Deck ...

the halls, walls, corners and everywhere!

We are all decked out (and have been ... ). The finishing touch was when John hung the lights up outside on Saturday. Finally I feel complete ... we didn't have lights up outside last year. We waited for the 90% off clearance sales after Christmas. It was worth the wait.

I replaced my favorite tree ... it was 16 years old and falling apart. Now my new dream tree ...

I painted all of these ornaments several years ago. I pulled out my old patterns the other day while chatting with my sister on the phone and realized how much I loved painting. Hmmm...

I found a grapevine balls and loaded it up with lights and wired some to the outside. I also draped grapevine around the tree as "garland".

A couple of new additions ... and our advent calendar that the kids are so excited to do each day!

I have a few more things I added this year (sales from last year) and will post pictures later.

It's definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Turkey (carcass) soup

For some reason we tend to love the Thanksgiving leftovers even more than the original meal. I don't know why.

Last night we had Turkey Carcass Soup. I boiled the carcass and then de-boned the turkey. I added celery, onion and carrots. Threw in some bullion cubes along with the extra turkey drippings. The homemade noodles were the kicker - a must!

I remember eating these noodles when I was a little girl. No need for a pasta press. Roll out the noodles on your counter and cut with a pizza cutter. It is fun because the sizes of the noodles can vary from very wide to thin.


Homemade Noodles

Description:
This is my Mom's recipe she used with her homemade noodle soup when I was growing up; a favorite of Jaley's.

Ingredients:
3 cups four
2 tsp salt
3 eggs (4 med eggs)
3 TBSP olive or vegetable oil
1/4 cup cold water
corn starch

Directions:
Work liquids in with fingers to make a stiff dough (or be like me and throw it all in the mixer and turn it on).
Knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and set on counter for 1 hour at room temp.

Sprinkle counter or rolling surface with corn starch. Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick (thin enough to read through).

Cook or dry. You can even throw it in your freezer until ready to use in your next soup.

I Ate Too Much .... Leftovers

Kerst had a cute poetry reading just before Thanksgiving with his class at school.

Here are a couple of my favorites (Kerst participated in the first one).

I Ate Too Much

I ate too much turkey,
I ate too much corn,
I ate too much pudding and pie.
I'm stuffed up with muffins
and much too much stuffin',
I'm probably going to die

I piled up my plate
and I ate and ate,
but I wish I had known when to stop,
for I'm so crammed with yams,
sauces, gravies, and jams
that my buttons are starting to pop.

I'm full of tomatoes
and french fried potatoes,
my stomach is swollen and sore,
but there's still some dessert,
so I guess it won't hurt
if I eat a bit more.

Leftovers

Thanksgiving has been over
for at least a week or two,
but we're still all eating turkey,
turkey salad, turkey stew,
turkey puffs and turkey pudding,
turkey patties, turkey pies,
turkey bisque and turkey burgers,
turkey fritters, turkey fries.

For lunch our mother made us
turkey slices on a stick,
there'll be turkey tarts for supper
all this turkey makes me sick.

For tomorrow she's preparing
turkey dumplings stuffed with peas,
Oh I never thought I'd say this,
"MOTHER! NO MORE TURKEY .... PLEASE!"

Traditional? NOT!

Thanksgiving -

Our guests bailed on us - sniff sniff.

So we decided to be un-traditional.

We had a BLAST!

Kendall loved being outside in the beautiful weather and started a game of Duck Duck Goose.

Julia stopped for a "pose" thinking she had enough head start with Kendall chasing her.

I think this is a "must do again" activity! Next year (with Mike and Kelly - and anyone else who joins us), we will bring a table cloth, candles and goblets.

Don't worry, we are eating turkey tonight and then hitting the 10:00 p.m. opening of the outlets! Man, I love unconventional traditions!

Solo

Julia is singing a solo in her High School Holiday Concert - Vivaldi Gloria - 10 - Qui sedes ad dexteram. I am really excited to hear the choirs sing Vivaldi. Her voice teacher commented ~ this is a wonderful experience for Highschoolers to perform something so classically challenging.

I'm also very excited to hear her new Enchords group perform as well. They are over right now practicing some of their numbers ... oh is it a treat to hear such angelic voices.

Gross Out Menu - details

From our family Gross-out Feast menu post, I realized you probably couldn't read the "description" of the food we were serving. Jaley helped me with the descriptions and we were literally rolling on the floor laughing! Jaley did the artwork for this menu. (We did have a second gross-out feast that really grossed them out this year! The pictures are here)

So here is the text from our menu:

 Appetizers 

Monster Boogers – hand picked and preserved for your enjoyment. Served with crispy bat wings.

Monster Barf - who knows what’s in there … have you watched Shrek lately? Served with crispy bat wings.

Ursula’s Jumbo Lipstick – those poor unfortunate souls …. Served with ocean slime.

Monster Toes – served with their very own ….
toe jam!

 Main Dishes 

*Main dishes served with your choice of mealworm clusters or re-hydrated skeleton bones and a bilious salad

Maggot Burgers – Now how did that get in there? Maggots freshly gathered from the dumpster topped with a variety of …. Disgusting toppings (puss, coagulated blood, pond scum, leaf from Venus Fly trap, formaldehyde cuke and Tom A’s toes)

Pirate Fingers – Donated by Captain James Hook and his crew from the Jolly Roger. Served with coagulated blood, pond scum and chopped formaldehyde cukes. Fingers served on moldy scraps from the kitchen on the Jolly Roger.

Barf in a Bag – Generously donated by Elitch Garden Amusement Park. Local from Denver Colorado!


 Desserts  editor notes are in italics

Diaper Surprise – Gee, thanks E. (Our baby cousin attending the event)! (Served in a real diaper!)

Frozen Bovine Fluid – Served with your choice of toppings: Kidney Stones, Coagulated Blood, Puss, and “The Runs”, whipped phlegm. (The toppings were served in test tubes)

Witch Fingers – A secret stash found in OZ in a hidden compartment of the Lolli-pop Guild Boys’ fort. And you thought they liked lolli-pops … hmmm


 Drinks 

Vampire Blood – A fresh mixture of O, A, B, and AB blood collected from alarmed prey.

Dehydrated Patient 24 hour collection samples - Generously donated by our local lab.

On the back of the menu we had this:
Eat at your own risk.
Barf Bags available upon request.
Please send complaints to:
www.wedon’tcare.com

You can find the translation for these food items here.

She thought

She thought she bombed it. Gave up on thinking it possible.

It is possible! She just found out that she is the only one from her High School that made All State Choir!!!

Way to go Jewlz!

Let it ...

Snow!!!

It started to lightly snow yesterday late afternoon. I heard some squealing and went to see what was going on. I discovered this:
A light snow covered the ground when we tucked the boys in bed.

They woke up to over a foot of snow this morning!

Over heard

Over heard while Jaley is working on her French homework -
While looking through her French textbook Jaley ponders out loud, "Why does this book have to be in French?"

For those who know Julia ... she is QUEEN of table manners. If caught chewing with your mouth opened or talking with food in your mouth she will give you "the look" and signal a closed mouth sign. This morning Kendall uses Julia's hand signal and tells Jenna, "Eat with yours mouth closed." He does this with his mouth full of food.

Kerst and Kendall are playing in their room together. Kerst is instructing Kendall on how to behave. "Jumping on the bed is bad," Kerst tells Kendall. From another room you hear Jenna pipe in, "Yah, but I like to do it!"

I'm still chuckling...

Halloween Costumes

A bit late, I know.

We went with a Renaissance theme ... getting ready for our large family picture in 2011 at the family reunion when we attend the Renaissance festival in costume!

This Halloween was right at the end of a snow storm that resulted in 3 snow days and no Halloween/Fall Festival at the Elementary Schools. Kerst was sad. Oct 31 had beautiful weather! Even with about a foot of snow on the ground, we wandered out - without coats ... that's how beautiful it was - and went trick-or-treating. Kerst and Jaley were done trick-or-treating after doing our block. Kendall wanted to go on. Kendall was out voted.

Kendall the pirate. He fits the part a little too well ... even when not in costume. Arrrr....

Jaley the washing wench ... even with a blackened out tooth!

Kerst and Kendall ... the pirate boys.

Remembering

(Photo by my sister Kelly)

Thank you to our past, present and future Veterans and all American Military Heros.

Yet another Gross Out Feast

We did a second Gross-out Feast this year for the kids and their friends.


It was Gross! The kids even admitted that I did a better job this year!

Appetizers: Ursula's Lipstick and BBQ Bat Wings
Main Dish: Flesh Eating Serpent - the kids were grossed out, but managed to choke it down.


Dessert: Bleeding Heart. Not so realistic, but the kids were so grossed out after I cut into it that they couldn't eat it at all. It was yummy!

Been busy

I know, I know ... we have been busy here. The first couple of weeks of November are a bit hairy with a music fireside John and I gave, preschool hosted at our home (11 preschoolers), Enrichment Night mini-class taught by me ... and the other every day stuff.

We had a wonderful evening tonight with John's folks. They came out for a quick visit. It is always so wonderful to see them. I am blessed to have such wonderful in-laws.

So, no worries ... we are alive and I still need to post the adorable pictures of my kids at Halloween (at least the ones that dressed up). First I need to pull all 1,200 pictures off of my camera taken in the month of October!