Happy Birthday!

Sunday was our Sweet Annie's first birthday.  It doesn't seem like a whole year has gone by.  But it has.  Because I have made it my goal for this year to spend more time with family and friends, I decided what better excuse to get the family together than to celebrate a birthday?  Not just one, but two.  My parents have Annie's littermate and brother, Chip.  If it weren't for the collar on Chip (that, and the fact that he's a boy and Annie's a girl) it is very difficult to tell them apart.
   I made plans to have everyone over for a lunch on Sunday.  My parents were told to bring Chip - he had to be in on the celebration, too.  Plus, Annie loves Chip and they could use a play date.


My parents arrived with Chip.  They came bringing a gift for each pup, and birthday hats!  Kristal and Jake arrived with gifts for each of them as well.  These pups sure made out! 
I made a big pan full of a warm, comforting chicken casserole and dinner rolls, and we had some fresh pineapple and strawberries and broccoli.  I also made a spice cake for dessert with ice cream on the side. 


When it was time for cake we served the birthday kids first.  Surprisingly they actually sat still and let us take pictures!           Chip is sitting between my parents.  He looks a little more eager to get to his dish of cake and ice cream.  Annie looked a little sad.  I think she was put-out that she had to wait until we said "OK!".




The afternoon was spent watching the pups play and laughing at them. Suzy tried to stay out of their way.  She really isn't in to "puppy antics" and roughhousing any more.  But, when the presents came out and then the cake, she was there to get her fair share!   Our meal was nothing elaborate, just plenty of comfort food to enjoy around the table with those we love.  Just the kind of Sunday that I want more of. 

Playing with your food is permitted!

When my two kids were young, I pretty much wore out the words, "Quit playing with your food and eat!".   No parent wants their kids to play with their food at the table.  Good table manners was one of the first things my kids were taught.  However, there are always exceptions to any rule.


This past weekend Jon and I had the privilege of having houseguests.  Not just any houseguests, but little munchkin houseguests.  Our friends had to go out of town and needed someone to watch their three kiddos; the same three kiddos that just happen to be our favorite munchkins.  Originally we were just going to be a taxi service to cheerleading and soccer games with an afternoon layover at our house, and their aunt would keep them overnight.  But, the aunt had to work so I quickly raised my hand and volunteered to keep them overnight.  It's never difficult to keep busy with these three kids.  They love to play games, help in the kitchen, and watch movies.  Through everything they don't even fight with one another! 


After everyone's activities were finished for the day we headed home.  Kristal was hanging out with us, too, and was staying for dinner.  I was making homemade chicken nuggets and that's one of her favorites, too.  I had lots of extra hands to help me out.  I put them to work setting the table, rolling the crescent rolls, mixing the Stove Top Stuffing, and anything else small hands can do in the kitchen.  Dinner was full of lots of laughter and empty plates. 


These kids are also great at clean-up time.  Once everything was cleared and put away, we all settled in front of the TV to watch Frozen.  They've seen it before but wanted to see it again.  This was the first time for Jon and I to see it.  Kristal has even seen it before - she's a preschool teacher and she saw it at school.  What's a movie without popcorn?  Apparently not much, even though these kids had just devoured more food than I could eat in two days' time they wanted Jon to make popcorn.  A huge bowl of popcorn was gone in a flash!


We have a spare bedroom that the kids always call our "hotel room" but they wanted a slumber party in sleeping bags sacked out on the living room floor.  Suzy and Annie were pretty excited to see the floor covered in little kids!  It was tough to get them to lay down in our room and go to sleep.  The next morning when I got up to let the dogs out, it was comical to watch them walk through the living room.  Both dogs walked past the sleeping children very slowly - really wanting to stop and take a slurp across their faces but knowing I would yell at them.  Surprisingly they both refrained from early morning kisses. 


By 7:30 am all were awake and ready for breakfast.  We had already planned to make pancakes, bacon, and eggs.  Not just any pancakes, but "snowman" pancakes.  I'm not real artistic, but figured even I could pour pancake batter onto the griddle in three circles to make snowman shapes.  I did so well at that I also made each of them a "bear face" pancake, too.  When my kids were little we would make animal shaped pancakes to enjoy on Sunday mornings, but that was as far as we went.  These kids wanted to decorate their pancakes.  I found some chocolate and butterscotch chips, sprinkles, and chocolate chunks they could use for buttons, eyes, etc.   Jeanette, the oldest, came up with a great idea for a scarf - bacon!!  Who wouldn't want a bacon scarf or hat??!! 


              
They had a blast playing with their food and every morsel was eaten.  While they were playing and eating, I could only imagine what their mother would think of this.  Once again they helped clean up and then we settled into the morning playing games and Barbie's.  Yahir went with Jon to start tractors and make sure all was fine at the dog club.  He was pretty excited that he got to drive the "green machine", a John Deere ATV.  


Before we took them home they helped me make meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans for a hearty lunch.  We also made strawberry shortcake for dessert.  A visit to our house is not complete without strawberries!  Amazingly these strawberries were delicious!  They were some of the sweetest, best tasting berries we'd had in a very long time.  I would have thought it was summer had it not been snowing outside the window!


After we dropped them off and got home, we plopped our tired bodies onto the couch and noticed how quiet our house was.  We were so tired we didn't even eat dinner.  A houseful of kids is fun! 

Christmas starts with love

Our Christmas season starts the weekend after Thanksgiving.  That's when we head to our favorite Christmas tree field and pick out our tree.  We've been buying our tree from the same man for many years.  He has beautiful trees, he's very friendly, and it's just the perfect start to our holiday season.  This year, however, our holiday season started sooner than normal.  Kristal and Jake bought a new home that came with a fireplace.  The seller took the mantel with them, so they were in need of a mantel.  Lucky for them Jon is a very talented and skilled carpenter!  He wanted to make a mantel that would have meaning.  First he decided on where the wood was going to come from.  We have belonged to a "dog" club for over 30 years and there was the perfect tree that needed to be cut down on the property.  Kristal grew up spending many, many hours on this property so it was perfect to get the wood from there.  One day this Fall Jon and Jake headed to the dog club property and cut the tree down.  Next on the list was to get this tree planed into wood that could be used.  It just so happens that the man we buy our Christmas trees from also runs a sawmill!  This man loves our daughter and is always so excited to see her each year.  Another point of "perfectness" for this mantel.  Jon picked the wood up from the sawmill and turned it into a beautiful mantel which he got hung on the fireplace just in time for Christmas! 


                   


Kristal  was so happy to have this finished and up in time for Christmas decorating.  I don't have a photo of that, but it is beautiful!  This was truly a project of love.


Yesterday was the start of our Christmas celebrations.  Jon's cousin hosts a Christmas party every year and it's always a great time spent with dear friends and relatives.  There is always so much good food that it's impossible to sample it all.  A few drinks are always consumed as well.  Yesterday morning I received a text from Barb - "Call me when you're up."  Uh oh.  That sounded like there was a problem!  Sure enough - it has been raining here and their basement was full of water.  That meant that their family room was wet and unavailable for the party.  She wanted to know if I thought she should cancel the party or would it not even matter that everyone would have to be crammed into their dining and living rooms.  I voted to go ahead with the party.  We all like each other!  The party was still on! 


Today is technically not a Christmas celebration - but it is a celebration with people we love.  Our Mexican friends and us get together every year and enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, complete with all the traditional trimmings.  That meal is today.  We'll have turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie...  


We have many more gatherings to attend and host and each one will create more memories of time spent with those we love.  I look forward to this season and all the special times with family and friends.  To each and every one of my AllRecipes friends I wish a Merry Christmas to you! 

What's for dinner? Oysters!!

   One of the best parts of our trips to Chincoteague Island is all the great seafood we get to eat.  In the summer we gorge ourselves on blue crab, flounder, oysters, clams...  all the good stuff.  In the winter we do the same, except there are no blue crabs, so we gorge ourselves on oysters even more!  This picture is a typical lunch for us on the Island.  Oysters are plentiful and delicious in the winter and knowing a "local" is a big plus.  He gets us all the oysters we want on the cheap.  We always bring a couple hundred home with us.  We have friends here who we share with, and we continue eating oysters for several days after we get home.
     Last night we had fried oysters.  We had not ever made them, but we will be making them again!
                                  
     We made half using a Cajun breading and half using a cornmeal breading.  Hard to say which was my favorite; can I say both?!  Jon mixed up a hot dipping sauce that was really good and I made a batch of Cheddar Biscuit Cups.  I steamed up some yellow squash, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes seasoned with lemon pepper salt and opened a jar of peaches I canned last summer, and we washed it all down with a craft brew from a local brewery. 
     Tonight on the menu is oyster stew.  I'm hoping this meal will be just as tasty as last night's. 
     Part of what makes these meals so good is with each bite it brings back just a slice of our wonderful stay on the Island.  Every year there is something that makes that visit just a little different and a little more special.  This year was our trip to The Hook.  There we had our choice of what seemed like a million perfect shells.  The boat ride back to Chincoteague was also memorable - we saw a seal - something we had never seen there before!