Christmas 2008

Rich gave Mina the third book in the Faraway Tree series. He read these stories as a boy in New Zealand and has enjoyed sharing the tales with Mina. This particular book, with the original illustrations, came from Australia.

Christmas morning! Check out the loaves of bread! On Christmas Eve, Rich and i enjoyed a fun night cooking and baking some treats for the holidays.

Here's an email that we sent to a local DJ when he asked everyone what we were cooking.

From: Annie RL [mailto:-----] Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 9:37 PMTo: 'dj@kexp.org'Subject: Are we cooking?

Love the tunes. It is keeping us going, as we’re not quite done yet!

Here’s what we’ve been up to:

4 loaves of whole wheat “hearth bread” (2 loaves baked so far)
3 loaves of Stollen (waiting to be baked)
A dozen “ginger people”
2 dozen home-made flour tortillas
1 batch of home-made mole (a sauce filled with chocolate, nuts and chiles)
1 dozen cinnamon rolls
* Bruschetta romesco
* Shrimp corn cakes
* Sea-salted edamame beans

*eaten already

Tomorrow, we’ll be having an Ethiopian feast, with Injera bread and a bunch of sauces. Mmmm. That should make tomorrow afternoon pretty busy.

Annie and Rich – listeners (and members). Mina and Miles already tucked into bed, looking forward to tomorrow.

The DJ mentioned us on air, stating that we were cooking up a storm and that we must be big people based on all the baked goods! He told us not to be embarrassed, admitting that he was a big guy himself.

Checking out some new books. Mina is hooked on The Boxcar Children. Thanks Uncle Hot Dog and Auntie Becca!

We have finally entered into the land of (tiny pieces) lego. Mina played with this for about four hours! Thanks Phil and Leanne!

Miles and his digger shirt. This was what he really wanted from Santa. And Thomas underwear!

The Monday before Christmas, Miles, on his own, decided that he wanted to say goodbye to diapers/training pants. Miles basically made a night and day switch. I'm not sure if it could have been any easier. This was a nice little present for Mamma!

Our Christmas dinner -Ethiopian food! This was our third or fourth Christmas having homemade Ethiopian food on injera bought at a local Ethiopian market. You use the injera to scoop the sauces - the kids loved this part and the holiday crackers!

Mina, dressed in a new scarf, dipping into dinner. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Lander!

Bedtime in the Xmas jammies.

Peace, joy, love and hope to you.