Scenes from Christmas

Just a few random shots from Christmas:

My beautiful nieces Athena & Ariel:

And I must apologize here to their dentist/orthodontist for wrapping and taping and wrapping and taping and stapling their $50 bills causing them to use their teeth to try and open the little bundles. It sure was fun to watch tho:

Daniel wearing his new Peyton Manning jersey:

Fun with jello jigglers:

Daniel asking if he could use all of his cash for the ice cream man that haunts the neighborhood with that all too familiar music:

Grandma Lucy trying to stick her fingers up Casey's nose:

Chloe, need I say more:

Daniel helping Grandpa open his presents:

The kids:

Me and my darlings:

Collin & Grandma Lucy:

Good fun and much love.

Christmas Cookies

Here is what you need to make peanut butter kiss cookies, or as my Mom calls them, Russian Hats:

So why hasn't anyone invented the bag of already unwrapped Hershey Kisses? I'm just askin:

Preheat oven to 375. Then beat softened butter and peanut butter until well blended.

Mix in white and brown sugar:

Add egg, milk, and vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda & salt. Then gradually beat into the sugar/peanut butter:

Shape into 1 inch balls then roll in sugar:

Place on ungreased, newly purchased at the fabulous Cuisinart/Conair annual sale, or whatever cookie sheets you have on hand, and bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown on the edges. Then immediately press kisses into the center of each cookie. They will delicately crackle around the edges just so:

A special shout out to my SIL's Mom Rosie who hand crocheted the fabulous hot pads seen above. These are my absolute favorite hot pads ever. My SIL Lucy has tons sitting in her hot pad drawer and I found it hard not to slip a few in my purse when visiting. But Rosie came through and gave me a few for Christmas last year. Thanks Rosie, I luv ya!

So remove from pan and cool on wire rack and:

Oh, there's that fabulous Christmas themed hot pad again! I arranged the Russian Hats with the Furballs (dipped a few in white chocolate for those non-coconut lovers) for a lovely Christmas display:

Enjoy!

48 Hershey Kisses
1/2 cup softened butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Beat butter & peanut butter until well blended. Add sugars and blend. Add egg, milk, vanilla and mix.

In a separate bowl stir flour, soda & salt. Then gradually beat into peanut butter mixture. Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Then immediately press kiss into center of each cookie. Cookies will crackle. Remove and cool on wire rack.

Notice the clever use of diverse baking methods; blend, mix, beat, stir.....

Oh I'll Have a Pink Christmas

Our wonderful daughter Casey's lovely pink Christmas tree. It's kinda growing on me.

Christmas With Mom

I had a wonderful Christmas and want to post a special tribute to my Mom. You have not had a truly unique and how can I say....well unique says it all.....Christmas without Lucy.

She provides much laughter and fodder for Christmas stories of the past. And we love her all the more for it. Mr. H received the new Keith Richards autobiography, and when he opened it and held it up I said "How cool, the new Keith Richards book" (Mr. H being the musician and all), and Mom asked "Is he a new mystery author?"

Then daughter Casey received a much coveted gift certificate to the local nail salon. We were discussing how fabulous the place was and how nice it is to get a mani-pedi...and Mom said "Mani-pedi? Is that a new store?"

But my favorite...and oh so Lucy moment, came when Tyler, who is experiencing his first Lucy Christmas, opened his gift.

Before I reveal the most fabulous, welcome to the family, you don't know what you are getting into gift, I must go into the way back machine.....well not so way back, just last year....yes, it was an all out, as seen on tv Christmas for yours truly. It started with the Bump It, moved on to the fabulous Butterfly Twisty Turny Decorative Comb, and ended with the....wait for it......Purse size, personal, ready at a moments notice for that all important meeting or job interview....you guessed it! The nose hair, ear hair and sideburn Personal Trimmer!

And on to Tyler's gift, behind door number 2, the YES YES.....

Pac Man Snuggie!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Mom! We love ya! You definitely make our Christmas memorable!

The Many Uses of a Pool Table

Or "pool tavol" as the grandman spells it. I love wrapping Christmas presents, at least for about the first hour. I am wondering if everyone would be disappointed next year if I put each persons' presents unwrapped in one giant bag.......but no, the fun part is the unwrapping, especially for the kids.

Pool tavol = One big wrapping station. Paper: check; tape: check; scissors: check; tissue paper......oh heck....guess that's one more trip to the store.

OK, we're getting there.

But someone please tell me, how do you wrap this?

And I just noticed my inner OCD having its way with the Christmas tree....do you see it? Look closely at the placement of the candy canes......yes I am seeking therapy.

Romeo

We got Romeo in 1995. He's our daughter Casey's kitty but he goes with the house.

He is a really good kitty, doesn't jump on the counters, or get in the way. Except when you are walking anywhere near the laundry room where he tries to herd you in there cause that's where the kitty treats are. Even though he's an old man he still likes to play with my laptop cord and still looks like a youngster.

And he has beautiful, fierce green eyes.

Pretty kitteh.

Oh Christmas Tree

I finally put the Christmas tree up today. Inorite? Really? The grandman was here today and for the first time played with the two neighbor kids; Zoli 7 and Maggie 3. Once I got the tree ready to decorate the boys put one or two ornaments on then grabbed a candy cane and were off to other adventures.

Maggie on the other hand was a trooper and helped me until the very last ornament was lovingly placed. She sang "Oh Christmas Tree" and I just melted. Only the first two lines over and over (we don't know the rest of the words like we do Jingle Bells, although we did sing that when we hung the jingly bell ornaments).

She is about as tall as my knee so the branches she could reach on her own were limited. Here is the very bottom branch that she favored. I counted 10 (yes 10) ornaments on this one branch:

And then there are the candy canes....here is the one square foot that just begged for seven candy canes:

We both decided our favorite color balls were the purple ones. And we both really like the snowflake and angel and gingerbread ornaments. Here is the glorious tree all decked out:

 Merry Christmas!

Scenes from Sunday

Football:

Foliage:

Feathered Friends:

Sundays at the Park

Today was a beautiful day in AZ. It is the reason we live here and suffer through the summers to have these wonderful winters. It was 77 degrees when me and the boys came out of the theater at 12:30 (Megamind) and were headed to the park.

Some climbing: (notice the trademark tongue out the side showing intense concentration)

Some falling:

Some sliding:

Some boys:

Sunday Breakfast

So I picked up a waffle maker at the Cuisinart sale. Never had one before. I guess I was always more a French Toast person than a waffle or pancake person. But I know Mr. H likes waffles and I certainly won't walk away from one.

Just mix up some of your favorite waffle batter:

And pour:

Wait for the green light and mmmm hmmmm:

It has 5 numbered settings for light to dark. We started with 3 but I like mine a little crispy so 5 it is. Waffles must be accompanied by bacon. Mr. H found that cooking it in the oven is much easier and less messy than frying in a skillet and it gets nice and browned and crispy.

Line a large baking sheet with foil. Heat oven to 400 and adjust rack to middle. Arrange the bacon slices on the baking sheet with the edges just barely overlapping. Roast 5-6 minutes then rotate the pan for even cooking. Continue cooking another 8-10 minutes until crisp and brown.

No curled up edges, no spattered grease all over the stove and you can cook an entire pound all at once. Just drain on paper towels. I'm tellin ya this is the best way to cook bacon. Check out the clean up:

Now one last thing and probably THE most important thing to remember.......

Please, for all that is holy, separate the bacon from the waffle plate.