oh joy!

eureka! i've found it! the joy of my photography is back, ladies and gentleman. and it's all from this online class i'm taking. in a 6 minute video, i managed to relearn (or learn what i didn't in my actual 8 week sit-in-a-seat-and-listen-to-the-teacher-class) how to take better photos by paying attention to a little meter inside my lens. what have i been missing these last 8 months?! and the holiday season that so quickly came upon us? i'm super excited to capture all the little moments that make it so special, to see the wonder through my child's eyes and to be able to relive it all over again when it suddenly comes to an end. so, yes, already, even after only 4 days of class, i'm managed to find the holiday joy.

and here are some photos from this lingering illness (but trying to not let it ruin our christmas decorating extravaganza) weekend.

a fireside snooze at nana and papa's house while daddy was home getting some things done around the house. in their sleep, while i was capturing this moment, they managed to find each other's hands.

a walk and bike ride outside in the sunshine to banish some cabin fever.

stringing the lights.

decorating the window with our "sticky snowman."

the tree topper, and our little helper.

harper's first ornament.

helping mommy. yup, it's evening time and we managed to stay in our jammies all. day. long. love it.

the view from outside our front door.

my all-time favorite ornament. i bought this a few months before our wedding, and swore i was going to curse myself by having our wedding date hand painted on the back. so glad i was wrong.

a german tradition- after all the gifts are handed out and opened, the hunt begins. whoever finds the pickle hidden in the tree receives the last present of christmas.

a post-decoration dance. music provided by the ending credits from the polar express. have to have the christmas movies on during decorating, and polar express is slowly beating out national lampoon's christmas vacation.

we ended the evening, pre-bath and bed, with hot chocolate, complete with homemade marshmallows. yup, you heard right. i said homemade marshmallows. michael could tell i was giddy that they turned out. i love having loads of marshmallows in my hot chocolate, and it was made even better by these fluffy, vanilla flavored clouds of heaven. that i made. try them- recipe below.

this is where harper's been sleeping the last 4 nights. kicked michael out to the couch, and cozied up with mommy all sick and feverish. but, tonight, it was back to her own bed. but not before some book reading, prayers, songs and snuggles in our bed.

and a new favorite book of ours. we got to meet the author at our local borders, listen to a reading and get her autograph. being an author, she was quite impressed by harper's name, and quickly asked if she was named after the author of to kill a mockingbird. that she was. it made it all the more special. but seriously, this book rocks.

visions of sugarplums are dancing in my head and i can't wait to share more of our holiday moments.

~~~

homemade marshmallows, from the french laundry

3 envelopes of Knox gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for 10 minutes. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Pour boiling syrup into gelatin and mix at high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. Add vanilla and incorporate into mixture. Scrape into a 9 x 9-inch pan lined with oiled plastic wrap and spread evenly. (Note: Lightly oil hands and spatula or bowl scraper). After pouring marshmallow mixture into the pan, take another piece of plastic wrap and press mixture into the pan.

Let mixture sit for a few hours (about 2 or more). Remove from pan, dredge the marshmallow slab with confectioners' sugar and cut into 12-20 equal pieces with scissors (the best tool for the job) or a chef's knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in confectioners' sugar to avoid them sticking to each other. Keeps well for up to 3 weeks.

*emily's notes: i used coconut oil for the pan and my hands (and avoided the oiled plastic wrap). good for you, and adds just a tad of coconutty flavor to the marshmallow. yummy. i also used an oiled pizza wheel cutter to cut my marshmallows, and i ended up getting a whole bunch because i cut them up into smaller pieces. enjoy in hot chocolate, rice krispies treats, anything!

finding the holiday joy

right now, for the next 2 weeks, i am finding the holiday joy! willette photography is hosting an online photography class with ways to document the holidays, providing links to other wonderful photogs and tips on improving skills. i'm excited to be a part of this class.

this week has 7 lessons, one for each day, with one of them being "the tree." prefect timing for our annual christmas tree hunt. here are photos i've submitted to the forum.

thankful

despite the sleep deprivation and parental worry that's been enveloping our home since wednesday, i do have so much to be thankful for. and for this, i am counting my blessings, one by one.

i am thankful for my little harper bean. she woke in the early hours (like 3 am) wednesday morning with a low grade fever. we gave her some tylenol and hoped she would sleep it off. she's never truly been super ill for days at a time, and i guess for that, i can be thankful. but come 8 am, when she awoke crying and was burning up with a temp reaching to 102 degrees, i knew this wasn't going to be an easy day. her temp hit highs and lows while she lazed and slept on the couch all morning, and when it again peaked at 102 after giving another dose of tylenol, we knew it was time to call the doctor. they recommended heading to the er. so off we went, to receive a diagnosis of a throat infection. fevers ensued still through tonight, so we took her to the pediatrician this morning and found a full blown ear infection. we're still not even close to 100%. she has her low temp times, when she's happy and playing and eats a bit here and there, and then there are her high temp times, reaching up to 104. she's miserable. coughing, congested, watery eyes, burning fever. but she's such a trooper. and for her, i am oh so thankful.

(i would blame her fevers on her choice of clothing last weekend, when she wanted to go outside in 30 degree weather to help daddy with winter yard clean up, except that i did not let her out this way.)

i am thankful for the wonderful news we received wednesday morning. 8:10 am (right before harper woke up with a burning fever), my ob gyn called with news that she said she received at 1 am that morning while on call at the hospital and wanted to share before the holiday. my quad screen blood test came back negative, meaning my chances of having a child with the 3 items they check for- down syndrome, trisomy 18 and neural tube defects (i.e. spina bifida)- are super duper low. there's always a chance, because they didn't check the actual chromosomes, just my blood (which would have mingled with the baby's blood and shown some type of sign), but it eased our worries and has allowed us some peace. we're still going ahead with a follow-up ultrasound, just for more peace of mind. but, we definitely had a lot to be thankful for.

i am thankful for my dad, and the fact that God had a plan for him. he suffered a very serious heart attack 8 years ago on Wednesday, one that left him in a drug-induced coma through thanksgiving of that year, in the icu for 11 days and in the hospital for a total of 17. i remember my visits to the hospital each and every day. christmas music playing on the radio, my backpack filled with my graduate school assignments, entering the hospital lobby bright and early with the sunrises and listening to the beeps and whirs of the machines until way past sunsets each night. arriving with the morning shift change nurses and leaving with the night shift change ones. i couldn't leave his side. i couldn't bare to miss a possible something. and i'm so thankful that he's still making his mark.

i'm thankful for my family, and that we got to spend this thanksgiving together. it was a tough one, being the first without my uncle. but it was wonderful seeing how our family is growing and changing.

yup, a blurry picture. have to keep practicing to get more than one person in focus in a group shot.

i am thankful for holiday traditions, including our annual day-after-thanksgiving-christmas-tree-hunt. we bared the freezing cold and wind (and even dragged poor harper out for a little fresh air, miserable as she was, but wanting to go) to find the perfect tree for our family room. more pictures of a completed tree to come.

and finally, i am thankful for this guy.

as i was taking pictures of him carting our tree back to the barn, he did some posing for me. he keeps me sane. he keeps a smile on my face. he keeps me laughing. he reminds me of the things that are truly important and the gifts we have when we've been faced with another storm in our lives. i don't thank him nearly enough.

i counted a ton of blessings on thanksgiving day, despite the fact that michael and harper were home and only joined us for a little while after dinner. i love that this holiday reminds us each year of what we have in our lives, and starts us on the right path toward the true meaning of christmas.