Melius' Most-Read: Alaska's Three Pigs

Let's finish off the year with a Most-Read!

We have received several books from our friends Russ & Claudia in Alaska over the years.  Claudia used to teach at Cresbard School with me, but they are now teachers in a remote village there. 

Nathan especially likes this version of the Three Little Pigs.

Big Game!

It's the Super Bowl at the Melius house--minus the hot wings and anticipated commercials!

It's Lions vs. Packers.

May the best team--and brother--win!

Christmas in Pictures

It is our family tradition to spend our Christmas Eve in Eureka.  

Sometimes it makes us all feel a little crazy!

New Elsa and Anna outfits were a hit!

So were Lego kits . . . 

and Uncle Vince's Mini-Me!

We ended the day with Christmas Eve mass and seeing old friends from Eureka.

It was a FABULOUS day!

On Christmas morning, Santa brought ice skates!

We will all soon be pros at our new family hobby.

We spent most of the day at home and then had a great time in Faulkton at the Melius Christmas.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas, too, and Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we wish you a VERY Merry Christmas!

Christmas at the Capitol

After several years off from our December tradition, our family made the drive to our state capital to experience Christmas at the Capitol.  

We had three goals--spend time with our friends the Aamolds, see the beautiful Christmas trees, and feed the ducks/geese/fish at the lake!

Mission Accomplished!

Our friends the Trefz family were there as well and Deb was so kind to take this photo of us.  Once again, this is "real." :)

Rachel likes to make a silly face when she says "Cheese."

Rachel & me

Doesn't South Dakota just have the most beautiful capitol building?

Mint Chocolate Cookie Crunch

This is a another treat we made for a Christmas past, but I couldn't find it in my recipe box.  Thankfully, I posted it on my blog in December 2009!  The girls and I whipped up a new batch this morning.  Mmmm!

Mint Chocolate Cookie Crunch

2 1/2 bags chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk chocolate)

1 tsp mint extract

1 20 oz. package Oreo cookies, coarsely crushed

4 cups crisp rice cereal

Melt chocolate chips and add extract.  Mix with cookies and cereal.  Scoop onto wax or parchment paper and let set until hardened.

Extra! Extra! Read All About it!

Among the songs that make up the soundtrack of my life, there are just a (small) few that were not recorded by Garth Brooks in the 1990's.  One of these is "Small Town," by John Mellencamp, recorded much earlier, but discovered by me in the late 1990's.  It's been featured on plenty of graduation slide shows over the years, but it's just so darn true, it never gets old for me.  Some of my favorite words of the song are  

No, I cannot forget from where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me 
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town 
And people let me be just what I want to be

This song has come to mind once again these past couple days as I now get to--sort of, at least virtually--return to that small town that raised me, and the one nearby with which we shared a football team.  (Now all high school sports are shared, as many years have passed since then!)

I am excited to be a part of the Pride Publications team, which includes the Prairie Pioneer of Bowdle and my hometown paper, The Northwest Blade of Eureka.  I am serving as their copy editor and--something new for me--trying my hand at a little reporting.

Ahh!  That's a little scary!  Yes, I have been writing since I have been able to write, and I write because I HAVE to write (or my head may explode)!  But the reporting will be new to me.  It's going to get me out of my comfort zone just a little, but I suspect that will be an all-good thing.  I've felt like I've been back in college these past couple days as I've been brainstorming for story ideas and considering contacts for interviews.

Another new (and good) thing will be getting paid to write!  I've had several columns published over the years, but I've never actually gotten paid to write anything!  When I first took Journalism as a college freshman, I dropped the class because I couldn't take the stress it caused.  (I re-took it as a senior with much greater success.)  Now look at me--a budding journalist.  Who knew?

I must once again quote my once-toddler Teresa--"My didn't saw that coming!"

Melius' Most-Read: I Love You, Stinky Face

This book was a gift from our friend Lori long ago . . . and continues to be a favorite.

This cute board book also has a message that every mom wants their children to know--that she will love them NO MATTER WHAT.

(Even if they were a super smelly skunk named Stinky Face!)

Reindeer Cookies

The kids and I tried reindeer cookies this year.  I had made them with my little cousins when they were younger, but my children had never tried them.  

As it turned out, they found reindeer to be a little bit boring, so we ended up with reindeer, snowmen and even a peanut butter and M&M alien!

They all turned out to be original!

Reindeer Cookies

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. soda

1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375.  Roll into 1 1/4 in. balls for the head and 1 in. balls for the snout.  Press in M&M's and pretzels to make the face.  Bake 10-12 minutes.

Party Time!

What a weekend of birthday celebrations!  The Trefz family joined us for an evening of friends and fun last night.  Rachel requested these little ice cream mouse pies, so we assembled them for dessert.

  And, wouldn't ya know, she has now decided to show us 3 fingers, but declare herself to be 2!

Today brought a Frozen party with Rachel's grandparents.  We kept the party on schedule as we also had our parish Advent Program later this afternoon!  She didn't mind at all and the kids there even sang her "Happy Birthday," too.

We gave her an Elsa dress pj's and a yellow bus.  It doesn't get any better than that if you are Rachel!

I love, love, love my kids' birthdays.  It gives me a day to reflect on the wonderful and unique gift each child is to our family.

Happy Birthday to our one-of-a-kind freckleface strawberry/peanut Rachel-girl!  

As with all of your siblings, "you'll never know, dear, how much I love you!"

3!

She has been oh-so-patiently waiting and today is the day!

Rachel Olivia turns 3 years old!

(photos by Angela Johnson)

David and I were talking to a couple last weekend, who are friends of friends (who also happen to be Rachel's godparents.)

In conversation, she asked how old our children are.  When I told her that our youngest would be three today, she said that their daughter was also born on 12/14/11--and in the same hospital.  

We figured out that our doctor left our room after Rachel's arrival and delivered their daughter next!

So, Happy Birthday to Brigette as well!

It's a GREAT day to be 3!

Gingerbread

Friday night was gingerbread night at our house!  

This year we made the gingerbread village--4 houses in the box, pre-assembled by mom and ready to decorate after school.

Perfect (and yummy decorations)!

Melius' Most-Read: Llama Llama Time to Share

We have just 2 books from the Llama Llama series, the original and this new Time to Share.

Rachel especially likes to read about "yamma, yamma," but the big kids like to listen, too.

In this one, Llama meets a new, or gnu, friend Nellie Gnu!

It is fun to read the rhymes and the illustrations are adorable, too.

Our family highly recommends the Llama Llama books!

Cookies! Part 2

The next cookie recipe we made was Grinch Cookies, another Christmas cookie from a couple years ago.  

Rachel didn't quite get the "roll into a ball" concept.  She preferred to use it as play dough instead.

A red and blue sprinkle cake mix made them even prettier. :)

Speaking of blue, next up are Landen's accidental Hannukah cookies!  I had made a batch of these using green food color on Friday night and since we had more Kisses, Landen decided to make another batch.  Well, he accidentally used blue food color instead of green.  They would make excellent 4th of July cookies, too!

Peppermint Twist Kisses

(from Simple & Delicious magazine)

36 candy cane or chocolate Kisses (freeze before use)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp mint extract

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

4-8 drops red food color

Cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg yolk and extracts.  Gradually beat flour into creamed mixture.

Divide dough in half; tint one portion red, green, blue, or whatever color you wish!  Divide each half into 4 portions and shape into 9 inch long rolls.  Place one red log next to to one white log; twist gently to create one swirled roll.  Roll gently until it becomes one log.  Repeat with remaining dough.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Unwrap dough and cut into slices (about 9).  Shape each into a ball and place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Flatten slightly.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Immediately press a Kiss into the center of each cookie.  Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.  

Put in refrigerator to keep Kisses from melting.

Cookies! Part 1

This was the idyllic scene Saturday afternoon.  The ingredients for our favorite Semi-Homemade Gingerbread cookies were ready to go and Christmas tunes were playing on Sirius Radio.  Ahh . . . all was calm and bright.

Until it was time to cut out those cookies!  It was time to crank up that music just a little bit more!  Landen handled the cutting out this year while his sisters supplied him with their favorite cookie cutters.

It was important to him to be as efficient as possible.  

After that, it was time to decorate!  Teresa used our neon food color to make each color VERY bright and festive.   

Mmm!  These are so delicious and the best part is they turn out every single year.  We stashed some in the freezer to decorate later . . . if they last that long!

More cookies tomorrow!