Dotzour Family.com

Bright and warm Christmas wishes to all my friends and family near and far!  I’m attaching here the photos from my Christmas card and our 2009 Christmas letter.  I hope your holiday is safe and joyful and filled with the people you love.

December 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

It’s been a full year here in the Dotzour household!  The days and months fly by…though sometimes the minutes pass verrry slowly.

I was startled to realize that on January 1 this year, our little Sylvia was only 10 months old.  And now, here she is almost two.  Our crawling, squalling baby has turned into a running, climbing, speaking toddler before our eyes!  That girl!  She’s a delight and a handful and a dimpled firecracker.  She’s gregarious and charming and filled to the brim with passion.  These days, she and Andrew are playing together as good buddies, and their giggles (and occasional howls) echo through our home.

Andrew is four-and-a-half, and he’s sweet and goofy and earnest and loving.  Early this year, Andrew cultivated a fascination with writing letters and words, and over the course of the year, he’s become an avid reader.  What a world this opens for him!  My heart fills up when I watch him read books to Sylvia.  Such a sweet guy he is.  Andrew has been going to preschool three mornings a week at Monona Grove Nursery School.  I can’t believe that next fall he’ll be in kindergarten!

Bryan continues to enjoy his work developing software at OpGen.  They are inventing a process to make optical maps of bacterial DNA, which could in the future help doctors identify when patients have antibiotic-resistant infections.  Hopefully they’ll make some big strides in the upcoming year!  When he’s not working hard at OpGen, Bryan’s usually found playing with the kiddos or playing chess online or at tournaments.

Over the last several years, I have spent an inordinate amount of time working on photos and my website.  This summer, with a lot of support from Bryan, I launched a photography business so I could spend even more time working on photos and a business website!  Running my own business has been an amazing experience.  I specialize in lifestyle portraits of kids and families, and on weekend mornings, you’ll often find me running and crawling around with my camera after young ones.  My mom had a passion for natural light photography of children…she even had business cards made…so it feels good to be developing a profession that was dear to her.

2009 is making a postcard finish with the eighteen inch snowfall we got last week.  I hope your Christmas celebration is merry and bright and that you find peace and contentment in 2010.

With much love,

Althea, Bryan, Andrew, and Sylvia

To keep up-to-date with our daily joys and crazy moments, check out dotzourfamily.com.  I just wrote my 900^th post!

For more info on my new business, visit altheadotzourphotography.com

That’s right folks, this is my 901st blog post.  I’ve been at it since May ’05.  I post sometimes daily, sometimes weekly, sometimes hourly:)  Four-and-a-half years.  I should hit the big 1,000 sometime in 2010!

I wrote my first post on Friday, May 20, 2005.  One month before little Andrew was born.  A few days before my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  Wow.  As my website got up and rolling, it became a way to share news about our little Andrew as well as a really helpful tool for sharing info on Mom’s health with her many circles of concerned family and friends.

It’s interesting to scroll through the “monthly archives” to see my life’s headlines from the last 55 months.

Looking back/looking ahead.  I smile when I ponder what 2010 will bring!

This month has been sooooo filled.  I love to be busy.  I thrive on activity and to-do lists and deadlines and schedules.  But as of December 21, I’m feeling a little tired and over-clocked and ready for a break.  Good thing we have one coming up!

I’ve been preparing lots and lots of photo orders for clients this month, and with this in addition to my normal gift-making and Christmas card writing, I’ve been staying up until nearly 1am every night this month.  Somehow, I haven’t been tired, but I am starting to feel like there’s a bit of gauze separating me from the world.  A little fuzzy, you might say.  Oh, and where did I put my keys?

…

Meanwhile, Andrew and Sylvia are loving all the magic of the holidays.  Andrew is really enjoying the advent calendars and the crafts and the baking and the decorations.  And Sylvia is enjoying following along after Andrew and doing just exactly everything that he’s doing !  It’s easy to be in the holiday spirit when you’ve got little ones around!

We’re off to Texas soon.  Happy holidays!

Today was Andrew’s last day of preschool for the year.  It really snuck up on me!  In fact, as I was getting him ready to go this morning, I realized that we had no holiday gift for his teacher, and I had a moment of panic.  I envision myself as a mom who comes to the holiday party bearing some cute, homemade gift for the teachers.  Ideally wrapped up in some cute, thoughtful package.  Aaak!  Reality strikes!

But then I remembered that my sweet husband had made a batch of Linzer squares last night while I was on the computer a-workin’ on photos.  Linzer squares are one of his favorite holiday cookies, and they’ve always been a fixture in my understanding of what December is all about.

So quick as a flash, I put together a couple plates of Linzer squares and the peppermint fudge Andrew and Sylvia helped me make yesterday.  Voila.  I get to maintain the illusion that I have my act together:)  Thanks, hon!  Oh, and I’ve been, uhhh, nibbling on ones remaining in the pan.  I think there are a few left.  Come home soon, Bryan!

My mom gave these Linzer squares as gifts to our teachers every year.  Some of my teachers from Pumpkin Hollow may still remember them since they got them for so many years!  The dough is an almond-paste dough, and it’s so good I could just eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner.  Mind you, I would never actually do that.  It just sounds like a really good idea.  really goooood.

We also use this dough for making our sugar cookies.  One batch of the recipe makes enough dough for a tray of Linzer squares and enough frosted cookies to keep you busy for a while.  Andrew and I frosted our cookies last weekend.  He’s developed a very

nice frosting technique.

I could always tell which were his cookies because they were a little more creative with the sprinkles than mine.

Growing up, we often made Christmas cookies the week between Christmas and New Years.  My mom liked to spread out the holiday fun, and didn’t like trying to fit everything into the pre-Christmas craze.  So if you haven’t made your cookies yet, you could try the Mom Babler timing.

Straight from my mom’s kitchen (and the November 1980 edition of Family Circle), here’s the recipe for her Christmas cookie dough.

Basic Sugar Cookie Dough

1 lb butter, softened (4 sticks)

2 cups sugar

2 8oz. cans of almond paste

4 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

6 1/2 (ish) cups of flour (sifted)

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

Beat the butter and sugar.  Crumble in the almond paste.  Beat until very smooth.  Add the four eggs and the vanilla.  Mix in the flour and the salt.

Break into four balls, cover each in plastic wrap.

At this point, you can freeze the dough for quite some time.  I often make the dough a few weeks before baking the cookies.  If you do freeze it, let it thaw in the refrigerator before proceeding.

If you want to go straight in to baking, refrigerate the dough balls for one hour.

To make sugar cookies, roll out the dough and cut, chilling the dough intermittently if necessary.  Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375.  Mom noted that you should watch carefully for a bit of one of the cookies on the corner of the tray to turn golden and then take them out.  This year, I think mine were only in the oven for 8 or 9 minutes.  Cool.  Frost with a mixture of whipping cream and powdered sugar with a touch of vanilla and a sprinkle of salt.

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To make Linzer Squares, you need two of the chilled balls (half the recipe).

Grease a jelly roll pan.  Lay down waxed paper.  Grease the waxed paper.  Press one quarter of the dough recipe into the pan.  Spread a cup of raspberry jam (with seeds!) on the dough crust.

Roll out the second ball of dough, and with a pastry pinking sheers (mom had a rolling one, I have a flat one) cut strips.  Lay them out like a lattice on the top of the jelly (weaving not necessary).  Brush with beaten egg if you want (I don’t).  Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

I follow about sixty blogs.  That sounds like a lot!  Fortunately, only about 30 of those blogs update regularly.  The other 30 are like little happy cards in my mailbox when there’s a new post.  Twenty or more of the blogs are photography-related.  It’s wonderful to look at and read the inspiring work of others!

Sometimes I weed down my blog-roll by paying attention to which blogs I choose to read first.  The ones I consistently read last get nixed.  One of my favorite blogs…usually the first one I click on after opening Google Reader…is the NieNie Dialogues.  Stephanie Nielson lives in Salt Lake City.  A bit over a year ago, she was in a horrible plane crash.  She survived, but barely.  And she’s had a rough road healing (she was burned over 80% of her body).  She’s the mother of four children, and she has candidly shared the challenges of reconnecting with them and regaining her role of Mom.  Plus, she’s cute and funny and touching.  And her challenges make almost anything in my world look like a cake walk.

This morning I read the second of a two-part story written about her in the Arizona Republic.  Even having followed her situation for the last year, this article rocked my world.  It’s beautifully written.  And touching and inspiring.  I mean, if this woman can find the hope and strength and humor to travel the path she’s been on, I should really be able to look past even the crummiest of days to relish the ups and downs of my little world.

So if you have a moment (or several moments), take a look at this story.  After you’ve read that, you’ll probably want to keep track of Stephanie.  Her blog, the NieNie Dialogues is here.

Let me know what you think.  And also, let me know what your favorite blogs are?  Who do you read who is funny?  Or has good recipes?  Or fun craft ideas?  Or just puts a smile on your face?  I love to find new good reads!

Ooops!  I just discovered that I never actually posted this post.  It was meant to be posted on Dec. 13!

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Before our big snow fall…when we just had a little snow on the ground…the kids and I went over to Jessica, Eli, and Celia’s house for a little snow play.  Jessica and I shared the camera, and the we got a bunch of cute pictures of the kids before some of them melted down completely.

See Celia’s sweet tears?  So lovely on those cheeks.

Andrew and Sylvia.  I couldn’t get Sylvia to keep her mittens on.

Jessica got this great shot of Eli jumping.  What a picture!

Boy in flight.

Celia hams it up and shows off the fabulous hat that her mommy made for her.

Snow fight!

Boys throwing snow balls.

Cold girls.  Soon after this picture, I took Celia and Andrew inside, but Eli and Sylvia had fun playing with Jessica’s dog and running about in the snow for a while longer.  In this photo, Sylvia is now wearing my gloves, which were highly preferable to her own.

On Wednesday, Madison got an 18 inch snowfall.  Yowsers!  We got ourselves shoveled out (with the help of our neighbors who actually snow plowed our whole driveway for us!), and by about 10:30am, our electricity came back on.  The house never got below 55 degrees, and my hot-blooded kids weren’t the least bit phased.

A couple of our neighbors have fire places, and we had plans to spend time with them if the power wasn’t restored.  In fact, I was kind of looking forward to a slumber party with meals cooked on our (dug out) grills.  Nothing beats a warm home and a working stove!

Andrew and I did some cookie-baking on Wednesday afternoon.  I love celebrating the Christmas season with my kiddos!  I also love eating the almond paste  cookie dough that was my mommy’s recipe.

This is a new favorite picture of little Sylvie.

And a peek at our view out the window.

If you were here in Wisconsin, I hope your snow day was a lovely one.  If you were in a warmer place, enjoy the snowy pictures:)

We woke up to a chilly house. Actually, I woke up to woops and squeals and manic giggles from the kids who were about to be given their much-anticipated morning vitamins.

There is loads and loads of snow out our window. I’m guessing 15 inches.

And we’ve been without power since 3am. I think Bryan and I are going to take turns shoveling. Several neighbors have fire places, so we have places to go warm up if needed.

It’s a perfect day for hot coca!! Maybe I’ll pull out my camping stove:-)

This post is brought to you by the wonder of the iPhone.

I love desserts.  If you put butter and sugar and eggs and maybe some flour together, I’ll be happy.  I love baking and nibbling.  In fact, I’ve discovered (after careful research) that I like the batter or dough better than the cooked version of any baked good.  Bread, cookies, pancakes, muffins, cake.  I’m actually salivating thinking about it.

I’ve taken to putting some batter in a little bowl so I can eat it with a spoon while I bake.  Mmmm…waffle batter.

I admit that I’m a little off-normal.

Bryan sometimes worries that I’ll eat so much batter and there won’t be enough of the finished product.  And to my credit, I don’t think that’s ever been the case (partly because when I eat a couple pancakes worth of batter I’m not so hungry for the cooked kind!).

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I roasted tomatoes with garlic.  The intended use of these roasted tomatoes was a sauce for lasagna.  I had decided to roast some garlic cloves along with the tomatoes because roasted garlic is one of the best things in the world.

After roasting the tomatoes and garlic with olive oil, diced garlic, and oregano, I stood at the stove and used my teeth to squeeze the soft garlic cloves from their papery shell.  Heaven.  Then I plucked the tomatoes one by one from the roasting pan and ate them up.  Before I knew what happened, I’d eaten half the tray of tomatoes.  Then I ate another quarter.  It was lunch.  Oh, so good.

It might have been a little more civilized to have put the tomatoes on a plate and to have eaten them with bread or to have made some noodles and to have eaten them as a sauce over the noodles, but it was so nice to stand against the warm oven and pluck these little red beauties into my mouth.  One by one by one.

Our lasagna had to suffice with a can of crushed tomatoes as its sauce.

Now if you haven’t had roasted garlic, I need to help introduce it into your life.

Whenever you are cooking something in the oven, stick some oiled, unpeeled garlic cloves in there.  You can either serve them with the meal or use the cook’s prerogative to eat them all straight out of the oven.  You should probably share some with your spouse.  They’re too good to keep all to yourself:)

Here’s my recipe for roasted tomatoes and garlic:

Use whatever quantities you’d like – a couple bags of grape tomatoes and a head of garlic worked for me

• Halve grape or cherry tomatoes (so they are bite-sized)
• Dice four cloves of garlic
• Separate the rest of the head of garlic but don’t peel it
• On a rimed baking tray, toss the tomatoes with the diced garlic, a teaspoon of oregano, and a couple tablespoons of olive oil
• Use your oily hands to coat the unpeeled garlic cloves with oil and nestle the garlic in the middle of the tray
• Roast the tomatoes and garlic in the oven for 35 minutes at 400 degrees or a lower temp for longer
• When it has cooled, eat with your fingers while standing at the stove.  soooo decadent and good….

12-14-09 Update:  I made this recipe again with Roma tomatoes, and I wasn’t nearly as impressed. I ended up blending up the roasted tomatoes to make a yummy spaghetti sauce.  I think the sweetness of the grape tomatoes was a critical component for me!