We ended up having a wonderful family Christmas. It really was a beautiful day. Robert and I were both so happy. Our children, although excited about the thought of opening presents, were just as or more excited about the fact that it was Jesus' birthday and reading the story and singing Christmas songs. We eventually got around to presents, and of course, that was a blessing too. We each get three gifts, one for our mind, body and spirit. I wish there were a way to not have a mountain of gifts from the grandparents and it would make it even more special. Maybe we'll do gifts other than our family on Christmas Eve and save Christmas for our celebration. Hmmm. Anyway, it was wonderful. Joshua about had a heart attack when he saw that Robert got me The Sound of Music for my stocking. He LOVES that movie, it was too cute. So, of course, we spent the afternoon watching it.

Robert had off until yesterday and we all just had the best time, being a family. God has blessed us greatly with wonderful little clan here. Friday, we braved the stores to do some shopping and order Christmas cards....again. My Christmas card venture this year has been plagued with retailer snafu's...they will probably end up being February cards at this rate, oh well. Saturday, we got to go back down to Amish country. It was beautiful again, but in a different way than October. In October, you couldn't take your eyes off of the foliage to see the beauty in the simplicity of life down there. My favorite moment was on hte way home when we came up on a teen Amish boy in his cart, different than a family buggy, and he had a deer he had killed on the back of it. I soo wanted to stop him and ask what he hunted with and all the details, but we just waved and passed by. I got some shots with my new camera lens I got for Christmas too. I will try and get those and several other segments of our life, including my first art day with the kids up soon, but it will have to wait until next week because tonight we load up the van and at 3 am we head to Georgia for a wedding. So Happy New Year to all, may 2009 be a blessed year of our Lord.

Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family that we aren't sharing this joyous holiday with this year. It is nice to have a quiet just our family time to celebrate the most important event in history....ok, probably second, His death and resurrection I would count as most important, but this one is pretty big. We are blessed to be called His and tomorrow we will enjoy homemade cinnamon rolls and time together as a family, teaching our children of Christ's love. Merry CHRISTmas indeed!

Well, it is a balmy 6 degrees this morning with a wind chill of -12. I love weather forecasts. The one for today says that we might have windchills reaching -10...yup, got that one guys. Ha! It is snowing now, so that is why it is so much warmer than when we went to bed. Last we checked, it was -1 degrees outside. Those numbers just don't even make sense. I do hope that this snow hangs on for Chrimtmas, but I don't think it'll make it. We are supposed to be highs in the 20's all week except Christmas eve when it is supposed to get in the upper 30's to mid 40's with rain and hence, our snow will be gone. So sad. I hope it is in the 20's tomorrow so the kids can go play in the snow. We haven't had any snow all December, actually any accumulation and so after getting to play in tons of snow in Nov, they've been locked inside with me this month. Today is Robert's only day of work this week, so hopefully he and the kiddos can get some good play time in tomorrow in the "no".

Leah has finally learned to say Christmas. Most of the time this year she has said kimah tree, kimah song, kimah lights etc. It was so cute the way she said it, but now she says it correctly, sigh. We didn't have much fun with Joshua and new words because he's always articulated words correctly from the beginning. His first word was cat pronounced dat, but since then he's always said things right. Leah has a doozy of a time with her s blend sounds and pronouncing l's, which is hampering when your name is Leah. So, when someone asks her name, she says "I two years old". Of course, she never gets to say her name because Joshua is quick to introduce the whole family to every Tom, Dick and Harry we even remotely get close to passing in a store.

ZERO, -23 wind chill.....

2 degrees, -21 wind chill

6 degrees, wind chill is negative 16, winds gusting over 40 miles an hour. Wind chill warning in effect, which I've learned today means you can't go outside with exposed skin....guess we made the right decision about church this morning. Dew point is -1, so we could see zero or below tonight. Wowzers!

We had a long busy but fun day yesterday. We got up and hit Target and Heinen's to finish grocery and gift shopping. Unfortunately, Target was sold out of card tables and since this wasn't a GCC function, we didn't need our 10' table. We headed home and I got the pumpkin pie baking and the chex mix made. Then I got the turkey that had been brining for two days in the sun room out and buttered and seasoned it. I did a citrus turkey and I must say it was the most flavorful turkey I have ever eaten in my life. Phenomenal. I did some citrus in the brine. Then I rubbed the skin of the turkey with an orange then smeared herb butter on and under the skin. Finally, I filled the cavity with onion, oranges and fresh thyme and sage. Seriously, I don't really like turkey but I LOVED this one. The greens didn't turn out as well as everything else. I cooked all day long! We also had carrot soufle and my corn bread dressing and rolls. We scrambled around getting ready like we were having a big party or something....we still aren't quite used to not having Gcc around. The Tomek's came over about 7 and we had a lovely dinner and it was so nice to be able to entertain again, even if it was only for another small family. It was funny because Peg kept apologizing for us having to feed all FIVE of them, lol. We tried to explain GCC but it is a foreign concept to have 50 people at a two year olds birthday party.

Anyway, we are home again today. The forecast was for the wind chill to hit 10 below zero. It isn't there yet, it is only zero right now. Robert decided and I agreed that we didn't want to take the kids out in that. So hopefully I'll get our Christmas letter all done. Our cards are supposed to be in tomorrow and hopefully I can get them in the mail on Tuesday, we'll see.

We are looking forward to Christmas. I don't know how white it is going to be, we only have a dusting of snow right now. We do have some in the forecast, I hope it is a WHoLE bunch. On Tuesday I am going to bake a batch of the cinnamon rolls from scratch. Can't wait! We'll take some over to several of our neighbors and then chow down on the rest ourselves. And then the next week, we get to go to John and Brandy's wedding!!!!!!! I'm SOOOO excited!! Their's is a marriage ordained by God and so it is a true joy to go and celebrate with them.

This week should feel productive...but it doesn't. It has been one of those where the more I do, the more things get all disorganised and piled up, but I'm making progress. The kitchen is a crazy place. I got all of the baking for Robert's work done and then had to switch into Thanksgiving dinner mode. Yes, we are having Thanksgiving dinner this weekend, again. One of the highlights of my year, every year, is getting to cook Thanksgiving dinner. And, although, we had a delicious Thanksgiving celebration with the Seagos in Texas, I didn't get to cook a single thing, since we flew in that day. So, tomorrow we are having turkey, my super veggie corn bread dressing, turnip greens, carrot soufle and cranberry compote. I'm also making a pumpkin pie and we still have a little fudge and cookies too. The Tomeks (our all star neighbors) are coming over also because they were on a family cruise for Tday and didn't get to eat either. Which brings me to my next point.....

Everyone talks about hunters in Texas. People split up their marriages over hunting and it is supposedly a dedicated sport. Well, I can now say that they have nothing on these yankee boy hunters up here. These guys are crazy. They hunt in rediculous weather. Tomorrow is going to be a high of 28 with howling wind and maybe snow....on top of the ice storm we've got going today. We are having a late Thanksgiving dinner because Mr Tomek is going hunting tomorrow. Crazy crazy man!

Well, I made over 120 cookies today. Now I have all of the cookies and fudge, to send to Robert's work with him, all bagged up and ready to go. It is really the perfect set up for me. I love baking to share holiday cheer, but really I'm not the best Santa. I hate being the one handing out gifty things. I also hate being the one receiving them. You never know if it is something you'll like and so there is that awkward moment of wondering if they are going to make you try it right then and there. This was always precarious for me in the office because I'm not a big sweets person. Thankfully, I worked in a really male dominated field and, so most of them could careless if I liked it or not; after all, they put no effort into them. So tomorrow, Robert can go around being cheerful little elf, which actually likes doing and I'm just going to be at home in my pj's feeling accomplished for getting it all baked and out the door!

By the way, the cookies I made are white chocolate chip and cranberry and they are really worth killing for when they are fresh out of the oven. Hey, I don't like sweets and I think so, so they are worth making. Next time, I'll add pecans and perfect them!

White Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Cookies
1/2c butter, softened
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2c white sugar
1 egg
1 T vanilla or Brandy
1 1/2c all purpose flour
1/2t baking soda
3/4c white chocolate chips
1c dried cranberries
next time I'll also add 1/2c chopped pecans

Cream the butter and sugars together. Then, add your egg and vanilla. Finally your dry ingredients. Fold in the chips and berries. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Do not over bake.

Tomorrow I need to get this house cleaned, oh and probably finishing the laundry from last week would be a great idea......Hey, I can do it ALL, I've just never claimed to be able to do it all at once.

We are home again...at this rate, we will only get 11 new churches under our belt this year, lol. Joshua woke up from nap yesterday with a raging fever. We oiled him up and got him back to bed. He is rareing to go this morning but Little Le is down now. Hope the rest of us keep safe.
I jumped out of bed at a brisk 10 oclock this morning and headed to the grocery store.....BY MYSELF! Yup, you read that right. Robert had all three kids by himself. I was on the time clock and had a SERIOUS list. We are doing Thanksgiving dinner this Saturday and I have all of the baking for Robert's employees this week, add in our normal weekly shopping in my list was massive. So, I flew through the store like a pro, I've done this once or twice before ya know, and was back home in an hour, almost $200 lighter in our checking account. I thought I did a fabulous job, Robert wasn't as impressed with my bill. But, I am now prepared to start baking away. Today I'll do all of the fudge, in addition to our steak and greens dinner. Tomorrow will be white chip and cranberry cookies. I'll send all of that with Robert to work on Tuesday and then start the Thanksgiving prep. We are having the Tomek's over and maybe Ms. Diane also. I'm making a turkey, my veggie corn bread dressing, turnip greens, carrot soufle, cranberry compote and probably a pumpkin pie or two. Fun stuff!!

Busy day for the Lachney girls. Hannah just rolled over for the first time!!!!!!

Leah has decided it is time to potty train. I guess I'm ready. I'm hoping that since it was her idea, that it will really happen. So far today she has gone tt several times and poopy once, YIPPEE!

I think I've figured out Hannah's sudden sleep issues. I think she must be goign thru her three month growth spurt, and she is trying to roll over. She hasn't quite figured out the arm thing yet. It has reminded me that I do need to give the girl floor time, now and then. I rarely put her anywhere but in the swing or bed so that the older two don't "accidentally" plow over her. We all watched and cheered for her to roll on over yesterday, but not yet.

Pictures last night were underwhelming. I wanted and planned on having them taken before our trip at Thanksgiving, but Kohls.com killed that. I'll save my rant, but I will just say that I will not be ordering from them ever again. I love their store and that is where we get most of our clothes and almost all of our shoes but their online service STINKS! So, after I picked up my misdelivered package in Texas up, we were then ready to get them done back home. We got a rookie photographer, which is always annoying when I know more about scenes, cameras, and even the store specials than her. But, I had no hope of getting us all gussied up again in time to get cards ordered. So, the pic on our card this year isn't the best, but we are all in it. I ought to volunteer to give a "how to take kids pictures" class for the crew at Sears, because she was awful! It didn't help that they were running so far behind that Hannah was really really tired and therefore really fussy....oh, and the photo chick kept waking her up being loud, instead of having a sweet sleeping baby in the pics. Anyway, they are done. I won't get them until right before Christmas, so it will be a big sprint to get them out the door, but I'm ready.

Man, I'm SOOOO frustrated. When we were in Texas, Hannah slept thru the night 10-12 hours EVERY night.....the ENTIRE trip! Now, we are home and she is sleeping worse than a newborn. Last night I was up every other hour with her. I'm sooo tired. I already had a headache from too little sleep on the trip and I'm just miserable. Last night, I told Robert that Hannah and I are just going to have to move to Grandmommy's house and he can come visit us on the weekends.

We are back in Ohio. I'll update about our trip later, I have a yucky headache and need to get rested. We have Christmas pics on Wednesday, still need to find a skirt for me. Hannah is cute and laughy now. Leah is still feisty and Joshua is coming along with his reading.