Month: December 2009

Happy New Year’s Eve!

I’d like to share some comprehensive reflections on 2009, but that would take brain power, and I don’t feel like it.  I’m on vacation after all!  I feel slothful.  Just like my friend sloth from the Dallas Aquarium.

So instead of looking back at 2009, let’s just look back at some pictures from earlier this week, shall we.  And since I’m feeling slothful, let’s start with my friend the sloth.

I loved this sloth.  He/she/it looked into my eyes, and I think it did a brain scan on me.

Oh, my was it an amazing creature.  It wasn’t in a cage…just in a tree that you could walk around and under.  The only thing that kept you from touching the sloth was your good manners.  What an experience!

I loved this three-toed sloth, and I’d like to have more sloths like it in my life.  What do you think about trying to position my photography business to give me a regular sloth-fix.  I could bill myself as, “Althea Dotzour Photography – natural light lifestyle portraits – babies, children, families, sloths.”

The aquarium was chocker-block full of stunning birds.  Made me feel like pulling out my binos and doing some bird watching again this spring!

Below, you’ll find a lizard.  He’s in sharp focus because he sat veerrry still.  Thank you for posing, Mr. Lizard.

I’d never seen a manatee before.  It made my breath catch in my throat.  All those years when I was a kid and wanting to “save the manatees!”, and here we’re standing right in front of them.

This aquarium had it all!  There was also a huge shark tank complete with underwater tunnel (not shown).

These anemones now make me think of the movie Avatar.  Wow.  Was that a beautiful movie.This orange fishy was sitting on the floor of his tank, making it easy to photograph him.  Thanks, bud!  These sea horses blew my mind.

Next, please enjoys some assorted fishies.

And finally, a farewell with a flock of flamingos.

Happy end-of-2009 to you!  I hope your 2010 is a joyful one!

Bryan and I are back in College Station tonight after spending a few days up in Dallas without our kiddos.  On Monday, Bryan and I drove up to Dallas (it’s about 3 hours) so we could beat the snow/ice/muck that was predicted for Tuesday.  We spent the afternoon wandering around the Galleria…a fancy schmancy super-mall with an ice skating rink in the middle.

Then Monday evening, we headed over to my uncle Kirk and aunt Sue’s house.  Kirk is my mom’s little brother, and I had’t been to his home prior to this trip.  We had a great evening together:)  We started out with dinner at a restaurant that serves a sushi buffet (Osaka Sushi), and then we headed back to his place where the boys played the Wii and the girls looked at clothes.  Overall, it was a fun and happy opportunity to see some lovely people, and I think back on it with a smile.  Kirk and Sue, thanks for hosting us on short notice and for giving us such a nice time!

On Tuesday morning, Bryan and I took the train from Plano to downtown Dallas and spent several hours walking around the amazing Dallas Aquarium.  I was sooo impressed at the layout and the exhibits and the beautiful birds and fishies they had on display.  My favorite critter was the three-toed sloth.  It pulled back from its branch and peered right into my eyes/camera lens for several long moments.  I feel like I was inspected by an alien!  My photos of manatees, toucans, and sea anemones can be found in this photo album.

We met up with Melanie on Tuesday afternoon just before snow started falling with big, thick, fluffy flakes.  Stores closed almost immediately.  They aren’t accustomed to wintery weather here in Texas:)  We ate a late lunch at an amazingly good restaurant called Gorden Biersch. So many key words in their menu…and the Doppelbock beer that Bryan ordered was delish.  I say that as someone who doesn’t like beer-but I kept snitching sips because it was so good!

Since the weather outside was frightful, we spent some happy hours playing cards and watching the Wisconsin Badgers bowl game in the warmth of Mel’s apartment.  Then we headed out for a yummy supper at Melanie’s favorite restaurant, La Hacienda Ranch.  Two margaritas makes me feel quite happy.  That and two days spent without the responsibilities of parent-hood, and Bryan and I were feeling foot loose and fancy free.

We celebrated our lack of responsibilities by going to the 10:45pm showing of the movie Avatar.  And what a movie it was!  We saw it in IMAX 3D, and I can easily state that I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life.  It was visually stunning.  Magical.  Spectacular. I got lucky and dreamed I was one of the People all night.

We all slept until almost 10, which seemed the perfect way to celebrate not having Andrew and Sylvia around.  After poking around town a bit and enjoying a good lunch, Bryan and I said goodbye, hopped back in the car, and headed back down to College.

It was so nice to see our kids!  There’s nothing in the world like being apart from them for a while to make me delight in their little selves all the more.

Tonight, Bryan and his dad are playing chess, LuAnn is reading a new book on Norman Rockwell, and I’m sharing stories with anyone who is interested in listening.  Melanie drives back down tomorrow, and we’ll all get to celebrate new year’s eve and day together before we fly back home on Saturday.

Hope your week has been a relaxing one!

Bryan and I had a few gifts we were planning on giving the kids before we left.  But we kept forgetting to set it up.  Finally on December 21, we decided to have a little Christmas in Madison.  Granny and Grandad had sent Sylvia a beautiful high chair and some great wooden blocks for Andrew.  We got them a few books.

Here’s some pictures from our Monday morning Christmas (see more in the gallery here)…

Christmas with kiddos is so much fun!

On Christmas Eve, Bryan’s parents (or some mysterious gift giver) give everyone Christmas pjs.  It’s such fun to anticipate what they’ll be!  More pics are available in the photo gallery.

Here’s Sylvia opening up her box of pjs.

Andrew looks at some photos that Granny was taking of him in his new jams.

The kids posing from some Christmas eve jammie photos.

Andrew hugs Sylvia.  She indicates that she feels like she is being strangled.

Here are Granny and Grandad with their little grandkids.

Here’s me and Bryan with our wacky kids…  One of my favorite pictures of the year.

Andrew has his cookies ready for Santa.

Sylvia dances around in her new pjs.  She was sooo excited!

Delivering the cookies to the fire place.

Leaving the cookies at the fireplace.  Moments later, Sylvia completely broke down because she thought they were going to eat the cookies, and when Andrew told her “no,” it broke her heart a little.

The native Dotzours in their Christmas jams.

Here’s our candy cane and flannel-clad crew:)

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!