‘Twas the Season to be Jolly!

YAY for Christmas!! I can’t believe the holidays are already OVER!! It’s crazy how much it didn’t feel like Christmas to me… I think it’s because I was working on things since September and so I never had that mad rush to get everything finished at the last minute this year. And now it’s January, sheesh!

This video is Madison engaging in a jolly good (maybe not so safe) activity...

I started off the first week in December by making my Butter Pecan Toffee (SO YUM!!) with Madison’s help. My cousin Jennifer wants the recipe and I took pictures of us making it, so here it is: Toast pecans in a 350* oven for 5-10 minutes, stirring once to avoid burning. Meanwhile, line a cookie sheet with foil, extending edges over sides and butter the sides of a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Next melt 1c butter, add 1c sugar, 3T water and 1T light-colored corn syrup. Cook and stir over med-high heat until it boils, then clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan (make sure the bottom of the bulb is completely covered by the candy, but not touching the bottom of the pan). Turn heat down to med and stir occasionally until thermometer registers 290* (watch carefully after 280* so it won’t scorch). Pour candy onto cookie sheet and spread quickly. It won’t cover the whole pan, and trying will just make the toffee really thin. Let it set for 2 minutes, then pour 1c choc chips and let them melt a little before spreading over toffee. Sprinkle with toasted pecans (I press them down into the chocolate so they don’t fall off as easy when you eat it) and stick in fridge for about 20 minutes. Use the foil to lift the toffee out of the pan and break it into pieces. Sometimes the toffee will set with some foil inside, so watch for that! Store tightly covered in fridge for up to 3 weeks (like it really lasts that long!!!) I ran into a problem when I was making some and talking on the phone with Clint… I accidentally forgot to pour the chocolate chips on when it was still hot and so they wouldn’t melt. WHOOPS! Clint had a pretty comical idea, heat them with my hair dryer! Ha ha you’re thinking but guess what? It actually worked!! Too funny! I also made chocolate chip pumpkin bread, and finally was able to run around all the apple crisp and apple butter I made back in September!!


Maddie and Clint both ended up with viral infections a few weeks ago and after Clint took a bath, I found this…

After the sick ones felt better, and during a break from wrestling practice (Clint’s the assistant coach for the high school again this year), we FINALLY found time to go get our tree! I was SO excited! Last year we asked for a 7-foot one and ended up with an 8- footer instead which we had to cut WAAAAY down and it was still a huge tree (gorgeous, but HUGE!) so this year we decided to save ourselves the trouble and have them cut it down to a 6-foot one… whoops! It’s SO SMALL!! So, remind us next year that we want a 7-foot tree and we’d be much obliged!! Since it’s so small, and in a corner instead of in front of our window like last year (you couldn’t see much of the tree cuz it was SO big, so we moved it so you could see it better… haha! We’ll get it right someday!), I ended up not being able to fit all our ornaments on it! I’d put a bunch on and then think ok that’s good, turn around and find another bag, then box, then… yeeeeah. They didn’t all make it on! We were going to boost it up, but didn’t do it and didn’t do it and finally decided that a short tree wasn’t so bad after all and left it. :0) I loved the way it turned out, and think that all in all it’s a pretty darn good lookin’ tree!

While we were up town, Madison saw a picture of a McDonald’s Chicken Sandwich and said, "Oh, Mom! I’m just so hungry I could eat the WHOLE sandwich!" So we stopped at Arby’s for dinner and sure enough, she ate a VERY impressive amount for a 2 year old!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Our Ward Party was pretty fun, Madison couldn’t stop eating the mints on the table, and Riley thought it was great fun to build a tower with the ones she couldn’t reach (his smile looks SO goofy, but I swear, it didn’t do anything to it!!). Our friends Parker and Jennie sat with us, and their daughter Eliana enjoyed the evening… until Santa came out! Maddie wasn’t too thrilled about him either! I told her all day that we would see Santa that night and every time she’d reply "No Mom! Not Santa!" What’s funny is that she likes him, just not in person I guess! (I don’t blame her, Santa in person still kinda freaks me out!! LOL) He gave them chocolate anyway and so after that they perked back up!

The weekend before Christmas we went for a visit to see my family and that was SO fun! We got there Friday night and got to spend some time with my mom, whom I haven’t seen for… gosh I don’t even remember… 8 months? (more than that?) And Clint hasn’t seen her since Maddie was born! (They used to drive truck and now live about a half of the country away!) Saturday morning we exchanged presents with my dad and grandma (he made us a wood chest from scratch! It’s SO pretty!) and that evening had a party with my family. We played the funnies games! The best one, we had to blow up balloons and stuff them in pantyhose and when all our balloons were blown up the captain would put it on their head and yell "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!" It was great! Then we had a gift exchange and we ended up with a Disney Scene It game, and a bunch of scratcher tickets (scratchers are like the cliché present in my family!). My mom got Madison a Sleeping Beauty doll and that little girl spent the rest of the night brushing her hair! It was so sweet! My brother Ryan made the car giving official (with a big gold bow and all!) and I almost cried all over again! YEEHAW FOR A NEW CAR!!! It’s SO PRETTY! It averaged 39mpg on the drive home! Maddie can’t quite say "new" so she calls it our "blue car". :0) As a thank you to Ryan we used $200 of the money from selling the car to Riley and gave it to my niece and nephews to use as cash to spend time with Ryan and then keep the change ($50 to each of the 3 older ones and $25 for the little ones). Ryan was so shocked, it was great!

Christmas was FABULOUS!!! We stayed with Clint's family this year, and Rob, little Russell and Missy were all here. We did our stockings first before Santa presents, and I had (I mean… the elves had) made oven mitts and hot pads for Madison and matching aprons for her and I that were in our stockings, and as soon as we brought her new kitchen set out… that was it! She was SO excited, she whipped that apron on and didn’t take it off for 4 days (until one of the straps broke)! She plays with that kitchen set (and accessories) from the moment she wakes up and has to have all the gadgets on her bed at night before she’ll go to sleep, and if she wakes up and they’ve been moved back to the kitchen set, she’ll get all fired up! She also got a Sleeping Beauty dress and a set of 4 princess slippers (plus two more that Yvette got her!) that, of course, had to be on as well… she was funny!



Well, the holidays have come and gone and have still found us happy, healthy, in love and living our dream! The only thing that could make it more perfect would be a new baby added to the mix, so keep us in your thoughts and prayers and maybe this will be the year!