There’s a great series of giveaways going on over at Jolly Mom and Go Graham Go, two blogs that I follow regularly. I get three extra entries in all of their giveaways if I blog about a favorite Christmas memory, so here goes:

My Christmas memories are strongly linked with food, which is probably one big reason I struggle with my weight. But anyhoo, my mother was a baker (as are my grandmother and my sister; I, on the other hand, missed that gene). So during the month or so leading up to Christmas, our house was filled with the smells of Christmas cookies. I can remember a ton of varieties of cookies we ate every year: wreaths and candy canes, lacey crisps filled with chocolate, cut-out sugar cookies, almond sliced cookies, gingerbread men, powdered sugar fried ones, sour cream twists, pastries filled with cherries, and bar cookies galore. I’m sure there are others I’m forgetting, too. My mom was serious about her Christmas baking. Plus, she always made homemade cinnamon rolls and “sticky buns” for Christmas morning.

Anyway, my specific memory is of one of Mom’s last Christmases with us (it may have been THE last, I can’t honestly remember). She invited my sister’s good friends Todd and Heidi to come over for cookie baking day, and Jodi and Heidi helped Mom with a lot of the baking. Todd and I, being baking-challenged and kitchen-inept, were given some of the easier tasks, like icing the sugar cookies and decorating the gingerbread men. Then Mom decided to let Todd roll the chocolate macaroons into balls before baking. It’s a simple task, really; just roll the dough into balls, then roll the balls into powdered sugar and put them on the cookie sheet. But here’s the thing: among his many loveable quirks, Todd has a higher-than-average body temperature. So when he started rolling these cookies in his overly-hot hands, they turned to mush. He continued to try his best to roll those darn cookies, but eventually he was left with two hands completely coated in cookie dough, and no hope of forming recognizeable balls out of that mess. So he called for my mom, in a voice that was both apologetic and pitiful, and she came out to the dining room to find the chocolate mess that was Todd. She didn’t get mad; my mom was a sucker for a lost cause. She just helped him clean up and then sent him off to her bedroom to take a nap, since he was in desperate need of recovering from the sugar shock of the day and the stress of his cookie-balling attempts.

I loved that about my mom; she was a mom to everyone. I didn’t mind sharing her, because I knew she was a great mom and that other kids (and, in this case, fully grown men) deserved to have a chance at having a mom like her once in a while. I wish my own kids could have known her, but I hope some day they know me as one of those great moms. It all starts with making Christmas memories together.

Well, things are bustling along well here in our household. We’re anxiously awaiting the arrival of Christmas – can you belive it’s only a month away now? Yikes! Mike and I did most of our shopping online this year, but we still have to pick up a few things (one more gift for Will and a few for Zack). We’re finding it difficult to shop for Zack, since he’s so small. I think we’ll end up getting him a few toys that he may be too small for now but will grow into soon. After all, it’s going to be a while until his birthday, so these will be things he can get use out of between now and then.

I’ve got to finish my handmade holiday gifts, too. I’m working on them and making good progress, but I still have a few things on my list. I’m going to be making stocking stuffers for the kiddos, which will be a big hassle to make only because I’ll have to hide from them while I do it. Will’s going to get a Pikmin toy,

This is the Yellow Pikmin from the Craftster link.

but Will’s will be red instead of yellow, which means it will have a nose instead of ears.

Jillian’s going to get a Ponyo, like this one:

This is the Ponyo made by agamerswife on Ravelry.

She loved that movie, even though I thought it was one of the weirder things I’d ever watched (and belive me, I’ve seen some weird things).

I’m thinking of making this for Zack:

This is the photo from the designer's blog.

I’d have to use yarn or felt to make the eyes and sew them on or embroider them, but I think it’s cute. I also like that the pattern requires very little seaming/assembling, which I hate doing. The legs are crocheted directly onto the body, so that will be handy. I’m thinking of making him in a variegated rainbow yarn, or something very bright at least.

In non-holiday news, Will has his first loose tooth! This was a failed attempt at photographing it for posterity:

Can you see it now, Mom?

He’s very excited for it to come out, so we’re all preparing for our first Tooth Fairy visit!

Zack has recently begun gracing us with his smiles, so today I took advantage of that and snapped some photos. It’s a rare occurrence, so I tried to capture it while I could. It helped that Jilly-Bean was nearby, because our little man always smiles at his older siblings (while Mike and I have to wait all day for a smile). Here are the results of today’s photo session:

This is the face he normally makes.

Sweet Smile

Big Sis wants in on the action? I'll pull her hair!

I grow tired of that flashy thing!

Jilly's Turn to Pose

All in all, it was a productive photo day!

I was looking up pictures of birthday cakes today as my research for an article I’m writing, and I found this:

Mario marries the Princess

If my son never out-grows his video game obsession, we may be eating something similar to this in 20 years or so …

(Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimbach/2517781217/sizes/m/.)

So yesterday, my vacuum broke. This is no big surprise, since I’m hard on vacuums and I always expect I’ll have to buy a new one once a year or so. Unfortunately, this one had really bad timing, because it broke while I was halfway through the living room, and I needed to finish the job since the guy from the moving company is coming today to give us an estimate on our move. So I had no choice – time to go shopping for a new one.

I really didn’t want to spend big money on a new vacuum, because we’re moving and I’d rather just wait until that happens before I get a new one. But I had to have SOMETHING to sweep the floors with, too. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought the cheapest little thing they had – a Eureeka 4-in-1 job that will do stick, hand, and crevice vacuuming (and stairs, too, woo hoo). It gets the job done, and if it doesn’t last forever it’s no big deal – I only spent 20 bucks.

The real miracle occurred when I took that little baby out of her box. My kids thought it was the cutest little vacuum they’d ever seen, and they BEGGED to be allowed to vacuum their rooms with it. Seriously.

Here’s the photographic evidence. My son, Mr. I’m-too-lazy-to-put-underwear-on-in-the-morning, is vacuuming my living room floor. He had already finished his bedroom and was itching for more.

Will and the Greatest Vacuum Ever

The great part about it is that I can leave the handle down for the hand-vac position and it makes it the perfect size for my little darlings.

Jillian, unfortunately, is too scared of the minimal noise it makes to actually use it herself. She wanted me to let her vacuum with it unplugged, but I told her that wouldn’t really do any of us any good. Maybe she’ll get over it after she sees how much fun Will’s having.

My own little miracle!