Christmas Cookies

Since we cut our trees a little early this year, it meant we had some extra time to bake cookies after Thanksgiving. So Auntie Erin came with all of Ellyn's recipes and supplies and we spent the next two days after Thanksgiving running a cookie shop out of our kitchen.  HAHA!  Not quite, but close!

We made Peanut Butter Blossoms (my personal favorite), Pepperkakers (Ryan's favorite), Molasses cookies (more of my favorites) and of course, Ellyn's sought after sugar cookies.  Guys - we literally mixed, rolled, cut, frosted and sugared for two days straight!

It was fun to let the girls get in on the action and help with the cut out cookies and decorating.  They sifted, the measured, they read the recipes to us, helped roll the dough, cut out the shapes and helped us inventory what shapes we needed more of.

The first day we spent making all the dough and getting the sugar cookies rolled, cut and baked.  Day two was primarily decorating and then Erin spent another few hour rolling and baking the Pepperkakers while we went to a birthday party with the kids.  It was a full weekend affair and it certainly took all of us to make them happen!

But, guys, they are so pretty and so festive and so YUMMY!  So, get ready, if you're seeing us in the next few weeks, we'll probably have some cookies to share.  Get excited!  The holidays are almost here...it's the best time of the year!

Cookies - made possible by Christmas music and football.  Oh, and wine!  Of course there was wine.

Gingerbread houses

Tradition!  It's one thing we're really good at....and these Gingerbread houses with the kids after Thanksgiving is one of the many traditions we're still holding onto. 

This year was the first year we had all four kiddos doing them...last year we figured Lincoln was too little to care.  So, we needed all adults on deck to help with the frosting, unwrapping of candy and general management of the project.

They all tried to do their own frosting (see above) but their little hand are just not strong enough to squeeze the frosting out in any manageable way....but, maybe next year!  I think the bigger girls are getting pretty close to being able to do it alone.

Aren't my niece and nephew just the curtest dang things!  Lincoln is now sporting the cutest little glasses - new just the day before we took these pictures.

Christmas Tree Cutting

This year Thanksgiving was late (Feb 28) so it really felt like Thanksmas this year - a mix of both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And, the fact that we were all together for the football game the weekend before Thanksgiving confused us all even more...then add in the fact that we cut our tree a week early and we were ALL confused about what holiday it was and what we were celebrating.  I've always been pretty strict about no Christmas music or decor before Thanksgiving (we have to give each holiday it's space and celebrate it for it's own!)...but not this year!

Since we were cutting on a weekend we don't typically go, I made DOUBLE sure to check our normal tree farm to be sure they were open.  I checked months ago!  Well, good thing someone suggested we check what time they open the next day because Saturday evening I found out that our tree farm wasn't even open that weekend...so, we had to come up with a plan B.  And it didn't disappoint! 

For the past 5 years or so we've cut our trees in Woodstock at Oney's tree farm.  But, in the last two years or so we've felt like there were less and less trees to chose from, and more and more people to content with.  I'm sure the fact that we went a week earlier than most played into our experience but we felt like Williams Tree Farm was HUGE and the tree selection was great.  I wish we could have found some fatter trees - next year we'll ask....but, we think we might have found our new tree farm for Christmas memories to come!

The kids held up pretty good with all the walking and tree hunting this year.  Especially given the day before we dragged them along to a football game for the majority of the day.  The weather was great, warmish and sunny.  The place wasn't crowded and we all found trees we loved.  Oh!  And my wreath!  I finally found a wreath that fills our giant chimney perfectly.  I love love love the way our fireplace and mantle looks this time of year (try to ignore the dog bog, kid blanket and Home Depot bucket)....and this wreath fits the space perfectly!

Up next, FULL ON Christmas prep in the McGrath household.  We have 22 days and counting!

Wisconsin/Perdue Football

A few weeks back we took the girls to their first football game.  Actually, it was a two-fer.  Their first football game and their first tailgating.  When we decided to pull the trigger on a mid-November game we knew the weather would have a lot of influence on the type of day we had.  Boy did we luck out!  You can see from the pictures that it was sunny and the temperatures were in the high 30's. 
 

The game was the last home game before the end of the regular season and since Wisconsin has been doing really well this year, the didn't release the game time until a week prior.  We were crossing our fingers that it would be early (the kids tolerance for a game would be a LOT less at 7pm at night).  We lucked out a second time and the game was set for 3 so we decided to try tailgating knowing it would give the kids a chance to run around, go in the car if they got cold, have some snacks and us adults could hang out and chat. 

The game was actually Sarah and Dan's idea and since they were playing Wisconsin in Madison I was pretty sure I could convince my parents to come out and join us.  The kids loved having Grandma and Papa around and the group got even better when Auntie and Grandpa also decided to join us. 

We had 8 people in our total group and then Sarah and Dan brought another set of friends so we topped out at 12 people and all in all we had a great day.  The kids were warm with their snow pants and winter clothes on.  In fact, Hazel was so warm and snuggly that she fell asleep on Erin's lap for nearly an hour during the game.

We stayed until the beginning of the 4th quarter so everyone could experience the Jump Around and then we left.  Overall the day went perfectly...I think the only thing Ryan would have changed was the fact that Purdue lost...wah wah.  The kids were troopers and stuck it out the entire time with us.  We stopped for dinner in Monroe and were home (and warm) by 8:30 pm!