Christmas Eve

Daniel, Heather and Danielle came over this evening to open their presents. As it should be, it was all about Danielle. She looked so pretty in her Christmas dress and sparkly silver shoes, but she was very excited and was running everywhere. She didn't quite get the idea to go and get a present from under the tree, but her cousin Katelynn did. They made a great team. Katelynn ran to get the presents and Danielle ripped the paper off them.
Here she is.

This was the last present standing. It was so funny as they couldn't move it. They were both huffing and puffing trying to, but it didn't take long for the clever little monkeys to figure out that they could just rip the paper off right there.

Uncle Jordan supervised and was left to clean up the wrapping paper.

We had a lovely evening. I was full of memories of when my children were small and the pranks that they got up to. I'll miss having Daniel and his family tomorrow, but I understand that this year they want to be their own little family on Christmas Day.

December Chicken of the Month

This is the very last Chicken of the Month; a Polish non-bearded Black Crested White Hen, and I dedicate it to my friend Laurel who gave me the calender in the first place.
I'm kinda sad to see the end of the chickens but I do have an idea for a monthly series next year, unless I get a different calender to feature. We'll see.

It's Snowing!

It's snowing in Arizona! Well, at our house anyway.
We bought some foam snowflakes that were covered with silver glitter, strung them on silver rope and hung them in the windows. The small window is my office, the large one is the exercise room (well, where we store the exercise equipment!) and the one overlooking the porch is our formal room.
I think they look lovely!

English Christmas Fare

Somehow this year I felt like I wanted a little bit of English fare for Christmas. It's never bothered me before but this year I thought I'd give it a try.

Here's my recipes:
Mince pies
Make some rich shortcrust pastry: Sift 8oz flour and some salt into a bowl then rub in 4oz butter of marg until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in 1 teasp. sugar, 1 egg and cold water to mix. Roll this out and line lightly greased tart tins.
I only had deep muffin tins but it worked out okay and I didn't have scone cutters so I improvised with a glass (actually 2, one was slightly smaller for the lid).
Spoon in some mincemeat, brush beaten egg around the edge and cover with the pastry lid. Brush beaten egg over the lid and sprinkle with sugar.
In the US, mincemeat is available from Costplus World Market for about $5 a jar. A bit pricey I think, but worth it to have a taste of England.

Here's the finished result. They can be sprinkled with powdered sugar to make them look more attractive.

Christmas puddings

When I was a girl I remember my mom getting up really early and steaming the Christmas puddings. Well, no longer. This is a great microwave recipe that my mother in law gave me and I used when I lived in England, but this is the first time I've made it in the US with "alternative" ingredients. It was lovely to pull out the recipe in her handwriting and I felt like she was with me when I was making the puddings.

Mix together: 8oz sultanas (white raisins), 4oz currants, (I couldn't get these 2 items in my local grocery store, but found them at a ranch market) 8oz raisins, 2oz chopped mixed or lemon peel, 1 grated medium sized carrot, 4oz flour, 4oz fine brown breadcrumbs, 4oz dark brown sugar, 4oz soft butter or marg, 2 tablsp. black treacle (I found dark molasses was the same), 2 eggs, 4 tablsp. milk, 1-2 teasp. mixed spice (I used allspice).
Cover with cling wrap and leave overnight. Put into a lightly greased 2 pint pudding basin , cover with cling wrap and microwave for 5 mins. Leave to stand for 5 mins then microwave again for 1 further minute.
I used double the recipe as I have lots of hungry mouths to feed and these puddings freeze so well. I couldn't find traditional pudding basins here, but I used this Glad ware and microwaved them individually with the lids on lightly for 3 mins each, let them stand for a couple of minutes then put them all back in the microwave for 4 mins total. They fluff up nicely and smell so great.

Here's an individual one on a plate.
Traditionally they're served with sweet white or rum sauce, but pouring or heavy cream will do just great. For the uninitiated, these puddings are very rich and you would only eat a very small portion.
Enjoy!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We put the Christmas lights up this week end and these pictures just don't do them justice at all. They look really pretty, especially the tree.
Here's the outside of the house. We have a few more things to do yet, we're thinking of hanging large snowflakes from the porch. Hhhmmm, maybe,
The Christmas tree looks really blurry in this photo, but it really is very pretty.

The tree is decorated in red, green and gold, and I bought a new angel for the top of the tree and a new tree skirt for the bottom!

This collage shows just a few Christmas touches around the house.

Black Friday

I never did get the whole Black Friday thing. You know, standing in line at 3 am just to get the latest bargains. Maybe I might understand it more if I had money, but I don't, so today I decided to venture out at 2pm with two things in mind: hair styling products and toilet paper. Yep, toilet paper. As you can see, I'm an essentials sort of gal!
Katelynn came with me and Brent, but he always stays in the car when I go to Ulta, so this is now the second time that Katelynn has undergone Ulta initiation, a very necessary part of being a girly girl. The Tigi Bedhead Queen for a Day styling product I like was Buy Two, Get One Free, so I did and picked up large can of Sebastian hairspray/styler which was dirt cheap too. In the line we went and had progressed a little way when Katelynn started doing the potty dance. I sacrificed my place in the line, found the restroom, plonked Katelynn on the toilet, but guess what? The pee pee had gone away by the time we got there, so out we went...to the line, but several persons back. Finally at the counter I presented my $3.50 off coupon and was well chuffed at the deal I got...enough styling product to last me probably six months.
A trip to Wal-Mart for toilet paper, and we were all set. World Market and Michaels were next, and I was pooped. It's just as well we don't have any money. I couldn't keep up with the pace!

The Champion

After 10 weeks of competing on Dancing With The Stars, the result was amazing. Here's Donny with the coveted Mirrorball Trophy. Congratulations to the Season 9 Winner!!!

November Chicken of the Month

Announcing...Appenzeller Spitzhauben Silver-Spangled Hen...who gets the award for the fanciest sounding name of the year!!!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Our Superheroes!

It's Supergirl!

And Superboy!

Katelynn admiring the decorations.

Even Superboy gets tired!

Bet you didn't know Supergirl wore pink panties. Ha Ha.

At The Park

Katelynn wanted to go for a walk today so we decided to go to the park while dinner was cooking. First, she stopped by the new pumpkin decoration I bought the other day from the gift shop at work. I had seen it before and wanted it but ummed and aahed about the price. When I saw it a couple of days ago for 50% off, I snapped it up. As you can see, it's quite tall and it's made of wood with a stand at the back, so it is proudly displayed on my porch. Let's hope it doesn't get stolen!

Here's Katelynn with HER biggest pumpkin grin!

We took Uncle Michael to the park too and Katelynn played with another couple of kids who were there before her Mammy and brother stopped by for a quick visit. She had fun.

On the way home we went the long way around so we could look at all the Halloween decorations that people had outside their houses.

Dancing With The Stars

I have been a bad blogger of late. Most of the time I'm pretty boring and don't do anything noteworthy. Let's face it, my spare time is pretty much spent doing schoolwork, but I would definitely be amiss if I didn't mention my recent trip to Hollywood to see Dancing With the Stars.
I got an e-mail on Friday afternoon, the 16th saying that I had the chance of tickets for the results show on Tuesday the 20th. I was shocked; firstly at even getting the opportunity of tickets at all and secondly for the short amount of time that I had to rearrange my life. I was lucky, I clicked on the link and got the tickets which told me that they did not guarantee admission. So the deal was: rearrange my work schedule, get money together, book a hotel, drive over six hours to get there, line up for hours on end in whatever weather and then maybe stand the chance of NOT getting in. Ha! I did rearrange my schedule thanks to great colleagues and after lining up outside CBS studios for 5 hours, I finally got my seat. I should say at this point that Brent was with me too!!!!
We were seated on the floor next to the performer's stage and it was a really good view of the dance floor. I sat next to Buddy Schwimmer, the father of Lacey who is one of the professional dancers and we chatted on and off throughout the show. That night they were dancing a Michael Jackson tribute which was pre-recorded as soon as we got in and it was totally awesome. Lucky for us they did another take so we got to enjoy it all over again.
I had sen the show the night before from my hotel room and after seeing Donny dance the Argentine Tango and score 29/30, I was hoping and praying that they'd ask him to repeat the dance on the night I was going to be there. As soon as the dancers came out on stage I saw him flexing and warming up, so I knew that he was going to dance. It was much better to see it in real life. I've seen Donny dance many different types of things live, but never anything like that tango. No pictures, of course, and the only one I could find online definitely doesn't do it justice.

I had a total blast. Watching them film the show was very interesting, Jackson spotting in the audience was fun (Jermaine, LaToya and their mom Kathleen were there) and we watched Norah Jones sing a couple of songs too. The professional dancers were great but come on...the highlight was obviously Donny!!!

Green Frosting

Katelynn loves frosting, so what better than chocolate cake (which she really doesn't eat) with spooky green frosting on it. The rings she's wearing were on top of the cake as decorations. What better? Frosting and some bling!

Smart Boy

Michael attended a Pre-Employment Seminar for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office this evening. There were 1700 people applied for 75 positions!!! All were invited to attend seminars which are being held all week long, but Michael said that out of his initial group of 120, only 50 remained throughout the seminar. It's a very long process: background checks, polygraph testing, psychological evaluation and medical. Each stage has to be passed to proceed onto the next until the next stage which is the academy. It's very important to remain hopeful, but to also acknowledge that the competition is very stiff.
All the best Michael!