oh, december

This is the first year in a long time I did not venture out on Black Friday.  I've done all my shopping so far online.  I just don't have the energy to face the crowds and the traffic.  This year has been one of such loss, combine that with the darkness that comes this time of year on the north coast and I'm not surprised at all at my lack of Christmas spirit.


I did manage to get the tree up and George and the daycare kids had fun decorating it.  Most of the ornaments are in the middle half of the tree, out of reach of the daycare baby, but none higher than they(George and the daycare kids) can reach.

Our pastor is preaching a series on an Uncommon Christmas.  That is so appropriate.  This is a very Uncommon December for me so far.

December is a month of birthdays in our house.  There's JESUS!! and then there's my dad, Kevin, Rachel, my mom, and Jacob.  With Em hot on their tails Jan. 2.

I got together with my sister to send an Edible Arrangement to my mom and dad.  Combo gift on the giving AND the receiving end.  They are both on Weight Watchers so they loved it.  It was just like the picture and so easy.  The store is less than a mile from their house so we had them pick it up to give them an excuse to get out of their cozy Villages cluster home and get some fresh air.

Rachel got her birthday dinner at Cici's Pizza a little early due to most of us being together and daycare clients canceling.   Em was the only one missing but she had been there a few days earlier on a date so she didn't miss too much.


Kevin had a nice steak dinner on his birthday.  Followed by white cake with homemade chocolate icing.  He was home late due to a community service project of Sherwin Williams.  They sponsor the kids at Barbara Booker Elementary School in Cleveland for Christmas.  Kevin helped deliver all the boxes of presents.

That's a lot of activity for December being only 10 days old.  There's lots of other changes in the works I'll get into soon. 

TTFN.

Birthday Dinner and Christmas Activity

In our large family, we can't afford to eat out at restaurants very often. We've mentioned here before but we do let each child choose a restaurant for their birthday and we go have a special meal as a family.

In the past couple years we got months and months behind, we ended up starting over in January with Emma. Well Nathan's birthday is coming up Sunday so we went on Friday night to Red Robin.

It was a good night, everybody seemed to enjoy their food and the staff came over and sang a silly birthday song intended to embarass the birthday boy.

Then tonight I stopped in at Pizza Hut but they had more drivers than business so I was able to take the night off. Brooke was at a sleepover with a friend, and Nathan & Jacob were at their dad's, so Luke asked if I would take him to BW3.

Victoria had a great idea for Christmas to make coupons so that each kid got some special 1-on-1 time with their parent. Luke's activity was a night at BW3. We ate wings (blazing and teriyaki), played NTN Countdown trivia, NTN Poker, and then another music based trivia game called Payback.

It's a 6-round game and the 6th round you get to wager some % of your points (like Final Jeopardy. I wagered 30% of my 15k points and missed on the question, "What Eminem song samples a 197x Aerosmith song? I was very frustrated that I didn't remember that Sing For The Moment is built on the core of Dream Weaver.

Welcome, Jesus!

May you all come to know the most precious gift ever given.

John 1:14
The Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us.

Pat's Ginger Cut Outs

I'm not sure why these are called ginger because there isn't any ginger in the recipe. At Christmastime my mom's friend's basement had lots of Charley Chip cans filled with these cookies. They were another favorite part of Christmas. The dough makes about 12 dozen cut outs.

Recipe:

Wet ingredients: Half pound butter, half pound lard, 1.5 pound brown sugar, 3 eggs, .75 cup water with 1 t baking soda mixed in.

Dry ingredients: 1 T. cloves, 1 T cinnamon, 1 T allspice, 9 cups flour (enough to make a stiff dough), .25 cup lemon, citron, orange peel (it's not clear if this is supposed to be .25 cup each or .25 cup total of a mix), .25 pound walnut meal, .25 pound almond meal.

Combine. Chill. Roll and cut. Dust with colored sugars and silver dragees. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Annual Hard Candy Making Episode

One tradition that my sister is bound and determined to recreate every year is making hard candy. My mom used to do this with her friend Betty each year. I remember them doing it late after we went to bed but my memory is sometimes flawed. They would make watermelon, cherry, lime, cinnamon and other flavors. The candy was perfectly shaped into pillows coated with powdered sugar. A great part of Christmas.

We have never had much luck at this but we do have fun. Last night we got together at my house to work on it. NOW, (that I am still walking on hard candy shards on my kitchen floor despite having swept thrice) I know why she wanted it to be at my house.

The first batch did caramelize a bit. That's a polite way of saying it tasted a little burnt. It was a light brown so we decided to flavor it cinnamon. I stirred in the flavoring and dumped it onto my counter. We let it cool and ended up what looked like an oval brown piece of glass FUSED to my counter top. Using knives, two screwdrivers, a hammer and lots of hot water we finally got it all off.

[Nathan got a rise out of Kevin when he passed on the news as they drove to foot skills later that night. "OUR kitchen counter???"]

The second batch didn't burn but the plastic spoon did melt into it. I was able to take out the larger plastic pieces and we flavored this one with strawberry. I graciously let my sister take this entire batch home. I don't think it quite reached 310 degrees because it was a bit stringy.

The third batch definitely caramelized. We just threw that batch down the drain. Probably not smart.

Dawn was finally prepared to throw in the towel at this point but I gave it another go. I measured all the ingredients perfectly. I didn't take my eyes off the thermometer except to have a quick phone conversation with Kevin about mixtures, boiling point and heat transfer. After it reached 310, I dumped in one teaspoon of flavoring, mixed it, and dumped it onto a greased broiling pan. I covered it with powdered sugar. After the edges cooled, I sliced into it with a pair of greased scissors.

This batch came out something like what I remember. I wonder if it was ever this hard for my mom. After googling "hard candy tips", I think I can give you the best of the information I found:

"Experience is the best teacher"