And the winners are...

Our snowball fight started promptly at 11 with the arrival of the flag bearing, shield carrying (trash can lid) Col.

He chose his fort, planted his flag then the balls began to fly. The kids were having a blast.

We had a brief interlude with the arrival of the postman bringing even more boxes from my mom. Apparently the Col. and the post man served in the Army together.
While the Col. was busy chatting it up with the mailman, the girls, realizing their chance, stole his flag...
...and Mrs. Col. arrived (she too is awesome).
Once the battle resumed Col., never one to surrender his flag, sent his soldier {j} to retrieve it while the Col. provided cover.
Though I am unsure of the exact scoring measure, Tug (a non-partisan judge) says the boys did in fact win.

Once the fun was done, everyone headed inside for some homemade chicken noodle soup (recipe), rolls (recipe), and hot chocolate (recipe) which all tasted amazingly good. We sat and chatted for quite a while (Mrs. Col. is from Germany and had some fun stories). The snow has started falling again...off for more soup and hot chocolate. 

The camera was on night setting which led to some pretty grainy pictures-AGH.

Coolest of the cool

I have told you before of our awesome landlord, and I am here to tell you again. They are awesome. In case you haven't heard, it has been snowing quite a bit in our parts (and lots of other parts) so Tug and the kids built 2 forts today (walls really) then sent an email to our landlord:

Hello Col. L,

If you aren't working tomorrow can you come over for a snowball fight? We built 2 forts (walls), one for you and one for us. I think we will win. 

Thanks,

{l} & {r}, but {r} is a little sick so maybe {l} & {j}

We received this reply:

Dear {l}, {r}, and {j},

I'm not working tomorrow, and I accept your challenge. If there is one thing I like when it snows, it's a snowball fight. However, I have to warn you, I don't like to lose. My last loss in a snowball fight was in 1951 when I was in 5th grade!

See you tomorrow. What time does the first snowball get thrown?

After the fight is over, maybe we can build a snow man, put a hat on him, and make him look like Frosty!

JL

Is he awesome or what? I didn't take a picture when there was light so here is a high ISO of one of the 'forts'. It really is white snow though, more like this flash enhanced photo (yeah, I know, both pictures suck).I'll let you know how it goes!

My booty

actually, I suppose it will be their booty. 

The Christmas knitting is done. Technically, there is a non-knit gift in there (I made an embroidery set for a niece, but it is handmade) and I didn't do anything for my mom. She said she did not want a hand knit item then got sad when I said I wasn't making her something (though she is getting something hand made, it just isn't by me) so she said she wanted a sweater...maybe next year. Off to box it all up and ship it all out!!

Dear Friends and Family

Please remember, Christmas is a season and not just a day. And, in the spirit of that season, please remember that getting a gift on Christmas day isn't as important as getting a gift sometime within the Christmas season. Oh and please also remember that just because you saw something on this blog and I said it was for someone, that doesn't actually mean it was for them. It might actually be for you. And, that was totally intentional...not because I am running out of time and having to rethink presents...totally intentional! And, I just realized that post title says friends and family ~ if you are a friend, please take me off your 'give a gift to' list, I promise I have already reciprocated the favor. 

Saving Mother Earth

or perhaps just being tacky? That is this years' Christmas card, sent strictly via email (bonus being I sent them to many people I otherwise would not have).

scraps available here

Toffee

Hey, check it. 

My sil (Michelle) says this toffee from English Toffee Anytime is to die for. I am taking her word for it and entering this little giveaway to get some FOR FREE. Go, go get you some. 

Go on now...

Why are you still here? Go here instead!!

Love is

A pair of handwarmers. I love love LOVE these!! I finished them a few weeks ago but they were, um, misplaced by the 6 year old. Today the girls had to clean their room and, go figure, they found them. I immediately took pictures because I am sure they will die a slow death in that pit the girls call a room once more. I can't find the pattern right now but, following proper blog/knit etiquette I will update as soon as I do. pattern here If nothing else, I want to be a proper knitting blogger, or blogging knitter, or whatever, just proper.
Manana es la dia de La Virgin de Guadalupe (mom, did I get all that right?)...what are you doing to celebrate? I am hosting a cookie exchange for our homeschool group~ack the pressure. There are 11 families coming with cookies and 2 more families coming just to hang out (each family will be at LEAST 4 people~one mom and x kids~so that puts us at around 56). I don't know a lot of these families...did I already mention pressure? Oh and, no, we don't have a huge house...I don't have enough room for all these peeps. I am hoping it doesn't rain so the kids can go outside. The 'party' starts at 1:30, rain is forecasted to begin at 2. ACK. I did con my mom into sending me bunuelos (kinda like cinnamon/sugar fried tortillas), biscochos (a Mexican shortbread cookie) and some stuff for Mexican hot chocolate so I can incorporate OLG~gotta represent mi rasa. She had my aunt make a ton then mailed them all the way from the border of Mexico~have I ever told you my mom is AWESOME? Tomorrow night a family that can't come to the exchange is coming over for dinner which is totally cool cuz she is bringing all the food...can you say Settlers!! Wish me luck!

peanut butter hershey's kiss cookies

Dog new tricks

Backstory~when we moved here the girls signed up for gymnastics, so roughly 3 months ago. Though {l} took gymnastics when she was about 3 they are both complete newbies. At gymnastics they do typical newbie things...jump on the trampoline, hang on the bar then drop off, try to learn how to do a cartwheel, you know boring stuff. At home, however, she is trying different things, teaching herself lots of stuff. She loves going from a handstand over into a backbend and, when done landing with her feet on the couch, kicking back over. Today during gymnastics her teacher had the girls try handstands (most couldn't quite get the hand part and instead were doing headstands) but she had {l} do a handstand to a backbend on a higher mat then kick back over. Once we were home I told her to take a cushion off the couch so her feet would be lower to the ground once she landed~she kicked back, no problem. She then decided to try it landing on just the cushion on the ground~again success. Finally I told her to try it just landing on the ground...here is the result; I guess {s} wasn't impressed.  

fyi~{r} can kinda do a handstand but she sticks her butt back too much so not really, but at least it isn't a headstand. sorry for the craptastic grainy video