Snow play

We played outside in the snow today! We haven't played outside in several weeks, due to rain and/or cold. But today it was just beautiful snow outside, and so we spent the 10-15 minutes required to get the three of us into snow gear and trooped outside. Miracle of miracles, nobody had to go to the bathroom right as we were walking out the door or anything, either. (I've always heard the surest way to get your child to suddenly need to do #2 is to put them in a snowsuit, coat, boots, and mittens.)

Zarya had a blast building "snowmen" (piles of snow), and snow angels and "snow Marys." We had made a few snow angels, and then she flopped back in the snow and announced she was making a snow Mary. I think her reasoning went that if you could make one Christmas story character, why not another? She didn't suggest that Jerod make a snow baby Jesus, which is a good thing, because as you can see in the picture above, he was slightly less than enamored by the snow. He was probably also thinking, "Please don't take my picture right now; this snowsuit makes me look so fat!"

New Year's Resolution

Extending the Table: A world community cookbook: recipes and stories from Argentina to Zambia in the spirit of More-with-Less 

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime: comfort classics, freezer meals, 16-minute meals, and other delicious ways to solve supper

One of my easiest, and yet most-disliked chores is figuring out what to make for dinner. Menu-planning sounds like it should be something I'd enjoy - I love planning and thinking ahead and being organized, and I usually like cooking, but somehow menu planning is just not my thing. Who knows why, but sitting down with a blank sheet of paper and writing down what we're going to eat the next week, so that I can figure out what to buy at the store, is just awful.

In the spirit (but not much else) of "Julie and Julia" (a movie, one well worth watching), I'm going to cook my way through two cookbooks in 2016. Unlike the true story in which a woman cooks her way through Julia Child's French cookbook and makes herself do it every single day and does every single recipe and blogs about every one of them, I plan to do this project a little more sanely. Each week I'll choose one thing from each cookbook to make for one of our dinners that week. I'm not going to go in order and I'm not going to make every single thing from either book, but I do plan to try to stretch myself a little bit and try things I might normally skip.

I received both cookbooks as Christmas gifts this year, and they are very different from one another, so we should have plenty of variety. And since these will take care of 2-4 (I figure we'll have leftovers sometimes) meals per week to figure out, and Andrew plans to cook dinner once a week, I'm down to only having to deeply ponder my options for another 1-4 meals. Since I'll probably have to buy some ingredients for my cookbook dishes, then it makes the others easier to figure out; I'll just think about something we like that involves those things I'll have around. Meal planning in 2016 is looking a lot brighter!

Morning motorcycle ride

Good morning! I'm Jerod. Since I'm now one year old, I can ride a motorcycle. This is me headed off for a joyride on my bike. I'm going to the farm, obviously, since I'm in my overalls. I've got some business there to attend to, but I'll be home soon and expect a big welcome back after my little trip around the living room!

Aw... polar bears!

For Christmas, Zarya got a pair of super cute, cozy pajamas. They have a little polar bear all decked out in a scarf and hat on the shirt, and like 50 polar bears on the matching fleece trousers. Because, you know, what's really cuter and sweeter to bundle up your little girl in at bedtime than a fuzzy polar bear pajama set? After all, polar bears are one of the only animals (crocodiles are another - how about some crocodile-patterned summer pajamas?) that will hunt humans for food. How about let's put our daughters to bed with a pack of bears all printed all over their tender, meaty legs.

Don't get me wrong, I like polar bear decor as much as anyone else. In fact, my favorite Christmas mug features the Coca-Cola Always Cool polar bear, because nothing says peace on earth, goodwill to men more than cuddly faces like these three below:

Christmas 2015

We had a holly, jolly Christmas, and we hope you did, too! In lieu of listing presents and activities, I thought my Christmas post this year would feature some food photos. :-) Andrew got a new camera a month or two ago, and he took some food pictures this year, in addition to the usual mix of kids and gifts and Christmas tree shots. I think they turned out pretty well and deserved to be featured, in order to make you all hungry!

But first, an interesting observation...

Andrew and I have celebrated eight Christmases together, in a variety of locations:

2008 - My parents' house in Olympia, Washington

2009 - Andrew's parents' house in Arch Cape, Oregon

2010 - Our Mwisenge house in Musoma, Tanzania

2011 - Our Makoko house in Musoma, Tanzania

2012 - Andrew's sister's house in Warrenton, Oregon

2013 - Our Makoko house in Musoma, Tanzania

2014 - Our house in Indiana, Pennsylvania

2015 - Our house in Indiana, Pennsylvania

As you can see, being in the same place two years in a row is rather out of the ordinary for us!

Breakfast

Way back when Andrew and I were children, we both had cinnamon rolls every year for Christmas breakfast. Upon getting married, it was easy to figure out what we were going to have as our family's Christmas breakfast tradition! We have had cinnamon rolls for every Christmas breakfast since we got married. There were also some accompaniments of eggs, sausage (for Andrew), and winter fruit compote (what you see the remnants of on my plate). Andrew said that my fruit compote looked like something a monkey vomited up, or something like that, and declined eating it. I think sausage smells like a pig who got too close to a hot frying pan, and declined eating that, so we were even.

Dinner

Dinner was seafood soup, made by Andrew. It had mussels, shrimp, and cod in it, and it was pretty good. We liked it enough to want to tweak it a bit and have it again. Since we had clam chowder last year for Christmas dinner and seafood soup this year, it seems that we're starting a seafood tradition for Christmas.

Dessert

Dessert was Pumpkin Cranberry Cake. There are also pecans and raisins inside, and it's pretty good stuff! Maybe it's earned a spot as a Sandeen holiday classic, too. This was my and Zarya's first time to make it, and we are still enjoying it days later.

Family vs. Jesus

Okay, so the title of this post is a little out there, but hey, it got your attention, didn't it?

I just read my parents' annual Christmas letter, and it contained the following line: "We enjoy our family, but we worship Jesus." What a great reminder!

It is December 9th, and the stores, music, decor, and everything (it seems - except the weather, which is oddly warm) is telling me it is Christmastime. In general, people divide the Christmas season into two categories: material holiday ("worldly Christmas") vs. happy traditions with your family ("good Christian Christmas"). Jesus would be included in the latter, since he is a traditional part of Christmas.

I hear plenty of people saying that we need to remember the real reason for the season and how Christmas should be about Jesus, not presents. What I also hear is a lot about family. But is Christmas about family? Isn't it supposed to be about Jesus? But doesn't Jesus want us to be with our families and love them? Families are good, right?

I know some families who don't celebrate with any/many presents. They have a big fun day together as a family, but don't give any (or many) presents. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they are worshiping Jesus any more than those who have ceiling-high piles of stuff that takes them all day to open. Both situations could be about people having a really great day with their families as they celebrate Christmas, one is just a less-expensive version. Is either situation more or less about Jesus? Not necessarily.

This isn't a blog post with an answer, so you can read the above questions and think about them and draw whatever conclusion you wish. Personally, I think celebrations are a lot more fun with other people. The people with whom I usually choose to celebrate things (such as Jesus' birthday) are my family. If you want to dig back into history, God commanded the Israelites to celebrate Passover and other big holidays with their families (and friends and neighbors at times, too). Small families were supposed to share their Passover lambs with others, so as to create a bigger group with which to celebrate.

So, let's enjoy being with our families as we worship Jesus, and let us not confuse the two!

Cheerios

Jerod would like to give you a tutorial on how to eat Cheerios. Since Cheerios are clearly the best food in the world, this is a very important skill.

Are you paying attention? This is how it's done!

You have to pull them out of the far reaches of the tray, which is very tricky.

Next, once it's within reach again, you have to pinch them between a finger and a thumb. Concentrate - so much can go wrong on this step! 

Get it up to your mouth without dropping it, then smash it in.

Delish!