More Christmas Photos

These are from Christmas Day at our house. Everyone came over in the morning and we opened gifts. Josh cooked up a mexican food feast for us.



This is my first attempt at a slideshow, so I hope it turns out well.

Christmas Eve Photo Post

On Christmas Eve, our tradition is to go to my parents house and have dinner with them. We always have fondue for dinner which is fun. We have an oil fondue to cook meat in and a cheese fondue to dip bread and/or veggies in. We also open gifts from the relatives who are out of state on Christmas Eve. Here are some photos from our Christmas Eve..

Fondue!

Waiting to chow down...

My Aunt Joan:

Evan & his Grandma:

The guys played with my parents' dog Flannigan:

And here is Flannigan:

Me and my sister.

The kiddos:


Abby & Grandma:


Papa:


The whole group:

From my family to yours....



Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and your family. I hope that you have a safe and happy holiday!

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Enough already!

Dear Mother Nature,

Thank you for the white Christmas, but enough with the snow already! This family would really like to make it to Grandma's house for Christmas dinner. We are willing to do the whole over the river and through the woods part, but we don't have a sleigh...just a Sonata. Yes, it starts with "s" just like "sleigh" does but it likes to slip and slide on icy roads not glide over them. So kindly stop with the white stuff, we want to enjoy the fondue. Okay?

Thank you!

Megan

Our town

I'm a busy little bee posting updates today (3 in one day...hot dog!). This is probably because I'm basically snowed in with 2 children who are actually behaving today. If you disregard the fact that they keep telling each other to shut up that they are "lame" that is. Abby and I are baking cookies, which this year means sticking dozens of break-n-bake cookies on pans. I do actually plan to make frosting for the sugar cookies from scratch. Don't give me too much credit, it's an easy recipe. LOL.

I wanted to share some photos of our downtown area. I love our little town and it is little. It's so little that if you don't pay attention, you'd easily miss it.

The train tracks cut the town almost in half.

Sheep!


We have very long trains that come through town every day.


One of the farms we pass on our way into town.

Stuffed Shells

We tried this new recipe out last week and it was so good that I thought I would share. It makes a lot, so you'll have enough to freeze (which we did). You can also make it healthier by using turkey sausage like we did. It tastes just as good as regular sausage so you won't know the difference.

Here's a photo of our finished product:



Stuffed Shells
Prep: 1 hr 15 min
Start to Finish: 1 hr 50 min
Ingredients
30 jumbo pasta shells (12-oz package)
3 links hot or sweet sausage, casings removed
1 medium onion, finely chopped
8 oz white button mushrooms, finely chopped
1 cup part-skim ricotta
1 large egg
1 tsp kosher salt
1-3/4 cups shredded Italian blend cheeses
1 cup (2 oz) baby spinach leaves
1 12-oz eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 26- to 28-oz jar garden-style pasta sauce
Directions
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil; add pasta and stir. Bring back to a boil, cover and remove from heat; let stand 10 min. Drain and rinse pasta; set aside.

2. In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, cook sausage, onion and mushrooms, breaking up sausage until onion is tender, 8 to 10 min; set aside.

3. In a bowl, combine ricotta, egg, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 cup cheese blend and spinach. Stir in cooked sausage mixture; set aside.

4. In same skillet, cook eggplant, stirring until just softened, about 8 min. Add pasta sauce and remaining salt and bring to a boil.

5. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spoon 2/3 of the eggplant sauce into the bottom of a shallow 2-1/2-quart casserole dish. Fill each shell with about 2 tbsp sausage mixture, arrange in dish and spoon remaining sauce over shells. (Wrap and freeze at this point if desired.)

6. Cover and bake until sauce is bubbling, about 25 min. Remove from oven and sprinkle shells with 1-1/4 cups cheese blend; bake, uncovered, until cheese has melted, 8 to 10 min. Serves 10.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 350, Total Fat (g) 12.5, Saturated Fat (g) 5, Cholesterol (mg) 60, Sodium (mg) 920, Carbohydrate (g) 40, Fiber (g) 3, Protein (g) 20, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Source: Ladies Home Journal

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Snow way (yes, my titles are always corny)

Yesterday afternoon/evening, we got a few inches of snow. I love looking out the window and seeing the snow. Driving in it, not so much. The slipping, the sliding, the winding up in a ditch....not so fun. But it sure is pretty when you are sitting inside snuggly warm watching it fall.

Our deck...

My Review of Dreams & Co.® Child’s holiday print knit sleepshirt

Originally submitted at WomanWithin

...and to all a good night! Family fun with button henley neck, picot edging, hem slits.

• Non-scratch screenprinted inside labels for extra comfort
• Washable cotton knit with fame-resistant finish
• 32" (for size 6/6X)

Sizes:6/6X, 7/8, 10/11

Dreams & Co.® Child’s holiday print knit sleepshirt

Very cute!

By IL Mom from IL on 12/17/2008

 

5out of 5

Pros: Comfortable, Washes Well, Soft, Well Made, Nice Design

Cons: Shrinks

Best Uses: Sleeping, Lounging

I got this one for my daughter and the matching pants and top pajamas for myself. They did shrink a little after washing, but everything still fits nicely. I hope that the matching mother/daughter stuff is offered again because I would definitely buy it.

(legalese)

Tuesday Trio

Today Abby requested pigtails which is really rare so I had to take a picture. It's so rare actually that I quite suck at doing them. I love when she lets me do something with her hair but I need more practice on pigtails and braids.

Here she is:






Also, Abby and I want to show off our matching Christmas jammies. She got a nightgown and I got pants and a shirt. I can't wait to wear them on Christmas morning next week.

The threatmantic note *UPDATED*

If you watch The Fairly Oddparents you probably know what I mean by threatmantic. It's sort of a threatening love letter. This weekend I received one from Abby.

Josh and I have put a stop to the kids spending any allowance on toys until after Christmas. For the most part it hasn't been an issue, but this weekend we were out shopping and Abby wanted to add a stuffed cat to her already large kitty collection. I believe she has 14 of them. We told her she could not get the kitty and she was really quite pathetic about it. I have to admit, I almost caved. (Yes my daughter totally has me wrapped around her little finger). So then, I received this letter:



It's hard to see but basically it's a drawing of captive kitties and a devlish Abby saying that she'll be mean if she doesn't get a kitty. Oh my.

The drawing totally reminds me of Max from the book Where The Wild Things Are.




Naturally we had a discussion about threatmantic letters (although I didn't use that term) and how not nice they are. And as soon as Abby left the room after said discussion, Josh and I burst into laughter. I have to say I'm quite proud of her spelling...it's at least phonetically correct.

Thank you to Gina (who I went to high school with)for this clearer picture:

Huskie

We haven't really had much time on the weekends to go around and check out the remaining Huskies on Parade. This weekend though, we did stop and see one while we were out Christmas shopping.

This one was at the Daily Chronicle and has newsprint on his back.






I love Abby's expression in this one.

Breakfast with Santa

Yesterday Josh, my Mom, and I took the kids to breakfast with Santa at Abby's school. Abby got to make a craft which is the bell she is holding up in the first picture. Both kids also got to play some games. Abby talked poor Santa's ear off which was pretty cute. It was a lot of fun.



Abby showing Santa her watch. Evan is wondering if she's ever going to be done talking so they can take a picture.



Talking poor Santa's ear off. LOL

Free at last!

I am officially on winter break now. The funny thing is that instead of relieved I feel like I should be doing some homework. Oh my. Is it crazy that I can complain about stressful it is to juggle everything and then when I get a break I miss school right away? I guess that's just me.

Couple of photos from my last day on campus for the semester. I wanted to take more but it was SO cold this morning.

Is it ladylike?

During dinner we were having some issues with the kid and using nice manners. Mostly Abby. So I told her "That's not very ladylike". Out of the blue she says to Evan and I "Stabbing is ladylike though". Umm.... Which of course prompted me to say, "No stabbing is not ladylike". I'm going to chalk that one up to too much vide game playing with her older brother.

It's been a very rough day today. On days like this, I like to remind myself of the things I have to be thankful for.
6 Things I'm thankful for...
*My family is alive and well.
*My husband's job is secure in this troubling economy.
*I am getting the education I dreamed of having.
*I live in a charming small town where the mailman knows your name and the mayor is also the town barber.
*I have amazing friends who are like family to me.
*The naughty biting puppy we adopted 3 years ago is now my sweet, snuggly and constant companion.

I saw this while walking on campus today. The snow can be inconvenient, but it's also so beautiful.

It's beginning to feel a lot like December...

Despite the craziness of the end of the semester, we did make time to put up our Christmas decorations and trim our tree.

Abby loves decorating for the holidays. We had to keep reminding her to space out the ornaments because she had like 2 per branch. LOL. But I am proud of myself, I did not redecorate the tree after the kids were done. I love that they did the bulk of it.





Trying to reach the top.


Evan can reach the top though.


I love when I can actually get a photo of the kids posing nicely together.


Josh helped out with the decorating too. He's like a big kid :-)



Naturally there was also some silliness. Those arms belong to Evan.



And this is what we wound up with...



My Grandma gave my sister and I each a nativity set when we were kids. So it's a sentimental thing for me.

One of my pink trees...

Our living room.


View of downstairs from bottom landing of the stairs going to the 3rd floor. Instead of mistletoe, we have a "kissing ball" which is the red ball of roses hanging from the light.  The stockings on the stair railing are for the extended family.  Santa leaves them a little something for when they come over on Christmas Day.