Christmas Candy

I was FINALLY able to get out of the house today! I got the wax I needed for the peanut butter balls I wanted to make, and as soon as I got home, I started the task!

Luckily I was able to finish most of them before Noel woke up from her nap, so that was a bonus too!

How  many did I make, you ask?

About 120...!

We don't have a double boiler for the chocolate coating, but I

made it work!

I also made some Rice Krispy Treats! Here is the finished product!
And in case you were wondering, the one in the middle says "Go Celts".
I'll let you take a guess as to who decorated that one!

 

Merry Christmas!

Snow Shenanigans

It snowed pretty heavily on Saturday, and we've had snow covering our street until today (Tuesday). I was getting a major case of cabin fever. Being snowed in for a day = great. Snowed in for 4 days = not so great. :)

I called the maintenance number here, and requested for our street to be cleared. It doesn't really make sense to me why I should have to REQUEST that, but oh well. They finally DID clear our street, so I headed to the store today to get some groceries and Christmas candy supplies ;-) (That'll be another blog entry)

The roads in our neighborhood are pretty treacherous, but for the most part, once you get out, everything is much better. I believe the main road that we normally use to go into town is still closed due to ice, but there is another way to get there, so do not fear! We will be leaving tomorrow to spend a few days with family!

Here are some pictures of Noel spending time in the snow. We only stayed outside a few minutes due to a winter weather-clothing shortage but we had fun anyway!

By the way, if any of you can give me insight as to how to post videos in this new "Blogger" format, please let me know. ??

"The weather outside is Frightful..."

In the past day we've gotten an accumulation of about 17-18 inches of snow, and it's still coming! I hope we still have snow next week because Mom got her a snow suit for Christmas! I can't wait to see her play in it.

Noel's reaction to the snow this morning...

Here are some pictures...

"Here comes Santa Claus..."

Noel and I went to playgroup this past Tuesday. I might start going to playgroup more often - Noel loved it, and it lets her run off her energy and play with other children.

This week, Santa was there! As soon as I put her in his lap, she started crying and arching her back, trying to get down! So I didn't get a picture of that, but I did sit on Santa's lap with her. The pictures are pretty funny-looking, but I'll share one with you all anyway ;-)

Maybe next year!

Here's Leah - amazing how much she's changed in just two months!

"Hi Hannah!"

Noel hugged and kissed her over and over again! Haha

Muah!

And...the crowning picture. Hahaha!

A Very Hokie Christmas :)

Moon Halo

This past week there was a halo around the moon. It is supposed to be an indicator of severe weather coming. A more technical explanation from the internet says, "The ring around the Moon is caused by the refraction of Moonlight (which of course is reflected sunlight) from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. The shape of the ice crystals results in a focusing of the light into a ring. Since the ice crystals typically have the same shape, namely a hexagonal shape, the Moon ring is almost always the same size."

My lens isn't made for this kind of photography, and I am definitely an amateur, but I thought I'd share these anyway.

"Sah"

Recently Noel has been recognizing socks. When she sees them, she'll say "Sah!"

For now, she's been calling shoes the same thing. And she is obsessed with them!

She tries mine and Tim's shoes on all the time!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

We FINALLY were able to buy our tree last night. Originally, I wanted to go out and cut down our own tree. I wanted it to be our holiday tradition. But since Noel is so young this year anyway, and it was hard enough to find time to go out to the tree lot, I took what I could get!

We headed down to the Boy Scout Tree Lot and we ended up getting a Canaan Fir. We thought about setting it up downstairs (where Noel can't get into it all day) but I decided that I'd rather have it upstairs, even if I have to correct her when she starts getting into it. So far she hasn't been that bad about it :)

We got some new lights this year: I originally wanted to get the flame-shaped LED ones, but since there was a good deal on them, I got these:

Ooohhh Lights!

And this is the cool effect I got when I used no flash, a long exposure, and moved

the camera in circles. Pretty!

I'll try to get a full shot of the tree later. It's kind of sad-looking though because the bottom half of the tree is pretty scarce!

Tis the Season for portraits!

Today's portrait session was quite different from her 2008 Christmas pictures. She was running around the entire time, and wouldn't smile for the camera. When she would stop for a minute, she was sucking her thumb or talking.

We managed to get one decent one of her, although I wish we had more variety to choose from!

 

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Happy Turkey Day!

This year we actually had Thanksgiving at our house! Mom, Dad, and one of Tim's co-workers were able to join us too.

We had turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, cranberry salad, deviled eggs, and rolls. For dessert, we had a cherry pie and pumpkin pie. Here are the pictures!

That is a 21.5 lb turkey!! Needless to say, we're still having turkey mixed

in to our meals, to use up the leftovers. It took about 5 hours to bake, in

a roasting bag.

While we were cooking, Noel was playing with her doll. She also

wanted to be involved in the cooking, which is why there aren't more

pictures to share!

Dad was watching the Band of Brothers marathon. In the meantime, he

snapped this picture of Noel. Haha! Cheese!

 

Lots of kisses from Grandpa!

Setting the table. I have no napkin folding skills, but I made it work!

 Gobble Gobble!

We sat down to eat around 3:30. Time to carve the turkey!

Noel was head of the table :)

Maybe next year she can say the blessing ;-)

Pre-Thanksgiving Visit

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Noel and I headed to Roanoke to spend some time with grandparents and friends (since we stayed home for Thanksgiving itself.

We had a great time! Here are some pictures.

Mom got out my old babydoll from the attic (Susie). Noel LOVED her!

 I managed to snap ONE shot of Sarah and Noel before she took off! She smiled for me

but of course you can hardly tell when her hand is in her mouth!

As for videos, I apologize for not having any. Tim borrowed it sometime during this hunting season, and it has yet to be recovered!