Happy Happy Birthday

We Celebrated Asher's first birthday with a little family party at my parent's house on the 29th, since we would be traveling on his actual birthday the next day. In attendance were Ethan, Eden (who put up the decorations), Grandma and Grandpa Whitehead, Liam (who insisted that party hats were a MUST for the baby party), Bevan and I as well as my good friend Autumn and her two daughter's Grace and Ali...also my Aunt Dorothy and cousin Ashley came down from Toronto and were also there. (Truman had to work that night and couldn't make it, but he did provide the Curious George theme...Christian and Stephen had already left to go back to Seattle and Toronto respectively.)
We had his favourite dinner which is spaghetti with meat sauce, also on the menu was alfredo sauce, ceasar salad, garlic cheese bread and of course carrot cake for the birthday boy. He ate two pieces!
His first year has gone by so quickly, I can't believe a year ago I was in the hospital after just having him. I remember thinking that the labour and delivery had been a piece of cake (compared to my first birthing experience at any rate!) and wondered what I had been so worried about for the past nine months! His birth must have been foreshadowing his temperment because he has been the most easy going and good natured child. We named him right I guess since Asher means "happy". He is always friendly and wherever we go people always comment on his big smile. I should also throw in that he is now oficially walking. He started taking a few steps at the begining of December but really took off once we were in Canada...now he is buzzing all over the place at home on two legs and loving it!
We love you "B"!

Kingston Christmas Pageant

This is the best pageant ever. After I found out about how it began 29 years ago I was convinced it was indeed a miracle. All the members of the Kingston and Cataraqui Branch put it on and it turns out real well. Another thing that tends to turn out is large crowds. I was told the most in one night was 2,400 visitors with only 6 sessions (they now do 4 sessions and that was very tiring). It was freezing rain the entire night, but it was light enough rain that nobody got sick. Amanda and I played Mary and Joseph. My father-in-law, Leroy W., was kind enough to give us a quick run through of what to do. During the run through I found out that the donkey was not in the mood to give Mary a ride. I was relieved, because I didn’t need to have some angry donkey biting me. Amanda did Pageant her entire life growing up until she moved to Rexburg. So she told me stories about how the donkeys – in years past - tend to bite and the camels tend to spit (no camel this year).
At the end of the night, we all went out to see a camera guy from CKWS and acted out part of the pageant so that he could get some decent footage. Truman told me it was unlikely the footage would be used in two hours, but sure enough we were all on the 11:00 news that night for 20 seconds. So I thought it was a good use of my 15 minutes. At this point I probably have about 13 and half minutes left. And I am not splurging it on some reality TV program. That is such a waste.
Hopefully they will let me be one of the Wise Men tomorrow night on Christmas Eve. Because that way I am only out there for like 3 minutes (After the Wise Men, the show is pretty much over.

Ok this part was written on Dec 25th at night.

The picture you see of us in Shepards clothing is Liam and I on Christmas Eve. He was very reverent and respectful of the whole thing. He was happy to see the baby Jesus and kissed him. When it was time to point at the Angel he did it with much enthusiasm and did a great job at kneeling. Anyway, it was great and the weather was very nice. The stars were definitely out that night. I have never seen clearer skies. And the temperature was only 40 Farenheit.

Ride the Rocket

While in Toronto we rode the Subway to Downtown Toronto. Stephen, my brother-in-law who lives on Madison Avenue, was kind enough to take us there and show us all the cool areas. He even showed us one of the best places to get Thai food. You know that peanut dressing that most Thai restaurants use on salads but they are really cheap and barely give you any? Well this place will give you a very good helping of it on top of your noodles. So yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he is the lead chef at a place called the Salad King.
So back to the subway train, Liam was having the ride of his life. I now realize that if I want to make his day, I just need to pay the small fare of 70 cents to allow Liam to ride a Subway. So the next time I go visit my sister in D.C., I will take Liam on the Metro to the Washington Monument. Or maybe I won’t. I like to talk about doing it, and then not do it.

We had a nice visit with Amanda’s maternal Grandma Solo, her Aunt Dorothy and Cousin Ashley while we were there. Asher had not yet met his Great Grandmother and we got some nice pictures of them together. We also spent the night with Amanda’s Aunt Janet in Scarborough, which is a suburb of Toronto. It was good to be able to catch up with family we don’t get to see often.

Swedish Tea Rings

One of my Mom’s longest running Christmas traditions is baking Swedish Tea Rings to give out to neighbors, teachers, family friends etc…They are a sweet dough that is rolled up with cinnamon, sugar and butter. Then they are wrapped into a wreath shape and baked. Afterwards, when they have cooled a vanilla icing is drizzled on top with a garnish of maraschino cherries. Bevan was very excited when he smelled them cooking and they are delicious. He and Liam (as well as myself) all had our fair share. Later when we went around delivering them, everyone was so excited because they had been anticipating the day in December when my mom would deliver the cakes. They have been a family tradition for about a quarter of a century now. Yum.

Also, these last 3 posts have been written by Amanda, not Bevan.

Tanglewood Festival of Lights

The night before we left to come to Canada we took Liam and Asher to what is becoming a North Carolina Buchanan family tradition…The Festival of Lights at Tanglewood Park. Tanglewood Park is a golf course, horse riding, swimming and nature preserve all rolled into one. It is just outside of Winston-Salem and was originally a homestead for the Reynolds family back in the day. There is also a beautiful old mansion that is now a bed and breakfast, and an old church and family grave yard on the grounds. As you drive slowly through the grounds there is a massive lights display that covers everything, it is breathtaking. Liam is mesmerized by it. It is the largest lights display in the southeast and is sponsored by Chik-Fil-A. It takes about and hour to drive through and see everything, a very nice thing to do at this time of year.

Off to the Great White North

On Thursday December 14th we left Greensboro the day after Bevan’s last exam to come and spend the holidays with my family in Kingston, Ontario. It will be the last time my family will be entirely together for the next three or four years as my brother Ethan is leaving on an LDS mission to Milan, Italy in March. My brother Truman who is only a year and a half younger then Ethan will be leaving on his mission the following year, so my mom really wanted everyone together this year and the whole family has really rallied to make that happen. Christian will be flying in from Seattle and Stephen will come back from Toronto as well, (everyone else still lives at home).
The trip itself went well, our good friend and neighbor Phil drove us to the Raleigh airport where we caught a flight to Charlotte (strangely enough) and then onto Syracuse, NY. Ethan picked us up at the airport and then drove us the additional two hours to Kingston. The boys behaved themselves very well and everything went smoothly overall. We are looking forward to a festive Canadian Christmas.

Gingerbread Pictures

Teacher Gifts

The "class moms" for both Liam and Asher's classes at the preschool have coordinated group gifts for the teachers, which I contributed for. But since these ladies are my coworkers as well I wanted to send along something else a little more personal for the Christmas season. I made these little Triple Chocolate Gingerbread Loaves and baked them in the 1$ ceramic dishes they sell at Micheal's and wrapped them up in a clear gift bag and a little bow. I think they turned out pretty cute...they look kind of special with the white chocolate drizzle on top, ( I also did this for our home and visiting teaching families at Haloween but with Kristi's pumpkin bread recipe instead). The recipe was a really easy one that I got from Bon Appetite magazine, it actually was meant to be a bundt cake but I guessed it would split up well into eight mini loaves and it did! So if you need an easy but kind of fancy cake/loaf recipe for the holiday season here is a fun one you might want to try:

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE GINGERBREAD

-1 package chocolate cake mix, any variety
-1 package (4serving size) chocolate flavour instant pudding mix
-4 eggs
-1 Tbsp. ground ginger
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp allspice
-1/2 cup sour cream
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1/2 cup molasses
-1/2 cup water
-1 cup mini chocolate chips

White Chocolate Drizzle:
-1 cup white chocolate chips
-4 tsp. milk
-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 10 cup bundt pan (or 8 mini loaves) with non stick baking spray.
2.Beat all ingrediants except chocolate chips in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until moistened, scraping side of bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 2 min. or until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into pan.
3.Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 min or until cake pulls away from pan and cake springs back when touched lightly. Cool on ckae rack for 15 min. Invert cake onto cooling rack and remove pan (don't do this if you are making into loaves to give away in the pan like I did though).
4.Cool completely
5. WHITE CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE: Combine white chips with milk, microwave on medium power 1 minute. Stir. If necessary, repeat microwave process in 10-20 second intervals, stirring after each interval, until morsels have melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla. Drizzle over cooled cake. (Drizzle will harden, so prepare just before spooning over cake).

Luminarias, Hot Chocolate and Cookies

Each year the Fraternities and Sororities at UNCG cover all the sidewalks, stairs and streets on campus with luminarias on the reading day at the end of fall semester. So tonight we headed to campus to see the sights. It was very festive and to top it all of there was hot chocolate and cookies set out for everyone in front of the student centre.
Lights on the steps beside the water fountain.
Treats!
Bevan and Liam enjoying thier treats in the frosty weather!

Asher really liked his giant sugar cookie. There were also chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.

Maryland Trip Pictures

Bevan, the boys and I with the DC temple in the background. I was going to use this one as a Christmas card picture but it turned out a bit blurry. Oh well.
The Canadian Creche in the visitor's centre. For some reason I was really suprised to see it mixed in with the creches from all the different international countries. I guess I had to remind myself that yes indeed Canada counts as a foriegn country!
The Christus with Chrsitmas trees. I thought this was a pretty picture with all the white and green.
The DC temple at night with the amazing Christmas lights.
The live outdoor nativity....The backs of Annie, Caroline and Bevan are in this shot...can you guess which?
Liam, Caroline and Sally Jane having a good time togethor. They were so excited ALL weekend.

Annie Kate's Baptism

We left on Friday morning first thing to attend our niece Annie Kate's baptism in Maryland. Ruth and Bruce were going to be there as well as her other set of grandparents so we were looking forward to this mini family reunion. We took our time driving up and took several breaks along the way at the rest stops in Virginia (that state has some good ones with jungle gyms and everything!). We arrived around 4 p.m. and Liam was so excited to see his cousins, especially Caroline...they are like two peas in a pod, the male and female version of each other...looks wise and personality! It is so fun to watch them play togethor, they are truly in thier own separate world.
That night we had dinner at Kristi and Jeff's with everyone and ate Jambalaya, which was delicious. After everyone had retired to thier places of rest, Kristi, her visiting teacher and I went to thier church to set up in the primary room for the baptism the next morning. We got the room looking great in no time, it seriously could have been set up for a wedding reception. Kristi had some great centerpieces she had put togethor.
The baptism the next morning was really nice. Lots of people from the ward came out to support Annie Kate as well as some neighbour's, the room was packed. Both of her grandfater's spoke which was so sweet. Ruth said a prayer and Sharon read a poem about baptism. Liam had never seen a baptism before so it was neat to see him so excited about Annie getting "dunked"!.
After the baptism we all went out to Macaroni Grill for lunch, and thankfully Liam mostly behanved himself. Then everyone took a nap! (Poor Annie was sick all weekend!)
After church on Sunday we had a fabbulous Sunday dinner of roast beef, potatoes and gravy, carrot souffle, asparagus, congealed strawberry salad and buttermilk pie. We were all stuffed i think. Then we went to the Festival of Lights at the Washington DC temple, which is something I have been wanting to do for several years now. We heard a bit of a concert by the The Chapel Ringers Ft. Meyer Memorial Chapel (bell ringers), saw a live nativity and all the lights, my favourite part though were the Christmas creches from around the world. They were beautiful.
We headed home this morning after having breakfast with Ruth and Bruce at thier hotel. It was nice to spend a little more time with them before leaving. We made good time getting back because the boys were so played out they slept the whole way, it only took us about 5 and a half hours! Since we don't have family nearby we really appeciated this chance to spend a little quality time with relatives, especially since it was to celebrate an important event like baptism. Congratulations Annie!