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We're counting to four today:

Someone in our house is four.  Someone who yesterday was planning what gifts she wanted to give everyone else on her birthday.  Someone who chose barbecue ham sandwiches on Daddy's homemade rolls for her birthday dinner.

Ham Barbecue

3 pounds dairy-free ham, preferably chipped chopped ham

1 cup ketchup, preferably Heinz 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1 tsp. yellow mustard

1/4 t. grated nutmeg

Mix all ingredients together in a greased baking dish with a lid.  Bake at 275 degrees, covered, for 45 minutes.  Serve on hamburger buns.

Happy Birthday, Helen.

Ammaria

I know we have lots to catch up on, but, oh, you guys.  I'm just so sad.  Seven-year old Ammaria died of an allergic reaction at her school on Monday.  They didn't give her Benadryl.  They didn't administer an EpiPen.  Instead of calling 911, they called her parents to come pick her up.  She died of cardiac arrest.

Everyone in the allergy community has been writing about it.  Libby made me laugh and sob in the same instant when she said her 2012 resolution is "no more dead children."  I wish a new year's resolution could make it so.

Praying for Ammaria's family.

Christmas books that make me cry

Helen's preschool teachers gave each student in her class two books.  However, I think Snowmen At Christmas is for the children (Cute snowmen!  Hidden pictures on each page!), and Tonight You Are My Baby is really for the moms.  It's written from Mary's point of view on the night Jesus was born; the refrain is, "Tomorrow you will be King, but tonight you are my baby...."

I cry every time I read it.  "This star will bring the others and I will start to share.  But tonight you are mine to give my tender care."  This is SO how I felt in the hospital after each birth. You are mine for this 48 hours!  MINE MINE MINE.
Then, the author goes in for the kill with an illustration of Mary nuzzling the baby's head saying,  "I smile into your loving eyes and give you one more kiss./This quiet time with you, my son, is what I'm going to miss.  As I sing a peaceful lullaby, you close your eyes to sleep./This night will be the memory that forever I will keep."

Excuse me.  I need a moment.

Yes, it rhymes and is cheesy.  I don't care. This is exactly how I felt with each newborn, and it makes me cry.  In a good way. Right now it is $100 on Amazon.  Wha?  I'm sure the teachers got a good deal on Scholastic.

For Christmas, my parents are giving Helen A Christmas Like Helen's, which a granddaughter wrote about her grandmother's childhood.  "To have a Christmas like Helen's, you'll need to be born on a Vermont hill farm, before cars, or telephones, or electricity, and be the youngest of seven children."
My mom let me read it ahead of time because there is a page that talks about Helen being sick from scarlet fever and almost dying.  "Your parents will give you a locket with their pictures inside, and your father will carry you out to see the candles on the tree, thinking it will be your last Christmas.   But it won't."

The illustrations are so beautiful and the story makes me weepy.

So, if you want to cry along with me, I recommend trying to read these books aloud to children.  Uh, Merry Christmas!

Two more gift ideas

A couple more gift recommendations that have been successful at our house:

All images from Amazon

Bristle blocks: Our preschool has these, and they were Eli's favorite toy.  He and some of the other boys liked them so much that the teachers were unable to move them out of the toy shelf rotation--the boys got too upset.  At our parent teacher conference his first year, his teacher said, "Do you have a set of these at home?"  Me: "Uh, no."  Teacher, who has never recommended we get a specific toy for any of our children before or since: "I REALLY think you should get a set."
So, I looked online and couldn't find a set for less than $30, which... really?  Then, that summer a friend of mine found a set in mint condition at a yard sale--for TWO DOLLARS.  A set complete with a family and a dog.
I see a variety of choices on Amazon for way less than $30, but you might luck out at a yard sale, too.  All of our kids play with these--even the baby can get them to stick together on his own.  I think this will be a toy I always keep for visiting children and grandchildren.

A neighbor gave Helen My Giant Sticker and Activity Book last Christmas, and she still plays with it.  Yes, it's all princesses/fairies/ballerinas/mermaids but!  They look as if they were drawn by a talented child, not by a man locked in a prison cell fantasizing about heaving bosoms.  They are so pleasing and little girlish.  It is FULL of paper dolls and stickers and activities and cut outs and I love it.  I might even buy a back up copy.  The illustrator is Sandie Gardier, and I've seen some of her other books on Amazon, although the prices vary wildly.

Apparently the publisher is Igloo Books in the UK and has lots of Sandie Gardiner works available.

YOO HOO!  Igloo Books!!!  I really, REALLY like your stuff!  Hurry up and export some more to the United States, please!

Milk of human kindness

I had my Christmastime meltdown at our neighborhood Christmas party last weekend, so I can cross that off the list.  Very close friend who has five children: "So, expecting number five?"  Me:  "Ha ha.  NO.  A thousand times NO."

There's just so much stuff.  All. Month. Long.  Chirpy magazine article on relieving holiday stress: "Just say no!"  Oh sure, I'm going to be the pinehole who doesn't send canned goods for the food pantry to each of my three children's schools or not give each teacher a gift or not bring dairy-free cookies to every event or not send in each child's advent offering or not attend my husband's work-related events or not let my children be in the Christmas pageant or not send photos to each far away and/or old relative.  Thanks, Women's Magazine!  You just cleared it all up for me!  Where's the peppermint bark?

Maybe washing all of the curtains and slipcovers with my free water will put me in the Christmas spirit!  Or maybe I should just flood the backyard and make an ice rink.

Christmastime's a comin'

Any bluegrass-loving banjo players in your house? No? You mean you don't know the joy that is listening to "Christmastime's a Comin'" over and over? Sung by your husband? AND his two brothers (when they come to visit) just to annoy you? What a sad, sad time December must be for you.
 

I finally ordered our Christmas card. Just when Graham's stitches came out, he fell and bruised his right cheek. Then the next day he hit his head again and got a huge goose egg opposite his scar. So I gave up on a current photo and pulled out one of all of us from the summer. That everyone I'm friends with on FB has already seen. Also, I think this might lose me points because we're all summery, but I did choose a summery card design to match the photo.... Which is weird and not at all like me because I am a snow person, not a palm tree person, but hopefully it looks all right.

Melissa and Doug need to pay me rent

I've been working on a post about toys that have stood the test of time in our home because I LOVE reading posts about toys people recommend.  (HINT. HINT.)  I have purchased so many great items on Swistle's recommendations alone.  Then I saw that today is a one day 50% off sale on Melissa and Doug items on Amazon.  Although, as Mir says, you have to be vigilant with the prices.  We lurve Melissa and Doug toys.  Yes, even though they are made in China.  This is not sponsored or compensated FTLOG, although it should be based on the number of their toys littering my floors.  The links are through my Amazon thingy but by all means bypass it. 

The current favorite is the Slice and Bake Cookie set.  The three-year old plays with this all. the. time.   And the other kids do, too.  And possibly the grownups.

A close second is the Birthday Cake set.  Or, some odd candle/cake/cookie combination of the two.  We celebrate a lot of events with them these days.  The server comes to take your order on a pad of paper with a crayon, and your choices are cookies, cake, or drink.  Currently your choices are Christmas cookies, Christmas cake, or Christmas drink, but they're pretty much the same as the regular ones.  For some reason, the baby doesn't put the round pieces in his mouth.  Go figure.

We also have the cutting foods box, and I see that they now slice the carrot lengthwise instead of into little choking-hazard rounds that my babies DO like to put in their mouths and walk around with, as it is in our set.  Which is why our carrot lives on a shelf.  But it is a fun toy, and the sound of the knife 'cutting' through the Velcro is very cool.

I was about to list all of the Melissa and Doug items we have that aren't 50% off, aaand  then I realized just how many things that is.  Stamp sets!  Magnetic dress up dolls!  Paint your own train!  Pull frog! An easel!  Man, we have a lot of toys.

So let's just keep it to food: we also have the food groups set (Don't worry, my kids assure me the cheese is dairy free) and the fill and spill picnic basket.  Because even though three-month old Graham didn't need or want any Christmas gifts last year, there had to be something under the tree for him.  The grape soda bottle is his favorite part; he still carries it around chewing on it.  He also actually does like to take everything out of the basket and put it back in.  The other kids use the Velcro sandwich parts a lot in their 'cooking.'

Under the Christmas tree this year, Helen will find the grill set. I'm sure the skewers are going to have to be put away immediately, but I couldn't resist.  She will also find this sticker book because I needed a quick, cheap replacement for a game I planned to give her that her uncle gave the kids instead.

I have debated forever about the cupcake set.  So cute!  But...the icing markers!  So messy!  But Swistle recommended it!  Helen will get it for her birthday.  Because I am a sucker.

I wanted to put photos in, too, but you should go look before the sale items are gone, and I need to get out of my PJs and go pick up a preschooler at her Happy Birthday, Jesus party.