Christmas 2016: Advent Day Nine
Christmas 2016: Advent Day 11

Christmas 2016: Advent Day 10

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Saturday, the 10th day of Advent, saw us going out to Bee Heaven Farm again for our weekly local, organic produce share. That ratatouille in the bowl in the bottom center was just eh, okay, for both Rob and me, but the rest of the food was delicious goodness!

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After I returned, we did our daily Advent opening. Gingerbread lollies were the treat of the day. Chloë had opened the bag that day, and she dropped Sophie's lollipop when handing it to her. Immediately, she picked it up and said she would take that one, since she broke it. That's just the kind of thoughtful girl she is!

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That day, we decided to start baking our Christmas cookies. The kids are really growing up now, and so I thought I could just direct the baking activity from afar while they did the work. Pain and suffering, you know... but that plan quickly flopped, and I had to apron-up and get involved!

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Here are Sophia and Chloë working in concentrated cooperation to pour the pistachio-laden batter of my favorite new cookies into a baggie for pouring into dots on the baking sheet. Yeah, I know the batter looks like baby diarrhea, but trust me, it was really good. And now you can't stop thinking about baby diarrhea, can you? Sorry...

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Meanwhile, our table had ALL THE THINGS on it necessary for hours and hours of baking. Unfortunately, I didn't get as much baking finished as I'd have liked before getting tired, and so this is how our table looked for like, ummm, a week! :O

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Meanwhile, Jack played Farming Simulator 17 on the XBox One, as he has tried to a little bit of each and every day. Henry watched - can you see him on the orange ottoman?

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Sophia and I made Lemon Tassies together, from the Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook. I absolutely adore that book, a gift I received a while back from Rob's sister Gail. She was being very careful to make sure each crust cup had equal amounts of filling.

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These were amazingly delicious. The kids kept asking for "one more." And "one more" and "one more" and "one more" later, we were out of Lemon Tassies. Those, I'm afraid, will not be gifted to our friends this year. Oops.

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However, my heart belongs to these pistachio-and chocolate layered squares that are, in no uncertain terms, incredible. Unbelievable. Amazeballs. 

They are EVERYTHING. And no, we didn't save anything for gifting from these, either. #WeArePiggies

Stay tuned for more...

FIn.

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