I Remember Them

Samuel- 12, Karen- 9, Laura- 7, Danny- 5. 

The good ol' days. 

Merry Christmas!

A Lullaby

To welcome in the Christmas season, I thought I would share this sweet video of Donny Osmond singing to his son, Don. I love the way Don gets sleepy just at the right time! Merry Christmas to you all.

Apple Dumplings

I've made these twice before, and I guess I never blogged it. Silly me!  Here's the recipe. It comes from P-Dub.

Apple Dumplings (adapted slightly)
2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges per apple)
2 (8-ounce) cans crescent roll dough
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 (12-ounce) can Sprite (because I don't do the Dew)
ground cinnamon to taste
vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Wrap each apple wedge in a crescent roll, starting at the wide end and rolling it up to the point. Put each roll in a buttered 9x13 (or slightly smaller) baking pan.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the sugar and vanilla and stir for about 30 seconds. The sugar does not need to dissolve. Pour that sugar mixture evenly over the rolls. Pop open the can of Sprite (or 7-Up, or Mountain Dew or Slice...no, I take that back. Not Slice. That stuff is nasty) and pour it right over the top of everything. Sprinkle some cinnamon over the rolls and bake for about 40 minutes or until it's golden brown.
Serve the dumplings with ice cream and spoon some syrup-y goodness over the whole plate of deliciousness.

I'm Thankful

I know it's Thanksgiving, but Caleb is opening up his Christmas present, since I won't be there on Christmas day. I'm thankful for this boy!

Caleb loves Legos and Karen loves games. Win/win. 

After the game was over, Caleb wanted to show off the winning trophy. Scroll down fast, like a flip-book. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. What are YOU thankful for? 

P.S. I'm also beyond thankful that I will soon have grandchildren living in Utah before the end of the year!

Cranberry Sauce

I used to hate cranberry sauce. Then I learned to make it myself, and now I love it! Take a bag of these guys...

 ...and turn it into this.

Here's how:
Cranberry Sauce (by Our Best Bites)
1 (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries
1 cup water
1 pinch ground cloves (barely shake the bottle one time)
1 stick cinnamon
1 cup orange juice
1 cup sugar
Turn the oven on to 350°F. Rinse the cranberries (there can sometimes be little sticks in there), and place the berries in a 9x13 pan. Add the water, cloves, cinnamon stick and orange juice. Give it a swirl, then sprinkle the sugar on top of the berries.
Bake for one hour.
I like my sauce a little lumpy, so I mash them a little bit after they've cooled slightly. You can process it in a food blender if you like yours smooth. Chill until ready to serve. I'm hoping there will be leftovers!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

Every month at the employment center where my husband and I "work" we have a meeting which involves a pot-luck breakfast. Last month I was ill and didn't attend. This month I took what I would have taken last month if I could have. They are called muffins, but that's just so you don't feel bad for eating them for breakfast. In anyone else's book, they are cupcakes. I took 30 cupcakes muffins to the meeting. Only these guys survived long enough for me to take their picture.

You can get the recipe here. What I find funny is that in Kate's picture she shows it styled with a green bottle filled with milk. I have those same exact bottles (except they are my bottles at my house and Kate's bottles at her house. We don't run back and forth between houses sharing the same exact exact bottles). I should have styled my photo exactly like Kate's. Yep, to me that's funny.