Merry Christmas!

I hope you're all enjoying a wonderful day with family, friends, or both today! We are so thankful for the wonderful communities of support we have in Utah, Virginia, New Jersey, and - well - all over the world. Hugs to all of you readers, and we hope to see you SOON!
love, Virginia, Bill and Freddy

Santa at the mall

I will never forget driving to Richmond to take a photo with Santa at Miller and Rhodes department store. It was always the same Santa. I swear his beard was real. There was a grand display of velvet, lights, elves, and toys (at least in my mind). Somehow this photo of Freddy with Santa with some random shop in the background isn't quite the same....

BUT, Freddy didn't scream, the 'formal' photos are close-ups, and Bill was nice enough to venture into a mall to do this at the 11th hour. Strong work.

I particularly like the second photo, in which Freddy seems to be saying "why are you touching me?"

His beard was real, though. This is an important element to a successful Santa photo.

Hiatus...

Since we'll be 'back east' for a week, I suspect we'll be taking a break from the blog for a while. Should have lots of new photos to show you when we get back, though!!

Bed Head

I don't really need to describe this, do I? :)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We leave tomorrow for a week in Virginia! I couldn't be more excited to see my family, although it's tempered a little by the knowledge that we have to first get through a 4 1/2-hour flight with a 14-month-old...I have enough new toys and treats to entertain an entire kindergarten class! Unfortunately, we were hoping to have a middle seat between us but that is now full. Lovely. Next time, we buy him a seat!

Mommy's Little Helper

Ok, not sure if this was actually helping or not, but he thought it was funny. :)

Maybe he'll be a hairdresser.

HI!

Freddy loves phones and keys (this seems to go in phases...). He especially likes holding Bill's phone up to the back of his head - which I guess is close enough to his ear to count - and saying "LO? LO! LO?" This is Freddy-speak for "hello", of course.

Dinnertime

Freddy's first spaghetti (why did we wait this long??).

More Snow - and Lots of it!

Wow - it started snowing sometime Friday night and hasn't really stopped yet! Apparently our neighborhood got 8 inches. We're supposed to get more today (Monday) and Tuesday, with potential for more later this week. Great for the mountains, but I really need to find my snow scraper. Maybe if my car just never left the garage....


Bill and I went skiing on Sunday with our friends Robin and Michael, while our Sunday sitter Amanda braved the snow to come to our house and watch our kids. Apparently they behaved themselves (excellent!), and we got some great turns in fresh powder. It was beautiful up there - all the trees are just piled with snow, and the snow fell most of the day. The only problem was that Robin and I both somehow almost got frostbite on the lift on our third run of the day! Michael had just been talking about how the tip of his nose had gotten frostbitten a few years before and how it's still cold-sensitive. We all got off the lift, when I looked at Robin and said 'Robin! The tip of your nose is all white!'. She said "oh my God - so is yours!" Luckily we had stuffed those full face-masks in our pocket when we left the car, so we were able to cover our noses right away and get some pink back. Whew! That would not have been good.

We did look like hoodlums the rest of the day, though, with black ski masks. Nice.

Mommy's Shoes

Doesn't Freddy have a cute outfit on here? We got him all dressed up for a picture with Santa Saturday morning, since we knew it was going to snow hard all day. We went to the Trolley Square mall - no Santa until 5 pm. Went to the Santa Shack in Sugarhouse - no Santa until noon (it was 11:30 and snowing hard). So, no Santa for Freddy, yet. Hopefully we can get one done this week.

In the meanwhile, Freddy had a really good time trying to put on my shoes, Bill's ski boots, my snow boots, and his own snow boots. Fun fun!

Slacker

Well, I'm usually pretty good about only skipping a day here or there with photos, but this week has been nuts and I just haven't had time to schedule a post. But many of you will actually be receiving your holiday cards before Christmas, so take that as consolation (maybe).

Bill has been really busy at work, which I think is a good thing but I know is stressful and tiring for him. I had to drive to St. George for the day (about 4 1/2 hours one way) on Wednesday for work, and Narda's daughter was sweet to babysit Freddy until Bill got home from work. I got home about 11:45. It's incredible how easily you get used to sleeping through the night again...if we have another kid one day, I'm sure it'll be a shock to have to get up all night!

We are dog-sitting our neighbors' awesome dog, Ruby, who is a springer/lab mix - I think - and is very, very well behaved. She is currently curled up in her dog bed asleep in my office while I work. Adorable. My boss just forwarded me an e-mail from someone who wants to give away their 2-year-old labradoodle. Other than the ridiculous name, they're supposed to be great dogs. Although I firmly believe in adopting dogs from animal shelters, I would be willing to bend for someone who just wants a good home for a dog (full-bred or not). After all, we had to do that with Kylie, and better this dog finds a good home than gets dumped at the shelter. We'll see if she's still available and whether we like her....

More photos to come, I promise. We're supposed to get snow this weekend, and since Freddy will now put his snow boots on, maybe we can go sledding!

Holiday House

Billy and I worked hard to get some holiday decorations up for the neighborhood party we hosted last weekend. And I promise, the tree is not as crooked as it looks here! But it's the biggest we've ever had, so parents: take note, we could use some new ornaments. It turns out the two big tupperwares of Christmas stuff we have might not be enough. I made the wreath on our front door in a class last Thursday (I do realize, Mary, that I'm opening myself up to some Martha Stewart jokes here) - not perfect, but it wasn't as hard as I would have thought and I'm pretty proud of my results!

So far, Freddy hasn't been too destructive with the tree. The worst thing that's happened is that his ball has rolled under it and he's gotten a little curious about the ornaments. The non-breakables are down low, and it's cute when he plays with them a little. Oh, and he did dump out the watering can I was using to keep the tree stand full. But that's not really his fault - I did leave a half-full can on the floor in plain view (duh). Last Saturday, we were lighting candles in advance of the party, and he pulled a lit candle off the table. Luckily Bill was standing right there. We're learning lessons left and right (albeit VERY obvious ones)!

SNOW!

Yesterday, finally!! And on the day I forgot a hat or warm coat for Freddy (or any at all for me). Of course. We made it home, and I thought he was going to have fun in the snow before dinner, since he seemed very interested/ excited...then I discovered how hard it is to get boots on a 13-month-old. So we didn't go out. Once they were on, he wouldn't put his feet down! It IS possible that they're too small. Hmm. Mary, do you have any size 6 boots?

Ladders

Freddy has a new trick, and the ladder is going back in the garage right now!

We had a great weekend here - a wonderful 'progressive' dinner on Saturday night with our neighbors that went really well! The weather is cold but clear, and Freddy is really fun these days...(except for the ladder climbing).

Welcome William Rasmus Livers!

Julie and Greg had their second son last Tuesday night - Will arrived quickly and is healthy! Everybody is doing well, and even Charlie (their 2-year-old) seems to be adjusting well so far!

Amber's Lemon Curd Cheesecake

Here's Amber Lavin's Lemon Curd Cheesecake Recipe, for those of you who like cheesecake. Our Thanksgiving guests RAVED about it!

Lemon Curd Cheesecake

Crust
Cooking spray
¼ cup ( ½ stick) butter, melted
1 ¾ cups vanilla wafers, crushed

Filling
3 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 large eggs

Lemon Curd
1 ½ tsp grated lemon zest
6 Tbsp lemon juice
1 large egg + 1 large yolk
½ cup sugar
2 Tbsp butter, cold and cut into bits

Crust: Preheat oven to 350 and spray 9" spring form pan with cooking spray. In bowl mix crumbs and butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and ½ inch up sides of pan. Bake 8-10 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden and crust is set. Let cool on rack; after cool wrap outside of pan with heavy-duty foil several times. Reduce oven temp. to 325.

Filling: In a large bowl, with electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese 2-3 minutes or until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar, scraping sides of bowl with spatula, until smooth. With mixer on medium speed add sour cream, lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, just until incorporated. Poor into crust and filled spring form in the middle of a large roasting pan. Carefully pour enough boiling water into roasting pan to reach halfway up sides of spring form pan. Bake for 70-75 minutes until center of cheesecake is almost set, but still slightly jiggle (do not over bake ... cake will firm as it cools). Let cool in water 15 minutes then transfer spring form pan to rack and let it cool completely. Remove foil and refrigerate until chilled, at least 8 hours or overnight. Run thin knife around edge of pan and remove pan sides.

Lemon Curd: In top of a double boiler combine all ingredients except butter. Over gently simmering water, whisk ingredients until hot and frothy, about 5 minutes. Gradually whisk in butter over a time period of 7 minutes or until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat; let cool at least ½ hour. Spread curd over top of the cheesecake and garnish with raspberries (or raspberry jam J)

*I've found that it only takes about 2 decent sized lemons to make the filling and lemon curd and I actually don't use any rind for the lemon zest, but just use the juice and pulp b/c I think it tastes better! Even though the directions are a little long, it actually is pretty easy to make, plus it is always nice to be able to make things the day before and still have them taste great.

Big Boy

The day we went Christmas tree shopping, we were hanging out in the front yard. These photos came kind of accidentally...Freddy was just being so cute walking up and down the sidewalk in front of our house (and the nice stone fence around the neighbors on the corner). Sorry if they're a little repitious, but how cute is he?? 'Course, he probably is getting close to needing his first haircut.

Happy Birthday, Papa!

Hope you have a great day!
love,
Ginny, Bill and Freddy

Baby blue eyes

If he could, Freddy would plan only with phones, cell phones, and cameras. This makes taking photos of him hard - it's like when you hold a camera out to take a pic of yourself when no one else is around to take it. Unnecessary close-ups!

TREES

Let me say, for the record, that I am typically NOT that person who puts up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving - or the weekend after. I don't shop on black Friday and I like to keep my holidays separate and distinct from one another. Well, we're hosting a neighborhood 'progressive' holiday party next Saturday, and since we don't have much furniture, we decided that we ought to holiday-ify our house to make it feel like someone lives here. So we went tree shopping on Saturday and found a perfect tree at one of those temporary lots (the sign said they were from Kalispell, Montana, but who knows?)

Bill had visions of Freddy running up and down through the trees. Since he doesn't really run, yet (heck, he still walks with his hands up for balance at least half the time), that might have been a little optimistic. But he did have fun as long as the trees weren't right in his face. Too bad I had the camera on 'manual' and didn't know it - the photos are mostly out of focus.

The tree is up and lit, thanks to Billy's expert light-hanging, and hopefully I'll get around to putting ornaments on tonight after I try to settle on a holiday card. Freddy seems pretty interested but not yet destructive. We'll see what happens! I do love the holidays, especially 'cause it means I'm that much closer to a trip back to VA to see all the family. Miss you guys!