Christmas

Christmas has come and gone! We had a great time celebrating as a family. After we did our own Christmas morning, we drove down to Rosemerry's in Rochester to celebrate with them. We had a really good time exchanging gifts, and playing with all the kids. There are a lot of cousins that are Joslyn's age, so she had a blast.

Christmas morning, Joslyn ran up to the pile of presents, but she didn't know what they were, or what to do with them.

She figured it out pretty quick, and after that, she had a great time unwrapping everything.

Christmas night it snowed a few inches, so the next day we got to go out and play in it. Joslyn really loves the snow. It's like the cold doesn't even bother her if there is snow to play in.

On Christmas Eve we made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. Isaac made an igloo (it really is made out of graham crackers), but since we started watching the Star Wars movies, he decided that it's Luke Skywalker's house on Tatooine.

We also made and decorated some sugar cookies. Joslyn had a really good time. It was her first time eating a cookie. (Once she realized she could eat it, she didn't decorate anymore.)

           

Beginning of Christmas Season

The Christmas season has begun here.  It's cold and there is snow everywhere outside.  It's funny.  Joslyn has watched the movie Frozen a thousand times, but I don't think she ever knew what all the white stuff was.  Now that she's seen all the snow around here, I think she finally understands.

The community we live in already had a little Christmas party.  It was a lot of fun.  Joslyn got to sit on Santa's lap and take a picture for the first time.  She was very good.  They also had a real horse drawn carriage pulling people around the neighborhood.  It was pretty cold sitting in it, but we still enjoyed it.  Joslyn kept saying "weeeee!"

We stopped by the Como zoo and conservatory again this week.  It was the first time we've all gone together, even though all of us have been there separately already.  It was also the first time any of us went through the conservatory part of it. They keep it at 80 degrees, so it was a nice break from walking around outside.  There must have been a million poinsettas, as well as cocoa plants, sugar cane, star fruit plant, avacado, and more.  Joslyn really liked the pond full of koi fish.

Joslyn loved the polar bear exhibit too!

These monkeys have really funny mustaches, I just had to put up a picture.

On our way to the zoo, we got stuck behind a reindeer-drawn sleigh! It moved out of our way, but it was kind of crazy seeing it in the road!

This week's food is probably our favorite so far.  It's a delicious sweet and sour chicken.

So you start out with boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces (we've done it with chicken thighs before, but it really didn't turn out as good). Then you coat the chicken with corn starch (or flour works pretty well, too), dip that in some egg, and fry it in vegetable oil until it just turns golden brown (just a minute or two). Then put it in a 9x13 baking pan, and pour this mixed sauce over the chicken:
1 c sugar
6 Tbsp ketchup
3/4 c vinegar
1-1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1-1/2 tsp garlic powder
Bake at 350 for 1 hour, stirring the chicken every 15 minutes.
Serve with a side of rice and maybe some steamed broccoli!

It's usually not swimming in sauce like this.  We didn't have very much chicken this time.