Can I say FURIOUS?!!

I am so furious with my government right now - well actually I'm furious that I don't have a government right now.  The arrogance is out of control - I live in a republic and yet my voice meant nothing.  I took my kids to a protest rally and we held signs in front of Joe Donnelly's office.  What does he do?  Votes Yes on health care even though the majority of his constituents detested the idea of government health care.  I wrote emails, I called, I sent faxes and still these congressmen and women leave their backbones at home and spit in the face of those they represent and the Constitution of the United States.  I am quite an opinionated person (gasp!) and I let my opinion be heard.  Just wait until November people because I will do all I can to make you go down.  I'm just glad Indiana plans to sue the government over this ridiculous bill.  I'll keep my guns, I'll keep my money, You keep the change!  Happy Tuesday everyone. :)
p.s. Patrick Henry gave a pretty famous speech on this day in 1775.  Read the whole thing.  It is quite a speech and quite ironic that ObamaCare was signed today.

Non Media Travel Ideas

My sister-in-law Kristin called me today and asked for some travel ides.  They are moving cross country in a month and have a 2 yr old  and a 5 month old.  I had some ideas for her from our last summer trek out to WA but I'm always up for new ideas.  So ladies I know there are plenty of you out there who have to travel cross country to visit family and I want your little travel gems.  I want ideas that are non-tech as much as possible.  Maybe you have a good sing-a-long CD that doesn't drive parents crazy or something like that but plug in the DVD player isn't quite what I'm looking for.  I know it has it uses but I prefer it as a last resort or at least for the trip home when all other mental mom powers are exhausted.  I'll compile your ideas in another post and we'll see how much fun we can have keeping our children (and ourselves) happy while we hit the road.  Thanks for your help!

30 is the new 20 right?

That is what Eric is hoping!  Today is his birthday!  Happy Birthday deary.  I made him his cake but it was a crazy hectic day and so I never made the frosting (German chocolate for his German chocolate cake which is what he wants every year) and cake without frosting is like not wearing clothes - Don't do it!  We'll be singing and blowing out candles tomorrow.  Sorry!  The kids were excited to give Daddy his presents and Mommy's present was a stay at a bed and breakfast.  AWESOME!  I've never stayed in one before and man am I hooked now.  Who wants to sponsor us to check out all the ones in our area?  Here is their website.  Super cute place and such nice owners!  http://mckenziehousebnb.com/  Anyway, Eric I'm so glad I get to be around as you get older 'cuz I think you are pretty great and pretty much my bestest friend.  Sure love ya!  Happy 30th!

Bye Bye Marley

I am sadly lacking a picture of Marley, our 1992 Ford Aerostar.  She is black and cost us $800 2 years ago.  I really am proud of that van, it never needed any major repairs either, a patched tire here and an oil change there and by golly she got us where we needed to go.  Granted she had some problems and more than once I had people give me looks when I fired her up wondering if I'd make it home.  She had one duct tape window, a front passenger door only opened from the outside, not much in the way of AC, some trouble purring (vaahvoom, vaahvoom, vaahvoom, die, start her again, much better) and she didn't like to shift into gear all the time.  (Did I miss anything?)  It usually happened when I was backing out of the driveway putting it into drive and nothin' doin'.  Well despite all these little set backs I was admittedly prideful of my ugly van.  My dad (of all people) also told Eric once he was impressed I put up with the van for so long.  Well when we bought it the goal was for it to last a mission, or 2 years, and it has done just that.  I'm sure there was help from heaven to keep her going.
Her name is Marley and that came from Jodi.  Jodi pulls names out of her hat for anything and everything (hence 2 previous cats were Snugly and Boofer).  One day we were driving down the road and the girls yell out "Go Marley!"  "Mom Marley is a super van, she can beat all the other cars.  Go Marley!"  Well the girls were right, she is a super van who has been donated to the local homeless shelter.  She went away today and we only shed a partial tear.  She is being replaced (hurray!) but not forgotten.  So long and thanks a bundle Marley.

Tabernacle Soup

What is "tabernacle soup" you might be asking yourself?  I found out just what that concoction is this afternoon.  I was in my little get dinner done bubble, very focused on the task at hand, when Cora came down and got a fork out of the drawer.  "What are you doing Cora?"  "I'm making tabernacle soup and I need to mix it up."  A quizzical look from Mother is all she got until...Later that same afternoon (10 min tops) Jodi comes running in the kitchen, "Mom Cora is in trouble she is making a mess and you need to come right now!"  My mom sense must be turned off today because I was still thinking Okay Okay I'm coming.  Here's Jodi's response, "Mom run I'm right behind you."  Okay I'll move a bit faster.  Here is what I find: 2 little people and an orange mass taking over the bathroom floor.  Its bubbling out over the cottage cheese container and spreading towards the carpet.  Come to find out "tabernacle soup" is an entire box of baking soda, an entire container of Tang, vinegar and water -all mixed thoroughly with a fork.  No wonder it was bubbling and expanding over the floor.  Its a recipe using all the cleaning supplies Mom keeps under the bathroom sink and at least it didn't smell bad.  To Cora's benefit she had no idea what that mixture would do.  I started smiling after the mess was mostly cleaned up.  I called Eric from our room, "Where were you on this one pal?"  He was doing homework.  Okay I'll give it to him.  Then I had to fess up that Cora just came down to get a fork for creating her concoction.  He said, "Haven't you ever read Calvin and Hobbes?  You just let her go back upstairs?"  The laughter started.  Hope it has for you too.  Happy parenting!

End of Advent

The last of the nativities.  I kind of fell off the blogger planet that last part of December - sitting at the computer was not one of those luxuries I allowed myself I suppose.  Anyway here is a list of some of the last few advent things we did.  This is more of a family journal entry than anything else so if you're interested flag this entry fro next year.
 -  Over the river and through the woods to Grandmothers house we go (we really did go to the house Grandma grew up in)
 - Game night at Grandma's
- Wrapping secret Santa presents
- Secret Santa deliveries
-Act out the Nativity
-Give Jesus his birthday presents (he has a stocking and we write down his gifts and put them in the stocking Christmas morning)
- Play in the snow day
- Early morning special surprise - we took the kids at 7 a.m. to pick up the newest family member Zoey, (that's how Jodi spelled it) a two year old beagle.  The kids were excited!  Jodi had been asking Santa for a puppy so Mom and Dad delivered.  So far mostly good.

Well we had a great Christmas holiday.  We got to see cousins, aunts, uncles, and even Both sets of Grandparents.  It was great!  The kids were used to having Daddy home every day so they are asking where he is and saying they want him home right now.  It was really nice to have so much family time together - that is one of the best things about Christmas.

Make the Car Go Crazy

Eric remembers this from his childhood.  The car would swerve back and forth, seem to turn without warning or some other such craziness.  He wanted our van to go crazy and wind up somewhere we could have a yummy breakfast.  Good idea except Jodi found out we were going for breakfast and when we said, "Not McDonald's!"  there was meltdown and hiding behind the couch in tear gushing disappointment.  Well that saved us $40 at a sit down restaurant dear, thanks.  No, actually we made a compromise: you can be happy and go where the crazy car goes or you can stay home.  We went to breakfast.  Smart girl.  None of us have eaten since then either.  Granma's House of Pancakes has HUGE portions - I'm so glad I'm not counting calories or watching my weight!  (can you hear the sarcasm?)  It was a lot of fun anyway.  I love that you can count on American's to have a great breakfast!  I'm comparing the breakfast options they have in Europe which are frankly downright dismal.  Eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, pancakes, crepes, omelets, hash browns, fruit, whipped cream , orange juice, chocolate milk, hot chocolate - this was just at our table - the menu had so many more options.  Yummy!  Sorry we forgot the camera or I would have a picture of Marcus' adorable Mickey Mouse pancake.

Drive around and look at lights

I love Christmas lights!  The twinkle and sparkle just help define the holiday.  A tasteful and artful quality should also accompany one's obsession with lights but unfortunately this is not always the case - oh well it gets ooohs and aaaahs and wows from the children section of the vehicle when one of these light displays is discovered.

We got one picture and its not a good one but so be it.  One house just around the corner from us merits a return visit when we have more snow - lights look sooo much better when they have a good covering of snow. I'm curious who likes the new LED lights?  The jury is still out on that one at our house.   I can't quite decide but I'm leaning toward the good old use up as much energy as possible kind of lights.  Now I'd better go get sewing - my days are quickly disappearing before I've got to have everything under the tree.  Merry Crafting!

December 14 - Neighborhood Coat Drive

Our local newspaper had an article about a couple of the local schools and kids who don't come to school wearing coats.  They asked people to bring coats and such so I decided we'd better try and do something.  (Northern Indiana has had its fair share of news coverage so the country can see just how bad the economy is - borderline propaganda but there are quite a few families really struggling and if we can help we should!) We needed a Christmas service project.  It wasn't quite as extensive as I wanted but we did collect 2 bags worth of warm stuff.  Hopefully the kids got something out of the activity but we'll just have to keep planning ways to serve people - that's celebrating Christmas!

December 13 - Stuff Christmas Cards and watch a movie

Well we got in a viewing of The Bishops Wife but as per earlier post I've been a bit busy planning and cooking so Christmas cards are not done and pictures have not been ordered.  Let's see if we can get ourselves going again.  I need a jump start from somewhere but this morning I have to start with dishes.  Hooray for Mondays!

December 12 - Christmas Spectacular

When is the show gonna start?  I want the show to start!  Where is Samantha?  When is Samantha going to sing?  I can't see Samantha.  Is there another song?  I want those kids to sing.  Is it there turn?  Is this a long show?  Is there another song?  Is there another song?  This is loud.  I see Samantha!  My fingers are thirsty.  Can I give them a drink in my mouth.  I don't want this to be a long show.  I can't see Samantha.  Is that a pretend Santa?  Are those kids supposed to be off the stage?  Is it time to go to Grandma's yet?

This is what its like sitting through a major musical production with Cora.  Jodi on the other hand was eating it up.  The H.S. Eric teaches at (which is also the same one I attended) has an amazing music program.  4 choirs, 3 bands, 2 jazz bands, orchestra, dance team, etc. and its cool to be a part of the music program.  Every year they put on the Christmas Spectacular and all the music groups get their time to shine on stage.  It really is quite amazing and for most people its family tradition to go to this show.  Jodi has gone 3 times now and Cora had her first taste.  I'd say the two sisters have different interests.  It was a fun activity and Eric walks away every time amazed that so many kids are involved and have that opportunity.  An opportunity he did not have where he lived in Northern California.  Merry Christmas.

December 11 - Polar Express Night

We really only had time to read the book because this was the night I was responsible for my Dad's surprise date night.  A romantic date night for 17 couples, china dishes, roses, lights, menus, a multiple course dinner (I even did Baked Alaska!)...the works.  I was at my dad's model home (gorgeous house with an amazing kitchen!) from about 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. kids included.  It was quite a night!  It felt like I had a restaurant for one evening and whew it was quite a lot of work.  I did have helpers (Lillian, and some sisters who were the servers) so that made things a lot easier.  The food turned out great I must say and planning was about perfect - not very many left overs and everyone at the dinner left stuffed.  I even got a round of applause, which has never happened for MY cooking before.  Proof that people can come a long way - my freshman year at BYU NO ONE would have applauded my cooking.  Big props to the America's Test Kitchen cookbook!  I need to buy it now - it was a borrowed cookbook.  I'm sure I owed this evening to my dad for all the things he's done for us.  In the end I rather enjoyed myself.  Hard work produced a fantastic result!

December 9 - making cookies

Hooray for good chocolate chip cookies.  We made them tiny so there were more cookies from one batch of dough.  It was too blustery and freezing last night to take plates around to neighbors but we'll do that one of these days before Christmas.
Here are a few pictures of the crew cookin' goodies.

Oh, I guess they lost some interest.  They did actually help measure and mix but since they couldn't use the cookie cutters they got out they lost interest.

Can you see the chocolate chips in his hand?  I prefer the mini's because then you get more chocolate per bite of cookie.  I call it optimal chocolate effect and that is my preferred method.

Splendiferous Christmas

Tonight was a Fancy Christmas Night thanks to our love of Fancy Nancy.  We opened a new book, Fancy Nancy and the Splendiferous Christmas, got dressed up, ate a fancy dinner and then made a fancy ornament for our tree.  It was quite a night let me tell you.  Jodi even said, "This is going to be my favorite dinner ever!"  As a  mom you love to hear your kids praising your scheming and working.  Keep it up Jodi!  Marcus just has to say, "WOW!" and I feel like I've accomplished great things.  Cora has the ability to light up her face in such a way that no words are necessary.  All my planning has to be worth it - fun night to be sure!  Pictures to follow I'm wiped out.

Marcus wouldn't pose in his suit and this is the only shot I wanted of myself - the veiled woman of mystery.

Lookin' good in his dapper duds!

Spumoni ice cream and pound cake for dessert.  I saw the ice cream and had to bring it home for our party because it is very much a Haffner thing to eat spumoni with pasta!

These are the fancy ornaments we made - they even look a bit like the one Fancy Nancy makes in her book.

Family Fun (oh and a photo shoot!)

I've got to send you all to go look at our family pictures.  My friend Lillian took the kids pictures last year and offered to do it again this year.  I love how they turned out.  She has a fun perspective to photography and catches a lot of personality with her work.  She's great and really good at all kinds of stuff.  Check out her Photog Blog and look at our fun family pictures.

Learn about German Christmas Traditions

Here are the cute little snowflakes playing together in our dusting of snow. Cora wants the snow to cover the grass not just the driveway and Marcus had a meltdown when I told him he had to come inside. Hooray for the outdoors!

Since we have quite a bit of German blood in our veins we want the kids to know about Germany and Christmas because the two go together so beautifully. A visit to Himmel Haus got us some goodies. St. Nicholas would normally have come last night and left treats in their shoes (or a switch if they were naughty) but we wanted to go visit this cool store. As it turns out if tonights behavior determined what St. Nicholas left then Mom & Dad would get to eat more treats. We didn't really get to sing any German carols like I wanted or even talk about Christmas trees and Lebkuchen but there is still time to teach them the finer points of German Christmas traditions. Aren't those lady bugs the cutest? The kids are happy and excited and that is what we want for this time of year. The family time and the fun!

Gingerbread Cookies and Christmas Devotional

Today was gingerbread day.  I'm proud of myself for actually making the dough yesterday and chilling it overnight like one is supposed to!  I was so busy making the cookies that I failed to take any pictures of the process - Cora was the best helper.  We made big gingerbread men and baby gingerbread men.  There were even circle cookies with gingerbread men cut out of the center.  Very cute and yummy which is why I can't take a picture of the finished product - they are gone!  My family came over and we shared our cookies with the aunts and "Ampa" and Amma."  We also watched the LDS Christmas Devotional Broadcast and as usual I loved the messages and stories.  

A Night in Bethlehem

Our activity at the church tonight was a Night in Bethlehem.  We were ordered by a decree from Caesar to be taxed and so we made the pilgrimage.  I loved the marketplace.  Hummus and pita bread...yuuummm!   The primary was asked to sing in the program so we went from citizens to heavenly messengers pretty quickly.  Eric had a great costume, but we all looked pretty good I think.

December 4 - Decorate the tree and the house

I'm not sure what it is about this advent day but didn't seemed too overly Christmas-y to me.  Oh, yeah because we took family pictures yesterday and then had a party to go to.  That left only time to get out one box of ornaments which Marcus decided to take off as fast as the girls put them on.  I want to do cranberries and popcorn strands but I'm running out of time and Eric isn't hot on it.  Marcus would probably just eat it anyway even though the boy is 2 years old and by the look of him is clearly NOT starving!  I did lots of lights because I love the sparkley white things.  Anyway its up and the girls wanted to kneel around the tree and sing "O Christmas Tree" to it.  The tree's name is Christmas Bingo and it is a boy.  Good to know.  

Go Get a Christmas Tree

I'm opposed to the fake tree (at least for us) and so we went to where to get our tree...LOWE'S.  :)  We'll go cut down a tree with the kids some year in the near future but this was not that year.  Now I'll have to keep Marcus from climbing it.  Jodi is all ready to have fire in the fireplace, drink hot cocoa and decorate the tree.  She'll have to wait until tomorrow.  Shh...that is day 4.

Ready for action!

This little guy slept in the bottom of the Lowe's race car cart while we tromped around looking at all the decorations for sale.