amusing amusements

27 December, 2012

Some Assembly Required

I didn't realize it until today, but this Christmas has been very hands on.

Hot little hands on the bowl of the mixer- a quickie way to bring that butter to room temperature!

Some vigorous sprinkle shaking

Thumbprint cookies

Awesome recipe- Lemon Raspberry Thumbprint cookies

truly simple, I swear!

This recipe uses whole wheat flour, ground almonds, and maple syrup for sweetener.

A good way to satiate your sweet tooth and forgiving for little hands to mix together.

Christmas cooking with Grandmary

Classic sugar cookie recipe

this one is a new found winner b/c you don't have to refrigerate the dough-HOORAY!

Roll out cookies always intimidated me before these came along.

Red....

GREEN!!!

more zealous sugar shaking...

Puzzle making- all hands on deck

Matching pj's thwarted by holiday potty training....

And yes, Madeline received her first Lego kit. This is the Lego Friends line that has received some flack for taking a "gender neutral" toy and girlifying it. Uh, huh. Somehow the Star Wars sets escaped notice. Princess Leia lives here.

17 December, 2012

Celebrating 1 and 2

Yesterday, Jeff and I celebrated twelve years of marriage. Whoa and seriously and unbelievable and happy. Yep. So we celebrated with a week's worth of events. A week ago we puttered on down to the Bijou and saw KebMo in concert; marveling that we were actually "out on the town" at a time when we are typically in pjs. (and at times wishing we were home in pjs) Tuesday we finally got our act together and signed our will. How very grown up and mortal. Mack trucks please stay away. We took advantage of a babysitting time at our church on Saturday and poked through Downtown Knoxville's Christmas festivities, eating crepes, drinking wonderfully warm tea, meandering through a independent bookstore. We even dropped in to a new local store, Fig & Company, and had the most wonderful time visiting with the owners. Locals, you must check it out.

And, after 7 days of intense viewing, Jeff finally caught up on my new must see "Downton Abbey". Our sweet art theatre partnered up with our local PBS and hosted a free sneak preview of Season 3. Although just the first of the two hours.... bummer. I sat behind Lady Mary- she really was dressed up like our favorite main character, love her or hate her. One of the best parts was this video that PBS put together to get you "caught up" on the first two seasons. A great spoof at their own expense, I must say. Check out the full opener on January 6! Maggie Smith's award winning role ALONE is worth it. Well, that and the costumes.... and the set... and the writing...