Rest of the cookie pictures

Here are the rest of the pictures I promised.  If I don't post them now, I never will.  

It's times like this that I regret letting Parker wear a shirt that is too small, inside out, all day long and not brush her hair.  Oh well.

Cutting out cookies

A leftover ball of dough scraps that she played with off and on throughout the day.

Decorating the very special longhorn cookies for Bob.  He likes red hots on his Christmas cookies, so Parker was in charge of those.

I finally let her eat one.

Close up of the decorations.  I do the icing (my signature squiggle style), and Parker does the sprinkles.  You can't really tell but they have sparkly sugar on top in addition to the few bits of colored sprinkles that I allow.

Christmas eve in the kitchen

How to you fill the looooong day before Christmas?  Cooking and eating worked pretty well for me.  I started early this morning making cookie dough, then Parker and I cut them out and baked them.  She made it nearly all the say to the end before getting bored.  I have pictures of her helping...I'll put those in a different post.

After we iced cookies, it was time for a special fancy Christmas eve appetizer I've never tried to make before.  Shrimp Dumplings!  I had shrimp in the freezer, and the other ingredients on hand, so if these never got made, I was only out a couple bucks for the wonton wrappers.  They were great - just like at a restaurant.

Next it was time for pizza.  (I bought frozen dough). Parker had canadian bacon and onion and we had canadian bacon, onion, mushroom and pineapple mango salsa.

And now I'm going to SIT DOWN for the rest of the evening and help Parker track santa on the NORAD site.  

Christmas eve cookies

Parker is literally skipping in circles with excitement.

New Tradition - Elf on the shelf

In case you don't have little kids, or you live under a rock, there's a new thing sweeping the nation at Christmas time. Elf on a Shelf. I suppose this was a tradition in some families, and then some genius relized the opportunity for profit.  I knew about it last year and resisted, but this year I caved. Lots of Parker's friends were coming to school talking about where their elf was each morning.

It works like this:  This little elf sits up out of the way somewhere and reports back to Santa whether or not they've been good.  They aren't allowed to touch him or he loses his magic.  And somehow, magically, each night he changes locations.  Some elves in some homes are VERY creative and mischievous (waaaay to creative, in my opinion - just google "elf on the shelf ideas"...I guess some folks don't have enough to do during the holidays?!)....ours just basically hides, although one morning he tried to do a little fishing. 

So between this and her Playmobile advent calendar (pictures coming soon)....where she gets a little tiny toy that eventually makes a scene....she's super excited each morning and pops out of bed bright and early, instead of sleeping in.  Guess all that sort of backfired, but that's ok - at least she's waking up in a super cheerful mood and is semi-occupied for the first half hour of the morning.  

Now what someone needs to create is the summer vacation "advent" calendar.  A new toy each morning for 3 months.  Where do I sign up?  

Holy cow

A week ago, I suggested that Parker build a nativity out of her stuffed animals, and this is what she came up with.  

Polly the polar bear is Mary.  Bailey the waterdog is Joseph and DQ the cow is Baby Jesus.  

Also in attendance: Wylie the white cat: sheep.  Halloween cat: camel.  Pinky the lion and Rainbow the dog are shepherds.  Not sure if you can tell, but they have shepherds staffs made from pipe cleaners.  Foxy, Candy the bear from Canada and Melissa the bear: 3 Wise Men.

Duchess is the angel and also the narrator.  

Today's artwork: more ponies

Here's today's drawing....more ponies.  Full disclosure:  Twilight and Fluttershine are ponies that she sees on cartoons, they aren't made up, although decorating their hooves and adding horn might be.  So technically, I guess these are unicorns.

Zebra dress

Today's fashion pic: Lindsey the zebra wearing a sleeveless top, a skirt and a headband, all made from dryer sheets.