Over the past week if you had been at our house you would have experienced dough people baking and bake fest 2012. Whew.  We also did our gingerbread house which thankfully required no baking, but smelled as if it was freshly baked!  Here are some pictures from our baking adventures!

lest you think it was all dreamy, take a look at my zopf loaf this yr! Terrible without those Swiss girls here to help me!

Oh me oh my!  Thankfully, Bake fest 2012 was more successful!

Bake fest 2012

Gingerbread house

there might have been a wall collapse

Thanks, Grandma for the gingerbread house! The boys loved working on it together! We’ve never had such a fancy kit!

Hey folks! Things are pretty jolly around here. I did the baked goods for my friends big vendor sale yesterday! None of us sold much but we met lots of sweet gals and had a great time. In lieu of baking up another storm of baked goods for neighbor  gifts I got home last night, made up baskets for neighbors and friends and we went out on a little family delivery drive.  I was worn out! I was disappointed to not sell like I did at the Embassy sales but glad that I can skip the other baking day!   Seth was a rock star this weekend while I baked and was at the sale. I came home to relaxed happy boys last night after an afternoon with daddy. Did I mention he did tons of dishes, helped with meals and even was talked into some taste-testing. What a guy.

Last week I was doing my yearly search on what fun advent gifty things people are doing. I love our open the window advent calendar and our evening devotionals. We will keep those from yr to yr but some year when I have oodles of time and a little extra cash I want to do something like this for the kids with bags containing little notes and sweets…

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Aren’t they cute?!

I found this recipe for Winter Minestrone (Barefoot Contessa) while I was pintresting advent stuff. It is a rainy chilly day here so we are snuggling down for afternoon naps and when we wake up I will make this soup and we’ll decorate our gingerbread house. Seth confessed he doesn’t have the patience to survive another gingerbread house project so we will surprise him with our finished product and frazzled nerves!

We are soaking up the holiday season around here and attempting to slow down in the midst of the bustle. This week has been far from slow and I am feeling the effects. There have certainly been moments of calm and lots of memory making moments, but also tough times thrown in.

We decorated the Christmas tree on Saturday and curled up Sat night for a homemade pizza/family movie night.  We watched The Polar Express.  It was a big hit! Seth and I saw it in 3D 8 yrs ago when we started dating. 3D would have been way too much for the boys but the regular version was great!

On Sunday night we spent the evening worshiping with our friends Tim and Susan and their children at Floris United Methodist Church. We made an advent log with candles to light each week. Seth and I have always wanted to do advent activities as a family but somehow it typically gets lost in the shuffle. This year we are trying to do a family devotional in the evenings at dinner time. The boys are enjoying lighting the candle and listening to the story.

On Monday we  met up with Owen’s new friend from Sunday school. A few weeks ago the SS teacher reported that Owen was attracted to JT and spent lots of time interacting with him. JT has cerebral palsy so it takes a little bit longer to say what he wants to say but Owen doesn’t mind a bit. He waits JT out until he gets the answer he wants. And if he thinks JT isn’t listening he just gets in close until his buddy gives him a big smile and responds. Owen loves interacting with him and they have become great buddies. We met he and his mom and siblings at Frying Pan park for the boys to have a play date.   Many of my hours each day are spent disciplining and getting after Owen for not being gentle and kind. This play date kind of rocked my world and gave me a glimpse into this sensitive, gentle side of Owen.

And today was the big cast cut off day, for the big red cast that is!   Jackson was delighted until he learned he can’t do recess or sports until the end of Jan!  It will be an interesting 6 weeks of continued carefulness. Testing us all.  Pray for patience!!  I realized I haven’t even written yet about the second break but to be honest I am so not enjoying this part of life write now so I may just avoid the whole topic a while longer.  I never knew what the impact would be of Jackson being so limited in activity. But back to the good stuff…

his arm is so scrawny and stinky!  My mom wanted me to use the word “scrawny” again so I could spell is correctly this time. He’s bending his wrist funny in the above picture…I promise he doesn’t still have a bent arm.  It is sore and he is not quite sure how to use it again but I am guessing a few days from now he will forget and be using it normally.

I was going to title this post “our week in pics” but I was a bit shocked to discover it’s only Wed and I have spared you lots of our week!!  Tomorrow is St. Nicholas day and I am thinking about making the little bread boys like we did with Daniela last year!  I will try to hop back on and share some pictures if we get around to baking!

Happy Thursday y’all!

After our very eventful week last week we have had a relatively “normal” week this week.

The big news of the week is…

…the Halloween candy jar is down to the tootsie rolls and almond joys. So, so sad. But it’s for the better. It’s buckeye season for the Seckinger’s so there really isn’t room for Halloween candy temptations any more.

…we are getting excited (when I say “we” I mean me and the boys, and more likely just “I”) to pick out a tree this weekend and get the house nice and festive. I have started messing with the mantel but the chimney is getting doctored again today to replace the smoke chamber or something like that, so all of that will be taken down. This house is cozy and doesn’t have tons of decorating space so it will pretty much be the tree and the mantel that get the sprucing.

…baths with 2 casts are tricky. And frustrating. And not so enjoyable. You get the idea! Counting down to 1 cast! Can’t even fathom life with none so we will anticipate just 1!

…my brother and sister-in-law met the Young House Love bloggers….that is big news! Very cool!

…my parents now have plane tickets so they are for sure coming for Christmas. Makes putting the tree up that much more fun knowing they will be here to celebrate with us!

…I am gearing up for a bake sale next weekend. Most of the work won’t be done until the day before but I am gathering pretty packaging and trying to narrow down the list of what I want to make.

…we kept gifts simple this year as I mentioned previously and I am struggling a bit with it. Gift giving is my love language and when I have to be so careful about it it kind of takes the joy out of it for me. I know that sounds lame and I am working through it but just being honest.  I know that there is so much more to life than giving gifts, and I know that truly no one needs my gifts, but I love giving them. I love surprising a friend with a coffee or a card, dropping  off meals to families going through tough times, surprising Seth with a date night. Maybe some day I will have some great wisdom to share on the topic of frugal giving but today I am still wrestling with it.

…Tomorrow I am taking a day trip to Wilmington, DE to see a dear friend from Bogota! Can’t wait to catch up with her in person.

…basketball practice starts for our 2 cast wonder tomorrow. Will be very interesting.

Hope you have all had a lovely week!

What are you doing to prepare for the holidays?  And what’s at the bottom of your halloween stash?!