Merry Christmas to all

Maybelle had a great time Christmas eve, she snoozed under Pat's Christmas tree while we were all watching Miracle on 34th Street. I think the sparkly lights (and being so near the heater!) were exciting for her.

I don't have to work for the rest of the year! Yea!! I was able to leave work around 2:30 on Wesnesday. I came home and started dinner, we had porcupine meatballs in the crock pot. No- they're not really made of porcupine. Meatballs with rice in them... the rice cooks and sticks out so they look like a porcupine... sort of. Anyway, it was yummy. Chukani went to church with Pat for the Christmas eve service. Lots of carols to sing, and candlelight, it was really nice. We went to the later service this year, and it wasn't nearly as crowded as years past.

Christmas Eve was spent watching Christmas movies with Mom, then I prepped a breakfast strata before bed while Chuck played with Keena. We were all tucked in for our long winter's nap by midnight. No snow though... this was not going to be the year for a White Christmas in Denver. (Utah, I hear, was a different story!)

We didn't get to sleep in much on Christmas morning... miss Keena started howling for her walk before 7am. So, we took her for a walk around the park. Brr, it was so cold! (Ironically, it was mugh warmer in the afternoon- over 50 degrees and bright blue sky as we drove over to cousin Nancy's for the Thompson Family Christmas Brunch.) But no- at 7am it was COLD outside. Makes me wonder why we walk her so early in the morning!

Brunch was lots of fun. Great food as always, and really nice to see family. We all live somewhat close, but it seems we don't see each other very often. I enjoyed catching up with Aunt Mildred for a bit, she's an awesome lady. Nancy is such a great hostess... always there to fill up a coffee cup and make sure you've had at least one helping of dessert. It's just not Christmas if we don't go to brunch at her house!

Christmas evening Chukani watched Prince Caspian, and just sorta chilled out. Food coma?!

I did talk to my parents in CA for an hour or so- the big news is what my bro and sis-in-law got my Mom for Christmas... Tickets to see Neil Diamond New Year's Eve! 8th row center... she is SOOO excited! Neil baby is her fave...I guess she actually cried when she opened the gift. Wow Todd and Randi- you really came up with an awesome gift for her! I am impressed! Turns out my dad was in on it too, he's already got a hotel room booked for after the show (it's in Fresno, CA) so she's all set for a fabulous concert to ring in the new year with her favorite singer of all time. I told her to call me on her cellphone when he sings September Morn. After hearing his music my entire childhood (believe me when I tell you Neil Diamond is Mom's FAVORITE!!) I think so many of his songs bring back childhood memories of Todd and I with mom... and Neil on the stereo.

Today I am going to see my friend Jen, she moved to New Mexico earlier this fall, but is back in town for the holidays to be with her family. I think we're going to Chipotle for lunch... yum!

Then tonight, Chukani and Pat are packing and getting ready to head to the cabin. We're going up with the Robbins's (Bill & Di, Alice, Bill & Donna and baby David too!) for our traditional New Year's Rockin' Eve at the Cabin! We'll be snowmobiling, roasting marshmallows, and frolicking the eskimo way all week... good times ahead!

Chukani hope your Christmas was blessed with love and joy- and we wish you the Happiest of New Years for 2009!

Baking Day 2008

As you might guess from the previous post, I love baking holiday goodies around Christmastime. I love how the house smells, and I like to give away plates of the yummy cookies and candies I make.

This year the decorated sugar cookies went into the packages I mailed to my parents and my bro, so they were long gone after only a day. I didn't really have many baked goods around the house, and here it was, less than a week before the big day! Then, my co-worker Samantha mentioned she was gonna be baking nearly the whole afternoon on Sunday... so I offered to come keep her company. I thought I might make a batch of choc chip cookies or something, just to stay busy during our time in the kitchen.

Well, that offer morphed into me coming for the whole afternoon and she put me to WORK! It was a blast though, and I learned how to make peppermint bark (there's a pic of me showing it off!) and we also made several dozen chocolate pizelle cookies, which I'd never made before.

Here's a list of everything we did:
2 batches peppermint bark
2 batches fudge
6 or 7 dozen pizelles (depends on if you count the burnt ones!
2 batches chocolate chip cookie dough (to be baked later on)
2 batches jam thumbprint cookie dough (same)
1 pound chocolate covered pretzels
1 batch peanut butter chocolate bars
And a partridge in a pear tree!!! (phew!)

We went to the store and bought supplies first. I think we are singlehandedly keeping Nestle in the black this year! Yes, we actually used every single bag of chocolate. And an entire 5lb bag of both sugar and flour. And I stopped counting after 3 pounds of butter, eek.

Then it was time for the prep work. Here's Samantha trying to organize the ingredients for each item.

Samantha was hard at work on the pizelle maker. This quickly became my task so she could start the fudge, and after burning a few, (uh... maybe I should say SEVERAL cookies!) I caught on to the timing. It only takes about 40 seconds for the cookies to "bake". But since you're only making 2 at a time, it took a while to get to 6 or 7 dozen. I don't actually know how many we ended up with, I lost count! I will admit I was glad to be finished and move on to cookie dough making.

Samantha's daughter Lily woke up from her nap ready to sign up for Pizelle tasting duty. Isn't she a cutie?!

At fudge time, we enlisted help! Here's Hank stirring the pot 'o chocolate. We also put his muscles to work crushing the candy canes, and again called on him to help carry the trays of peppermint bark out to the fridge in the garage to cool. He was a trooper, and even bought us a pizza so we didn't starve in the kitchen full of chocolate. Yea- the peppermint bark is done! It turned out so delish. I'm gonna make it from now on, making it was easier than I thought, for sure. This was such a fun day. My feet hurt afterwards from standing on the hard floor with no shoes for so long, but I have only myself to blame for that choice! I am now totally set to give out lots of plates of treats to family and friends. The rest will come to the cabin over New Year's... I think it will get eaten pretty quickly up there.

Samantha and I both decided to make this an annual tradition, it was so much more enjoyable sharing the work between us. Next time maybe we'll schedule pedicures for the next day!

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas season, and indulging (a little at least) in some of the homemade baked goods around you. Merry Christmas!

Getting ready for Christmas

Howdy all...
Here's a gallery of what we've been up to lately!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Parties

Last night was our 3rd Annual Christmas Party!

Chukani and Pat welcomed our friends and family over to our house(s) for the evening. Lots of food and drinks, yummy desserts, and a fun Christmas Ornament Exchange for everyone. There were about a dozen kids, and they had a blast playing in the back yard with the puppy, and then headed to the front yard to play freeze-tag among all the christmas lights... once they finaly settled down, they decorated foam Christmas trees and watched The Grinch (old-school animated version) and Frosty the Snowman. The grown-ups had fun eating, drinking and generally being merry. (There were even a few grown ups participating in the freeze-tag too!)

I've realized over the last decade or so that I really love hostessing parties. All aspects- from the planning to facilitating the actual event. I enjoy the planning a lot- coming up with a menu, deciding on theme decorations, and making sure to have fun activities for kids and grown-ups alike. And once it's all planned, I like to cook, bake, decorate, create and make everything happen. Oh sure, there are always lots of changes and modifications to the vision along the way, but that's just part of the process I think.

Once the guests arrive, it's important to me that everyone feels welcome and taken care of, so I usually spend more time during the party making introductions and encouraging people to have something to eat/drink than I do actually sitting down and hanging out with everyone. At the party last night, it wasnt until the end of the evening that I realized I hadn't finished either of the two sodas I'd poured for myself, or even finished the plate of food I'd set down somewhere. But I was having so much fun making sure others were having fun, it didn't matter.

I know I'm a perfectionist in a lot of ways... (which is a struggle for me) and planning a party is fun for me because I get to control a lot of the variables. But parties can also be a challenging and growing experience for me- because sometimes I have to learn to just let go, and let things happen naturally during the party without forcing it. For example, I'd worked hard to plan out a christmas tree craft for the kids last night, because I knew there would be over a dozen kids of all ages and I wanted them to have a little structure to the evening (so they wouldnt tear the house apart!!) But the weather was mild, so they all wanted to play outside. And then they ate while watching Frosty. Then it was time for the ornament exchange, and I was thinking to myself... "well, maybe we'll just skip the craft, and save it for next year... no one seems interested."

I had to just go with the flow. Luckily once the kids gathered in the back room for another movie- I saw the opportunity and quickly gathered all the trees and stickers and glitter and glue and plopped it all down in the middle of the floor. My original (perfectionist!) vision had been to have a table set up for 4 kids at a time to make the craft, in an orderly, organized fasion. uh- yeah, not so much! My expectations were seriously not in touch with reality! But what ended up happening was so much more fun for the kids, and didn't cause a huge mess like I had thought it might (glitter vacuums up very nicely!) so I was very happy with how it all turned out, and I think the kids really enjoyed themselves.

I had also planned to sing some christmas carols with everyone, even going so far to spend time over the summer typing up a caroling packet with lyrics to every Christmas Carol I know- 11 pages worth! Yet again- I had to relax and go with the mood of the party... Last year we caroled and it was a really special time. (Althought I do have to mention the guys all headed over to the other side of the duplex!) But last night no one seemed interested, and that was just fine. I feel like having the party every year I am getting better at sensing what's needed to ensure everyone enjoys themselves. One of my dear friends Steph totally blessed me by cleaning up all the food leftovers and doing the dishes (even running my dishwasher!) at the end of the evening. I could hardly believe it, and can't thank her enough.

The best part of last night was getting to see everyone. Some of Chuck's family I haven't seen in nearly a year, I'm so glad they came over. And my new boss and co-workers came so I enjoyed introducing them to everyone. It's neat to see everyone and just enjoy good times together. It makes all the hard work getting the house ready worth it. Please don't think I did this on my own- far from it. Chuck and Pat put in long hours cleaning and setting up for sure! Pat and I had several planning sessions and shopping trips over the last several weeks. It's fun to share the experience with her. I surely appreciate the wisdom of experience she adds to the process. and a keen eye for a good bargain!

The only thing that would have made the night more special would have been if all our family and friends out-of-state had been able to join us. I'm hoping that next year Chuck and I can travel to see family over the holidays, I'm really missing my fam in CA this year, and I know we'd love to see his family in Utah too. Wherever you are- know you are loved!

I totally forgot to take any pictures during the party last night, but I just went and snapped a couple photos in my living room of our tree, and a couple wall-hangings my mom quilted for me 2 years ago.

Merry Christmas!!!