Another Tradition

We have somewhat of a tradition that we take a photo at sunset on the last day of the year. Fortunately this year it was sunny so it worked out. It's also our anniversary. Happy 14th Anniversary to the love of my life. I could write something mushy for all of you to read, but why ruin your New Year's Eve! :)

Party Prep

For the past several years our New Year's party has involved a balloon drop. Usually we rig up the ceiling fan with balloons and at midnight we turn on the fan and down come the balloons.

The year we stepping it up a notch. We're filling up the skylights with balloons and securing them with netting. Hopefully they will hold!

Mom's Cookbook

When I went home for Christmas I copied down some recipes from Mom's cookbook. It started out as a family cookbook that was made for my mom, her sisters, and sister-in-laws one year for Christmas about 25 years ago. It looks like this today.

Full of the original typed recipes, hand written notes, recipes torn out of magazines, recipes that were given to my mom

Stuff my mom wrote down on the back of stuff like deposit slips. (Probably something she copied while waiting at the doctor or something similiar)

All kinds of recipes - Look closely and you'll find the original Chezze Ball recipe! :)

But it also contains treasures such as hand written recipes from my grandmother

And even some like this one which was hand written by my great-grandmother over 25 years ago. I've always joked with her that this book is a mess and she needs to organize it. Now I think it needs to stay just as it is! It has more personality this way. :)

Pop Quiz

Q: Which one of these family members is standing on their tip toes to appear taller?

From Christmas

A: Anyone who is of the male gender!

My dad and brothers, Peter, and Daniel are 6 ft., 6'3", and 6'4" respectively. (Although I think Peter would say differently) This is what they do in family photos! Try to outdo each other. Hey! I'm 5'4" and proud of it. :)

Ghosts of Christmases Past

Pics of Christmas Past

We'll begin with Christmas 1978 - 30 years ago!!

And the family photo from Christmas 1983. I'm the one in the middle holding my new Ewok!

Jumping ahead to 2000 and Aaron dreaming of his Christmas presents

2002 - one of my favorite Christmas pics. I wonder what the neighbors thought!

Aaron and his buddy Bryson from the kids Christmas play. Wisemen were fancy back in the day.

And just to prove that it's not just the kids who are fancy wisemen...Dusty wisely chose the braided headband for his get-up.

Merry Christmas from the Hackney 4!

And so it begins...

Christmas that is. We decided to open up our presents to each other tonight. We will be leaving for Illinois as soon as Dusty gets off work tomorrow.

We started out by lighting the last advent candle. A little early, but hey, we remembered this time!

Then Aaron read the Christmas story out of Luke

Aaron's big surprise of the night was a Playstation 2

Couldn't keep Dusty out of Rachel's new toys!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Rock Band

Someone got Rock Band for Christmas. Thanks Emma for letting a bunch of adults commandeer your game! And for the record....I ROCK!

Bits and Pieces

We're back for a whirlwind 24 hour Christmas tour of Illinois. Actually this was the 1st stage as we will be returning on Wednesday evening. Hit 3 different parties and saw over 50 of our relatives.

Got to spend Saturday evening out at my Grandfathers's house and have Christmas dinner with the family.

This morning the little guys sang during church. Rachel was a little reluctant during practice, but then she was all ready to sing during the service.

And then here is one of my favorite little girls, Allison. She was all decked out in a dress that was Rachel's Christmas dress 2 years ago. I was glad to see it again. :)

Mmmmm.....lovin' from the oven!

So after I ruined a batch of fudge yesterday, I decided that it was time to move on to something else. Something less tempermental. Something that I have a better than 50-50 chance of doing right. On to the cinnamon rolls. I found this recipe and decided that it would be perfect. Be prepared; it will take up a good bit of your day to make, but Mmmmmmm the results are worth it.

Be prepared it makes 7-8 pans of rolls! Don't you wish you lived on my cul-de-sac? That's where some of these puppies are going!

You will need a LOT of working room...3-year old helper optional!

Ahhhh.....Oooooohh.....let's take a moment to drool shall we? Like I said, Lovin' from the oven!

Just for Fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Hackney Four 2008 Christmas Tree

Which looks remarkably similiar to the 2007 tree. I know...I know...one day I'll get a real tree!

Being all fancy and stuff with the ornaments

Advent

3rd Week of Advent - JOY

(A day late, but at least we remembered.)

Happy Birthday Jesus Party

Some shots from the Happy Birthday Jesus Party at church on Saturday.

First up was some crafts. Everyone needs a crown to celebrate!

Everyone!

Julio provided us with Christmas songs in Spanish. He wrapped with "Feliz Navidad" (Rachel's favorite), and it turned into a sing-along at that point.

Then the 4th & 5th graders acted out the Nativity story. Aaron as Joseph and Abbey as Mary. (Who else did you expect!)

And lest you think the fun and crafts were only for the kids....

It takes a village...

...to clean the sanctuary after a Happy Birthday Jesus party! It's neat to see everyone chipping in an working to make sure the church is in tip-top shape for Sunday worship. That and I really like messing with the time lapse video on my camera. :)

Out on the town

I tried to upload this last night after I got home, but YouTube was too slow and I was tired. Here's our ladies night out yesterday. Twenty-five women from our church went out for a kids-free dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory and then topped it off with hot chocolate from South Bend Chocolate Co. That stuff is rich!! We all had a great time. (Even if one of us knocked over the entire cup of hot chocolate as it was served. Couldn't even blame it on a kid!) Warning: The following video contains gratuitous shots of food!

Please forgive the unfortunate shot that is showing before you play the video. I've changed it and hopefully YouTube will update this morning.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy 3? Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the Hackney 4's favorite coffee-drinking, geocaching,
camera-toting, pink-guitar player!

Hope you have a great day Paul!

Santa

Dusty's company Christmas party was on Saturday. It was a family party so the big event at the end was the arrival of Santa Claus. I forgot how much fun Santa can be when you have a 3-year old. She lit up when she heard the bells jingling and Santa came into the room. I thought she may be a little hesitant to go up and sit on his lap, but she went right over and hopped up on his lap. Now she's been asking when she can go see Santa again.

We have a WINNER

300!

Today's Special Announcement!

After adding it up today is my 300th post. So to celebrate and in a shameless attempt to see how many comments I can rack up today, I'm having a contest. Leave me a note in the comments and tell me your favorite Christmas song. Comments will be open until midnight and then I'll randomly choose one to win a fabulous $10 Target gift card. Hey I know it's not much, but it's free! :) You can use it to buy some Starbucks coffee or perhaps some Peppermint Mocha creamer. Maybe you can get a few stocking stuffers out of it. Heck, buy $10 worth of paper towels. The sky's the limit. And face it, I have less hits on a Saturday, so you may have a really good chance to win.

What's your favorite Christmas tune? And if anyone lists, "Christmas Shoes" they are automatically disqualified! Just kidding, but I REALLY do not like that song. Who wants to hear about Momma needing shoes to wear to heaven because she's dying on Christmas eve?!?! But I digress.....



Good Luck and check back tomorrow to see who won.

So Cute!

I'm sorry, but this is just cuteness overload! This is Cohen and his family attends our church. My sister-in-law Becky babysits him, so we had to snap off a few while I was at the house doing their family photos today.

PS - Look for a special announcement tomorrow!

Ugly ornaments

Tonight I enjoyed a fun evening with the ladies at a Christmas tea. I know that sounds all fancy and stuff, but it really boils down to 10 women sitting around eating cheese ball, various finger foods, and drinking some yummy wassail. We had a few rounds on the Wii and held an ugly ornament contest. I'd like to offer up some of the entrys.

From the Painter home we have the Slam Dunking Shaq (Sorry PEC, I know it's out of focus) Nothing says Christmas like a replica of a large basketball player hanging off the rim. :)

Heather Schmidt offered up this gem. She says that there are more and they keep appearing around the house. Jen and I think that Ryan is secretly making them and placing them around the house to drive her crazy!

Lisa bought this special little number at Hobby Lobby today and managed to keep a straight face. Maybe if the Cubs ever win the series she can pass it on to Shelby.

All I can say about this guy is that Jen was ready to take him home and hang it on her tree. I fairly certain she was serious.

The runner up was a frog performing in a burlesque show. I'm really not sure how this works into any decor.

The grand prize winner was this lovely dollar store find. Is it Santa? Is it a wrinkled old lady with a tinsel beard. Who knows, but it's a little creepy either way!