Christmas at the Grandma's and Grandpas’ Home

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Mom and Don’s. Sean, Janet, Lil Don & Megan arrived on Friday night and we showed up around noon on Christmas Eve.  Don had made brisket and I had made candy and cookies so there was lots to eat.  We opened our presents Christmas Eve after dinner.  There were 6 adults, 2 kids and 6 dogs for Christmas Eve.  Shea and I dropped our (now spoilt) pups off at home before we went to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass.  I was sooo tired but luckily there was lots of singing and I joined in (poor other parishners)…

Its so good to see family.  Had a good time!

Christmas Day at home with Bailey and Prince

Mom found another present

Ya those raindeer antlers stayed on super long lol

Can you say MADDD

Christmas 2011 - The Clan

Everyone except the fish

 

For Christmas, we opened our presents from Pennsylvania and Ohio (thank you!) and the puppies opened their stockings.  We also went to Mom and Don’s at lunch time and had ham and all the fixins.  For dessert, we had leftover cookies and candy and I also made Krunsekake and 2 pecan pies (I doubled the bourbon and both Don and Shea said it was the best I’d ever made.)  Uncle Kenneth and Aunt Tammy came over with Cortney and Josh and their lil one.  It was a very enjoyable day.  Oh and I put bailey’s in my coffee and drank adult egg nog…yum!

Part 1 - http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EbMXDdu1bNpq

Part 2 - http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EbMXDdu1bNqE

More favorite pics:

Christmas Day - Grandparents, Janet and the kiddos

Shea on Christmas Eve

Lil Don is such a ham!

Megan with her new pony

Wow you gave me hankies, really, thats like getting socks

We actually sat 10 adults and 3 kids at mom's table

Megan really likes cookies

Shea gave me the rest of my china bowls.  Isn't he AWESOME!

OK, my neice is just a DOLL! She is soo cute!

Other December Days

In December, we finally saw fall colors.  It was quite pretty.  We've also continued to work with Bailey (I've been taking her to training classes) so far we've learned sit, down, leave it, drop it and we've almost got "come." 

She's a good pup but we're still potty training and she's hard on her toys...Prince of course is like any other big brother...he throws her under the bus so he can't be taken down with her lol.  They seem to like each other and the kitties seem to get on with them as well with a well meaning paw given to the pups a time or two to keep them in line.  As for the cow and me...I was in line at one of my fav restaurants and Santa Cow just walked right past me.  I turned off the car (since the line wasn't moooo ving any way and asked for a picture.  December really was a fun month!

Cookie Baking Weekend (Dec 16-18) - Christmas Party

Ok, I admit it, I took on too much.  I was exhausted but I did have a fun weekend.  I took a half day on Friday and started getting the house ready and the baking racks set up for two full days of baking.  Shea cleaned (and cleaned) the house and cleaned up the outside.  He even made pork ribs and beyond delish...pork shoulder but... Mom and Don and Rose all came over on Saturday and helped bake.  Suzy, Kendyl, Ethan, Jeff, Janine and their kiddos came over and all helped decorate cookies on Sunday afternoon.  I baked from 5a to 11p on Saturday.  Sunday, I baked from 5a to 5p and then the oven got shut down and there was a mad dash to HIDE cookie baking evidence for the party that started at 6.  Thank you to all that helped!  It wouldn't have been done without you. 

Sadly, there are no other cookie pictures as we didn't think to take a picture...Ooops.  And there were some incredibly pretty decorated ones from the kiddos.  Anyway, it was our first combined party since our wedding and it was a great turnout.  We ate Shea's pork with all the fixins, of course there was cookies everywhere and the white elephant was hillarious.  Here's a couple of the pics!

Suzy's Birthday December 12th - Transyberian Orchestra

For Suzy's birthday, Suz, Rose, me and Shea all went to Transyberian Orchestra.  It was awesome.  So weird that I've watched this show for more than 15 years... I must be getting old lol.  The show included fireworks, flamethrowers, people walking over our heads and two separate concerts a Christmas story and a rock concert...oh did I forget to mention the snow too.  Anyway if you've never been...go, its so worth it!  Check out how close we were...Rose has an in...She's a member of the club...now I am too!

Anyway after the show Shea and I rushed home to feed the puppies and then headed over to my office party, John and Judy Rice are awesome hostesses and their white elephant was hillarious.  We took home Missletoe socks and a Merry Texasmas plackard, too funny.  Wine, delecious food and friends!  An enjoyable dinner even though Shea and I ended up at the "kids table" in the kitchen...so what we got to eat first lol.

Here's Judy's recipies:

Chicken ala King and Corn Bread with Broccoli

Ingredients:

Two 6 oz. cans sliced mushrooms – reserving ½ cup of the liquid

1 cup diced green pepper

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup flour

2 t salt

½ t pepper

2 cup half and half

2 ½ cup chicken broth

4 cups chopped chicken – boiled and deboned

2 jars (4 ozs.) chopped pimento

Cook mushrooms and green pepper in butter 5 minutes.  Stir in flour, salt and pepper and liquid into mushroom mixture.  Cook over low heat stirring mixture until it reaches a boil stage.  Continue stirring until thicken.  Add chopped chicken, pimento stirring slightly to mix.

Corn Bread

Ingredients:

1 box frozen chopped broccoli – thawed and drained

1 stick butter or margarine

1 t salt

6 oz cottage cheese

1 large onion – chopped fine

4 eggs beaten slightly

1 8 oz jiffy corn bread mix

Stir all above except muffin mix.  Add mixture.  Stir only until blended.  Bake 30 min in a 9 x 13 pan for 30 min at 400 degrees.  This is thick, if you prefer a thinner corn bread…use larger pan.

Parmesan Puffs

2 loves of white bread - cut with small biscuit cutter – no crusts

16 ounces cream cheese

2 T grated onion

1 cup mayonnaise

4 T chopped chives

½ t cayenne pepper

½ cup parmesan cheese

Spread mixture on top of round.  Freeze – bake frozen 400 for 8 minutes until bubbly and golden.  Serve immediately.

December 11th - Candy Day

Our Martha Steuart Candy Day

As always I imagine big and drag my friends into it.  After taking family pictures with Santa Clause, we hurried home so I could start the candy making process.  Before Rose, Lita and Lori arrived, I had made several barks and fudges.  Then we all made chocolate covered pretzels, hay stacks and the finale as it were…globs of red and clear sugar…I mean…candy canes…homemade candy canes.  My fingerprints grew back a couple of weeks later.

Here are some of the recipes:

Fudge

3 cups (18 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk

Dash salt

1/2 to 1 cups chopped nuts (optional)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

LINE 8- or 9-inch square pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan.

MELT chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt in heavy saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Spread evenly into prepared pan.

CHILL 2 hours or until firm. Remove from pan by lifting edges of foil. Cut into squares.

MICROWAVE METHOD

COMBINE chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt in 1-quart glass measure. Cook on HIGH (100% power) 3 minutes or until chips are melted, stirring after 1 1/2 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. Proceed as above.

VARIATIONS

CREAMY DARK CHOCOLATE FUDGE: MELT 2 cups miniature marshmallows with chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk. Proceed as above.

MILK CHOCOLATE FUDGE: OMIT 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. Add 1 cup milk chocolate chips. Proceed as above.

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CHIP GLAZED FUDGE: FOLLOW above recipe using 3/4 cup peanut butter chips instead of nuts. For glaze, melt 1/2 cup peanut butter chips with 1/2 cup heavy cream. Stir until thick and smooth. Spread over chilled fudge

I made milk chocolate, dark chocolate walnut and peanut/candy corn (which was my fav)

Almond Bark Pretzels

1 pkg almond bark (flavor of choice)

1 bag pretzels (stick or twists)

In microwave or pan on stove, melt the almond bark (3 min), slowly, do no scorch or burn.  

With chopstick or fork, drop the twisted pretzel (fork for sticks), into the melted almond bark. Turn until covered, lift out of bark and place on waxed paper lined cookie sheet, leaving space between each. Let cool, then put into plastic bags or decorative containers.  To make festive for holidays, add a few drops of related holiday food coloring, and flavoring extracts to white bark.  We made snowmen using the long sticks

HAYSTACK COOKIES

12 oz. Pkg. Butterscotch chips

12 oz. Jar peanut butter

9 oz. Can chow mein noodles

Melt chips in a saucepan, add peanut butter and remove from heat. Stir well. Add chow mein noodles. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Allow to cool thoroughly.

ALMOND BARK - PEPPERMINT CANDY

2 lbs. White almond bark

melted chocolate chips as a sedond layer (optional)

1 1/2 c. Crushed peppermint candy

Melt white almond bark on top of double boiler (never add water as it curdles the white almond bark). It takes about 10 minutes to melt thoroughly and will be very thick. Crush either peppermint candy canes or peppermint hard candy in blender until it is powder. Meanwhile, line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Mix hard crushed candy with melted white almond bark. Spread on lined cookie sheet. Let it dry and chop into pieces.

ALMOND BARK CLUSTERS

2 lb. Almond bark

2 c. Cap'n Crunch peanut butter cereal

2 c. Rice Krispies

2 c. Miniature marshmallows

2 c. Dry roasted peanuts

Soften almond bark in 200 degree oven (or nuk for 3 min). Stir together. Add cereal, marshmallows and peanuts. Mix well. Drop by teaspoon on waxed paper will harden as they cool. If mixture starts to harden, soften a few minutes in oven.

ALMOND BARK KRISPIE TREATS

1 (12 oz.) almond bark

1/3 c. Peanut butter

2 c. Miniature marshmallows

3 c. Rice Krispies

1/2 can peanuts, dry roasted or Spanish

Melt bark in microwave in a glass container 5 minutes at medium power. Add peanut butter; cook 1 minute more. Mix up good. Mix in large bowl marshmallows, Krispies, and peanuts.

Pour almond bark over dry ingredients and stir. Pour in greased 13 x 9 pan (can add Fruit Loops along with Krispies).

ALMOND BARK CRACKER COOKIES

1 box Ritz crackers

Peanut butter

Almond bark candy (white chocolate)

Melt bark in double boiler. Spread peanut butter between crackers (like sandwich). Dip in melted bark. Set on wax paper to cool and dry. Easiest to just use fingers to dip.)

WHITE CHOCOLATE ALMOND BARK MIX

1 (12 oz.) pkg. white chocolate chips

1 tbsp. Crisco

or 1 bag white choc chips and 1 block white bark

1 bag Cranberry-Walnut mix (Cranberries, Raisins, Walnuts, Almonds, Pumpkin Seed) from https://store.vendingnut.com/

Combine chocolate chips and Crisco in double boiler. Heat until melted. Remove from heat and stir in mix. Spread in waxed paper lined 13 x 9 inch pan. Chill 45 minutes. Break in bite size pieces.

ALMOND BARK CANDY

1 lb. chocolate

1 bag choc chips

1/2 c. honey roasted peanuts

Melt chocolate until smooth. Add peanuts. Pour onto wax paper - this will be a thin candy. Let cool then break into pieces.

Anyway for a first time candy making day...it was a lot of fun...my poor kitchen did take a beating in the Month of December though!