Christmas weekend 2011

Hi Chelsea and Edwin,

We hope you enjoy the pictures of Christmas so far.
We thought we weren't going to have a white Christmas but we had a dusting of snow on Friday, December 23.  Here is a picture earlier in the week before the snow.

 We think this is one of our best trees ever.  It is a Frazier fir.

 Saturday morning Brady at one of his favorite places.

 Christmas eve night after church we opened gifts to and from Grandma G.

 Egg nog and chex mix!

 Adam explaining to Grandma why he needed head phones.

 She isn't buying his explanation.

Christmas morning.  Brady woke up just before 7:00 AM.  We played with his "old" toys before the others woke up.  Notice the salad spinner is one of his favorite "toys."

 Take note of Brady's fancy Christmas pajamas.

Tim stayed overnight. Brady woke Tim up a little before 8:00 AM.  The first sock was Brady's.  He received a Lighning McQueen matchbox car.

 Notice the little monkey in the cab of the tow truck.  The small monkey is a minature of "Mozart" the monkey that Brady sleeps with.

 The biggest hit up to this point was the flashlight in Adam's sock.

 Tim gave Brady a Fisher Price dump truck.  The dump truck is now the biggest hit of the day.

 Tim gave Lady B her first outfit.

 Adam showing off his new Wisconsin Badger clothing!

 Brady was very helpful helping everyone unwrap their presents.

 We gave Brady a book where we recorded our voices reading a bedtime story to Brady.  The story is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

 After our gift opening we had our famous Christmas morning breakfast.  Brady helped with the pancake batter including cracking the eggs.

 Brady ever hopeful of seeing the squirrels and maybe a deer.

 Tim showing off the snow shoes he received from Santa.

 After breakfast Brady helped with the cleanup.

 Brady and Mary went outside to feed the squirrels and the deer by putting corn on the ground.

 Clifford and friends went outside to play.

 Mary with Skipper, the Pfundheller's rabbit.

 Brady petting Skipper.

Brady looking out the window to see if any squirrels or deer came to eat the corn. The squirrels are enjoying their Christmas lunch!

Brady trying on his outfit for the wedding.

Brady is excited about the wedding!

Cherry Winks

 Cherry Winks.  A Barnes family tradition.

Any brand of corn flakes will do (as Mr. Food proclaims)

 Crush 4 cups of corn flakes. Measure the corn flakes before you crush them. I learned this one the hard way!

 Cut 15 maraschino cherries into quarters.

 Stir together 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt. Set aside.
Beat 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened, with 1 cup sugar until very light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla and beat well. Add the flour mixutre and mix well. Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts (I use walnuts), 1 cup finely cut pitted dates (you can buy them this way. Also learned the hard way. Chopping dates is a sticky mess).

 Measure a level Tbsp of dough into a ball. Roll it in crushed cornflakes.

 Place a cherry piece on top and press in.

 Bake at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Notice my new tea cozy in the background.

 Place on a wire rack to cool.

Should make about 60 cherry winks unless someone eats too much dough (that would be me). Won't last long if there is a Barnes man in the vicinity. (Apologies to Chel. But I think you like Spritz cookies better anyway.)

Clifford

Yes, it's true. Clifford the Big Red Dog has been spotted in our previous post. He loves the Snow! What can we say!

Here he is today out with some of his friends!

2nd snow of the season.

I'm not going to record every snowfall of the winter, however, the snow we had last night made for a very pretty day today.  I thought I would share what we were able to see out our windows today.

 We only had about 2" but it was the heavy wet stuff.

 No deer in this picture, but you recognize the scene from our kitchen table.

 The crabapple trees in the center of the driveway.

 The back yard.

 More of the back yard.

 You can never get enough pictures of Brady.  Here he is eating an orange on Thanksgiving.

We did our caroling for the Salvation Army on Saturday, Dec 3.  We are at Mega Foods East.  We had one hour shifts from 9 AM until 3:00 PM.  We had 55 total people for the 6 different shifts.  From left to right, Jerry Foote, Darlene Cornell, Mary Foote is behind the sign, Mary Barnes has her back to the camera, Linda Davenport, Charlene Burns, Loretta Young, Dale Young,  Ann Lamoureux, John Lamoureux.

• 
• George Hunter, Stella Hunter, Barbara Arnold, Loretta Young, Dale Young, Mary.

 Adam, Grandma & Tim at Thanksgiving.

 Brady.  No explanation needed.