If I were a.....

yes, his handwriting needs a lot of work :)

Kade gave us a card for Christmas he was working on at school.  They laminated it and everything but it was just so cute what he wrote inside.  They were supposed to answer "if I were a Santa Claus I would..."  Ehren and I had a good laugh about the very first thing he wrote. "I would help mom with daycare because she has a hard time with it." :) Sweet little Kade has no idea how true that is sometimes and I am sure he witnessed more than a few stressful occasions the past couple years.  I am not going to lie, it is very hard work to have multiple kids at home that come from all different families.  I probably mentioned this earlier but this Fall I realized how much easier this year is compared to last year when the 2 youngest were just babies and had to be bottle-fed a few times a day.  I think I was just surviving for a few months there. :) This year they're walking around and just like hanging out with the other kids and play by them.  My favorite age though must be around 2-5 years old.  Kids are so sweet at that age, they love to read books after books, they listen so well, are eager to please and want to do whatever you suggest for them to do.  They will fight once in a while, but it is so short-lived and they don't remember crying 2 minutes later.  I don't know if it's just me but I do think many times I'm doing a terrible job with it and I should be doing so much more with the kids but at the end of the day, there is only so much I am able to do.  I am thankful though that in return, I don't have to send my kids to some daycare and I can be with them at home, even if it means we can't go anywhere during the day.

Kade's other line said: "If I were a Santa Claus I would buy my family some food because we run out of food a lot." :)  So true, we need to buy groceries A LOT. :)  No wonder when we have 7 kids at our house at some point every day.  At least I have not heard a line from our kids yet that every kid says at some point : "we have nothing to eat" so I think that is pretty good.  We really are blessed at how much we have in comparison to people all over the world.  We don't know what it's like to skip a meal because there is nothing left to eat yet we don't ever think of it as a blessing, more like it's our right to have all that and so much more that we could so easily live without.  It's really sad how consumer oriented our world is becoming and how few simple things remain as part of our family life.  I can't say I'm living a minimalist lifestyle, it is far from it actually, but it just amazes me how so many families are driven by having more stuff in their lives and how whatever the children suggest or want at an early age, they get without even having to wait for it.  I'm a bit afraid of what our children will have to deal with in their adulthood, it's hard enough right now but is going downhill too fast. :)  I just hope we can stick to our believes as our kids get older and have them see it's ok to be different.  It's ok to go against the flow, to be the only fish sometimes swimming against all the other fish that we see.  Because the only One that matters sees us and is so proud watching us do just that.

Merry Christmas!

Our stomachs are way too full and we're all very sleepy - a sign of a good Christmas.  :) It really was a nice Christmas with the family.  Our kids were so excited for Christmas Eve and just loved all their presents.  Ehren's dad ended up spending the evening with us and it was nice having him with us.  Audrey wasn't feeling quite well yet and needed some rest so she didn't come that evening.  Kade had no idea what he was getting but the 2 gifts he got he just loves.  One is the "snap circuits" which has about 500 projects to do, from simple to very complicated.  It is always a great toy to have for the long winter nights and I'm so glad he enjoys it.  The other thing he got was this hexbug set with bugs for all the kids and all the kids love watching these little bugs run around, race and bump each other.  Anika got a dollhouse and she couldn't believe she got something like that.  It's beautiful, wooden and she loves it.  Her, Emily and Kason love playing house or pretend games with all their animals and dolls so I know they will love playing with the dollhouse and the dollhouse 7 family members.  Kason's favorite gift must have been the one from nana, it is a little track from the cars movie that has 2 cars race down to the finish line.  He loves anything to do with the spycars, the cars movie and race cars.  He likes trains too but is starting to lose interest in Thomas a bit as he's getting close to 4 years old.  It was just a nice, relaxing Christmas Eve.  The next day I got to skype with my family for a bit and then we headed over to Ehren's parents for the Hanson Christmas brunch.  It was very nice and we had such a nice time visiting with everyone.  The kids are getting so much easier to handle now when we get together and they all play together so nice that us adults can actually enjoy some conversations and even play "catch phrase" or "gestures". :)  All the kids were definitely overly tired from a few late nights in a row and not napping but they were all really good and everyone had a great time.  Jess made the day for all the kids when she gave them rides on her 2 horses.  Ingrid and I came along too and it was just great to get some fresh air on such a nice and WARM day for Minnesota so just a perfect weather to do that.  We visited some more with Ehren's parents and sister and her family today but we definitely started feeling a bit sluggish from eating too much food and sweets all weekend. :)  I couldn't even look at the food tonight.  But it was just a very merry Christmas for me, as Christmas should be.  The only thing better would be if I could be with my family in Slovakia.  But I am thankful for our wonderful families and it makes me sad for those who are in the middle of broken homes where family get-togethers are stress-filled and painful.  We have so much to be thankful for and so much we've been blessed with and I just hope I can be a little blessing to someone else.  I hope you have had a warm and lovely Christmas with your family and I wish you all a blessed and joyful year 2012.

cousins with great-aunt Judith

Anika's art project

skyping with their cousins in NY

having a good time together

Christmas Eve service at church

frying some tilapia fish

Christmas program

We are finally done!  Last night was our church's annual big Christmas concert where the adult choir sings and at the beginning usually all the kids from the age 2 until 8th grade do some kind of songs/program of their own.  This year Ehren and I are teaching a Sunday School class for 4-5 year olds and we had to come up with our little "show".  There is another couple that helps us teaching the kids so we don't have to do it every Sunday and they helped us with it too but it was a bit stressful for me.  I know it's just little kids and people really don't care, but I always get nervous and stressed out if we have to be up on the stage in front of a packed church, especially when a few of our kids are very unpredictable in what they will do.

I was hoping to come up with new songs for the kids to sing, but nobody was able to help me find simple Christmas songs for little kids.  All the songs I know are too hard for them to learn or they are too secular to sing in church.  I miss our Slovak little kids songs because we have so many cute and simple Christmas songs to choose from.  So anyway, we did our usual 3 songs which the kids sing every year.  I'm a bit embarrassed that we couldn't come up with something different but hopefully by next year we will.

To change things up a bit though, I came up with a little skit or lines to say.  The kids were holding the letters to spell "Christmas" and they had a line to say what each letter stands for.  I couldn't be more proud of them because they all said their lines so well, even better than some of the older kids in school.  Our practicing really paid off.

So there was a bit of a craziness but I think that's to be expected from the little kids.  When we started singing our 5 year old boy (who is a little autistic and unpredictable) started going all over the place and finally during one of the songs he came down to Ehren and was telling him "I'm nervous".  I finally just put him back in his spot and then he was better until the end.  Another hard and very embarrassing moment came when the 2 and 3 year old kids had to leave the stage so the older kids can say their lines.  Our Kason thinks he should be with the older group and watching us practice the lines didn't help because he knew most of them and he had it in his head that he is going to hold a letter and say a line.  So Ehren had to carry him off the stage, balling and having a fit.  I understand it's his age and that it's more because both Ehren and I were up there but still it was a bit embarrassing for all those people to see our child having a meltdown.  Well, it's done with now and we can move forward.  Luckily Kason will be with the older kids next year so he won't feel excluded.

Here's a video clip I uploaded and some pictures of our kids at home.  I will have a couple more clips of the songs but I need Ehren's help because I can't figure out how to cut the clips.  So check back in a day or two for that.

Christmas baking

I have to admit one of my most favorite things I enjoy about Christmas is doing all the Christmas baking.  As a little girl I couldn't wait to start baking with mom but we did it so different than I'm doing right now. :)  My mom makes almost all the goodies just 2 days before up to the day of Christmas Eve because she likes everything fresh and it really is the best.  But I learned that if I don't want to be a crazy and a very mean mom, I have to do things ahead of time and freeze them.  My problem sometimes is that I have way too many favorite recipes from my childhood for Christmas goodies and to choose just a few is hard.  This year I'm skipping the "honey bars" which is like a pretty layered torte cut into very thin pieces.  I love it but it doesn't turn out as yummy as my mom's so it's hard to keep trying it. :)  I always have to make my favorite and a classic - walnut rolls.  Every Christmas after I make a batch I wonder why I don't make them more often because it's so good with coffee.  But maybe then it wouldn't be so special if I made them all the time.  Our family's favorite must be the Oreo balls - a very American truffle made out of 3 ingredients :).  I have to say they are very good, but also pretty rich which is good because 1 or 2 is plenty at a time.  I like to have one recipe that is so easy to make and everyone loves them.  Another usual that I grew up with are the rum chocolate balls.  I love these even though my mom doesn't make these much and even though I'm pretty much the only one eating them at our house.  For me it is a nice little treat during the day to have with coffee or tea and it's not too rich or sweet.  Another American recipe I make every year are the peanut butter blossom cookies.  Everyone loves those too so they don't last very long at our house.  So I guess I'm making a mixture of Slovak and American recipes and if I could I would probably make a lot more different goodies but really, we don't need it and what I make is always more than plenty for us.

Now I have to get my final grocery list ready for the Christmas meal.  We're having Tilapia fish fillets with a traditional potato salad.  I usually skip the cabbage soup I grew up with because I'm not sure who besides Kason would eat it (he eats any vegetable and eats lettuce like bread).  For dessert (because we don't have enough goodies to eat :)) I'm going to try a Norwegian rice pudding with raspberry topping which is a Christmas tradition for some people here.  I really like it and the kids do too, Ehren not so much but that's ok. :)

That about sums up all about our Christmas food.  Here are some preview goodies pictures and I'll post more pictures of our Christmas later.  Have a blessed Christmas everyone!  

oreo balls

tried something new - linecke.  Very good with tea.

rum balls - almost gone :)

my epic failure this year - walnut bread broke on top.  I knew the dough wasn't quite right and it got too wet to hold it together.  On the bright side - it tastes awesome.  I improved the filling this year with the lemon zest and it's fabulous. :)

peanut butter blossoms

presents

I don't know if a lot of you know the book about 5 love languages.  Later on they came up with 5 love languages for kids which I never read but it is basically the same thing, just for parents to figure out how each of their kids feels loved the most.  Some kids are just happy with a touch, a moment of cuddling on the couch with mom while others are happiest when they spend quality time with their parents.  I realized pretty early on that our oldest Kade's number one thing is receiving gifts.  It can be so tricky though to make him feel like he's getting "gifts" without spending money on toys or stuff for him.  As he's getting older he understands the value of money better and that he can't have something new whenever he'd love to but you know it is his love language when you see his face just light up when he's getting something.  So Christmas time has always been a bit hard because he gets so focused on the gifts and even though a lot of kids do, to me it always seemed like he's more selfish than others and all he can think about is gifts.  So every year since he was able to talk about it I tried really hard to keep reminding and instilling the real reason of Christmas to him and showing him how many kids have nothing and yet they're happy and don't ask for anything.

I'm not sure if he was really hearing me in the past but this year I could not be more proud of my Kade.  He actually for the first time in his life can't even think of anything he'd like for Christmas.  He says he has a lot of stuff and doesn't really need anything else.  He would like some new books to read and the only other thing he  really asked for was a math practice test cd that helps him with his math at school.  I just couldn't be happier when he said that to me, he seems to be growing up so much and getting so much more responsible about everything.  He's at the top of his class for passing math levels yet he wanted the cd so he can get even better. :)  I am pretty sure I'll be spending hours and hours in agony over the math with Anika to make up for not having to do much with Kade but for now I'll just enjoy it.  I'll enjoy our kids growing up and enjoy the Christmas when Kade is not expecting anything at all.  And I'm just excited for him to open the gifts because I'm sure he'll love it.

Kason is too little to really care about the presents, he wants to get something if others are getting a gift but he doesn't care whatsoever what gift it is, it can be a $.99 matchbox car.  And Anika has always been very undemanding and never asks for things even if she'd love to have something.  I love taking her shopping because she never once asks to have something, she is just excited to be looking at all those pretty things. :)  So I guess we're lucky that it is just one child that is a bit more focused on gifts than others and even he is growing out of it.  I feel blessed by our kids and this Christmas I just want to be with them, snuggle together, play games and watch them enjoy every part of it.

Oh, and this is for my mom:  Kade asked if we can have paprikas for our Christmas meal this year. :)  I had to smile because it is probably the most modest meal I know, it comes from Hungary.

pinterest

So I found a new obsession.  Now that facebook is pretty boring and all I use it for is to connect with a few friends, here comes something that can consume all my extra time.  There are times when I have to tell myself "no, you cannot go on pinterest." and that's because it is so addicting and there are so many areas that are just fabulous to look at.  From recipes, to fashion, to home decor and design, there is anything people find interesting and fun on the internet and they "pin" it on pinterest.  I mainly like it for ideas for the house, recipes or crafts stuff and you can find so many things that it's too easy to get sucked into it.  There is one thing I don't like about it so far and that's that all the favorite pins show up over and over so when you're scrolling through things you see the favorite ones repeat a lot because those are ones that a lot of people put on their boards.  But despite that little annoyance, I love looking at ideas for just about anything and seeing what my friends on pinterest like too.  I'd much rather do that then watch something on tv or when I'm too tired to do anything else. :)  I don't know how long it will last and if the things people post will keep staying new and interesting but for now it's great.  Of course, moderation is key just like with anything.  If I can use my time wisely and not just waste it on this site or other things, it can be used well.      

St Nicholas Day tradition

I don't particularly feel like writing but here I am.  I'm trying to get over this small cold I have and the kids are all very tired and crabby today.  Somebody woke up before 6am this morning to go check their boots because of course, it's St. Nicholas Day!  The kids have been so excited for this day and they couldn't wait to wash their boots the night before.  Any other time it would be easy to get mad at them and order them back to bed but you can't help but let them enjoy it because that's what kids do best - enjoy their little surprises thoroughly.  Every time Kade is excited about something he just can't sleep and is up way early and of course Kason and Anika wake right up too and I could hear their footsteps all around the house while I tried to catch a little more sleep this morning.  I'm glad we do this little tradition and are pretty much the odd ones doing that because nobody does anything here on St. Nicholas.  When I talk to other moms about it they do know of the holiday but it is very foreign to them, as it is to Ehren.  He enjoys the goodies he gets but doesn't really appreciate the holiday and I can understand because that's how I feel about Thanksgiving Thursday sometime.  Anyway, I am so glad our kids love this tradition and what kid wouldn't when they get fun treats.  It is pretty much our stockings day because families here do the same thing with stockings on Christmas day.  That day we don't do anything, but usually go to Ehren's parents house and his mom has stockings for all the grandkids so our kids still get their stockings too.  I am just happy that the stores get all their Christmas candy and goodies so early that I can easily find stocking stuffers by Dec. 5th.  I'm surprised Kade still loves this holiday because he knows none of his friends at school or church do it, but he doesn't care.  He likes to enlighten them into the whole St. Nicholas tradition and how fun it is.  It is just a tiny part of my country and home I brought with me and am determined to keep it in our family no matter what. :)  Since I failed at so many other things like the language, I at least want to carry on the family traditions and hopefully we can keep doing it for many many years to come.

Advent wreath is another thing I love having for our meals during Advent, it just doesn't seem like Christmas without it.  I found this Swedish wreath on Ebay a couple years ago and I love it.  It's simple and I don't have to try to make my own out of ever greens, even though I loved my mom's too.  But sometimes if I simplify things I actually do them versus stressing over all the details and not even finishing them.  Because traditions can be so simple and yet they mean so much to our kids.  They meant a lot to me growing up and now I want to give that to our kids.

I sure hope we have snow for Christmas though because this does not seem right - very cold temperatures but no snow.  It must be our first St. Nicholas Day here in the northern MN when there is no snow on the ground.  Our kids have been wanting to go sledding so bad that they tried sledding down a little patch of ice in our driveway. :)  I would make them a nice frozen slide down our driveway but I don't think Ehren would appreciate that very much, driving our vehicles down the ice.

at Grace and Kevins on Thanksgiving