COOKIES 2012

This year's cookie selections. I did not put the gingerbread children in the photo as we have seen them already!

The cookie list for this year: 

Pizzells

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies (AKA John's cookies)

Mini Fudge Cakes

Tassies- pecan and mince

White Chocolate Peppermint cookies

Haystacks

Russian Tea Cakes

Rugalach

Kolaches (two flavors of jam)

Cottage Cheese Cookies (or Italian American Cookies)

Deep Chocolate Cashew Turtle Cookies

Pomegranate Pistachio Thumbprints

Amertti Cookies

Cranberry Coconut Cookies

Holiday Biscotti

Maple Pecan Cookies 

Not pictured were the Holiday Chocolate Chip Cookies since Mark ate them all. 

YUMMY!

Molbaks, Part 1

Friday, Lon and I made our deliveries, did a tiny bit of shopping, and went to Molbaks!

Cow and Dog, all dressed up for the season!

This one does not belong here!

Lon is going to move the chick to where the rest of the chicks are. He does not belong with the donkeys!

Getting ready for the annual photo!

Cute boy!  We did get some pink flamingos for our village. Gotta have pink flamingos!

Decorating Gingerbread boys and Girls

Last night I made gingerbread. This morning the neighbor girls came over to decorate them!  We had a great time!

Goofy faces! In the other more serious photo, two out of the four have their eyes shut!

Ready to decorate! Sarah borrowed a t-shirt so she would not get her white shirt dirty

Having lots of fun making the boys and girls look pretty

The product! It is always fun having the kids over.

Sing A Long at School

This afternoon, Lon's school had a sing a long!  Parents were welcome. We all had to sign in. Which was a good thing

Not sure Lon sees me yet.  But some of the other kids have seen me!

Singing along. I almost did not see Lon, he usually wears his coat all day, but he was just wearing his shirt!

Kayla using my hair decoration to sing along with Jingle Bells

Not sure who he was looking for

Everyone in school had a part in the 12 days of Christmas. The office secretaries were the four calling birds.

Second grade was 6 geese a laying

Lon had to run over and give me a hug before he went back to class to gather his coat and backpack.

Going back to class for the last time this year!

Heritage Day Project

Today was the day the kids got to share their Heritage Projects.  I helped Lon learn a little about his Polish heritage.  We just focused on one part of the family, he will learn all about it as time goes on.

Lon sharing part of his heritage. Reading his poem, he is Polish, Russian and Lithuanian, he is related to veterans, and he is cheese pizza.  
He showed the class his father's Polish flag and he showed his great great grandmother Victoria's babushka that she wore when she came to this country in 1905. It is no longer very black, but it is in wonderful shape. We keep it in the cedar chest.  Great Grandmother Victoria would have been 123 today!

Showing on the map what counties he is from. He was only allowed to pick 4. He has more than that, because he is American!

Passing out treats. I made Kolachke for the treat. Some kids liked them, some did not.  They are not very sweet.

Cookies! Lon is not a huge fan either.

Then it was time for recess. I helped clean up a bit and took the flag and babushka home with me. The babushka is back in the cedar chest.  As soon as school is over for the day, (and Lon learns  about the other kid's heritages) it is Christmas Break!

Cub scout-- no pictures

Last night was cub scout pack meeting! And I forgot my camera.
Lon did great at pack. He was awarded the three belt loops he earned, Marbles, Collecting and Pet Care.  Lon will work on more over Christmas break
He also earned some special awards for his popcorn sales! He won a multi tool, it is a compass, a magnifier, a place to hold matches and all sorts of other fun things. In his favorite color too, Red!  He got his popcorn segment. And for being one of the two boys to sell over 1000 dollars in popcorn, the pack gave him a boy scout egg light. It is pretty cool.  And the bottom of that is red too!
They played a very fun gave. Pass the present. The pack master read a story, about the Wright family. Every time he said wright or right you had to pass the present to your right, every time he said left, it had to go left. I think this might be something we try on Christmas Day Dinner!  (they just used wrapped boxes, but I might use real little presents)
Lon had a good time and I wanted to write down his awards before I forgot them

The Decorated Tree

Finally! I remembered to take some pictures of the tree all decorated!

It is such a nice tree this year. It smells wonderful, and it is not dropping a ton of needles! 

Christmas Tree!

Tonight was getting the tree night!  Mark came home early, we picked up Lon after school and away we went!  We get our tree up at St John Vianney.  They get the trees from a tree farm in Bremerton. The cost of the tree goes to support the Church's Mexican Mission.

This might be the one! This year we can not have a big fat tree, a tall skinny tree is what we need for this year.  It is going closer to the kitchen, not in front of the windows this year.  We have furniture there this year

Lon checking out other trees

The nice ladies at the Church helped Lon make a cup of cocoa

They even gave him a candy cane to stir it with!

The tree is up, inside and waiting !

While the tree was warming up a little, it was time for dinner. Homemade mini pizzas! YUMMY

The lights of up!  It is a Frasier Fir. I am not allergic to it!  Yipppeee
Tomorrow the ornaments go up!

Garden D'Lights

Lon and I have never been to the Bellevue Botanical Garden's light display.  Tonight we had a chance to go with some friends! It was really fun! As an added bonus, it was free tonight!

Lon being goofy with the gummy bears, in the car on the way to Bellevue.
When we got there, we were a little early, a small little guy (about 2) told Lon his hat was nice. Lon said Thank you, would you like to try it on. The little guy was so excited!  He was wearing a little hat that Lon put the Santa hat right over.  Lon arranged the hat just so, and his mother got the cutest picture of her boy!  Lon is such a sweet guy!

Waiting for the girls!

Being a scarecrow in the lit corn!

They had the lights that Mark likes hanging from trees. They chase down.  They are really nice.

Loved the wall of flowers done in lights.  I would love to learn how to do this

A couple of shots of the lights

Amazing light display. The weeping willow's lights cascade down.

VICTORY is mine! Lon got a candy cane and a cookie!  So did the girls.

We went in through the out door to see the aquarium. We did not really want to go through the gift shop, so we did not.  The fish looked great.

pretty

Enjoying the candy canes

Going down the lane, can you spot Lon's hat?

LOOK! MOM! They have an alligator done up in lights! It is so cool!

Oh Christmas Tree!

A river of lights with jumping fish!  I captured one fish! Took about 12 shots.

Do you have the picture already?  The sea serpent was so bright that the flash did not go off, so Lon was in the dark.  I moved him forward and took some more pictures.  Finally got one that  was okay.

It was a fun evening outing.  I think we will go again next year!