Home By the Creekside

We had breakfast with Santa for primary yesterday. The kids stayed in their jammies and we had a nice yummy breakfast with a small program. He couldn't tell Santa what he wanted because he was SUPER shy with that many people around. She told him that she wanted a black and white puppy. Santa told us that he probably couldn't do that because the puppy might not stay in the sleigh...Good for him! Because I don't want a new puppy at this time.

(I got this recipe from my son's MOST awesome teacher..really she is!)                                                                     1 cube of butter 2 cups of brown sugar 1 cup of lite karo syrup. Boil in a medium pan until it is in the soft ball stage. That is when you put a smidge in a cup of cold water and it is soft still or if you have a fancy candy thermometer, it will show the temp. Then take the pan of the brown goo off of the burner and add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. Stir until it is mixed really good. If you taste it, it is pure caramel goodness. I divide the bag into two different bowls and grab my husband (not in the tushy or a...

So what does 4 bags of Simply potatoes, onions, 10 eggs, 15 Tablespoons of flour, parsley, and a couple other ingredients equal? Latkes! Can you imagine the smell of onions and potatoes drifting down the hallway? It is yummy especially if your stomach is grumbling. Every year, I bring other cultures into my classroom. We discussed Hanukkah this past week. I read this cute little picture book and display other books around the room about Hanukkah. Then on Friday, I make 40 or so latkes in the morning. Yes, every student tries it. If they don't like it, they have the option of tossing it in the garbage silently. While others come back, wanting more....I caught one student sneaking a plate. I pretended to not see it. While I am making them, the students are playing dreidel. Of course, I teach them how to play first. Then they play each other in groups. Then I give the champion of the group a mini bag of chocolate coins.

So if husband and I had our names monogrammed together. This would be it. Actually, we have a silver dish that has fancy etching on it and it says CIA. I wanted to do something with these letters I got at year ago at Kohl's 75% off. I figured it would be best to separate them. I tore rags of fabric that kind of match the colors around the house. So I ripped them and tied them up. It looks better in person than in the pictures. So this is in our front hallway. I was going to move our family picture over and put the I next to it. I still might. Ya, someone's hand in the way, stinker. I caught them playing in our bedroom with flashlights. They were trying to put on the Christmas ties. Weird, I know. We look happy in this picture and I don't look too fat. That even makes me happier. We have nothing in our bedroom on the walls. It is kind of blah. This one is in our bedroom over our bed. I read somewhere that by having pictures of your family in every room around the house ...

We finally bought a snowblower after 3 winters in this lovely place. Really, I do mean lovely. I actually like it here. It reminds me of home: the wind, the awesome summer, 4 seasons, and lots of nice people. Anyways, with that weird blizzard and drifts galore, we decided to hurry up and purchase one. We had one on layaway in October but we had an unexpected expense and took the money from it. I am glad that we did because I saw bad ratings on that machine every day. Anyways, husband was trying it out on Friday and ended up getting snow blown in his face (from the wind). So he decided to bundle up: ski mask and all. Daughter wanted to take her picture with daddy because he kind of looked scary (more funny) in the ski mask. Atleast he didn't get snow in his face. Grant it, he was only plowing about 3-4 inches.

This is what it looked like before it basked in the roaster oven for many hours. It was delish! All of our fancy plates and such.   Happy Thanksgiving......

 Husband wanted a lemon pie so I opted for a bakery pie.We went to this scary little bakery in IF. As we were crossing the street to get into our car, daughter saw this huge snow mountain from all the snow the previous days. She hiked up and demanded her picture taken. Son met her at the top as well. I could have made this but it was soo good. My pumpkin cream pie. Blah! We are just not pumpkin eaters. Oh, well! I will definitely make my apple pie for Christmas and whatever husband wants.