Squishies

So as part of our Christmas present to my siblings we made them some "squishies." Squishies are pretty basic-- just a little stress ball made out of a balloon and flour but the significance dates way back. Once upon a time four Brown children were all attending elementary school and got a little bored. As a way to practice their entrepreneurial skills they decided to start a little business. A squishy business. It must've started with just one of us bringing one to school and some friend wanting one (and instead of just making one, to be nice, we charged them). But single-handedly we started a fad and pretty soon every kid in school had to have one. We took orders for different colored balloons, personalized messages and drawings on the front. We even offered the normal squish (flour), the harder squish (corn starch), or the ultimate squish (sugar). Having four siblings in the same school meant we also had a pretty nice monopoly on the market. We covered the sixth, fifth and second grades plus kindergarten. At home we had our little sister Kelly working her friends in the neighborhood. Business (and popularity) were booming.

And then came the inevitable... the squishies started to pop. And suddenly all the teachers were dealing with little piles of flour all over their carpet every day. It wasn't long before the school came out with a rule and banned all squishies from Grant Elementary-- forever.

So to honor our wild rebel days (I know-- balloon banning? what's next?!) I decided to make the siblings all some squishies for Christmas. In their favorite color. With special messages and pictures on them (should I charge extra?). Ah, the good old days!

P.S. Props go to my wonderful husband who sat and made a mess with me helping make these!! He's so great to play along with my nostalgic crazy ideas.

There's no place like Gingerbread Homes

Tonight we made gingerbread houses with Adam's siblings, Bryan and Aubry. I've been wanting to do this all season so tonight was really fun. Everyone was so creative! And a fun part was that now they make gingerbread graham crackers! All the better to build with! (but let's face it, all anybody really builds gingerbread houses for is all the candy.... yum!!)

Adam's Family Christmas tree

We had dinner with Adam's family tonight and they hadn't put their Christmas tree up yet so we got to help them. The tree is awesome. It's gigantic! And like most fake trees there are certain branches assigned to each level but these are designated by little colors of paint that have all but rub off (on the branch and stump). Not only that, but the colors are close together-- light green and dark green, light blue and dark blue, pink, salmon, orange and red (which are all about the same to me), and more. It was like a game in a game. Fun!

My favorite part of the night was when Adam and his siblings rediscovered their favorite ornament and had a Rock-Paper-Scissors competition to see who got to put it on the tree. I've never seen them all get so excited about something (except for the jello eating contest they had me participate in the first time I had dinner at their house). They are such a fun bunch of siblings, I really love all of them (L-R: Michelle, Adam, Bryan, Aubry).

The oh so coveted ornament was this little nut that opened up to reveal a nativity scene carved inside-- or Nativity in a Nutshell.

Since they had a lot more interest in hanging all their childhood ornaments, I took the job of bending paper clips into hooks for any straggler ornaments with nothing to hang them. They did let me hang one special ornament-- a glass New York ball with the statue of liberty inside (since I really love New York)!

Ta-dum! the final product (and I wasn't kidding when I said the tree was big-- we could barely walk around it :). Adam's mom told us about one Christmas when she was a little bored so she decided to really deck out the tree with lights. She ended up buying a strand of lights for each branch (and weaved them carefully in between each sprig). Needless to say, she blew the power when she tried to plug it in. Ah, I really love her!!

After all that hard work we rewarded ourselves by playing Pirates of the Carribbean Life (and for the record I had the Black Pearl right at the very end and would've won if Captain Barbosa aka Adam hadn't stole him at the last play! ARRRRR! Such is the pirate's life...)

Holly Wreaths

So these are by far my favorite treats to make every Christmas season-- I look forward to them all year. They're pretty simple (a glorified rice krispie treat, if you will) but I have such fond memories of making them with my mom and helping her put on the little red hots and form them into wreaths. And then there's the image of all these bright festive wreaths across the table to give to your neighbors and friends.

But let's face it, the best part is eating all the gooey green remnants out of the pan in between batches and trying to be so sneaky so your siblings don't catch on and start competing with you for the good stuff (even though your green tounge and teeth are a dead give away). The wreaths always look so tantalizing as you make them but then you can't eat them cause you're giving them away-- sticky pan stuff is your only hope.

This year I was making them in the kitchen and Adam was in the other room. He doesn't know about eating out of the pan in between batches so I had it all to myself! I was in the middle of sweet heavenly enjoyment when Adam and the camera discovered me. The truth is, I didn't even care.

Green stuff all over? Small price to pay for Christmas goodness. Yum!

Picking out the Christmas Tree

Adam and I are so excited that this is our first Christmas we get to spend together! For Family Home Evening tonight we decided to pick up our Christmas tree. We were nervous about how to pick one up and get it home (both our cars are kind of small) but then we realized the Rite Aid across the street from our apartment had a lot and we could just walk over. And when I say across the street, I mean literally across the street (we see the store from our front balcony). So we bundled up and walked through the parking lot to the trees, picked one out and then he carried the front and I carried the back and we marched it home (singing carols all the way, to make it more festive). It was fun to put it in our living room and decorate it (okay, so we only had one strand of lights and five ornaments-- three from our wedding-- but still....) Hooray for the holidays!
























Later, and on a completley irrelevant note, we ate grapefruit and Adam didn't want it to squirt on his white shirt so yep, folks, he's wearing a bib. And even better was that it was this towel my Aunt Julene made us for the wedding with our engagement picture imprinted on the front. Awesome! Grapefruit it up, honey!!