Christmas '09

Merry Christmas from the Browns! Here are the kids waiting patiently for our Christmas Eve dinner, back from our candlelight service.

It's our tradition to have a nice dinner on Christmas Eve, something special that we don't usually make. In the past it's usually been shrimp dishes, but this year Randy wanted to do Prime Rib. Thanks to a Christmas surprise by my Dad and stepmom, we made prime rib, twice baked potatoes, salad and homemade rolls. Unfortunately, I'm not really good at this picture taking thing yet so I didn't get pictures of our candle light dinner. It was fabulous, just trust me. I do have pictures of desserts.... I usually don't forget to take pictures of that.

I made Peppermint Cheesecake Truffles, Peanut Butter Cheesecake Truffles, Chocolate Oblivion Torte and a  Raspberry Roulade. Yummo as Rachel Ray would say.

This is what we enjoyed on Christmas Day, all snowed in with just our family. The meat and cheese tray was thanks to my Dad and stepmom again. They know the way to my boys' heart! All the goodies are thanks to friends and co-workers. We were abundantly blessed with treats this year..... thank you very much. I woke up this year planning my New Years diet.

I hope your day was very blessed as well.

Decorating on a Dime

I've never had a room full of Christmas decorations. They've consisted of a fake tree and a tub for decorations. Years of moving, many children, and a small budget has been the reason for this. But, in our previous, very small home, it wasn't like we were having company or Christmas parties or teas or anything so I was content with it. This year, however, we moved into a grand three story house. My desires and expectations grew quite a bit. My measly box of decorations would look down right silly in this house.

I surrendered the matter to the Lord and unpacked my box of decorations and put up our little tree... in the third floor window where only passersby and family could see it. I think it looks pretty cool way up there. Who else has a tree in their third floor window?

Well, the first floor remained empty. I read of a tree farm that is selling any size Christmas trees for $25.00. I am excited and Randy and I go and find the loveliest 12 foot tree they have. After borrowing a tree stand because ours is too small we erect this majestic beauty and add the only decorations I  have left, lights. I determine to love this big and beautiful empty tree, just like our big and beautiful empty house. And I really do. The boys, Alex and Joel, were found sitting on the couch facing the tree at 7am the morning after it was put up singing "Oh Christmas Tree." They love it too.

But God isn't finished blessing me yet. A friend tells me of someone wanting to give away some Christmas decorations and this friend also has a few to spare. So on Saturday after work I go on a Christmas decoration acquisition mission. I first head to The Caring Cupboard to see what they have. Not only do they have a lot of Christmas decorations, but it is buy one, get one free! I load up with about $12.00 worth of stuff. I then go to Hanna Variety, our cute little variety store in town. They have everything. I spend about $10.00. Then I am off to the lady that wants to get rid of some of her decorations. She is a wonderful sweet lady that gives me a beautiful oval braided rug ( I am jumpy for joy inside as we desperately need rugs) and a small box of decorations.

I then head over to my friends house who hands me a huge box of lights, the cutest garland and a few other things.

I spend the afternoon going through my treasures and decorating the house. The kids help with the tree.

Here is our living room before. Well, we've painted since then.....

Here is our living room after..... (I just love before and afters.)

Okay, so it's not House Beautiful or anything, but you should sit in there. It's beautiful and cozy. The photo of the tree just does not do it justice. It is simple and beautiful with red and green ornaments, lights and four spools of really nice fabric ribbon I got from The Caring Cupboard for 50 cents, tied in knots all over it.

Here, can you see the little knots of ribbon I tied all over the tree? I just love it.

Here's the mantel:

I know its hard to see, but I have little reindeer baskets at the bottom with apples ornaments in them.... Caring Cupboard. Candles and candlesticks, Caring cupboard; lights, garland, and curly gold things... ting, I think she called it, from my friend. Two glass bottles from Hanna Variety and the rest I had. So cute in person, you must come see it!

I also got this lovely wreath for $2.50, or free, which ever way it went.

We have lights and snowy, sparkly garland for the window sills, and several other Christmasy  things to randomly place around the house.

Now, when you look at the front of our house, you see this:

So people can stop asking me if we are going to spend Christmas in the attic with our Christmas tree way up there.

I usually look forward to ridding our house of the Christmas decorations and have to force myself to leave them up for a few days afterward. This year I'm going to be sad to see them go as they really warm up the place.

Hope your enjoying your Christmas season and keeping your eyes on Jesus, the real reason for the season.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, being the great photo journalist that I'm not, I missed getting pictures of Thanksgiving Dinner. I missed the beautiful turkey that was moist and yummy thanks to Elise at Simply Recipes. The yummy dressing also thanks to her. I even used the broth from the giblets. That made me feel way cool and it was so good! We also had Emeril's Sweet Potatoes that has been come my yearly tradition. So yummy with the added orange. And here's what is left of the pies when I finally remembered my camera:

The pumpkin pie

I had to make for him. He discovered the love of pumpkin at about age 3 when all he ate for dinner was 3 pieces of pie.

That little slice of Peanut Butter Pie I made for the others. It was delish. Thank you, Mindee

The Sour Cream Raisin Pie

Don't ask me why blogger turned the photo sideways...

I made for my Dad

Here are some more pie lovers

    

 

We had a great time visiting with my Dad, my step-mom Von, and my nephew, Chance,

Here's all the kids with Grandpa and Chance has the black hair in back.

And I had to take a picture of Dad's shiny red pickup. He always has the shiniest pickup around.

It was a lovely day shared with family with much to be thankful for.

Surprise!

So what do you do when someone calls you and says "I'm from such and such appliances and we have a refrigerator to deliver to you" and you didn't buy one? You cry. Well that's what I did atleast.

Who bought it for us. I have know I idea.

How did they know our old fridge was on the brink of death? Maybe they've seen it.

So what do you do when someone calls you and says they are delivering you a new fridge? You clean out the old one, scrub the nasty floor underneath and get ready for the new one and do a little happy dance!

It is such a surprise, but yet it isn't. Because you know who is really behind it all? My Heavenly Father. Why should I be surprised when he knows our needs and provides for them, exactly how he says he will. It should come as no surprise at all that he does immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. And its not the first time I've been so greatly blessed. So why is it so surprising and overwhelming each time it happens?

It's because I am so like the Israelites. Delivered from the bondage of the Egyptians, yet grumbling and complaining and in fear, not seeing the hand of God providing water from the rock and food from the sky.

I've been repeating over and over, "God works all thing for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." That would be ALL things, not some things. I need to wipe clear my ideas of how I think God should work and trust completely in Him, no matter what.

So, thank you Lord for the beautiful refrigerator and bless those that have so greatly blessed me.

Sheet Cakes

I finally have a computer up and running enough to b able to post on my blog. I feel lost with out my laptop. Its fixed, but I am missing the operating system CD. Unfortunately you can't just call Dell and ask them a question. Its a complete maze that I'm sure they create on purpose so they don't have to answer phone calls!

The first two sheet cakes were for a Bridal Shower. The only request was for black, red and white. I wanted to find a little more modern look than the traditional flowers and came up with this. I love how it turned out. My writing could improve.....

The following cake was for a 4 year old boy that wanted a Sportacus cake. He's a character off the PBS show Lazy Town. Unfortunately I did not realize he was a real person until about 10pm last night. I finished about 2:30am. Real people are MUCH harder to do. I'm happy with the result. I guess the proof is in whether or not the little boy recognized the face.  Just remember, its frosting people!

The last cake is a Chocolate Oblivian Truffle Torte. This is the second one... the first one ended up on the floor by one of my kids..... second kitchen please! After I acted like it was the end of the world, I made another one and all was well. The accents on top are white chocolate.

Thanks for looking!

I need therapy

I wasn't going to blog today. I have lots to get done. But I have just gone through the most horrifying experience and I  need to debrief.

So I decide to most innocently vacuum out the fireplace. It has been overlooked since we have moved into our 100 year old house and is full of old cobwebs ( or maybe its spiderwebs, are they the same?)

Here's the fireplace after the fact. Still a little dusty looking.

See this thing? It is above, blocking the chimney opening. Its all vacuumed out now. But before it was full of "dirt".  I have my nice big shop vac and begin vacuuming out the dirt between the crevices. Only the dirt isn't dirt. Its dozens and dozens of birdie skeletons and all their birdie stuff. Seriously, if you had been walking by my house you would have heard me scream above the very loud shop vac, more than once. Only it didn't end at just a few. Little by little horrifying things fell to the floor. The horror went on for about 10 minutes as I wriggled the loose brick and let the scary stuff fall out. Little birdie skulls and legs and wings. Why, oh why, I asked my self, hadn't someone else thought to clean this out over the two years they had been working on the house?!!

Then, on top of it all, I looked behind me to find the nasty black dirt blowing out the other hole of the vacuum all over my living room!! Fortunately I don't have much furniture in there yet.

And here is the scary trap door at the bottom of the fireplace. I don't like scary trap doors that lead down dark dirty places that who knows what else is living in there.

I've claimed to be adventurous, but never brave. I'm a wimp around dead things and am still a little shakey over the experience. It will take me awhile to get the vision of the birdie skull stuck in the crevice tool that I had to bang free out of my head and I refuse to be the one to clean out the vacuum.

Thrifty treasures

I've always been a frugal shopper and have been shopping at thrift stores since college. In high school I had a friend who bragged about how much her stuff cost and I would brag out how cheaply I got mine.

I love finding great quality name brand items for dirt cheap. Its like a treasure hunt. With a large family, this is more of a necessity than a game. One thing I have learned is buy for quality, not just for price. You don't want a bunch of cheaply made stuff all over your house.

In our little town of Alma, we have a nice little thrift store called the Caring Cupboard. I like to go in there at least once a month to see what great finds I can come by. A couple of weeks ago I found a like new Eddie Baurer jean trench coat for a friend for $1.50!

Today I did great. I got the mother load for $6.50.

 With winter bursting upon us we were in need of hats, scarves and warm socks.

Here's what I got:

• 7 Magazines... October 2009 and a couple of summer ones
• Teen devotional book, hopefully it will get read
• Tae Bo tape.... always wanted to try it and now I can for 10 cents!
• Nice zippered hoodie & shoes for daughter
• Pair of jeans for son
• 10 pairs of really nice heavy socks!
• Long underwear & boxers (very well laundered, people!)
• 5 cool scarves, and
• 4 hats

Things like this make me feel successful. But remember "A bargain ain't a bargain unless it's something you need. " ~Sidney Carroll, A Big Hand for the Little Lady

I also like this one "We are not to judge thrift solely by the test of saving or spending. If one spends what he should prudently save, that certainly is to be deplored. But if one saves what he should prudently spend, that is not necessarily to be commended. A wise balance between the two is the desired end." ~Owen Young

Whew!

So glad this one is done. I booked this wedding over a year ago in Omaha. At the time it was only a 45 minute trip. Today it was a 3 1/2 hour trip one way, on the coldest and ickiest day so far this year. I'd been dreading the trip for some time. But I made it with no mishaps. Done and delivered. Yay. Yay! Yayyy!!!  I was even pretty happy with the outcome. There were a few things, of course, that I would have liked to improve upon. But everything overall was great. I even managed to successfully carry the entire 4-tiered brides cake up to the second floor. You would think that a hotel as nice as the Paxton would have a cart.

This was the grooms cake. So fun! It took about 8 hours.

Brides cake. It had a lot going on as per brides request. As long as she's happy... I'm happy! One thing I did differently this time was to line both of the cake boards with fondant. It took a little more time but gave it a much nicer, more finished look.

After no sleep and the long drive, well, I guess I'm so happy to be done that I don't feel completely worn out!

Fall, tea & scones

There's nothing better with cool, breezy Fall weather than a  cup of chai and a scone. Well actually it's a bit more than breezy and I'd rather have a latte but you just can't make them good at home.  So just imagine, if you will, the nice, calm, relaxing morning this thought evokes. Forget about the reality for just 15 minutes.

Here you go....

Now you can either come over and have some with me, or buy some chai and make the scones with the recipe below. These are absolutely wonderful.

Cranberry Orange Scones

Copyright, 2006, Ina Garten, All Rights Reserved

Ingredients

4 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
3/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cold heavy cream
1 cup dried cranberries
1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water or milk, for egg wash
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
4 teaspoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix 4 cups of flour, 1/4 cup sugar, the baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add the cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is the size of peas. Combine the eggs and heavy cream and, with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour into the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy! Combine the dried cranberries and 1/4 cup of flour, add to the dough, and mix on low speed until blended.
Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead it into a ball. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4-inch thick. You should see small bits of butter in the dough. Keep moving the dough on the floured board so it doesn't stick. Flour a 3-inch round plain or fluted cutter and cut circles of dough. Place the scones on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Collect the scraps neatly, roll them out, and cut more circles.

Brush the tops of the scones with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the insides are fully baked. The scones will be firm to the touch. Allow the scones to cool for 15 minutes and then whisk together the confectioners' sugar and orange juice, and drizzle over the scones.

Going places I dare not go...

or so I thought.

That's my husband up there. Our house needs another coat of paint.

See. There he is.

Now see the other side of that top window?

He thought it would be easier if I could hand him things while he is on the roof.

Anyone who knows me, particularly my husband, knows that I can't even stand at the top of a stair case and look down. So why on earth would he ask me to go up there?

He tells me I can do it. Okay. In my mind I'm rationalizing that it is right next to the house.

What I did not realize is that the arm needs to go straight up in the air first and then shakes back and forth, a good 100 feet up (atleast, don't you think?) like a crazy carnival ride!

Fortunately paint supplies were on one side of the bucket so we had to be squished together on the other side. That allowed me to stand behind him with my face smashed into his back and cling on for dear life. I peeked once but it was a mistake.

Thank goodness he could not get close enough to the roof to get out with out having me manually controll the gears from the truck so I didn't have to let go of him or take my face out of his back the whole time. Thank the Lord!

Painted the doors red. Two sides to go. Not sure if we'll make it before the snow flies!

Pet Peeves

These are a few of my favorite most irritating things.... Thanks Julie.

I try to be a positive person, not a complainer or a pessimist. There are a few things, however, that I find greatly irritating. Not that you would really care about what I find irritating, but you know what they say, misery loves company.

So here is a list of Cheryl's Pet Peeves. Atleast its a short list.

• Grown women using words like "mani, pedi, bff" .... eewwwww!!!!!
• "lol" ( though I just used it recently) especially when spoken. Makes me want to gag like the first pet peeve.
• slurping of coffee or soups is like fingernails on chalkboard to me
• sappy stories (that are totally made up) passed along emails trying to rip a tear out of you and then threatening that you are surely unfaithful if you do not pass it along. I feel manipulated.
• when people you barely know, who just recently received your email address, feel the need to forward the above mentioned emails to you.
• male enhancement commercials. Need I say more?

Okay, that is my little list of most irritating things. Maybe I could use this as a letting go. When I hit post it will fly out to cyberworld and away from me and I won't let these things bother me any more. Just don't come and tell me your getting a pedi.

Normal or Neurotic

As I am getting some cereal for breakfast I realize that I am the sacrificial eater. Cereal, for example. I don't just pick the box of the type of cereal I want to eat. No, I check the boxes for the little leftovers in each. The stuff that just doesn't quite make a bowl full. This has two purposes: 1) It empties the box and cleans out the cupboards, and 2) It's not getting wasted.


As I realized this, I realized that I'm the one that will eat the bread butts and eat the left overs in the fridge. Not because its my favorite, but because it seems necessary. No one else will do this or think anything of it.

I've never been able to walk into a grocery store and just buy what I want or need. It has to be on sale or at a price I deem reasonable. I thought I taught this thriftiness to my children, especially drilling it in the times they brought home the $3.00 loaf of bread and I about had a heart attack. I've never been able to relate to those that have a recipe in mind or have something they want to get and buy it all no matter what.

 My fifteen-year-old son with the job has totally been shocking me in this area. He buys designer drinks, $6.00 meats and cheeses from the deli, and pizza pockets. Even when I am along to guide his choices he goes with what he wants. What family did he come from? The day he bought all the ingredients and made Shrimp Fettuccini Alfredo was a good day though. I can't get him to spend money on a haircut though.

Not buying everything I need really came to my light once when my mother-in-law was visiting. She made us tacos and bought everything she needed for the meal. I had never seen such a wonderful taco spread. It had all the olives, tomatoes, lettuce, sauces.... everything you could think of for tacos. I was in awe. My dinners are usually missing the extras.... kind of bare bones. I would like to improve on this and try to buy an extra thing or two at each shopping trip but it is a work in progress. You just can't easily teach an old dog new tricks. I don't really want to change though. I like being thrifty. It doesn't take much to please me. I was just thinking maybe it would be fun to go out and get just what ever I want. But it would probably stress me out. When I was a kid and my Dad took me out for dinner, I would always order something that was less than his meal. When my husband came along, low and behold he ordered what ever he wanted! What freedom!

Atleast I'm not completely neurotic. I'm not a saver of all kinds of kitchen junk like plastic bags, sacks and containers. Just enough to get by. I did start saving jelly jars since our cups keep disappearing and I have so many jars. One day I saved three vegetable cans to make quick breads in a can like my mom used to. My seven-year-old son came to me with these and asked if maybe I was going a little too far with saving stuff to drink out of.

Well, its time to go make bread pudding with all the left over bread.

How to be a sports mom....

Actually, it's "how to be a sports mom????"

So I can really care less about sports and I'm not the enthusiastic type so learning to be a great sports mom is a work in progress. I'm better behind the scenes doing the grunt work. I am managing to yell a few cheers at the boys but still feel self-concious doing so. Randy is the coach (they didn't have one last year so he stepped up to the plate this year). I was a little nervous about the whole thing seeing how he "cheers" for the Huskers..... especially the last few minutes of Saturday's game. But he was great.... no shortness of enthusiasm there! Wish I had a video camera to show him running up and down the side lines with the little boys following him. The game was great. It ended tied 14-14 but we lost in double overtime. It was a long HOT day.

My shots aren't too great as I have a no bells and whistles camera and had it on full zoom.

Alex is #3

Coach Dad

Notice Carter, #22 .... heads above the rest. He was the biggest kid for both teams.

My quarterback and defensive tackle... (actually I don't really know what they play but one for a big guy and one for a little guy.) Alex tackled a player that prevented a touch down.

Carter's tough guy face.

So here are some of my sports mom duties..... I could use a few tips here:

• Cut boys' hair. Carter moves once and guard falls off clippers twice which results in a tough guy buzz cut.
• Make sure everyone has clean uniforms and can find all pieces (need to work on this one)
• Make salad and get meats, utensils, ice and drinks for tailgate party (hubby did say at time of tailgate "now you can get the idea so that next time you can be better organized", say what?! This will come back to haunt him a little later, but I graciously did not say a word.
• Make extra treats to sell at concession stand to help team earn money for equipment.
• Have house cleaned before game because of wedding consultation in my home after game.
• Work concession stand for most of game.

Everyone is wiped after the game... including Lili.

One game down, five more to go.

what would you do.....

if you came upon this on your front porch......

A very very birthday

Today is my daughter's 14th birtday, and I managed to escape before it was completely over. I'm hot and tired! Still the mess to clean up, but we'll enjoy the photos first.

We had the party on our front porch. No railing on the porch yet but still fun to be able to have an entire party on a porch.

My decorating is a little understated for the large porch but I'm too cheap to spend all that money just for decorations. We had smoothies and snacks.

The birthday girl and her cake.

We better have a close up of that cake....

It was quite lovely and tasted good too!

Alex waiting to get her face painted. I painted a lot of faces.

This one is my favorite.

Girls got their own ideas and thought the water balloons were not enough. Notice the bucket.

A bunch of crazy girls.

They played Red Rover and now doing flipping contests on the trampoline. Still 20 minutes till its officially over. I guess I will go clean up. Hope you had a happy birthday, Grace!