Christmas Memories 2015

We had a very relaxing and fun Christmas celebration this year.

We began on Christmas Eve in Eureka with the Joachims.

Our lifelong neighbor Violet made this quilt for David and me. She had given each of our babies a quilt when they were born and she felt bad that I had been left out. It is beautiful and I love this loving gift from Violet, who is an adopted member of our family. She is 87 and still works part time--she is one amazing lady!

 We also made a visit to Grandma Joachim at the nursing home. She was happy to see and visit with us. We all sang Christmas songs together, which was a blessing for especially me.  I always remember Grandma singing and/or playing the organ when I was at her house as a child. 

Christmas Day was spent mostly at home, and with the extended Melius family in the evening. The family Christmas carols are always a favorite there, too.  My Christmas Day photos are on my other camera . . . however, the kids discovered at 4:30am that Santa had brought remote control cars, a karaoke machine and a Barbie swing set.  (Thankfully the karaoke machine did not start at that time!  It turns out the 4 o'clock hour was quite popular, with several of our friends saying that was the time to check out the surprises under the tree at their houses, too!)

The next day began two days with the Melius family, We all took our turn at snuggling miss Hannah Faith, who is now just over a month old.

 The new favorite this year was Grandpa's "Barrel of Monkeys" made out of an old water tank. He loaded up all of the grandkids and they went "dashing through the snow" behind the tractor!

It was all a wonderful celebration, and we are always thankful for a HEALTHY Christmas break which made it even better!!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Thank you for following our adventures through another year.

God Bless Us Every One!

Take 2!

We are improving on the meringues!

Landen wanted to make some for his middle school snack potluck tomorrow.

We added green food color and a couple of drops of Peppermint essential oil to these. As you can see, we also took the extra step of putting the meringue in a piping bag to make more uniform cookies. 

I am particularly fond of the chocolate sprinkles on the mint cookies.

Yummy and pretty!

Santa's Visit

Where I grew up, we stood in line in the Eureka Gym Lobby for what seemed like hours waiting for a turn on Santa's lap. When I finally reached him, I remember being quite nervous and just wanting my paper bag filled with an apple, orange, candy and peanuts.

Rachel had much the same reaction to Santa, with her only other visit to him on her first birthday at her sister's Story Hour. She wasn't too sure about him then either!

She did agree to sit on mom's lap to tell him she would like a "big Olaf."

Added bonus--Mom got a hug from Santa, too.

Snow Day {Melty} Meringues

School was cancelled for today just after bedtime last night.

That meant a morning of sleeping in a bit (for me, anyway!), waffles for breakfast, and a day of playing in the snow (for the kids--not me.) 

After we received the long anticipated phone call from school, I was reading my December Good Housekeeping last night while eating popcorn and watching "The Profit," as I am wont to do on a Tuesday night, and I discovered several yummy cookie recipes that actually seemed like a housewife like myself could bake. 

Meringues have always intrigued me, and so I decided to try some for the first time today. I just used the "drop" method on these, instead of a piping bag, since I wasn't sure if I beat the egg whites quite enough.

It turns out they could have used just a bit more, but even though they aren't the perfect shape, they still taste great! Let's call them melted snowballs. 

Guess what else!?!? They have 5 calories each!  Mine probably have 15 calories, since they are bigger than the magazine suggested, but still--I like a low calorie sweet treat! (And plenty of high calorie ones, too . . . .)

Wouldn't these be fun on top of a cup of hot chocolate??

Merry Meringues

Dec. 2015 Good Housekeeping

3 large egg whites

pinch salt

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or almond)

Arrange oven racks in top and bottom thirds of oven. Preheat oven to 225. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl with mixer of medium speed, beat egg whites and salt until foamy. Add cream of tartar; beat on med-high until soft peaks form. Add sugar 1 T at a time. Beat until meringue stands in stiff, glossy peaks. Beat in vanilla and additional flavor, if desired. Pipe or drop onto parchment paper. Beake for 1 hour at 225. Then leave meringues in oven for 1 hour with oven door closed. Remove and cool completely. They can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Happy 4th Birthday, Rachel!

She waited and waited . . . and Rachel's birthday finally arrived!  I really can't believe our "baby" is now leaving her toddler days behind her!  We began the day as we do every birthday, with singing and presents. 

I didn't get a photo of them today, but we gave her some little dolls and a working toy mixer. She used it to whisk our eggs for our chocolate chip cookies this afternoon.  She requested baking chocolate chip cookies, just as she does almost every day. Lucky for her, we go through chocolate chip cookies almost that quickly!

She wanted a butterfly cake, with mom and baby butterflies on it.

We made a stop at Hobby Lobby and found some mama butterflies in the party aisle and some babies in the scrap booking aisle! Cake decorating took on a whole new and--easier dimension--when I realized that cake decorations need not be edible. :)

The girls decorated a beautiful butterfly cake together after school.

Happy Birthday, Rachel! May all your 4 year old wishes come true!

Support Marilyn & her family!

As usual, the blog posts are pretty light this year, with Christmas preparations taking the bulk of my extra time. This is the most important thing I can share today:

There will be a benefit for Marilyn Neuharth TOMORROW Dec 12 at the Wolff Den (on Main Street) in Eureka. A free-will supper will be served from 5:30-7:00pm with a live auction to follow.

Come out and support Marilyn and my dear friends whose lives were changed forever after a car accident in September!

Lunch

Today Rachel and I rode along to Sioux Falls with David.  It had plenty of perks, especially being able to do a little Christmas shopping and having a delicious lunch with Uncle Rick at Johnny Carino's, one of my favorite restaurants.

We stopped by Walmart on the way home, since we were nearly out of basic food necessities, such as milk, bread, and Pepsi!

At the checkout, Rachel asked for a treat from the candy aisle.
"We already had a treat today," I told her. "We ate lunch at a restaurant!"

She answered, "That wasn't a treat. That was LUNCH!"