I'm back from a little break. Breaks have seemed to happen often around here. Please excuse me for taking them unannounced. Sometimes I need to do a little regrouping before I can do any outputting. Dave's is the best at "regrouping" in our home and I am learning a thing or two from him. He can't fix dinner if there are dishes on the counter and in the sink. He always takes th 5 or 10 minutes it takes to regroup before making another creation (mess). Me? Well, if it has got to go in the oven NOW, I'll just scootch the mess over and pile higher until I have a portion of workspace as I continue to add to the mountain. This is just one example that can be applied to so much of the business of the day. It is so much easier, and dare I say funner, to make a creation=mess rather than clean one up. In order to create order you must create some amount of disorder. That's entropy for you. That's just the way of things. That said, I think it's a worthy goal to strive for a "regrouping" habit, and so I will continue to try. Funny though, because as I type, I see dishes from lunch we ate and the cupcakes I made. All this to say that I'm back at the blog.

Here's a few highlights since I last posted.
* I gave Malcolm (18 mo.) his first haircut - I should really say trim. He doesn't have much hair to start with, it's just over his ears that hair shoots out a little faster than the rest. While he was in the bathtub he got a little snippy snip and that was that. Nothing picture worthy, it all happened so fast. I did think to save it in a little bag. A small token of my baby turning into a boy.


*My sister Amy came for a quick visit from Boston. We had a really good time. Malcolm was enchanted by his Aunt Amy.


*Malcolm was earning his keep. Actually, with his snow boots on he hardly moved from where he was planted.

our mid morning walk

buckeyes

I will be the 1st to admit. Sometimes I get a little excited. Which sometimes leads to getting ahead of myself. And then I crash - most often on the couch. Yesterday for example, I was off to such a kick'n start. You know, you heard me brag all about it. Well as it turns out, Malcolm woke early from his nap - cranked. We got home late from all the grocery shopping (Costco AND Dave's Market - I hadn't been shopping for awhile). It was time to eat and I was tired hungry. Luckily the pork was cooked, but it did NOT turn out like I was hoping. (Actually, I should be the one asking you for your BBQ recipe Jen.) We ate it, put Malcolm to bed, and started making buckeyes with the game in the background (Dave brought down our little TV and put it in the kitchen). That's when it hit me - complete exhaustion. I was able to make it as far as rolling out the peanut butter candy and dipping a few, but then Dave had to completely take over the rest of the buckeye dipping. That's when I crashed on the couch. Eventually I made it to my bed and Dave cleaned up the kitchen. This morning I found he left me this.

Good idea, Dave.
Oh, and they lost, so much for sending them *luck*.

*NOTE TO SELF* Buckeyes alone do not make a good lunch.

GO BUCKEYES!

(I really shouldn't be the one writing this post, since my knowledge on the subject is limited.) But, it seems that since we moved to Cleveland, OH all the teams seem to have made it to some sort of playoff - The Cavaliers, The Indians, and now Ohio State (the Buckeyes). Not bad right? Anyway, until last night when Dave filled me in, I had no idea that tonight there would be a big Ohio State playoff game. Oops. Well, what can I say, I'm thinking of other things. We decided we would try making BUCKEYES to for the BIG GAME (that I had no idea was happening) tonight. If BUCKEYES are new to you too, they are yummy peanut butter yum-ball dipped in melted chocolate only part way so it looks like an eye of a buck, or the nut - you decide. You then pop them in your mouth and enjoy. Sounds appetizing? Well we're going to give it a try, for *luck*.

Malcolm and I are headed out for *Monday grocery shopping*. I have the meals planed for the week. I have a list. Pork is in the crock-pot. The NEW YEAR is off to a good start.

cookies delivered

NICE!

nice

Now when Malcolm sees, or hears, or does something that he likes, he responds with "nice!". It cracks me up every time so I thought I'd share.

Snow Day

We were going to try for a snowman today but the snow was much too dry so we made a snow mountain instead. We were pretty pleased with our efforts.

Boy

Malcolm has started to refer to himself as "Boy".

For example:
"Mamma juice, Boy juice" - Mom's juice, my juice.
"Boy broom" - my broom.
"Boy cookie" - my cookie.

Cookies for our neighbors.

We thought it would be nice to take cookie plates to our neighbors for Christmas. Christmas came faster than the cookies, so we figured it's fine if we take them out a few days after Christmas. No pressure.
I made the meltaways (the pink cookies) on Christmas night, made the dough for the gingerbread the next night, bought the cookie cutters and rolled them out the following night, and the next day (before and during Boy's nap time) I iced the gingerbread people and meltaways. While waiting to make cornflake marshmallow wreaths with Dave (it wouldn't be "Christmas" for Dave without them), many meltaways (the pink cookies) melted into my mouth and gingerbread families met their fateful end in my belly. Three days later the wreath treats came to be. We plated the sweets - but it was late, bedtime, so no neighbor delivery. We filled our cooler with the cookie plates. The next day, I was sick, Malcolm was sick, no delivery. The following day, still feeling groggy, big snow storm, no delivery. Today, the sun is out, we are feeling MUCH better, they just might get delivered tonight! "Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, glad we're neighbors, hope you don't mind old cookies."

By the way, the meltaways and gingerbread cookies are my aunt Merja's recipe. They are my favorite. It wouldn't be "Christmas" for me without them. Since we were away from the fam this year - I made them myself for the 1st time. Some tastes are celebrations in and of themselves.