wishing everyone a merry christmas

This is one of my fave vidoes to remind me of exactly why we celebrate. Enjoy!

a new addition

So, the newest addition to our family is almost 2 weeks old. Addisyn Lydia May Wiens was born at 8:45 am on December 2. This is a good thing and I'm thankful for her safe and healthy arrival.

With her arrival also came some babysitting responsibilities. On the 4th of December my nieces and nephew had a sleepover at our house. We jumped and ran and made blanket tents and made rice krispy squares and watched a movie and ate popcorn and had story time... things were going quite well until...

Berlin and Kaityn wanted to go home. The tears were streaming down their cheeks and they refused to be comforted (for a while). And then Rowan didn't want to sleep in the big bed, he wanted to be in the same room as the girls. Well, an energetic, enthusiastic and dramatic reading of Andrew's Loose Tooth (by yours truly) seemed to settle everyone's spirits and then a short cuddle with some familiar songs sung by yours truly made everyone fall asleep.

I finished tucking the girls in and then moved Rowan back to "his" bed and then I also hit the hay (those kids don't get that saturdays are for sleeping in). Anyhow, when Rowan woke up he told Oma that "I falled asleep in the room with Kaityn and Berlin but I waked up in the special room."

C is for Cookie

So Christmas is almost upon us again. That means I've done a lot of baking already (and boy, it's more than I even planned for).

Mom and I have made Cornflake Cookies, Sachertorte Cookies, Siropskuchen, Peppermint Cookies, Almond Crescents, Snickerdoodles and Starbucks Cookies with various helpers (my sister, cousin, sister-in-law, nieces and nephew).

On my own I've made a couple of batches of Sachertorte Cookies, Almond Crescents, Lunch Munch Cookies, Candy Cane Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Tangerine Blossoms.

With my friends Dave & Mikol, I made 8 different varieties of biscotti (including Chocolate-Cherry Biscotti).


And the baking is not finished yet. It's insane.

But I must admit, I really enjoy it. The cookies are generally smaller than at any other time of year. And they are more work than "normal" cookies are. But the results are so yummy and satisfying.

Tangerine Blossoms were a new one for me this year. The day that I made them, my nephew came over. He right away wanted to try one. So I gave him one and asked if he liked it. His response was "It's yummy, Tante Carolynn! It tastes like macaroni and cheese!"

Just for your reassurance, they do not actually taste like macaroni and cheese, but they are good.