December 2009 – Lemon Drop Pie

Remember the week before Christmas when I almost showed you the Christmas presents we made? And I almost ruined the surprise for the people receiving the presents?

Thank goodness I stopped myself!

I am a well-known procrastinator. If you want to know where to find me on Christmas Eve, I’m usually at the mall. So when I saw this cute craft in Family Fun magazine, of course I waited until the last minute to go buy honeycomb wax sheets! I thought they would be easy to find at a craft store, but… they weren’t. I finally found a candle making kit at Hobby Lobby, but it’s cheaper to buy beeswax sheets through candlewic.com.

To make these candles, we cut star shapes out of the beeswax sheets using cookie cutters. I warmed the sheets first using a hair dryer to make them more pliable. We put five layers together, added the wick, and put five more layers of beeswax on top. We used a smaller star cookie cutter to add a little extra decoration on each side of three of the candles. We were only able to make four candles from the kit; I was disappointed that I couldn’t find more beeswax sheets.

We gave two candles to my grandma, and two to my dad. Homemade gifts are always nice, and the girls were proud of their creations!

Emmy woke up early this morning, and I tried to take her to bed with me. She screamed “I AM AWAKE!!” in my ear. So guess what? I’m awake this morning, too.

For Christmas, I bought each of the girls a small pink toy laptop. They are having a lot of fun with them, especially Lily, since she’s actually old enough to follow the game directions! This morning, Lily made a request that I thought was perfectly reasonable. She would like a desk in her room to put her laptop on, so that it has a permanent home.

Emmy had a request, too. When Lily was asking for a desk, Emmy asked, “Mom, can you buy me Tootsie Rolls to put in my pockets?”

I let the girls pick out some Goldfish crackers at the grocery store yesterday, and there’s a new flavor called “Garden Cheddar.” Is that marketing aimed at moms or what? Tell me seriously; do they really expect that a kid is going to want to eat Goldfish with the name “Garden Cheddar?” What is Garden Cheddar, anyway? Is the word “garden” supposed to make us think that there are actually vegetables in Goldfish? That garden cheddar flavor is healthier in some way? Hmmm…I need to go check this out….

(Just hum the Jeopardy theme to yourself for a minute, ‘kay?)

Okay…just came back from the Pepperidge Farm website, where they do make the claim that eating one serving of Goldfish is a 1/2 serving of vegetables. This. is. ridiculous. So sneaky. I prefer to outright force my kids to eat vegetables. It goes something like this: “Eat your broccoli OR ELSE!”

I’ve finally found a vegetable that Emmy will eat–frozen peas. She won’t touch cooked peas, but she loves frozen peas.

If you ran away to join the circus, which job would you want? Tight rope walker? Trapeze artist? Lion tamer? I’d like to ride a horse, bareback, and do tricks. I’d get to wear sparkly costumes and be adored by the crowd. It’s a little tempting, isn’t it? And totally random!