IN THIRTY DAYS

my brother Steve is coming to visit and in one day my brother Derek is leaving to go back to school.
They are awesome brothers and incredible uncles.
I am happy and sad.
Alone these baby brothers are funny but together they are hilarious....

love how Steve dresses....

They both play wonderfully with my boys and they always (well, almost always) make me laugh and happy,
Remember the reenactment of Lach's birth at his first birthday party?

And the chocolate covered Spam balls that lightened the Christmas mood when we had the house fire?

And the men only indoor hot tubing?

It wasn't the same without either one of them here for Christmas this year and even though we won't all be together when Steve visits, I'm looking forward some fun family shenanigans....

ONE OF MY NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

is to simplify.
One area I either excel tremendously or fail miserably is meal planning.
If I have a plan, then my grocery shopping is better for our pocketbook and we have happy tummies in the household.
When I don't have a plan, our tummies, pocketbook and cupboards are miserable. You should see our cupboards now. They are pitiful....

I've completed a month of menus with recipes printed and in plastic sleeves in a binder, easily assessable for grocery list making and meal preparation.
Simplify you ask? That is where I'm hoping some of you will come in.
If a few of us do this and share, we won't have to "think" what's for dinner this week or next week and our grocery shopping will be easier because of it, etc...
You know me well if you know our household eats a lot of chicken.
Due to allergic reactions and not liking other meat by some members of the household (me on both accounts), all of my recipes are chicken or vegetarian based.
Most of the recipes could easily have meat preferences switched, which is what I would do to your menu too.
If you want to share a month's worth of dinner recipes let me know. I think if a few of us work together, this will be one easy "simplify" task.
What are some other ways you've been able to successfully simplify?.....

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Pink....Marvelous Miriam is wearing the glasses showcasing my delightful dancing sister....

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Abec Green....

2010 FAMILY GOALS

were the discussion for Family Home Evening last night.
We came up with:
1. Work together on home improvements (aka - no complaining)
2. Everyone teach the family something (Laird is looking forward to teaching us how to juggle. I am too!)
3. Family activities (we can never get enough of these!)
4. Talk with softer, kinder voices and show more love and patience (that one came from me if you couldn't guess)
5. Be healthier

Then we worked on our personal goals and fried up some twinkies (that's why we needed #5)....

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White....

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Gold....

A FRIEND OF MY BROTHER'S HAD

a nine hour layover at the airport, so I picked her up and showed her a few of my favorite Portland places....
We ate lunch at Old Town Pizza and I told her about their haunted past - we even ate in the elevator shaft....

We went to Voodoo Donut and stood in this crazy but SO worth it line....

And we went to Multnomah Falls....

All my men (who were frying all day) were thrilled when I came home with left over pizza and a sampling of donuts for a taste test....

The winning donut was tied between the blue raspberry donut and the maple bacon donut...

MY SISTER AND I DECIDED TO

make the Hot Chocolate On A Stick that I talked about in this post....

You can dip them in different chocolates too, but we decided to keep these ones plain so we could drink them straightaway.

So easy, so delicious - we'll definitely be making more!

Portia, you totally need to make these....

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Aloe...

ONE OF OUR CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

from my brother Derek was a GE Deep Fryer and my men are all but grunting.
Today they fried delicious homemade french fries and then did a batch of pickles....

Deep Fried Pickles

Egg Wash:

1 cups milk

Pinch lemon pepper

Pinch dill weed

3 TBSP pickle juice

Whisk all ingredients together.

Breading:
1 1/4 cups cornmeal

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 cup lemon pepper

1/8 cup dill weed

1 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients.

Dip pickle chips into egg wash and then coat with breading. Arrange dipped pickles on a sheet pan lined with waxed paper. Chill for 30 minutes.
In a deep fryer, heat oil to 375 degrees. Add chilled pickle chips in batches to the hot oil and fry for about 3 1/2 minutes or until golden.

Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

They are delicious!

Now they are talking about deep frying cheese, hot dogs, snickers, twinkies.....

THE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS ARE

coming down and for me, as much as I have enjoyed having everything out, it's such a breath of fresh air to have things back to "normal".... One of the things I do miss are all the Christmas cards displayed.
We put ours on the back of our front door (yes, I know I'm still missing molding and base boards, but they are coming - yay!!)
How do you display your Christmas cards?

EVERY YEAR MY PARENTS HAVE A WHITE

elephant party the day after Christmas.
This year the kids played Christmas Bingo....

And then we played an exchanging game for our gifts....

We laugh so much at the white elephant parties, it's a great way to end the Christmas weekend....

SNEAK PEEK - LAUNDRY ROOM

I am not a fan of curtains in a laundry room, so we don't have them.
Sometimes late at night doing laundry, I'm not the most modest.
This is what I see when I look out the window - who knows what our neighbor has seen..... Now that we don't have midnight Christmas projects, we were able to tackle this window project that has been at the top of our list for quite sometime... We purchased Gila Privacy Frosted Window Film (19.99) and used the Gila Window Film Application Kit (8.99) to put it on. Super fast, super easy and save me hours of etching the window.
We are thrilled with the results and the price and I'm sure our neighbor will be glad too!
I'd show you more but we still have purple molding and we have major plans for this room. It will be quite sometime before you see it....

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Black....
Check out Sherri and Ivon's Color Challenge Photos too...

AFTER WE HAD OPENED ALL OUR GIFTS AND

the weeest of the wee ones had had his nap, we headed to the Peterson's to continue our celebration over a scrumptious Christmas dinner....

And there was one thing Brad and I had in common....

We had never tasted a beet. Until tonight.

We hope your Christmas was as wonderful, loving, delicious, joyous and full of gluttony as ours was.....

MY MOTHER'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY

is Danish and the only Danish tradition I know is Ebelskivers.
Luckily, I got my own pan and my sister-in-law taught me how to make them a few years ago. I had eaten them but never made them myself. It's a hit with our family and the boys LOVE it when we make these.
We started out our Christmas with this delicious traditional Danish breakfast....

The recipe I use is:
2 c. buttermilk
2 c. flour
3 eggs, separated
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
2 tsp. sugar
Beat whites. In another bowl, beat egg yolks and add sugar, salt and buttermilk. Add soda and baking powder. Fold in beaten egg whites. Grease Ebelskiver iron and fill cups half full. Cook and turn. Serve warm with butter, jelly, syrup, powdered sugar or any other toppings you might like.

My great grandmother refused to have Danish spoken in her home and sadly, along with that, Danish customs and a lot of our heritage wasn't passed down.

If you know of any Danish customs, I'd love to hear about them.....

WHAT A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS MORNING

we had!
Two of my favorite gifts from my husband - The "P" that we designed together (then he did all the work) and a new camera which was a TOTAL surprise....

Thankfully Larry hung it straightaway because I was SOOOO excited. This weekend we will have a before and after on this corner.

If you're wondering, YES - we are going to be selling these letters. More on that soon!

We opened stockings; these are all stockings my mother has made for us. Aren't they awesome!...

And then our house was TRASHED....

Grandma and Grandpa Joan came over with Uncle Robbie bearing gifts....

And it got more trashed....

I almost started twitching but I was too busy admiring these incredible slippers they purchased for me when they were in Germany....