2016 Daily December 19

One of my very favorite parts of the Christmas season is when Ben reads to the kids each night.  There isn't a better way to end the night.  

2016 Daily December 18--Mary did you Know?

One of my very favorite Christmas songs.  Love the Pentatonix version of it also!  Enjoy! 

2016 Daily December 17--addiction

Sharing one of our favorite Christmas snacks today.  I have made this for the past couple of years, and I get requests for it every year.  

These are the ingredients, plus butter and sugar.  It is called Addiction for a reason :)  So beware.  And it makes a huge, huge batch, so be sure and make it to share.  

Soooooo good!  Enjoy

Addiction

3 sticks butter, or 1 1/2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

2 cups corn syrup

1 large box Rice Chex

1 large box Golden Graham cereal, or as you can see in the top photo, I buy the Malt-O-Meal brand Honey Graham Toasters, the big 38 oz bag, and I use half a bag for one recipe--cheaper than buying Golden Grahams :)

4 cups coconut flakes

3 cups sliced almonds

Mix both cereals, coconut and almonds in a very, very large bowl--I end up having to use 2 large bowls and just divide it evenly between the two.

Melt butter, sugar and corn syrup in a large pot and bring to a boil, then hard boil for 3 minutes.

Pour sugar mix over cereal and mix well.

Put on wax paper to cool and then eat :) 

2016 Daily December 16--A fun Christmas book

This is another fun Christmas book, you read it, but then you find out that on each page the illustrator has hidden a Santa face, a cat, a dinosaur, etc, so then you read it again and look for all those things.  Lots of fun!

2016 Daily December 15--giant cookies

I am always looking for new recipes to try.  This week I found these copycat recipes for the New York City Levain Bakery cookies.   They are big!  

These are the chocolate chip cookie recipe.  The recipe only makes 8 cookies, but they are giant.  Find the recipe here.  We liked these better the second day because you don't bake them very long and right out of the oven they are way too underdone in the middle, but let them cool completely and the second day they are perfect.   You bake these at a higher temperature than normal cookies--410 degrees.  Also, the recipe called for walnuts, but my family doesn't like nuts in cookies, so we made them without. 

This is their chocolate peanut butter chip cookies.  They were good, but we liked the plain chocolate chip better.  Again, recipe for these is here.  Same thing with these as the plain--let them cool completely, and they are better.  The recipe called for dark chocolate cocoa powder, which I didn't have, so I just used by regular cocoa powder. 

It is always kind of fun to try something new.  Miss E decided she was going to make the chocolate chip cookies to give to her friends for Christmas.  Who wouldn't want a giant chocolate chip cookie for Christmas???  Awesome!  Enjoy!

2016 Daily December 14--our Christmas card

Some important moments in our lives this past year. . .

Miss A graduating

Miss O and Miss E and their cross country team winning league champion

Miss O and Miss E before a parade for band

Our newest family picture

Mr J getting his Arrow of Light award for scouts.

It has been a good year!

2016 Daily December 13--Week 49

Time seems to go by faster and faster.  We are enjoying our holiday season even though it seems like it is flying by!  Miss A will be home end of the week for a few weeks, and that will be so nice to have everyone home for the holidays!  It has been a good week--basketball is in full swing for Miss E.  Busy week!  Take a look. . .

Sunday afternoon I got everyone involved helping me serve--half were addressing and sealing Christmas cards and half were labeling adopt-a-child toys.  Working together we got it all done in a very short amount of time---way less that what it would have taken me to do it all by myself.  I appreciate my little elves helping me :)

Got away for the day with these amazing ladies--my best friends that keep me grounded.  Sure love them!  And it is always nice to get yummy food too!

And we had our first snowfall of the season this week!  Big, big flakes were coming down.  They didn't last too long, but were sure pretty!

At church I am over the girls ages 12-18, and these are my girls.  I don't have a lot, but I sure love the girls I have!!!  They are great!  We had our YW in Excellence program tonight which celebrated all that they have been doing.

Ugly Christmas sweaters are the order of the day lately.  We are supposed to wear them to our church Christmas party next week, so we decided to make our own.  Pretty impressive!

Ben needs one for work next week too, so he will get to wear his twice--once to work and once to the Christmas party.  Will have to show you the finished products later.  Pretty awesome ugly Christmas sweaters if you ask me :)

And Basketball here we come--Miss Ella #33 this year.  She is a freshman and plays on that team, but they had a JV tournament this week and she played in that too.  Fun stuff!

Thanks for visiting!  Come back soon!