She cheered when everyone sang to her,

found the icing flowers fascinating,

and perfected the double-fisted cake-grab.

Presents are still kind of a mystery, but with assistance, she found cute clothes and fun toys.

This is a kind of building block called “Wedgits,” from Brian’s mom.  I gave her a toy smartphone, which lights up and plays music when you press the “apps.”  I only mention this because I have a daft fantasy that my blog will be read by some archaeologist 100 years from now, and this mention of toy smartphones will come across as quaint and charming.

My favorite moment of the evening was how she clapped, cheered, and crowed with the whole family surrounding her — and then how she got a little bashful when we all sang “Happy Birthday.”  She couldn’t have cared less about the cake just then.  Thank goodness big brother William was there to extinguish the candle.

In fact, why not watch a snippet for yourself?

Take note: these are not the most popular, most distinguished, most likely to win an award, etc.  It isn’t the list of books I’d make for librarians or teachers to purchase.  It is simply an idiosyncratic list of my personal favorites.  Fire up those library cards and read away!

PICTURE BOOKS

• Just ‘Cause It’s Purty Snow Rabbit Spring Rabbit by Il Sung Na
• Fun With Graphic Design Perfect Square by Michael Hall
• Most Clever Cleverness Press Here by Herve Tullet
• It’s Jane Goodall as a Little Kid! Me . . . Jane by Patrick McDonnell
• Best Christmas Story The Money We’ll Save by Brock Cole
• Best Novella-as-Picture-Book The Secret River by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (aka “The Lady Who Wrote The Yearling”), illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon
• Reminds Me of My Own Early Childhood In the Meadow by Yukiko Kato, illus. Komako Sakai (aka illustrator of Emily’s Balloon and other favorites)
• You’ll “Get It” if You Read It Out Loud I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
• Best Cartoon Family Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake by Michael B. Kaplan, illus. Stephane Jorisch
• Grand Prize for Stupendous Moose IllustrationThe House in the Woods by Inga Moore
• My Kids Made Me Read It Over and Over Until I got Sick of It, So Beware Mitchell’s License by Hallie Durand, illus. Tony Fucile
• Best Fractured Fairy Tale The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett; illus. Poly Bernatene
• Most Likely to Cause Giggle Fits What Animals Really Like by Fiona Robinson
• Just Plain Powerful Never Forgotten by Patricia C. McKissack, illus. Leo & Diane Dillon
• Best Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 timeless rhymes from 50 celebrated cartoonists edited by Chris Duffy
• I Admit That Elizabeth Is a Cool Name My Name is Elizabeth! by Annika Dunklee, illus. Matthew Forsythe
• Put it in Your Church Bag Naamah and the Ark at Night (note: Naamah is more popularly known as “Mrs. Noah”) by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, illus. Holly Meade
• The Japanese Can Bring the Cute When They Need To 999 Tadpoles by Ken Kimura, illus. Yasunari Murakami
• Because There Aren’t Enough Stellar Books About Groundhog’s Day Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox by Susan Blackaby, illus. Carmen Segovia
• Let’s Get Excited About Vegetables! Rah Rah Radishes! by April Pulley Sayre
• Best Picture Book About Dementia (It’s a Category If I Say It Is) Grandpa Green by Lane Smith
• The Obligatory Awesome Mo Willems Book Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator! by Mo Willems

MIDDLE GRADE FICTION

• Best Anti-Girly Girl Marty McGuire by Kate Messner, illus. Brian Floca (I LOVE his art!)
• Channeling Diana Wynne-Jones, Part I (Magic Can Be Confusing)Small Persons With Wings by Ellen Booraem
• Channeling Diana Wynne-Jones, Part II (Pranks Can Win the War) Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
• Channeling Diana Wynn-Jones, Part III (This Time, with Jane Austen-y Antics!) Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
• This Author Will Be Famous Someday Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
• Best Historical Fiction With Talking Mice The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright
• Best Historial Fiction With a Severed Hand Caper The Trouble With May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm
• Best Historical Fiction With Victorian Ladies Getting in GunfightsThe Year We Were Famous
• Book With Best Crossover Appeal for Adults Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
• That Jerk Patrick Ness Made Me Cry A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
• Most Heart-Warming-y Heartwarming The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall
• Sometimes It’s Better When You Don’t Get Prince CharmingThe Silver Bowl by Diane Stanley
• Treasure Seeking Hijinks With Cowboys and Dragons! The Dragon of Cripple Creek by Troy Howell
• Arthurian Knights Can Be Surprisingly Deep — and Funny The Adventures of Sir Gawain the True by Gerald Morris
• Poetry Can Make Your Head Spin Hidden by Helen Frost
• But Will Martin Scorsese Direct the Film Adaptation? Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
• Immigration Can Be Hard The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce
• Best Depiction of Contemporary Africa The No. 1 Car Spotter by Atinuke
• Immigration Can Be Hard — Especially During the Vietnam War Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
• I Usually Don’t Like Multi-Author Anthologies But This One’s Pretty Great The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Authors Tell the Tales , illus. by Chris Van Allsburg
• Sentient Origami Rules Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Note: Yes, once again it’s a short list.  I’ve grown tired of supernatural romance/gossipy frenemies/dystopian fiction, so that winnowed the playing field by quite a bit.  Plus, with the birth of Baby Katie this year, I wasn’t up for anything where anything really bad happens.    I even checked out every one of these titles from the library, kept them on my shelf, and then turned them back in.  THAT’S HOW BAD IT IS THESE DAYS.  So this year, for the first time ever – I am listing a group of books which I know are wonderful and which I know you will like, but which I am simply too wimpy to read right now.

What I Read And Thought Worthy of Sharing:

• Best Fairy Tale Adaptation (and that’s really saying something, trust me) Entwined by Heather Dixon
• Best Road Trip Through Europe The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson (note: this is a sequel to Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes, which is also excellent)
• When Bad Covers Happen to REALLY Good Books Chime by Franny Billingsley
• It’s Like Seabiscuit With Legendary Irish Fairy Horses The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

What’s Probably Great But Which I Am Too Wimpy To Read:

• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (Siberian Prison Camp!)
• Blood Red Road  by Moira Young (post apocalyptic universe! with cage fighting!)
• All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin (dystopian future where chocolate is illegal!)
• Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard (boy drowns at 80s prep school and it sounds way too much like A Separate Peace!)
• The Watch That Ends The Night by Allan Wolf  (the Titanic!)
• How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr (just a sad, beautiful domestic drama!)
• Bluefish by Pat Schmatz (bullies!)
• Jefferson’s Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (it’s about Thomas Jefferson’s slave children!  Also not technically YA!)
• Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones (kidnapping!)
• The Lost Crown by Sarah Miller (the Romanovs!  With meticulous research!)

THIS SINGULAR PIECE OF NON-FICTON IS PROBABLY THE BEST AMERICAN CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR

• Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming (go read it!)

BEST BOOK FOR ADULTS ABOUT CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

• The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure

Why?  Because Brian and I have had a very stressful weekend.  One of those curl-into-a-ball-on-the-couch kind of times.  I can’t get into the details right now, but let’s just say that both Jeff and Eleanor were throwing up all day yesterday, and it didn’t even phase us compared to the Big Bad Thing.

I mean, Jeff even threw up in the middle of Sacrament Meeting.

All over the pew.

While I was in the middle of playing prelude music on the organ.

And when someone came up to tell me that Jeff had thrown up, I cried “Holy crap!” a little too loudly, and yanked my hands off the keyboard in the middle of a chord . . .

. . . then noticed that the chapel had become eerily quiet.  Pulling myself together, I shakily stumbled back into the music.

Brian wasn’t there; he had stayed home with Eleanor.  Some amazing church members stepped forward to get Jeff cleaned up while I crawled through the opening hymn, the sacrament hymn, and then the congregational hymn.  At that point, Jeff made a mad dash to the bathroom for a second round of sick.  Praying that the rest of the meetings’ speakers were long-winded, I grabbed both boys, stuffed them in the car, drove them home (“I’ll explain later,” I shouted to Brian,) then dashed back to church.

Fortunately, the speakers were nice and long.  I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been happy about that.

BUT, all that hubbub was nothing, I say nothing compared with the stress from the bad news we got on Friday.

So, a distraction was in order.  TO THE MOUNTAINS!

We went to Wasatch Mountain State Park, home of alpenhorn goodness.

Ostensibly to snowshoe, but it’s been a dry winter so far and there wasn’t enough snow for it.  Instead, we pulled on boots and hit the trail for a snowy walk.

I love William’s winter ensemble here.  Monster hat (present from grandma), stripey scarf (present from other grandma) a size-too-big coat because his regular coat was left at church (see the Grand Spew Incident, above) and big sister’s hand-me-down pink boots.  RAWR!

We saw a bird’s nest, which the park rangers said might belong to a mountain bluebird . . .

. . . and a few cute bird tracks.

There were snowstorms looming above us, on the peaks.  It made the scene look half-erased, as if a landscape painter changed his mind, waiting for a better idea to strike.

The kids were whiny at times, but eventually became more stalwart.  It wasn’t that cold, to tell the truth.  And while the path was slippery, only one of us ever slipped.  (Me.  Ow.  Ironically, it happened just at the moment Brian and I were discussing the novel Icefall.)

Here’s the real reason we decided to hike in Midway:

Tarahumara!  One of our favorite Mexican restaurants.  They have killer chilles rellenos, and about twenty kinds of salsa. I like the pineapple mango best.

But the bakery items are my favorite — orejas, pastelas, and key lime flan.  They aren’t pictured because they were eaten too quickly.

The day overall?

DISTRACTION ACCOMPLISHED!

There.  I SAID IT.

This is because most of them have simply taken regular waffle/pancake batter and added molasses and some spices to it.  The extra sugar from the molasses makes the resulting waffle/pancakes too dry and sandy.

This recipe, however, has a thicker, moister batter, giving waffles that are cakelike and deeply flavorful.  Using buttermilk stops them from being too sweet, and adds complexity to the flavor.  Make sure to use a thick Belgian-style waffle maker for these; they become flimsy sad little graham crackers as thin waffles.

Whipped cream and sugared berries are a must.

Gingerbread Waffles

• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoons ground cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• UN-optional whipped cream and fruit

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add sugar, molasses, buttermilk, and vanilla and mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, soda, and powder.  Add all this to the wet ingredients and stir until smooth.  Stir in the butter.

You can either cover and refrigerate the batter overnight at this point (it will be very thick in the morning) or cook immediately in a waffle iron, 2-4 minutes.  It will makes around 14 big fluffy gingerbready waffles.

Especially if, by “dragonnnn!!!” you mean “soul-crushing cold virus.”

By the evening of December 25, my head was so sore and stuffy that my teeth hurt whenever I blew my nose.  The week between Christmas and New Year’s is usually busy; I take the kids on trips to museums, parks, and the zoo.  Not so this year.  My body gave me a Time Out.  Napping was the priority.

It was a surprisingly good thing.  We all lounged around the house, feeling cozy, putting together puzzles, eating chocolates, and enjoying our Christmas gifts.

The kids were allowed to take over the dining room with Lego creations.  Ella spent the week in her princess dresses.

I even managed to summon the energy to use up the gingerbread cookie mix someone left on our porch.  (Yes, porch.  That’s the way we roll in these parts.)

Brian even cancelled a golf game with my dad on the 27th to stay home and help me get well.  Which turned out to be fortunate, as that was the same day one of our kitchen cabinets fell off the wall, breaking almost all of the dishes inside.  (Bright Side: all of the ’60s “rooster” casserole dishes were saved.  Dark Side: the beautiful ceramic Ben Behunin platter was destroyed.)  It was nice to not clean that up all by myself.

I was feeling somewhat normal by the time New Year’s Eve rolled around.  Our friends AnnaJune and Justin hosted a Cupcake War.  The “dragon” cupcakes (at the top of this post) made our entry.  Those are red velvet donuts on top of the cupcakes.  Yum.

Because I didn’t cook a fancy dinner on Christmas, I decided to do so on New Year’s Day.  I invited my parents and brother over, and we ate a roast with all the fixings.  (Lego dragons were used as centerpieces.)

There was even a ganache-covered cake with peppermint cream that was so delicious I didn’t even have a chance to photograph it until it looked like this:

That kind of face-stuffing glee is the greatest compliment a chef can get.  Happy New Year, my friends.  May your future be filled with all kinds of cake.

Which is why my smile is kind of strained in this picture:

Doesn’t matter though.  The kids’ smiles make up for it. Excepting Katie, of course, whose scowl is For The Ages.

Reading new books that Santa brought can also make up for it.

Not to mention gingerbread waffles.  This recipe is excellent; I’ll be sharing it in a future post.  Eleanor had been talking about our Christmas breakfast for weeks, asking over and over if we were going to have sausages.  Well, we did, and of course, Eleanor decided she didn’t want sausages after all.  Silly six year old.

We asked the children to put on clothes before opening presents.  Eleanor expressed her impatience via whiteboard:

Okay, okay, okay.  Presents it is.  William was so excited that he dropped to the floor and began doing push-ups.  Real, actual full-body push-ups!  Ten of them!

This was Katie’s first attempt at unwrapping, so she needed tutors.  I think she was rather successful, don’t you?

Taking a break with Daddy was a good idea, too.

In fact, is was so good that Kate decided to do a repeat at Grandpa’s house later that afternoon.

Aunt Caitlin received a t-shirt that we all love (good job, Michael & Natalie).

The evening was rounded out with games and vanilla snowballs. Annnnnd that’s when the head cold really caught up with me.  More to come in the thrilling holiday conclusion!

NOTHING could stop this holiday from being fabulous.  Not even my dreadful head cold/sinus infection.  Consider, if you will:

Spending the morning sorting Froot Loops by color, as part of a present for my brother, Erich.  You know a day that starts this way is gonna be great, right?

RIGHT!  Now bring on the pancakes!

Bring on the bell choir performance/carol sing-along!

(I’d like to spend a moment here to congratulate the person in charge of the concert for correctly referring to the ensemble as a “carillon,” as opposed to “hand bell ringing bell group,” which is how the lady at the retirement home referred to us.)

Bring on the meatball sandwich dinner at my house!  (Yeah, I really scaled back the cooking/baking this year.  Last year, I made a ham with roasted pear & cranberry chutney, and for dessert served four kinds of homemade cookies plus a grand trifle that took three days to prepare.  This year I dumped frozen meatballs in a Crock Pot and called myself done.)

Bring on the Grand Finding of the Pickle!  (My mom hid a cotton-stuffed pickle on my Christmas tree.  Brian found it and won a copy of the “Munchkin” game.)

AND NOW . . . bring on the RAVE PARTY!

Yeah.  My parents had purchased these little “finger lazers” for everyone as part of an object lesson about light, rainbows, and God’s promises.  So for about twenty minutes, my house looked like this:

I DARE YOU to prove your Christmas was more rockin’ than THIS.

Oh!  And Christmas Eve is the only evening I’ll light all the candles in the house.  So now I have little wax spots allll over my fireplace.  But it was purty.

After the light display, my parents gave presents to the children.  The boys received remote-control cars (Katie was very excited to see them driving around, and squealed) while Eleanor was given a big whiteboard and a box of dry-erase markers.  Eleanor latched onto the idea immediately:

Yes, thak you, Gramo.  Bring on Christmas!

It was hard to get that donkey to go towards Bethlehem . . .

. . . even when Joseph tried to bribe it with treats.

Even when Joseph commanded the donkey to repent.

Eventually Joseph and Mary did come forth unto an inn, but Lo!  There was no vacancy!

The innkeeper suggested they go unto the stable.

So they did.

Mary was exceedingly brave to ride sidesaddle on a donkey for so long.

Joseph shooed the livestock away.

Meanwhile, there were shepherds in the same country, abiding in the fields and saying, “Hey look!  Real sheep!”

There were also babes in sheep’s clothing.

Who were cute despite being false sheep.

An angel of the Lord did come down, and said “Fear not!” but it was rather fearful anyway and the shepherds did quake.

Meanwhile, the babe was born in the stable, and Mary smiled despite how shivery cold it was.

Then the shepherds did sidle on over, and Lo! did everyone smile forth for the camera.

Merry Christmas, One and All!

Last Saturday my generous mother-in-law took me, Eleanor, and Jeffrey to see Ballet West’s production of The Nutcracker.  It was brilliant stuff.  Great dancing, and I was most impressed to see a full smoke ring come out of the cannon during the fight with the Mouse King.

Afterwards, there was a “Sugar Plum Fairy” where the kids got to go onstage to meet the performers (Eleanor was way to shy to say anything), have cookies, watch a magician, and — best of all for Jeff — ask the propsmaster all the questions he wanted.  Jeff’s enthusiasm must have charmed him, because he let Jeff hold the Nutcracker’s sword, and also try on the big Nutcracker head.

“What was your favorite part?” he asked Jeff.

“Oh, when the cannon went off!” Jeff replied.

Mr. Propsmaster smiled widely.  “Yeah, wasn’t that great!  The smoke ring went all the way across the stage!”

Playing “Nutcracker” is now one of the standard activities around here.  On Wednesday, the kids even put on costumes and asked if I would film them doing dances.  I was more than happy to oblige — and now you can enjoy it, too!  It’s five minutes of holiday cheer I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

BEHOLD!

Let me take you on a tour.  Here’s the facade of the New York Stock Exchange:

And the statue of the bull on Wall Street.

Inside, the 1%-ers are sipping champagne, smoking cigars, and snacking on caviar and toast points.  (I made these guys and gave them all monocles.)  Note the stock ticker on the wall.

Meanwhile, there are hippies in a drum circle (I made the ones with dredlocks).

Protesters surrounded by riot police and being casually attacked with pepper spray:

Hipsters with nerd glasses and goatees attend a protest meeting. Major props go to my sister-in-law’s husband Jake, who hand-carved the glasses out of clove-flavored gumdrops.  Oh, can you find Candy Waldo in this scene?

Zuccotti Park is populated with Fruit Roll-Up tents, piles of sleeping bags,  and a gigantic stack of donated library books made from Andes Mints.

Finally, Jeffrey insisted that there be a ninja scaling the building, which Caitlin says sounds exactly like the kind of stunt the real occupiers would pull.  Jeff says his ninja is named “PG-13 Spy Man.”  I like that guy.

WE ARE THE 99%!  The delicious, delicious, 99%.