Christmas 2011–Part I

Hello, everyone.  Hope y’all had a wonderful Christmas.  I know we did!  I'm beat, though.  Besides all of the hustle and bustle and goings and comings, we have been battling bugs around here.  Little Lucy felt absolutely miserable the whole weekend.  She had an “awful” ear infection according to the doc and ran “beaver” as high as 103!  Poor baby! When she just wants to lie around with her head on your shoulder, you know she’s feeling bad. Thankfully, she was on the upswing by Monday, but it looks like she’s shared her germs with me and Ty. Yuck!

We took so many photos over the holiday.  There’s just no way I could share everything with y’all at one sitting, so I’ve decided to split it up and just take things little by little.

My monkeys love to dress up.  Ty wore this elf costume last year when he assisted Santa at the restaurant.  He pulled it back out again this year and wore it around the house for three straight days!  When he finally took it off, Lucy seized the opportunity and donned it herself.

The Tool Man said she looked like a Christmas version of Friar Tuck.

Poor baby.  You can tell from her eyes that she just wasn’t feeling well.

I spent the entire day before Christmas baking.  I made a total of 8 cakes and pies.  Some were old favorites, and some were new finds from Pinterest.  Some were for our family, and some were for others.  For the most part the sweets turned out great, but I admit there were a couple of flops, all of which were new recipes.  When will I learn to stick to the oldies-but-goodies?

A little cooking lesson for you:  I wanted to show y’all what a pie crust should look like when it’s rolled out.  You see all those light spots in the crust?  That’s butter, my friends.  Wonderful, glorious butter.  As the pie crust bakes, the water in the butter evaporates, and the resulting steam creates pockets of air that make for a flaky texture.  Just thought I’d throw in a little science for y’all this morning.

The hits:  Sweet Potato Pie, Carrot Cake, Hershey Bar Cake, Coconut Cream Pie

The Misses:  Cinnamon Roll Cake and Tres Leches Cake.  They weren’t awful, just not worth trying again.  Tres Leches cake just sort of reminded me of wet, soggy cake, and as far as the Cinnamon Roll Cake goes, my old-faithful Honey Bun Cake recipe knocks it out of the park in both taste and ease!  I’ll have to share that with y’all another day.

Christmas Eve.

Time for bed.

You know what that means.

Time to put out some cookies for Santa!

This picture makes me laugh.  Ty was in his skivvies here, so he quickly wrapped up in a blanket to avoid any embarrassing pictures.  He’s learned these pics go directly to the blog.

To be continued…

Lindsey

The Little “Bone Collector”

Shhhh!  Be veh-wee, veh-wee quiet…

Do you see that deer right there? 

Yeah, that’s the one.  My Dad got these pictures this fall on the trail cameras behind his house.

Ty was able to go hunting one evening with Papa a couple of weeks ago, and this spike got a little too close for comfort.  POW!  Ty dropped him in his tracks.  I’m not sure who was more excited about this one…Ty or Papa.

Something fishy is going on with this deer though.  Those antlers haven’t been seen since the night Ty killed this spike.  It’s really been bugging Ty not to have his “deer horns.”  But something tells me he just might find them again Christmas night.  Hmmm…….

My little deer slayer.  Only 7 years old and already 5 deer under his belt!

At the Farm

Sunday we had family-get-together at the Tool Man’s aunt’s house.  The children always have the best time visiting Aunt Pam and Uncle Rusty.  Their place is a regular menagerie.  Ducks, rabbits, peacocks, horses, goats… You can see why the children have so much fun over there.

All the kiddos took a turn on the horses.  The Tool Man was in charge of leading the children around the pen.  You may not know this, but before I came along the Tool Man was part cowboy, and it looks like Lucy shares his love of horses.  She was not afraid of them at all and insisted her daddy take her for a ride.

After everyone got a turn on the horse, Uncle Rusty brought the goats around for a snack.  Each kid got his own bucket of corn to share with the goats.  The little ones had a hard time keeping the goats’ noses out of their buckets.

Lucy wasn’t satisfied with just feeding the goats, though.  She just had to take a ride on one.  Ha ha.  This was too funny.  She used the goats horns as handlebars.

Lucy thoroughly enjoyed riding Mother Mary (and for all of those born north of the Mason-Dixon Line, that’s pronounced “May-ree.”)

Finally, Santa popped in for a short visit with all the kids.  Everyone knew it was really Uncle Rusty, but for the most part they played along.  Lucy was the only one who would not sit in Santa’s lap.  She had big alligator tears rolling down her cheeks, poor baby, but she warmed up a little when he pulled a teddy bear and lollipop out of his bag for her.

You might be wondering about Ty.  Well, he had his fair share of fun too.  Most the time he was out prowling around the countryside with his older cousins.  Or he was, as I like to call it, playing “Price Is Right” with the pool.  You know, getting as close as he possibly could to the water’s edge without going over.  Thankfully, he managed to stay dry.

Lindsey

Cooking with Lucy

Without a doubt, our favorite dessert around this house is most definitely BROWNIES!  Straight out of the box.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.  The last time I stirred up a batch of brownies Lucy insisted on assisting.  She didn’t let the fact that she was too short to reach the counter stop her.  Lately, she’s been going to the pantry and pulling out a box of peanut oil to use for a stool.  Seeing her dragging this box all around our house reminds me of a little stool I used to have that had these words printed on top,

This little stool is mine.
I use it all the time,
To reach the things I couldn’t
And lots of things I shouldn’t.

I’m afraid this box of peanut oil may get Lucy into trouble someday.

Of course, the absolute best part about making brownies is getting to lick the spoon.  Lucy enjoyed it so.

In case you are wondering, yes, she did get chocolate batter on her crisp, white shirt, and yes, it did come out in the wash.

You know it’s gotta be good if you get it all over your face, and it doesn’t bother you one bit!

Nothing like an ice cold Diet Coke to wash it all down.  Ahh!  Just  for the taste of it…Diet Coke.  Anyone remember that jingle?

Here’s a fun little picture I just had to share with y’all.  My mom has a very similar picture of me wearing about twenty strands of Mardi Gras beads.  I remember putting all those beads on my neck and thinking that I must look like Mr. T.  Ha ha!

He May Not Look Like Much Now…

Last night the Tool Man and I took the monkeys over to my Dad’s house so they could meet his new baby, a Mastiff puppy.  Although the puppy (he doesn’t have a name yet) weighs only about 8 lbs. now, he’ll be tipping the scales at about 200 lbs. in 18 months.  Yikes!  That’s no dog.  That’s a small horse!  Can you imagine?  A 200-lb. dog?  And he could grow to as much as 30” tall at the shoulders.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog that big.  Thankfully mastiffs are known to be a gentle breed, and they are good with children.  I imagine it’s because they in no way feel threatened by them.

This little guy is so calm and quiet.  I know he’s just a puppy, but we are all hoping he retains this laid back temperament.  We aren’t really hyper-active puppy people.

Ty and Lucy absolutely loved having a dog to play with.  Actually, I think Lucy enjoyed the doggie toys just as much as she enjoyed the dog.  Santa may have to bring her some chew toys this Christmas.

Hard to believe that this cute little puppy will be almost 8 times the size of Lucy in a few short months!

Ty thinks that Papa should name the puppy “Hershey,” probably because that’s what his cousin, Reese, named his dog.  I think he should call the dog “Tiny.”  One other name in the running is “Badger,” as in Honey Badger.  Oh, yeah.  Geaux Tigers!!!

Guest Blogger Today

Happy Thursday everyone!  Y’all are in luck.  I’m giving you an early Christmas present.  A special guest will be blogging for us today.  It’s my very own monkey, Ty.

A couple of nights ago the Tool Man and I got to missing Ty.  We knew he was upstairs, but he was being very quiet.  Too quiet.  If you have children, you know that nothing strikes suspicion in a parent’s mind like a quiet kid!  So the Tool Man snuck upstairs to see what Ty was up to.  He found Ty recording this video blog.  Ty was so proud of his video.  He insisted that it was for my blog, and I’m happy to post it here for all to see.  He took this video so seriously.  My child is a nut, I tell you!

A little background info before you push play:  Ty had just received a gift from a family friend.  It’s a “Santa Bag” in which a child places his letters to Santa.  The video is mainly about this Santa Bag and about Ty’s Christmas tree.

I hope y’all will enjoy this video as much I did.  Be sure the volume is turned all the way up.  Ty was speaking rather softly, as he explains in the video.

Christmas Tree Boy

Lindsey