Happy New Year!

Should auld acquaintance, and all that. We are home, which suits us, really, but does make me feel old. Watching the ball drop, of course! Trying to make up my mind about my resolutions.

Random photos of the Christmas carnage

Just a few pictures of Christmas morning. It was so much fun to have her actually understand the concept of opening the gifts, although she seemed to enjoy the ripping off of the paper more than realizing there were toys in there to be played with. I thought we had managed to keep the gifts to a minimum, except somehow now it seems like we really do have toys up to our eyeballs!

choo choo!

the dogs enjoying their present

the overstimulated toddler look

Feeling strangely fine

The after Christmas blues are an old friend of mine. Nothing big, just your run-of-the-mill doldrums. It goes right along with the fact that decorations that look so festive and bright all December long suddenly seem so tired after the 25th. I still keep mine up until New Year’s, mostly because I am lazy, but the thrill is gone. This year, however, I am ok.

It might be because we had a very low key holiday this year, staying in town instead of traveling to see family. We did go see dh’s family on Christmas day, but that was a short trip as they live just a few hours from us. I did the traditional call to my family, I called while everyone was at my mom’s and they passed the phone from person to person. I missed them then, but otherwise content would be the adjective I would choose. Maybe it’s because I had such a crazy few weeks in December I thought I was going to lose my mind and now I’m just glad it’s over. It could be because now we have 5 months until our move, and I’m really looking forward to moving on.

I just got an email from a friend whose dh was supposed to be in Iraq until January because of the extension. The email was a picture of her and her dh! “Some things changed since our Christmas letter,” she wrote. I thought about her a lot this year. The more I think about it, the more I think that I’m feeling good because not only was my dh home, I know that this next year we will be together as a family. That’s a rare guarantee for us. I have a lot to look forward to in 2008 and I’m so very thankful.

Jan Hagel

Today I hope to get my last batch of Jan Hagel baked. I meant to take pictures of the last batch I did earlier in the week but it was scarfed down, pronto. Since I mentioned it before, I keep getting hits from people looking for a recipe (and you asked for it as well, Beth) so I thought I would post it. It really is nothing more than a bar type sugar cookie. Without further ado:

Jan Hagel Cookies

• 1c. butter
• 1c. sugar
• 1 egg, separated
• 2c. flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• hagel, coconut, chopped nuts to sprinkle on top

Cream butter, sugar and egg yolk. Add flour, cinnamon and baking powder. Mix thoroughly. Pat down in cookie sheets until THIN. This is the key to good Jan Hagel, it should be thin enough to almost see through. Brush with egg white. Sprinkle with toppings. Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes. Watch it very carefully, you don’t want it to be too brown.

I usually do some with only chocolate hagel on top (Dutch chocolate sprinkles) and then some with coconut and nuts, which is my dh’s favorite. I suppose you could order hagel online. I have my mother send it to me because while you can find it everywhere in my hometown, it’s hard to come by here. This recipe came from my mother’s oldest sister.

Merry Christmas!

What I really want for Christmas

This one’s for you, baby sis. It’s been stuck in my head since you played it for me last year. Hope you’re staying warm. Merry Christmas!

Who’s this?

Just when you think reintegration from a deployment is complete. Yesterday morning the dutchkid woke up at around 6am. She’s been sick again and has quite a nasty cold. I took her to snuggle in my bed for a few minutes in the hopes of getting another hour or so of sleep. Dh is normally gone to PT by then, but he was still asleep on his side of the bed.

“Who’s this?” she pipes as she reaches over to touch his face.

“Who’s this?!” my dh asks her back, now wide awake, “Who do you think it is?”

“Oh. Daddy! Hi Daddy.”

” ‘Who’s this’. Who else has your mother been sleeping with?” He laughs.

The truth is, she got really used to it being just her and I in the big bed while he was gone. But I guess we’re making progress, she recognized him!

Little fingers

I bought one of these when I was pregnant with the dutchkid:

I thought the backrubber might come in handy in case I had back labor (which I didn’t) but it still felt nice. It’s been gathering dust in the toybox because the dutchkid adopted it as one of her household object type toys. Lately she found it back again and I showed her what it was meant for.

Backrubs for everyone! One of the unforseen perks of having kids! Her daddy’s already scheming on how to teach her to give backscratches, but backrubs are my thing. That’s my girl!

PSA: Aafes Toy Recall

Just in case anyone reading is a sucker for wooden toys like I am. I didn’t buy these but did look at the blocks in the PX. From the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website, article here

AAFES Recalls “Soldier Bear” Toys Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard.

This recall involves the following wooden toys and a plastic military vehicle toy playset. The style number, UPC codes and “Soldier Bear” logo are printed on the toy’s packaging.

• Wooden Pull-Along Learning Blocks Wagon (alphabet blocks in a wooden wagon)
• Time Teacher (magnetic shapes & clock in pull cart)
• Wooden Riding Horse
• Vehicle Playset (blue military vehicle with action figures

I sub to the CPSC’s site, which has come in very handy. I’m always feeling like I’m going to miss one of the recalls. We’ve been fortunate, none of our toys have been recalled yet. I hope I can still say that after next week!

Bah Humbug

Just got a card from someone we knew at our last duty station and it’s from the wife and child at a new address, no mention of the husband.

Nothing more depressing than realizing someone got divorced by the Christmas card. I feel like a complete heel for making such a poor effort to keep in touch with them that I was unaware of it and sent our card to them still as a family. Sigh.

Maybe I don’t want to live in Italy…

It’s always been one of my many dreams to live in Italy, to have a summer home there with all the money I don’t have. When I opened up my yahoo mail this morning I saw this news article: Court changes baby’s name. Evidently these parents wanted to name their child “Friday” and an Italian tribunal decided that it fell under a law that prevents parents from naming their children things that are ridiculous or shameful. Part of their reasoning was because of the character Friday in Robinson Crusoe. Even though sometimes I feel like as a country we are falling all over ourselves to be politically correct, it’s laughable to me to even think about something like that happening in the U.S. We so emphasize being unique and heaven help the person (or agency) who thinks they can get in the way of personal freedom.

I used to work in the newborn nursery and let me tell you I’ve heard some doozys. Friday sounds absolutely tame. As a matter of fact I think it’s cute. It reminds me of that old Cary Grant movie “His Girl Friday”. Maybe I can talk dh into that name for our theoretical next child!