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For this week’s Embrace the Camera, I decided to post one of my favorite family photos…..well, a family photo of me growing up…..this is one of my favorite family shots. I have five older brothers, so we didn’t get dressed up and go out to dinner very often. I believe it was my grandmother’s 70th birthday. This is definitely a classic family shot!
Over the weekend….we had another birthday….I can’t believe Quinn is eleven!! We had a lovely weekend with lovely birthday celebrations……
Did I mention that my Aunt Loretta is an awesome cook? Well, she is….and while we were visiting her..she made her delicious hummus! She put it out as an appetizer…and I was afraid I would eat all of it……and not have room for dinner!
So, of course, as soon as we got home from our trip…I had to make more hummus! It is a simple recipe but incredibly delicious! Enjoy…….
Aunt Loretta’s Hummus
Add all in food processor and blend til paste. Garnish with paprika and parsley.
*** For Baba Ganoush — follow same recipe but use eggplant instead of chick peas and no water
We started our new year with a trip to visit my aunt Loretta. She is my mother’s sister. My mom’s birthday was the day after Christmas and after my mom died we started a tradition of visiting my aunt on my mom’s birthday. Except this year, we got a huge snow storm on that day….so we had to postpone the trip…and we ended up going on January 1st.
My mother loved my aunt dearly and admired her so much…she was the glamorous older sister. My mom would constantly tell stories about how adventurous and daring her sister Loretta was….and how she yearned to be like her. At almost 88, she is still full of energy and fun. I am glad that my children are getting to know her.
Every time it snows….everybody wants to have snow cream for dessert. In our family, there are two different ways to make it. For either version, you need a big bowl of fresh snow!
For the first variety, all you need is maple syrup…just pour in as much as you like…which in our families case, is a lot! Stir it up and enjoy…..very simple.
The other version involves sugar and vanilla! It all depends on your mood.
For this version, all you do is add about a teaspoon of vanilla and sugar…..a lot of sugar, if you are one of my children!
And of course, you have to mush it all up before you can enjoy it!
So, another Christmas tradition, in our family, is making our own cards. We love to think and think about what we will do for that year. The card usually involves some type of photo of the children…..though one year we had them draw the card.
It doesn’t always go as planned or as smoothly as I had hoped…..but in the end, we always love them. I usually work with the photo in Photoshop and print them out using Publisher. Sometimes we get them printed at a print shop, but most times I print them out at home using cardstock.
After doing the upside down chin photos earlier this month for my blog, my daughter Tuesday, decided those would be perfect for our Christmas card.
For quite a few years now, we wanted to do a twist on the family Christmas letter….. and then finally we thought of MadLibs. So, this year, we decided to combine the two ideas…and we made up a Christmas family letter in MadLib form. It was a lot of fun coming up with the letter…but it was hard to put it into the right format, so it looked just like the real MadLibs.
In the end, I think our Christmas cards reflected who we are as a family…..pretty goofy!
So, for this week’s Embrace the Camera (inspired by the anderson crew)…I thought I would like to have some photos of Quinn and I….so I sat us down in front of the Christmas tree…but, of course, River said she had to be in the photos with us…well…she thought she wanted to be in the photos……with us….
And, how could I say no…so…..here we are……well, sort of…River was bopping all around…but I got one good one of her..before she was on her way again……
The Yule Lads have started coming to our house. Another tradition. Every year, starting on December 12th, the Yule Lads begin to arrive. We love the little guys.
Each night, we read about the Yule Lad who is coming that night…we get out the little statue….and then the children leave a shoe in their window.
So far, we’ve been visited by Stekkjarstaur, who likes sheep, Giljagaur, who steals milk, and Stufur…who is the little short guy.
In our house, they are all very friendly, and they leave little gifts for good children. (If you are bad, they leave you a rotten potato!) Sometimes the Yule Lads do slightly mischievous things, like drink our milk and leave the empty container on the floor!
We haven’t talked too much about Gryla, the Yule Lads mother, or the Yule Cat, because they are a bit too scary. If you are interested in learning more about the Yule Lads, there are a few good websites..but I love the book that we have entitled The Yule Lads by Brian Pilkington….the illustrations are wonderful!
Another Christmas tradition, in our family, is visiting Santa. After Tuesday was born, for the first seven years, we went to the same place and there was the same Santa! He had a real beard….but wasn’t too friendly..but it was neat that he was the same Santa . We were so disappointed when there was a different Santa…..with a fake beard the next year. I don’t like the Santas with fake beards. So, this year I called different places asking if their Santa had a real beard or a fake beard…they must get that question a lot…..because they didn’t seem to think it was strange.
I also don’t like it when they won’t let you bring in your own camera..that really bugs me. Anyway, we found a local farmers market that had a wonderful Santa..and it was free (He was on a tractor, which was sort of funny). You just had to bring your own camera. There was no line and the kids had time to actually “talk” to Santa….a rarity. He was so friendly and patient. River was so nervous and almost couldn’t get any words out..it was adorable.
This is Tuesday with Santa when she was a few days old. The Santa was so nervous to hold her. Here are some other past Santa shots…..
So this month…I think I might be talking a lot about our Christmas traditions…I’ve done it a bit in the past..but it might be more this year..so be warned.
One of our first traditions is getting out our advent calendar. My mom gave this to us years ago and I love it because it is reusable. I also love it because it challenges me to get gifts that are small enough that they fit into these little tiny drawers..which usually means candy or small amounts of change…which is a good thing..because to me the advent calendar is about little tiny things…..(okay..the first day I cheated…I put a little note in the drawer that said to look somewhere else..I got snowman candy bars and they wouldn’t fit in the drawer…but I couldn’t resist..they were delicious…white and dark chocolate with pepermint pieces!!)
We try to do the advent calendar first thing in the morning…when things aren’t too crazy…but River doesn’t always cooperate. She likes to sleep in..and Tuesday and Quinn have to be off early for school. So, we will either do it first thing in the morning…or right after school. If we end up not doing it in the morning, it drives River crazy. She spends the whole day asking why Tuesday and Quinn aren’t home from school yet!!
