Setting up our Christmas Tree

Okay, I probably should hurry and finish posting my Christmas pictures before the end of January!

Usually we put up our tree immediately after Thanksgiving, but Jeff had another residency interview to go to so we had to wait to put our Christmas tree up until December 2nd.

We are still using our little 4 foot Christmas tree we bought at an after Christmas 90% off sale when we were engaged. It has been a good little tree and perfect for our tiny apartment. But we are soooo excited to get a real tree next year.

Christine was a good helper and enjoyed putting the ornaments on their hooks.

Good thing I took this picture when I did, because the lower half of the lights on the tree died a couple days later. All the more reason to get a full size tree next year!

Christmas Preparations Part Two: Books

Last year we started a new tradition of wrapping up our Christmas books and opening one each night before Christmas. It's a great tradition and one we plan to continue for a long time. Christine loved unwrapping a present every night, and I loved getting to read every single Christmas book with Christine.

Favorite memories:

• Amelia Bedelia's Christmas- we bought this book because it was super cheap (we love shopping at Half Price Books- our used book store) and because Jeff and I loved Amelia Bedelia as kids, but we thought it might be too old for Christine this year and she wouldn't like it. Boy were we wrong. There is a joke at the very beginning of the book that Christine couldn't get enough of: Mrs. Rodgers tells Amelia Bedelia that "Christmas is just around the corner" and Amelia Bedelia responds "What corner?" Then Mrs. Rodgers explains, no no it's an expression that means it's coming soon.  We would get a few pages into the book and Christine would turn back the pages to the beginning "no no Mommy read that page!" so she could hear the joke again.... and again, and again!
• Dora's Starry Christmas- how could we resist buying a Dora Christmas book for our huge Dora fan? (A little background: Santa's reindeer get  sick so Diego has to nurse them back to health and Dora helps Santa deliver the presents while her explorer stars pull the sleigh) Christine's favorite is the page where they are delivering presents in the jungle and it's too dark to see and then... (imagine a LOUD toddler voice excitedly saying this:) "OH! OH! GLOWY STAR DO IT! GLOWY STAR DO IT!"
• Twas the Night Before Christmas- This was another of those books we bought thinking it would be too old for Christine this year, but maybe she would like the pictures (it's illustrated by Mary Engelbreit). Christine shocked us by memorizing almost the entire the book (it was a potty time favorite). What?! Does she even know what sugar plums are? or kerchief? or even creature? We pulled out the video camera and recorded her reciting the poem as proof because we figured no one would believe us that Christine can say "Twas night before Christmas, all through house, not a creature stirring not even a mouse" all the way through "Merry Christmas all, all GOOOOD night!"
• I Spy Christmas- definitely the most used Christmas book, though not for reading. Because of it's large, hard-backed size it made the perfect book to put her Dora puzzles together on top of.

Christmas Preparations part 1: Cookies

This year for Christmas we stayed here in Texas.  Surprise, surprise, it was not a white Christmas. The actual temperature on Christmas day- 70 degrees.

We had a lot of fun preparing for Christmas because Christine was finally old enough to understand what was going on. Here's the Christmas traditions we started/continued this year.

1. Christmas Cookies!  When I spent my first Christmas with Angela's family, she told me that they made great food and had lots of cookies.  In my family "lots of cookies" means a couple dozen.  In Salas lingo, "lots of cookies" means enough cookies to cover all non-cooking surfaces in the house. It is amazing.  Unfortunately with only 3 mouths to eat our cookies, we had to limit our batches and then give a bunch away. 

Christine loved helping to make the cookies.  Her favorite and most requested was "gingerbread men" cookies from sugar cookie dough. Here she is stamping out one now.

For all the Hamakers out there reading this, you might be thinking, "Jeff, you went along with all that cooking?!"  Not too worry, like all Hamaker traditions, I turned it into a competition, thereby superseding the "no cooking" rule.  The results of the competition:

• First place: Gingerbread Softies dipped in chocolate- rated best by both the competitors and non-competitors  (recipe from Dana Made It HERE and chocolate dipped version HERE)
• Second place: Raspberry Jam Strips- Gigi's favorite (a classic Salas recipe)
• Third place: Holiday Confetti Cake Batter Cookies- so easy to make since they are made using a box of cake mix (a huge plus when cooking with Christine) and they tasted like delicious cupcakes! seriously the best cake mix cookies I've ever had (recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction HERE)
• Fourth place: Peppermint Brownies- Chocolate chip brownies with a layer of peppermint icing covered in a chocolate ganache and sprinkled with candy canes. Delicious, but so chocolate-y rich that it's hard to eat more than one so a lot went un-eaten (Recipe from Budget Gourmet Mom HERE and adapted using THIS similar recipe from Our Best Bites)
• Fifth Sugar Cookies, another classic Salas family recipe (they were great sugar cookies and fun to make, but they lacked chocolate)
• Sixth place: Fudge- usually Angela's favorite, but we made the recipe from old marshmallow cream (okay it had already expired... but Jeff said "can marshmallow cream ever go bad? I mean it's just sugar" answer: yes, yes it can!) It tasted wonderful, it just didn't set up right. Don't worry the fudge wasn't distributed to our friends and neighbors. (Angela is trying to convince me that she needs to make more fudge to make up for our failed fudge because she didn't get her "fudge fix"...something about the baby needing fudge to grow healthy and strong...)
• Last place: Slow Cooker Cinnamon Almonds- we imagined that this recipe would make our house smell delicious while cooking (they did not) and that they would taste like those yummy almonds you can buy in the mall or at events like baseball games (they did NOT). We had our expectations pretty high and were sorely disappointed with this recipe. They weren't terrible or anything, just okay. (recipe from The Recipe Critic) The reason why the fudge beat out the Almonds is because we ate up every piece of fudge and there is still a bowl of these almonds sitting on our kitchen counter right now.

Thanksgiving in Columbia

When Jeff was offered a residency interview at Columbia, MO the Monday after Thanksgiving we were very excited, because that would give us an excuse to drive to Columbia and spend a week at my sister's for Thanksgiving.

The drive was long (14 hours!) but Christine did amazing. During the month before I prepared little games and activities for the "Big Trip." I ended up over-preparing and not using a third of the stuff I had put together, but that's okay because it makes great activities for church). The big purchase was a portable DVD player and Dora's Mermaid Adventure on DVD. Christine was so excited for the big trip, and couldn't stop talking about it. "Big trip... drive allllll day... watch Dora Mermaid!"

On the way up we had a flat tire. Luckily, an older gentleman pulled over to help us out, which was fortunate when a drunk guy stumbled up to "help" us out too (not sure if he came over to help or if we had just distracted him from his fishing at the pond- yep fishing with just his hands). Thank you, thank you to the older gentleman who did the talking with the drunk guy and convinced him to continue meandering down the road.

Christine had a blast playing with her cousins. The kids loved playing restaurant, where they would "cook" food for each other and then "eat" the food by shoving the plastic food down their shirts (hence the lumps in Trevor's red shirt!)

 Christine's favorite part was probably helping with the chickens.

You might recognize this backyard in our Christmas card picture this year!

 Don't worry she's had a hair trim since this picture was taken (remember, I was just coming out of my 3 month coma)
The chickens were always mentioned in Christine's prayers. "Thank you chickens. Thank you chickens eat Thanksgiving dinner" (for some reason Christine thinks the chickens got to eat Thanksgiving dinner too)

I will admit, one of the reasons I was most excited for this trip was the amazing food we would get to eat! My sister is a fantastic cook. I get all my recipes from her. The Thanksgiving meal did not disappoint.

Christine's nap landed perfectly during meal time, so Jeff and I were able to enjoy the meal together (what a luxury!)

My sister made cranberries from scratch (I've only ever had them from a can) and they were delicious!  If you're wondering, in the red dish is honey butter, in the country crock tub is cinnamon butter (store bought- for shame!) and on the plate is raspberry butter. All to put on the wonderful, light flaky homemade rolls. YUM

The praline yams were my favorite. Seriously, they tasted like a praline pie. Amazing! They were Christine's favorite. She kept asking for more yams.

 Jeff and I made the cornbread stuffing (a Hamaker tradition) it turned out perfectly

Not pictured is the frozen cranberry salad, the turkey (what? how did I not get a picture of the turkey?) the gravy, and the six pies. Oh the pies. I am getting hungry just remembering this amazing meal, and the wonderful leftovers we enjoyed afterwords.

As you might know, this year Walmart and several other stores began their Black Friday sales Thursday evening. My sister is a HARD CORE Black Friday shopper and took us out that night. Yes, we went to Walmart at 9 pm with all the crazies. It was a little chaotic, but also fun, there was a lot of energy in the air from all the excitement. The next morning my sister tried to convince me to get up at 4 am to hit the stores. I told you she was hard core! I somehow convinced her to let us sleep in until 8. When you hit the store after all the crazies have finished up, it's more calm, and usually most things are still in stock except for the big items like TVs and Wii's.

For the rest of the week we enjoyed playing board games, watching Christmas movies, and helping Jessica put up her Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music. Thank you Jessica and Bill for having us!

It's a boy!

I have photos of Thanksgiving to post on here, but we have big news! I went to my anatomy ultrasound yesterday and found out the gender of our baby. We are having a boy! What?! I will admit I was SHOCKED. I really thought it was a girl, I am still wrapping my head around the idea of having a boy. I don't know how to have a boy! I know how to have a girl. I have boxes of girl clothes, and pink nursery bedding!

Jeff and I were so confident we were having a girl that we already picked out a girl name, Madeline, that we have been calling the baby (poor little boy). Christine has become very attached to calling the baby Madeline (big mommy mistake!) but luckily I was able to talk to Christine and explain that new baby tricked us and Madeline is actually a baby doll that Santa Claus will bring us for Christmas! Christine was okay with that.

Jeff was in San Antonio at a residency interview when I went to my appointment so Jeff didn't know until last night when he got home. Christine and I made a puzzle for him to figure out. Jeff was so shocked, it was fun to watch him digest the information. At night when we were going to bed he was saying good night to baby and stopped himself, "Oh Crap!" it's a boy! I can't talk to him like this! How do I talk to a boy?!"

I am so happy to have a little boy, but I was a little disappointed when I realized that I don't get to make hair bows and ruffle diaper covers! I had BIG crafting plans for this little one, and I might have already made a car seat cover out of this floral fabric.

Um, I think I need to make a new one.