Holidays with Friends

I hate to tell you how long it's been since I've been to an "all grown ups" party. It may have been back BK (before kids) and then, I don't think we were really grown ups! (I don't count work parties!) We had a blast at a party for band volunteers last night! The K's hosted, and their home was beautiful for the holidays. We visited and laughed and ate. I could go for more "grown up" parties like this one!

Skate with Santa

The girls skated in the annual Holiday Exhibition at our arena, and then we all did open skate with Santa! E's friend N came, and she taught him the basics of ice dancing - he caught on pretty quickly!

Gingerbread Houses

A semi-annual tradition - on our way home from visiting in Ohio in the holiday season, we stop at Dobo's Delights to build Gingerbread Houses! It's loads of fun, and is really great for entertaining kids who range in age from 5-15... not to mention the grown-ups! I'm not sure what they like more, building the houses, or snacking on the building materials!!

Self Portraits over Turkey Weekend

I got a little crazy with the camera at Gingerbread House building and snapped several self-portraits of me, J, E, A and my longtime friend S....

So, there you have it!

Family at Thanksgiving

A is Thankful for...

Olives... and she ate way more than one per finger!

BTW... don't her eyes look bluer than blue in her new contacts? And no, they are NOT colored!

Happy Thanksgiving

I've spent my morning baking Apple Pies! Heading to my parents in about an hour to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast - capped off with some homemade pie! If you are interested in my recipe - I posted it last November - here's the link.

So - I started this post this morning when the pies were in the oven - but then got distracted into the hustle and bustle of getting ready to go - and left it sitting here all day.

I wanted to do a list of what I am grateful for - so before the day is completely over - here goes my list:

- I'm thankful for this blog - I completely let the 1st anniversary of posting pass me by - it was the 16th of this month... I can't believe I've kept this fairly regularly updated for a year. I guess my experiment was successful!

- I'm thankful for my family - even when they are in my way in the kitchen when I'm baking pies! Actually, they were a big help in the pie department today!

- I'm thankful for J, my husband. I love him more today than I did 18 years ago when I said I Do.... and I wouldn't have thought that possible... because I was pretty well smitten back then!

- I'm thankful for E and A, my wonderful daughters, who make me laugh far more often than any other emotion - and I'm grateful that we have been able to remain close, even through these teenage years.

- I'm thankful for my parents, who we visited today. My dad's health issues loom larger and larger, but he is certainly an example of how to keep going, and how to approach even the worst times in life with a sense of humor. My mom -- I'm so thankful to have such a great relationship with her, and can only hope that E & A and I have as great a relationship throughout their adulthood.

- I'm thankful for John's parents, who we missed today! I'm so grateful to have "in-laws" that I truly love!

- I'm thankful for my huge family - who was pretty scattered this Thanksgiving - but whom we will see several times in the coming holiday season - I have the greatest siblings, and the cutest and smartest nieces and nephews ever!!

- I'm thankful for our home - our little ranch that was just supposed to be our "starter" home - which looks like it will be our "finisher" as well! It brought us into a community where we have made great friends, whom I am also very thankful for.. (Posse, you know who I mean!)

- I'm thankful for John's job, which is not dependent upon the auto industry - which is in such dire straights, and I pray for all those whose jobs are in jeopardy this year.

I could probably think of lots more - but it's late, and this hits the big ones.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Easter

Hope you all are having a blessed Easter!

The girls served the Easter Vigil Mass last night - Fr. John tried to light Annie on fire, and Annie worked harder than she ever has before because of the multiple calls to "Let Us Pray". Her book holding arms got tired!! Emily handled the many changes in routine with ease - and if she messed up - nobody knew! It was strange to be at an Easter Vigil Mass where I didn't listen to my dad sing the Exultant - but when the girls were scheduled for Easter Vigil - I told my parents we'd just have to miss it this year! Fr. John sang the Exultant, and he did a wonderful job. I told him afterwards that I was singing along in my head (can't help it after the many years at the piano helping my Dad nail down every note!)

Having always been "away" for Easter Vigil (at my parents church - or a couple of year's ago at my Brother In Law's confirmation) - this was our first Vigil at our home parish. I was surprised at how lightly attended it was - being used to attending churches that are pretty full for this mass. But those that were there were enthusiastic, and celebrated Jesus' ressurection with gusto! My only regret? They didn't close Mass with my favorite Easter Hymn - "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" - I just love singing all those alleluias!

Because we had a full day of ice show rehearsals - we didn't have a proper dinner before Vigil. So we all went to the 8pm mass with empty stomachs - so at 10:30pm, when mass ended - we were all pretty STARVED - so we headed for Big Boy for an Easter celebration meal!

After the girls hit the sack- the Bunny got to work...


Here are the girls this morning, enjoying their "Bunny Spoils"!

They haven't come up for air yet! (Oh, and please ignore the early 70's decorating in our basement - we haven't updated it since we moved in! And, ignore the laundry baskets... proof that they are the last thing on my priority list!!!)

The Easter Bunny must have been eavesdropping at the April retreat when everyone was talking about how much fun Guitar Hero has been for their families!!

I'm just hoping that the girls give John and I a turn eventually! I wanna be a ROCK STAR!!!

Starting the New Year with a Clean House!

I have no photos to go with this post - despite taking my camera, and thinking about snapping photos several times over the past few days - I never actually removed it from the case and turned it on (which makes it difficult to actually take a photo.)

After my last post, at 8:19am on Saturday morning - J and I delved into a 3 day cleaning frenzy. (This is where I thought about taking before and after photos - but then decided I was too embarrassed by the before - and without them, the after just aren't that impressive!)

Saturday we excavated our bedroom (yes, I said excavated.) I'm sure we aren't the only people on the planet that have a couple of rooms in the house that are where you take stuff that you don't know where else to put.... you know, the stuff that doesn't have a home yet - or you aren't really sure what to do with? Well, our bedroom is one of those places. The storage room/basement is the other place... more on that later. Add all that miscellaneous stuff to all of the books that I've been reading and stacking - and the plethora of clothing. Let's not even talk about the dust! I even organized all of my jewelry! So, even though my bedroom is still firmly stuck in the late 80's/early 90's (same decorations since we moved in - which basically are the same decorations we moved from the apartment when we got married) I was not embarrassed for people to put their coats on my bed!!

Sunday - we tackled our storage room in the basement that was overflowing with stuff. Including lots of stuff from my former life as a Girl Scout Leader. I'm going to make some troop leader really happy with the stuff I've pulled together to donate! In addition to clearing out and purging lots of stuff - we were able to clean the rest of the basement. Still need to do some video purging, and clean out the game shelves - but it looks SO MUCH BETTER.

Monday - party day - we just spent on all the little odd things that still needed to be done to get the house ready for guests... but as I said to J - I think that this is the cleanest our house has been for a NYE party in years - possibly ever.

Even the girls got into the spirit and cleaned their bedrooms (which SORELY needed it!) E and J had a contest - E is notorious for not recycling water bottles, and collecting them in her room. J hordes pens. Brings them into the room at night - empties his pockets - and never returns them to where they belong. So - finally tally 57 water bottles - 51 pens. Pretty crazy. A took 2 1/2 bags of trash from her room (she's notorious for just dumping whatever she brings home in the middle of her floor - and then scooting it to the edges... and her trash can? I think she forgets what it's for!)

So, we're starting the New Year with a clean house!!!

We had a great party on NYE - we host a Family Game Night party - where we divide up into teams and play different games, and rotate around to play the different games! We played Outburst, Catch Phrase, and Win, Lose or Draw this year. We had lots of fun with friends and family. We missed the whole southern contingent - the predictions for the snow dump kept those with longer distances to drive at home. Again - no photos. (dang, gotta take the camera out and turn it ON for it to work!!)

Funny NYE story. Involves a rewind to last year. Last Christmas, I got J TiVo (I love TiVo - have I ever mentioned that? No? I love TiVo.) We got all happy and loaded in season passes for all our favorite shows - and TiVo got busy and started recording everything! NYE, we're all gathered around the TV watching the ball drop - when all of a sudden - TiVo changes the channel to start recording something! AAACK - pretty anticlimactic end to 2006!

FF to NYE 2007 - Gathering around the TV - TiVo once again asks about changing the channel (but now we are TiVo veterans, and deftly cancel the recording of the other program - the Monk Marathon on USA) However, we had showed a video earlier in the evening - and the VCR "COUNT" message was up and blocking the countdown on the TV screen. So I told E to eject the tape. "There is no tape Mom!" - "So, just turn off the VCR then!" ummmm. mistake. TiVo runs through the VCR. no VCR - no TV - no Times Square - no Ball Drop. AAACK!!! J to the rescue though.... unlike last year - we didn't change channels - so even though we lost the picture - we still had the countdown TiVoed!!!! YAY - rewind, and ring in the New Year a couple minutes late through the wonders of modern technology!!

NYDay we all slept in and had a pretty lazy morning. I washed up all the champagne flutes - and miscellaneous dishes - J snowblowed us out (yep - we got pretty well dumped with the predicted snow). We then headed over to my parents for football, mahjong, and spaghetti dinner.

Kids are home this one last day - school starts back tomorrow. They are all mopey today - not too thrilled about returning to the grind.

More Christmas

Well, I meant to post again sooner than this - but the week has been busy - and frankly - I've been so caught up in enjoying the moments, I didn't whip the camera out very much! I don't much enjoy scrapping Christmas photos anyway - so it's OK. But I am sharing a few that I did manage to take!

I uploaded a collage into my last post - to show the chaos of all the kids opening at my parents house! The collage here are photos from Christmas Eve at the Griswold's. The baby is my new great-nephew J! Also, note the lights that my dh and his bro put up as a birthday surprise for their mom! And, a photo of the turducken.... let me just say - it was YUMMY. There were not very many leftovers from that bird within a bird within a bird!

Christmas Day was at our house - and I didn't even take ONE SINGLE PHOTO of Christmas morning... bad mommy! So I have no photos to show you the girls' thrilled faces when they opened their big gifts of iPod Classics! The afternoon was spent regulating computer time, as they share a computer and both wanted to load stuff on their iPod's right away! The iPods were a huge hit - both girls are just loving them!! My parents and my aunt joined us for Roast Beast for Christmas dinner - and I pulled out my good China! It was a great day!

Boxing Day was skating day - as we all had back to back to back lessons - and then the girls and I went out to lunch and shopping with gift cards! We hit Borders, and I picked up the new Ken Follett book - and I picked up the old one too - as it had been 20 years, and I read my mom's copy back then. I proceeded to spend 18 hours (not continuously - but almost) re-reading The Pillars of the Earth. GREAT BOOK. I'm saving the new one, World Without End, for my upcoming plane trips to CA and to HI.

The girls slept over/or had sleep overs here - the 26th and 27th - and spent lots of time with friends! Last night we finally reconvened as a family, and went downriver to take J's parents out to their favorite restaurant for dinner. His bro's family also joined us - and we got to see my neice and grand-nephew one more time before they head back to New York today.

Well... off to prep the house for our annual New Year's Party!!! More posts later!

Merry Christmas!!!

It feels like Christmas now!! We had our celebration with my family last night! What fun!!!

I was so pleased, because several of the gifts I selected turned out to be "Home Run" gifts for my family! Even the books that I got my siblings who weren't "mine" to buy for were a big hit! (I got them all signed copies of "Michigan's Most Haunted" by Sandy Arno Lyons. Sandy used to be A's figure skating coach, and still coaches at our rink!)

My sister J's dh B loved the cheap voice changer toy I bought him as a joke - he talked into it all night - much to the amusement of his children, and his neices and nephews!

I managed to purchase several gifts for my mom, right under her nose (we shopped together) and STILL surprise her!!

My dad loved the St. Anthony golf balls - which were a last minute impulse buy - purchased while shopping for Baby E's baptism gift! He also surprised himself and us by choking up when he opened my promise note to take He and Mom to see Man of LaMancha later this year!

The kids all loved the lounge outfits I got for them. My neice J got my attention, while petting her velour Cinderella outfit to tell me "Aunt Kate, I just LOVE this." (she's 4 - it was totally precious!) And, my neice L took one look at the cupcake purse that she and all the girl cousins got (I ordered from Etsy) and slung it over her arm and said "Bye!" (she's 2 - and totally into purses and bags, and going bye-bye!) Nephew DJ was way into his Lightening McQueen outfit as well!

My kids had a good Christmas too - and after all my sibs with the little kids left - we sat down to watch E's new Shimmy & Shake edition of "Hairspray". Lots of fun!!!

Oh, Oh, Oh.... and I almost forgot - my bro C has connections (his buddy is in the band) and I got both Might Could CD's - LOVE THEM!!

Pecan Sandies/Sandies/Sand Tarts/Snowballs

These are one of my Dad's favorite cookies. I have two copies of the recipe - both in my Grandma Cron's handwriting - although she gives credit for the recipe to someone else. I haven't made these in AGES - but I had a hankering - and I knew my Dad would appreciate them (which he did!)

I didn't do the best job with my photojournalism of the baking process. It was a bit chaotic here, with everyone doing their own thing to get ready for Christmas - and I got sidetracked partway through baking!

I made a double batch of the Recipe which I am posting - so that I would have enough to last through all the cookie trays we are taking places!!

Sandies - from the kitchen of me - by way of my Grandma Cron - by way of someone named Jane Smalley.
1/2 C Butter
1/2 C Crisco
5 T Powdered Sugar (I looked this up - that equals 1/3 cup!)
2 C Flour & Salt (OK I decided that my Grandma did NOT mean 2 cups of salt - and I just put in about 1/2 t (I poured some into my hand, and threw it in with the 2 cups of flour)
1 t Vanilla
1 t Water (I think this is just to keep the dough moist enough to ball up - when I doubled - I didn't add the 2nd t until I checked the dough.
1 C chopped nuts (but my Grandma ALWAYS used Pecans - so I did too!)
Cream shortening, butter and sugar. (I used my pastry cutter)
Add vanilla, water. Then add salt and flour. Finally, add the nuts.

Shape in half-moons or balls (I chose balls, and used my mini scoop from Pampered Chef).
Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar when cool.

Enjoy! We are!!

Gooney Ball Disaster!!

The snow may have made the kids happy with a Snow Day - and me happy for my bonus day with them... but there was one person in our household who wasn't too thrilled with the effects of the snowstorm.

Poor J... he's in mourning over the GooneyBall. You may recall from an earlier post that he decided to construct the ball with Hot Glue, rather than staples that rust. Unfortunately - extreme cold and Hot Glue do not mix. The bond is compromised, then add wind, and the weight of snow - and you have a recipe for unravelled Gooney Ball.

As the gooney ball goes into the tree before the lights go on - it's almost impossible to repair the ball without completely dismantling all the lights on the tree. And right now, the tree is in the middle of an 18" snow drift - further complicating the problem.

I had to give lots of consoling hugs (and extra cookies from the baking) to cheer up J. But he's not really cheered up. He turned off the gooney ball portion of the lights - but the colored tree lights are still going on. The Gooney Ball may not rise again until Christmas 2008. {sigh}

Snow Day!!

We got dumped with snow this weekend - so much so, that the snowfall on Sunday morning affected us all the way to Monday, with school cancellations! Because we've been running at full tilt around here - with no time to speak of on the weekends (despite the snow, A still had 4 shows this weekend!) - I decided the Snow Day was God's gift to us to spend some family time making Christmas Treats!!

So, we baked, and made chocolates, and had friends over for the day! Younger girls built snow forts in the yard, Older girls painted chocolate molds (didn't they turn out AWESOME?) and the two mom's baked cookies! It was a bit of chaos - but fun!

I even turned off the computer for the day so that I wouldn't be distracted from my "gift" day!! Hmmm... speaking of gifts - I need to seriously do some wrapping - and finish up those last few shopping needs!!!

I'm back to work today - Kid's are back to school - but yesterday was a wonderful gift!

Christmas is coming... the Goose is getting fat!

That Christmas Carol lyric always cracks me up! No Geese around here - but rumor has it that Mom G is preparing a Turducken for Christmas Eve dinner! All agreed that it would be a fun adventure - and since we all like Turkey and Duck and Chicken - it should be yummy!

Christmas Tree!!! That's right - the Christmas tree is up and lit in the dining room. No ornaments yet - but it is up and in the front window! Again, we switched to the LED lights - and the colors are so brilliant (and it's energy efficient!! BONUS!) I must give credit, where credit is due, however. J, E & A all assembled and lit the tree last night - I sat at my computer desk working on the upcoming Test Session for the Figure Skating Club. I did ooh and ahh when it was complete though!!

Gooney Ball update. Apparantly it's a bigger hit in the neighborhood than even we realized! Last year, as you know, the Gooney Ball died - and so did not make it's annual appearance on the tree. This year, a new gooney ball was constructed, and installed - but much later than our icicle lights went up.

At least three carpool parents have asked E to convey their praise and appreciation for the tree, and last night BOTH J and I had total strangers stop, or slow down, and shout out their windows about loving our lights as we were walking to or from our vehicles. Certainly makes all the work J did, lovingly reconstructing the gooney ball, worthwhile!

Tomorrow is A's 12th birthday - and is she ever excited. Of course, between school and "Alice In Wonderland" she has almost zero free time on her birthday. We have some surprises up our sleeves for her birthday!

Well, hold on tight - we are headed into another whirlwind weekend!

The Gooney Ball Lives!!

The new gooney ball is finished, and on display!!

In addition to the new and improved gooney ball, J purchased all new LED lights for the tree. The colors on these new lights are just brilliant! The photos just cannot capture how great they look! The photo above is without the flash, and the photo below is with the flash. Neither really captures the lights very well.

We've had lots of compliments since we got the ball up and the tree decorated - and we're so glad we brought the joy of Christmas back to one of our favorite neighbors (you know who you are... hee hee!)

Now.... about a tree INSIDE the house! LOL.

I did purchase some supplies to do some baking - just not sure when I'm going to do it yet!

What????

I'm sure that's what you're saying when you look at this photo!

This, my friends, is a "Gooney Ball" in progress. Yep. My DH is building a Gooney Ball.... but let me tell the whole story...

Once upon a time, a few years after we moved into our house, our neighbor walked across the cul de sac with a gift! It seems that his son had been given this gooney ball - which he passed on to his dad, who passed it on to us - because it just seemed like it would be perfect on top of the big "christmas tree" in our front yard.

So, knowing it was sort of a half-joke - J decided to figure out a way to mount the gooney ball atop the tree.... and wow - our neighbor was right - it was PERFECT on top of our tree! So... every year since, we have faithfully mounted the gooney ball atop our big tree. Each year the tree grows, and it becomes more challenging for J, and then last year - tragedy struck... the gooney ball DIED. (I mean, when you think about it - the fact that it kept lighting for something like 8 years is pretty amazing - it was bound to die sometime!!)

J went searching - and found and purchased what he thought would be the perfect replacement. A big, store made gooney ball - with light effects!!! (ooooh.... ahhhhhh.....)

Problem was - he couldn't figure out how to get it up on top of our tree (too heavy - no way to attach it to the giant pole he's used in the past) AND once it got up there - all those fancy effects? We wouldn't be able to reach the controller.

So, last week, he came to the conclusion that he was just going to have to BUILD HIS OWN GOONEY BALL. Thus the photo above - the new gooney ball - mid construction. We've had a minor setback. He underestimated the number of cups it would take - so he has to go buy more.

But - never fear - the gooney ball WILL rise again (even if it's Christmas Eve, J says).

Holiday Fun

Courtesy of Kim at ScrapBizness...

{ELF} Yourself 2007 is UP: LINK.

If Elfing isn't your style, you can {Scrooge} Yourself (or your boss - LOL!): LINK.

Here is our Elfed Family: LINK

Here is Mo Elfed: LINK

And here is my hubby, Mr. Scrooge: LINK His comment; "Wow, I'm a good dancer!"

Thanks Kim - this was too much fun!!