Yummy Holiday Food!

I was our original blog editor but I haven't posted for a really long time.  You've already seen pictures of some of our holiday fun but what you haven't seen is the food that made us fat(er) this holiday.  We made Gnocchi's and Honey Taffy. Gnocchi are these small potato pasta noodles that I remember from my mission (Paraguay).  The Paraguayan's got the food from their neighbors in Argentina (where my sister Ann served) so it's now become an annual tradition when she comes to visit. The noodles are really cool - a mixture of potato and flour rolled into a ball and then shaped over a fork or a special grooved wooden Gnocchi tool. It's a ton of work but they are really yummy served with a tomato sauce - also from Argentina. Here are some pictures from the fun.

Growing up we also made Honey Taffy so now its also become a favorite with the kids.  Basically you combine honey sugar and some other stuff - cook it until its super hot, and then stretch it with your fingers - YIKES - until its cool and airy. Hmmm - we love the holiday food.

I need a new camera!

So Steve and I are investigating cameras.  Any suggestions?  Anybody have a camera that they have really liked?  We are looking into DSLR's and "point and shoots."  My blog posts are going to be really boring if we don't get one soon...:)

I just have to show off these awesome pictures that Melissa drew for the kids.  This was her Christmas present to them, and they love them.  We loved having Melissa here!  She is a very talented young lady, and really has a fun personality.  The kids loved playing with her, and Spencer loved the help she gave him with his artwork.  It makes me very grateful for the examples that so many of their cousins are to them!  (By the way, look for the kids names in each frog.)   

Christmas Vacation part 1

I'm back!  Mom called and told me I need to update my blog, so here I am!  We had a wonderful two weeks of Holiday vacation, family and just down-time.  It has been very nice, and sadly, comes to an end tonight as we anticipate going back to regular schedules of school and work.  After several weeks of 16-hour days for Steve, it was nice to have him home and all to ourselves.  Our camera broke on Christmas Eve (nice timing, eh?).  But thankfully we had family coming into town, so we had our very own family photographer for Christmas.  So here are some of our Christmas memories for 2008...

Christmas Eve included playing in the snow, eating pizza, watching "The Santa Claus 2", and  acting out the nativity.  Sydney was Mary, of course, who rode the donkey (me) into Bethlehem but didn't want to get off when she got there.  Mary also had  the wise men a little disgruntled because she wouldn't stay around when they were trying to present their gifts to the baby Jesus.  The kids then decorated cookies for Santa.  Unfortunately, due to the broken camera, this is the only picture I have of Christmas Eve, but it's a good one.  This is Tyler's note to Santa...

At about 11:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve we had visitors arrive!  Steve's sister Julie, her husband Rich and daughter Melissa, and Ann and Jay!  We feel so lucky that they would fly all the way out here, in the snowy weather on Christmas Eve to be with us!  What a blast!  So, thanks to Rich and Ann for all of the great pictures!  How sad we would be without them!  

Christmas morning brought very excited children (not only did Santa come, but lots of fun visitors as well!)  it also brought excited parents, for the children slept until 7:30!!! (Except for Tyler who came in at 3:30 wondering if it was time to go down and see what Santa brought...thankfully he went back to bed!)

Sydney was trying to figure out what was going on, where did all of these people come from, and what about all the new toys!  Santa brought her a kitchen, she seemed to be in shock for quite some time, look at the expression on her face!

Steve made his traditional Cinnamon rolls and Melissa was happy to help.

Uncle Jay is a favorite among nieces and nephews, here he is (though you can't actually see him in these pictures) helping Sam and Sydney with their tops. 

Eagerly awaiting the opening of the Santa gifts...

I love the excitement on Sam's face, and the air that Tyler caught in the next picture.  We have another picture similar to this from last year.  Tyler gets really excited for everyone at Christmastime.

Here is Julie, Melissa and Ann... again, what a treat for us to have them here.
Tyler enjoying one of Dad's gigantic cinnamon rolls (they were huge this year!!)

We spent much of Christmas building with Legos as this is all any of the boys wanted.  Here are the completed projects.
More to come from our Christmas vacation later (aren't you so excited!)...