Christmas Day

Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord.

Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Friday morning I awoke at 6:30am to Gammy saying, "Becky! I think the boys are moving around upstairs!" I jumped out of bed & started preparing the cameras. Every year we have had to wake the boys up but I had my suspicions this year that they would be coming down on their own. About 15 minutes later I realized that she must have been mistaken andd started preparing the Monkey Bread, it's a tradition that we have Monkey Bread on every major holiday & for Dallon's birthday parties. ( I'll post the recipe at the bottom.) Finally, at 7:30 the boys came down, sleepy eyed.

The cookies had been eaten & the milk was gone too! Each boy had a gift waiting from Santa! Roman got the Pokemon trading cards he asked Santa for! And surprisingly enough, he knew which ones to get, even though Roman didn't tell him!Dallon got the potion maker he asked Santa for! (Whew!! Glad he knew where to get one of those!)

Rocco wasn't sure what he wanted but Santa brought him a Storm Shadow (GI Joe) costume because he just knew he would love it!

Roman & Dallon received air pellet machine gun/pistol sets from us as their 'big' gifts. First they opened the safety goggles, then the BBs, very confused at this point. Then they understood it all when they opened the gun sets. Here is a picture of Roman wearing the goggles & Dallon looking at him like he's wondering what 'they do'. (Rocco's opening his Bendaroos.)

In this one they're wondering why they got BBs.

Then finally!

Rocco received a bike from us as his 'big' gift.The boys gave Daddy Gator shirts. We got a GREAT deal at JC Penney the day before! Two for $9.99! Thanks to my $10 off $10 purchase coupon. And who can resist taking a picture of these cuties? (Dallon's piglets)

Daddy bought Rocco a real tool set because he is Daddy's little helper! (We removed the razor knife.)

Dallon using his new Disney Flix Camera/Movie Maker.

The rest of the day we lounged around in our new PJs. (Gammy bought some for me.) Most of our family is far away so we relax, no running around for us. No make up, no hair fixing, etc. We did cook prime rib, mashed potatoes, green beans, croissants & apple pie. YUMMY!!!

Mirandos' Monkey Bread 2 cans of your favorite biscuits (I use Pillsbury Butter Flaky Grands) 2 sticks butter melted in a bowl 1c sugar with cinnamon powder stirred in until brown **Optional - 1/2c pecans or walnuts Preheat oven to 350, grease a bundt pan Cut biscuits in fourths. Dredge biscuits through butter then coat liberally in sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place pieces in bundt pan until all pieces are coated. Bake 35-45 minutes depending on your oven. When done the bread will be risen & darkened on the top. **If using nuts dredge them through the butter then place 1/4c in pan before bread then again midway through. Carefully turn out on to a cake plate & serve right away with milk.

A Reflection of Christmas 2008

It seems like the older I get the quicker time goes by. I remember very clearly last year, as I was packing away the Christmas decorations, thinking, 'I'll be putting all of this back out soon.' And boy was it true! Christmas is an exciting time for our family. I have such good memories of Christmas' past and I always think of what it will be like at our future Christmas'. We love decorating, baking, spending time with family and dear friends. We recognize this holiday as a celebration as our Savior's birthday and what His birth means to us. Most of all, we enjoyed Christmas Eve at our church this year and look forward to being there every Christmas Eve. There was no more appropriate place to be than in our Sanctuary reflecting on Christ's birth and worshiping Him. Then coming home and having our annual family spaghetti dinner, then having the boys open their jammies for that night. It seemed a little more relaxed this year because we had all the gifts wrapped and ready. Nick had a few last minute things to do but it wouldn't have been the same if he didn't. We actually forgot to put the cookies & milk out until about 15 min. after the boys went to bed. By the time we got upstairs Roman was asleep so Dal came down and helped me get them out. We weren't about to get Rocco stirred up. Christmas morning Roman came down about 6:30 and Dal & Rocco followed about 20min. later. The smell of monkey bread was filling the house. I fix monkey bread every big holiday & for Dal's birthday. We let the boys open one gift each from Santa until Stephen (my brother) and his family arrived. Then it was chaos! Fun, clean, chaos! Everybody played and/or napped while I prepared our yummy meal of Prime Rib w/au jus (new to us this year - yummo but I missed my turkey and/or ham), mashed potatoes, cheesy green bean casserole, croissants and cranberry sauce. I love cooking these meals. We enjoyed our family all day then some of our dearest friends came over for game night. Tony & Trisha Thomas & 2 of their 3 boys. We played 'Catch Phrase' for hours, a game Santa brought us! We ate way to many sweets and laughed so hard our heads ached. Lastnight we brought in the new year with Tony/Trisha, their kids and Carl/Deanna and their son until almost 1am. I am thankful for what God has blessed us with. Faith, family, friends, my job, our church, our sweet church family. 2008 was a good year. Thank you Lord! I look forward to what You have in store for us this year. I know it wasn' as good for some of our friends, but I pray that this year will bring many blessings their way. So as I packed away my Christmas decorations today I thought, 'I'll be putting all of this back out soon.' I hope my boys remember the traditions that have been carried on through our family and the new ones we have started. I hope they remember that we always had monkey bread because they loved it and they want their wives to make it for their families. Or will they come home for Christmas? So many exciting thoughts.. Well, goodbye Christmas of 08! Now it's time to finish the planning for Dal's 6th birthday party! I can't believe my Dal is turning 6! Seems like yesterday I was praying, asking God for Dallon. That's another blog in itself, lol. Thanks for reading! God bless you in 2009!!

Just added a few pics:
The Vii Nick bought us for Christmas. This is my brother laughing at us:
The aftermath:
Roman said that was the real Santa at Regency because he was the one he asked to bring him Lego Batman. He also kept saying, "See Daddy? We didn't even have to pay a dime for it since Santa brought it!"
Annual Christmas Eve spaghetti dinner:

Thanksgiving Menu with Recipes

Our Thanksgiving Menu


I love getting new ideas from people! And swapping recipes with friends makes me smile. So for those who asked, this is our Thanksgiving menu this year. I also thought it would be nice to include this in my blog because I print it annually. This means the recipes I use will be printed in our keepsake book for our boys.


Breakfast
Monkey Bread (always on holidays)

2 cans of your favorite biscuits (I use Pillsbury Butter Flaky Grands)

2 sticks butter melted in a bowl

1c sugar with cinnamon powder stirred in until brown

**Optional - 1/2c pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350, grease a bundt pan. Cut biscuits in fourths. Dredge biscuits through butter then coat liberally in sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place pieces in bundt pan until all pieces are coated.

Bake 35-45 minutes depending on your oven. When done the bread will be risen & darkened on the top. **If using nuts dredge them through the butter then place 1/4c in pan before bread then again midway through. Carefully turn out on to a cake plate & serve right away with milk.

Appetizers
Port Wine cheese ball w/crackers
Chips, dips & salsa


Lunch/Dinner
We usually eat around 2pm. What time do you eat?

~$.59 Publix turkey (YAY) Easy - UPSIDE DOWN, seriously!

Wash it off, make sure to pull the bag of nasties out (neck, etc), give it a rub down with butter, salt & pepper it, roll an orange around on the counter to break up the juices inside, cut in half then stick it in the turkey, then put it in a pan upside down (breast down) for the amount of time the label says. Keep covered until about 30min. before done. It won't be pretty but it will be YUM~O & fall off the bone! And no basting required, it cooks in it's own juices. This is how I've cooked mine for 15 years.

~Dressing - I am 99.9% sure I'm going with my friend, Dana's family recipe.

~HOMEMADE WHOLE BERRY CRANBERRY SAUCE
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 12-ounce package Ocean Spray® Fresh or Frozen Cranberries, rinsed and drained

DIRECTIONS:
Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil; add cranberries, return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time.

Makes 2 1/4 cups.

PER SERVING (2 Tablespoons): Calories 51(3%DV), Fat 0grams, Pot. 14mg(<1%dv),>

~Mashed Potatoes with Gravy

~Cheesy Green Bean Casserole - I make the classic Campbells recipe but double the batch (big family) & substitute the second can of cream of mushroom soup with a small jar of Cheez Whiz. We love it with the cheesy twist!

Classic Green Bean Casserole
From: Campbell's Kitchen
Prep: 10 minutes
Bake: 30 minutes

Serves: 6
Ingredients:

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup (Regular, 98% Fat Free or Healthy Request®)

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon soy sauce

Dash ground black pepper

4 cups cooked cut green beans

1 1/3 cups French's® French Fried Onions

Directions:

Stir the soup, milk, soy sauce, black pepper, beans and 2/3 cup onions in a 1 1/2-quart casserole.

Bake at 350°F. for 25 minutes or until the bean mixture is hot and bubbling. Stir the bean mixture. Sprinkle with the remaining onions.

Bake for 5 minutes or until the onions are golden brown.

~Crescent Rolls - Pillsbury Big Flaky (don't skimp here)

~Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie w/Extra creamy Cool Whip

LIBBY'S® Famous Pumpkin Pie
Prep:15 mins Cooking:55 mins Cooling:120 mins Yields:8 servings

Ingredients
3/4 cup granulated sugar1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 large eggs

1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin

1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell

Whipped cream (optional)

Directions
MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.

Nutritional Information
Serving Size 1/8 servings of recipe
Calories 280

The only new recipe I am trying is the dressing. I just haven't found that one that I want to use from year to year yet.

After Thanksgiving my mom makes a WONDERFUL Turkey ala king. Maybe she'll share her recipe. We save the dark meat for this! The white meat goes to make sandwiches. My FAVE is turkey on white bread with mayo, cranberry sauce & salt/pepper. YUM.

Dallon's Froggy Party Repeat

Today I hosted a 7th Birthday party for Dallon. He was supposed to have a dinosaur party but at the last minute (before placing the Oriental Trading Company order) he changed his mind & wanted to do the same froggy party he had last year. This boy loves frogs! It was such a cute & fun theme that I didn't even try to talk him out of it. I mean seriously, how many Superhero parties have you been to? OK, now how many froggy parties have you been to? Understand where I'm going with this? This year he didn't want to invite his entire class so he hand picked some close friends & we went from there. The last few years I have scheduled the boys parties in our back yard. It's free (except for the decorations ofcourse), motivates us to clean the yard & the boys just dig it. Due to the freezing cold temperatures we had to move inside. Well...........I was hesitant and frankly, not very hoppy, I mean happy about it. While we have been motivated to clean out & declutter recently, I have to admit there is a reason why I have not posted any updates on our remodeling that was started last June. BECAUSE NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!! Why? I don't know. I will just leave it at that. But I had to swallow my pride and throw my special boy an indoor froggy party. If you know me then you know I absolutely LOVE to organize these sort of events. I'm not so good at the artsy fartsy adult stuff but I can rock a kid party! I have also discovered that a morning party is fantastic because it leaves the rest of the day open for the guests. Living in the boonies (which I love) you will appreciate this because if you have a 1pm or 2pm birthday party you can't 'go to town' or get involved in a 'project' & don't usually feel like it afterwards either. But coming to a 10am-12pm party leaves you open for several hours later. I also love to serve up brunch foods like these: breakfast casserole, monkey bread, fresh fruit & coffee ofcourse. Some of the games we played last year were out of the question because it was just too cold to spend that much time outside. We normally have a craft ready for the kids to do as they arrive but they were having so much fun running around the house, up & down the stairs & even outside, that we just decided to scratch 'Tape the fly on the frog' game that Nick planned & let them play until 11:15. (The party started at 10am, despite the 1pm starting time listed on Facebook. Not sure what happened there.) At 11:15 I called them together for cake & presents. Then we went outside for our one game, 'Frog Find'. I gave each child a goody bag & released them (youngest first) to gather as many frogs as they could find in the side square of our yard. This was a repeat from last year & a complete blast for the kids! They get to take the frogs they find home, plus a balloon & a beach ball froggy, which were scattered throughout the house as decorations. We had a great time & Dallon was very happy.

Not all of his friends came, everyone just can't make it to everything. We invite & hope for the best. I am quite surprised how people don't RSVP like they used to. It's hard to prepare sometimes so I just plan for a group, rather than individual take home gifts. When Roman was in the first grade he invited about 35 people & three kids showed up. While it's heartbreaking to me, he hardly noticed. As long as his best friends were there he was happy. But next time you are wondering if you should RSVP to an event, do it, it's much easier on the hostess.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from today:

Look very closely at our dead, winter grass & you will see lots of multi-colored frogs waiting to be hunted.

Re-used Roman's banner from last year, but hey, it's green!
"I call this balloon!" Rocco exclaimed.

Dallon was thrilled to see the cake Mrs. Tara Libby made for his party!

Dallon put all the frogs where he wants them, now he's ready for his guests!

So are Rocco & Roman!

I like this picture of Daddy & Rocco sharing breakfast. See the dark chunk of goodness in the background on the cake plate?

Insert singing here: Happy Birthday to Dallon!

Blowing out the candles

Half the frog eaten in less than 10 minutes! I like Roman's face in this one.

Presents!

'Frog Find' time!

Dallon & Jamie were happy about all the frogs they found!

All the frog finders

Roman, Jamie, Dallon, Camille, Lacey, Walker, Adrienne, Rocco & Ben

Dallon & Camille

Dallon & Cameron

Checking out his new night vision goggles Uncle Stephen brought him.

This was so cute! After the game outside we walked in to find Rocco had snuck in & started rearranging the froggies. He was talking either to himself or to the frogs. Love it!

I can't believe my froggy is 9!

My precious Dallon Vincent turned nine January 4th.  This happened to be the day the kids returned to school from Christmas break AND the coldest day we've had since last winter.  I think it even broke records!  We woke up to 22 degree temps!  Needless to say Dallon was not happy about having to get up & go to school after almost three weeks off.  But you can't tell in this picture can you?  Dallon requested warm monkey bread & cold milk as his birthday treat to share with his class.  I think that's a great way to come back from break.

For dinner Dallon asked for steak.

He's a young man with fine taste.

It was a Wednesday so we had church that night.  To continue the celebration I made green cupcakes (that's his favorite color) with chocolate icing & sprinkles for him to take to church.

We actually celebrated with a froggy birthday party on Saturday January 14th.  He invited his closest friends for brunch, cupcakes & games.

Aren't these printables adorable?!  I won them last summer from Bird's Party Blog off of a contest that Half Baked - The Cake Blog ran.  I won $100 credit so I used it for several events I had planned for 2011-2012.  You can try winning too by following both of these sites on Facebook.  The cupcakes came from Sam's.

We love brunch parties.  We served homemade blueberry & strawberry muffins & lots of fruit.

Since Dallon's crazy about frogs & picks this theme almost every year, we decorate with inflatable frogs & balloons.  I almost skipped the balloons this year & boy am I glad I didn't!  Gammy had left to go pick them up & Dallon started asking where his balloons were.

Rocco helped scatter the frogs.

Some high, some low.

Frogs Frogs Everywhere!

I had a few games planned but we wound up just going with one because the kids were entertaining themselves.  And honestly, why fix something that's not broken?  The game we played was 'Find the Frogs', similar to an egg hunt.  The dads present scattered small plastic frogs all over a section of the yard & the kids gathered as many as they could.  These were party favors to take home, as well as a balloon & an inflatable frog.

As hard as they looked, I'm still finding the frogs in the yard.  Found one just yesterday!

The party guests, minus three bigger boys that wouldn't come out of the woods, Roman, Aaron & Riley.  Left to right: Cameron, Jade, Huntley, Gage, Dallon, Braden, Jamie & Rocco

 Crazy faces!

 All the kids came in to count their loot.

 Time to sing Happy Birthday & open some presents!

I was so proud of Dallon for reading each card before tearing into his gifts.  This is a sign of maturity.  In the past he's torn through them before I've even had a chance to get my camera!  I didn't know what was from who!  One year he smelled all the gifts later & told me who brought what because he recognized the smells of the families & their homes.  Crazy huh?  So I asked a few friends & he was right!  This kid has an amazing sense of smell!

Dallon was blessed with so many generous gifts.

Gammy gave him this super cool extendible magnetic flashlight.

Uncle Doug & Aunt Lynn brought Dallon some crafting supplies.

Dallon's sweet teacher, Mrs. Salmon & her son Riley came to celebrate with us.  This meant so much to us.  Here she is helping him put together one of his gifts he wanted to share with his friends.

Thank you all who came out to celebrate!

Dallon was born exactly fifteen days after we moved into our home.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Dallon throughout the years.