December Fun

Our church Christmas party was on December 1st. Roman was the only one who really wanted to see Santa. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas Roman just stared at him. Luckily Santa was experienced with star-struck kids, and told Roman that Santa would bring him what he wanted.

I think I have mentioned before that Roman really loves to sing.  Quinton doesn't like to sing at all, so it has been fun to have a kid that shares with me the songs he is learning at school.  Here is a little preview of the songs he has learned for the school Christmas Concert (or should I say Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa concert!)

Doughnut "Party"

I put party in quotes because it wasn't the party in a traditional sense.  It was just a day to make lots of doughnuts; but that seemed like a party to me!

The story behind this is that I have been wanting to try and make doughnuts for some time now, but it seemed like I should have a reason for something so extravagant as eating a lot of doughnuts. Quinton happens to adore doughnuts - specifically glazed.

Quinton has been having some difficulty at school lately with his talking.  This is reflected in the steady decline of his conduct grades over the last 6 weeks or so.  We had tried many things to help him remember to control himself, and not speak out of turn.  I told him that if he managed to get an "S" the week before Thanksgiving, we would have a "doughnut party."  Well, I guess that was motivating enough because after 4 straight weeks of "N's" he brought home an "S."

I made two kinds of batter: chocolate cake and yeast-raised.  Here are the chocolate cake doughnuts cooling off.

Quinton invited over our neighbor Patrick.  Of course, Quinton used the word "party" so Patrick's older sister asked if she could come, too.  Ashlyn is one of  my piano students and very talented.

After all the excitement of waiting to eat a doughnut, Quinton determined he didn't like chocolate cake doughnuts.

A selection of the doughnuts I made: chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles, glazed, cinnamon-sugar, powdered sugar, jelly-filled, and chocolate-filled.  We ate over a dozen and I was still able to give about 2 dozen away.

Domenic couldn't get enough doughnuts.  He ate so many chocolate cake doughnuts, I don't know how he didn't get sick!

Not sure why Roman is sticking his tongue out, but here he is enjoying a cinnamon-sugar doughnut.

Thanksgiving 2012

I made some Turkey cake pops for fun.  Domenic had fun running around the house holding one, but didn't eat much of it.

I couldn't figure out what was going on with the turkey pops I had on the counter.  I would come down in the morning and they were missing their "feathers."  The lightbulb turned on when Roman asked for a cake pop and then I watched him eat it.  He just ate off the candy on the outside.  He doesn't care for chocolate that much, so once I thought about it, it wasn't that surprising.  Since he gets up in the middle of the night and goes downstairs to play, the mystery was solved!

The culprit himself.

We had Thanksgiving at my parents' house as usual.  Below is the dessert table.  I have to say all the desserts were delicious, but the pumpkin cheesecake was particularly showstopping. 

My mom spent a lot of time setting up a beautiful table / decorations.  But this year Thanksgiving felt a little lacking somehow.  On the way home Antonio commented that it didn't feel like Thanksgiving, but rather a normal Sunday dinner.  After some thought, we came to the conclusion that we didn't stay long enough.  To create that "Thanksgiving" feeling you have to linger, spend all day visiting with family, pick at the leftovers all day, etc...  We were all just too efficient this year, with everyone cleaning up and leaving by 5:30PM.  It was a good lesson for next year: we will be sure to linger a lot longer!

Roman enjoying the hors d'oeuvre table!

I think Domenic thought we wouldn't see him sneaking around if he was on the floor crawling.

All the boys in the den watching a movie.

Dad getting ready to carve the turkey.  Mom made two turkeys.  The woman in the foreground is a friend, Cecilia Redmond who my parents invited along with her son Chris.

Carter Paul playing a video game while Quinton looks on.

Carter and Jacob talking to another friend my parents invited - Brother Carmichael.

Fire Station Visit

One of the fun things about being in Tiger Cubs is it forces me to plan activities for the boys that are lots of fun.  On this trip we went to our local fire station.  It was a busy Saturday for the firemen, and the boys got to see the trucks leave and return several times as they responded to calls.

Quinton sitting in the "command center" of one of the firetrucks.  This seat has a built-in oxygen backpack so you can strap yourself into the seat, and then when you arrive at the scene you can jump out with your equipment ready.  Pretty cool!

Roman's turn.

Quinton was being shy and didn't want to pose with the fireman; however, Roman didn't have that problem!