Christmas

Another Christmas has already come and gone. And I say it every year, but I can't believe another year is almost over. This Christmas was wonderful. I will say that having children during the holidays makes things infinitely better. This year, Alex is old enough to mildly understand the concept of Santa Claus. He woke up on Christmas morning and saw the glorious gifts staring back at him under the twinkling of the lights and said, "Mom, Santa came!" It was wonderful. The smile on the kiddo's faces was my best Christmas gift ever. I know now why my parents sacrificed so much during the holidays just to give us a nice Christmas. But of course, it's not all about the gifts. As per tradition, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus before tearing into the presents. It was so much fun and I know that it just gets better every year. It really is my favorite holiday. I love getting presents for the kids in the family and making all sorts of tasty treats to give away to family and friends. But I must admit that I am ready for a break. It's time to return to normalcy. And with that note, you should know that the Christmas tree was gone mere hours after waking up on the 26th. I'd had one full month of tearing Alex and Abby off of the tree and pulling ornaments out of Abby's mouth. Actually we had quite a few ornament casualties this year and some of them were due to partial digestion (Abby). Yuck. Anyhow, I know that I am late in getting up my Christmas photos, but I was busy enjoying the rare moments of having a husband around for a day.

We exchanged gifts with Mandy and her wee ones a couple of days before Christmas and they had a blast with the first gifts of the season. And yes, that is a cat butt in the picture. Christmas is the cats' favorite holiday too. They love the trash part of it. Boxes, paper and string, oh my!

This is Alex and Abby going bananas when I told them it was time to open presents.

Alex loved going through his stocking. He pulled one thing out at a time with joy.

Abby mostly just dumped the whole stocking on the floor without even thinking about the element of surprise. But as you can see by the look on her face, she was pretty excited about everything in it. Those are stickers. Santa knows what the kids like.

Josh's parents gave him a Patriots calendar. That would be his favorite football team.

Alex got a Woody doll to match his Buzz Lightyear that I found at a garage sale. He was very happy.

Abby's favorite was her tea set. She can't get enough of this toy. She plays with it nearly every day, serving me tea and cake whenever she can.

This is my favorite picture by far. I giggle every time I see it. Abby got a pink bunny with a pink baby backpack carrier and a pink purse. Guess who uses it now? Yup...that's my little man! And yes, that is a Wiggles shirt he is wearing.

And just for fun, I threw in a picture of the kiddos Christmas ornaments for this year. I couldn't really afford the arm and leg it costs to buy fun ornaments that the kids might actually have a connection to so I Suzy Homemaker-ed a couple of them up. Seeing as how they are avid Wiggles fans, I wanted to make them Wiggles ornaments. $1.00 later, and lots of random arts and crafts from around the house, I have these. They say: Alexander's Wiggly Christmas and Abigail's Wiggly Christmas.

So it was wonderful and I look forward to it again next year. For now I'm just glad that the kids have new things to do to keep them busy during the long winter ahead. And where am I in the photos you might ask? Yes...I have zero photos that involve me. Mama Monkey is the photographer. Oh well...maybe next time. I hope you all had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did!

Funday Sunday - Pumpkin Pie, Dairy Free!

Could it be? Is it really possible that there is a way to make pumpkin pie without milk in it? Why yes. Yes it is. I figure, in spirit of the holiday, I will post a holiday recipe. Okay, so you can get a pumpkin pie recipe just about anywhere on the internet, right? Well, it's true. I mean, all you have to do is google it and bingo! There's a pumpkin pie recipe lookin' back at ya!. Shoot, you can even get it off the side of a can of pumpkin. But if you have a milk allergy, nearly every recipe you find will include one key ingredient: evaporated milk. It's sorta necessary for the pie to work. There's no such thing as canned evaporated soy milk. So after some research, I found that you can, in fact make evaporated soy milk. Without further ado, I give you Pumpkin Pie, Dairy Free!

Pumpkin Pie, Dairy Free!

2 Eggs: beaten
1 1/2 c. Pumpkin
3/4 c. Sugar
1/2 t. Salt
1 t. Cinnamon
1/2 t. Ginger
1/4 t. Cloves
4 1/3 c. Plain soy milk*
1 Uncooked pie crust

The first thing you will want to do is evaporate your soy milk. This is a very long process because you have to evaporate the soy milk down by 50%. A normal pumpkin pie takes 1 & 2/3 cups of regular evaporated milk (1 can) and in order to get soy milk (which is extremely low fat) to work in an evaporated form, you have to start with twice the amount you need. The purpose of evaporated milk is to have the fatty part of the milk which is why soy milk doesn't work well in puddings and pies. Pour your milk into a saucepan and simmer it down over a medium-low heat. I will warn you that it takes at least an hour to evaporate it to 50%. Stir continuously so that you prevent scorching or boiling over. I use a wooden spoon to stir.** Once you have your evaporated milk, let it cool in the fridge so that it is at least warm and not boiling hot. Mix the eggs, pumpkin, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Finally, add the evaporated soy milk and mix it all well. Pour it in the uncooked pie shell and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour (the soy milk can increase the cook time from what I've experienced so that is why I say up to an hour.) The pie is done, when you can insert a knife into the middle and it comes out clean. The pie will look slightly darker than your traditional pumpkin pie but tastes identical!

*I've never used vanilla soy milk on this because I think it might not cook down the same as plain. Sugars can do weird things when they get heated. **Tip: You can use the handle of the wooden spoon to keep track of your evaporated milk process. Before turning on the heat, dip the handle into the milk to measure depth and mark that spot with your fingernail/knife on the spoon. Make a mark at the halfway point on the spoon and every so often, just dip the handle into the milk and see how close you are to the 50% point.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas. We got the joy of a white Christmas this year. Actually, I'll be digging my way out of our three foot snow drifts that have graced us by accumulating right behind my van. Go figure. We get to go eat a delicious turkey dinner at my mom and dad's house in a few hours. The kids are happily playing...or rather fighting over...their Christmas loot. But let's not forget the reason for the season. Happy birthday Jesus! I hope you all have a blessed Christmas this year.

~ Love from the Little Monkeys

Ink a Bink, a Face Full of Ink

Today was a new experience for me. Seeing as how Josh is gone...always gone...my days are longer. But at a certain point in the evening, I can't seem to find enough time to finish the many things that must be done around here. It all starts with dinner and ends with me suffering from back pain as I run amok through the house while I finish the last chores of the day. (Where's a good chiropractor when you need one? Eh, Ben?) Anyhow, in order to progress in the slightest bit towards the end of the evening, I have come to rely on ulterior forms of entertainment. The Wiggles only go so far, so lately I've been giving Alex and Abby different items to entertain themselves while I vacuum. Tonight, I gave them paper and pens. Now, now. Don't judge me for giving them pens at such a young age. They were early Christmas presents that I gave them. They are little pads of paper on a Santa clipboard that comes with a tiny ink pen. Cute and made for kiddos. Okay, so maybe not made for a 20 month old, but she doesn't seem to understand that she isn't as old as Alex. So...she got one too. To say the least, it worked. Oh, they were entertained alright. Only, not exactly as how I planned. They decided that the paper wasn't interesting enough and decided to have a pen battle. This is new for me. Usually, when they get bored, they simply draw on themselves instead of each other. But could they just stick to the routine? No. Of course not. I looked over to see them whacking each other across the face (whilst laughing, mind you) with the pens. And I don't mean just mere drawing on one another. They actually caused red welts to develop over their entire faces. One mark was actually a few centimeters from an eyeball! What I don't understand is how there were no tears shed in this little battle of ink. I mean, the welts were huge! And everywhere! *sigh* Needless to say, they no longer possess those pens and I officially won the "Idiot mom move of the year' award.

Who Dunnit?

I present to you the classic 'who dunnit' scenario. Two suspects and only one guilty party. Judging purely from the photographs, it is very difficult to say which of the two suspected characters could be responsible for the damage done. Here I have Exhibit A:


Clearly you can see that damage has been done. I, being the detective in this situation, decided to clean up the mess so as not to give the suspect reason to return and finish the damage. As you can clearly see, the toilet paper has been unraveled and shredded beyond use and recognition. In a house of two kids and five cats, the possibilities are endless. The first to return to the scene is seen in Exhibit B:

Due to lack of declawing, it is apparent that suspect "Penny" was possibly returning to the scene to further the damage to the poor unsuspecting roll of toilet paper. But upon investigating, a second suspect returned to the scene of the crime. See Exhibit C:

Due to the age and pure nature of the above suspect, it was even more clear to me that there was indeed a very good chance that suspect "Abby" was also fully capable of rendering a perfectly good roll of toilet paper unusable. After interrogating the suspects, the crime was solved. Let us see who was responsible for the toilet paper's ultimate demise...

Case solved.

Funday Sunday - Granola Bars

What kid doesn't enjoy a good granola bar every now and then? Or what adult for that matter? The problem with prepackaged granola bars is that I have yet to find a single one (and believe me, I've looked) that does not contain milk or nuts of some form. So when I get in that 'granola-mood', I make my own. This, like the previous Funday Sunday recipe, has many possibilities. The less allergies you have, the more fun you can have of course. My kiddos love them of course and Josh gobbles his fair share up too. I tell ya, I love rolled oats. They have so many uses!

Granola Bars

1/2 c. Butter
3/4 c. Brown Sugar
1/3 c. Corn Syrup
1 Egg
1/2 t. Vanilla
3 1/2 c. Oats
1/2 c. Raisins*
1 c. Chocolate Chips**

Mix the butter, sugar and corn syrup together in a bowl. Add the egg and vanilla. Third, add the oats, raisins and chocolate chips to the mixture and mix well. Grease a 9x13 pan and firmly press the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until it's light brown on the top. It usually takes me around 23 minutes. Cool for two hours before eating (but they taste pretty darn good warm with a glass of (soy) milk). Expect them to be slightly crumbly. I don't know what the manufacturers do to keep them nice and firm, but a little crumble never hurt anyone.

*I've substituted the raisins with dried cranberries. They are really tasty in the mix. And I've even added both to change it up. I figure you could put just about any dried fruit you want in there. Blueberries, apricots, coconut, etc. My favorite is coconut and cranberries.
**If you don't have any kind of milk or nut allergy the chocolate chips can be substituted for just about any kind of chip (or no chips at all if preferred). I have always wanted to try 1/2 cup peanut butter chips and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Drizzle a little melted chocolate chips over the top of the cooled bars and you could have a really nice peanut-butter cup granola bar. Yum!
***Just FYI...marshmallows don't hold up in the oven so don't waste them trying but I bet peanuts or almonds would be tasty.

Christmas Vote

I'm putting it to a vote folks! I have three photos that I am going to put on this blog and I'd like to have your opinion on which one I should give out for Christmas. All three of them are pretty cute pictures of the kiddos, but trying to photograph Abby is near impossible. So keep that in mind when you see her sucking her thumb. I'm putting a poll up on the side bar of the blog so if you check out this blog, please, please, please vote. These are by no means professional photos. Abby wanted to do nothing but scream and Alex wanted to watch her scream and laugh at her. So I don't have plans to get professional photos done. That, and I can't really afford a pro. So let me know what you think. I'm leaving the poll open until Friday. I have to have the pictures mailed out by Saturday if there's any hope of getting them delivered by Christmas. Your opinion counts!

#1 - Alex & Abby Close-up

#2 - Alex & Abby Christmas

#3 - Alex & Abby Zoo