The Holiday Season Has Begun

Thanksgiving morning started off with Bobby's first gift of the holiday season.  As soon as he saw a wrapped present, he did what any kid his age would do.....he immediately tore the wrapping paper off to see what was inside.  A far cry from the days that his Santa presents would remain under the Christmas tree wrapped for days following Christmas until I finally unwrapped them and placed them back under the tree until he became used to their presence in our home.  Every holiday you can just see how much Bobby has matured and how much progress that he has made, progress that we absolutely feared would never come.

 A new outdoor Christmas decoration.  As soon as I put up our outdoor decorations, Elmo will find his new home on our back porch so that Bobby can see him all of the time.

Now, time to get the dinner ready.  I found Bobby many time throughout the morning hanging out in the dining room checking out the table.

I think that he enjoyed the symmetry of the place settings.  Grandma Carolyn kept taking pictures of me throughout the cooking process and I, quite frankly, was too busy to put a stop to her madness!!

I was 100% burning up by this point.  Turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes and rolls had just come out of the oven.  The mashed potatoes and green just finished on the stove top.  The glass or two of wine didn't help the matter either, but I was HOT.  I repeat...HOT!!  I had to go outside for a couple of minutes to cool off and my mom felt that it was necessary to follow me and get a picture.  This should help people to understand my problem with taking too many pictures!

Bobby had left my gloves out on the front porch, so I picked them up to bring inside, easier to just wear them so that I wouldn't forget.

Dinner was great, especially because we had a full table.  Grandma, Aunt Mimi and Aunt Dianna....Bobby's favorite trio of women.  Uncle Tom and Kaitlin rounded out the Smith family dinner table.  If you are wondering if Bobby actually eats anything from the Thanksgiving table......the answer is no/yes.  No he doesn't eat the typical fare, but yes because I add a dish to the table that is Bobby acceptable, homemade fresh cut french fries.

After dinner was over and the kitchen cleaned, Grandma wanted a picture with her grandchildren that were present....which lead to a lot of craziness!!!!

Elmo's trying to muscle his way into the family picture!!

Trying to keep Bobby sitting nicely for a picture is just such a complicated task.

Bobby jumped out of the picture, Uncle Tom jumped in....

And then the giggles started....

Wait a second, Bobby's back, but where did the rest of the crew go??!!!

"Bobby, give Grandma a kiss!!"

Yes, it's one of our favorite pictures ever!!

My beautiful niece, Kaitlin, was laying on the floor when Grandma wanted to get a picture of Bobby, with his Mommy and Daddy.  Then this happened......

Daddy is the leader of the laughs!!  His great sense of humor got us all in stitches.

Trying to get Bobby in on the craziness!!  He wasn't feeling it, so we let him go....

I just want to take a second here to talk about Bobby's dad, my husband, Bob.  He makes me laugh. He is a great dad.  He loves Bobby and is involved in every aspect of his life.  He is there when things are bad, when it's not fun.  He didn't get up and run when the going got tough.  He is there to enjoy the good times and make them even better.  Did I mention that he makes me laugh!!  He works hard so that we have everything that we need.  Girls, when you are picking a life partner, make sure that they have a great sense of humor.  Keep laughing!!

Jazz Hands!!

Uh oh Bobby, Kaitlin is wrapping you up!!

Bobby's turn to decorate Kait.  Yeah, she did it herself, Bobby wasn't too much help....

Zoi loves Kaitlin too!!

While we were cooking and eating our Thanksgiving dinner we started talking about our most memorable Thanksgivings in our lives.  What's funny is that mine really aren't that memorable from one to another.  They were all good.  My childhood holidays were filled with a lot of family, great home cooked food, no tension or fighting among anyone.  So this Thanksgiving, this is what I am most thankful for....I grew up in a happy, loving family surrounded by good people making good memories. This is the tradition that I want to pass on to Bobby.....holidays surrounded by love and happiness. What more could you ask for??!!!!   

Why Is My Christmas Tree Up Before Thanksgiving???

Why is my Christmas tree up and decorated before Thanksgiving day???  Simple.....Bobby LOVES the Christmas tree.  He is off of school all week, so I let him have it an extra week to enjoy the lights.  I used to put up the tree while Bobby was in school because it WAS SO MUCH EASIER to do while he was not home!!!!  But, a couple of years ago we were bored and it was yucky outside I decided to get it out and start to put it up.  What did Bobby do??  He grabbed a branch and took it over to the pole and tried to put it together himself.  I laughed and watched him work. He then grabbed a string of lights, plugged them in (WHO KNEW THAT HE COULD PLUG SOMETHING IN....not me at the time!!), and threw them onto the branch and sat back to stare at his own handiwork.  That is the moment that I decided that he would "help" me put up the tree from then on.

Saturday, on his first full day of Thanksgiving break, it was 20 degrees outside.  Too cold to do anything outdoors, so it was the chosen day to put up the Christmas tree.  Bobby did not disappoint, he immediately began to help Mommy with the job.

I helped Bobby out and got the bottom row of branches all in place.  Bobby then got some lights and carefully arranged them on the branches.  Oh heck,  I can't lie, he threw them on in a big clump.

Since the lights are perfectly in place, it's time to start the next row of branches.

Bobby's attention span with putting up the tree got sidetracked....

While he was busy with the new task of "planking," I got some more of the tree finished.  Bobby came over to inspect my work and make sure that it was up to his standards....

 To get the full visual stimulation from the lights, you have to either squint as demonstrated above or totally relax your eyes with a blank stare as demonstrated below!!!

Whew, I think that I passed Bobby's inspection!!  I'm so glad that Daddy was home so that he could run to the store and get us some more lights.  How, oh how, do Christmas tree lights break while they are safely in storage???  Because Bobby's favorite part of the tree is the lights, I put on way too many! After all of the tree is complete, Bobby has to give it his final inspection before I can move on to the putting on the ornament portion of the tree.  Just in case you didn't know.....the only way to truly inspect the lights is to look from the bottom up!!!

I passed inspection and can now finish decorating the tree!!  Whoo hoo!!  I was getting a little worried that my tree lighting wasn't up to standards!!

A couple of years ago I got some Bobby-proof decorations for our tree, if you are at all interested you can read about the new tree decor here....http://cherismith.blogspot.com/2011/11/o-christmas-tree.html

Bobby is so funny when the tree is up.  He wants to keep the curtains closed so that it is as dark as he can make it so that the lights shine as brightly as possible.  So you can imagine how much he loves looking at the tree when it is finally dark outside.

Over the next month Bobby will spend a great deal of time loving this Christmas tree....from ALL angles!

Zoi approves of the tree too...

What happened to Bobby's small tree?  Well thank you for asking!  It made it upstairs to the bedroom.

He had to move the pillows to the middle of the bed for a better look at the lights as he drifts off to sleep.

Hopefully it warms up a little over the weekend or next week so that I can get our outdoor lights and decorations up for Bobby's viewing pleasure.

Happy Thanksgiving from Bobby's World!!!!

Chocolate Caramel Apple Gifts

I had lunch today with a couple of my autism mom friends.  We started talking about Christmas gifts. When you have a child with special needs, your Christmas gift list grows by leaps and bounds with the number of truly wonderful, awesome people that work with your child on a daily basis. Special Ed teachers, regular ed teachers, autism aids, speech therapists, behavioral therapists, occupational therapists, adaptive PE coaches......it truly takes a village!!!  

I make these almost every year and one year I did indeed give these apples as gifts.  I took pictures along the way as I was making them a couple of years ago to blog the process, but for some reason, the blog posting never came to fruition.  So, today, after describing the chocolate apple making process to my friends, I thought that I would dig the pictures out of my file drawer and share the secret of just how easy these super cute apples are to make.

I love this large Ghiradelli chocolate bar for all of my holiday dipping.  I get a few of them every holiday season at Sam's Club.  I haven't look yet this year, but they have been there every holiday for the past few years.  You can also use the melting chocolate disks, like the white ones in this picture, or almond bark.  However, just plain old chocolate chips are not going to set up like specific dipping chocolate.

Rule #1 of this process:  MAKE SURE THAT YOUR APPLES ARE ROOM TEMPERATURE!!!  If your apples are cold when you dip them them in the chocolate, the chocolate will crack as the apples warm. Don't ask me how I know this.....it wasn't a happy day for me!!

Take a caramel disk and stretch it out with your hands.  You can also melt the caramel squares and dip the apples, but that is just too much work for me!!

Poke a hole in the middle of the caramel and stretch the sheet around the apple.  No need to melt them in the oven, they will be fine, I promise.

Make sure to line you sheet pan with parchment paper or wax paper so that the apples don't stick.

Chop up some chocolate and put it into a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave the chocolate according to package directions.  Go slow with this process so that the chocolate is nice and smooth.  I typically put it in the microwave for about 45 seconds, take it out and stir, put it back for 45 seconds, take it out and stir and so on and so on until the mixture is pure chocolaty liquid perfection.

The bowl does no need to be filled to the top with chocolate to totally immerse the apple.  Use your spoon to pour chocolate from the top and let it fall down the sides of the apple.  After the apple is completely covered shake it a couple of times to let the excess chocolate fall off.

Then put your chocolate caramel apple on the sheet pan.

Now add your decorations....candies, sprinkles, toffee chips, mini chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, whatever you little heart desires.  Just make sure to let the chocolate set up for a minute or two so that the treats don't just fall down over the side of the apple.

I like to do a few at a time.  If you cover all of the apples and then go back to the first ones to add your treats, they will be too dry for the candy to stick.

My favorite are the toffee chips!!

I like to add a white chocolate drizzle when I am done to give them that extra special wow look.  The easiest way that I have found to do this is melt the chocolate in a ziplock bag.

When the chocolate is melted inside the bag, cut off a small corner and drizzle the chocolate all over the apples.  Gives them a professional look.

Ta Da!!  They are as yummy as they are beautiful.

To present the apple as a gift, put each on into a clear cello bag.

Add a big, festive bow and voila...a Christmasy Chocolate Caramel Apple ready to present as a gift.

Let the holiday season begin!!