A Good Year

2011 has been kind to us. Let's take a jaunt down memory lane and relive the good year.

We got snowed in for a week!

Violet turned one.

We enjoyed our first overnight-sans-baby vacation.

Easter

I made the leap to the Kindle.

Mother's Day with all the moms.

Successful (though nerve-wracking) tear duct surgery.

Violet's first trip to the beach.

The joy of water.

Lukas and Danielle moved back Stateside.

Graduated to the kids' table.

Survived (and enjoyed) a July roadtrip to Ohio.

I started teaching first grade.

Pumpkin pickin'.

Halloween, farmer-style.

Christmas 2011

Looking forward to all God has in store for us in 2012!

What Santa Brought

Look what I got!

Trying out the new tricycle.

So happy!

And exhausted.

Holiday Unwrap

We've been busy getting our merry and bright on this Christmas, but I wanted to share some of the highlights now that we're finally back home (with all our decorations stowed carefully away until next year). This year we once again made our customary pilgrimage to our hometown to celebrate with our families. Conveniently, both sets of parents live about five minutes apart, so it makes it easy to spend lots of quality time with all parties involved.

Holiday cheer - "sweetened" egg nog.

The holiday feast awaits!

Once again we celebrated with my family on Christmas Eve. This tradition involves a feast of Swedish meatballs and Italian stuffed shells. We take in a candlelight service - this one happened to be led by my dad and involved an outdoor candlelight procession and singing Silent Night under the stars - beautiful. We open presents, although Violet's turn came before dinner as our merriment lasted well past bedtime.

Matt and my brother Lukas, agonizing over their fantasy football choices.

Violet phones it in.

Opening presents with Mimi.

Danielle with her gift card wreath - love this well-executed idea!

Bowling with my cousin Olivia, all the way from Sweden!

Christmas morning we were off to Matt's parent's house, where his brothers and the rest of the family was waiting. The other thing that was waiting - Violet's gift from Santa - a new tricycle! She loved it just as much as I hoped she would. She also had fun helping everyone else open their gifts. There was a nice mix of practical (clothes) and fun (a little keyboard shaped like a cat that makes meowing noises along with the traditional piano sounds... gee, thanks!) Although I'm seriously considering next year instituting the four gift rule I've been reading about lately - something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. Our Christmases are just an embarrassment of riches.

This is what we get if we ask Violet to close her eyes.

Silly times with cousin Brooke and Grandma.

Say "cheese!"

Checking out Grandma's new calendar starring Violet.

Violet explains the finer points of the Royal Wedding to her grandpa.

What I'm Reading

I got several new books for Christmas that I can't wait to start reading! (And a shout out to my brother-in-law Greg who was the only one brave enough to actually gift me some of the Kindle books I had on my wishlist this year - it might take a while for society to get used to giving digital gifts that can't be wrapped or opened, unless you count opening your email.)

Anyway, first up - Bossypants by Tina Fey. Finally! This book went on my wishlist ages ago and I was seriously sad when I thought I wasn't going to get it. Thanks, hubs! Tina Fey is an all-around hilarious woman, and this book had me snorting with laughter. It was also a fascinating look behind the scenes at SNL and 30 Rock. Plus Fey is honest about what it is like to be a woman in comedy, a woman in general, and a working mom. She's relatable without trying to pretend that her life is just like mine, because let's face it, it's not. Very funny.

Another book I can't wait to dive into just finished is by another funny female, Mindy Kaling of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (and Other Concerns). Kaling is hilarious on The Office and has a refreshing real-girl-I-could-actually-be-friends-with voice. I love that she's not afraid to admit that she loves her parents and loves hanging out with them. Not many 32-year-old famous Hollywood-types will cop to such things. She's also very open about the fact that she believes in love and marriage and family - things she can't wait to have. It seems like many women these days feel obligated to put marriage and family on hold so they can focus on careers and it's almost lame to think about marriage as a forever-commitment. Nice to know someone else out there holds the same values that I do. I really enjoyed reading this book, and it was a great follow-up to Bossypants.

It's obvious in reading both these books that Kaling and Fey were both destined to make it big. As a teenager, Fey was directing  summer community theatre and Kaling was busy writing scripts. It's not something they accidentally tried one day as a bored 20-something and just happened to be brilliant at. They already had more than average God-given talent and then worked hard at it for years. It brings to mind the theory of success put forth in the brilliant Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell  - some people have a head start at making it big. That's another must-read book, if you're looking for recommendations.

The other thing I've been thinking about a lot is my New Year's Resolution for 2012 and here it is: (you'll see why it fits with the title of this post in a second): I'm going to reread and consecutively watch all the Harry Potter books/movies. Sure I've read them all before, but with long gaps inbetween the books. I've never sat down to read them all back to back. Other book series I want to reread like this include The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings (wow, I'm really flying my geek flag now), but those will have to wait until I get this HP goal under my belt. My bother is currently going through the series as well, so perhaps we can have some viewing parties together.

Now, I know this isn't the loftiest of resolutions. We'll call it my yearly reading resolution. I should also probably make a few more, like "floss daily" and the obligatory "exercise more". But I think it's a fun one and just challenging enough given my busy life that I'll feel accomplished if once it's completed.

So what about ya'll? Any good books on your reading list? Any resolutions you want to share?

It's That Time of Year

It's that time of year again when I start thinking about resolutions. What do I want to change in my life? What do I want to do differently? I love making New Year's Resolutions, partly because I'm a list girl and we're talking about the ultimate list. Plus a new year is so fresh and clean, full of promise. I can't help but dream big and make plans for the best year yet!

Last year I had good intentions for my resolutions. Matt and I were going to start going to church. Regularly. And join one. And become part of a community, build a little family of fellow believers that we could share with belong to, people who could support us as we grow into our new family.

Well, we all know how that turned out. We found a church, liked it, tried the nursery, hated it, and gradually the whole thing went bust. Fail.

But then, come fall, we wandered over to our neighbor's house for a small group. And found some nice people. Lovely people. People who have prayed for me (continually... I pretty much have a standing reservation of the prayer list), accepted us, surrounded us. And without really planning to, we found our community. And as I think about it, I realize that on all our visits to the big box church, we never met anyone. We never formed any friendships or felt like we belonged, which was the whole point anyway. So while we might have technically failed at finding the big building and jamming worship band, I'm going to count this year's resolution a success. One that continues to grow.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you much joy this Christmas season - may the light of Christ's love illuminate your lives this new year. Amen and Amen!

Staying Home

My sweetness.

As excited as I was to start the Christmas break and take a much-needed mental siesta from thinking about school, knowing I was about to become a stay at home mom again, if only for two weeks, had me filled with just a wee bit of apprehension. Staying at home is hard, ya'll.

But the good news is, things have been awesome. Violet has been so sweet running errands with me, provided there are enough snacks in the car. She's napping like a champ, allowing me an afternoon cup of coffee with my feet up. She is playing independently, even if it means dragging toys into the bathroom so she can keep me company while I shower.

One of the big pitfalls I've been determined to avoid is the tv trap. Violet doesn't watch too much tv during week. There are none at daycare, and we're too busy with dinner and bath and bed in the evenings to turn it on. Weekends are another story. Usually she gets to eat lunch at her little table while Sesame Street is on. No biggie, it happens, it's just on weekends, I'm not too worried. But knowing we'd be home for two weeks over the break, I wanted to make sure I didn't start building any habits. And here's the real problem... I want to watch tv! Which means Violet watches what I watch. So turning it off for her also means depriving myself of all the shows I've been saving up on the DVR. Ah, the sacrifices we make. The good news is, the tv has stayed off for the most part. I've been squeezing in my holiday movies (it wouldn't be Christmas without Love Actually) in the evenings after Violet goes to sleep. And it hasn't really been too difficult.

It's amazing how media conscious today's children are. No screen time is recommended until children are two years old, but we blew that out of the water so fast it's not even funny. The girl knows my phone holds home movies and she demands to watch herself go down the slide whenever she catches sight of the device. She'll probably have her own cell phone by the time she's three. And did you know they make iPad-style tablets for kids that are just as expensive as the adult versions. Ridiculous! But there's no stopping progress, I guess. Still, Santa will be bringing Violet a nice, old-fashioned, non-electronic toy this year - perhaps the last year we can get away with it!

Daddy at Work

One of the often heard phrases around our house is "Daddy at work." Violet says it in the car as I drive her to daycare. She says it all day long at school, apparently. And she reminds me as we drive home in the afternoon. Daddy at work.

So the start of our winter break gave us the perfect opportunity to go visit Daddy at work.

First Violet wanted to draw a picture for Daddy. She's getting quite good at scribbling. At least she doesn't try to eat the crayons that much anymore, although she managed to wad her masterpiece into a crumpled ball in the car on our way.

Striking a pose for the camera.

After running around town on a morning of errands (during which Violet really behaved herself - I was so glad!) it was finally time to head to Matt's office for our lunch date. Once we got there, my usual chatterbox decided to play shy and refuse to talk to anyone - she's funny like that.  It was probably a good thing too. Amidst the quiet hum of cubicle-land, the high-pitched squeal of an almost-2-year-old really stands out! But Violet still managed to charm all Matt's coworkers.

Helping Daddy with his filing.

Daddy at work... with Violet!

Violet Did It!

I do still have a daughter, though she's been rather absent on this blog... Apologies. She's still as precious as ever. Here she is having some independent play time. I found her doing puzzles and eating her healthy snack of apple pieces in the playroom and snuck a picture before she noticed. She is getting much better at doing her own thing (probably because she gets bored of me splayed out on the couch with absolutely no energy to entertain her).

Some of her favorite sayings right now include:

I help, mama! I help!

Violet did it!

No mama!

I don't know!? (This one cracks me up every time.)

Oh no Daddy-o!

And yes, everything she says generally ends with an exclamation point. You can just hear it.

Yellowstone Gingersnaps

When Matt and I visited Yellowstone in the summer of 2009, we stayed at a little bed and breakfast called Headwaters of the Yellowstone. The owners were awesome, everything you would want from B&B proprietors. The husband is a park ranger, the wife grew up in the park (we're talking, lived deep in the park where they got snowed in three months of the year) and had all sorts of stories to tell and knowledge to impart. But while the accommodations were great, the breakfast half of the B&B was the real star of the show. Charissa can cook! And man did we eat! (It turns out that I was a couple weeks pregnant with Violet and didn't know it - those breakfasts still live on in our memories!) And fortunately for those of you who can't get out to Yellowstone just yet, she also shares some of her most popular recipes on her blog, including the one for gingersnaps.

The recipe makes a ton, but that's okay by us. We whipped up a batch of dough this past weekend, some to make immediately and the rest to freeze for a rainy day. I screwed up initially by forgetting to cream the sugar and butter together (I added the sugar in with the dry ingredients, forgetting that when baking, sugar is actually considered a wet ingredient. Silly me. Oh well, at least flour is cheap.)  I got things back under control though. If you do decide to make these, I definitely recommend chilling the dough before forming the cookies - it is much easier to handle after a dip in the refrigerator. And a cookie scoop will speed up the process. We broke ours on this recipe the last time we made it, so I just used my old-fashioned fingers, which worked fine, just took a little longer.

Right away we remembered why we dig these gingersnaps so much. I love seeing the way the sugar-dipped tops get all cracked and toasted, and the hint of black pepper gives these 'snaps just the right bite. Definitely check out the recipe if you're looking for another holiday cookie to add to your arsenal.

Dipped in sugar, ready for the oven.

Fresh out of the oven.

Sugar and spice and everything nice.

Black and White

One of my favorites - caught in the moment.