Christmas Cookies with Aunt Joy!

Aunt Joy is great about doing crafts with the boys!  This year she had the idea of making and decorating Christmas Cookies with Zachary.  Wyatt would be allowed to help decorate, but was too young for the making.  It was a long process, but Zach loved every bit of it.  Good thing Aunt Joy is here, because Mommy would never make cookies from scratch and live to tell about it!

Aunt Joy & Zachary pressing & rolling:

Zach showing me how he will pick the cut out cookies

Zachary pressing the cookie molds

Zach picking up the pressed cookies

Zachary and Aunt Joy making cookies


Zachary rolling out the dough

Zachary and DaU decorating the cooked cookies

Zachary and DaU decorating

Wyatt and Mommy, with not much to do, attempt to take some pictures.  Unfortunately, Wyatt has learned about the flash, and every time a camera is near him, he smiles and scruntches up his face and squints or closes his eyes!

Wyatt not trusting the flash!

Thank you Joy for giving us a fun New Year's Eve crafty project!  And yummy to boot!

Traditional Guatemalan Fare

Yum!  Joanna decides to make us (whoever is present at Leisure Dr when she makes it) breakfast - that slowly turned into brunch - that is typically eaten in Guatemala.  She has received much instruction from the maid that works in Alex's parents house.

Unfortunately, Joanna has some technical difficulties with the black beans.  They end up looking like brains, and having an odd crunchy texture.  Needless to say, she did not end up serving these.

After a rough start with some slightly-oily plantains, Joanna whipped up a batch of perfect, crunchy, tasty plantains.  Even the slightly-oily ones didn't last long; they too were yummy!

Shayna, Art, Joy, MeMa, Poppi, Joanna chowing down on the yummy brunch!  Sadly Z&W missed out b/c it got a bit too late for them, and they were in bed.  We had tortillas, plantains, queso fresca, avocado, eggs, chips and salsa!  Sign me up - Guatemala here we come!  So yummy!!

Thanks Aunt Juicenana for fixing us such a yummy brunch!

Happy Birthday to MeMa - Brunch!

Happy Birthday to MeMa today!  We all got up and went to have brunch at J.Christopher's in Dunwoody.  YUM!  The boys had eaten breakfast hours ago, and still ate like champs.  Bacon and pancakes will do that to you!  It was a wonderful brunch and we were all STUFFED!  Everyone had a good time, and the kids were well behaved.

We didn't take our camera to MeMa's birthday brunch, so I stole these pics off of Joy or Joanna's camera, which is why the pics are only of the Counts Fam.

Wyatt looking happy then GROSS!

Zachary EATING!

Poor Art, being ignored by his wife!

Both boys getting some DaU lap time.

Super fun time, and now I wish I had some pancakes!!  Thanks for having a brunch outing for your birthday MeMa!

Happy Birthday MeMa - Pinata

Thoughtful Joy got MeMa a Pinata for her birthday party. After dinner we all went outside into the garage to watch the fun. So cold!!

Faye/MeMa starting the festivities off

Zachary getting a good swing in

Now Zach resorting to chopping

Love the look on Staci's face - so scared! :)

Wyatt's turn to go to town on the donkey

Poor donkey!

Pinata finally broken open - proud MeMa and Zachary

Definitely a fun birthday activity!  Thanks Joy!

Sklar - Counts - Taylor Family Photo

A nice photo with Nana, Aunt Staci, Uncle Creed, and the Chicago Counts.

Got to love hand-me-downs.  The sweater Wyatt is wearing is the same sweater Zach was wearing in his 2yr old Christmas pictures.

Beautiful tree & background supplied by Poppi & MeMa's house.

Happy Birthday MeMa! We loved your dinner!

Here are pictures from MeMa's celebratory birthday dinner.

Dad cutting the turkey he brined - no laughing matter: the brining took about 5+ hours and was labor intensive!

FAMILY before eating

Joy, MeMa, Creed, Staci, Poppi

THE FOOD

Presentation of the food, and someone's (Joy's?) plate

THE DESSERT

Yummy desserts to accompany birthday cake - I think that Zach is the one taking these pics

THE CANDLES

MeMa displaying the age candles, and being gracious to let Zachary blow out the candles

THE ENTERTAINMENT??

Creed posing for Zach the photographer, then taking a pict of Z taking a picture of Creed

CHATTING

post-dinner candids of Poppi, Shayna, Aunt Juicenana, Zachary

Posing!

What a lovely meal!  Happy Brithday MeMa!

Now we have all been instructed to bundle up and meet outside in the garage!

Christmas Trip Series: HO HO HO Merry Christmas in Dunwoody

We arrived at 4884 Leisure Dr to start our Christmas celebration around 1pm or so.  Wyatt had fallen asleep in the car, and Zach was not too far behind him.  We let Zach play w/ Poppi and everyone for about 10 minutes before going down for a nap.  Somehow we had gotten our wires crossed b/c we arrived about 5 hours earlier than anyone was expecting, so neither Joy nor Joanna had showered, nor were everyone's chores done!  That's how we like to catch people! :)  Art and I still had lots and lots of wrapping to do before Christmas w/ the Sklars/Fraziers started.  Plus, our car was packed to the brim.  I don't know how that happened, b/c it felt pretty empty when we left, just 8 days ago!

After the boys woke up from their naps, we started the present presentation.  Even with everyone drawing a name for presents, there were somehow a lot of presents!  Here are some moments captured thanks to Joy & her camera!

Some of the funny moments with the kiddos:  1. Wyatt got a sword for Christmas, and everyone was shocked, thinking "what a terrible idea", even though I had asked for dress-up accessories (so MY FAULT).  Wyatt immediately knew what to do, and hoisted it over his head and moved toward Zachary.  Zachary, who has been hit by Wyatt on numerous occassions, screams, and runs BEHIND THE CHRISTMAS TREE!  So so funny.  We had to make the sword disappear.  2. I put craft supplies on Zach's wish list, and he got a LOT of them.  He opened at least 10 presents with craft supplies.  While he enjoys DOING crafts, he apparently does not enjoy getting them as presents.  Finally, fed up, he asks everyone "Do I get ANY toys??"  Devastating for a 3.5 yr old I guess.  He had gotten a few videos, a shirt, etc, but no toys.  Luckily, MeMa got LOTS of toys (vintage Little People stuff), and she let Zach play with them. :)

A very yummy dinner! 
Honestly, the next few days are a blur of yummy food and games of Settlers.  A great blur though!