Eventful Christmas Break

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas Day. We had so much fun watching the kids and grandparents opening presents and just being together Christmas day that we didn't get around to taking many pictures at all. The pictures we did take didn't allow you to see the gifts received or the kids enjoying their gifts. Go figure! Jason did, however, capture quite a bit of video during the gift opening.

This year, Santa left us colorful foil wrapped chocolate ornaments hung on our tree. Ella quickly discovered this before ever turning to gifts. I don't know if the other two ever did catch onto what Ella had discovered. It was quite comical and messy to say the least. There were chocolate crumbs all over our rug and hardwood floors and Ella, of course. I didn't care, though, she was completely enjoying herself. Who am I to take candy from a baby on Christmas. Later that day while I was napping, Jason came running into our bedroom, angry and frantic, to tell me that he needed me right then. The Christmas tree had somehow toppled over and there was water and glass from broken ornaments on the floor. At least he got a small taste of what my days are like. This isn't much different than a normal day for me and our household. I just had to laugh at him for being so uptight. Now he understood, somewhat how I feel.

Our true excitement began at 4:20am Friday morning as Jason and I headed to St. Vincent's Hospital with Kelsey in tow. Beginning at 7:00am, she was wheeled back to surgery to say goodbye to her tonsils and adenoids. We've been warned by the doctor and many friends that this would be a rough 10 days, but I have to say that she's been quite the trooper. She did get sick in the car on the ride home from the hospital Friday morning, but we were prepared with 2 sacks. Within 2 hours, she was requesting mac & cheese. We were sent home on an all liquid diet for the first 24 hours, but her persistence and ability to keep down liquids led me to believe that she could tolerate the food. I was correct. She did well and we couldn't stop her from eating most of the day. Her diet right now consists mainly of pudding, popsicles, homemade mac & cheese (her favorite), ice cream, juice and applesauce. We're on day 3 and she's doing great!

We had more excitement today, though!. Jason took Cole and Ella to church. After church they came home and ate lunch. Jason and Cole changed clothes and headed out to Oak Mountain State Park to do some hiking. What they thought would be a nice 2-3 hour hike, turned into a 6 hour visit away from home. Apparently they hiked up the mountain to a small waterfall/creek. They were crossing the creek when Cole slipped on a slippery wet rock and gashed his leg open which required a visit to the Children's Hospital After Hours Clinic. Seven stitches later, he's home and proud to be the owner of those stitches.

I don't know if I can handle much more excitement right now. I'm having a hard time just keeping medications straight. Ella's recovering from a double ear infection requiring one dose of antibiotic a day which will thankfully end tomorrow. Kelsey is having to take her pain medication every 4 hours and an antibiotic twice a day, and now Cole is on Tylenol every 4 hours for pain until his leg begins healing which should be in about 2 days and requires a dressing change twice a day. In a perfect world, all of the medication would be taken simultaneously. However, we DO NOT live in a perfect world. Needless to say I'm tired of writing down when everyone receives their medication just so I don't get anymore confused than I already am. Just 2 days ago, Cole told me that his throat was hurting as I was preparing Ella's dose of medication. I proceeded to give Cole the antibiotic without even thinking about what I was doing. When I did realize my mistake, Cole quickly spit out the medication as I and my mom laughed hysterically.

I know my life will return to normal someday, I'm just not sure if I'll understand what normal is by that point. I wish everyone an uneventful and wonderful new year. We're leaving this year on a bang in the Dickerson household. I hope that you don't have to. Enjoy your holidays with your loved ones. God bless all of you.

Cookie Swap

I've been invited to my Sunday School's annual cookie swap. We did this last year and had such a good time. For those of you who know me well, you know that I love to bake and try new recipes. Our swap is in 2 days, so I've been busy today trying out a new cookie recipe. I'm going to share the recipe with you, too. If you love almond flavored goodies, then you will love, love, LOVE these.

Almond Glazed Sugar Cookies

Cookie:

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp almond extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp almond extract

4-5 tsp water

Sliced almonds

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine first three cookie ingredients in large mixer bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (1-2 minutes). Reduce speed to low; add all remaining cookie ingredients. Beat until well mixed.

Roll dough into 1" balls. Place 2" apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten balls to 1/4" thickness with bottom of buttered glass dipped in sugar. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely.

Stir together all glaze ingredients except almonds with wire whisk in small bowl. Decorate cooled cookies with glaze and sliced almonds. Makes 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I have. If it weren't for the cookie swap, I'd probably gobble these up all by myself. I'm glad for the cookie swap:)

Daisy Christmas Party

Last night was Kelsey's Daisy Christmas Party. For those of you who don't know, Daisies are the beginning level of girl scouts. This is Kelsey's first year and if she continues, she will be a daisy next year, also, followed by brownies. The girls started their evening by eating dinner that was provided by all the moms. Following dinner, they made bead necklaces using the color of beads to match the daisy petals that they are working towards. Once they finished their craft, they had a gift exchange. Each parent was to provide a $5 gift. The girls each drew a number and picked out a gift in the order in which they drew. Kelsey was #14. There were a total of 15 girls and siblings there, so she was a little bummed about being so near to the end, but was pleased with her gift. I didn't get any pictures of them crafting, but here are some of the gift exchange.

I should mention that I had my other two with me as well. Cole loves crafts and was not about to be left out of the necklace making. I should have taken pictures. He compensated it with the fact that he made a necklace out of Auburn colors (blue/orange). However, he had put the necklace on and then was having trouble taking it off. I started laughing at him and saying that he would regret having made a necklace at a little girls party because it looked like he was going to be wearing it to school the next day. He got a little upset with me (in a fun way) and proved me wrong. As he was struggling to get the necklace off, it broke and beads went flying all over the room. All the moms were laughing, and one said "I told you they were the wrong colors." She was obviously an Alabama fan. It certainly made for an enjoyable evening. I have to mention that Cole was the only boy there, with the exception of two dads. They were not making necklaces!

Decorating the Tree

Well, we finally manged to get our Christmas tree up. Usually we do this the week following Thanksgiving, but this year we procrastinated a little. In the past few years, we've put up 2 trees. One in the living room and one in the dining room. The one in the living room contained all of the old ornaments, as well as the handmade ornaments from our children and relatives. The tree in the dining room held the glass pastel ornaments with silver ribbon draped over the tree. However, since we have a 1 1/2 year old running through the house, now, we only have one tree up in the dining room and it is protected by baby gates.

I must confess that I don't enjoy decorating the Christmas tree. I know it should be an exciting and memorable experience, but for some reason I just dread doing this. I either want to do it all myself (control-freak!!!), or sit back and watch someone else do it for me. This year, I got to do the latter. We let the kids decorate the tree with a combination of ornaments and the only help we gave them was for the ones they wanted to place up high and, of course, help for Ella to put her ornaments on. The tree isn't magnificent by any means, but all the more beautiful because my kids did it by themselves.

We took the kids last night to see Santa. We weren't sure of the reaction we'd get from Ella, but I think the pictures speak volumes! In the past, we would have to wait in line anywhere from 1-2 hours to see Santa. The past two years, we've been issued a pager, much like the ones restaurants hand out while your waiting to be seated. This enabled us to walk through the mall, do a little window shopping and even eat dinner. This year we were completely surprised by how short the line was and how fast it moved. When we arrived, there were maybe 7 families in front of us. Within 10 minutes, our kids were on Santa's lap getting their picture made and telling him what they want for Christmas. Of course, Ella's Christmas wish was to get as far away from Santa as possible (LOL)! I know it seems cruel to put a child through this when they are so scared of him, but the pictures are so much fun to look back on.

recipeassistant

Welcome to my blog. This is my first time to try this, and I'm not very computer savvy, so I hope that I can keep up with the rest of my friends and family who are running blogs. I'll try to keep it updated often, but I won't make any promises.

I wanted to share with all of you my son's accomplishment today. He won his class spelling bee which means that he will be representing his class in the school-wide spelling bee in January. This will be his 2nd year to do so. I can't tell ya'll how proud we are of him.

We are anxiously awaiting Christmas this year. We hope to go see Santa tonight and I will try to post any pictures that I might get with my camera. It will be very interesting to see how Ella does with the whole Santa thing.