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Friday, instead of fighting the crowds over Black Friday specials, Mark and I loaded up the kids and headed over to Pennsylvania for a mini vacation. It was probably the best getaway we’ve had as a family in a long time. We didn’t have to rush anywhere. We could do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. And it didn’t cost us a whole lot of money. What could be better than that? We literally woke up, threw some clothes in a suitcase and left.

So anyway, just four short hours away from us is Lancaster County, PA. Strasburg lies within Lancaster and houses some of the best train museums ever. If any of you are familiar with the I Love Toy Train series then you’ve probably heard of the Choo Choo Barn. Inside this little rinky-dink museum is one of the best miniature train layouts. . . ever! We spent an hour inside the museum and only got around the layout once. The babies would have gone around at least one more time, if not several, but they were closing. You can see how much they loved it here and if you click here you can see everybody’s most favorite part of all.

After the museum we ate dinner at Isaac’s Deli which is right next door to the Choo Choo Barn. What a great little restaurant. We’ve eaten there before and I’ve craved their pickles everytime I’ve been pregnant since. But this time Lady and her crew went with us and she recommended the Mallard (a roast beef sandwich on pretzel bread) and it was fabulous. Everything about the restaurant was perfect for our crowd of 10 kids and 3 adults. We didn’t have to wait to be seated (on a Friday night even!) They immediately handed the kids crayons and coloring sheets and pretzel goldfish. The kids’ menu offers more than the traditional mac-n-cheese and chicken nuggets, including make your own PB&J sandwiches on rainbow bread and cheesy pretzel bread with dipping sauce. They had the most awesome straws I’ve ever seen and yeah, their pickles still rock!

After dinner we returned to Lady’s house and the kids played together and we talked to Man (who’s all the way over in Iraq) via the computer. It was especially fun when he donned some of his army fatigues and Lady told him to get his army helmet on. Caleb (who loves wearing his own camo) was watching intently and was quite surprised when he returned with his bike helmet on instead. Silly Man! And we all got to see his gun and watch him help Ainsley read, even all the way in Iraq. It was pretty sweet. Finally we called it a night and headed over to the hotel where we crashed, sort of. The twins were really hyper and even after the rest of us were asleep they kept climbing out of their playpens and jumping from bed to bed to bed, laughing all the way. Argh! Also, Mark realized his wallet was missing on our way to the hotel and I couldn’t sleep at all. I just kept worrying about showing up to the Surgery Center on Monday with Noah and not having the $100 copay because some lucky bum found Mark’s wallet and drained our account of everything. And it didn’t help that payday was Friday either. Fortunately, Isaac’s had Mark’s wallet and I’m happy to report, everything was just as he’d left it, cash and all.

Saturday we headed back to Strasburg to ride the Strasburg Train. They have one of the most beautiful steam trains I’ve ever seen and it’s almost exactly identical to the one on Polar Express, so you can imagine Caleb’s delight when he climbed aboard. We rode the train first and then watched a few come and go between trips to the gift shop and the KettleKorn stand. Everytime a train left or pulled into the station Caleb started running towards the train shouting, “Wait! Wait!” just like the boy does on the Polar Express when he finally decides to hop on board. I’m sure, if we hadn’t been there to grab him, he would have jumped on all by himself and had a free ride or two. When our ride ended Caleb started tapping the side of the train and said, “I want this train for Christmas.” If only we had a million dollars, Caleb we’d totally buy it for you. . . maybe.

After we rode the train we returned to Lady’s house again and she took me to the Wilbur Chocolate Factory where she introduced me to Wilbur Buds and Wilbur Chocolate Covered Pretzels and Wilbur Peachy Penguins all of which we are now completely and totally addicted to. Thanks Lady! We loved it all so much that I’ve already researched Wilbur online and discovered how to order more. Of course, we’ll have to return to Lititz to get the pretzels since you can’t order those online. But that’s okay because we didn’t get to visit the Strasburg Railroad Museum or stay in the Red Caboose Motel, two more things we still want to do. And we’ve got to go back to see Man and have him teach the boys some of his fishing techniques. But that’s what’s so great about Lancaster County. . . it’s all just a few hours away. Just one more thing we’d miss if we ever leave CT.

P.S. My favorite conversation of the weekend went like this:

Mommy: Allentown? Hey,look guys! We’re almost to CalebAllenTown.

Caleb: What town?

Mommy: CalebAllenTown.

Caleb: My town?

Mommy: Your town.

Caleb: Nakedtown?

Mommy: No, Allentown.

Caleb: What town?

P.P.S. Does anyone else find it interesting that within Lancaster County there’s an Intercourse, a Middlesex and a Fertility? I wasn’t just being crude in my title. We really live right next door to a Lover’s Lane and we really did drive by Intercourse while we were out there. Really.

For Family Home Evening on Monday night, Hunter and I came up with a new twist on an old tradition. Usually, the Monday before Thanksgiving we write down 100 things we’re thankful for. But Monday Hunter suggested we do it ABC style and write down one thing for each letter of the alphabet. I loved the idea but I didn’t like reducing our list to only 26 things. So I changed it up a little and we did it Scategories style. So we each got a list with the alphabet and ten minutes to write down as many things as we could think of that we’re thankful for. Then we took turns reading our lists and we only got points for things no one else had written down. It ended up being really fun and I think we easily came up with more than 100 things we’re thankful for.

Monday night I also discovered that the three babies love to string beads. We have some giant wood beads and they spent a good part of the night, stringing them onto a shoestring. So Tuesday, in an attempt to spend some quality time with the babies, we made Native American hats. But instead of stringing giant wood beads we strung small plastic beads. I wasn’t sure how the babies would do with their tiny hands and the tiny beads so I taped their yarn to a straightened paperclip for a makeshift, non-sharp needle. It worked! The twins each strung enough beads to make a necklace and Caleb strung two. It was very exciting–little crafty guys. Then I showed them how to dance like Native Americans and how to greet people–”How!” Caleb ate it all up and ran around the house beating his empty hot chocolate canister drum and saying “How” and “Look Daddy, I’m an alien!”

Wednesday Melanie came over and I babysat two of Noah’s friends from school and Mark worked from home so our little house really was bulging at the seams. But there’s something about our little house stuffed to capacity that makes it feel even homier. I was given the assignment of making Sweet Potato Casserole, Orange Rolls and Pumpkin Roll for Thanksgiving Dinner, so I spent the afternoon making those. Melanie got busy on some Christmas shopping and the kids ran around the house playing this and that.

Denver, Jorge and Stefano decided to run outside and play and disappeared for almost an hour and a half. I went out to check on them occasionally and finally around 5pm it was dark so I called them in. Jorge and Stefano came running into the house with their eyes bugging out of their heads and I asked what the matter was. Stefano said in a whiney, sort of scared voice, “Denver told us that your neighbor over there saws up kids and cooks them for dessert. And he said that your babysitter Vicki (from Fairly Odd Parents) cut Caleb’s head off while you were gone and you had to sew it back on. And he said (huge gasp here), ‘I hear a saw right now!’” Denver came running behind them both screaming at them not to tell me, half-embarassed he’d been caught traumatizing his friends, half-scared of the consequences of such behavior. Denver, of all people! Later, when we had to tell Stefano’s mom what happened Stefano chimed in, “And Denver said their neighbor will make soup out of our butts and all parts of my body!” I’m not sure where Denver came up with this elaborate story. We don’t watch this sort of stuff on TV. He says he had a nightmare about it when he was 5. I’m wondering if he’s picking this stuff up at school. Either way, looks like my sweet little innocent Denver is not as sweet and innocent as I thought. And looks like maybe we won’t be babysitting Stefano anymore. Sorry ’bout that Patricia! And sorry to Melanie too–Jorge refused to go into the basement for the rest of the night. We’ve tried to get Denver to tell the story to us, since obviously he’s a very convincing storyteller, but he refuses telling us he can’t remember. Likely story. We finished the night off on a happy note, watching the Muppets Christmas Carol. There’s nothing like Kermit the Frog and Tiny Tim to make you forget about murderous neighbors and wicked babysitters plotting to saw you up and make butt soup out of you.

For Thanksgiving we spent the day at Chris and Cliff’s house not doing a whole lot of anything except sitting around, eating and laughing only the way a true Stout can. Chris and I are proud to say Megan has inherited the Stout laugh and does it very well indeed. Cliff tried to keep the kids out of our hair by giving them a million giant boxes to play in but they liked wrestling with him better. Noah played Guitar Hero practically the entire time and Hunter played Spore. I think Mark also addicted himself to the game. We took the kids to the park and ran them around for a bit and returned home just in time for Thanksgiving Dinner. I personally ate way too much and wrestling Megan after dinner didn’t help matters. I never did manage to down any pumpkin pie. But Chris made the most delicious turkey ever and my orange rolls and sweet potatoes were pretty dang good too. All in all, we had a very Happy Thanksgiving and we hope y’all did too!

We had oatmeal for breakfast on Monday. Unfortunately I made the mistake of leaving the brown sugar out on the countertop. All three babies have figured out how to climb the kitchen drawers to the top and can access just about anything their hearts desire, including the brown sugar. The dead silence should have been a dead giveaway, but you know, as a parent I always hope for the best. Afterall, is it that hard to believe that sometimes they actually play quietly together? Anyway, I’ve never seen brown sugar look so good or the babies look stickier. I can only imagine what they are going to get into next. I think we’re going to have to take the cupboard locks a level higher.

We’ve heard about this mini Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade that they do every year in Stamford for years now. But we’ve never gone. Last year we went into New York to see the Macy’s parade and while it was fun, it was also nightmarish. The crowds were a little insane. So this year we decided to try something a little less chaotic and try the UBS Parade. And I must admit it was totally perfect for families with small children. Except that it was so freezing cold I thought we were all going to die but I couldn’t complain because I had just watched Boy in the Striped Pajamas the night before and the Jews in the concentration camps with no heat, no clothes, no shoes or hats or mittens and no blankets were still on my mind. So we muddled through and had a pretty good time. We got front row seats, no one smashed us into the blockades trying to get a better view, we were right next door to Starbucks (mmmm-white hot chocolate), Burlington Coat Factory had heated bathrooms just behind us and Denver was even serenaded by clowns. And the best part was when the firemen spun their gigantic Rescue Hero balloon right over our heads. It was humungous! We took along Faith’s Flat Stanley and got some great pictures to send back to Texas and got a great kick start to our Thanksgiving week. Bring on the Turkey and Sweet Potato Casserole, baby! I’m ready.

I was lucky enough last night to go out with a bunch of girls. Some of them were my friends. Some of them were my sisters. And a few of them were friends of my sister. It was wonderful. There’s nothing like a gaggle of girlfriends sharing their frustration over things their children do and laughing about how much our kids are really all alike. It makes you feel normal. And even better, there’s nothing a group of girlfriends does better than rallying each other, bolstering one another’s spirits, encouraging, reminding that we are good enough and what we are doing is important and worthwhile. I mentioned that I feel bad because I don’t have more one on one time with the kids. One of Melanie’s friends, Denise (from Peru) looked me in the eye and said, “Don’t feel bad. Don’t feel bad. You are doing your best and that’s all you can do. When you feel bad you quit taking care of yourself and you’ve gotta take care of yourself. . . for your family.” Ah, the sweet advice of a friend and another mother who knows just exactly how you feel and what you’re struggling through on a daily basis. We laughed and giggled through the entire night and no one needed taken to the potty or threw food at the waiter or decided halfway through the movie they didn’t want to watch it anymore. Pure bliss.

Anyway, we were going to go see Twilight because that’s what you do when you’ve spent so much of your life obsessing over a book. But so many people told me it was bad, we decided to go and see The Boy in the Striped Pajamas instead. The movie was really well done. My heart hasn’t pounded so hard in my chest for a really long time. But the movie is about the Holcaust and so obviously it was very heavy and disturbing. And as always, I struggle to fathom how a group of people can hate another group of people so much and treat them so horridly, so inhumanely, so disgustingly. I tossed and turned all night. I’m not sure how I’m going to shake the thoughts that keep pouring into my head–how babies must have been torn from their mothers’ arms and killed because they couldn’t work and how those mothers must have longed for the sweet smell and warm bodies of their babies again. How mothers must have died emotionally long before they were murdered, watching their young children be abused, starved to death, worked to death, frozen to death. The torture, the experiments, the suffering, the hatred. It all keeps swirling around in my head and no matter how I try to make it right, I realize I’ll never succeed. It will never be made right.

So I’m not sure what I’m going to do to quiet the angst. Because I also feel guilty for all the days I complain about how hard my life is, how frustrating the kids are, how sick I am of cleaning toilets, how I never wanted so many babies. Because I know those Jewish people would have taken my place in a heartbeat and considered themselves lucky. And I guess that’s what I need to do. Count each day as a blessing. Consider each moment a gift from God and thank Him for it. My babies are warm and safe in their beds upstairs. There’s food in the pantry. I’ve got clothes on my back. I can have a warm shower whenever I want and I sleep in a warm, soft bed piled high with blankets. I can worship anyway I choose. The kids spend their days learning and playing, carefree and innocent. And who knows, another Holocaust could happen. They say it could anytime, anyplace. America is no exception. Any group of people could decide anytime that another group of people are getting in their way and trample them right under their feet. It’s not so far-fetched. (If it did, I wonder who would come and fight for us. Or would they decide it wasn’t their war to fight and call home their troops?) But at least for now, it isn’t going to happen. And for now I suppose the best I can do, in honor of those men and women and children who died and suffered, is to never forget that even the little things are blessings and to never take them for granted. Those men and women stayed good even in a world that had gone crazy bad. And I must do the same–count my blessings, love despite differences, see the good in everyone, serve others daily, and always have hope and faith in mankind that the good will prevail and will always win in the end. Always.

Stumbled across this today while I was looking for Wordpress Templates. And they call us the hateful ones. Makes me glad that I’m on the side I’m on and it doesn’t matter how many churches or homes or temples or whatever they vandalize, I won’t back down on this one. One man. One woman.

Gingerbread cookies, of course. I almost think Gingerbread cookies are more of a Thanksgiving tradition than a Christmas tradition. At least for me. I love them. So today, after we built the Polar Express (North Pole and all) out of big legos, we made Gingerbread cookies. It was messy and a little disasterous–Justus threw his spoon in the mixer while it was mixing and Jericho turned the mixer on high when it was full of just liquid and plastered us all with molasses and crisco and sugar. But it was worth it. I’ve probably eaten my weight in little gingerbread men tonight and will probably do it again tomorrow. And the kids liked them too. So here’s the recipe or here. Happy Baking!

Gingerbread Cookies from the Scovil Bakery in Nauvoo, Illinois
Combine 1 cup sugar, 1 cup molasses, 3/4 cup oil or lard, and 1/2 cup hot water. (Rinse the molasses from the cup with hot water.)

Add 2 eggs.

Add: 1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
6-7 cups flour

Refrigerate dough overnight. Roll out* and cut with cookie cutter. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

*To roll out dough, use PAM cooking spray in place of flour.
**Cookies freeze well and are softer and more flavorful after freezing.

So the grocery store was an absolute nightmare. The wholesale store went just fine. But the actual grocery store was bad. Really bad. And all those little grandmas that just want to help. Ugh! I swear I aged another ten years. Caleb was screaming the entire way and the twins were hanging and climbing on the car cart the whole time. But thankfully they all fell asleep on the way home and I managed to get everything put away. And Caleb just woke up and announced he’s not mad at me anymore. Hallelujah!

Anyway, for Primary a few weeks ago they talked about how we each have different talents and how Heavenly Father loves us all, no matter how many talents we have. Then the kids were supposed to write down one talent that they wanted to share with the entire Primary. Noah and Denver both wrote down that they can do a flip on the trampoline. When I was in Primary and had to do the same thing, I struggled to come up with even one thing that I thought was worthy of sharing. I hated talking about myself. The more invisible I was, the better. But Hunter. . . he had no problem coming up with all sorts of things to share. Just look. . .

For those of you struggling to read what he wrote, I’ll translate:
kidding, saving, writing, wall-ball, computer games, baseball (x2), art, drawing, hand writing, puzzles, music, math, reading, sound effects, cello, recorder, piano, voice, teaching, speed, strategy games, school, tricking, concentrating, P.E., cursive, gymnastics, coolness, staying on one topic, working, DS-ing, letter boxing, alliances, playing smart guy. My favorites are “coolness,” “staying on one topic,” and “playing smart guy.”

Hunter has always been very confident. And it never ceases to amaze me how many people know Hunter and love him too. But I don’t think I ever realized just how very confident he is. Maybe he’s a little over confident, maybe not. But if I had to choose between too much confidence or not enough, I’d definitely go for the over confidence. And plus, he didn’t even mention these talents: great babysitter, fabulous massage therapist, big-hearted, and just plain hilarious. We love you Hunter and we’re glad you’re ours.

We made homemade playdough yesterday, the twins, Caleb and I. I used to do all this fun stuff with the big boys when they were little. Then I guess, because I thought I was done having babies I forgot all about it. But recently it’s sort of DeJa Vu–only instead of Hunter, Noah and Denver begging to be entertained and dazzled, it’s Caleb, Jericho and Justus. So bit by bit it’s coming back to me, all the things I used to do to pass the days with the big boys when they were small and I’ve started doing them all over again with the next batch of babies. Anyway, they loved it. I think I got a whole whoppin’ three hours out of that stuff. And that’s the great thing about homemade playdough–it’s soft and warm and easy to mash and smash and mold and mash and cut and shape and form into all sorts of fun things. I just gave them some kid scissors and butter knives and cups and bowls and cookie cutters and wa-lah, fun! When Denver saw what we’d been up to he wanted to make his own batch, so we did, cause you know. . . it’s so totally easy. And he played with it for quite some time too. Just in case you don’t already have the recipe here it is:

In a saucepan combine:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 TBSP cooking oil
2 TBSP cream of tartar
1 cup water
Stir over medium heat until it clumps together in one big gooey ball of dough. Then knead on the table until you have a nice, smooth ball of playdough. If you are cool like my mom was you can add food coloring and scented oil (like peppermint oil–not extract–you’d use in cooking). We made peppermint, spearmint and orange scented playdough yesterday. Of course when you make it smell good, the kids just want to eat it, so be careful.

Speaking of great ideas for entertaining your little kids, way back when we lived in Utah one of my best friends let her kid(s) paint in the bathtub. She’d hang paper around the entire tub, give them paint and brushes and let them have at it. It’s really just painting like you’d have them do at the kitchen table BUT, clean up is a snap. Just pull down the paper and hose down the walls and your kids. I know I’ve mentioned this idea before but I did have a new idea this last time we did it. It’s called “put some paint in a spray bottle, water it down and spray paint the walls and your baby brothers.” It was pretty sweet. And as soon as we have some snow on the ground, we’ll be doing the same thing outside. Can hardly wait. Did I mention we had snow flurries here this morning?

Tonight we had French Toast for dinner. Nothing special. But Sunday we had Cheesy Ravioli Bake, a new recipe I discovered at our local grocery store. Anyway, it was pretty fabulous and I highly recommend it for any of you that are looking for something new to cook for dinner. And yes, even the kids ate it and yes, it even had veggies in it.

Baked Ravioli

3 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp coarsley chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup heavy cream
salt
2 (8-ounce) packages fresh or frozen cheese ravioli
1 (6-ounce) bag baby spinach
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Bring 4 quarts water to boil in a large pot. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Grease shallow 2-quart baking dish with 1 Tbsp butter.

Melt remaining 2 Tbsp butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant but not brown, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, increase heat to high, and cook until thickened and almost dry, about 10 minutes. Stir in basil and cream and simmer until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Season with salt.

Add 1 Tbsp salt and ravioli to boiling water and cook until al dente. Add spinach to pot with pasta and stir until wilted, about 30 seconds. Drain past and spinach, return to pot, and stir in tomato sauce. Transfer mixture to baking dish, sprinkle with cheese, and bake until top is golden, about 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

And speaking of food, today we had a tea party/picnic lunch. It was way too cold to play outside with little people. Their fingers freeze a lot faster than regular people’s fingers. But tea parties are another great way to entertain the babies and get them to eat too. For some reason they’ll eat food when it’s tiny but not when it’s just regular size. Go figure. Anyway we had little sandwiches and little apples and little cups and little pitchers of chocolate milk and little bowls of raisins and we sat in front of the TV and watched Caillou. All three of them loved to practice filling their own cups and by the end the twins had learned that you stop pouring when the cup is full, NOT when the pitcher is empty. When we’d finished the healthy food I brought in dessert, some fudge I made last night when I had a hankering for chocolate. I cut them into tiny pieces and placed them on a tiny plate and presented them to the kids. Jericho picked one up and said, “Poop?” Will they ever learn–I just sneak veggies into food, not poop! And plus, “poop” is not a polite word to use at Tea Parties.

And speaking of homemade fudge, it’s that time of year again for cooking and baking and sharing all sorts of yummy goodies and treats. So here is the recipe for this year’s first treat of Christmas 2008 from the Henrichsen household to yours. You’re gonna love how easy it is to make. But be careful–once you start eating this fudge you won’t be able to stop. Melanie was down today and between her kids and mine, we ate the entire pan of fudge in less than an hour. Guess I’ll have to make it again, only next time I’ll double it.

The World’s Easiest Fudge
Melt one bag of Milk Chocolate Ghiradelli chocolate chips in a heavy saucepan with one can of sweetened condensed milk. Add 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla and chopped nuts (optional) and pour into a greased 8-inch square pan. Refrigerate for 2 hours, cut and serve.

So, there you have it. Some of my easiest, best ideas for entertaining small children when you can’t go outside and play. But alas, tomorrow we have to go grocery shopping and I have yet to find a way to make that fun and dazzling, especially with three toddlers in tow. Any suggestions are of course, always welcome.

Saturday morning, when I ran upstairs to grab something from the bathroom I discovered a clogged toilet. But even worse, the floor was covered in water. But even worse was when we discovered it was the twins that were playing with the toilet but only after the toilet had been clogged. Ugh! Who wants to start their Saturday morning mopping up poopie water off the floor and realize that the baby you’d just been snuggling and even worse, kissing, had been playing in that poopie water. And I really don’t think they washed their hands when they were done. Barf-o-rama!

Saturday it was also rainy. . . the whole. . . entire. . . day. It was rainy last Saturday too. And it will probably be rainy next Saturday too. Because it was rainy Friday night we took the kids to see Madagascar 2. We took all six kids. I figured it was cheaper to do it that way because Jericho and Justus are free until they turn three and hiring a babysitter isn’t. Next time we’ll get a babysitter. What a nightmare. The show, at least what I saw of it, was cute. And I think the big boys enjoyed it. But Mark and I and the three babies–yeah ummmmm. . . no! Never again. Saturday I was really hoping to wake up and see some sunshine so we could go to the park or go on a bike ride or do something outside of our little box we call Home. No such luck. But after a particularly huge downpour, Denver was begging to go jump in the puddles and the kids were climbing all over me so they donned their swimsuits and raincoats and we went puddle-jumping. Lucky for us it was practically seventy degrees outside so it wasn’t completely miserable. It was actually kind of fun. See here and here.

We did some painting too. Caleb decided to paint his fingernails instead. Black. He looked like a little Goth boy. Caleb also entertained us with an episode of “Cooking with Caleb”. He didn’t eat his dinner. He played with it. That’s what he does most of the time. I wonder how any of them get enough food in them to actually grow. But they must be getting enough cause they sure do grow big and fast too. I took Denver to Blockbuster to rent some movies. We rented Eloise at Christmastime and Unaccompanied Minors. Eloise was super cute. I’m thinking we might have to buy and add it to our holiday collection. We didn’t get around to watching the other movie. But the way the weather has been lately, I’m sure we’ll watch it in the next day or so.

Today the boys were playing Jenga before church. They were really proud of themselves for getting their tower as high as they did. Noah was his usual silly self and I couldn’t help but videotape the last few minutes of their game. It’s pretty funny. And besides going to church and a load or two of laundry and dishes, I think that pretty much sums up our weekend.