Christmas Cookie Marathon

This year I am NOT pregnant during Christmas season! That is huge, because this being our 8th Christmas season as a married couple, I have been pregnant or adjusting to having a newborn for 4 out of those 8 years! Each time I am either postpartum or very pregnant, I try to lower my standards and not overdo it with holiday preparations. However, this year I am very fondly remembering my exhausted third-trimester pregnant self last year, and even though I am still definitely exhausted (the little guy still does not sleep through the night), I do have a little more energy this Christmas season.

I made a list of Christmas cookies that I would like to make this year, and I am giving myself some lee-way here because I just do not know if it will all get done, but this is the list of what I'd like to make: 

-Sour Cream Sugar Cookies (these are so tasty!) - These I actually already made earlier today. They are in the freezer waiting for us to frost and decorate them a little closer to Christmas.

-Kahlua Balls (for the adults only) - a recipe a friend gave me

-Rum Balls (again, for the adults)

-Chocolate Thumbprints - These are SO good! They are my favorite out of all of these.

-Angeletti (from the Good Housekeeping Holiday Cookbook) - This will be a new recipe this year...

-Linzer Cookies

-Chocolate Almond Clusters (from the GH Holiday Cookbook) - a new recipe this year for me, but I can't possibly imagine chocolate and almonds mixed together not tasting good!

I will let you know how it goes!

A Whole Decade

Today is a very special day for my husband and I because it is 10 years since we began dating! It has been a much more eventful decade than I could have EVER imagined! In ten years, we:
-Dated for 2
-Got engaged on Christmas Day 2009
-Planned a Chicago wedding from New York
-Got married
-Moved to Chicago (for him it was moving back to Chicago)
-Had an ordination to the diaconate
-Moved again
-Had our first baby
-Flew to Serbia for 2 weeks for a family wedding (SUCH a great experience!)
-Celebrated my college graduation (6 years after I began my college career)
-Welcomed Baby #2 into the world
-Moved once again
-Welcomed Baby #3
-Celebrated an ordination to the Priesthood
-Moved AGAIN, to our first parish ever
-Had Baby #4

The blessings and excitement just keep on coming. God has been beyond good to us in our time together so far, and it is exciting and overwhelming to think back to all that we have gone through together so far. I have no doubt that the next 10 years of our lives together will be exciting (and probably still overwhelming :)) as well!

St. Nicholas Day

It has been absolutely freezing here this past week, so St. Nicholas knew just what the kids needed. He changed their shoes out for warm woolen slippers. Oh, what a surprise! They kept them on ALL day...that was a big deal for my little ones who usually run around barefoot all year round.

Happy feast of St. Nicholas to you all!