Fried eggs

Some sad news for the week. We have been incubating eggs for 12 days now. (The incubation stage for chicks is only 21 days, so we were half way there!) I've been candling them to see if I could find life growing inside, but last night we discovered that the incubator was set too hot and well, I have eleven fried eggs on my hands. (The incubator should be set between 99 and 102 degrees. My thermostat was too far off on one side and didn't read the temperature correctly for the eggs. The real temp in the incubator was 110.) So sad! We've been turning these babies every 4 to 6 hours and have been so excited for them to hatch.

My next task is to empty them out and investigate how far along the development stages were for each of them. I'll be honest, I've come to pitty my husband's job a bit more after this experience. I also find myself without desire to eat eggs any time in the near future. (Thank goodness the ones you buy in the store are not fertilized! It's my only saving grace right now.)

The final task is to tell the kids. I'm looking even LESS forward to this. I do have to say, I have learned a lot and look forward to trying it again. Maybe in the spring. Easter is a wonderful time for chicks!

Creche Exhibit

Last week I took a couple of friends and my kiddos to see the Creche Exhibit our church puts on. There is something truly beautiful about the retelling of the Nativity. Here are just a few of the exquisit works we were able to enjoy.

This one came from Equador and is made of corn husks.

They had a most incredible display of the Italian Fontini work. I took MANY pictures, but will post only my favorite one here. All the pieces are hand painted and the work covers what would have been the whole city of David (Bethlehem).

A Hawaiian yurt.

From Germany, this one reminds me of the one sitting in Grandma and Grandpa Knight's home.

My love for paper got my head a-whirling with ideas of doing something like this at home. The next few Nativities are all made of paper.

Notice the village painted on Mary's skirt.

This one is made of an olive tree from Jerusalem.

My children were very well behaved and enjoyed looking at all the Nativity scenes, but their favorite part was the room adjacent to the main exhibit. Here they found an abundance of Marys and Josephs that were just for them!

Deck the halls!

Call it tradition, or call it the Christmas bug, we put Christmas up as soon as Thanksgiving is over. This year, we did it the day after Thankgiving. This really is a family affair at our house and mom doesn't get much say in the happenings. Derek brings in the boxes from the garage and in a whirwind, has the tree up, lit, garlands up, lit, and the ornaments half on before I know we are decorating.

The first thing I always do as soon as I arrive at the scene is turn on the Christmas tree lights. The second thing I always do is make Derek take them off and do them again. The third thing I always do is kiss him. (Kissing always keeps the frustration out and the smiles abundant. It's amazing what a bushel and a peck will do!)

The kids did the honors this year. Derek and I found this humble tree at an auction just after we were married. We bought it for $1. After 4 years of marriage, Derek stopped asking me if we could chuck it. Now he just wraps it back up and puts it away for another's year's use. Maybe when Tanner doesn't need a stool anymore to put the decorations on we'll buy a new tree. Or better yet, a real one!

Lexie found Rudolph's nose. It even glows!

When all was said and done, 90% of the ornaments were in a 12 inch diameter spot on the bottom right corner of the tree. The other 10% were at the top on the left side "so Colin won't get them". We put the kids to bed and that's when I had my turn decorating. I pulled all the ornaments off the tree, pulled out my new garlands I had bought last year for .99 cents, and redecorated the tree. (Shhh! Don't tell the kiddos!) I know, I can't get away with this much longer.

One of my favorite parts about Christmas time is sitting in the living room at night with all the lights turned out looking at the Christmas tree aglow. Sometimes I'll put some Chrismtas music on, but I just love to reflect upon the things I am grateful for at this time and consider the new year's resolutions I'll make for the upcoming year.

I do have to say that the next morning the kids came out to see the Christmas tree and boy did they Oooooo and Ahhhhhh! They hardly recognized the difference, but they did complain that there were a couple of bulbs too close for Colin's reach!

Our favorite cookbook yeilds a gingerbread recipe to die for. Derek has adopted it and makes it all year round. Funny thing, pregnancy and ginger have never settled well for me so I always try to enjoy these double when I'm not expecting. Every time he makes them and takes them to share, people rave about them and want the recipe. So......(drum roll please!).......

Announcing.....

Gingerbread Men
Hard, over spiced gingerbread men seem to be the norm, but I wanted kinder, gentler cookies
that did not contain tongue-burning amounts of cinnamon and ground ginger, although they should have a bit of zip to them. These are gin­gerbread men that look good and are also worth eating. If you wish to glaze them see the recipe that follows.

Makes 75 2 inch cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour [I have tried whole wheat and it is not bad]
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter softened but still firm
½ cup tightly packed dark brown sugar
½ cup molasses [or sorghum] (if you use blackstrap molasses, you may want to use only ¼ cup molasses and add ¼ cup of honey)
1 large egg

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the first 8 ingredients (flour through nutmeg). Set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 min­utes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the molasses and beat for another 30 seconds, or until combined. Add the egg and beat for an­other 30 seconds, or until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Divide the dough in two and shape each half into an 8-inch disk. Wrap disks in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours. If dough has been chilled for an extended period of time, let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes before proceeding. It should be firm but not hard.
2. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured sur­face, roll the dough (half at a time) to a thick­ ness of _ inch. Cut to desired shapes and place on the prepared cookie sheet with a cookie spatula. Bake until the cookies are set and just beginning to brown, about 7 minutes, turning the sheet front to back halfway through the baking time. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to a rack to cool com­pletely.
3. Gather the scraps of dough, re-roll, and cut, until you have used all the dough. If the dough becomes too soft, refrigerate for about 15 minutes. Bake and cool as directed above.

What can go Wrong
As with all rolled cookies, the dough needs to be at the proper temperature. If it becomes very soft as you work with it, put it back in the refrigerator or briefly in the freezer to firm up. Also, since these cookies are dark brown, it is hard to tell when they are baked properly. Most cooks over bake them. They should still be very soft when they come out of the oven, since they will harden as they cool. Peek underneath one or two of the cookies. They should just be starting to brown. I would also be cautious about oven times, be­cause your oven may bake differently than mine. Since these cookies take just a few min­utes to bake, I suggest watching them very care­fully.

Glaze for Gingerbread men
These cookies can be iced (after baking and cooling) with a glaze made with 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar and 2 to 3 tablespoons milk whisked together until smooth. Add the milk slowly to get the desired consistency. The glaze should be thick and spreadable, not too runny. If it is too thick add a few drops more milk, if too thin add more sifted confectioners' sugar. For variations, add a bit of lemon zest to the sugar or substitute 1 tablespoon of rum or orange juice for an equal amount of milk.

*Comments in [] were added by Derek

Highlights of Thankgiving

I know I am writing this a little late, but I wanted to post some of the highlights of our Thanksgiving. This was a fun year for us because we had Jeannie come for one week, then a few days later, Derek's brother Alan came.

Aside from the fact that November is one of my favorite months of the year, I find myself quite posessive of the Thanksgiving holiday. I think it is because the day after Halloween they have Christmas up in the stores. It is all so commercial and here is one of the most heartfelt, non-commercial holidays of the year and it seems to be lost in the cracks. I guess I really like it's meaning. The act of giving thanks. This year I thought a lot about the "giving" part. I got an idea from a childhood friend and thought that I would try it out with my kids. This month I created two bare trees on poster paper and hung them on the wall. On the bottom of one it says, “thanks”. On the bottom of the other it says, “giving.” Each night we have been writing down (on leaves I cut out) some of the things that we are grateful for and pasting them on the “thanks” tree. Then we write down on leaves things that we have done during the day where we have served on the “giving” tree.

It is no surprise I have much more than one leaf worth to give thanks for. But what has pulled us the most from our comfort zone is the giving tree. At first, we really had a tough time thinking of things to write down on our leaves. Then, as the days wore on, service towards one another became much easier, more fun, and exciting to declare at the end of the day! Here are my trees. They are a bit bare since we started this half way through the month, but I can't WAIT for next year! (Thank you Chocolate on my Cranium!)

Here is my sweet friend Jeannie. She's in the middle of switching residencies and I told her I needed her close, so she came to MO to interview! We did all sorts of fun things while she was here. She really knows how to dive in and be part of our family.

I made her a Thanksgiving dinner while she was here since she is so far from family and wouldn't be here on the real day. For the Turkey, I bought a Butterball Turkey breast. It was already marinated and turned out delicious! Derek took this picture. Can you tell he had apple pie on his mind?

Here is Jeannie and Colin. All three of my kids just love her!

We did these Thanksgiving wreaths with the kids.

We went to the State Park after Stake Conference to have a picnic lunch. Here are some pictures I / Jeannie took of the kids.

Uncle Alan came for the actual holiday of Thanksgiving. He gave up his beautiful Sunshine State of CA to visit. We took him, or should I say, he took us to Bonkers for some serious fun.

Derek pulled out his "swords" for some guy fun on the front lawn. I seriously never in a million years would have imagined myself allowing this kind of thing in my home, but boys are boys and BOY to they have a lot of fun with these things!

After the first day here, Alan asked us if he could dig in our dirt. This is Derek's true love, so it didn't take much arm twisting for the two of them to conjure up a good project and go to work. They headed off to Home Depot about 1:30pm to pick up some flagstone. By sundown they had built us a nice sitting corner with a firepit in the middle. We'll have hostas come up in the spring and it will fill in nicely with greenery around it. I'll post a picture in the summer.

Even without the greenery, it looks FABULOUS! We've decided to call it the brother's corner. Thank you Uncle Alan!

We also took Alan to the park. Here's Tanner on the slide.

Colin in the stroller.

Lexie on the seahorse.

For our Turkey day, we got together with a couple of wonderful families in our ward. We love them and pretty much consider them family, so it seemed right to spend some time that day with them. We all have kids about the same ages. When we get together, we pretty much don't see our kids until it is time to go and and then we have to peel them apart and promise them we'll come back and play again. Of course we do!

I baked a 21 pound bird. Grandpa Ellingson taught me to cook it breast side down. I brine it the day before, then put a whole stick of butter in the bottom of the pan and stuff it with fruits and veggies. The meat is tender and juicy. Just how we like it!

This year I made my first peach pie. I owe most of my sucess to my mother-in-law who canned me 21 quarts of peaches from her back yard this summer. You just can't beat a home-grown peach! Especially one that's been cooked with love!

My reciepe came from two different recipes combined and, of course, altered! Here's the goods:

Emily Ellingson's Peach Pie

2 qts canned peaches, drained

1 T lemon juice

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Double crust for 9 inch pie.

Toss peaches with lemon juice. Mix remaining ingredients and toss with peaches.
Place one crust in the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Top with lattice strips of pie crust.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes, or until crust is golden. Allow pie to cool before slicing.

Yeah, I'll be making this one again. It was delicious!

We were sad to see Alan go, and he was pretty sure he doesn't want kids anytime in the near future, but he did promise to come back next year! I'm sure we can find him some good Missouri clay to dig in!

To top off my Thanksgiving with dear family and friends, I recieved a wonderful surprise at my door from my parents! Thanks mom and dad! Fresh flowers are my favorite!