Christmas in a Cupboard

The coveted kitchen cupboard looks like this 

and to this Little One it is the most glorious wondrous thing in the world to behold. 

He will stand on the counter for minutes at a time in awe just looking and smiling. Sometimes he talks to the cupboard and sometimes he snaps his fingers and sings as he stands there. He pulls things out, looks at them, shakes them, smells them, hugs them, asks to taste them then replaces them. 

   Presents under the Christmas Tree, Ornaments, Nativity, Gingerbread House, he could care less but this cupboard gets a visit at least three times a day (and I know it's not to stare at the red pepper soup) his visits usually end in tears. He has started to learn though and now asks for raisins or dried cranberries which delays the sadness which is inevitable unless I were to let him eat  it all, which would also end in sadness as then it would not be there at all. 

Circumference of a Thought on Life and Death

   Of Life and Death. In this world which we live in these words are always kept as far apart as possible. Two conflicting ideas which we foolishly think will never meet and should never be mentioned as having relation to one another. Just writing them I think I must now knock on wood or throw salt over my shoulder. Life and Death opposites or friends? So close together yet viewed as so far apart.
   I can only look at this in one direction, in the direction of bringing life into the world. I have brought three children into this world, all thankfully at home with no interventions. Allowing me to fully experience the power and understanding of birth, an experience that I highly treasure and would not trade for the world.
  Power yes, undeniable power, the strength of the human body is truly amazing. The ability of ones own body to contract so completely and so naturally with no thought put into the matter except that you would love for it to stop contracting. This is remarkable, especially when you are pregnant and are pretty sure you don't have a muscle left in your entire mid-section.
   At first you think there is no hope of mind over matter, as your entire logical mind is telling your body to stop this now! But then you start to understand that it is mind over matter and you accept the fact that, yes this is going to hurt and, yes this is going to be the hardest thing you have ever done. But it is completely doable and you want to see this little baby more than anything and you say to your body, "bring it on"! And it does and wow how much raw power is in one woman? Only woman knows.
   In my labors I always arrive at a point where I don't want to go any further I feel like I have given all I can and all I have and it's scary to go further. To go further into the unknown, further into the pain, further into what seems like nothingness yet to get past you have to accept and greet this passage into the unknown. The more I think on it I think of it as death and not as we see death but as a complete surrender of giving over of oneself to this power that is a part of each woman lending us true understanding and knowledge and I meet death and death is kind and is hope of the purest kind. Then I am past, death parts and life is won. I meet new life with a grateful and much needed view of the fragile nature of life and of hope not fear.

2vs4

   For some unexplainable reason the boys are intimidated by these guys at the skate park. They say the bikes always look like they are going to crash into them. I am sure anything going by that fast and that high when you are that small and that wobbly would be rather intimidating. Though as they rarely feel intimidated I try to take them to the skate park whenever the sun is shining and the roads are dry (which has been exactly once in the past 2 months).

*Thanks to Nate for being so Awesome and taking this Awesome picture and no thanks to my unawesome camera battery which died before the boys were even on their skateboards.

The Celebration of Destruction

   Dessert Before Dinner Celebration if mentioned caused gleeful running and jumping all over the living room in pure imagined sugar bliss. For the Gingerbread Masterpiece House was getting eaten that night before dinner.
   As I do believe there can be too much of a good thing (especially in the form of icing sugar and corn syrup) the boys had ten minutes to do as much damage as possible and eat as much candy as possible before dinner. I figure they got a bit of nutrition from all the dust that has collected on it for the last two weeks sitting in our living room.
   Due to the fact that they could not finish their dinner, albeit contrary to their thoughts on the matter, ten minutes was just about right. Though they barely made a dent in the Gingerbread House and I wished I had a flock of pigeons to feed it to or the miniature pony at my Mom's I fed it to last year but I had to sadly tip it into the garbage can. Not a very noble end for all that hard work and all that hording of Halloween Candy.

At least my Birthday week had a Glorious end. A beautiful Strawberry Cheesecake from Nate. 

As every Dessert Before Dinner Celebration also needs dessert to be complete.

Edible Pennies

   We had a close call this year with the possibility of not being able to celebrate Christmas properly and traditionally as I was unable to find the recipe for Peppermint Pennies! It quite traumatic and was a very close shave.
   We could not get hold of "Christmas Cookie Master Tradition Keeper" Auntie Em. She has all the traditions safely saved up her sleeve and can whip up an excellent Peppermint Penny and 6 other Christmas Cookie varieties in the time it has taken me to type this post.
    Luckily Grandma saved the day. A quick call, a quick search in the recipe box and we were set with the recipe hastily written on a scrap of paper, no wonder I had lost it in the first place.
   This project took pretty much the whole day and we did not eat dinner till 8 o'clock that night as (for some reason) no one was hungry till then and the cookies were hogging the oven.
Before you take on this project with small children or even on your own be warned you have to mix, chill, cook, cool, ice, cool as well as follow the recipe.
   We had fun, the boys did an excellent job and were very serious about this Christmas Tradition. Which is a very serious business, the making of sweets at Christmas time is of Utmost Importance in our house.        
    The eating of sweets is also very serious and Christmasilly Joyous.

We kept our priorities in order here, Washing Hands, Wearing Aprons and using lots and lots of Butter.

We made sure to lick the beaters, bowls, spoons, icing, spatulas, fingers and counter.

100% Perfection, 100% Focus, 100% Delicious.

Peppermint Pennies

1cup Butter

2cups Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2tsp Vanilla

2 2/3cups Flour

1/2cup Cocoa

1tsp Baking Powder

1/4tsp Salt 

Beat butter and sugar till creamy and "fluffy". Add eggs and vanilla beat again. Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix till well combined. Chill in the fridge for an hour or two or until you feel inclined to roll the dough into walnut sized balls and place on a greased cookie sheet, flatten slightly with your palm so your pennies don't start rolling around. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Let Cool before Icing and sandwiching together so that 2 cookies end up equaling one cookie so make lots or eat less, I suggest making lots!

Peppermint Icing

1/4-1/3 cup butter

3-4 TBSP milk

enough Icing Sugar to make frosting 

1/8-1/4 tsp peppermint extract

3-4 drops green food coloring

As you can probably tell I didn't measure any ingredients for the icing, sometimes I leave it white and I think it tastes equally good but according to the boys they taste better with green icing .

3D

   I turned 30 last week. Yes now I am old, but I have already accepted this fact as I have been preparing all year for this Birthday. Just one of the reasons I am thankful that numbers come in order.
    I was a bit surprised actually when I awoke on the 7th and felt exactly the same as on the 6th back when I was young and in my "20's" albeit late 20's which does sound older than early 30's which sounds older than 30. So you see a whole year of mental thought really does pay off but as I was saying, I thought I would feel different. I was ready to wake up 30 and all of a sudden have the inclination to wear make up every day, buy 7 different colors of track suits, throw out all of my shoes except my runners and high heels and run off to perm my hair.
I am happy to tell you that I didn't even have to resist as I am still me and have been wearing skirts and tights and stripy socks all week in celebration of being 30, who knows what the future will hold as horrified teenagers see what 30 looks like.
  To top it off I even have some accomplishments, accomplished in my 30th year to ring in my 30th Birthday.
  Top of the list I weaned the baby and this was no easy task as he was not born with a gift for enjoying real food but would have been more than happy to be a nursing baby/toddler/child for years and years. Well he is done and he really likes cookies and bananas so I think he will be just fine nutrition wise.
  We ate mostly local organic food this year so now I should be feeling and looking younger right? No wonder it hasn't been a big deal.
   I read the childrens book Little Pea One Bazillion times, the boys still do not like spinach. I may have to try the Popeye angle.
   Other things of note that have happened this year, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and ensuing surgeries, we almost lost all of our photographs of the last 10 years when the laptop "died" and I misplaced about 600 dollars. Forcing me to contemplate the importance of things such as family, memories and money.
   So all in all a good productive 30th year, my mom is recovering, the photographs were reclaimed as for the money I'm still hopeful.

'

   I have been having a bit of a hard time lately managing to find time to write great upbeat humorous posts as usual. I have many excuses for this, mainly, I like to be alone, silent and contemplative when I write but my life is busy, loud, loud, loud and well, of course always contemplative...haha.
   Also I am reading an excellent book about punctuation and it has made me a bit nervous to write wondering how many "sticklers" faint at my use of apostrophes. Actually this book implies anger over fainting and the last thing I want to do is add more anger to this world. Which is one of the reasons I refrain from typing while the three boys here in my care, in my name, are awake and wild in the world as the laptop opening and/or the phone ringing are sure guaranteers of 1,2,3 or all demanding food, water, diapers, food, scotch tape, food, falling down the stairs or hurtling through the air at some random unmovable object scattered throughout the house, usually resulting in tears or anger or both.
   Right now they...(insert 8 hours) were in trouble and now are sleeping. Some days are better than others and it is so so true that the years fly by but some days just crawwwwllll and I am left with less gray hair because I have pulled it all out, literally with tweezers! Bring on the 30's I am ready! (well my tweezers are anyway)