My Favorite Christmas Cookie

My Favorite Christmas Cookie is probably one you've never heard of its called Krumkake.. Its a norwegian cookie I guess. It looks like an American ice cream cone but its not strong enough to fill with ice cream. I guess people have filled it with whipped topping like a Lady Finger... but the ones I have eaten are barely strong enough to be held.. they seem to crumble so easily. 
They are sweeter and softer than an ice cream cone too! My Guardian used to make them often while growing up and finally in the last few years I finally had gotten an Krumkake iron off of Amazon and learned how to make them myself. Of course I don't think the cookies ever taste the same as the guardian used to make since she probably had an old antique Krumkake iron... 
If you ever want to have a new adventure and try a new treat buy a Krumkake iron! an old post on Krumkake here

Of course I love those Royal Dansk cookies as well. My guardian used to sometimes buy the Pepperidge Farm cookies and share some with me it was like getting a delicacy :) We liked the Milano and the Pirouette

I am not a sugar cookie fan.. I will eat them but not often and I hate to bake them. Mine never turn out well. I leave that up to Rick. A few years ago an Army wife introduced me to Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookies. She said her dad used to make them every Thanksgiving and Christmas and when she was on her own she asked her dad.. he said the magic is on the back of the bag of peanut butter chips and she never knew they were that easy.. So James, Skylar, and I got hooked on these cookies as well. 

https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=5366

Saturday, December 6, 2014 St Nicholas Day!

Its St Nicholas Day! Surprisingly it isn't very popular here in the states wouldn't most American's want to spoil their children ridiculously? My Guardian's mother is from Germany and her father is from Norway so I grew up with some extra special cultural traditions that they passed down. Some I have found on my own in order to share the German and Norwegian cultures with my kiddos since they are no longer around. 

St Nicholas would leave children often coins and oranges in their shoes so for St Nicholas Day Barnaby and Merry (Our Elves) brought stockings from St Nick.. Filled with their ornament for the year, some school supplies, chocolate, chapstick, and a craft... Skylar hasn't yet come down this morning to see Barnaby and Merry after she was asking about them so much.

I hope you all have a Happy St Nicholas day and be sure to share his story with your kiddos.

Snow blew in their door from the North Pole.. its magic snow it doesn't melt ;)

They left the kids new stockings. Skylar decorated herself with 1D and William's has Mickey Mouse

Ooh they got new clothes.. Merry is sporting her Georgia Bulldog Sweater dress and Barnaby has his aviator jacket on. Did Santa let him drive the sleigh? Or has he been doing reindeer training?

Snow reminds me of...

Snow reminds me of why I don't live up north and endure more snow. I have very bad Osteo-Arthritis and my Fibromyalgia doesn't like cold weather either. I always said if my husband got stationed in Alaska during the winter months I would own a parka and stay indoors good thing its dark half of the time up there no one would miss me haha. If I lived up north I would be a total snow bird... see you in the Summer haha dang its hard to do that with kids isn't it?

Honestly though when snow blankets everything some of our winters it reminds me of renewal.. Everything for a moment looks quiet and beautiful. Its a time of reflection and renewal because it looks so clean even just for a short time... then eventually all the bad and dirt will be washed away ready for Spring's rebirth.

What does snow remind you of?

A Christmas gift my children requested....that I don't want to buy.

I know what the experts say.. they say our kids these days are too tuned into electronics and screen time is bad for them.. Dear Experts tell that to my 5 year old who has been reading since 2 or 3 and can navigate a device better than most adults. At this rate he will be coding by his 10th birthday. My son is five years old and has a very very short attention span. However he will go on Youtube.com and watch videos of people doing reviews on products, watch unboxing of products, he will watch torture tests on products... and before we had heard a peep about the Wii U. William was watching Wii U unboxings and reviews OBSESSIVELY. We have the old standard Wii you see. We decided to not upgrade or buy a new one because well this one plays Game Cube games which we still have plenty of (we still even use the Game Cube on occasion.) The new Wii isn't compatible with Game Cube products. I am VERY thankful that for the most part when you buy a new game console from Nintendo they don't make you upgrade everything... until now. I get the Ooohs and Ahh's of the Wii U. Its a nifty system but so far they only have the compatibility to suit ONE child with One of those hand held screen things... My kids would FIGHT... Now my kids don't fight all the time. They are 7 years apart in age. William is a rough and tough kid, hyper, and he likes to mimic.. He wants to be cool like his big sister so if she is watching Shaytards on Youtube William must tune it as well --sometimes. It annoys Skylar but she used to love to watch every move Alex and James made too. Before I married Rick she was very attached to her cousin Matthew who's the same age as her brother, Mackenzie. So its just one of those 5 year old little brother vs Teenage things that they do. She's just as bad.. he could be playing with Playdoh or playing a game and she practically takes it over. So I can see the Wii U being a disaster here. Did I mention that William is rough? How long would it take him to break that screen? You say yours is tough? Well he had a bumper on his Nabi Tablet he got for his birthday and the tablet broke 24 hours into game play. He's now got something like an Otterbox on the Samsung Galaxy Kids Tab 3 we bought in replacement because it DOES have that option to have an Otterbox and full coverage. Its been going strong three months and I love it because I can use the adult mode when he is at school and watch Netflix or read or whatever. I just don't think at this point I can fork over $250 for any Game System... 

My daughter well she wants a laptop (William says he wants a Mac Pro -he specifies the model too but hell if I can recall it). I am not getting my child a laptop. She already has a hand-me-down from her adult brother Iphone. That is WAY to much freedom is it is.. It scares me with the dangers online. I can't imagine gifting a laptop and saying that's fine go in your room with a computer unsupervised... ever.... like even at 20. I kid maybe 18 but then again I did some really stupid crap till I was pregnant with her so haha! I am sure these are top items on my kids wish lists but I will not buy them no matter how cheap.. I like a computer with a leash on it that if I walk past I can see what she is doing without spying on her (I will spy if I have to and she knows this even about her phone) But no I don't think I could give the kids a laptop any time soon. That's just too much freedom IMO. 

My favorite Christmas/Holiday ornament

We use artificial tree's well because we have cats, I don't like a zillion pine needles. I think pine needles are like glitter the moment you think its gone it comes back to haunt you. I have had the same artificial tree for the majority of my life. My dad (Guardian) and I used to decorate it when I was a teen. Rick had a pitiful little tree when I married him as well. Then we decided to get a new tree together. So with the Sears campaign that gives gift cards to active duty troops I bought a new tree about 6 years ago. Well with fat cats sitting in the tree one of the limbs is broken and some of the pre lit lights are blowing out. So I am in the market for a new tree. The PX had some tree's real cheap after Christmas last year so I got a 7.5 foot for $15 and I also got a free one from the neighbor (I don't really remember this though LOL). Last week we were out at the storage unit and I am counting tree's there are 4 7.5 tree's 1 5 foot tree, 4 smaller tree's and one Charlie Brown tree... I was like where did these extra tree's come from? So we left the Sears Tree and Daddy's tree in the storage unit. Its just getting difficult for me to have to climb a ladder 12 feet in the air and put up Daddy's tree. Well see the tree has to be installed limb by limb one at a time so it takes work LOL. 12 feet up in the air on a ladder isn't where you want to do work. 

When Rick and I got married I had very few ornaments I left most of my ornaments behind in Georgia and they never made it back to me :(. Our first Christmas married Rick was deployed and I went on Freecycle and asked friends for older or unused ornaments and got several and that's how we started off. Then we have increased our collection by every member of the family buying an ornament every year and maybe getting a family ornament. This makes a really cool tree.. We have poly clay ornaments that I buy at a special shop here.. The kids like picking those out and personalizing them.

or sometimes we go the Hallmark route.. and the kids pick out their favorite Hallmark collectible ornament from that year. I love all things Dumbo :) Yes I have already been in the store this week and have Mama Jumbo and Dumbo on my wish list among others.

Then there are ones that are personal to us.. Events we went to, souvenirs we've collected, Huntsville landmarks, Military affiliated ornaments, Even our duty station used to have an ornament every year,

Of course the ones the kids made rock too!

(Alex when he was wee little ) 

We used to make them ourselves too a technique my Guardian taught me so that was a family thing we did for awhile. Here in this blog 

Sometimes there is even an occasional cat in the tree

We went from having barely enough ornaments to fill one tree to filling all of them with some ornaments left over.

So I think all the ornaments that tell a story that are close to my heart, the ornaments that bring back memories are my favorite.

This year I am slowly putting our tree's up. I have just started on the smorgasbord tree/ family tree, the Charlie Brown Tree, and a smaller tree up. Smorgasbord is not even done being decorated but here are some pictures from years past.. 

Monday November 24, 2014: We know. Everything.

We are mothers we know everything yet nothing. My daughter has never been a fan of academics. Yet she gets A's, B's, and C's and has been a decent student at school. First grade she would melt down over spelling words even though the teachers for several grades used a format called Spelling Tic Tac Toe to make it fun and easy.. Hours of torture would ensue.. she would pitch awful fits even though that wasn't her typically just her when it came to homework. The 1st first grade teacher failed her not for her own lack of academics but because in my belief the teacher didn't give her the building blocks she needed for second grade. This has been the constant subject of contention with the principal with the school now that Skylar is in the 5th grade and still struggling according to Skylar. She was tested and diagnosed with a learning disorder and was assigned a teacher called an inclusion teacher which is like an in- class tutor. After a few years she was tested out of the program and no longer had scores low enough to say she had that comprehension learning disability. There would be incidents with homework like trying to teach her how to count money... she would be like that's not how so and so does it (her teacher)! I was so frustrated because I would explain this to the teacher yet Miss stubborn princess would not budge.. 5 grade now she is still getting C's or above and she is just being stubborn. Crying about how hard and stressful school is. Oh dear lord please save me I have 7 more years of this just from her! Her assignment was this weekend was trying to learn all 44 presidents in order. I am assuming she has had over a week notice that she needs to know this. The teacher told my husband that she was even put into small groups to figure out a way to learn them. The teacher sent an email with a helpful link. When asked today if Skylar studied she said she did. She said she watched youtube videos that would help her but she still didn't know them. *insert tears and whines out of her* Rick checked her history on her computer and there was nothing... So now I am frustrated thinking she is getting mouthy and lying to me. Lying isn't something normally coming out of her either. So I did some Googling and gave her some references and told her she had a choice on what to study or what tools to study with. After pouting and pitching a silent fit she gave in and decided to do it her way. I bet she still doesn't know but she is so mouthy! My thing is she has an acronym for division and the school has been teaching them acronyms for almost anything she needs to learn. Its either that or there is a youtube video with a catchy song. Her acronym is something like Daddy (Divide) Mother (multiply) Sister (Subtract) Brother (Bring down) something like that... She can rattle that off her in her sleep so I found several youtube videos that give you a little song to remember the presidents.. There is a story about an alien named Waj (Washington Adams Jefferson) and his favorite candy is M n' M's (Madison and Monroe) and so on... She of course is just like I watched that once it doesn't help. Oh child does taking medicine once do you think it works? Listening to a song once do you know the lyrics? *insert mouthy tween here* *insert tears* Ohmigoodness.
I do more digging on Google. They haven't nicknamed me the Google queen for nothing...
Then there is a song called Washy Ad Jeffy.. 
This is why I can't home school this child I have tried twice

I am usually a pretty cool mom but when it comes to sassy mouthed lying stubborn tweens I loose my patience. Now I am going to have to look through Net Nanny's to see which one will work best for us.. *sigh*

Ok sometimes I am a slow starter sometimes

I was diagnosed with Epilepsy as a pre-teen so my guardian wasn't in any hurry to let me drive. I also don't think she didn't think I was responsible enough. My guardian's daughter in law took me on one driving lesson before I turned 18. At 17-18 I had many friends get seriously hurt or die in car accidents due to negligence. I knew the law in Georgia that said if my seizures were uncontrolled I could be charged with attempted vehicle homicide or vehicular homicide if I was involved in an accident. So at that point I was afraid to drive. I met my 1st husband and he happily drove me around for awhile. Then he became abusive and controlling so it was a way for him to control me. After that part of my life was over with I was with a guy that gave me some driving lessons but every time a car came in my direction in the opposite lane I would freak out and freeze. Then the next guy I dated him and his uncle also tried to teach me to drive. I had to drive to Walmart to get formula for my baby and my licensed driver was drunk. I was apprehensive about my licensed driver being drunk when I had only had a learners permit for 3 hours. Sure enough in the Walmart parking lot I was driving the wrong way and hit a 3 month old Dodge Ram.. I did no noticeable damage to the Ram since it was higher off the ground than my boyfriends Oldsmobile. I went into Walmart and had the owner paged and it turned out to be 3 grand worth of damage to the dodge ram and a huge hole in the hood of my boyfriends Oldsmobile. The cop just sat in his car and laughed at me :/ Again the thoughts of maybe I shouldn't be driving scared me into not driving even though my seizures were under control. Later (I am not sure if it was months or years) but his uncle was teaching me to drive and I hit the curb and blew a tire. I had a melt down thinking of what could have been if someone was on that sidewalk. I had my child with me so the nervousness set in again. Neither of them wanted to teach me much after that.
  In 2007 I met my now husband and he was deploying so he took on the task of REALLY teaching me how to drive. At this point I was 27 and still with a learners permit. I was finally brave enough or maybe pressured enough since he was deploying in a month to take my drivers road test. I did it! I passed. He left July.. after he left for training but before he deployed I had a fender bender in the Commissary (grocery store) parking lot because they had a huge tent sale in the parking lot. By October I had completely totaled his car. The insurance company was nice enough to comp me a rental until January and I had only taken it off post once and I was having an anxiety attack just doing that. My friends would tease me at my over caution. my grand ma driving etc. But I was really struggling with the anxiety I had most of my life with driving. Once he came home for R&R he bought another car and I was afraid to drive it but eventually I got better with that anxiety and drove it more but still avoided roads that made me nervous and stayed close to home until he came home for good.

I worked on my anxiety and began to like driving in my little Honda I call Lady. I have always loved cars just not driving them. I had to get my hubby to trust me with her after all that and get him to believe I was confident in driving. So for a few years Lady was all mine and Rick and his son James bought a old Jeep so he could teach his son how to drive. Eventually the jeep just became too expensive to repair

The former owners called him Beast so we kept the name.. He had Punisher skull painted on the top

After the Beast died we decided we still needed a second car with James and Rick working and I needed a car at home for doctors appointments and kid things.. We also knew we needed a bigger car for all our children to fit into. We found a lovely van named Belle. At first Rick was supposed to drive Belle. I mean Lady had a custom sound system that was MY Christmas present she was MY car... But Rick got tired of the in city mileage and I think just driving a minivan wore on him so he wanted to switch. I don't drive Lady much anymore I am so comfortable in her though. I was always afraid of driving a bigger vehicle.  So I started driving the van and earlier this year I had a mishap on the way home from dropping the kids off at school. It sounded like a bomb hit the van.. I got home told Rick what happened there was no immediate signs of scratches or dents. Rick assumes I hit a mailbox but when I looked in the rear view it was still there? Then I spotted the broken mirror. Which I am not legally allowed to drive if the mirror is missing so Rick took it to work and work on repairing it. I took Lady.. I was driving through a school zone that after noon and I made the mistake of after passing the crossing guard I picked up speed... too much speed... I got my first ticket (other than 1 seat belt ticket in a parking lot) I had to go to Defensive Driving school which wasn't awful and I learned a lot. SO now I am trying to be hyper aware in school zones. Hell I try to not driving during school times just because we live near 4 school zones and then there is always buses etc.. UGH

Saturday November 22, 2014: I was wondering how you would feel.

I was going to write something dark as I pondered over this topic past couple of days but I saw Hunger Games Mockingjay part 1 today thanks to my husband's employer who rented out a theater for us :) I read all the books when the first movie came out (what two years ago now?)
I just wondered what it would feel like to be Gale? Gale is Katniss' hero. He's her constant in many ways. Yet he has to turn a blind eye to her love for Peeta. Gale seems so passionate about going against the Hunger Games but he's not passionate to show Katniss how he feels. I say from the very beginning Katniss makes it clear how she feels about romance, being married, and having a kid. I don't think she ever really love Gale he was that boy next door, big brother, kinda have a crush on type.. I think its really unfair how Suzanne Collins portrays him like he always secretly loved her. It actually almost ruins it for me. It makes it like the Jacob/ Bella/ Edward love triangle from Twilight. in Twilight Jacob is her anchor but she never really says she loves him. As much as I was team Jacob because I love the idea of being married to your best friend or being with your best friend for life versus some guy that will leave you hanging... So its the same for Gale. I wasn't team Gale though because like I said she has clearly stated no thanks on the baby making because she didn't want to have children that would have to go to the Hunger Games. Back to Hunger Games though I was wondering how it would feel to be Gale? How would you feel if you knew you were the hero and you were in love with someone but she was pretty much blind to it? How would you feel?

How would you feel if you were Jacob Black or Gale Hawthorne how would you feel? Have you ever been in that situation?

Friday November 21, 2014: It's just another day.

Its just another Friday here. Every other Friday (most of the time) my husband has them off. So we typically go on our date if we can afford it. Don't get too excited its just lunch out somewhere while the kids are in school. I am grateful he volunteered that we should go to take care of our Christmas shopping. So we took care of most of our shopping and didn't spend near as much as we used to. I am TIRED of toys. My kids either like being outdoors or on their electronics. There are times when my son wants his hot wheels or his legos but most of the time its electronics, board games, outside stuff. I have their big gifts to get but I didn't get them yet because I have no where to hide them LOL.

My blogger friend Beth and I were talking... Have you read her blog +Beth Applegate ? Anyways she was like I am not sure readers want to read about that. I was like have you seen the insane stuff on the internet? I never know what to blog about. I haven't been getting many comments so I guess I will just take the comments as suggestions. Like Beth I am not sure you want to read about the boring parts of my day? So what say you? Do you want to read about just an average day in the misadventures of my second life?

Wednesday November 19, 2014: No, seriously. I saw it on the news.

People that follow one of my Facebook profiles I do post news links quite a bit.. they could be silly, gruesome, and weird. Hell I even posted the link of Kim Karatrashian trying to break the internet when it obviously didn't break it just made my eyes see something that can't be unseen and completely unnecessary. At least a few times a week I post a link about news in my local news with the phrase-- we gotta hit our weird quota. You remember that guy, Hide yo kids- hide yo wife guy? Yeah that guy... that's the town closest to me err we are like a suburb of that town. We just seem to get a bunch of odd ducks in this town. I am from Los Angeles and Atlanta before moving here and I just don't recall the magnitude of weird that we have. Perhaps there was so much odd stuff there that it would be too much to report on? There has been reports like Antoine Dodson's 5 minutes of fame... oh but his story just keeps getting better!

There is the guy who is building a fence around his beautiful old house to protect HIMSELF while he repairs that beautiful old house. The city said wrong fence its a hazard (frankly an eye source and it doesn't do the beautiful house justice) because he wants to build it a fortress. So then he said fine I will sell the house off shingle by shingle- heartbreaking. My question to the crazy ole coot that owns the house if you fear for your safety enough to not repair the house 1) how are you building the fence? 2) How do you plan on pulling the shingles off the roof? Its an historic house in the bad part of town so its not profitable to save according to the city's historical society. Its truly my favorite house here. Just two crazy coots that own it!

Then of course the pictures that are occasionally posted by someone with their recent hunting trophy tied to the front of their truck while going through drive thru at Taco Bell. The person driving around town with a lazy boy in the back just encase someone needs tail gate seating maybe? You don't understand these people and their SEC. This place has news for the weird!