Preparing for the holidays

We've been busy in the kitchen preparing holiday treats.  It's fun to do cute projects now that the kids get a kick out of them.  I made Pear Bear (in my case, Apple Bear) muffins from an idea in a Publix magazine and also had fun making some Turkey Cookies for Thanksgiving.

 I've got some good little helpers too!(Making breakfast one morning, everyone needed a turn with the wisk - some with Cheerios, others with eggs)

After a cold morning walk (Josh, Brielle, and our friend Jude all began crying as soon as the strollers turned around heading into the wind), we NEEDED a hot chocolate picnic to warm us up!

We've also been busy around the house putting up and enjoying our Christmas decorations.  We have an extra pretty (and large) Christmas tree this year.  We were in Tally when Papa and Gigi set up their tree.  As soon as Josh woke up from his nap and found the tree, he kept asking where the Christmas Star was for the top.  At first, we couldn't figure out how he knew there should be a star on top, it's not like he remembers last year, but then we realized it was from a Word World episode we'd watched weeks earlier about the holidays.  Good thing our tree topper at home is a star and not an angel or we'd be in trouble.  He was seriously, almost obsessively, concerned about it.  (Papa and Gigi's star never did turn up, so Papa got sent out on a special mission the day we arrived in Tally for Kuder Christmas to ensure that there was a star on top by the time Joshy arrived...good thing too.  He definitely noticed!)

I just realized how great the kids have been with the tree this year.  Last year, we considered not even putting one up because we couldn't imagine them not bothering it all the time (we did put one up, but carefully placed all breakable ornaments).  This year, Brielle touched some ornaments the first day, but I only had to discipline her once to get the message across and since then it hasn't been an issue at all. Yay!

I also had a little bit of fun getting my "crafty" on by making some handprint Christmas tree tshirts with some girlfriends.