Christmas Tree, Hanukkah, Cookies, and Latkes

On the plate:  White chocolate cranberry cookies, low calorie sugar cookies, and latkes

Soundtrack to cook to:  Michael Buble's Christmas

Here we go...finally getting into the month of December pictures!  (And not a moment too soon, right?)

During the first weekend of December, Alexander helped me to
take down the fall decorations and fall-themed vase fillers that
I had around the house.  (I figured this would be the perfect activity
for him because he loves to sort.  I also thought this would be a great
counting activity!)  He helped me take out the pinecones and pumpkins
from the vases and refill them with cinnamon scented pinecones
and silver and red ornaments.  He loved it!

We did this as a little "Mommy and Alex" activity while William
was napping and Joseph was at the lab.  He loved making the
"new decorations" as he liked to call them.  Alex enjoyed sorting
the colors of the ornaments and alternating between
pinecones and ornaments.  (The teacher in me is thinking, "Woo hoo!
This child is sorting and alternating patterns.  Yes!!")  He was so proud
to display them in the house that the first words he said to Joseph
when Joseph got home was, "Daddy!  New decorations!!"
This kid is too funny.

In our home, we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas.
So, it was time for us to get our Christmas tree!  This year,
we just hopped over to the Jamaica Plain Home Depot to
get our Christmas tree and wreath.  The trees were just as nice
as the one we got last year and about 1/3 of the price.

Here's Alexander amongst the Frasier Fir trees that we decided
to choose from.  He loved smelling them.

"Cheeese!"  It's funny.  Alexander now knows to say, "Cheese,"
when I whip out the camera.  However, he still doesn't understand
(or he doesn't want to) look at the camera.  So he just looks around
and keeps saying, "Cheese!"  He'll get it some day. :)

Here's William!  He accompanied us to get the tree as well.

Heeeerrrrrre's Joseph!  I LOVE the smell of pine trees, but Joseph
isn't such a fan.  Thanks for being a trooper, hun!

A little Mommy and Alexander love right here. :)

Here's Joseph and Alexander decorating our little tree.  Joseph
had to teach Alexander the art of hanging ornaments so that
they're not all in one area of the tree.

Alexander had been watching the movie Mickey Mouse's Twice
Upon a Christmas  and was super excited that we had a Christmas
tree in our house.  

My family always had the tradition that my father would put the
angel on the tree after the entire tree had been decorated.  I'm
excited to continue that tradition with our little family.

Here's Joseph continuing that tradition.  Alexander said,
"Angel, look like a bird!!"  I thought that was hilarious!  They
both have wings, I suppose.   :)

Another tradition that my family had was that we would "Cheers
to the tree" with a cup of egg nog.  Unfortunately I forgot to get
some egg nog, so we used hot chocolate instead.  Alexander
loves to take his cup and, "Cheeeeers!" with anybody around.
"Cheers with Daddy!"

"Cheers with Mommy!"

As you can see, he's all about the hot chocolate.

The Franses men decorating the tree

Ta-daaaaaa!!  Our Christmas tree 2012

And now for a few random pictures:

Here's big brother Alexander, feeding William.
He was very proud.

I love Alexander's genuine smile that he has
in this picture.  It just melts my heart to see Alexander
being such a sweet big brother.

William and Joseph having some daddy and son
bonding time.

Happy 1 month birthday, William!!

Awww!  Look at my little squishy-faced snuggle bug!

Baking!!  Lol...I've gotten much better at baking and actually using the Kitchen Aid stand-up mixer that I just had to register for when we got married.  I used to joke with my friends and say that I used it once a year when I would make cookies and sweets for the holidays.  I'm proud to say that I've actually used it many times this year.  

Through foodnetwork.com, I received cookie recipes for the first twelve days of December (entitled "Twelve Days of Cookies").  It was exciting!  Each day, I would anxiously check my e-mail to see what cookie recipe would pop up.  The first recipe that I received was Trisha Yearwood's white chocolate cranberry cookies.  I absolutely LOVE the combination of white chocolate, cranberries, and almonds.  (To be honest, I had no idea who Trisha Yearwood was, only that she was a country singer.)  The recipe called for a stick of butter, but I used half of a stick of butter and the cookies turned out just fine.

Cream the butter and 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and 1/2 cup
of brown sugar together.

Then, mix in the following:
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup dried cranberries, chopped
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup almond slivers
Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.

The finished product!  A delightfully sweet, crunchy, tart,
and chewy cookie.  I personally enjoyed my cookies with a warm
cup of vanilla tea.  Delish!!

We've been blessed by having many generous friends and family
send gifts for our little guys.  Here's Alexander with a "Little Monkey Alex"
plate that our dear friends Ai-ris, Ian, Yoshimi, and Koharu sent to us.
Thanks guys!  Alex loves his plate, and I'm sure William will love his
in a few years!

Little William being cute

Here's our menorah on the first day of Hanukkah.  We enjoyed
lighting it and explaining the story of Hanukkah to Alexander this year.
It was much more meaningful, since Alexander can understand more
than he could last year. 

Here I am with Alexander and his own little menorah that he
put the velcro candles and flames on each night.

On the first night of Hanukkah, Alexander got a little bag of gelt,
a dreidel, some alligator house slippers, and a book entitled
How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Hanukkah?  I thought this book
would be perfect because he LOVES dinosaurs.

"Gelt is chocolate??!!"  Alexander was thrilled!

"Alex, would you like some gelt?"  "Oh yeah, mommy, yeah!
CHOCOLATE!!"  This kiddo loves chocolate.

HA!  Look at the pure joy on his face.

Alexander with his presents and wearing the Hanukkah crown
that he made at school.

For Hanukkah, I made the usual brisket and latkes, but made a little change to my latke recipe.  I followed the original recipe, but instead, I shredded the potatoes to be a little more fine and less stringy.  I was quite pleased with the result!  I felt that the shorter shredded strands of potato made for more of a fluffy and soft potato latke.  I'm definitely done using the hand shredder, and had my trusty food processor do all of the dirty work.  No more shredded knuckles for this lady!

Shred 1 lb of potatoes.  Then process the potatoes once more to
make the strands shorter.

Mix the potatoes with 1 shredded onion, 1 egg, 2 tbsp of flour,
and salt and pepper.

Fry those little beauties in delightful little mountains in a pan.

Yummy yummy yummy!!  Crisp and crunchy on the outside
and soft and fluffy on the inside.  I personally like my latkes
on the savory side with the traditional sour cream.  

2nd night of Hanukkah!  We lit the candles on the menorah
 and Alexander "lit" his own.  Thankfully I look a little more presentable
in this picture.  (I must have gotten more sleep that night.)

His present that evening was from my parents.
I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest for a busy board
that has various types of locks on it.  I asked my dad
if he could "make this happen," and he did!  He had
my grandfather go out and get the locks and the board.
Then, the two of them placed the locks on the board,
painted it, and shellacked it well.  Alexander absolutely
loves playing with his lockboard.
Thanks Dad and Grandpa!!

3rd night of Hanukkah!  Alexander is "lighting" his candles with
his daddy.

For this night of Hanukkah, Alexander got some lovely gifts from
his Nai Nai and Nono.  He got some Super Man pajamas and three
books from the "Don't Let the Pigeon..." series.

Here's Joseph showing Alexander all of his new books.

Our cutie patootie little guy!  Thanks Nai Nai
and Nono!!

Super Alexxxxxxx!!!!!!  He posed like this himself!

Normally for the holidays, my family used to decorate sugar cookies and then give them to our friends and neighbors.  I figured, why not do this for Hanukkah as well??  I found a cute little Star of David cookie cutter and found a recipe for low calorie sugar cookies.  I enlisted the help of my little sous chef and we started our own little tradition!

"Let's make cookies, mommy!!"  He loved playing around with all
of the measuring cups and spoons.

Cream together 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar with 1/4 cup softened butter.
Then, add 2 beaten egg whites and mix well.

Then, get a cute little helper to mix 1 cup flour with 1/4 tsp baking soda
and 1/8 tsp salt together in a separate bowl.  He loved this.

Then gradually combine the flour mixture into the butter mixture.

He really did a great job with this.  Then, wrap the mixture and let
it set for at least 1 hour.
Once the dough has settled, roll out the dough on a floured surface
and use the cookie cutters to cut out your desired shapes.
Bake the cookies on a greased sheet at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes.
Let the cookies cool and decorate to your liking.

I had Alexander decorate his own cookies with frosting and
light blue sugar crystals.  I decorated and frosted the ones
for my neighbors myself.  No worries, Kate and Roshni,
you received the "not sneezed on" cookies!  :)

Alexander was very proud and excited to decorate his own cookies.

Take a bite!  The result was delicious!  I really didn't miss all of
the butter and the sugar.  If you roll out your dough to 1/8 inch thickness,
you can get about 35 cookies.  What a treat!

"Cheeeeeeese!"

Alexander wanted to decorate his cookies just a little bit more.  :)

Little man, hard at work.

The remaining nights of Hanukkah, Joseph was gone
because he was interviewing at various places for a residency placement.
It was hard for me to still light the candles, watch both
boys by myself and still take pictures, so I did the best
that I could.  Here's Alexander singing the "Dreidel Song"
that he had learned from the Sesame Street DVD
that discussed all of the holidays.

Hanukkah night #7 or 8 ( I can't quite remember).
Alexander got Elmo's World Happy Holidays and
Shalom Sesame:  Chanukah - The Missing Menorah
and some clothes.  These were really great DVDs
that explained the holidays to the kiddos quite well.

I found a cute decorate-your-own Star of David kit
in the Hanukkah section at Target and just couldn't
resist.  Here's Alexander decorating some Star of David
ornaments to place on our Christmas tree.

And here's smiley little William!!  Our little guy
is so smiley and happy - what a doll.

Little William in action

Okay...just one more of our cute little guy.

When people asked me if I was excited to have another
child, I said, "Absolutely!!"  This was one of the
reasons why I was excited to have another child.
I couldn't wait to have a cute little peanut,
snuggled and asleep on my chest, and listening
to his little squeaks and breaths.  *sigh*  I love
this part about being a parent - never-ending snuggle time!

We really enjoyed a great holiday season.  I can't wait to get the rest of the pictures uploaded to show y'all the rest of how our holidays went.  It's so much fun seeing the holidays through a child's eyes and so wonderful to continue traditions.  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki