'Tis the season for baking, and one of my favorite things to do is make cut-out cookies at Christmas time.  We made them every year growing up, and Christmas just isn't the same without them.  My 2 oldest are finally old enough to really participate, so we spend the morning making cookies! 

I have the BEST recipe for sugar cookies, and I'll share it below.  The secret ingredient that makes the cookies so good is sour cream, and you'll use this recipe forever after you've tried it once.  And don't forget cut out cookies are great fun for Valentine's Day or Easter too!

Soft Sugar Cookies
3 1/4 C. flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 C. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C. sour cream

Put in large electric mixer bowl butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla.  Beat at a high speed for 2 minutes.  Stir in sour cream.  Then add flour and baking soda until well blended on low speed about 1 1/2 minutes.  Roll out lightly on floured breadboard to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut with cookie cutter, put on greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake at 400 degrees about 6 minutes (adjust time as needed according to your oven).  Bake slightly less for softer cookies.  Makes 2 1/2 dozen.  These can be frosted.  If frosted, leave off sugar.

I can be pretty behind the times sometimes on certain things, and apparently I am for Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.  Some friends of mine were planning a party this spring to see the movie that's coming out for 'One For the Money', and after admitting my ignorance I was quickly given the first three to read.  I powered through those three in about 2 weeks (which is a huge miracle considering it's Xmas season, and I have three kids).  I'm about to get the next few from my friend to get me through Christmas break.  

These books so far have been easy to read, fun and suspenseful.  Although Stephanie plum is not like the current Me, I'd like to think we'd be friends if I was a single lady like she is.  I'd have to get a little used to the whole Jersey culture, but I think I could slide in pretty easily.  She's spunky, sarcastic and adventurous, getting into all kinds of trouble.  And, quite frankly, it would be pretty cool to be a wanna-be bad-ass bounty hunter who gets to regularly hang out with other actual bad-ass bounty hunters.  I'm sure it doesn't hurt they they are rather easy on the eyes.

I'm totally addicted this series and woke up the other morning thinking about Joe Morelli and my old Doc Martens.  If you haven't read these, you should at least read the first one before Katherine Heigl graces the big screen as Stephanie Plum.  They are the perfect easy, fun read for the holidays, and for Moms who could use a little fantasizing about a life beyond poopy diapers, laundry and dirty dishes.  You could have the book in 2 days for free if you have Amazon Mom or Amazon prime!

Our Elf has been busy and rather mischievous this year!  Here are a couple of his best adventures.  In the first he's hanging in some tinsel from the kitchen lighting.  In the second he went a little crazy in the bathroom.  Enjoy!

I both love and hate bath time.  I love it because the kids are ALWAYS happy during a bath, even on their worst day.  I hate it because everyone's sad when bath time is over, and there is always a  messy bathroom filled with dirty clothes, at least one diaper, water, discarded hair rubberbands filled with hair, and towels strewn about.  Perhaps much of the mess is my fault because I throw all three in there at the same time, but if I didn't, bath time would literally take all night since no one ever wants to get out.  And I have many other things I'd just love to be doing like dishes, laundry or making lunches for the next day.  

Anyway, the other day I had all three kids in the bathtub playing happily and I just watched them.  How they played was so indicative of their personalities.  My son was busily setting up a complex water drainage system using a variety of bath toys.  I should have taken a picture.  My oldest daughter was closest to the water spout, and she lined up a bunch of little animal bath toys along the side and had her mermaid barbie (best happy meal toy EVER) swimming in the bubbles acting as mommy/teacher to other toys.  She also sings sometimes.  The baby was happily in the middle playing with bubbles, saying 'BODY!' (her newest word she likes to say) as she points to her tummy, washing her brother's back and trying to drink bath water out of one of the last toys that hadn't been snatched up by one of the other two.

This further supports my hypothesis that my son seems to show characteristics that would make him a good engineer/scientist (I know he's young, but he sure loves to build stuff!), and perhaps my daughter will be a teacher and mom (she's certainly bossy enough).  I can't make anything out of the baby's play except that she loves to be with her brother and sister, and makes do pretty well with what she's got (for now anyway . . .).  

And so some day in the future, I will look back at family bath time, and it will be interesting to see if my prophecies come true.  For now, it's fun to put the kids all together in a very tiny space where they magically play without fighting (most of the time) and see how different they all really are.  And how they play in the bathtub is really a window into their personality.  And, last but not least, how much they all love to be together (I better take a picture as it is sure to last longer than their enjoyment of simultaneous bathing).  

The last time I decorated the house for Christmas was 2 years ago.  I was about 6 1/2 months pregnant and it took several days to do it all because I was so tired.  It took even longer to finally take it all down because I was even more tired and working.  I like to start decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving so I can enjoy all the Christmas cheer for as long as possible, but we are a week behind.

Yesterday we bought the tree, and we were too tired when we got home so we left it outside.  This morning the weather said it was going to rain, the kids were up early and the baby is sick so we didn't go to church, so we got started early.  We brought the tree in, set it up and then prepared to cut off the twine wrapping.  And like every year, I get nervous and envision a huge swooshing of the bottom limbs as they crash through the windows Clark W. Griswold-style.  We cut our tree down at a farm, and those trees always look smaller than they really are.  Thankfully we escaped any broken glass.  To my knowledge I didn't notice any squirrels . . .

After putting the kids away (Cars 2 is a great babysitter . . .) we tried to begin decorating.  We pulled in boxes, started putting lights on the tree and getting organized. But, of course the baby is sick, so I headed to the pharmacy for a medicine refill, picked up lunch in the pouring rain and returned.  The kids were hungry, the baby needed breathing treatments, and then the kids wanted to help.  Which is great, except they start rummaging through all the boxes as though they were starving racoons.  So, the husband, because of his height, continued putting on lights and I attempted to put up a few other decorations.  

By then, Cars 2 was over, I couldn't send the kids outside on account of the rain, and everyone started fighting.  Several shatterproof ornaments were broken by the little people in an attempt to help, and dear Husband could hardly function due to a rather exciting Texans game on TV.  So, I put up a few ornaments, but obviously made a better door than window in front of the TV.  So, I gave up.  I closed all the blinds so I can enjoy the sparkle of the tree lights while less able to see the surrounding mess, grabbed a beer and sat down to surrender to the football game.  I looked at the clock and realized it was only 2:30, and that is a bit early to be drinking, but I honestly feel like I have been up for 15 hours so a beer seems appropriate.  Plus, I'm going to start a short cleanse/detox on Wednesday, so I better enjoy my beer while I can.

So, the house is a mess and is semi-decorated.  I can only do so much.  The force of 3 kids and one zoned-out, football-watching husband is just too much.  I'll have to wait until they are all gone to complete the transformation of the house to pure Christmas joy.  Until then I will enjoy my beer, football and breathing treatment administration in an air-conditioned house because it's too hot outside and all I want is for it to feel like winter.  What other choice do I really have?  Hopefully some kind of order will be achieved in the next couple days.  I'll keep you posted.

Elfie put on a bow, grabbed some fritos and cups and stacked up on top of my daughter's Barbie house.  The other day he was holding an ice cream scoop, and another time he was eating some bread.  He's a hungry little Elf!  The kids think he's just hilarious!

Looks like Elfie has a thing for Barbie!  Goldfish are so romantic, too!

In all the Elf excitement I forgot to write a bit about Thanksgiving.  We had 2 Thanksgivings at our house, and it was the perfect way to break in our new kitchen!  We had the first one for some local relatives on my side, and I cooked pumpkin pie, stuffing, turkey, jello, salad and some amazing gravy from my husband.  I am completely in love with my new ovens and my new gas cooktop, which is the opposite of my cousin whose stove literally exploded while making mashed potatoes!

We celebrated regular Thanksgiving day with my in-laws and some good friends.  We again cooked up the whole traditional meal with turkey, stuffing, gravy, pie, and enough mashed potatoes to feed an army!  Again, the kitchen performed well and earned the approval of my mother-in-law, who is quite a cook!

I grew up in a Lebanese-Italian household, so our holiday meals were mostly traditional, but always with a flair of ethnicity.  My Mom always made ravioli for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas as did her Mom and Grandmothers.  I can make it, (although I'm still perfecting the pasta) and so I always associate home made ravioli with the holidays.  My aunt would make her kibbee, and we were never huge on gravy and cranberry sauce like they are here in the south.  I'm hoping to carry on the tradition and make some raviolis this year for Christmas since we won't have any out of town visitors (that way no one will know if my pasta is too sticky!).  

It's fun to know that for as many people who celebrate the holidays, no two are alike, and there are so many interesting traditions!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and found lots to be thankful for!

We have an elf who usually appears the day after Thanksgiving, but apparently this year he was a little tired because he didn't show up until Tuesday after Thanksgiving.  The kids were eagerly awaiting his arrival, and my son even said that the other kids' elves at school already arrived.  

He made is debut this year hanging on the chandelier over our kitchen table, and of course the kids noticed immediately when they came down for breakfast.  During dinner we were reminiscing about what he did last year when my son started asking questions about him like how does he travel to Santa every night and when does he move and all that.  Well, we just fly by the seat of our pants and make some really convincing statements about magic which seems to satisfy everyone.  

Then, my son (who has historically asked great questions, many unanswerable such as 'Why does God create bad guys?) asks why he doesn't have any feet.  We were stumped.  Then, after staring at him for awhile, asked why he has a tag (the little white tag that comes on all stuffed animals).  Oh my gosh - we were really floored and both kind of sputtered something about not knowing and the elf is magical and we just don't know for sure.  After the kids went to bed we laughed pretty hard.  It is a valid question - the elf should not need a tag attached to his seam.  Oh well.  

Everyone still strongly believes in the Elf, and I love it!  It's so much fun to hear the kids talk to him - they are asking him to go to their room and to play with their toys like he did last year.  Every morning they wake up and rush to put on their clothes so they can try to find the elf.  Hopefully the Elf won't forget to go back to Santa's a night or two like he did last year.  I think he will become a little more mischievous this year, and I will certainly post pictures when he gets in to a little trouble!

If you don't have an Elf for your kids, you must get one!!  It is so much fun, and kinda keeps the kids in line - I've heard mine tell each other they better be good because the Elf is watching!  Oh, what fun it is to have kids at Christmas!