Dirty Santa...

they are in awe of how big dirty santa is

that's our new tradition...

since target went and closed their garden section...

taking our Christmas tradition and spitting on it!

girl child trying to pop off boy child's head

we were forced last year to find a new Christmas tree getting tradition...

getting our tree at the 'dirty santa' tree lot

their faces were over the top cheese in this pic...
just give me a nice simply smile...please

just to clarify...

we've named him dirty santa...

that's not the actual name of the place....

santa just looks like he could use some oxi clean...

a good long soak in the stuff...

but I get it...

year after year of being out in the nasty elements 

and your whites aren't looking so white anymore!

i will love him and squeeze him and call him george

the kids could hardly contain themselves...
we never get a tree this early...
we always wait until after the girl child's birthday...(Dec 2nd)
I never wanted Christmas to crowd her birthday,
making her birthday not as special or something like that...
last year she wanted to know why we waited until after her birthday to get a tree
I explained my reasons...
she disagreed...
having a tree up for her birthday would make it seem more special...
only Dec babies get the opportunity for a Christmas tree up on their birthdays...
well played girl child...
so this year...
lights up...tree up
house decorated for Christmas...
all before December even starts...
I think I'm going to like this new tradition...

this is how I wanted them to pose in front of dirty santa...
but they just couldn't get their acts together and contain themselves for one nice dirty santa shot

dirty santa is a nice tree lot...
mr. tree man...
who thought I was weird when I asked if I could take a picture...
or maybe he just wasn't 'speaking the same english as us'
(boy child's suggestion....
he did seem more native to south of the border...)
anyways...

mr. tree man was very nice and friendly...
talked to me about his grandkids...
how he likes to sell trees because it makes kids and families happy...

he told me how nice and behaved boy and girl child were...
guess he wasn't hearing me yell at remind them to stop being crazy

 and extra bonus...our tree came with a name...
a name at no extra cost...
in fact I think the name made it cheaper!...

boy child wanted to sit next to Norman on the way home...keep him safe...

Beau liked the price so much that he was okay with us keeping Norman's name tag on him....

what's your Christmas tree getting tradition?

the bird soup

all the work....

   which I LOVE....

that goes into the the Thanksgiving meal

and one of my favorite parts....

my own personal holiday tradition

....the day after soup!

the recipe in a nut shell

Bird Soup

1 turkey carcass or a a few of the larger bones

lots of water

    you can skip the bone boiling stage if that grosses you out and just opt for chicken broth

2 lb bag of carrots, peeled and chopped

entire bunch of celery ( washed and chopped, don't throw out those celery leaves...they have amazing flavor to add to any soup!)

1/2-1 whole chopped onion

any other veggies you want; corn, green beans, broccoli, peas (save the peas till the end), potatoes, brussel sprouts, etc....

a 'dollop' or 2 of gravy

2 scoops or 7 of mashed potatoes

bay leaf

salt and pepper

rice or noodles (optional)

yep, I'm a bone boiler...

we save the turkey carcass (could there be a grosser word?)

and I boil it for hours the next day...

just water 

and bones 

and whatever meat the vultures family didn't pick off 

all go into a pot

bring to a boil and then simmer for at least 1 hour, but 5-6 is great!  just keep adding water when it starts to get low.

then the hour before you're ready to eat, grab another large pot, and put your colander/strainer in the top, pour the boney water through catching all the wonderful broth in the bottom pot,

now return the broth to the stove and add whatever veggies you want (if you have some leftover from a veggie platter that's wonderful to use), I usually put in the 'soup trinity' (carrots, celery, & onions), then add some turkey...lots and lots of turkey (the small stuff that isn't good for sandwiches)... a few dollops of the leftover gravy helps make the soup creamy, leftover mashed potatoes are great (I like to leave the potatoes out and then heat a scoop up in the microwave and scoop the soup over the top of the spuds in the bowl...yummy!)...toss in some salt and pepper to taste and a bay leaf or 2...

if you want rice in the soup toss in a handful about 20 minutes left in the hour, if you prefer noodles toss them in the last 10 minutes....

happy bird soup!

other leftover turkey ideas

turkey salad (like chicken salad...but with turkey...so yummy with cranberry sauce)

turkey pot pie

turkey tortellini salad

turkey enchiladas

creamy turkey spinach & pasta 

what do you do with your turkey leftovers?

give thanks

I am so thankful for so much...
I didn't jump on the whole facebook thankful challenge thing...
never have...
I not sure why,
maybe it seemed insincere for me,
although I know plenty of people that are doing it and they are 100% sincere in their thanks...

  I am thankful,
      I don't want you to think I'm not,
maybe I felt that facebook was too impersonal...
like I was posting my diary for all to read...
...so, then why would I post it on my blog...
...because it is MY blog and it's more like my online journal...
and I may never actually publish this post, we'll see!

I'm thankful for my parents that raised me in a Christian home
thankful for the country that I live in that gives me so many freedoms
....freedom to serve my Lord Jesus Christ
freedom to teach my children and other peoples children about his love
....freedom to learn,
      not only allowed to be educated, but making it possible!
   seriously, I remind both of my kids that it is such a gift that we live in this country,
education is huge, and it's GIVEN to all of us!  no matter our gender or income...

I'm thankful for the people that came into my life at various points sharing with me God's love and truths...

I'm thankful for a college education (that we're still paying off)
thankful for an income to pay off my college education.

I'm thankful for meeting my husband at that college.

thankful for in-laws that raised my husband in a Christian home.

I'm thankful for the Christian couples that were in both of our lives at different times giving us the desire, goal, and tools for building a healthy Christian marriage.

I'm thankful for choices we both made before we ever met that led to pure, loving, wonderful sex life (yep, I went there!).
Thankful for communication with my husband.
Thankful for his love of God, his desire to serve God, his desire to share God's love.
Thankful for his love of our children.

I'm thankful for our children,
  healthy, beautiful, loving children...
thankful for the health care, doctors, medicines and God's miracles that have blessed us with two healthy beautiful, loving children....
Thankful for all the people in our children's lives that have shared God's love with them.
   thankful that they have a faith in God and a heart to share his love with others.

I'm thankful for a daddy's girl,
     that will talk to her daddy about anything...ANYTHING!
thankful that she is all girl...all silly, giggly, sparkly girl!
thankful that she is loving, tender, hopeful, & kind
thankful that she loves God, and wants to serve Him.
  thankful that she will not look for a boy to fill the needs that both God and her daddy have filled already!

Thankful for a momma's boy...
  a boy that has a heart to share love with the 'women' in his life...
a boy that is tender and loving and gentle...
   and rough & tough and funny and amazing...
thankful that he loves God and wants to serve Him.
thankful for a boy that will make an amazing husband
     because he will look at his father to see how to love and care for his wife and children.

I'm thankful for the grandparents that our children have...
the legacy of love, marriage, and loving God that they share with our children....

Thankful for so much more...
  for the turkey sitting in the kitchen waiting to be stuffed...

Happy Thanksgiving!

the bitter sweet

cranberry relish....
this is way better than any ol' canned cranberry jelly goop...
   ...what is that stuff anyways?

this has becoming a new tradition in our family...
it's a recipe from my sister-in-law's grandmother...
...my husband's, brother's wife....
she shared it with us a few years back
(can't remember now, but maybe 5 years ago?)
my mom made the recipe last year
and this is the first year I've made it...
so yummy...and so easy...
actually I should say the kids made it this year...
I was only in the kitchen for parts of the process
....the big knife process
...and the taking pictures process

girl child cutting and coring the apple
boy child peeling the orange
big knife sitting just haphazardly in the mix!

and this recipe is so simple that I actually walked them thru the recipe from the other room while I folded clothes!

lets pretend that I didn't just yell at them to stop yelling at each other

Grandma Grace Carlson's Cranberry Relish
Prepare at least 2-3 days before using so ingredients blend
1 pkg. cranberries
1 orange, peeled and seeded
1 lemon, peeled and seeded
1 apple, cut and cored, no need to peel
1 16 oz. can crushed pineapple
     (I had a 20 oz can, that I just measured out 16 oz/approx 2 cups)
1 cup sugar

Wash cranberries in colander.  Grind first four ingredients; cranberries, orange, lemon, apple. (Grandma used a meat grinder; food processor is best next option, and probably safer if your leaving the kids unsupervised your letting your kids make the recipe...). Add pineapple, with it's juice, and the sugar to the ground fruit. Let stand 1-2 hours and taste. Add more sugar if needed but keep it fairly tart.
Relish will sweeten some as it stands for a few days.
It will also darken, I was worried, I remembered it being darker, and when the kids were finished it was a pale pink, I think all the air bubbles from the food processing...it darkened up pretty fast, like within an hour...

I doubled the recipe because I think it's a nice gift to 'bottle' up and hand out to friends

lots of cranberry relish
 there was one other sm jar already gifted to the piano teacher

if you give as a gift remind them that this needs to be refrigerated.... 

the Bird

I've 'hosted' most of the Thanksgiving meals since we've been married...

so, 14 years turkey feast and maybe 5 of them have been elsewhere....

I love it...and really it's not something to stress over...

    ....or maybe it's because my family (in-laws included) 

     are low key, roll with the flow, kind of people

...yes, I'm thankful for our families...them are good people!

our menu this year...

the bird

mashed potatoes and gravy

stuffing/dressing

green bean casserole

salad 

cranberry relish

rolls & butter

(no yams or sweet potatoes, none in attendance this year really like them)

and then the desserts

pies; dutch apple, pumpkin, & chocolate

molasses cookies

easy peasy...

I wanted to share a family secret recipe to make your Thanksgiving center piece, the bird, low-no stress and perfectly moist and juicy!

ready for it...

it's all about the bag...

the Reynolds, turkey size oven bags...so simple!

make sure the bird is defrosted 

take out all the innards

stuff it if you stuff your bird

butter it up

toss a few tablespoons of flour and some salt and pepper into the bag

place the turkey in the bag

if you're feeling festive and creative you can put some rosemary and thyme on the top of the bird or even some lemon or orange slices

close up the bag

poke some holes in the top

and cook it according to the baking table inside the box...

no need for basting throughout the process

no need to add anything to 'brown-up the bird'

you can use a meat thermometer if you'd like 

     sometimes I have.... 

          sometimes I haven't, GASP!

the bird is always perfect

don't ya just love stock turkey feast photos...?

does anyone really sit down with the bird whole!

I searched the intra-web and not one photo could I find of the feast with the bird all carved up and on the table...so funny!

have a great day...now off to do some 'cooking' with the kids!

and then they ate candy

they ate a lot of candy
if fact that was their dinner...
let me explain
some history
we have a holiday-candy-rule in our house

all candy from one holiday must be thrown away on the next holiday


this rule became law for us quite a few years ago after New Years when we were looking around the house at all the bowls of candy and junk food left over from Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and then the New Years junk as well...

so this is how it looks ... any holiday that might end up with candy is the house, Halloween is an obvious one,  gets thrown away on the next 'holiday' we use this term lightly...

think any day that mail might not get delivered or that the kids might have something fun planned at school...

so after Halloween we choose Veterans Day as our throw-away-holiday...

• Thanksgiving candy/junk food/misc desserts still hanging around you can choose Dec 7th (National Pearl Harbor Day) or wait until Hanukkah starts (a different day every year, this year it's Dec 21st), we usually go with the girl child's birthday on December 2nd as our throw-away-day
• of course Christmas treats get thrown away on New Years
• New Years on Martin Luther King Jr Day (one of the Mondays in January)
• Valentines candy gets thrown away on Presidents Day
• St. Patricks Day Candy (yes we have candy from the leprechauns that reek havoc in our house) gets thrown away on April Fools day...

and those are most of the candy-getting-holidays that we experience in our home and the holidays that we use as our throw-away-days...

we are also a bit on the stingy side when it comes to all that candy and our kids...
they usually haul in a boat load of candy on Halloween (with all the carnivals and the trick-or-treating and school parties), we let them eat a few pieces that night, get one in their lunch box the next day and then usually one for 'dessert' every night until the throw-away-day...
all Halloween candy gets put into one large family candy bowl the day after Halloween...
and then I start throwing away all the gross candy from day one...
I am not a lover of suckers or small hard candy so I'm usually chuckin' those before they hit the candy bowl
and then all the fruity chewy things go next
anything banana flavored is toast -seriously banana flavored candy is NASTY!
cheap chocolate never sees anything but the garage bag

so the above candy rule and some other events listed below led to the crazy parenting choice of candy for dinner....
this year on the Eve of Veterans Day we still had a LOT of candy...
I had not grocery shopped in FOR.EV.ER
I had no desire to create dinner out of thin air
Beau was off to a meeting
there was no school the next day (Veteran's Day)
...
so we called the kids into the kitchen,
showed them the candy bowl...
reminded them of the 'candy rule' and that the next day, Veterans Day, was the throw-away-day for all this candy...
and then told them that we decided they could eat candy for dinner...

their reaction when we told them they could eat candy for dinner

we took the bowl of candy into the living room, dumped it out and told them to eat up...
...sadly, we have no pictures of this, I think we were still in shock that we were letting them eat candy for dinner that we forgot to photograph the event....
we had 2 rules

• no fighting
• if you get sick, make it to the bathroom,
       if mom's not making dinner, she's also not cleaning vomit off carpet!

after dumping the bowl of candy on the floor we turned on a movie and let them veg and eat candy...
around 8 pm they were both saying their were hungry
(parenting note: I had advised them to go with the 'protein' candy, stuff with peanut butter and nuts would fill them up better, they ignored this wise counsel!)
so the wonderful mother that I am, I popped them up some popcorn to fill them up!
we have decided that we MIGHT make this a family tradition for Halloween candy and Veterans Day Eve...the kids were so very shocked...they're still talking about it (and probably will for years to come)...
and surprisingly enough they really didn't eat that much candy, they put a small dent in the candy bowl, and were very willing to help me throw it all away the next morning!

thankful decor

don't usually decorate for Thanksgiving...
it's more of an Autumnal (is that a word?) theme that gets carried thru...

well this year I added a little more to the Halloween decor....
dino bones & pirates
....so this year after Halloween
     I packed away the dino bones &  pirates
          and pulled out some turkeys...

so Welcome,
come in a take a tour of our humble abode...

...give thanks pendant printed from publisher, I made some triangles and put a text box in the middle of each one and used a different font for each letter...then attached with some hemp cord

my 'mantel' aka piano...

 close up...I printed off a definition of the word Thanksgiving...crumpled it up and placed it in a frame..

I also pulled out some scrabble tiles...spelling words I associate with Thanksgiving...
this one is 'pies'

more scrabble Thanksgiving words 'turkey' and 'potatoes'...
'framed' the thankful turkey boy child made at school, took an empty frame, taped some hemp cord across the top and clipped the turkey to it...he wrote what he's thankful for on the tail feathers
family, Jesus, home, friends, God, life...

blog tangent...
he made this in his public school...
this is just one of the reasons my husband and I have made the choice to 'public school' our children...who is to be salt and light to those kids if we take all the Christian kids and home-school or private school them?  no need to argue this, I totally get that different kids and different families need different things, but our kids are wonderful kids and we feel that we have/are raising them up the way God would have us and one thing that these kids are called to do is take God's love into their schools!
end of tangent....

the top of the wall divider/record collection...scattered some leaves and gourds, and then filled a bowl with more gourds...easy peasy lemon squeeze...and festive...

and then I decided to jump on the whole 'thankful tree' bandwagon...
grabbed some sticks from outside and placed them in a jug thingy...
made a bowl of leaves...for people to write what they're thankful for...

and hang on the tree...also made a paper turkey and placed in a frame without glass...

one of the boy child's leaves...

and the girl child...yes, that says, 'I'm thankful for Shawn Cassidy'....
and no it's not 1977....but I'd much rather her crush on Shawn Cassidy than Justin Bieber...

and there you have it...the turkey day decor...
now off to shop for all the fixin's ....
yes,
I know it's only 3 days before...
yes,
I understand the stores are crazy...
but I have the smallest fridge known to woman kind (one step up from a dorm fridge!) and I can only hold a turkey in the fridge for a few days...
if I also want to keep food for all the other meals between now and the turkey feast!

have a great Thanksgiving week, day, feast!

menu Nov 12th-Nov 20th

haven't made a menu in a long long time...

and it's showed in our nightly dinners...

nachos 

bean soup 

nachos

breakfast burritos

nachos

cereal

nachos

candy & popcorn (oh, yes we did...blog to follow)

I also have a confession to make...

My name is Kiera, and I am a pintrest addict...

a part of my self-induced therapy is to actually 'create' some of my 'pins' 

and thus...the pintrest menu was born!

Saturday night: Lasagna Soup

Monday night: Chicken Tikka Masala

Tuesday night: black bean taquitos

Wednesday night: Chicken in Basil Cream

Thursday night: Honey Lime infused Chicken

Friday night: Zuppa Tuscana soup

Saturday night: Phyllo Dough Pizza

there you have it...

now off to grocery shop...something else that I've been failing at since I haven't been making my menus...

did she really just say that

okay, so we have a girl child.
I've mentioned her a few times...
she's an amazing girl...
     loving, compassionate, funny, joyful, quirky...
she's just amazing...

trying to get a picture of Halloween hair and makeup-take 1

and
she's also the opposite of me at 10 (almost 11)...
or at least the 10 (almost 11) year old me I remember myself being)...
she has some boy crushes,

take 2

    would hang a picture of her teen idol in her room if we allowed...
         her teen idol...no, not Justin Beiber or Zac Efron (sp)
.....no her teen idol is Shawn Cassidy...
          yes we know he's 50 something
...she begs us to watch The Hardy Boys on Netflix
       has a 1977 Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew book with pictures of Shawn in it that she carries in her backpack...
...and yes, she has his LP
     (that's a record for those that aren't cool retro)
....I love that her friends all think she's crazy for 'crushin' on Shawn yet she still does!

'Say Shawn Cassidy' Take 3

anyways...that was a tangent...

so two things happened this weekend to make me realize that she's almost 11...

1st ...I asked her want she wanted to do for her birthday, (4 weeks away...yikes)...
her answer, "Um, can some friends and I just hang out at the mall?"
did she really just say that?!?!?
voice inside my head..."UM NO...and again NO, NO, NO...HECK NO!"
outside voice, "oh, um, I'm pretty sure you can't do that until your like 18..."

don't smile...take 4

2nd thing...she needed a jacket...a few years ago I would have picked one up that was pink and that would have been good...last 2 years while she was with me we'd wonder thru the coat section at Target or WalMart and grab one that she liked...
this year, Friday I'm in WalMart, I take 4 pictures of coats that I think she'll like and send them home to Beau (who's home with the girl child), she chooses one, I buy it and come home...end of story...not likely...
she thinks it's too green, it's too puffy, and not enough pink (I actually mentioned the lack of pink about 5 times on the phone, "really, she's sure that's the one she likes, there is barely any pink")....
so Saturday...off we go with the too green, to puffy and not enough pink coat back to WalMart...
She tries on about 6 coats at WalMart...all too something or other...puffy, shiny, crunchy (she actually said a coat was too crunchy when she moved her arms...)...

okay no biggie, I need to go to Target anyways, we'll grab a coat there...

(did I mention that our fall was only 3 days long and now we are in freezing winter temps...freezing for Redding anyways and the girl NEEDS a coat, this isn't a want thing...)

Target...no go...all to furry, fuzzy, animally, punky, black, puffy and yada yada yada...
and we came home, she had a too small coat from last year that she could wear to church today and then we'll go out again on Sunday...we'll get a coat no biggie...

so my afternoon...
Kohl's ...too weird, too plastic, too bright pink, too furry, too puffy
Old Navy...too straight, too scratchy (the outside not inside), too furry, too puffy
JCPenny's...too shiny, too puffy, too plaid
Sears...too plastic, too puffy, NOT pink
Macy's...she wouldn't even try any of them on here,
     she walked around the racks, said, "yeah, NO."
Costco....bingo...we found it...pink, but not too pink, just the right amount of furry, and not puffy at all...
(by the way furry & puffy is a look this year)
but for REAL...8 stores...and I was out of stores...I am so thankful that I remembered Costco...
come on girl we live in Far Northern California...
these are the ONLY stores we have, I have NO other options...

and bingo...the girl is almost 11....
and 100% all pre teen girl!

take 5....love this girl!

A Little Bit of Magic

okay, so last night I went to a
"welcome to the holidays"
party...
we were asked to bring a holiday snack munchie food
I decided to do the whole caramel corn thing

I found two recipes on my pintrest boards

Addictive Vanilla Caramel Corn source: Oh My Sugar High

Corn Syrup FREE Caramel Corn source: Amy's Food Room

so using the microwave popcorn trick from yesterday I made a boat load of popcorn
and then I combined the two recipes from my two pins...
I wanted a 'healthier' version so I made the corn syrup free version but then really liked the vanilla and sweetened condensed milk version...
so I guess taking out the corn syrup and then adding the sweetened condensed milk sort of makes it not as bad as it could be for you rather than maybe calling it healthy...
...creating...

Creamy Vanilla Salted Caramel Corn
16 cups popped corn, any unpopped kernels discarded, in a very large bowl (or split between two large bowls)
The caramel:
2 cups (1 lb.) brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2-3 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
sea salt (to taste)

1. In a large, microwave safe bowl combine the brown sugar, butter, water and salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring at a minute and a half.  Continue cooking about 3 more minutes until mixture starts to thicken.

2. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.  Put back in microwave for another 2 minutes.  Remove from microwave and add baking soda. The caramel will bubble and puff up as you do this -- keep stirring. Working quickly, but carefully (since the caramel is very hot), pour the caramel over the popped corn kernels and stir gently to coat. (I put the popcorn into a large paper bag and shook it all around)...

3. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two cookie sheet pans with parchment paper. Divide the caramel corn between the two pans, salt generously with sea salt (if you want salted caramel...this is optional) and bake for 45-60 minutes (depends on if you want a little chewy or all crunch, 45 for a little chewy, 60 for all crunch!). Stir every 15minutes. Cool briefly, then watch out...you need to pace yourself otherwise you might eat this all in about 7 minutes...

my kids kept saying, 'Wow, mom you really made this?'
guess that means it was good...

You've Got To Be Kidding Me

Okay, so I've heard rumor that you can make microwave popcorn with...
ready for it...
popcorn and a brown paper bag...
I have even pinned it over on my pintrest board

source: Squawkfox

yep...that's all...

so I researched this crazy idea on the intranet...
(ps Beau hates when I call it that)
Beau thought it was all just one of those things that you read online and shouldn't believe...
he laughed at me...


turns out it's totally true...
so, you can believe some things you read on the intranet...
(said that to make him cringe)


this was so easy that I'm not going to give you the tutorial in pic not words...

okay, so I will use some words...use just under 1/3 cup of popcorn

take it out when the popping gets to about 3-5 seconds apart

and bonus...you can reuse the same bag, over and over...

this was 5 popped bags...one bag, 5 times through the microwave...

okay...so, lets break this down...

1.  ingredients that you're feeding to yourself and your kids...

White Pop Corn...or Yellow ...depending on what you buy...that's IT...pop corn...

or you can feed them this 

and this is Jolly Time Healthy Pop Butter, 94% Fat Free

and you can choose to put your own butter and salt (or whatever you like)...

just butter and salt...

no partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Flavors (really, you can't even tell me which ones, just natural?), Annatto for coloring (cuz I like a good color on my popcorn), Soy Lecithin, Egg and Milk (yep, in my popcorn)....

2.  One bag put into the recycle or green waste bin (not into a landfill, can you imagine how many microwave bags are in our dumps)

3. Cost $1 on 50 brown bags  $1 bag of popcorn...$2 total for who knows how many HUGE bowls of popcorn...

4.  Husband finally realizing that you are a genius!  Who's laughing now