|| our Christmas season ||

--Christmas morning and her new broom-broom!!--

Whew! The Christmas season has come and gone.  Every year, I say I'm going to make it a slow Christmas season.  To which all normal mothers promptly roll their eyes and say, "yah. right.".  

So what do we do here?  Are there Christmas activities?  Are there decorations?

Answers:  Lots.  Yes.  And, pretty much depends on where you are.  

If you live in the capitol city, there's a larger variety of Christmas things to do.  And there's beautiful decorations in the malls.  A huge win-win for this Northern girl!  I looooove going shopping at Christmas time.  And the week we went, the crowds were not too bad.  It was great!

For decorations, Leon insisted on a real Christmas tree this year.  The closest we could get to a fir tree is a small cyprus.  We are going to pot it in a large cement pot and every year, haul it inside.  It was a little bit of a wonky Charlie Brown tree.  I was less than thrilled until a week before Christmas, Leon rearranged the lights and a few other aspects of the tree and it became cuter.  I think my Mom has sent new Christmas decorations every year which is amazing!  My collection is growing.  

We received barrels at the beginning of December.  

Barrels any time of the year is amazing but at Christmas it is doubly so!!  Thanks, Dad and Mom!!!  It was such a huge treat and LOADED with goodies.  Italian sausage, coffee, spices, gumbo mix (!!!!!!), Hershey's chocolate syrup, presents, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, more things from my closet that I forgot I had, etc..etc...SUCH  A TREAT!!!

A group of 11 of us ladies did a Christmas cookie exchange.  The lady who organized it said we must each bring 500 grams of cookies for each lady.  So that was 5 kilos of cookies to bring and 5 kilos of cookies to take home. 

That doesn't sound like a big deal until.......

.........the electricity starts to do this low voltage business and you can't use the oven.

.........you have decided to make cookies with white chocolate chips and you only have two bags and one dozen cookies is only 400 grams.  

........so you make batch B which is oatmeal cookies.  Upon proceeding to take them out of the oven 2 1/2 hours before the scheduled departure time, they are flatter than flatter than a fritter.  

.......Upon which you absolutely, positively GIVE...UP...!!!

And, not all of the ladies made 500 grams.  I totally did not feel guilty about mine not being 500 grams because E for effort, that's all I'm saying.  

It was a fun group effort, though.  Next year, my SIL and I are combining our efforts.  We had 10 kilos of cookies on this farm (as if we need twenty pounds of cookies around our houses!!).

--excitement running high whilst we wait--

Last fun mention of the Christmas season was the homeschool play we hosted on the farm.  Months prior, I volunteered myself to write and direct the Christmas play.  (Insert:  what was I thinking??!!!?)  But when it was all said and done, the entire experience was a lot of fun.  Lots of work but lots of fun.  

One of the homeschool moms helped me direct the kids.  She was amazing!!

The kids did do-it-however-you-want face masks of a barn animal.  And we told the Christmas story from the perspective of the animals in the barn.  It was quite fun.  Lots of moo-ing and neigh-ing and cluck-ing going on that night!

All in all, December was a great month!  And we are excited about the start of 2016.  Hopefully, lots of fun stories to post in the upcoming months.

 

|| flexibility ||

I have to laugh at myself and one of the ways I have been forced to change over the past few years of marriage and living here.  That is: flexibility in cooking and baking!!

Back in the day, I wouldn't make a recipe if I didn't have the EXACT ingredients.  That gradually eased a bit before I was married.  But now, flexibility is my new middle name, whether or not I like it.  :)

We have a decent grocery store here in town and I shop there once a week.  But I go to the capital city once a month and there I pick up my extras.  Frozen peas, frozen corn, creamed soups, special condiments, frozen berries... to name a few.  

I rarely have sour cream (which I truly miss) but I just use farm cream and squeeze a bit of lemon in it or white vinegar if I need it to be sour.  I've made my own cottage cheese before in a pinch.  Sometimes, recipes don't taste as good as they would back home with the exact ingredients but I have found that usually, the plan works.  

Take that picture above.  Someone was coming for dinner.  (I think it was unexpected.)  I didn't even look at a recipe.  Made the crust.  Peeled the apples.  Sprinkled a bit of sugar, a squeeze of lemon, dotted with butter, oops!  forgot the cinnamon....and popped that baby into the oven.  

One thing that defines our life here is flexibility.  Plans change in the blink of an eye.  It is definitely not always easy but the more flexible a person is, the easier living here becomes.  :)

|| morning in the life of a toddler mom ||

[ morning porridge -- almost exactly the same as grits, if you grew up in the South ] 

Liesl is SO curious.

Our house is VERY small for an active one year old.

I'd love to follow Liesl around with a camera for even 15 minutes when she is on a rampage.  I promise you, it is a sight.  There are enough things in our house that are "no".  So, we allow her to make a mess -- empty the sock bin, pull the shoes off the rack, pull Papa's pants off the shelves, open her cupboard and pull out all her bottles.  And the VERY good thing is -- she's starting to learn to put away!!!  Woooooohoo!

[ see what I mean? ]

Every once in a while, a new thing will keep her fascinated.  This morning, it was a small bottle of baby lotion.  It kept her quiet and busy for over 15 minutes.  

I am so, so grateful for an active, healthy, busy, curious child.  Truly, I am.  When I think of some moms who have handicapped children -- their houses perfect and clean -- I'm sure their hearts wince with pain at the cleanness -- having a mess to clean up is a true blessing.

[ aaaaand....she still takes a good hours nap in the morning PLUS her afternoon nap -- big huge, mommy high-five there ]

[ mommy quiet time -- Chips Ahoy!!!!!!!!!  Chips Ahoy!  And loudly I cry, "Chiiiiiiiiiips. Ahoy." ]