Twas the day after Christmas...

Merry (white!) Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your friends and family.

Look at all this snow!!

Samantha went to shovel out our neighbors house, she says she loves any excuse to go out in it!

But because of all this lovely snow, we thought that we wouldn't have any family over on Christmas morning, usually my grandparents come down from Vancouver for the morning, but they didn't think they'd be able to make it. So we invited my grandparents from here in Lynden to come for our big Christmas breakfast, as well as my my aunt and uncle who are both single.

Everybody said that they would probably come, but we didn't know exactly how many would show. But on Christmas morning, low and behold, EVERYBODY came INCLUDING my grandparents from Vancouver!! They said that they just decided to brave the weather and come! Thankfully we had plenty of food, (my grandma saved us with a pan of hot cinnamon rolls she brought!) and everyone had a wonderful time. Everybody left around 12pm, and we had the rest of the day to go sledding out side, and play with Christmas gifts.

Ali got this adorable robe from grandma, I think it is just like her!

Bradley got a really neat bucket'O legos for Christmas, with over 400 pieces in it! He'll be busy for days!

Now I have the excitement of a litter of puppies soon to be born to look forward to! Rosie is due in about a week. I love it when the dogs have puppies, yet another example of Gods amazing creations. So many things have to happen for the puppies to be born on time, and to be born healthy. I just love watching them be born, and then grow into healthy pups.It never gets old, no matter how many times I see it. I can't wait!

She is getting so fat!!

Merry Christmas everybody!!

Christmas Baking

Today we didn't go to church because of the bad weather, and everyone was tired from being up late last night. So since I had a free day on my hands, I thought I'd get a "head start" on our Christmas baking. Yep, you heard me correctly, a head start. It's something like a week before Christmas, and we've yet to officially start baking! Oh well, better late than never I guess.

So I decided to make the thumb prints, the cherry flips, and a new treat that I got from my aunts blog. So, for the thumb prints, I needed to start unwrapping the chocolate kisses. And I though I'd take a picture of one of the kisses for you to see, and the funniest thing happened! I happened to be taking the picture with the chocolate positioned right over my hot cup of coffee, and right after I snapped the picture...

PLOP, that sweet piece of chocolate plunked right into that cup of coffee! I have know idea why that silly piece of chocolate decided to slip out of my fingers right at that very moment! Strange. So any way back to baking.

I measured and counted, and scooped and sculpted all afternooon, and the results of all this arduous labour are very tasty indeed. :) The peanut butter thumbprints were pronounced finger lick'in good by daddy, and the cherry flips don't look as pretty, but they remain our absolute Christmas favorite.

Oh, the cute idea I got from my aunt? Are these adorable maraschino cherrie mice!

I thought they were so cute, I just had to try making them. They consist of the cherries (stems left on) dipped in melted chocolate, a kiss for the head, and slivered almonds for their sweet little ears. I have always loved mice, and I had one for a pet that was given to me as a gift by a friend that was moving away and couldn't take him. (her?)

"He" came with the name Guy, and it stuck with him for the rest of his life. Which was a grand total of two years after I got him. So the mice are made in memory of "Guy."

Anyhow, good luck with your Christmas baking, and if any of you have a favorite Christmas baking recipe, I'd love to get it! Oh yes, I'm wearing my officially dubbed baking slippers! :)

Just to make you laugh...

We found this online, and I thought it was so funny, I just had to post it!

You’re Drinking Too Much Coffee When:

You ski uphill.You speed walk in your sleep.

You answer the door before people knock.

You sleep with your eyes open.

You just completed your third sweater today, and you don’t know how to knit.

You grind your coffee beans in your mouth.

You have to watch videos in fast-forward.

The only time you’re standing still is in an earthquake.

You lick your coffee pot clean.

Your eyes stay open when you sneeze.

The nurse needs a scientific calculator to take your pulse.

You can type sixty words a minute with your feet.

You don’t sweat, you percolate.

People get dizzy just watching you.

People can test their batteries in your ears.

Your birthday is a national holiday in Brazil.

Your Thermos is on wheels.

You can outlast the Energizer Bunny.

You don’t even wait for the water to boil anymore.

You don’t tan, you roast.

A White Christmas

Do any of you remember the last time you had a white christmas? Whether there was already snow on the ground, or it was snowing when you got up on Christmas morning, I'd love to hear about it, espescially since I don't think I've experienced a white Christmas that I can remember.

You can leave your comment, (click on the button at the bottom of this post that says "comment") and I'll publish them for others to read. I look forward to hearing from you all about your white Christmas!

Dreaming of Snow....

What's up with this November?! I would appreciate some snow! I love snow! I love everything to do with snow. Building snowmen with my sisters, playing snow ball fetch with my dog, pulling my brother in the sled, and coming in to steaming hot chocolate and a warm CC (chocolate chip) cookie freshly baked by Sam. But since we still don't have any snow yet this year, I'll try and be content with reminiscing about snowy days from the past. So here are some pictures I uploaded from the times we were having so much fun in the snow, we've just had to take some pictures.
My Aunt Jenn and Danny on the 4-wheeler, pulling Samantha and I on sleds. This was taken the year we came back from Mexico. FIVE years ago already!

Beautiful snowmen.....

Isn't he cute?! It's a snow-bear! Can you see where the nieghbor dog nailed this one on the front?! Arg! It happens every year!

Tug of war on ice!

Hope you're all wishing for snow!

Christmas!!

Oooops! Sorry! Here's the post! I had tried to save the post as a draft, I didn't know it published the title! :)

I LOVE Christmas, so the sooner we set up the tree after Thanksgiving the better!

So this year dad said we could set it up whenever we wanted, so up went on Friday! We always have so much fun doing it while we listen to jingle bell rock and Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, Mary did you know, let it snow, let it snow, and all our other favorites. Cries of "Oh this is my favorite ornament!" or "I love this song!" or "I love this picture of us in the snow!" went up in joyful unison all afternoon. The lights on the tree are not turned on till every one is sure that all the decorations and ornaments are in the perfect place. And then once it was dark out, off went the lights, and on came the Christmas tree lights! What a beautiful tree! So the Christmas season is finally upon us! Hooray! (I can't put a picture up because our silly computer won't read the disk!)

A favorite recipe.

Last night mom asked me to make a side dish to have with dinner last night, so I opened my cook book, and found a favorite newer recipe that I've only made once, and everybody really like it. It's called skillet braised Brussels sprouts with bacon and shallots. This recipe is so good, I just have to post it. But be warned it is so very easy to burn the bottom of the skillet while the Brussels are cooking, unless you use non-stick, so don't turn the heat up to high, or you'll get results like these! :

oops...

4 oz bacon (about 4 slices)

2 shallots, sliced thin.

1 LB, Brussels sprouts stemed and halved.

1/2 cup water

pinch of salt and pepper

1 TBS, butter

1 TBS, red wine vinegar

cook bacon and shallots together over medium heat till bacon is cooked and shallots are browned. transfer mixture to paper towels to drain. Add Brussels, water and salt to skillet, cover and simmer for ten minutes. Uncover pan and cook until liquid has evaporated and sprouts are tender. Off the heat add bacon mix, butter and vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste before serving.

This recipe is so yummy. Hope you enjoy it! My family did!