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So did you miss me....really?
We had a really great weekend with everyone home except San Deigo Boy (c'mon June!). It was great to be together even though it went really quickly.
I'll share some of the photos over the next few days.
Since my grandbabies aren't often in the same place at the same time, there was some jockeying for time with them....
I took a couple of hours and put together this project that I saw Saturday on Stacy Julian's blog. (Thanks, Lynne, for the link.)
Once I had the supplies together, it literally took no longer than 2 hours, start to finish.
The first thing The Girl said was, "It's hot pink...." Yes.....it's the only color my Target had in that size and yet, because I have a stash, I was able to find Christmas papers that actually coordinated with it. It's a wonderful thing.
I apologize for the glare on some of these photos. The album wouldn't lie flat so I could get a good shot, so I had to hold it open and try to focus one-handed. Very uncooperative, rather like some of my children.
As explained on Stacy's blog, the idea is to use this album as your advent "calendar" for the year. The white cardstock with tabs stapled to it has records memories of 24 random Christmas images and you do one per night, ending up with a finished mini album on Christmas Eve. I'm doing this. It has been so fun to go back through older photos of the kids, and pulling out those that go with our family traditions.
It is apparently time for yet another shift in the seasons. And I'm OK with that. I've said before that I really love living in a place where the seasons change. Just like switching my dishes, the seasons mark the passage through the year for me. And I've discovered that each season has something special about it. (Well, I have to really search for something good about summer, but sleeping with the windows open is right up there. And I can live through anything for 3 months.)
In my mind, winter is the quiet time. The recharge and refresh time. And who doesn't need that down time in their own lives? Doesn't everyone need time to sit and be quiet? To just be alone with your thoughts? I think of winter that way.
We had a storm come through yesterday and drop a little snow. I just love the look of fresh snow. It looks like powdered sugar on bare tree branches. Such a soft, white, clean, fresh look. I think of all my spring bulbs recharging their batteries for the show in a few short months, the roses gathering strength for fresh blooms....and the dang squash bugs overwintering to try to eat my garden again.
The last of the canning is in the jars as of yesterday. We did the applesauce. It's later in the year than I usually do it, because I refuse to do it by myself. It's a long process.... Long, sticky, drawn-out day and if my family wants to eat applesauce, they can darn well help.
We had to wait for a weekend when DH couldn't go playing very far. His "party on, Dude" personality (OK, so if you actually knew my DH, you'd know that those words have never, ever crossed his lips, but you get the idea....) keeps him searching for the next available play date with his similar-minded cronies, but this weekend he was grounded, not by me, but by work. So the push was on.
There's the washing and the cutting up. I use a combination of Jonathans and Golden Delicious. Everyone gets to help with this part. We have to be pretty careful, though. I have one son who shall remain nameless, who managed to cut his finger doing this job....with a butter knife.....two years running. As I recall, we gave him different jobs after that.
Then we cook them in these huge pots until the apples are tender. And these pots are very huge. The small pot in the middle there is 8 quarts.
After that they get dragged outside where DH and whoever he can wrangle get the job of grinding the cooked apples through a food mill. Since Preemie Boy had to write a paper that's due Monday, The Girl got the job. I should mention that she didn't get to go with her friend to see New Moon this afternoon because her mean parents made her help with the applesauce. It wasn't FAIR!!! This photo really cracks me up, because there's my DH on the phone while he's doing this job. If he can't be in the hills, he'll be on the phone talking to someone about being in the hills.
Then the sauce gets heated up in the big pots again. I add a little sugar and cinnamon at this point. It's always a bit of a battle when we get to this stage because DH likes it tart and I like it a little sweeter, so he guards the pot to make sure I don't "ruin" it by putting too much sugar in.
The last stage it putting it in bottles and processing it. We ended up with 35 quarts today. College Boy will try to take as much of it down to school as he can. But you can see why I don't want to do this job alone...and if you could only see my floor.
I will freely admit that I have a "thing" for dishes. I love seasonal plates, I love pretty china and I love switching them in and out. It's something that marks the passage of the year and the seasons for me. It's common knowledge that I have a mountain loving family and several years ago I bought a set of everyday stoneware that we have used day in and day out forever.
It has fishes on it and the males in my family think it is very cool. The Girl went along with it because she just doesn't remember anything different.
Since we have built the cabin, the general concensus is that the fishy dishes really do belong there. And I agree, but then what would we eat off every day? You would think that with my dish thing that I would have replaced it with something exotic. But no. I did white. Plain, servicable, white, diner stoneware. I figure I can use it with anything seasonal, since my family keeps growing and multiplying and all.
My Thanksgiving menu is the same year, after year, after year.... There are reasons for this. If I change something, it is sure to be someone's favorite thing that they've been looking forward to all year long and Thanksgiving would be totally ruined if I did something different. I try to avoid that kind of drama when I can, so I just stick to what works.
We have pie for dessert on Thanksgiving. That being said, if your family has a more open mindset than mine when it comes to holiday food, you could try the following recipe. It comes from a church cookbook and makes a very large sheet pan. (For those of you who have my ward cookbook, it's on page 233.) I should put in a note about the pan before I start. This bakes in a jelly roll pan. If you try to do it in a conventional 10x15 pan, it won't fit. I do this in one of those bigger, heavier 12x17 pans. Fits perfectly.
Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Frosting:
Mix together eggs, sugar, pumpkin, oil and vanilla. Sift in dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured (large) jelly roll pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let cool.
For frosting, mix together cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Spread over cooled cake.
This year is my turn to have the Marrieds for Thanksgiving. We alternate with the other sides of their families so that one year we have Thanksgiving and the next year we have Christmas. I will selfishly admit that I wish I could have them every holiday all the time. But I do remember being a young married and missing my family when we were with DH's on those "off" times....so I get it.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and in my opinion, the most overlooked. For me it has all the warm family connections, without all the craziness and over scheduling and materialism that goes with Christmas. On Thanksgiving you get together with your family, you eat some good food and you think about all the blessings you have....and then you have more good food. DH's parents will be here, along with my Marrieds and College Boy, so that will swell our usual numbers from 4 to13.
That being the case, I'm starting quite early to assemble parts of not only the big meal, but other things we will eat. So far, I have the cranberry sauce done as well as the pie crusts and have started accumulating bread for the dressing. I know that photo of the cranberry sauce looks a little strange...like some island of red floating in the air. The Tupperware it is in didn't translate very well for some reason.
