Christmas Eve At April And Curtis' House

Mallory, Carter, Wesley

Wesley

Carter, Mallory, Linda, Keith, the back of April's head

Wesley, Mallory, Donna, Alyssa

Tina
Just getting back from dinner at April's house. Dinner was amazing! She had turkey with all the trimmings. :)

Treats For Santa!

I had a pretty busy day today. I had to grocery shop. *ugh* Tonight after dinner I got to work on the things I have to take to April's house Christmas Eve dinner. I made the "BIG" cookie and deviled eggs. I also dipped marshmallows in chocolate and rolled them in graham cracker crumbs. I also dipped a few potato chips in chocolate. The marshmallows and graham crackers are AMAZING! Pop one in the microwave for 3-5 seconds and you have yourself a little S'more! yum! :)

Chocolate covered marshmallows

rolled in crushed graham crackers:

A few marshmallows dipped in chocolate without graham crackers and a few potato chips dipped in chocolate:

Wordless Monday ;)

Carter

Oatmeal cookies:
Sweet Treats, the recipe:

http://marisrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/12/sweet-treats.html

Pictures And A Recipe

Linda putting up my tree:

Mallory today:

Red Velvet Cake

1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 oz. red food coloring (2 bottles)

1 teaspoons baking soda

1 tablespoon vinegar

Frosting/Icing Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1/3 cup flour dash of salt

1/2 cup Crisco 1 stick margarine 1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Grease two 9 inch round pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cream shortening and sugar WELL. Add eggs and beat well. Sift together 3 times flour, cocoa, and salt. Add these three ingredients and buttermilk to batter, beat well. Add vanilla and food coloring and beat in. Then in a small bowl add vinegar and soda, until soda is dissolved, FOLD INTO CAKE BATTER. DON'T BEAT OR STIR NOW. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool layers before icing.

Icing Directions:

To Make Icing: Cook 1 cup milk and flour in double boiler until the consistency of pudding, stirring constantly. Add dash of salt and set aside to cool. Cream 1/2 cup Crisco and 1 stick of margarine and 1 cup granulated sugar. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add to cooling pudding mixture and beat until creamy.

DON'T ICE CAKE TILL COOL because the icing will melt all over the cake.

Wednesday Update

I've been a bad blogger the last few days and haven't been posting. My granddaughter Mallory has been coming over every day so I've been spending time with her. Today Wesley is off of school so he's been here today too. Mallory spent the night here Monday night, its always a treat to have her here with us.

Monday nights dinner was kid friendly because Mallory was here, I made her favorite, fish sticks and for the life of me I cant remember what our side dish was and we had green beans. She LOVES green beans! Tuesday nights dinner was supposed to have been sticky chicken, but my chicken was still frozen solid (the chicken is in the fridge in the garage and it still isnt thawed, I was going to cook it today but had to change my plans) so I was going to make bacon and eggs. I had cooked my bacon in the oven and right about the time Keith came home it was done and I was about to make the scrambled eggs when he came in and he had stopped off at the grocery store for me to buy bread and he came home with some kind of soup. He ate the soup for dinner and I made myself a bacon sammie.

I need to blog about what happened to Keith Monday morning, but I don't have time to do it now so I'll do that in another post another day. Just let me say, coffee and glass is hard to clean up off the floor! *insert eye roll*

It's been raining here all week and today it has been drizzling all day, its dark and just plain yucky out! Dinner tonight will be roast that was cooked on top of the stove with potatoes in it. I'll make some gravy and serve peas with it and also make Bisquick drop biscuits.

Weekend Happenings

We finally put our Christmas tree up. It's not decorated yet. I hope to get that done this week.
I started Christmas shopping. I got a few things. I cant say what, but I can say I got April, Tina, Carter, Alyssa and Wesley's presents. I need to find a toy cash register for Alyssa, I still cant believe Walmart didn't have them.

Saturday I didn't go out of the house, I even stayed in my PJ's. I didn't do much of anything, just laid around and took cold meds. Today (Sunday) I did my grocery shopping. Dinner tonight was quick and easy, Sloppy Joe's and Tater Tots. After dinner we roasted marshmallows, then put the tree up. Matt and Eric started putting the lights on the outside of the house, but decided to wait until tomorrow evening to do it.

I took a few pics of Linda and Matt putting the tree up, but I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet. I'll post them as soon as I load them.

Friday

Here is a pic of my grandson Wesley on his first day of school Monday. He is doing great and loves going to school. Today he went on his first field trip. They went to the mall to see Santa. They also got to ride the Christmas train that is at the mall and they ate lunch at the Chick-fil-A there.

Update

I've got a horrible cold and haven't felt like posting. I'll be back posting soon as I feel better. Take care.

Gingerbread Men Recipe

I thought I would post the gingerbread men recipe that I use at Christmas time here since it is that time of year again. This recipe is really good. It got it from a friend of my sisters:

Gingerbread:

1 cup light molasses

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup shortening

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 cups flour

Bring molasses and sugar to boil and pour over shortening in large bowl. Stir until cool. Add eggs, mix dry ingredients. Chill dough overnight. Roll on lightly floured board to desired thickness. (I roll my dough kind of thick, we like soft gingerbread men) With cookie cutter, cut out cookies and place on lightly greased cookie sheet or stone. Use currents for eyes and buttons. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 mins. or until done, depending on the thickness of your cookie. Decorate with icing as desired. I have made these cookies as gingerbread men and as round cookies.

Recipe by: Carol, a friend of my sisters.

SNOW!

It is snowing at my house now!!!!!!! :) I am so excited! My grandson Carter and I were at the grocery store a little bit ago and a cashier came over the intercom and said that it was snowing like crazy on Interstate 95. When we finally got out of the store and into the car and on the road we could see the snow falling in front of the head lights. Right now it is snowing really hard. I wish it was day light so I could snap some pictures.

Congratulations VA Tech, ACC Champions!

Coach Frank Beamer and Victor "Macho" Harris

VA Tech won today! YAY! Virginia Tech become the first two-time winner of the ACC championship game with a 30-12 victory over No. 18 Boston College. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jnpWXlas7EUWiwGPKpwBAbQBJhzgD94TF7A00

Are You A Jackie Or A Marilyn?

This was on my friend erinandshawn blog:

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Doris!

You are a Doris -- "I must help others."

Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.
• * Share fun times with me.
• * Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.
• * Let me know that I am important and special to you.
• * Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships

• * Reassure me that I am interesting to you.
• * Reassure me often that you love me.
• * Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris

• * being able to relate easily to people and to make friends
• * knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better
• * being generous, caring, and warm
• * being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings
• * being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris

• * not being able to say no
• * having low self-esteem
• * feeling drained from overdoing for others
• * not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish
• * criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should
• * being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tume in to them
• * working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often

• * are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism
• * try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding
• * are outwardly compliant
• * are popular or try to be popular with other children
• * act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention
• * are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents

• * are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)
• * are often playful with their children
• * wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"
• * can become fiercely protective

Thursday

Dinner tonight was spaghetti and garlic bread. I made brownies for dessert. I didn't use a box mix, I dug out my old brownie recipe and made them from scratch. The were SO good! I'll try to post my recipe soon. I don't feel like typing it out tonight.

I didn't do much lot today. I did some laundry and dusted my bedroom furniture. I've been feeling out of sorts lately.

My daughter Tina had a meeting with Wesley's new teacher the other day and Wesley will be starting school this Monday! He is so excited. I know this will be great for him. Tina said he got to go to his class while she was meeting with this teacher and he had a great time. One of his teacher's name is Miss Emma. ;) He also made a friend, his name is Carter. ;) Tina said he will have three teachers and there are only 6 or 8 (I forget which) children in the class, so he will get a lot of one on one time with the teachers.

Through The Window

I found this today on a message board that I read:

Through The Window

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood.

The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her

neighbor hanging the wash outside.

"That laundry is not very clean", she said.

"She doesn't know how to wash correctly.

Perhaps she needs better laundry soap"

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry,

the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later,

the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:

"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.

I wonder who taught her this?"

The husband said,

"I got up this morning and cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life.

What we see when watching others,

depends on the purity of the window through which we look.