The making of the Barbie Cake (Warning: Nude Barbie photos)

Well, here she is. I was so excited when I got home from work and Sharon had successfully baked the cakes and removed them from the pan with no holes!! We let them cool overnight and this morning we iced the cake. Barbie seems to have grown since the recipe for the cake was developed since her legs were about 3 inches too long. We had to think fast....Amputate or duct tape? Since the party is for elementary school kids, we opted for the latter. We iced her up and TA-DA. She is ready for the party. We decided to take the pictures of her now, since we may slip and fall on the ice and drop her on the way to the party. We still haven't decided where Barbie will sit in the car. This is the most collaborative project Sharon and I have worked on since we built all that IKEA furniture in the dining room!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

So they canceled school yesterday???? And then today, this... This is the most snow Portland has had for a very long time. Melissa and Maggie's roses are snow covered. Our yellow roses are still fairly intact even after the last two days of freezing temperatures. Sam and I are going to weather the weather and go out to finish our Christmas shopping. Yes, I gave up on the completely handmade stuff and will buy the last 3 gifts on the list. Local businesses, of course. Sharon made the most perfect peanut butter blossom cookies (the ones with the Hershey Kisses) last night and that is what I ate for breakfast. With a monster cup of coffee to even out the sugar, of course. Today I am making pistachio brittle and peppermint bark for Carson's teachers. We are excited for Aunt Lenora to come to Portland on Christmas Eve. We haven't seen her since Norma's 70th birthday bash. She is the only one in Sharon's family with the "gift for gab"--just like me. Although I am working on Norma.

Sam, collector of small things

A catalog of the collection Sam has been carrying around in a large Santa Hat:

Hot Wheels Milk Truck? circa 1979.
Small Gumby
Plastic bird egg, slightly chewed on by Lulu
and small egg whisk to go with it
Screw stuck to a magnetic rock
Monopoly Jr. game piece
thimble from Grandma Shaffer's sewing basket
two quarters
Robot charm
two buttons (one gold and one white)
Extra dried out raisin

Things I love about Christmas

This is a doily angel ornament that my gramma shaffer gave to sharon when we first met. I left the tag on it and hang it on our tree every year.

I love all the ornaments that have made it through my childhood. I have a nurse and doctor wooden ornaments that I remember from long ago. I also have some ceramic ornaments that I painted in the first or second grade. Somehow or another I have my own with KAS (my initials) on the back and also one with TJW (traci walker's). Maybe I should send it back to her as a suprise. This is a picture of Lulu waiting patiently whilst the cat climbs the tree.


This is my stocking boot. My father had it made for me or else he made it for me. He died 28 years ago, so this is pretty old. Every year when it comes out of the box I hope it hasn't gotten broken.
These are my special angels that my gramma shaffer had in her house every year at christmas. I could look at these for hours. The little girl is a music box. When I was little, she wrote my name on the bottom of them beside the pricetag from Hills Department Store ( which was the local version of Kmart). I love these little angels.
Things I wish I had still---My mom always made ceramics and there was a huge santa head platter that we used every Christmas for cookies. I don't know what happened to it, but I think of it every Christmas. She also made those Christmas Trees with the little lights that you put in the holes. I don't think any of those made it either.

Gift for Sharon's friend---ERIN

Here it is. She is really pointing her finger and blabbing.........You didn't believe it, did you? I especially like that she was wagging her hand around so much it blurred!

Are those teenager jeans? Grandma must have been here.

Hot Cocoa

Well, how unfair. The west side of the river gets the day off from school tomorrow, but the east side has to go! Sounds crazy to a first grader!

Grandma was here! Grandma was here!

Grandma was here and so was the cold arctic blast. The kids each got a day with Grandma Judy while the other one went to school and then we spent a day all together. We packed a lot into a three day visit. Mom got to eat Ken's Artisan Pizza (yummy), we went Christmas shopping, we went to Pittock Mansion, we went on the Christmas Tree Train in the freezing cold snow-rain, and trimmed the tree. We drove an hour in the snow into Washington to ride the train with Don and Norma. We rode in the caboose which was rustic, to say the least. Santa was waiting in the woods (that sounds scary) to see all the children on the train. The kids got to sit on his lap and get a toy. We were under a roof to keep dry, but the plastic sheeting around Santa was CLASSIC. We picked out a tree and lugged it onto the top of the rented minivan. I opted not to post the picture of Sharon yelling and pointing at me while we were trying to tie the tree down. Then we took it home and trimmed it up!! Beautiful. Grandma left for the airport Sunday morning and safely made it out of town before the STORM OF THE CENTURY hit. Wow. A whole 3 inches. I listened to the nurses and doctors at work freaking out about getting home. The whole town is in a panic. I drove right home with no problems. Too bad all those people opted to sleep in hospital rooms!!