Christmas Holidays

The holidays went by quickly as they usually do.  They were the right mix of busyness and rest and relaxation.  We enjoyed lots of sleeping in as well as enough mornings of getting up and out the door on time.  There was plenty happening the first week with Christmas and Boxing Day and the annual croquette making day, then a trip off to Chatham for a night, some quick visiting and partying before returning home to end the week with some New Years Eve get-togethers on Saturday.  Our second week we aimed to keep it mellow and stay home, resting, relaxing, playing games, doing crafts and just enjoying the lack of schedule and freedom to be lazy for a week.  It ended up not being quite to lazy like when the girls planned a last minute get-together with Hamilton friends, and then a trip off to Hamilton and London for a day, and a birthday party/sleep-over for Rebecca, with the end of the week being topped off by another visit from Santa.  But it was still relaxing and we did get some sewing done during the week … pictures of that will have to follow as the girls are just finishing up those projects (waiting for them to put the buttons on the outfits).

This year we made over 1000 croquettes, 300 of which were gluten free.   It was a busy day but it went well and we were impressed with how fast we had them rolled and ready for deep frying.  It was still late by time we were done, but we all left with our packages to fill our freezers.  The gluten free croquettes turned out scrumptious straight out of the deep fryer.  A few days later we tried them reheated in the oven as we do with the wheat ones.  This was a bit disappointing as they were quite dry.  We’ll have to decide next year whether we deep-fry them all ahead of time or do it when we eat them.  Having them deep-fried in advanced  is so nice as it’s so handy to just pop them in the oven and not stink up the house with oil smells – since our deep-fryer is broken I would have to do it in the house. At the same time doing all that work and then being disappointed after isn’t very nice.  They still taste good but they are dry instead instead of a nice soft “goop”.  The issue could also be that I did not have xanthan gum handy when we made them so when they were quite goopy and mushy (so much that we couldn’t shape it into balls) we ended up adding a lot more flour.  Good thing we ate some and enjoyed them that night .. we know it’s possible to get them yummy, we’ll just have to  keep trying on the reheating idea … but realizing that reheating is often a problem with gluten-free I guess we may have to accept that that option is no longer available.

 

Whenever we get together and Noah is around there’s a fight between the girls about who gets to watch him, care for him, entertain him.  Noah definitely doesn’t lack for attention seeing as the girls have to compete with Grandma also :)   Rebecca ended up going to bed when things got a bit late with the croquettes as she wasn’t feeling the greatest.  So Marietta got full dibs on watching Noah while the ladies finished up deep frying the croquettes.

 

And now here we are half-way through January already … wow, it just keeps flying by. 

Gift Exchange

Santa arrived at the beginning of December this year.  On December 2nd we had our annual family gift exchange.  The girls are each given $20 to help cover the cost of their purchases.  Last year we set a limit of $5 per person and we supplied the money for them to buy their gifts.  This year we supplied them with $5 per person and the limit was set for $10 per person, anything over $5 they had to spend out of their own money.  Our shopping is mostly done at the thrift store, although some gifts are also found at Wal-Mart and such.  Rebecca is not much of a shopper and needs a bit more guidance from Rob and I on what to buy or what kind of things to look at (even though we all make a list).  Marietta on the other hand has to be dragged out of the stores and such as she loves to shop and find the best bargain possible.

Some thrift finds from the gift exchange:

Mighty Machines video for Matthew

Rebecca found a jean skirt for Marietta, something she had really been wanting

Marietta found me a new Oil/Vinegar bottle since the lid/cork does not stay in my old one anymore

Marietta found a large serving spoon for Rob seeing as he’s always complaining that our serving spoons are not big enough

Marietta felt  bad for the great deal she got this porcelain doll (the girls collect them) for Rebecca that she made a point of finding another gift for Rebecca also.  (We had specified that you did not need to spend the full $10 limit but if you found a good deal for something worth about $10 that was good enough)

   

So she also got Rebecca the game Battleship which she found at the thrift store.

Beside our gift exchange Rob and I also bought the kids a few things.  We did run into a bit of an issue trying to think of something for Matthew who does not need any more toys and we couldn’t think what else to get for a four year old that would be extra special.  I stumbled across a $1 Leapfrog Leappad  at the thrift store for him … since he loves playing with Vivian’s we figured this was a good find for him … and he has been enjoying it since.

We got each the girls a sewing basket.  We had actually given Marietta one for her birthday but it had not really been what I had in mind at the time (see birthday post) so when I stumbled across these ones I scooped them up before I had trouble finding them again … I’m sure her other container will come in handy for something else.

 

Rebecca received Season 4 of Road to Avonlea, which she is collecting but we have all been enjoying as our Friday night family video for some time now.

For Marietta I took some of the pictures that she has taken and has been working on in Photoshop and had them printed and framed for her for her bedroom.

But the highlight of the evening by far was the WagJag find I got for them.  They were ecstatic about this gift (as was I on the good deal I got).  I knew they would be excited about it, but it was so nice to see the thrill and joy from them when they read about their gift.

Reading the certificate/coupon they received

I printed up a copy of the certificate/coupon for them along with some pictures of horses to dress it up a bit.  The coupon entitles each of them to:

Three 90-Minute Western or English Riding Lessons

 

Both girls are extremely excited about this.  Rebecca was just giddy the rest of the evening (that’s why we saved this gift for last) and could hardly contain herself … she most certainly couldn’t sit still after that as she would just bounce and giggle away on the couch … so excited.

Since a friend of theirs also received one of these coupons (for her birthday) the plan is to go together for the lessons in the new year once the business of the holiday season settles down.

It was a fun evening together, after opening gifts we enjoyed some snacks and the girls got right into a game of Battleship and the kids went to bed happy (so did mom and dad ;)

Summer Project

At the end of each school year the girls usually receive a small gift and we go out for ice cream.  This year my small gift turned out to be a rather large gift, since I did not do my research beforehand to find out the cost of the project … a sure sign that I am not a sewer!!

The girls have been learning some basic sewing from their Aunt Jess and since they love acting as pioneers and were busy building a pioneer fort in the barn I thought it would be neat if they could make themselves pioneer dresses and so when patterns were on sale I bought one for each of them.   This was wrapped with a (homemade) gift certificate to purchase the material and items needed to sew the dresses.

So off we went one day to Fabricland … shock of all shocks when we discovered the price of cotton and gingham and such.  The kind sales lady finally directed us to the upholstery section, telling us that many custom makers use this instead because it’s cheapers.  At a third of the price as the original cottons and such that we were looking at we were able to get material and such … needless to say, far more then I had wished to spend, but a lesson to do my research first next time.   It is no wonder people do not sew anymore, even the cheaper material is waayy to expensive.  This play custom ended up being much more then I would spend on a Sunday dress for the girls.

Marietta’s pick

Rebecca’s pick

 

All things purchased came to …

ouch … (should have just searched online for some pre-made customs)

The idea of this gift was to give them a project to work on during the summer.  Needless to say the summer was so busy that they hardly had time to work on it and it’s still not done.  But in September they were able to get the main dress done … now just the pinafore and bonnet is left to get done.  The problem is also that I do not sew and we need guidance from Aunt Jess as when I read the pattern it feels like I’m reading a different language and I have no clue what it’s saying. 

We worked together on the project.  I would usually work along side Rebecca with our machine and Jess would work with Marietta on her machine.  Hopefully this way I can learn a bit and maybe the next time around we can do it without as much guidance.

Cutting out the pattern

Cutting out the material

 

   

What we accomplished after our first afternoon together

Another afternoon together and we were able to get the dress done … except for the buttons and the hem, which the girls have since completed.

 

I had purchased a size 10/12 and a size 14 pattern thinking that way they could make two different sizes so they had lots of room to grow.  Once we had a look at the pattern we ended up going with the smaller size and even so it’s still quite big.  So some day we might actually get around to putting together the pinafore and bonnet and completing the project.

After spending all that money on 4 pieces of material (okay to be fair half the money was spent on the notions) I found all this material on Kijiji for $7.  Plenty of pieces large enough to make dresses.  Maybe the girls will figure out how to do it on their own with time and be able to do some more projects, regardless they got lots to work with without having to be worried about how much money is wasted if they make a mistake  … if they could just find the time.