Christmas came a little early around our house. We just couldn’t wait anymore. Is it still poor self control if we stopped at opening one present? We needed it. We needed it now. Today’s schedule wouldn’t have allowed not having the gift. We had to open it. It was calling our names.

Open me. Open me. You know you want to. I’ll make you look older! Come on. Just do it. You already know what I am. It’s not like I’m even wrapped. Just do it. I won’t tell.

So we opened it. Not in a timid way. In a rip the band-aid off fast sort of way. Just tore right into the box and relished what was inside. The cold, shiny steel smiled up at us as if to say, you won’t be sorry! And we aren’t. And neither will the cookie recipients, nor Parker’s class when they taste their own chocolate mousse tartlet. No apologies necessary. No guilt. Just pleasure. Plus, the family bonding over baking time will last a lifetime.

Would these delicious cookies be possible without the miraculous new Kitchenaid mixer? Well yes, they would. But they came together so much faster and so much better. Therefore, the cookies taste even more delicious than ever before.

Hail to the Mixer because it deserves your hailing!

We let the kids help. They loved every minute of it. Parker and Gwen are great little helpers. Gwen even helped me make her macaroni and cheese yesterday for lunch. I love that, apparently through osmosis, she has learned that moms cook. She is always making plastic and wooden food for her dolls and inviting me to “her house” to eat too. This girl even knows that table cloths make any meal more special. So she usually has a thick fleece blanket spread out on her bed table or on the floor for a picnic.

We paid the kids in peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. That was fine with them.

When their sous chef duties were over they played with the box the premature gift came in. It’s great to be a kid.

Last night we went to see The Muppet Movie in theaters. I told them each separately about our plans. I told them each separately that it was a secret. I asked them each separately to do something before we could go on our little “secret family outing.” It worked. Gavin got his homework done. Yes, he had homework on a Friday night because he had forgotten to do a math assignment the night before. Parker tidied up his room. Gwen even put her toys away with my minimal supervision. No arguments. No yelling. No empty threats of us not going. Just cooperative bliss. The movie was cute. The evening was fantastic. Then a few hours of happiness baking as a family in the kitchen today. Tonight is driving around town looking at all the Christmas lights followed by a trip to Starbucks for hot chocolate and caramel apple cider. Yum! It helps that Heath got a Starbucks gift card yesterday from work. It is definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The Creativity Bug has bit. All I want to do is craft after craft after craft. This is strange because I’ve never really been the crafty type. Now there’s just not enough money on my money tree to buy all the crafts I want to do!

This isn’t really a craft as much as something I’ve been coveting from the craft store for several weeks. The towels were on sale and I had a coupon. Our half bath downstairs is the perfect guest bath. Not that anyone really comes over but if they do, my bathroom is all sorts of festive. The kids love the soap. Finally they are consistently washing hands! Even Gwen. The soap smells like warm candy corn. Heavenly.

Now I just need to get my picture frames up on the wall. Heath has taken some gorgeous pictures of our flowers and I printed them out for the bathroom. I also want to buy a multi colored pack of vinyl from Amazon.com so I can cut out bugs and flowers to put on the mirror in the kids bathroom upstairs. That bathroom has a long mirror that basically takes up an entire wall. I figured some cute vinyl bugs would look great on the extra part of the mirror.

Especially since the kids bathroom has always been a bug bathroom. Oh how I miss that bathroom we had to gut and rebuild from the ground up.

This is what the boys made during Conference sessions over the weekend. It’s one of those perler bead projects where you put the beads on a template and then iron it to melt the beads together. I’m impressed with their creativity and the fact that the ocean animals haven’t broken yet.

What you see is no ordinary box . . .

It is the future site of the Fairy Village

now under construction.

This idea came from my friend Abigail who emailed me this link http://thelifeofjenniferdawn.blogspot.com/2011/07/fairy-village.html (I’m giving credit where credit is due. Jennifer Dawn is amazing for her execution of such a darling idea) I’m so excited about this project!

As if all that wasn’t enough, Heath put me in charge of the chocolate pie on Sunday. See that beautiful crust? Yeah, I made that. I crushed the Nutter Butters and melted the butter and mixed it all together before creating the crust in the pie bowl thingy. Obviously I don’t know all the baking words yet! I was supposed to make the pudding too but Heath beat me to it. It tasted divine. Totally to die for! Have you made your chocolate peanut butter crust pie yet?

I still want to cut out a huge G from foam core board to decoupage for Gwen’s room. Maybe I could do a P and a G for the boys too. And after Sister Dalton’s talk on Sunday I want to cut out the phrase “Be loyal to the royal within you” for Gwen’s room (in vinyl). I would link to her talk but the text isn’t available yet. Video is available here.

The last project I want to do is going to cost a pretty penny so I really need to think it through, wait for sales or coupons, or just buy little bits here and there. In the October issue of Family Fun Magazine there was a short little blip about a mom who made huge reading pillows for her kids. She put a big pocket on one side to hold their books and bookmarks. Then they wrote the title of books they read on the pillow with fabric markers. I thought it was a fun idea.

But the fabric is more expensive than I thought. It’s like I’m not a seamstress and don’t buy lots of fabric. There are premade pillows I could make pillowcases for but the sizes I want are $40 or $50 apiece. I’m not sure I found the fiberfill because it looked like a premade pillow too. I don’t know. I’ll figure something out for this project because my kids would have fun with it. It would be fun to make a new pillowcase each year.

I think that’s all the projects I have on tap for now. That’s enough right?

It’s not Disneyland or any other affiliated theme park. It’s not even Paradise. Though I’m pretty sure this place can be found in Paradise. The happiest place on earth is an ice cream parlor.

Think about it. Everyone’s happy in an ice cream parlor. Nobody grabs a quick cone or shake before shooting their enemy. Can you just hear the judge?

Judge:  What were you doing before you “happened” to be in the deserted parking lot with a loaded gun?
Accused:  Uh, I got a Blizzard?
Judge:  From Dairy Queen?
Accused:  Yeah. The Nutter Butter flavor.
Judge:  No kidding? That’s my favorite kind! Ok, no further questions. I’ve reached my verdict. You are not guilty because nobody murders someone after finishing a Blizzard. Let’s all go to DQ!

Of course if sticky fingerprints were found on the gun it would be a different story but that would be quite the shocker.

On Saturday we walked into a Dairy Queen with smiles on our faces despite spending $100 on Scout paraphernalia for Gavin. Two young boys happily licked at ice cream cones across the table from their mom. She was at ease and enjoying her own ice cream. Occasionally she would get up and grab more napkins. She was never annoyed. Just happy to be of service to her sons. They stayed for quite a while. Why rush a good treat? Not only was she treating her boys but also the unborn baby underneath her “Kicking 24/7” sport jersey.

We sat by the wall under the speaker, head dancing to the radio station. The cashier was very friendly – a player for sure. A player is anyone who quickly responds to a stranger’s playful banter. She and Heath laughed at the coincidences of him sitting down as soon as she had more food for us at the counter.

The food was hot and tasty. As we ate a couple walked in. They had smiles on their faces as they gazed up at the menu board. A teenage girl (their daughter? granddaughter?) snuck up behind the man with a mischievous grin on her face. She slowly reached out and tickled his sides. He jumped as he spun around. All three laughed. A family of players. They took their ice cream outside to one of the iron picnic tables. A young man joined them with a Jamba Juice shake. The four of them laughed and talked while enjoying every bit of their frozen treats.

Heath went up to the counter to tell the cashier our kids were ready for their ice cream that came with the kids meals. An older gentleman walked in with eyes up on the menu board. Heath was grabbing more napkins as the man’s ice cream split was ready. I noticed the two spoons right away. One on each end of the dish. The man’s face broke out in a classic 5 year old grin as he took the split from the cashier. He smiled goofily at us and walked outside. His wife was sitting at the other iron picnic table. The two of them shared the ice cream split like pre-teens in love. It was so cute to watch.

Anyone who walked by the Dairy Queen would soften into an inevitable smile. It was as if there was an invisible force field around the shop. Not that anyone was angry before they reached the invisible line. One man looked big and tough in a sports jersey. The type of person I would try to avoid eye contact with. But being behind the protective glass I stared more than usual. He was just a big teddy bear as he walked by. He never did stop in for ice cream. Maybe he went next door to Jamba Juice, I don’t know, but he looked like the presence of ice cream had melted him as much as the rest of us!

The final couple to walk in looked to be in their mid 50’s. The man had a goofy grin on his face like he couldn’t believe his own dumb luck this was his wife! She kept her eyes on the menu board and authoritatively ordered when she finally figured out what she wanted. I don’t think he got anything. They left with smiles on their faces.

Happiest place on earth? Oh yeah. Can you imagine being the cashier in that type of environment? I would love going to work every day! It was obvious she loved her job. The good vibes in the dining room kept getting passed around. She offered to give us her leftover Nutter Butters. That was the Blizzard flavor of the month last month and she needed to get rid of the surplus. Her offer came out of the blue. Heath hemmed and hawed for a minute but said he would take them if she was going to insist. She filled a sandwich baggie with Nutter Butter crumbs and told us that was the only problem. They had to be crumbled for the Blizzards.

Heath quickly decided to turn them into a graham cracker crust and fill the pie with chocolate pudding. When we were finally ready to leave we decided to say goodbye to the sweet cashier who was in the back at that time. She came out with a man who I’m assuming is her husband. Heath told her our plans. So what does she do? Grab another baggie full of crumbs!

Being the player she is she told us she expected a slice of our pie. We told her we didn’t live in that city (nearby but not there) and that the next day was Sunday. Oh, I totally forgot to mention the lady we met as soon as we walked in who started talking to us about BYU football when she saw our shirts. She was a BYU grad but her husband went to Utah State University so we all laughed that it was going to be a rough weekend in her house in a couple weeks. She agreed.

Anyway, back to the cashier. Since we weren’t going to drive back on a Sunday, she said for us to call her so she could come to our house! Total player! She was a sweet sweet lady.

The pie was amazing too. Gavin was concerned we didn’t save her a piece. He’ll understand later.

When I grow up I think I want to work in an ice cream parlor.