December Daily: Christmas Trivia...

1. Best Childhood Memories: My favorite memories of Christmas as I look back is how our family always spent the holidays with our grandparents and extended family. My paternal grandparents hosted dinner for their 3 sons and their families and I have many fond memories of these dinners....the smell of the turkey, my grandmother's mashed carrots, the sounds of my Grandfather carving the turkey with an electric knife and the shouts of "Merry Christmas!" that rang through the house as each family arrived and the stomping of snow off of boots. And after our Christmas dinner with my paternal grandparents, my parents would pack us up for an hour long drive to visit our maternal grandparents where we would spend the night and I would share a bed with my cousin Kelly. My maternal grandparents had 6 children....3 married and with families of their own......to pack into their house over the holidays which meant lots of noisy commotion and laughter. Warm memories and happy times. {as a side note: Don't you LOVE my dad's shirt (he is the man on the right).....it is so vintage 1970's}.

2. Best Childhood gift from Santa: My dolls. I absolutely loved DOLLS as a little girl. My very favorite doll for a long time was Thumbelina. I also remember other dolls received for Christmas that I cherished: Baby Alive, Lazy Daisy and Baby This n That. I was never really a 'barbie girl' although I owned a few.

3. Favorite Christmas Cookie: Hands down: My mother's cut out sugar cookies.....warm from the oven.

4. Icky Christmas Memory: The year that me, my brother and my dad were all sick with pneumonia. I think we were all too sick to eat our turkey dinner and we missed a family sleigh ride....my mother was the only healthy person in the house that year.

5. It's not Christmas without: Our knitted Christmas stockings, homemade eggnog and English Trifle for dessert on Christmas Day.

6. Christmas Pet Peeve: Those who brag about how much they spend/buy for Christmas....as if that has anything to do with the Christmas spirit. We keep Christmas simple in this house: 1 gift from Santa and a stocking.

7. Our Church Service: Is usually the 4pm service. However, in the last few years we have not attended. I would love to attend Midnight Mass now that my family is a little older....if I could manage to stay up that late!

8. My Favorite Christmas CD: I enjoy the classics at Christmas...Bing Crosby is a must. The last few years I have been buying the Starbucks Christmas CD and we so LOVE the music on these cds. For instance, the first song on this year's CD is a duet with Willie Nelson and Norah Jones singing "Baby, it's Cold Outside". A fun combination, don't you think?

9. Real or Fake: Although we did REAL for many years, we have now switched to fake. I do like the fact that there are no sticky needles tracked all over the house with a fake tree. But I still LOVE a fresh tree.



10. I spend Christmas Eve: with my family. We enjoy staying home, having hors 'deuves for dinner, sipping eggnog and putting on our Christmas jammies early. I will usually read a Christmas story or two with the kids and then we leave out cookies and milk for Santa.After everyone has gone to bed....I turn out all the lights except for the Christmas tree lights and have a cup of hot tea and remember beloved family members that have passed on.....and then my thoughts turn to Baby Jesus.



This post was inspired by the lovely & talented Sarah over at Clover Lane.

Menu Plan Monday...

It's Menu Plan Monday again...(except that it's Tuesday already!) and I took a peek through my freezer to see what could become this week's menu. Yesterday I found the package of 5 lbs. of chicken I got on sale for $6.73 at the local grocery store. The price works out to about $1.50 a pound, which is an extremely good price for chicken. I got out my stock pot and made a huge pot of homemade chicken soup. I keep my chicken soup very simple and classic..chicken, fine egg noodles and carrots. We ate soup for dinner last night and then it went into the kids' lunch today.

Monday-Homemade chicken soup with fresh rolls

Tuesday-Homemade waffles and sausages

Wednesday-Meatloaf (from the freezer) mashed tators, corn and carrots.

Thursday-Pork chops, baked potato and sweet potato with green beans.

Friday-My vote is Panago Pizza.

Saturday-Dad cooks. Likely bbq steak, mushrooms and caesar salad.

Sunday-Our leftovers night. Hunter & I have a Christmas party and potluck to attend after skating and we are taking taco soup and homemade chocolate dream cookies.


Kelly at the Party Dress has done it again with this 'feast for your eyes' "Reindeer Game Night". I just love how this party idea looks and what fun!!!
I think I am going to have a girlfriends night soon, except I think I might ask my guests to come in their Christmas jammies.

(Images: Top, myhomeideas.com, bottom, thepartydress.net)

dear molly & rigley...

Please leave the toilet paper alone.

Thank you.

a visit...

We are so lucky to have my parents visit us over the Thanksgiving holidays. They are the only company we receive on a regular basis from the Maritimes. I would be so lonely without their visits. We have so much fun while they are here. My mom is the ultimate in "Grammies". While she is here...she always has a 'project' of some kind planned for the kids...whether it be making cupcakes or pancakes, or taking the dogs for a walk, or walking to Chapters with the kids....browsing at books and getting a hot chocolate before the walk home.

My Dad keeps us busy as well. He is the 'Grandfather' of grandfathers. However, his pursuits are a little different....he takes on the homework questions, plays card, and goes for walks with the grandchildren. He loves to tease us. The kids also know that an endless supply of Grammie's homemade pancakes and bacon follow Grampie wherever he goes. Usually this breakfast gets served up at around 8 am....and little people know to be at the table when Grampie sits down.

Here he is getting yummy kisses from the new little puppies. Ha! Doesn't he look so thrilled?

In my opinion, their visits always go by way too fast. We are always wishing they could stay for 'just a few more days'. But there is always the next visit to look forward to....thankfully.

Menu Plan Monday....

I love 'Menu Plan Monday'. It's an exercise that just makes my week feel so much more oranized. My blog posts for 'MPM' were inpsired by Laura at "I'm am Organizing Junkie". She is a Canadian who writes a fabulous blog on getting your home & life organized. If you would like additional inspiration for 'Menu Plan Monday', please go visit her site to find links to more menu plans than you could ever imagine. Your head will be spinning with ideas...trust me!

(image: myhomeideas.com)

Here are some of the meals that will be served at our house this week:

Monday: Pork Chops, rice, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots & ceasar salad.

Tuesday: Ribs & baked potatas with yellow & green beans and carrots.

Wednesday: Grilled ham & cheese paninis with coleslaw

Thursday: Taco Soup

Friday, Saturday & Sunday...Mom's away....so Dad cooks!

Yes! I am off to a scrapbooking retreat later in the week. Yahoo! I can't wait. Lot's of rest, relaxation and creative 'me' time.

cooking with the pioneer woman....

I spent this Saturday hanging around the house and cooking a nice dinner for my family. My menfolk had gone off to play a hockey game in a town that was one and half hours away. The junior high girl was having a friend over for an afternoon of fun. I decided to try a new recipe from this lovely cookbook, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks". I just received it on Thursday in the mail, and I spent most of the evening devouring the recipes and beautiful pictures inside. The 'Pioneer Woman' writes a blog that is a wonderful blend of photography, life stories, cooking and inspiration. If you dare to read the tale of how she met and married 'Marlboro Man'... you will be mesmorized by the story of a city gal who meets a ranch cowboy and promptly falls in love.The pictures of the working ranch she calls home with 'Marlboro Man' are breathtaking.....it makes you want to plop on a cowboy hat, saddle up old Sally and giddy off into the sunset of blissful ranch happiness.The thing I really love about her cookbook is that it is written by a homecook for homecooks. She gives step-by-step photos for each recipe, along with a healthy dose of interesting rural stories and striking photos of her life with her man and 4 young whippersnappers. (Did I mention the pictures of cowboys in wranglers with chaps?) I tried her meatloaf recipe for tonight's dinner. I followed her recipe exactly with the exception of adding mushrooms and onions into my meat mixture. The top layer of bacon and tomato gravy on the meatloaf is enough to make any cowboy happy. I made 2 loaves and 12 mini loaves in a muffin tin for the freezer. I served it with mashed taters, corn, carrots and gravy. Pure comfort food on a day when morning dawned with a wet layer of snow on the ground.

It was a yummy dinner and one meatloaf is completely gone. And my whippersnappers gave our guest a wonderful performance demonstrating sibling love....."You laugh like a donkey!" said one. "Your face is like a donkey's" shot back the other. Like I said.....I love dinnertime conversation.

a boy and his dogs...

Our little dog Rigley is the most passive little dog. She just lets Tyler carry her around like she is the princess of his castle. Here she is asleep in his arms while he is watching a little TV before bed. I am not really sure who loves who more.

Tyler is having so much fun with the dogs. I can't even begin to tell you how much attention he lavishes on these little girls. He is always playing with them or laying on the floor with them. He decided he should read to them in French so they could be 'bilingual'.

Adopting these 2 little dogs into our family has been a wonderful experience. The kids are learning so much about how to care for and love a pet. Hopefully this adventure in nuturing something purely for love will stay with them as they journey in life.