Merry Christmas - a day late!

Yesterday was Christmas, so I'm a little late in my greeting.

We had a wonderful relaxing day! We started with breakfast - orange bow knots, scrambled eggs, and sausage..............
Then we opened our stockings - no wrapped gifts this year.....................
Then it was such a beautiful day, we actually sat outside on the patio and had coffee with the friends (we even turned the heater off at one point because it was so warm - quite a contrast to last year!)..................................
Christmas Eve was our traditional family dinner of flank steak before church. We had a guest chef in the house - he did an AWESOME job!
Today Nathan took Brandon, Emily and I shopping and out for lunch. What a treat - he spoiled us! He's so generous and enjoys treating others!

Tonight my brother and his family come in from Oregon to stay with us a few days, and tomorrow the whole Brim clan is coming over - fun times! I love having everyone together! I know how I love it when I have all my kids together - I can only imagine how my mom feels when all of us kids are together!

Almond Stick with mom.....................traditions!

Every year for......................years, I don't even know how many, my mom and I have done our part to fit into the dutch community, and we make almond stick.

My mom buys the ingredients, mixes up the dough and filling, and then brings everything to my house and we assemble them and bake (and sample :-) them. I know, you're thinking - Hey, I want in on that deal! I tease my mom and tell her as long as I can get her wheelchair up to the counter, she's not getting out of our tradition!! :-)
My mom makes the best - even real Dutchies say that! Her dough is SOOOOOOOOOOOO flaky and they ALWAYS turn out. Every year she says "I don't think they're going to turn out this year"- but every year they do.

I miss my dad on days like this - he would help mom haul everything in, and then he would sit down with a book and a blanket by the fire - ready to sample at any minute. He didn't love almond stick - but he liked it warm. Typing about him, makes me sit here and cry - so we'll move on - I miss you daddy!

We always do a double batch, that's 16 almond stick.

My mom rolls out the dough (the hardest part by far)............................(she can roll it out perfectly rectangle and the perfect size!)..................................
I put in the filling and roll 'em up................................

and the hardest job of all is for Emily :-)................................
My favorite thing about the holidays is the traditions...................sleeping by the tree on Christmas Eve, making almond stick, my annual goodies list, having the Brim gang over, having my family around....................we are blessed indeed!

Brownie Bites

Last week I mentioned that I made a new treat for one of our parties (at least new to me).

I had been at Treasury of Memories open house in their warehouse location and sampled one of these treats - OK - I took two - but who could resist!

I just took a boxed brownie mix and baked it in mini muffin pans(make sure you grease them well). Then I made buttercream frosting and used Creme' de menthe syrup (it's a torani syrup that you would put in a latte) and added the mint flavor. It also adds the green color as the syrup is bright green!
I used my accent decorator from Pampered Chef and piped the frosting on top and then I sprinkled with crushed candy canes. The only thing I would do different is, I would place the crushed candy canes on right away instead of frosting them all firsts and then going back to do that. The frosting had started setting up and the candy cane didn't stick so well.
Give them a try - they're awesome (and addicting!)

Last Sunday night

Okay - here are the pics from our evening with the College Age Christ Group! I can't show all the pics as some of those involved would be incriminated :-)

These group of people are a lot of fun....................................
In this pic, Debbie had just given each group a bag of misc. items and told them they had 10 minutes to make one person in their group a Christmas item ie: package, tree, toy, reindeer......you get the idea! Here is where they are all just beginning to brainstorm.......
This young lady happens to be an elf..................................
This young man is a Christmas tree.............................
It was great fun to watch, and I learned something new about my friend Debbie. She always offers to plan the games........................and now I know why..................................
......she's the one in the red sweater leaving the scene of the crime................she plans these games and then walks away......................SHE PLANS THEM SO SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO PLAY THEM! I always thought she was so gracious to be the game planner - but I've got her number now!! :-)

They did a gift exchange, and someone received.........basically, a snuggie for dogs, and just had to try it on Max!
I tried a fun dessert/cookie/bar to serve that night.............................next post!

Whew - I almost missed it...............................

Last night I had the FOLC board (Friends of Lynden Christian School) over for dinner.

Things went very smoothly, except the potatoes were a bit dry, the beans a bit wilted, .........I left them in the oven and turned the oven off..........but obviously too long.

It was great to sit and visit with everyone just about everyday stuff, play dutch bingo (you know - when you figure out who's related to who :-), and enjoy a meal together.

As usual I was busy right up to when they walked in, so I forgot to take a picture of the table.

I was busy serving, and then we went straight to our meeting. At one point, I thought "I need to get a group picture of everyone", but we were running late and could hear the snow/ice hitting the windows, so we barreled through, wrapped it up, and everyone headed home.

As I started cleaning up, I realized I hadn't taken a picture for my daily December album :-(. Sooooooo, I took a picture of what I could.............................................

I know, pitiful.........................but it will be on Day #14 in my book!
And last but not least....................HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDY!!!!! Wish I could celebrate with you my dear friend! I hate how many miles are between us, but I love how close our hearts are! You are a precious encourager to me and I love you!

Busy, busy, busy...................

Thursday night was Emily's Choir concert.................
Friday night, Ken and Sal came for dinner and we drove around and looked at lights while we sipped white choc./peppermint lattes............................they are precious friends of ours!
Saturday Kim and Becky came by to work on a project and Kim helped me spruce up my tree! Thanks Kim - it was looking so pitiful.......................much betta'!!
Saturday night the Jansens and Raskes came for dinner. Dan made superb ribs, Jeff made divine appetizers, Kathi made an apple pie with a twist, the night was relaxing and the only thing missing were Brian and Judy:-{!!!!
Today my friend Kari was at church. She and her family have moved to Montana and it was SO good to see her. Kari is like my daughter - I love her so much!! She gave me a special necklace that has a charm that says "God Bless You" on it(she has one on in the picture. She said some very sweet words to me - this picture was after the tears!! Thank you Lord for Kari!

Tonight we had the College Age Christ Group over for dessert. It was a wild and crazy - insanely fun - party. Pictures to follow............................

catching up

Today my friend Karla came over for coffee. Sounds like something very ordinary, except we literally have not sat and visited for years. I sang at her wedding over 20 years ago, and our girls were very good friends when they were little, they went to preschool together - lots of memories!

It was so good to sit and visit, ( of course I took a picture for day 10 in my Daily December album). Chris and Karla are Foster parents and she brought their little guy along. I soooo respect what she does......it is a complete sacrifice and I pray that God will continue to bless them as they give of themselves. I was in a foster home for 11 months, so foster parents have a special spot in my heart!
I sat down yesterday and put together a few more pages in my Daily December album.......here are a couple of the pages. I'm really enjoying this project........it really is an instant gratification type of project - that's what I'm all about!!

Day 7.............................
Day 5............................

I finally got the downstairs decorating done and cleaned up by bedtime Monday night. Now I just need to get busy and do the tree upstairs. Em and I are planning on doing that after school today.

All dressed up...............

Not very often do I get my whole family together AND all dressed up.

Last week at Jon and Bree's wedding - I got just that!
Just had to share................

Oh ya, and by the way, I DID buy a camera - but how do you take a picture of a camera to put on your blog?!?!

oh ya, and by the way #2, my house is still a mess and my decorating is not done. Fri. PM came home from work at 6:30 and hubby wanted to watch a movie (that NEVER happens) and I said "oh good, I can decorate while we watch, and he informed me this was a sit and watch a movie together night). Sat. A.M. I woke up (late again) puttered around and left at 11:30 to go to B'ham with Kathi. We got home at 4, had to take Em to a friends, got home made a salad and baked crusty bread and had to be at friends by 6.

Now it is 11:45 on Sunday, we have to eat lunch and be at church by 1:00 to watch a play................maybe this evening? Now I'm just avoiding it because it seems overwhelming - I must be sick, or in denial!

I'm stuck................

USUALLY- I love to decorate for Christmas

USUALLY - I do it in a very organized fashion, tree first, then living room, get a bin out and empty it put it away.....etc.

USUALLY - once I get the stuff out I'm done in 2 days...(here's where the breakdown begins....)

USUALLY - is NOT happening this year.

Mon - dear hubby and I got ALL the boxes down and into the garage, then Mon. evening after work, my goal was to get the tree all done. Made dinner, started a batch of bread, got the tree out of the box,(I got the tree up and that's as far as I got - I went to bed at 9:30 and left a naked tree)
Tues - worked and went to the basketball game

Wed - home ALL day to decorate - had Christmas Tree decoration crisis, cleaned the bathrooms, made homemade soup and crusty bread, MADE A BIG MESS by hauling in too much and working in a very disorganized fashion. I DID get the tree done and a couple small areas.......but lots left to do!

Thur - needed to do the B'ham run and was planning on FINISHING decorating when I got home cuz' I had to work tonight. Got home from B'ham unloaded and put everything away, made dinner and went to work.

Tomorrow - I work - I'M PLANNING on finishing tomorrow night - but so far my plans haven't worked this week and I'm living in a mess and it's stressing me out BIG TIME!!!!! (which of course makes no sense as to why I'm sitting at the computer blogging - but it's too late to dig in tonight!!)
....................the best laid plans of mice and men!

The Daily December Album - day one!!

So good, so far - of course it's only Dec. 2nd, but I am off and running.

I have to finish decorating the pages and getting them ready to "slap" the pictures in, but my plan is to use my handy dandy little printer to print of the pages every couple days (or every day if the mood happens) and add them to my album.
Here is day one - Randy and I brought down ALL the bins with Christmas decorations and put them in the garage. Now it is my job over the next couple days to get them out and put them in just the right places.

I will keep you updated on the album - so far (again only 1 day) it's a project I'm really excited about since Tami encouraged me to have the album ready!

Bread Recipe

Several months ago I did a post on jam and bread and many of you asked for my bread recipe................well here it is, better late than never !! :-)

Homemade White Bread

1/2 c. warm water
4 tsp. yeast (or 2 packets)
1/2 c. milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1 3/4 c. cold water
2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. sugar
6+ c. flour

In large mixing bowl add yeast to water and stir. Heat milk and butter in microwave until butter is melted. Pour water and hot milk into yeast mixture at the same time. Add salt and sugar and mix well. If you are using a mixer with a dough hook place all 6 cups of flour in the mixer. Start mixer and once dough starts to wrap around hook, sprinkle in more flour. Just keep adding flour until dough starts to "clean" off the bowl. The trick is to make dough so it's NOT sticky to the touch, and if you stop the mixer and let it rest for a minute and restart it, it's done if the dough wraps right up around the hook again.


If mixing by hand, place 3 cups of flour in bowl and stir. Stir in as much of remaining flour as you can, then place dough on floured counter and knead in enough flour so that dough is elasticky (my word!) and not sticky to the touch.

When your dough is done, place in well greased large bowl and flip over so all sides are greased. Let rise in warm place at least 1 1/2 hours.............................
Dough after 1 1/2 hr. rise (mine fell a bit before I took the picture)..........

Punch dough down and place on floured counter. Divide into 2 large or 3 small pieces. Roll dough long and skinny (probably about 16" long by 7" wide). Roll up in loaf and tuck edges under so there are no loose edges.

Let rise about 30 min and then bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 min. (I bake mine for 22 min).

Immediately remove from pan on cooling rack and brush with butter. I place them in bread bags after about 5 min. and that softens the crust.
I realize you see 4 loaves here - I make 1 1/2 batches to keep this family in bread for a week!

*******Tips I've learned***********
* water temperature is perfect if you run water over your wrist and basically can't feel it - just like a baby's bottle - body temp!

* sometimes I add raisins to one of the loaves - YUM!

* this dough works great for cinnamon rolls too!

* I use to use ONLY Robin Hood flour but I got tired of going to Canada, so now I go to Cash and Carry and get the brown label "MORBREAD" bag of flour - It's the only flour I use in my house and I love it.

* Once your family gets use to it - no more luxury of store bought bread :-)

* this bread makes the BEST grilled cheese and french toast EVER!!

Feel free to ask questions, I had plenty of training and will help where I can!

Dinner for 30

Friday Randy and I hosted a rehearsal dinner for Randy's nephew Jon and his fiancee' Bree.

My quote for the day is, "you are only as good as your help!". Jeff and Kathi, and Dan and Marla gave of themselves greatly in helping us!

Marla cooked all day with me,
Kathi (and my neighbor Stacy) pooled their resources (with a little help from my cupboards) and set beautiful tables........
My niece Marla made beautiful flower arrangements for the tables.......
Randy hung up lights outside, set up tables and chairs, cleaned up outside, put the furniture back together on the back patio (we had to disassemble it all during the great winds!!)
It was a very successful dinner, and all went smoothly.
I am so grateful for our fabulous friends (which I don't even really recall formally asking for help - I hope I didn't assume :-0........................... when I said that we would do the dinner they didn't know it meant WE!!!). I swear we work so well together -we could do this professionally!
And is this the sexiest thing you've ever seen? A gorgeous hunk o' man dressed up AND doing dishes!!! (I didn't even ask him to - am I blessed or what?!?!).
Today - I am tired - kind of in a fog..............I have to leave for the wedding in 2 1/2 hours and I haven't thought about hopping in the shower yet - too much work! I woke up at 9:15 (did I mention I stayed up until 12:30 cleaning and wiping down floors? - I just can't wake up to a mess!) and then laid in bed and watched a movie until 11am - YIKES - but it sure felt awesome!!