Feliz Navidad

I am super excited for Christmas this year! Cohen is going to have so much fun. Last night we did out little family christmas (just my husband, Cohen and I). Everytime Cohen ripped off a little piece of wrapping paper he said "woah."
I'm starting off my Christmas with a morning yoga class at the gym. We are offering it free to the public and I think its going to be a great way to just relax and get ready for the next few days.

Tonight we head to Jason's parents where I know for sure Cohen will be spoiled! With presents, yes, but with lots of snacks as well! What happens at Grandma's, stays at Grandma's.

Tomorrow morning after opening the gifts and eating breakfast with my side of the family, we are all heading to Grand Forks, North Dakota to spend a few nights in a hotel. We decided to still give gifts for the kids but for the adults, getting a way for a few days is all we wanted (besides cute handmade stocking stuffers!)

My hope is that all of you have an amazing time with family and friends and enjoy this Christmas time. It only comes once a year so take it all in:)

I'll be back in the new year to share some of the gifts that I made this Christmas

oh yeah.....update on all that studying:
I passed my Personal Training exam!!!! 83% on the written and 97% on the practical...that's an average of 90%. WOOHOO!!!!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

tamara
xoxo

MIA Due to the Following...

source: google images

First of all, as per post below...last week started off a little rough. The same day, I was at work, and I get a call from my dad who is watching Cohen that he just puked all over the office (TMI, I know). I picked him up as soon as I could but by then he had puked again. He slept most of the day and all night. By the next day all was well. I went to work Wednesday evening as per usual. In the middle of my last appointment , the sickness just hit me. I made it home and layed on the couch. Over the course of the night I got sick twice. Spend Thursday laying on the couch again. Thursday night Jason comes home from worship practice sick and he was sick until Friday afternoon. And now that brings us to Monday.

Monday I found out that the Personal Training exam that I had scheduled to take this coming Friday had to be rescheduled. I didn't want to do it next week because I still have a ton of Christmas presents to finish!!!! So that left...TODAY!!!!

I have been scrambling trying to prepare everything and study study stduy. I went to practice my practical exam with a coworker and discovered that I hadn't been given the complete instructions on what was and was not needed for the exam. I way overplanned (which is better than not having enough). Needless to say, I can't wait for today to be over.

As a reward for my exam (fingers crossed that I pass!), I have booked myself a 1 hour massage at the spa on Friday evening. No baby. No making supper. Just me and some tea and spa-goodness! (thank Goodnesss for a MIL who gives me gift cards to the spa)

I'm off for some last minute studying and possibly a shower..if I have time! Brains before beauty today!

tamara

xoxo

O.T.I.S

Yesterday we had to say GoodBye to our first pet. My sister and brother in law brought home a pug just after they got married. Otis was like a nephew to me. Part of the family. He was a purebred pug and we could not have loved him anymore. He wasn't very old...he was three in August. But his health has not been good for a long time. He had really bad allergies and some kidney and hip problems. The vet said that anything they could do would be short-term and his quality of life would continue to get worse.

My sister, Tynille, was the one who took him to the vet. She was so strong and held his little face the whole time.

Its been a rough few days for my family so please keep us in your prayers as we go through this together. The hardest part will be when the kids ask where he is. They are still very little so they probably won't remember him or this event too well.

I leave you with some pics of Otis Kehler. We love you puppy!

love auntie

xoxo

Christmas*Countdown {18 days}

Gingerbread Men are probably the cutest cookie to decorate. You can make any shape you want and decorate with all sorts of colours and candies. We were boring this year. I really just liked the brown cookie with the white icing (and more importantly that was Jason's request, he cares about random things like that.)



This recipe (as seen in the photo) was given to me last Christmas and was printed on a Christmas card. How neat!

Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar (I've seen them made with both white or brown...I used white)

2 eggs

1 cup molasses

1/3 cup hot water

6 cups flour

pinch of salt

1 tbsp baking soda

1 tbsp ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together butter and sugar.

Add eggs, molasses, and hot water. Mix well.

In a separate large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking soda and ginger. Add to wet ingredients in increments. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and roll out to 1/4" thickness. I did this in steps I grabbed a chunk of dough, rolled it out, cut out the cookies and then grabbed another chunck. Use more flour to get rid of some of the stickiness. Cut into shapes and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 9 minutes or until lightly browned. (In my oven 8 minutes was perfection.)

When 100% cooled, decorate with icing and candies if you wish.

My icing recipe was 1 cup of icing sugar, whipping cream until desired thickness. You can add food colouring if you want.

These are really fun cookies to decorate with your kids or nephews and neices. Our son is too young but he did enjoy eating them:)

tamara

xoxo

Christmas*Countdown {20 days}

I love Christmas! It is full of magical snowfalls and cozy hot-chocolate filled nights. I love the hustle and bustle of baking, making handmade, thoughtful gifts and celebrating with friends and family. This year I'm especially busy because I'm trying to finish my Personal training course before Christmas. That means alot of studying on top of everything else.

For the next few weeks I'm going to share some of the things that I'm keeping busy with during this Christmas season.

Today's recipe is my #1 Holiday treat: Marshmallow Squares or Confetti Square

note: this image is from google as we ate all ours before a photo could be snapped!

What you'll need:

1/2 cup of margarine

1 cup smooth peanut butter

2 cups butterscotch chips (make it a chocolate square by substituting choc. chips.)

1 to 1-1/2 cups of coloured marshmallows (it just looks nicer than plain white ones)

1. Line a 9x9 pan or 9x13 pan with waxed paper (both the sides and the bottom).
2. Place margarine and peanut butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir until they are melted together.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Stir in butterscotch chips immediately until they are melted.
5. Set aside and let cool until the bottom of the pan can be touched comfortably.
6. Stir in marshamllows and pour the mixture in lined pan.
7. Refrigerate for approx. 1 hour.
8. ENJOY:):)

I have so many memories of my grandma making this at Christmas time! I plan to make it part of my family traditions for my son.

Even as I'm typing this I get all giddy inside for Christmas. Christ's birth is such a reason to celebrate!!!

tamara

xoxo