Happy New Year

It's a sad fact but true:  long gone are the days we could get away with celebrating New Year's Eve on East Coast time (i.e. 9pm for us).  *sigh*  No, the boys are wise to that.  So we "old folks" have to put our big girl panties on and stay up until midnight ;D  Good thing we had some friends to spend it with.  

But let me tell you, I was all too glad to head up to my cozy bed when the party wound down :D

We're having beautiful, cooooold, clear weather.

Even though morning doesn't come very early (short hours of daylight),

it sure is bright!

Our poor Christmas tree (which the boys - in their best Monty Python voices - dubbed "a shrubbery") was dry as a tumbleweed and I was quite relieved to get it moved outside.  I packed up all our Christmas decorations and the boys helped haul the tubs out to the garage.

It's winter outside - frost on the ground, and snow on all the hills,

and wintery inside the house, too...

but not so bitterly cold!

I've been busy sewing the last few days.

It's perfect weather to curl up with a hot cup of tea and hand-sew the binding.

A friend at church just had her second boy (woo-hoo!)

and I finished her quilt yesterday.

Hope she'll be in church tomorrow, so I can give it to her!

I'll post photos after I hand it off, though it's unlikely she'd see it here.

Kerry and the boys drove up to Mt. Baker and went snow-shoeing today (poor-man's skiing).

I was tempted to go and hang out in the lodge while they hiked around

but thought I'd rather enjoy a quiet house,

and start planning the next quilt.

Two more friends are expecting, this month and next.

Of course, the boys are fervently hoping for snow here,

and I wouldn't mind it myself -

I love the brightness it brings to this dark time of year.

My sweet, kind neighbor fell and broke her hip on Christmas Eve.

Isn't that just rotten?

It's especially awful because she's already had the other one replaced and had to have it re-done twice,

because her femur started cracking apart.

She has lots of good supportive family, so she's not in this alone,

but she's such a fixture in the neighborhood, a true friend -

always baking something to share,

or bringing us things from her garden,

or inviting me in for a cup of tea...

it just breaks my heart that she was in the hospital for Christmas,

and has to go through the whole hip-rehab thing again.

The last I heard is that she'll be coming home on Monday,

and we're looking for ways we can help.

Of course we're praying for her,

and if you would, I know she'd appreciate it.

Her name is Chickie :D

And now it's getting late.

I've washed my sheets and need to re-make the bed.

A tedious task,

but oh how I love fresh sheets!

I hope you're having a Happy New Year.

A fresh start is always a good thing,

don't you think?

And maybe, just maybe, it will snow...

Christmas Breakfast, Or Any Time ;D

Oh my.  It was good.  Something online caught my eye, and I ended up combining a couple of recipes to get this:

1/4 C Butter - melt in 9x13 casserole in 375F oven while you prepare the rest...

2 Cans of Cinnamon Rolls - cut each roll into six or eight pieces.  Save the little cans of frosting for later.

In a bowl, mix
6-8 eggs             with three teenage boys, I put in more
1/2 C eggnog    or milk, or heavy cream
1 t vanilla
1/4 t nutmeg
1-2 t cinnamon
You could add in a half cup or so of maple syrup, but I'm not overly fond of it so I didn't.

When the butter is melted and starting to brown, take the casserole out of the oven and pour in the pieces of cinnamon rolls.  I stirred them gently to spread the butter all over them.

Pour the egg mixture over the top.  I added

1 C chopped pecans   but nuts are optional.  The boys aren't crazy about them, so I clustered them at one end - more for me!

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Warm the frosting cup for a few seconds in the microwave, and drizzle it over the top.  I only used one of the two cups because I didn't want it too sweet.

Serve with syrup.  And we like the sausage links on the side - love that mix of sweet and savory :D

This was SO EASY.  If I was ambitious, I could have made my own cinnamon roll dough the night before, and I may try that sometime.  But for a Christmas morning breakfast?  Easy prep, not much clean-up, and quick!  Win-win!

And There Was Christmas, And All That That Implies...

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in The Hobbit that...

"Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to..."

And isn't that the truth?  I could tell you all about our Christmas (and I will, mostly because I want to remember it later myself), and it really won't sound like much, but it was all quite wonderful.

Of course, Wyatt and Tate were working a lot of hours at their grocery stores, because we all know how holidays and food are linked, do we not?  Gunnar volunteered (with some other CAP buddies) to help the Salvation Army with their annual gift distribution.  All the boys have helped with this on various years, and they really enjoy doing it.

They have quite the organizational system, with numbered gifts and boxes, and various sizes of food boxes for variously sized families.  Well done, Gunnar :D

Since my brother married (and has two sets of in-laws to manage) we see his family on alternate Christmases.  This year we had them Christmas Eve.  Or rather, my sister did - that is, she hosted.  Here's my brother and my mom...

... and Wyatt, my dad, my sister, Gunnar, and my SIL helping my niece.  Tate has to work until 6pm, so he and Kerry joined us a little later.

My sister really goes all out with decorating... very festive!

Her Christmas tree has all white lights, and mostly red and white decorations, unlike our anything-goes tree.

The boys were quite pleased to get the new, extended-version, Hobbit Trilogy of movies from my bro and SIL.

I think my dad was equally pleased with his array of hot cocoa mixes!

Tate... obviously glad to be off work!

And Naomi, in all her Princess glory.  Apparently she gave herself a haircut about a week before Christmas.  I think it's absolutely adorable short, if rather uneven.

Dave and his family had to head back to Seattle, and we were all ready to head home as well, to get ready for...

Christmas!

I know this pic (above) isn't fabulous of Wyatt or Gunnar, but I love how cozy the house looks with all the pretty lights and candles.  *Happy Sigh*  The boys opened their stockings before breakfast.

And in their stockings?  Warm socks for everyone!

Wyatt would be very distressed if I posted the series of pictures leading up to this one.  Suffice it to say, he was still waking up, but having a good time :D

Yes, Gunnar was happy with the chocolate "coal" in his stocking ;D

I think we've discovered a new Christmas breakfast favorite.  They may look stoic, but they were just waiting to dig in!

 I made a cinnamon-roll-french-toast casserole... and there were no leftovers.  Win!

Hmmm, hadn't had his coffee yet, I think, but he was enjoying his sausages :D

Ah, now he's fully awake!

And this was the view out the window, toward my parents' house.  The hill is forested, but the wide white swath is the Bonneville Power Lines (probably about a hundred yards across), just to give you some perspective.

This has become a tradition... the Outhouse Calendar.  Yes, photos of outhouses.  And with out-of-context quotes that take on new meaning along the photos, like Eleanor Roosevelt's "You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

Kerry always gets the boys a "fun" gift - i.e. a toy. Like an action figure...

... or a car...

... which sometimes turn out larger than he thought when he ordered them!

And of course, Kerry gets a great deal of chocolate and - his favorite - Candy-Cane Joe-Joe's.

He found this for me, in Mexico.

I've been slowly, over Christmases and birthdays, building the boys a basic toolbox.  This year - hammers, and allen and hex wrenches.

Then, on up to my parents' to get together with the extended family.  My boys and my cousin's girls get along great, if sometimes (okay, often) goofy!

This is absolutely classic of my dad... with a camera :D

What were they laughing at?  No idea.

Teasing back and forth with Gunnar about something or other.

Here's the five of them :D  Gunnar, Mikayla, Tate, Raelynn, and Wyatt.

The boys and Kerry gathered together to open their joint gift from my cousin's family...

... movie tickets, treats, and t-shirts - WIN!

I called her today to tell her we all went to see Star Wars this morning.  With the boys' work schedules, we were glad to find a NINE A.M. SHOWING, because that's what worked for everyone.  No spoilers.  We all liked it.  Undeniably, the boys are more "into it" than I am, but I enjoyed it too.  The previews nearly killed me, though.  What?  Are there only two movie plots in development anymore?  I think we saw about eight previews and they were all either
A.  Superheroes tricked into fighting each other (Superman/Batman or Captain America/Iron Man).
or
B.  DOOM DOOM DESPAIR APOCALYPSE THE WORLD IS ENDING AND WE MUST FIGHT

No thank you.

Back to Christmas...  It can be hard to get a good photo of Wyatt.  He tends to look so serious!  And he's really a fun guy!  (Not a mushroom.)  So here's another one of him laughing.

Oh, my mom cracks me up.  You'd think she'd never seen a frying pan before, though this is the exact set she asked for.  She looks so surprised, like we'd found the Ark of the Covenant.  Merry Christmas, Mom!

And this picture... well, this is apparently the ONLY photo I got of my cousin, who was sitting directly across the room from me.  I'm sorry, Ryan!  She's a nice looking person!

And somehow I didn't get a good one of my sister, but you saw her in the Christmas Eve photos.

Also, note my dad, opening a new pair of slippers.  I know some people get all formal and fancy for Christmas.  But there's my dad, wearing the "pants" my mom bought him - otherwise known as "pajamas".  Because we're all about comfort :D

And this is my cousin's husband, Mike.  Mike is fun to have around, because he's fun.  (Like that circular logic?)  Because he nearly always has that happy expression on his face, in spite of mostly likely being so exhausted he'd probably rather be in bed.  (He works for UPS - if I understand right, he's in charge of all the mechanics from Seattle to Canada - so this is a crazy-busy time of year for him.)

I don't believe in taking photos of people eating, but fret not, there was good food aplenty.  We practically ate ourselves into a food coma.  Merry Christmas.  But in defense, I give you this, which has been circulating the interwebs:

I would much rather err on the side of Nigella!

Happy New Year :D