Advent Chain Day 24--Go Downtown and visit the Market

We have a wonderful, old Market in the city where we live. The hustle and bustle is always exciting, but especially so at Christmas. Growing up, we used to always go down here so that Papa could get the fixins' for Christmas dinner (and just who do you think we ran into this morning while we were down there?! Yep, Papa and Lollie.) While we only had a few things to pick up, it was still fun looking at all of the stalls, watching the people and eyeing up the goodies.

Still the best way to travel!

Wandering around the stalls.

Advent Chain Day 23--Make birthday cupcakes for Jesus

Today's activity was to make birthday cupcakes for Jesus. Wouldn't you know it, I ran out of muffin liners and so had to improvise...mini-loaf cakes. I'm sure Jesus won't mind. It has been that kind of baking season. I'll think I have enough flour, only to realize half-way through, that nope, I don't. Out to the store to get more...ditto for butter. We had to ration out eggs this morning so that I could finish everything up and almost had another "scare" with flour (Uncle S and Aunt C are coming over to make dumplings), but then decided to save the white and use the whole wheat for our Christmas morning Kugelhoff (coffeecake) so the scare was averted. The sad thing is, is that I make (and stick) to a grocery list when I go shopping. I even bought more than I thought I'd need. Guess I just underestimated!

Using up the last of the liners.


Red velvet cupcakes with white buttercream frosting.

There is still quite a bit of wrapping and last minute odds and ends left to do, but thankfully Auntie and Uncle are coming over early to play with the Noodle, thus freeing me to finish up. Thank you so much!!!!!!

Advent Chain Day 22-Watch a Christmas movie as a family

One of the gifts the Noodle got yesterday from Auntie and Uncle was a L*ttle P*ople's Christmas CD with a DVD included. At 26 minutes long, it is the PERFECT length. We all put on our jammies tonight and cued up the TV to watch the show. Very cozy.


***See how the Noodle's face is a bit shimmery? That is because her face gets so dry yet she REFUSES to wear lotion. For some reason though, she'll let herself be slathered in V*soline. Yuck, but at least it helps with the dry skin.

The Birthday Girl and her party

Happy, happy birthday to my dear, sweet Noodle! What a fun way to celebrate--surrounded by family (too bad Papa was still in Asia--we miss you!!). Auntie C and Uncle S flew in late last night and so we went over to wake them up this morning. We of course had been up for hours (5:45 a.m. to be exact) and so were quite excited to see them when we arrived at 10. Too bad they were still in bed!! Never fear, the little, live alarm clock made sure they were up once we walked in (standing at the foot of the stairs calling "Uncle, get up! Auntie, wake up now!").

After lunch, everyone departed to take naps and get ready for the party. Lollie, Aunt C, Uncle S, Grandma and Grandpa arrived at 5:15 for some tasty Chinese food and rice (personally requested by the Chinese Noodle), Elmo cupcakes and of course presents.

As always on her birthday, I am reminded that for as much as it is a celebration, it is also a time of mourning, especially for her birthparents. We can never begin to imagine what it took for them to make the choices that they did, but we thank God that they made their plan and left her at the orphanage. He has kept her in the palm of His hand from the beginning and knew that we were all meant to be together. Tonight, on the longest night of the year, we say a prayer for the Noodle's Chinese mommy and daddy and ask that they feel peace, assurance that she is loved, safe and happy and freedom from any kind of guilt that they may harbor. We also give a prayer of thanksgiving and praise that she is part of our family and that God's plan is so beautiful.

Advent Chain Day 21--Make reindeer food

Following the recipe.
A sprinkle here and a dash there.
I hope the reindeer are hungry!

While everyone knows to leave Santa cookies and milk on Christmas Eve, you have to wonder about those poor reindeer! They've got a lot of work to do, pulling that sleigh with all those presents. We can't forget them now can we? We made some reindeer food and added some red and green sugar sprinkles, to make sure that they can find their way to our house this Christmas. Don't want to take any chances.

Advent Chain Day 20--Go to a Christmas concert

Friends of ours heard that a local church was putting on a Christmas concert showcasing various high school students (both vocal and instrumental) and that it was geared towards kids. Perfect, we thought. The concert was very nice, and just the right amount of time for kiddos (40 minutes), but there weren't that many young children there. Even though the Noodle and her little friend did well, you still feel like every laugh, comment, squeal, etc. is magnified 1,000 times. Eeek! Afterwards we ate at a local pizza place where it didn't matter how active or vocal they were. A glass of wine for the mommies and some Christmas ale for the daddies and all was right with the world again.

The musicians tuning up before the concert began. By the time it started, the church was pretty full.

Sweet little ones.

Advent Chain Day 19--Bake and decorate cut-out cookies

Yum...nothing like the smell (and taste) of sugar cut-out cookies. I can't remember decorating with the Noodle last year--J seems to think that we must have just bi-passed her "help" and did it after hours. This year she was all ready to spread, sprinkle, embellish and of course taste. Before we started, I found her eyeing, quite literally, the cookies. I can only imagine what was going through that little head. Ha ha!! Her preferred decorating style was the "dump"; as in I'll take the sprinkles and dump all of them onto one cookie. Not quite Martha Stewart, but definitely tasty! It was determined early on that the adults would man the frosting and she could do the sprinkles. Now, if we can only come down off of the sugar high!


This is the classic "dump" method of decorating.
The not so gentle reminder to sprinkle onto the cookies, not just the cookie sheet!

Hard at work.......

Yummy!