It's the Holiday Season...

Wow, I got quite a response from my last blog post even from people who did not leave a comment! I am just wondering what you all cook at your house? I just want to point out that I don't cook like that EVERY day! Sometimes it is just eggs and toast for dinner, leftovers, or whatever else I can scrounge up! Anyways, I am really not that much of a baker but during Christmas we always like to make some homemade cookies. I thought about trying the chocolate chip and chickpea recipe out of the Seinfeld book but decided to stick to my old tried and true recipes. We ended up just picking two kinds of cookies to do. We did about 80 Neiman Marcus chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies and about 50 shortbread cookies. Then we had plenty to share with neighbors. I also did a couple of the cauliflower banana breads and homemade tomato soup with ham. Yummy! Emily and Alyssa won't normally eat tomatoes but they sure will eat the soup!
In other news, we officially became the "most embarrasing parents" ever. Even more than X's parents - and "THAT is REALLY embarrasing". I guess it had something to do with singing if your happy and you know it at Cici's pizza with an 8th grade boy from school sitting in the booth behind us. Then when we were leaving I spilled water all over the floor in front their table! It's not easy being twelve I guess.
Well, we are now on Christmas break. Sixteen days of NO SCHOOL! The girls are loving it all ready!
Emily is really crafty. Not like her mother at all! The other day when we were making soup together - next thing I know she and Leanna had washed out the empty chickpea cans, taken off the outside paper, and were gluing sparkles all over the can to make a pencil holder. I asked where she got that idea and she said it just came to her. You can see a picture here of her with her can and a life sized girl holding a baby she created this morning. Alyssa also surprised me this week with her T-shirt making skills (not pictured). She and her friend bought all their own materials, cut out letters from fabric saying "Alyssa is my Bestie" and "Allie is my Bestie", and "Christmas '07" on the back. I told her plans were too ambitious in the time frame she had but she proved me wrong! Then she hand sewed green stuff around their sleeves. I was like "how did you know how to do that?" (Because she didn't learn anything of the sort from me). She was like it is just in and out and said she was "self taught".
Anyways the girls are really excited for Christmas!