Celebrating Christmas

We spent a wonderful two weeks in Colorado celebrating Christmas. Our families live very near each other which means we never have to choose between them and once one set of grandparents is worn out we can move onto the next set! I love that our families are also friends and so we can often combine activities and enjoy everyone's company at once. I know, we are spoiled. 

Annabelle really gets along well with her grandparents and has special activities that she enjoys with each one of them. With Grandma Shauna Annabelle could read from dawn until dusk. The favorite book this trip was 'Oh Ducky! A Chocolate Calamity", after reading it about a dozen times a day Grandma Shauna was nice enough to send it home with us. Anna still has it memorized. The last week we were in town Annabelle discovered the endurance that Papa Zeke has for playing house, one afternoon while everyone else took naps they played a marathon 3 hour round of house. 

Playing house with Papa Zeke, these are their quadruplets at the park

Grandma Rosalia's house has become famous for 'crafties' and helping with dinner. My mom has a lot more patience with Annabelle in the kitchen than I do, which didn't result in too many mishaps, but I do recall something about hot chocolate mix being dusted on the counter while french toast was cooking . . ;)

 

My grandma, Nona, making cute little napkin holders for Christmas

Grampster is good for playing just about any game Annabelle can come up with. He has really honed in on the skills that matter most when playing with her: Do whatever she says and never question her.

Something funny must have happened at breakfast, Annabelle says it has something to do with wanting 'gummy bears on my boots'

On New Years day we went up to the Crags with both our families and enjoyed lunch and sledding. Starting a couple of months before Christmas Annabelle talked about wanting to eat snow - so she would eat snow until someone put her on a sled, then she would giggle down the slope until the sled stopped then she would promptly start eating snow again. Too fun!

Other great moments from the trip are: Mike and the other Sherwood men going up to the TeePee in the mountains, joint family Christmas Eve dinner, random McKean wrestling matches, candy making with my Mom and Nona, Mike and his friend Than going bouldering, going to the temple with Jake Sherwood, celebrating how old my brother is getting, cutting wood for Nona's stove, feeling my new nephew kick around in Trudy and eating homemade tortellini soup at Nona's.

I'm almost embarrassed to put this, but I thought I would include a list of gifts we have received that we already can't imagine life without:

Mike: new camera, in case you hadn't noticed ALL the pictures on this post.

Tia: a GPS for driving, I use it so often that Annabelle was surprised when we arrived at our local grocery store yesterday morning without the assistance of the GPS. She said "Mommy, you didn't get lost! You got to the store without asking that lady!"

Annabelle: A tool box from Santa (aka Grandma Rosalia) that is labeled "Annabelle's Crafties" and is filled to the brim with arts and crafts supplies.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas . . .

Christmastime is so much fun with a three year old! I can't believe how exciting these last two weeks have been with Annabelle as we have been making our Christmas preparations. We decided to get a real live Christmas tree and even though it is fairly dry these days I don't regret it. Annabelle had a great time decorating it and sits and looks at it every day. 

Last week we spent an entire day wrapping presents, not that it takes that long, BUT when Annabelle and I are doing it together we just take our time. I think her favorite part was designing individual gift tags for each present/person. It was a blast - one of the best days I have ever had as a mom. 

For the last couple of family home evening lessons we have been focusing on teaching Annabelle about Christ's birth. This week we pulled our nativity off the shelf and added each piece as we told the story. I think Annabelle is catching on to what Christmas is all about. She loves singing Christmas songs. Her favorite one this week is "Angels We Have Heard on High" because of the 'glo -o -o -o -o -o -o -o -o - o ria's. I think she listened to it 20 or 30 times on Sunday. Luckily we like that one a lot too. 

I am excited to celebrate Christ's birth and am grateful for this holiday to remind me of what a great gift His life is to me. I hope you all have a bright and wonderful Christmas enjoyed with family, friends and of course good treats!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

I can't believe I never posted about our wonderful Thanksgiving. We were lucky enough to be the get away spot for Mike's parents, his younger brother who is 19 and his older brother and his wife and son. It was wonderful to get to play, eat and relax together. The weather cooled off and that was great for getting out and seeing some of the desert that my nephew was stoked about. 

Oh and my pumpkin pies turned out (if you remember my previous post). 

Superficial Christmas Tag

Alright - my friend Sara created this tag and she is the one that said it was suerficial, not me - - but she tagged me and I tried to avoid it, but she is prodding. So here goes, these are her instructions: This is strictly superficial. I want you guys to tell me about your desire for an angora sweater or china plates. If you are tagged you have to list at least ten material wishes and tag ten people.

1. A stylish and comfy new couch with 3 cushions. We have a love seat and that works out best for our apartment and is good shape but then we can't really sit together very comfortably.

2. Oh that new couch is very appreciated but it takes up too much space in my living room, could I have a wider living room to accommodate the couch?

3. Perfect. Now to tie the room together I want a big luxurious area rug.

4. Have I mentioned that all of this needs to be easily washable? Stain resistant? Can not absorb odors? good. 

5. Let's paint an accent wall and then get out of this very livable living room.

6. A vacation that is relaxing yet adventurous. I want it to be laid back but I don't want to get bored. Could someone else make my bed? Let's go to a beach or snowboarding.

7. A haircut cut with a style that is flattering and low maintenance. Maybe that guy from "What Not to Wear" could cut my hair.

8. I want a walking partner for Christmas. The weather is perfect, my sweats are usually on - but I won't be out walking if I don't have someone to gab with.

9. Oh and while I'm at it I want my old scrap booking/craft group back. I liked meeting every week. Out of the house and with plenty of table space. 

10. Okay Sara I have stretched myself thin here - one more . . . oh - here we go,  not that I would actually enjoy them, but my primary kids might appreciate if I took voice lessons. 

I tag . . . Amy, Whitney (really just so I can change mine to all the cute stuff she finds on Etsy), Keri-Anne, all of the White Gables gals, Nicole & Nichole, is an Ogden reading this? if so I tag you, my sisters, and anyone else who wouldn't find this painful. Ha ha - that was 10 right?

Harvest Creamy Corn "Choup" with Parsley

I realize that a harvest soup recipe now is a little late in the season, BUT it is finally soup weather here, so I will share it anyway. I love this soup because it is delicious, I usually have at least half of the ingredients in my house before I decide that I want to make it AND because it freezes really really well. I usually make this full recipe, have leftovers the next day and freeze 2 sandwich bags for later (wether it be for us or a last minute dinner to someone else). Also - the popcorn on top . . . so fun and so good! Oh and go all out on fresh herbs if you want, but I just use the dry version. Here are the ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 4 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4-5 large ears corn, scraped from cob or 1 box frozen corn (I just use a can of corn)
• 1 medium or 2 small zucchini, chopped - DON'T skip this, so so good
• 1 pound small potatoes, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 5-6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley (a couple of generous handfuls), chopped
• Salt and pepper
• A few dashes of hot sauce, to taste
• Oyster crackers or white cheddar popcorn, to pass at the table

Preparation

Heat a medium soup pot over medium-high heat with the EVOO. Add bacon to hot EVOO and cook until crisp at edges. Add onion, corn, zucchini, potatoes and bell pepper as you get them chopped, then add the bay leaf, thyme and paprika. Cook for 7-8 minutes to begin to soften.

Sprinkle flour around the pot, stir and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the stock and let it come up to a bubble and thicken up a bit, then stir in the milk, cream and parsley and simmer for 5 minutes.

Season the soup with salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste and serve with crackers or popcorn to float on top. 

Credit once again goes to Rachael Ray

Winter in AZ

So, I am not much of a blogger (this is Mike) but I thought I would let everyone know how life is hear in AZ in the winter time.  The weather is amazing, it has been in the 70's for the last week, and we see nothing but sunshine.  It is vastly different from what we are used to.  I do miss the snow, but it is nice to be able to wear shorts in november, and to hike with only a water bottle and not have to worry about bad weather rolling in.  Sure there are the thoughts of rattle snakes and scorpions, but I have yet to see either.  

Below is a picture of one of the local parks, the cactus (Saguaros) are nearly 30 feet tall. 

 

Pumpkin Pie; An Illustrated Experience

I earned a whole new homemaking achievement badge this week as I COOKED a pumpkin to make pumpkin pies. Well, almost. The pie mix is frozen in a bag in the freezer to be used for Thanksgiving. So no pies yet, but pretty close. My mom has made pumpkin pies from fresh pumpkins for years now, so I thought it was worth a shot. We are lucky enough to have some of our favorite Sherwoods coming for Thanksgiving, and this was just about the only part of the feast that I thought I could prepare this far in advance. 

I waited until after Halloween, when the pumpkin prices dropped and I snatched up a cheap pumpkin for this experiment. My mom always cooks hers in a pressure cooker, which only takes about 15 minutes. I don't have a pressure cooker so after scooping out the goop I cut up the pumpkin small enough that the pieces would fit in a baking dish, I put a little water in the bottom, covered it with foil and set it to bake for about an hour at 400 degrees. 

Then the pumpkin was soft enough to peel the skin off and puree the 'meat'.  From this point on  it was as simple as making cookies. I just measured out the pumpkin pie ingredients and poured the pie mix into freezer bags. The pumpkin I used made enough puree for 5 pumpkin pies.

 I gave 3 pies away since I didn't have quite that much space in my freezer.  

(And Mike doesn't like pumpkin pie, so besides Thanksgiving, I won't be needing any pie mix)

I guess we'll see how they turn out in a couple of weeks, but the mix did smell delicious!