Pink Frog

So there is one particular category of food that I used to completely avoid: Jello salads.

Growing up, we used to eat this 1950's holdover from time to time as--all of you southerners know it's true--the salad course. How, in any way, is Jello salad a salad? My Granny would put fruit in the Jello and Cool Whip on top, which has always seemed a lot more like a dessert to me, even way back when I was eight or ten years old and started to notice it. My goodness, if you could have dessert instead of a salad at every meal, maybe the 50's were the golden years of America! Has anyone considered this?!

Okay, facetiousness aside, the fact still remains that Jello salad was not my cup of tea. Part of my problem is that I just didn't really care for Jello for many years. It probably wasn't until I was almost out of college that I started to enjoy it every so often. Actually, now that I think of it, it might have had something to do with it being the only dessert I could eat on the South Beach Diet. . . . I digress. The point is, I had no appreciation for Jello in any form for a long time, but Jello salad, in particular, was not a favorite of mine.

And I don't think I was alone. Every year, when the potluck brunch at Mom to Mom rolled around, alongside the food categories such as "bread," "salad," and "dessert," there was "Jello salad." A lot of my friends and I cracked up at this. It just seemed so comically out of place for a group of ten women to be expected to bring. My generation just doesn't make a lot of Jello salad, you know? The only friend who did not think this was such a bad thing was Sara, who evidently liked Jello salad just fine. She bore the barbs thrown at Jello salad with a smile on her face, but we didn't change her opinion at all. She was just fine with that sixty-year-old throwback.

But I will tell you something. I have been converted. After one of my babies was born, Sara brought over dinner, and Pink Salad was part of it. Yes, it was a Jello salad. And it tasted so incredibly good. It was homey and unfussy, which made it even more comforting, and it was sweet and yummy. I had seen the light.

This Christmas, my mother-in-law made an unfortunately-named Jello salad called Pink Frog. Evidently, it hails from their InterVarsity days at Rice, and it was someone's mother's recipe, so we have no idea why it is called Pink Frog. Don't let the name turn you off, though; it's great. It's fruity and light and has cottage cheese in it. Below is the 21st century lightened version. If you've always been against Jello salad, give it a try (though maybe as a dessert instead of a salad). You might be surprised.

--

Pink Frog

8 oz. fat free Cool Whip
8 oz. regular Cool Whip
12 oz. low fat cottage cheese
.6 oz. box (8 servings--large box) Sugar Free Strawberry Jello
12 oz. fresh or canned fruit (blueberries are especially good)

Mix it all together and serve chilled.

Merry Christmas from the Beneshes!

Vintage Picture Frame Christmas Card

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All I Want for Christmas

Heard at Our House Today

Funny:
In all sincerity:
"Nooooooo Daddy! Don't throw the pumpkin away! It's a Christmas pumpkin!"
"Can I throw it away tomorrow?"
"Yes."

-----

Endearing:
Upon hearing "Away in a Manger" come on the Christmas music channel:
"Mommy, that man sing about Jesus in the manger! That man sing a Christmas song!"

-----

Less endearing:
"Mommy, I a hammer and you a nail! I hammer you to the wall!"

Christmas Tour

We have (finally) pretty much put together our living room in our house. It took a while, because we took our time choosing furniture, and we are saving up for each piece as we go. Having come from a small apartment with a very small living room and moving to a house with both a living room and a small family room, we basically had an entire cavernous living room to furnish after arriving in Texas six months ago.

You know what, though? Setting up our Christmas decorations has really made the room feel much more put together. I am sad to think about taking them down, because they really do add a lot of personality and homeyness that the room is missing. It's just rather bare, otherwise. We are still working on filling it up, but we are going slow, because we'd rather carefully choose pieces we love than throw a bunch of stuff on the walls that we don't really like just to take up space.

Anyway, here's a tour of our living room, decorated for Christmas!

This is the little foyer area, which is right inside the front door. I have no idea why there is a mantle there, but we figured it's as good a place for stockings as any.

This is the view from that foyer area into the rest of our living room. As you can see, we have a lot more decorating to do, as I mentioned. We need some bookshelves, for one thing, some pictures to hang on the walls, and an accent chair or two. But we have come a really long way.

This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding, which is on the mantle year round anyway, but seems especially appropriate this time of year, since we got married in December.
I bought the artificial sugared fruit tree several years ago because it reminded me of one that my Grandma Marge had that she and her mother had made decades ago. Boy, did I get a sentimental feeling when I bought that tree.

Here are the kiddos' stockings. I love the embroidery font.

And here are Nathan's and mine.

I love this bookcase. If I had a pride and joy among my furniture pieces, this would be it. I have had my eye on this bookcase for about six years, and it was the first thing I bought to go in our house. It is very, very, very me.

Here, again, are the candy canes that Noah and I made. The tile with the Christmas tree on it was something that Noah made in Mother's Day Out this year.

A Harvard ornament that I gave to Nathan last year.

My mom makes these quilted ornaments, and she made about 300 of them to send home with guests as favors for my wedding.

My brother, Ken, and me in 1984.

And one of my favorite things on our tree: the angel that Noah made last week in Mother's Day Out. I love how his face is tiny and off center! Ha!

So there you have it, guys! A Christmas tour of the Benesh living room!

Advent Fun

Here's an update on some of the advent stuff we've been doing. I've been quite casual about it--most of the things that we do are not very complicated or are things we'd do during the Christmas season, anyway, like decorating the tree or reading Christmas books while eating peppermint ice cream (which Noah said was "the best treat ever"). I thought this daily advent business would be a really big hassle, but it really hasn't been, and that has made it that much more fun.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do about an advent calendar, but while I was at the craft store, some scrapbook paper with a nativity scene on it caught my eye. At first, I wasn't sure what I'd do with it, but I ended up drawing a bunch of gold stars on it and writing the activities for each day on them. Here's a pic before I did all the writing:

The other day, we went to a Christmas fair in Rice Village. They were supposed to have snow. Well, it cracked us up, because although it was obvious that at one time it had, indeed, been snow, by the time we got there, it was solidified, icy slush. Nathan and I laughed, because it was just the type of stuff you don't want to walk on after it snows. Regardless of that, though, Noah had a great time slipping around on it.

Although he looks like he's busting a pretty sweet dance move, this face is actually in response to an intensely minty piece of gum.

Noah got to ride a train, which was pretty exciting for him. But I actually think the gum might have been the highlight of his evening.

We've made Christmas Rice Krispies treats, . . .

. . . and pipe cleaner candy canes . . .

. . . and reindeer candy canes . . .

. . . and a pipe cleaner and pom pom wreath ornament.

We're also going to go look at Christmas lights, we've been reading the Christmas story from time to time, we're making Christmas cookies to give away, and so on. I think this Advent thing is going to be a great tradition.

Maple Walnut Spice Sandwich Cookies

While looking for a cookie recipe to use some walnuts in, I found one that I altered to bring you this:


Maple Walnut Spice Sandwich Cookies

Cookies:
1/4 cup walnuts
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 large egg

Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon milk
2 tsp. softened butter
--
1/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, pulse the walnuts until fine. Add the flour and next six ingredients (through cloves) and pulse to combine.

In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and butter on high until fluffy, about four minutes. Add two tablespoons of maple syrup and the egg; beat until well combined. Gradually add the flour mixture. Beat until just combined.

Spoon batter into evenly sized mounds about a tablespoon each (I just used my measuring spoon). Space them about an inch apart. Bake at 350 for about 14 minutes, or until just browned. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes on the pan; then, move the cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

After the cookies are cool, prepare the frosting. Combine the powdered sugar, brown sugar, butter, and maple syrup with a whisk until smooth. To make the sandwiches, spoon 1-2 tablespoons on a cookie and spread with the back of a spoon so that it reaches the edges and is even. Place another cookie on top and twist slightly to press the frosting out a bit and to seal the cookies together. Roll the edge of the sandwich through the chopped walnuts. Refrigerate to set the cookies.

Enjoy!

Weekend Plans

To celebrate our anniversary, Nathan and I are going to SPEND A NIGHT AWAY this weekend. This is a big deal, because I don't think we've been away from our kid(s) overnight since my 30th birthday, which was over a year ago. And before that, we had never been away from Noah overnight. So this is a rare and much needed treat.

We're going to spend the night at the hotel in downtown Houston where we spent our wedding night. Here's our itinerary:

• Sleep
  
• Read a book
• Order room service
• Watch a movie
• Sleep
• Order room service
• Sleep
• Sleep

So exciting, isn't it? But we can't think of anything we'd rather do. In part, we need the rest. But we are also just looking forward to spending time alone together without any other responsibilities pulling us away.

We are hoping that we can go back to the place where we spent our honeymoon for our tenth anniversary. We stayed in Lake Louise, in Banff, Alberta. The Canadian Rockies are spectacular in winter, of course, and because we went in mid-December, the hotel was quiet. We had so much fun and enjoyed the mountains and snow (I love those things--I'd choose the mountains over the beach any day). We hiked around the fantastically beautiful lake, through a frozen canyon, we went ice skating (or I should say that I attempted it), went dog sledding, etc. It was wonderful, and we are really looking forward to going back. So, hopefully, this weekend is a precursor to this:

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

But for now, I'm happy to return to this for a night:

The Lancaster Hotel

I Love The Sound of Music More Than I Thought

Our seventh wedding anniversary is coming up in a few days. We had such a pretty wedding. I know I'm biased, but really, even now I don't think I would change anything.

You know what's so funny? Several months ago, I watched The Sound of Music, and I noticed something I've never noticed before. Now, I grew up on that movie. I remember actually playing a record of it in my room at a time when I couldn't have been more than four or five years old. I've loved it for a long, long time and seen it many, many times. So imagine my surprise and amusement when it got to the wedding scene and I realized something:
I patterned my wedding after the wedding scene from The Sound of Music! And I didn't even know it!
Oh my goodness, y'all. I had no idea how much that wedding scene had sunk into my little brain all those times I watched it as a child. Evidently, Maria's wedding is my ideal.

Okay, are you ready for this? Here are the similarities:

1. Ball gown
2. Train on the gown
   
3. Cathedral length veil (longer than the gown)
4. I very nearly bought a dress with long sleeves
   
5. High church feel: center aisle; tall, stained glass windows; formal
   
6. Organ
7. I even tried to hire a choir

Here's the video from the movie:

And here is a picture from our wedding:

The funny thing is that The Sound of Music never even popped into my head while I planned our wedding. Things just kind of fell into place the way they did; I just liked the Cathedral length veil. I just liked the high church feel of the sanctuary where we had the ceremony. And I still think they're beautiful. But this sure does amuse me.

Jane's New Stats

Jane had her nine month well baby checkup today. She is doing great! Here are her new stats:

Length: 29.5 inches (still off the charts)
Weight: 19 lbs. 3 oz.

She has gained very little weight in the last two months, since her last visit, so that's something to watch, but overall she is in great shape! I guess she is just long and lean, though the weight may be related to the fact that she didn't eat any solid foods for about a week because of a stomach bug. Anyway, the doctor said that she seems smart [insert proud mama here], and that she will most likely be quite tall, around 5'9" or 5'10".

That's that!

Nine Months Old!

Warning: You are about to behold some serious cuteness.

I think she might be the cutest thing I've ever seen. It's something about that hat.

Jane is nine months old today!

I love this age. She is getting more and more of a personality, and it is just plain fun. She laughs all the time, plays with her brother more and more, and follows us around all the time. She loves Cheerios and cuddling. She is very active these days and tries to roll over every time she's getting her diaper changed. She still only has two teeth, and they are darn cute when she smiles. She loves her brother and her daddy a whole lot, but she is ever the mama's girl.

Here are my two cuties.
Love my babies!

And a few words about my Noah: the boy loves flashlights. He is slightly obsessed with them right now. He also loves water guns. Whenever he goes to bed these days, he has to have both items with him. He's a good runner and a very kind brother, but he still considers the potty a nuisance that he doesn't need to interrupt life to deal with. Regardless of that, he is getting smarter and cuter and bigger all the time, and I love him lots.

Candy Cane Hunt!

The candy cane hunt was the first activity on our advent calendar (thanks for the suggestion, Katie!). It was a hit.

I videoed Noah during part of the hunt. It's a little bit long, and you see most of the fun in the first 30 seconds or so, just so you know.

And here's Noah, after the hunt was over. He'd never had a candy cane before and really liked them, although you can't tell from his expression. I think he was concentrating on eating the hard candy, which he hasn't had much of.

I would just like to add that, yes, he does sometimes wear pants. ;)

Yay Christmas!