There will be no Ho Ho Ho's in this household

Alternately, why my children will not believe in Santa Claus

So I know I'm probably going to piss someone off with this (if anyone reads this blog anymore since it's gone into semi-hibernation. Hello? Is anyone out there?) but after wondering for a few Christmas seasons, I've decided that I'm not going to teach my kids to believe in Santa Claus. And no, it's not because apparently Justin Beiber's mom never let him believe in Santa Claus. Here are the reasons I've come to this conclusion:

1) I never believed in Santa Claus. There's the whole thing that I didn't go to live with my parents until I was two, so I was nearly 3 before Christmas. I'd never heard of Santa Claus up until this point. Maybe I was an overly cynical child, but no amount of coaxing on my sister's or parents's part to get me to believe in Santa.

2) I'm not really sure what's to be gained by believing in Santa. Same with the tooth fairy, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Ultimately, we just learn the adults have lied to us. Again.

3) I just spent 7 hours sewing a platter tutu for Alana. There is NO WAY IN HELL Santa is getting any credit for that. I also spent 3 hours shopping this past Saturday. Does Santa suffer from shin splints? Because I sure do.

4) The biggest reason I decided this was a couple of days ago Di posted on facebook at story of a woman at Kmart paying off people's layaway balances. Someone posted the requisite crap of consumerism, etc at which point another woman wrote:

Kids don't understand materialism and corporate greed. When your son asks you, "Is that all the gifts? Were we naughty this year?" because you could only afford a few inexpensive items, you die a little (a LOT) inside.

I think *I* died a little inside reading that. Right now, Justin has a good job and we're blessed with some semblance of job security for which I'm eternally grateful. Maybe I've being a little pessimistic, but I can imagine all too easily this being a scenario, especially in this economy.

I've been having a little bit of a hard time getting into any sort of Christmas spirit this year. Maybe it a combination of stress, or reading depressing news articles about gendercide, or lack of sunshine, or Republican debates, but I'm not really feeling is this year. The tree finally went up (sans any ornaments until my klepto children grow up) and I finally put the wreath on the door today. But the lights aren't up, dinner is going to be at my brother's, and I'm just too damn tired. Merry Christmas.

Marchin' years apart

A few years ago I knocked off a Stella McCartney Gap kids marching band jacket. Liam was almost three when he wore it (twice!). Now that Alana had fit it, she's going to be wearing that thing everyday to make up for the pain that was sewing it.

Apple tart

I came across blog that the most beautiful apple pie I'd ever seen. Unfortunately the recipe was in BULGARIAN. Through a combination of Google Translate and common sense I came up with this recipe:


Ingredients


Dough:
2/3 c butter, room temperature
2.5 oz (70 g) powdered sugar 
1 tsp vanilla
1 teaspoon grated orange peel 
1 egg
3.5 oz (100 g) finely ground almonds 
5.25 oz (150 g) flour


Cream:
4 tablespoons cake flour (not sure if it has to be cake flour, but the translator said "peak" flour which we guessed as cake)
6 tablespoons granulated sugar 
1 teaspoon grated orange peel 
3 egg yolks
1 2/3 c milk 
1/2 c apple juice (recipe calls for white wine)
1 tsp vanilla 


5-6 apples (we used honey crisps) 


Instructions:


1) Dough: Beat butter with sugar, vanilla and orange peel. Add egg and almond. Add flour gradually until soft dough forms.


2) Grease and flour a tart pan. Spread dough into prepared pan, pressing it evenly and up the sides. Refrigerate while preparing cream.


3) For the cream, into a medium sized saucepan, mix flour with sugar, vanilla and orange peel. Add egg yolks and a little milk. Stir to a smooth, pour the remaining milk and apple juice. Bring cream to a boil and then let it cool. It should be thick. Optionally, you can use some instant vanilla cream or pudding. 


4) With vegetable peeler, make ribbons of apples without removing their skin. Wrap the strips into apple roses. (Martha Stewart has a pretty good tutorial on this).


5) Pour cream over dough and arrange it the apple roses on it.


6) Bake cake in preheated 350 F oven  about 45 minutes, until the dough is baked and apples become golden. Let cake cool completely. Refrigerate.




DON'T be tempted to take this out of the fridge to come to room temperature before serving. The pudding will soften too much and it'll run. Next time I make it, I want to poach the apple strips a little. I think this will make it a little easier to wrap the apples and eat later.

Tart before it went into the oven. You can see the peeled apple in the background

Fresh from the oven.

Next night at Thanksgiving before we served.

Chili crab

This was dinner on Sunday. It was pretty good, but I'm not sure I got the recipe right. I used this recipe. It will be one of the messiest things you'll ever eat.

Cleaning out my camera phone

Kids asleep everywhere: 

Before I finished painting and decorating Liam's room, he was just sleeping on a mattress set. He didn't adapt too well from a toddler bed. He lined up his pillows and then fell asleep hanging off the edge.

Kids's fashion:

Alana's favourite dress. Liam likes to put it on and tease her.

Alana eating:

It's amazing how much of a mess she can make.

We went to a Korean restaurant near our house (one of many). This one was very authentic (menu had no English.) We ordered the kids bi bim pop (rice bowl with stuff on top). Alana was very excited when it came. It was bigger than her head. She made a pretty good dent in it too. 

The kids like their rice pre-wrapped in kim pop.

Playing:

Alana was moping while Liam was at school, so I sent her outside. She meticulously settled herself down in the dirt and started making mud pies.

If it seems like I take more pictures of Alana, it's because she'll hold still for them.

For all my Utah readers

See? It snows here too. Last night's snowfall:

Yay! @#%#$% game.

After two years, I finally beat Katamari Forever. HOLY @#%%$^@#$!!! that was a hard game. Okay, not really, just harder than it's previous versions, and probably more time than I wanted to invest in it while having two kids. But it's done! Bring on the next version! For those of you without a PS2 or PS3 or XBox, here's a version you can play if you have Chrome:

http://kathack.com/