Update

Well, it seems the Santa Tracker is not all that accurate... For all of you keeping track, Santa is not in Argentina, he is in Michigan. In fact, we just caught him. He was pretty surprised when he came at 7:30 and found our kids still up. He gave us all a "Merry Christmas", passed out candy canes and hugs, and told us to "go to bed". The kids have never moved so quickly!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (and go to bed)!

Counting Down

We are almost ready for Christmas here, almost...

Thankfully everyone seems to be well again after a visit from a nasty stomach bug.

We are tracking Santa's whereabouts via http://www.noradsanta.org/ (we are using the 3-D Google Earth version)!

The tree is ready:

The gifts are wrapped and we even managed to paint frames the kid's teachers - a great kid craft by the way. Inexpensive, simple and, most importantly, time consuming. Hard to tell who painted what isn't it?

The cookies baked:

We're getting there - we just need to bake one more batch of cookies because Santa loves fresh Peanut Butter Blossoms. Just in case you are still getting there too, Santa might enjoy these truffles (in the white paper cups). They are quick, easy and very tasty:

Easy Chocolate Truffles

10 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1 tablespoons corn syrup

1/2 cup heavy cream, room temperature (I didn't say they were good for you...)

Flavoring of your choice - I used about 1 tbs orange extract, but you could use vanilla, coffee, peppermint, rum, etc.

Powdered sugar for rolling them in

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler (I just use a Pyrex bowl), stir in butter. Add corn syrup. Slowly stir in the cream adding a little at a time until incorporated. Finally, add in flavoring. Refrigerate until the mixture is firm, about 1 hour. Scoop out about a heaping teaspoon worth and roll into a ball. I found that rolling it in your hands is much easier than using a small ice cream scoop. Roll balls in powdered sugar to coat.

Slip n' Slide

Actually, on Tuesday it was a slip on the slide. Yes, it finally happened I got "The Call". You know the one. "This is Becky from the office. There has been an accident on the playground. Spencer fell off the platform of the slide. He is fine, but his face is bleeding and his leg hurts, so you need to come down here."

Both Laney and AJ were napping, so I called my mom to come over and watch them while I went to survey the damage. Driving over to the school I was thinking about the hurt leg. The potentially broken leg. I had just been in Spencer's class to help out just a couple of hours earlier and reminded him to put Chapstick on because his lips were so dry. That crack in the middle must have split open and that was what was bleeding, but the leg, the leg, that's was not so good.

When I got to the office one side of his little face was covered with an ice pack, but on the other side there was a tear running down his cheek. I immediately started checking his leg, it seemed fine, so I moved up to his head. That, however, didn't look so good with lots of cuts and bruises:

We spent the next 24 hours monitoring for a concussion, but all was fine.

It has been treacherous around here with all of the ice. Actually, I fell down twice yesterday and it wasn't pretty. We got a dusting of dry snow that covered all of the ice which makes for dangerous conditions, so lookout! We are supposed to get 6 - 10 inches of snow early tomorrow, which ought to provide sufficient coverage. No more ice to worry about, but lots of digging ahead.

Graffiti Table

Our coffee table was in need of a makeover, so I have been painting away. We had some of this chalk board spray paint I bought to use on a wall in our old basement, but I never got around to painting it. I thought the table was the perfect use.

The paint gets a thumbs up, with one exception - no table tops. I was feeling pretty good about my project until the kids actually started to use it... I imagine it would be great for vertical surfaces, but the kids set things on the table, including their little bottoms, and walk away with chalk all over. Guess I should have thought that one a through a little more - now the chalk is going to have to "disappear".

Another Baby

Bet I got your attention. This one has 4 legs though - yes, it's a pup-pee. Meet Penny:

Spencer just informed me that I spelled "puppy" wrong, but, oh no, it is definitely the correct spelling. She was born August 29, 2008 and is now the baby of the house, but, unfortunately, unlike AJ she does not wear diapers.

Up to this point Sam and I have had cats, but living in the country we thought it would be a good idea to have another set of eyes around. I started looking for dogs and found a 6 month old St. Bernard, a breed that is supposed to be good with families. She was a rescue, which I really liked the idea of, and most importantly she was house trained. We never got a chance to meet her because she was very popular, but there was another family friendly rescue dog I was interested in. However, while waiting for a review of the 32 question application with questions such as, "In the event of a divorce who will care for the dog?" and having the foster parent call our vet to verify information before we were even allowed to meet the dog, we started looking elsewhere. That's when we came across Penny.

Sam and I went to look at her and she seemed really sweet. We were able to meet her mom and learned that she lived with a family that also had 4 children - both big pluses. So, not really having a clue as to what we were getting ourselves into, Penny came home with us. The owner said she was crate trained, but she promptly came home and "eliminated" on the floor. Great! Not long after we, the cat people, got another message from the dog universe - Penny has a heart murmur that was not detected at her 10 week appointment. It could be nothing, or it could be something really bad and the only thing to do is wait. Can you believe it? We'll know more next weekend at her check-up. Until then I'll keep the paper towels and Pet Oxy Clean handy.