blueberry madness & tag-team driving

we went to hy-vee last night & the boys had a ball with the dual-driver racecar cart.



khalil tried blueberries this week. his fingers are still stained purple!

why church? why uu?

LOVE this ssermon about the purpose of church/shared ritual. EXACTLY!

UUA president William Sinkford Holiday Address

please watch and share at will. very important words.

holiday musings

since we are not christian (dh is muslim, i'm a pagan-leaning atheist), christmas is always a bit of an exercise in purposeful action and a LOT of thought. i rather enjoy solstice and all its meanings, and i recognize that the celebrations surrounding christmas are truly pagan celebrations anyway. khary has really gotten into celebrating all the various american holidays, and christmas is his new favorite. (no matter how many times i try, he still says "christmas" instead of "solstice" or "winter," though he will sometimes say "holiday." small victories.) anyway, we needed some family traditions now that he's cognizant of such things and itching to start some family traditions.

first, our wintry bough. it is not a christmas tree. it is a stark branch representing the barrenness of winter. we make ornaments for it and decorate it to make it beautiful and warm, just like we spend more time together to make the cold, barren winter feel warm and cozy. i know that evergreens were traditionally used for their color and fragrance (as both were representative of life amidst the lack thereof in the rest of the winter landscape). but i barely got dawud to agree to a branch at ALL, much less an evergreen branch.

the salt-dough ornaments, just out of the oven:


and the wintry bough:


we also got a candle to burn the night of solstice, and while it was burning we'd tell family stories, reminisce about the past year, & talk about hopes for the upcoming year. but the 2nd round of throwing up germs got in the way of that. we may get to do it on new year's day, though. that's the only night we're not booked for a while!

i think we'll fill the birdfeeder tomorrow, too, since it's getting cold again and we didn't get a chance to put birdfood out on solstice either.

we didn't send cards out yet, either. in due time, though.

khalil's amazing hands (now with video)

he's clapping all the time & soo tickled by it.

he also clapped/brought his hands together on his own when we showed him the sign for "more"! he'd take a bite, look at us, clap, look at us again, then lunge at the food for another bite.

also, i've noticed that when we're all done with something & i make the sign (the one where you brush your hands together as "all done"), he claps and says "dah". now, he says "dah" a lot, but he consistently puts them together.

crazy kid. he's amazing.

he also cruised for the first time yesterday, rather than dropping to his bottom and crawling for something he wanted.

he also learned how to high five yesterday. i have some CUTE video of him and daddy high-fiving.

finally uploaded and formatted the video:



khary's hands aren't bad, either. ;)

sleep, mama, sleep

tuesday morning i woke up feeling like i'd been hit by a truck. khary, on the other hand, woke up with a tanker truck of energy to spare. not a good combo. my friend katje very graciously and generously offered to host khary so i could get some sleep, bless her. so off i shipped him, where he played with his best buddy lincoln (katje's son) in the snow. apparently katje gave very clear instructions about which snow was edible and which was not (the yellow kind). i got 3.5 hours of restful sleep that afternoon. ahhhh!

(rinse and repeat on wednesday.)

khary and linc:

cookie exchange madness

for those following on facebook, you know i've been working on peanut butter balls for a cookie exchange. success! and the cookie exchange was wunnerful.



a list of the fare:
dark chocolate truffles (dusted in cocoa).
rocky road, chocolate-peanut butter cookies, chocolate chunk cookies, and mini cupcakes.
cranberry and pistachio biscotti.
sablé snowflakes.
peanut-butter balls.
fudge.
nut bread, gingerbread (thin), and chocolate pretzels.
chocolate chip cookies.
pumpkin cookies.
oatmeal raisin cookies.
chocolate crinkles.
chocolate chip cookies and the cookies dipped in crushed candy canes.

EDITED TO ADD:
apparently someone brought an unexpected surprise: pukey germs!!! o_O it was an epidemic. and apparently not an isolated incident but part of a larger midwestern outbreak of pukiness. just glad we got ours out of the way right away. a lot of our friends got the next round & had pukey christmases. :(