it was lots of chaotic, busy fun. I didn't have a chance to document all the goings-on, but I got a bit.

 

Aleaha and Sylvie practiced a few Christmas tunes together, and then they put on a concert! Best Christmas moment!! (videos possibly will be added later - technical difficulties at the moment)

The girls have their recital all worked out.

 

The audience is ready too.

 

They each played a few solo pieces, and they played a couple of pieces together, which was amazing! Thank you, girls, that was marvelous!

Cousins laughing it up - one on an iPod and the other on a Slate. Electronically hooked, but actually playing together, surprisingly enough.

There was a bit o' food involved, naturally. Here is the 19 lb rib roast, getting ready for his salt covering. All herbed up!

Nine pounds of salt and a couple hours on the grill, and he becomes....

....a slightly browner version. Deeeee-lish!

While waiting for the time to open presents, Aunt Jodi expertly engages the kiddos in a Massage Circle until it's time to go nutso...

 

And crazy it was, of course!

Cinder was all over the festivities - people, wrapping, boxes - she's on it!

Later on, the girls get ready for bed. And by that I mean they are in bed, but of course not asleep.

Although they were sleepy the next morning!

Christmas Prep

Aleaha strung cranberries and popcorn on thread to feed to the birds outside. Very festive!

Miri made a fun and tasty gingerbread ornament at school. (No, it did not survive to be placed on the tree. It was edible, and she made quick work of it before we left the school's parking lot!)

 

In the course of cleaning out the playroom, we came across many toys that were not being used and were destined for donation. The train set, however, didn't make it that far. Once the library floor was picked up, the trains were set out. And so we had those all over the place for a few days. *sigh* Well, at least they are getting along and playing with existing items.

 

What follows are a gratuitous series of cat shots. Because it's our blog and we can! Smokey is such a great helper with lights, indoors and  out.

Cinder, on the other hand, was less helpful. Unless attacking the nice line of plastic horses Miri set out was helpful.

Juice was not exactly in the holiday spirit. Forced costuming didn't seem to help.

 

Smokey then got down with Ariel for a little naptime. He had to make sure she didn't get away.

Cinder was NOT supposed to be on the table. But she was cute, so she got away with it. Long enough for a picture, anyway. Then SHOO!