Merry and bright.

Before the unwrapping began

Christmas Eve events:

• Skiing in the morning (Sage went down her first blue and rode the chair lift solo!)
  
• Sage hunted for the baby Jesus while dressed in shepherd's clothes (she even slept in them)
  
• We ate good grub: Roast Leg of Lamb, Butterhorn Rolls, Rainbow Quinoa, Carrot Souffle and Parmesan Broccoli
• Read "The Night Before Christmas" and the Christmas story from Luke
• Forgot to set out cookies and milk for Santa..shoot!
  

Sage wanted Shane to open the first present....a sports movie (Hoosiers) from her.


Micah surrounded by some of the goods

Christmas Day:

• Ate waffles with whipped cream and berries and waaaay too much sausage
• Napped and played and did absolutely nuthin' else
• Sage watched Finding Nemo all the way through (usually she gets to watch half a movie on movie days---I try not to let her languish too long in front of the boob tube)
  

Trying out her new wheels. Santa also brought that hula hoop and jump rope you see in the picture.


Micah and his sock monkey from grandma. We decided he needs a lovey so that when he starts sleeping through the night (ahem...soon) he'll have a buddy.


Dress from Grandma S. And quacker from Grandma M....most annoying toy ever but she loves it.

Favorite presents?

Shane: Don't laugh but we got him a box of Honey Nut Cheerios (the fake, organic kind)...he hasn't had them in years and he had about 6 bowls in a few short hours.
Sage: harmonica (she takes that thing everywhere)
Micah: Shape sorter
Alicia: Best present hands down was from Shane. Long story short but we lost a bunch of pictures (about 5000 of them) when our computer crashed months ago. Most of them were from Sage's babyhood. I was very sad about it but resigned to it. Shane magically got all of our pictures restored. I cried and Sage looked pretty confused (why in the world would somebody cry over a gift?).

A perfect Saturday.

Riding the bus back from the lodge. Micah decided that dirty bus seat
tasted better than anything the lodge had to offer.

Shane here. I don't often write in the blog, so you know if I do, it's gotta be something special. One of my best memories of growing up is skiing at Lake Tahoe. Living in Boulder, we've joined the rest of the town and bought season passes to El Dora, a resort 30 minutes from our house. Sage is a good athlete, but had never skied before last month. She spent the first 3 days holding onto my hand or pole as we went down the hill. There were mostly happy times, but a few tears came after hard falls, cold weather, and getting frustrated.

I bribed Sage with a $10 bill if she was able to make it down the bunny slope all by herself and lunch at the lodge if she could make it down the green hill one lift over. Two Saturdays ago, she was so close, but didn't quite make it. Once going down the hill that day, she tried to negotiate with me. If she skied down just half of the hill, could we go to the lodge for lunch? I told her that I had high standards and that only when she skied down the whole hill, including getting off the chair lift and not falling while skiing and not touching me at all, then she'd get lunch. While laying in the snow after falling, she was cold and started crying, and said, "I don't like standards."

I knew that this past Saturday she was going to do it; the weather was warmer and we were up there early. On the 2nd or 3rd run, Sage did it! It was one of the happier moments for me as a dad. We went over to the next hill and she went down that one on her own as well. The next 5 runs, she was totally on her own, even asking if she can could on the chair lift by herself. She earned her rewards.

After Sage and I finished, we went back to the car where Alicia and Micah were hanging out. It was Alicia's turn to ski with Sage. From where we parked, I was able to see both of them as they skied down. I was relieved that every time Sage make it to the bottom she would patiently wait for Alicia. Sage taught Alicia everything that she knows and they both did well.

Compared to other kids in Boulder, Sage is getting a late start in skiing, but I have a feeling that she's going to pass many of them soon. Check out the video and you'll see that she looks like a natural. Even started using her poles and doing really great!!!

Micah, you're next...
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Now it's Alicia. I just love seeing Shane be the proud papa....he's not one to brag about our kiddos but he sure is proud of Sage. Skiing was lots of fun last week. Sage and I got in 6 runs together. She was coaching me all the way up on the lift and even on the mountain, "Great job Mom!" and "I can hold your hand if you want."

By the way, we did eat at the lodge that day. Local ski resort is code for cruddy lodge...the food brought back memories of my elementary school cafeteria. We had a snack there and then went to Sage's favorite place for dinner, Larkburger. Mmmm...truffle (as in mushroom) burgers and truffle parmesan fries. Yum.

Listen Up

This is one of my favorite Christmas songs. Such beautiful words (video not so much).

A wonderful Christmas time.

Sage and her best buddy, Aurora, getting ready to make molasses cookies

This Christmas is definitely going to be a lot more fun than last Christmas. Last year we were friendless (we'd only lived here 4 weeks), homeless (still living in a vacation condo) and jobless (still hashing out contract details). Oy....glad that time is past.

This year is off to a good start. Christmas tunes playing, tree decorated, lights hung outside and presents wrapped and under the tree.

Sage and I made a different kind of cookie every day this week. We used our cookie scoop to make little dough balls, placed them on a cookie sheet, froze them for an hour and popped them into ziploc baggies. Now our freezer is full and ready for baking and cookie deliveries this coming week.

We're serious about our treat making. This was the line-up:

Monday: Gingerbread men (for our tree)
Tuesday: Chocolate Chip Cookies
Wednesday: Peanut Butter Cookies
Thursday: Em's Sugar Cookies (divine!)
Friday: Molasses Cookies
Saturday: Buckeyes


CCC and Buckeyes for a neighborhood cookie exchange today.

The Buckeyes are kind of like a Reese's Cup for grown-ups (hence the sea salt sprinkled on top). Delicious and addictive.

{buckeyes}

via smitten kitchen

Yield: 36 to 42 tablespoon-sized candies (we got about 52)

1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (from about 7 graham crackers)
1/2 teaspoon salt ( if you use natural pb this is a must!)
2 3/4 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks or 5 ounces) butter, melted and cooled
12 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons coarse sea salt

Make the filling: In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter together until combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs and beat for 10 seconds. Add the sugar and butter, and mix on the lowest speed until it stops floating off everywhere, then increase the speed until the ingredients are combined. Scrape down the whole bowl well, then mix again. The mixture will be quite sturdy and a little dry — perfect for shaping. Set it aside while you prepare the coating.

Make the coating: Melt the chocolate either over a double boiler, stirring until it is completely smooth or in a microwave in 30 then 10 second increments, stirring before you start it again until it is completely smooth. Let it cool to tepid (about 100 degrees) while you shape the peanut butter centers.

Assemble the candies: Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Scoop out slightly more than one tablespoon’s worth of filling (I used a scoop that made them a little smaller) and use your hands to form it into a ball. Place the ball on the prepared sheet and repeat the process until all of the candies have been shaped. They can sit close to each other but make sure they are not touching.

Using a fork or large skewer, dip each ball into the chocolate and roll it about so that the entire candy is coated. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Chill the buckeyes until they are set, about 30 minutes. Buckeyes will keep in the fridge for about a week.

A test.

Home birth midwives don't have much use for ultrasounds...if you want one great, if not great. I didn't really want to pay money for a five-minute ultrasound just to tell me the sex so I ran over to Target and picked up a little test called Intelligender. Similar to a pregnancy test... green means you're having a boy and yellow, a girl.

And it turns out we're having a boy! It will be fun adding another little guy to the crew.

The only tricky part about boys are the names. I have a long list of girl's names but those boy names plague me. We need something strong, easy to spell and say and not too common. Good thing we have a few more months to mull over this.

Buck

A note: We have a lovely buck (male deer) who would come and spend autumn days sunning himself in our backyard. We would always make sure to tell Sage when he was around..."Sage the buck is back." Now on to the story.

Yesterday Sage and Shane saw a woman on the street corner with a sign that read,

"Down on my luck, need a buck."

He read the sign to Miss Sage and she replied,

"We have a buck at our house. But he hasn't been around for awhile. Why does she need a buck?"

Shane explained.

Critters

Sage and a deer in the backyard

Run-in #1:
Recently I was waiting Shane's arrival after work. It was late, the house was dark and I was upstairs. I heard a bang and some shuffling, thinking my hubby was home I ran downstairs and yelled out my "hello." No answer. More shuffling. Suddenly I remembered that the back door was open. My adrenaline started pumping. Thinking there was an intruder I started flipping on lights and made my way to the mud room by the back door. Heart pounding, I turned the corner and saw....a wily raccoon in my kitchen trash. He hissed at me and not knowing what else to do I stomped my feet loudly and off he ran.

Run-in #2:
Early one morning a few weeks back Shane heard a crash outside. He looked out the window and saw a bear in our trash. In the light of morning we assessed the damage: backyard full of dirty diapers and two big piles of bear poo. Lovely.

Run-in #3:
Shane hitched a ride with a friend to Priesthood Session on Saturday night while the kids and I went off for a night with some friends. Shane arrived home around 8:15 PM and knocked but no answer. As he waited on the porch he saw a bear a couple houses down. The bear lumbered along on the sidewalk and then crossed the street. Waaaaay too close for comfort.

Our neighbor next door has had a bear cub and mama in her tree. Bears have also been spotted strolling around the alleys in the neighborhood.

The neighbor 3 doors down kept finding decapitated raccoons lying around his yard. He wanted to know what was creeping around at night and killing those 'coons so he set-up a motion sensor camera. After a few days he had a photo of a great big mountain lion.

This is why we don't go out in our backyard after dark.