Be Inspired to be Kind!

On March 1st, Alpha Chi Omegas celebrate Hera Day, a day of service to others. Many of us choose to make this a day of kindness. Be inspired by this video to make your day about kindness too!

Christmas in the House

the little tree

new Snoopy Christmas pint glasses

The big tree on Christmas morning

Cookie Party 2013 Recap

Some of the cookies!

Great fun and laughter at our annual holiday cookie party Friday! I made an effort to take more photos this year - enjoy!

Abe made a sushi Christmas tree!

Here I am fully outfitted by my Mom - including apron, earrings and tree shaped spatula!
(Thanks photographer Tara!)

Amazing 3-D star castle tree by Sarah K and Abe

Showing off our creations (above and below)

This year we had 21 guests plus the three of us for a total of 24. For the cookies, as usual, I made two batches of White Velvet Cutouts, one of Sour Cream Sugar Cookies and 2 of Cut Butter Cookies (these are best of building cookie structures). We had two soups - a quadruple batch of Cheddar Chicken Chowder and a gallon of Tomato Bisque (from Publix). We also have Publix to thank for a small tray of vegetarian finger sandwiches (egg salad and pimento cheese salad). Sloppy Joes completed the menu. This year we made 5 pounds of meat - 3 pounds ground beef and 2 pounds ground turkey with 4 cans of regular Manwich and one of Bold. We had plenty of leftovers of everything to send home with guests. :)

Thanks to everyone who came out and made our evening so much fun!

Solstice 2011 Recap

Solstice Moon from Syracuse Cultural Workers

Celebrating the winter solstice is one of our favorite family traditions. We have a huge fire with the Yule log, eat home made pizza and sleep in front of the fire with mattresses dragged out from the bedrooms. The actual Solstice this year happened at 5am on December 22nd so we had our festivities that evening, partly because Thomas had school on the 21st. The weather almost did not cooperate - at lunch time Thursday it was 77 degrees! Luckily, it cooled off when it got dark out (or at least fell into the 60s which is cool enough for us!). 

In the morning, T and I drove out to Monticello to Johnston's Meat Locker. We picked up some of their house-smoked sausage and a natural pork butt to smoke on Sunday. At 2:30 T and I made pizza dough (recipe here), then went to visit the chickens we help take care of. Back at home, we prepped our pizza toppings (fresh pineapple, mushrooms, and ham) and got the oven ready for pizza baking. 

To make pizza baking more exciting, I bought us a pizza peel. T loves to do things "Big Bite" style (the way his Food Network chef Idol Guy Fieri does) and this is one of Guy's go-to tools. The way it works is you keep the pizza stone in the oven while it preheats, then slide the pizza off the peel onto the stone to bake it. Easier said than done! For the first pizza, I didn't get enough cornmeal on the peel and couldn't get the pizza to slide off. I took the stone out of the oven, set it on the stove top and from there I was able to move the pizza on to the stone and put it in the oven. Taking it out when it was done was a snap! The crust turned out nice and crisp too. 

I decided not to give up and the second pizza went onto the stone much more easily. Hurray! 

While the pizza was baking, C & T built the big, beautiful fire! We had a lovely evening together in front of it.

Here's to longer days and shorter nights ahead!

Cookie Party 2011 Recap

Lots of fun at our house on Friday evening at our annual cookie party. I am terrible at taking pictures - must be too busy talking and baking but here are a couple.

Madie Rae with her cookies to take home

We had two waves of guests - first the kids, starting with Abby (we brought her home from school with us) and then the Stewarts, the Lamberts and the rest of the Jacksons all arrived around 4:30. For dinner, we made sloppy Joe's, cheddar chicken chowder and butternut-kale soup. The kids took turns rolling out dough, cutting cookies and then decorating them after they were baked. Just before 7, our adult friends started arriving, including Britain & Chris, Sara & Abe, Tara, Emily, and Jenn & Marc. We enjoyed wine, holiday-themed beers, soup, sandwiches, and more cookie baking!

Overall we had 22 guests (plus the 3 of us) for a total of 25. I made a quadruple batch of Cheddar Chicken Chowder. That was just about the right amount - there was enough to send home 3 cups with Britain and have about 8 cups leftover for us. I made a single batch of Soup with Squash and Greens (using butternut squash and kale). Sharing a pint with Jenn still left us with 5 cups of leftovers. We also had 6 batches of sloppy Joe's (3 large cans of sauce and 6 pounds of ground meat) which was way too much but it freezes well!

In the cookie department, I followed my advice from last year and made 2 batches of dough for White Velvet Cutouts, 1 for Sour Cream Sugar Cookies and 2 for Cut Butter Cookies. This was just about the right amount. We had a little leftover, but not a lot, and Thomas and I had fun Sunday morning baking and decorating a few cookie-sheets of cookies. 

New Holiday Decorations!

Our yard AND the Jeep are both in the holiday spirit! See our other inflatable yard decorations in last year's post "Happy Holidays... from our yard to yours!" Here are some of the new additions this year:

Cute little penguin from our friends Britain & Chris

Santa towing away the broken-down sleigh. He waves and the package on the back spins.

Front view of Santa in his tow truck

Happy Holidays!!!

Amaryllis (Holiday) Fun

Every year, Mom gives us an amaryllis bulb kit. It's a little box with a pot, a disk that turns into "soil" when you add water, and an amaryllis bulb. It's really fun to watch it grow. Literally the plant gains an inch or two a day!

Planted on December 14th

December 22nd

January 1st - it's getting crazy tall!

January 4th - starting to open!

January 8th - one bloom!

4 blooms for my birthday with maybe one more on the way!

Beautiful, yes? And so fun to watch it grow. Thanks, Mom!

Happy Holidays.... from our yard to yours!

This post is for Susan who asked just how many inflatables we have in our front yard... :) From left to right, here is a report on the lawn.

I love that T sets this one up so it looks like Santa is just coming in for a landing:

Hello penguins! These are the holiday carolers:

The snowman is new this year. Tigger pulling Pooh out of the honey pot is T's favorite. It has a second fan that turns on to push Pooh up and out (as shown here):

The fan turns off, and Pooh sinks back down into the honey pot:

More Tigger, shown here with Santa in the side yard. You'll see a flat one to the left of Tigger. It's one of my favorites - Santa in an airplane with a spinning propeller. 

Coming soon, a photo of that cute airplane Santa. In the meantime, Happy Holidays!

Solstice Recap

We started celebrating Solstice when T was a year old. In part it was to add more festiveness to the holiday season, and in part it was to take the focus off of presents and put it on activities. Over the years our Solstice celebration has evolved into a night that we all look forward to. Here's our 2010 recap:

The first thing you need is a big Yule log:

It turned out this year's Yule log was too big, so C & T split it into two: one for this year; one for next. Thomas said, "Mom, we saved Solstice!"

The next step is to make that big log into a big fire. Here's a shot with the flash

... and one without:

We then spend the evening hanging out in front of the fire with all the lights turned off (except for the holiday lights - the tree stays on, as does the lit garland on the mantle). We eat homemade pizza and hobo pies. This year for pizza we had Hawaiian (ham, pineapple and (on half) jalapeno) and Greek (olive oil, hummus, ground lamb, tomato, banana peppers). Hobo pies are simple pastries, made of crescent roll dough, filled with (this year) peach pie filling or chocolate chips. We went through a few years where we tried to cook them in the fireplace in pie irons, but the fire is just too hot, and they would end up scorched. 

To complete the Solstice fun, we camp out in the living room over night. We even drag out mattresses so we can be comfortable. It's nice (and toasty!) to fall asleep in front of the fire!

Cookie Party 2010 Recap

The Cookie Party Friday was a big success. We all had a great time with good friends. Unluckily most of my pictures are of cookies rather than friends (whoops) but here are the photos, followed by some notes that are mostly for me so I can remember the details for next year!

sour cream sugar cookies

Abby and her Mom

Over the course of the evening, we had 16 guests (plus the 3 of us) for a total of 19. I made a quadruple batch of Cheddar Chicken Chowder (see new notes on that post on making it in large volume). That was just about the right amount - there was enough to send home 4 cups each with Jenn and Britain for their men who weren't feeling well and have a little leftover for us. We also had 6 batches of sloppy Joe's (3 large cans of sauce and 6 pounds of ground meat, half turkey and half lean ground beef). At the party, we ate 17 sloppy Joe's. We also had it for dinner Thursday night, and had leftovers for the weekend. We also served it Saturday at our little Cookie Party encore. While I clearly made too much, it was not more than we could eat.

In the cookie department, I made 3 batches of dough for White Velvet Cutouts, 1 for Sour Cream Sugar Cookies and 2 for Cut Butter Cookies. Definitely overkill! We have lots of dough leftover. I think 2/2/1 would have been adequate. But, of course, it won't go to waste. :)

For sprinkles and other extras, we are out of green food color (thank goodness yellow and blue make green!) and out of yellow stars for "tree decorating." This was the second year that I couldn't find mini m&m's. Publix used to carry them in the baking aisle (with the chocolate chips). I haven't been able to find them in the candy aisle either, and I've looked at Publix and Target. The minis make great ornaments on trees and they are just the right size to be Rudolph's red nose too.

Thanksgiving Preview

We are full of Thanksgiving traditions in our family. Note the following appear in the order in which we encounter them during the big day (not necessarily the order of importance).

Tradition 1: the giant turkey. This beast is locally raised by 4-h kids. We brine it over night and then stuff it on Thanksgiving morning.

Corollary to Tradition 1 is the ceremonial photo with the turkey. Thomas still loves this one.

Tradition 2: the extra (little) pumpkin pie. We start eating this little one right after breakfast. If you get to Mom's early enough there might be some left for us to share with you. 

Tradition 3: Great Lakes Christmas Ale. This one is relatively new (for a family that has been doing the same thing every fourth Thursday in November for 30+ years) but it's a popular addition to the day.

Tradition 4: We all sit down to eat together, family style. Yes, all 30-40 of us. Sometimes we have a smaller group, say 28. Mom is forecasting as many as 47 this year. It'll be a full house! Everyone has a job (either bringing things like side dishes, appetizers or desserts, or chores like counting people, setting up tables and chairs, or setting the table. Or doing dishes... no paper products for us (outside of napkins).)

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
What are your traditions?