It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!!

Everything seems a little happier and brighter once you put up the Christmas decorations! Here are mine, and more of an actual blog too, if you scroll to the next entry.

Our Christmas tree and village. Every year, we have to get out Thomas the Tank Engine and build him a Christmas track around the tree. If you look closely, or click to enlarge the photo, you can see Hadley's contribution to the decorating. We have all these little Chinese people that Connie sent from Hong Kong, and Hadley has them all in a line around the bottom perimeter of the tree. It's kind of cute, so I left it that way. Lately, she makes all this little arrangements or "installments" around the house of found objects. I will try to photograph some, but they don't last long. She's very particular about how she arranges things and has a nice sense of symmetry and balance.

The stockings (and film negatives) were hung by the chimmney with care. If it ever gets cold, I would LOVE a fire, but so far, no dice. Please, Santa, send some snow to New Jersey, the kids are quite concerned about it, especially Alexander, who keeps asking why it doesn't snow in New Jersey. He also wanted to know exactly what was going to happen with these stockings and us going to Utah for Christmas. I assured him we would take the stockings with us and Santa would fill them there. Then he was worried about where mom and dad's stockings are. I told him Grandma has some for us. Hear that, Grandma!? I like a pomegranate in the toe, and Alan prefers an orange. :)

Our front door -- decked out and waiting for our first Christmas card to attach to the ribbon. OH-- an example of Hadley's art installations was that, the other day, she took all the little magnetic letters and lined them all up vertically on the ribbon. But today she is carrying them all around in a basket along with wooden closepins and balls.

Here are the carolers -- Alexander was proud to participate in setting up the fragile display by handing me the lid for the top of the lightpost. He was so proud, and showed Alan when he got home. More below...I exceeded my photo limit!

Happy Holidays!

Hadley, eating in "the restaurant". When we have dinner guests over, we always have to move this little table downstairs to accomidate our smaller guests. If I don't get it moved back upstairs, we play restaurant at lunchtime. Alexander and Hadley are demanding and sometimes downright rude customers, yelling "waitress" to me as I'm in the kitchen preparing their food. Luckily, right now we have a plethora of leftovers on the "menu" -- 2 kinds of soups plus the makings for a full Thanksgiving dinner, or turkey sandwiches, and cake or ice cream for dessert! In this particular photo, Hadley is having her 2nd breakfast of Jam Toast and peaches.

Alan spent most of Thanksgiving weekend painting. Here is the pomegranate painting I requested with a touch of Alan thrown in for good measure. I hope he finishes it soon, because it will mean I get to eat a pomegranate that he uses for reference. They are my favorite treat, and what's more, the kids don't like them!

More paintings in what I am calling "The Blue Series", for obvious reasons. I have dibs on the Winter Witch (the girl with antlers) -- she is crying in this picture, which seemed appropriate for the year we've had, and the Blue Bird of Happiness is winging it's way TOWARD her as Alan pointed out...I had mistakenly thought it was flying AWAY from her, but it looks like good things are in store after all. :)
This is our one and only Thanksgivng Day picture, sadly. My camera was in my bag while I helped with the meal and cleanup, but I was able to snap this one of Hadley's pumpkin pie face just after dessert. Girl loves her pumpkin pie, and a photo-op! There are no pics of Xander in this post! Hadley is around more, holds still, and most importantly, hams it up for the camera.

Another picture of Hadley, who put on my lipstick one morning while Alan was on the phone...she told him, "Now I look like a Mommy!" Note the unwashed cinnamon toast face. Lovely.

Cranberry sauce simmering on the stove. The color was sooo pretty I had to take a photo.

Carmelized Butternut Squash. This was my contribution for Thanksgiving dinner. Again, pretty, so I had to document their glazey deliciousness! OH, and I also took homemade rolls, which received rave reviews.

22 Days till we come "home" for the holidays! (But who's counting?)

xoxox

candace

Today's Blog is Brought to You By Artichoke Chicken

mmmmmm! doesn't that look yummy? don't you want to come and visit and eat some? or at least call or email to request the recipe and/or praise my culinary skills? you know you do! come on, how long is it going to take to leave a little comment or type up a quick email? pretty please? pretty please with sauteed artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes on top?

xox