The Santa Lie

I guess I am alone in my "Santa Feelings". Perhaps it is the way I was brought up or maybe it's just my own realization. We don't do Santa. It is something fun that we pretend with and talk about, but we do not "do" Santa. We don't have presents from Santa. We don't put out milk and cookies. We don't have a "be good for the spying elf". And we don't believe Santa is watching us and seeing if we are naughty or nice.
Before you think I am a big "Scrooge" hear me out!
With all the Santa tradition comes telling your child the following:

"A man you don't know will be coming into your house while you sleep, via the chimney (or some other way you make up if you don't have one)
Giving you presents that elves make in a toy shop
Reindeer fly this man all around the world in one night doing this to every house
This man can SEE you all the time!
This man knows what you are doing and how you are behaving.
This man knows what you are thinking!"

All of this bothers me tremendously! And here is why.
How am I to tell my children all these lies? Yes they are lies regardless of the fun of the kids believing and the excitement. I am supposed to tell them that THIS man can see them and THIS man knows what they want and THIS man knows how they behave. Only to have them realize a few years later that it was all lies.
AND THEN... and here's the big deal for me.... they are still expect to believe that Jesus is real. That God actually can see them, that God actually does know what they are thinking and what they want!! That their blessing come from Him. Ya right! No intelligent kid is going to continue to truly believe in the real Lord and his omniscient ability after being lied to when they were younger and more naive.
I don't see how lying to my kids when they are gullible can possibly have a good affect on them later in life.
All this to say... It seems like no one else (besides Starsha that I know of) feels this way. My Christian friends all do Santa at their homes. I feel strongly about it. I guess it doesn't matter so much what other families do. To each their own and all. It just bothers me that people don't see the correlation between Santa and the God-like abilities Santa is given and God, Jesus and the true Christmas story.
My kids should trust me. This means that I do no lie to them... ever.
We do fun stuff with Santa and have fun with it all, but my kids know that Santa's not a real person and will not be "visiting" us at Christmas time.

Alright... there is my rant on the evils of Santa!
Thoughts?

Who needs preschool when you have a big sister!

Here's a little video of Avery reading and teaching the twins. She LOVES to teach them colors and letters. She's the best Big Sister!!




She would read to them all day and teach them everything she knows if she could!

What's for Dinner?

I made this last night for dinner and everyone liked it, it was fairly simple, and it makes a BUNCH!

Sorry I have no photo's. Maybe I will take some next time I make it.

Tomato Alfredo with Sausage

1 1/2 lbs mild Italian Sausage Links (I used fully cooked Kielbasa Sausages. Worked fine)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped or use a garlic press
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium green bell pepper
2 - 14.5oz cans Italian seasoned diced tomatoes, undrained
1 - 15oz can tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar (I used about a half a tsp for fear of making it actually taste sweet. Around here we like to say "NO SWEET MEAT!")
16 oz uncooked mostaccioli, rigatoni or penne (I used rotini)
1/4 cup of whipping cream (I used heavy cream and I used about 3/8ths cup)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I used the stuff in the green can. Take if from a wife of a man who works at a cheese plant... it's all the same as the fresh stuff... just costs less)

How to Put it all together:

If you use Kielbasa then you can skip step 1 & 2 because it is already cooked, but you should warm it up a bit in the skillet before adding the garlic.

1. Removed and discard casings from sausage links. Cut sausages crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces.

2. Cook sausage in large saute pan over medium heat for 8 minutes.

3. Add Garlic and continue cooking 2 minutes. Drain if necessary.

4. Stir in onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, tomato sauce and sugar. The pot was REALLY full at this point. I ended up moving it to a bigger pot rather than a saute pan.

5. Bring to a boil. Ruduce heat; simmer 20 minutes; stirring occasionally.

6. While sauce is cooking, prepare your pasta choice as directed on the pasta package and drain.

7. Remove sausage mixture from heat and gradually stir in whipping cream.

8. Serve over hot pasta. (I mixed it all together) Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired.

So there you go! This was our dinner last night and it was GOOD!

Enjoy! Let me know if you try it and what you tweaked!

Our Two Year Old Twins

The little ones made it to two (and so did we!) Here's a little video of their cupcakes that they got on their birthday.

Living Room Remodel

So I have wanted to replace the ugly dark paneling in our living room since we bought our home 3 years ago. Finally have a chance, so I am diving in. My dad came and helped me get started. We took one wall of paneling down which was actually really simple. He showed me how to make a joint (he assured me it wasn't that kind of joint). So we taped and sealed the seams between the dry wall.





Big sister came out of the bedroom where Gran was keeping the kids occupied and said that it was a beautiful color and she loved the cross we put on the wall!


So now I have to figure out how I will texture my walls. I want a knock down texture on the walls, but it's not so easy to do without high tech equipment. I found a tutorial here that had some easy and good suggestions.
So I tried it. So far... not really sure I like what I see. I am waiting on it to dry and I would give it a 60% chance that I will sand it back off. I used joint compound on the wall, so I should be able to remove it easy enough if I think it's not what I want.


I needed a smaller bucket that my putty knife and other tools would fit into. A Wipes Case worked wonders! And it closes up to keep it moist still.


More to come... I am hoping this isn't a nightmare I have created for myself!

A Little Update on Avery

Avery is doing WONDERFUL in Kindergarten. Even though she is ahead a year for now she is keeping up and learning fast! She has started reading recently. I have put up a little video for you to see!



She also very much enjoys her new baking stuff that she got for last Christmas! She loves to cook and bake so that her brother and sister have a snack when they wake up from nap. They are more than happy to take advantage of her skills! Here's a pic of her baking.




















Avery is a very sweet child. She LOVES to help with her brother and sister any time she can as long as it does not include stinky diapers! I asked her if she wished she were the twin's mommy and she beamed and said, "Yay! That'd be great"! She tries to do a little too much mothering sometimes, but she really means well. Avery loves to swim, ride her bike, anything outside, but most of all she LOVES to play with Eden and Jillian. She really is a wonderful daughter!!