'Tis the Season

I just found this post. I was going to post it on Dec. 13. It was left in draft stage. Maybe I was going to add more. These events took place the first week of December.

When we got back the girls were begging us to put up our Christmas tree. So 2 nights later the tree was going up.

The step stool was so everything didn't end up on the bottom. It didn't solve this problem entirely and it just created another area for ornaments to congregate.

I don't know how well you can see the balls, but all of Kelsey's handy work was on the very bottom row of branches and only on 2 or 3 limbs.


The day after our tree trimming Brian and I had a Ward Council Christmas Party to attend. It was a white elephant party and I think it had the best white elephants I have ever seen. We took home this little, annoying guy. Yes, Brian took this from somebody. Actually it was being passed around because it came with a movie ticket. Well Macy loves this thing. She played with it none stop for 2 days. Her favorite part was using it to scare a friend (sorry Elodie I am trying to work on her manners).

The next night it was our turn to watch kids (we are doing this date night swap with some friends). I love to gingerbread houses so I thought it would be great to do it with the kids. Here is Macy and Kelsey's house. Actually Macy did most of it and loaded it up with candy. She is my daughter.


The very next day after church she asked if she could eat the house. Her and Kelsey ate all the candy in one swoop. Then it was on to the gingerbread. Macy didn't like that too much and Kelsey lost interest because the candy was gone. Then Macy saw the frosting. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her licking the roof. That wasn't getting enough frosting so she grabbed a spoon and tried to scoop it off.


After a little bit of this I gave her left over frosting on her spoon (she really is my daughter except for the fact that she doesn't like egg-nog like her dad). That way I could save the gingerbread from salivia so I could dip it in my milk later on in the week. In the end the house lasted less than a day and walls came crumbling down before the week was out.

Fun things to Remember from December

An update on Macy. So she is still a little under the weather, but the majority of groaning has stopped. She is happier and not so cranky. Thursday night did turn out to be long night. She got up once at 10:30 PM and then let me sleep until 3 AM. From 3 on it was not the best sleep. She likes to cry out for me and each time I am afraid she will wake Kelsey. At 5:30 AM she managed to wake up her sister. By this time she too was wide awake. She didn't need the bucket but made it into the toilet. Hallelujah! I am still not sure if the throwing up was because she was ill or if all the flem in her lungs and the way she will and won't cough caused some of the problem. She has been known to cough herself into throwing up. Enough of the gory details. The rest of us seem to be okay and may avoid it. (Knock on wood.)

I wanted to write a little more of our doings. The beginning of the week made me think we lived in Seattle. We were drizzly Monday, Tuesday, and I think Wednesday. I am not sure if the yard will dry out until spring comes. The rain had to be due to the fact that Brian washed the cars on Saturday. He hand-washed his and ran out of time so took mine through the car wash. I had to laugh because it is December and he went out in his swimsuit. Only in Arizona. I still wanted to laugh a little when it started raining on Monday and his car came home with spots. I refrained because I felt a little bad for his hard labor and was happy to have clean cars.

Today the girls went shopping for gifts for each other (We waited until today because they can't keep a secret). They got to go out with dad. The original plan was for Brian and I to take one of the girls and go at the same time, but both girls wanted nothing to do with me. They wanted to go shopping with dad. I don't mind. I like when they need and want me, but sometimes it is fun to see them be daddy's girls.

This month the girls have been busy with fun projects. (Some of the photos pulled in sideways and I am not sure why. Maybe tomorrow I will try to fix them.)

This is the gift Macy made for us at pre-school. I thought this was a great idea and keepsake. It is on a tile.

She also made a reindeer hat, a reindeer, and a pine cone Christmas tree complete with ornaments.

Kelsey made this cute little bag at a friend's house.

I have been busy too. One of my projects was making 16 ornaments for an ornament exchange party.

Here is what I made. I took a white writing pen and wrote "I Believe" all over the red ornament. Then I used a big, long ribbon to hang it on the tree (the ribbon idea was courtesy of Tai Pan in Utah). Mine was a fairly simple project. There were other ornaments that were more involved. I am posting pictures of some just in case I ever need ornament ideas or someone else goes to party like this.

This one is made out of a light bulb.

This one (above) was very intricate and I hear time consuming. It has about 200 straight pins in it.

This ornament was stamped and embossed.

In the picture above there are 3 homemade ornaments. The pine cone and star are mine. The black and white one you just saw. In the upper left there is a gold one and it has bead garland glued around a cork ball (my friend that made these also used Styrofoam balls depending on the garland color). The other ornament didn't turn out well in the picture but is really pretty. It is light blue. Glue was drizzled down the top and then dipped in tiny white and clear beads. It looks like snow or icicles.

This one has stickers on the outside of a snowflake and the word "peace". Inside was shoved big snowflake. I am not sure if this was also a sticker.

Of course there are more beautiful ornaments (I came home with 15 new ones), but I don't have time to display them all on my blog and group shots didn't work so well.

I Need Chocolate, Lots of Dark Chocolate

Today didn't start off so well. Macy woke up in her drama state. I wasn't sure if she was sick or in a bad mood. It took me an hour to get just her dressed and ready for school, but she went so I figured that she wasn't sick. From a comment of hers I thought the melodrama was because she wanted the middle seat and today was Elodie's turn (her friend we carpool with). But that was not the only reason for the drama. She came home and climbed into bed. I thought great, I am a terrible mother because I sent my child to school sick. Well Kelsey had a little friend over and they made sure she wasn't asleep. So Macy sat on the couch and watched movies for an hour. She finally used some words and said her head hurt (the biggest problem to getting to the root of things is that she doesn't use words to tell me what is wrong) . I pulled out the ibuprofen and whalla! She was normal.

Right before dinner the moaning was back. Macy ate something, so I am still not sure how sick she is. The good thing, no throwing up. So our plans for the evening remained the same. The family went to the lights at the temple. (I am getting spoiled. I don't think I can go to Temple Square in the winter again.) Of course I took the camera but no pictures were taken because we had the 2 happiest children there. They were not crying or bad, just not extremely warm and pleasant. The reasons: Macy was under the weather (but still wanted to see the lights) and neither of them napped. Kelsey took a 10 minute one on the way to the temple, but I don't think that counts.

Well now it is 8 PM and I have one crying in bed about her fingernail hurting (Kelsey) and the other that just spoke up to complain her tummy really hurts (I believe she is asleep now). I gave Macy a bucket and wished her luck (I did pat her head and tuck her in, all that I really could do) and told Kelsey I see nothing wrong with her nail. Honestly there is nothing on Kelsey's finger to indicate a problem except that she didn't want to go to bed.

As I finish this they have both fallen into a peaceful sleep, for now. So it is hot chocolate for me to gear up for a long night.

Caramel

Last night I made caramel, partly to add to make gifts and also because I had whipping cream that needed to be used before it expired. I made it a little more chewy than normal (a new candy thermometer). It is still edible, but cutting it today was a hard. I pushed so hard with my first finger's knuckle, palm side. (I don't know how to describe it. Something happened to my education. Must be having kids that have hurt my memory.) Anyways, I must have compressed a nerve or something because the tip of that finger is tingling and has been for the last 20 or so minutes. I slightly recall doing this before and the feeling did pass at some point.

Funny Quotes of the Trip

In the bathroom on our way to Thanksgiving, Macy looks at my stomach as I pull my pants up. She says, "Do you hit the baby?"
I tell her "No because it isn't very nice."
Then she starts to tap my belly and starts laughing because she is hitting the baby.

Kelsey has been into the nose picking and eating phase. After she had her sleep over with her cousin Jensen she tells that her buggers do taste like bubblegum (She has tried to convince Brian and I of this fact). The she tells the following story.
Kelsey: "Well last night in bed, Jensen took my bugger and ate it. And I wanted it, but she ate it."

Our Return Home from Thanksgiving

So I bet you are all dying to know what happened on our flight home. I wanted to keep you in suspense (really I have been doing Christmas stuff like Christmas letters, making cinnamon rolls, making ornaments, putting up a Christmas tree, making gingerbread houses, etc.).

Anyways it all began when we left my parents house at 6 PM. Because of traffic I was five minutes later than I wanted to be to pick up my in-laws (we were borrowing their truck). We get on our way at 6:30 ready to catch our 8:05 PM flight. Five minutes after we leave their house Kelsey starts whining that she needs to go potty and that she is going to wet her pants. I think we can push on so I tell her to hold it. Needless to say Kelsey keeps complaining that she is going to wet her pants. So we stop at a gas station five minutes from the airport and I run her in. Of course Macy claims she needs to go, but being the sweet mother that I am I tell her she has to wait because we have I flight to catch. I also let her know that I potty trained her and I know very well that she can hold it for 3 hours.

We make it to the airport, get to our gate and then I let Macy go to the bathroom. Of course I have to haul our 4 carry on bags into the bathroom and maneuver those around so I can use the restroom too (I have this thing about placing my bags on public bathroom floors). We get to board the plane when we come out of the bathroom. Almost all of the passengers are on the plane and we are settled. Then Macy says "I have to go to the bathroom." Kelsey says "me too". What!? We just went five minutes ago and the plane is getting ready to take off. After trying to talk them out of this I realize I am losing this battle so it was off for a 2 minute, very cramped potty break so we can be in our seat before the plane leaves.

The flight itself was uneventful. No potty breaks. I was not as fortunate during the descent. Macy starts complaining that she is going to throw up. Again being the kind mother I tell her to suck it up and she is not going to puke. She does not give up. So I tell her there is nothing I can do but give her this little white bag to throw up in (I didn't think she really would so I was mad about the drama right before we land, again.) She puts her face in it and starts coughing and heaving. I tell her to stop trying to make herself throw up. Then she throws up. Luckily in my meanness I gave her the bag and she was okay to put her face in it. I call for the flight attendant because there are no more bags on our row (we only had one) and I need some napkins. He comes but was unsure if her could get napkins because we are about to land. The guy was quick and did bring a bottle of water and napkins and a new bag. We landed. Macy was a little pail but okay. I am not sure if she is starting to develop motion sickness or if pigging out on gummy worms before the plane left Salt Lake had anything to do with it. Brian has been known to eat so many cinnamon bears that he has thrown up. I think he has done this to himself twice. The amazing thing is he still like those bears.

Anyways, we head to the baggage claim. Brian is a little behind because we got in a little early. I tell him not to come in because we can just grab our bags and walk out. Well then Kelsey says "I have to go potty. I am going to wet my pants." She was dancing around pretty bad and the bags were not there yet, so it is off to another restroom. By this time I am done. Brian is such a wonderful guy and so in touch (I hadn't told him of our adventures yet) that he came into the airport right after we finished in the bathroom. I think that saved my sanity because I knew if there was anything more to come before we got to the car I would have help.

Don't Can Your Butter

Scratch my earlier post on canning butter. Luckily a friend of a friend (who I have met) saw my post gave me some warning about such processes. She did her studies and BYU some of her professors there warned about ways which are called canning but in reality are not canning because they don't use the boiling water method or pressure canning. I did some of my own research and this is what I found about why this is not safe. Hopefully I haven't caused too many problems and no one will die from the information I passed around. The following reference came from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Should I use directions for canning butter at home that I see on the Internet?

Indeed, there are some directions for 'canning' butter in circulation on the
Internet. Most of what we have seen are not really canning, as they do not have
Boiling Water or Pressure Canning processes applied to the filled jar. Jars are
preheated, the butter is melted down and poured into the jars, and the lids are
put on the jars. Some directions say to put the jars in the refrigerator as they
re-harden, but to keep shaking them at regular intervals to keep the separating
butter better mixed as it hardens. This is merely storing butter in canning
jars, not ‘canning’. True home canning is when the food is heated enough to
destroy or sufficiently acid enough to prevent growth of all spores of
Clostridium botulinum (that causes botulism) and other pathogens during room
temperature storage on the shelf.

Additionally, when you consider the economics of the process (energy costs involved with heating, cost of jars and lids, etc.), even if the butter is bought on sale, it may not be economically viable to prepare butter to store for years in this manner. Good quality butter is readily available at all times, if butter is needed for fresh use. If the
concern is about emergency food supplies, there are dry forms of butter that can
be purchased and stored, oils that can be used in an emergency, or commercially
canned butter in tins (although we have only seen this for sale from other
countries). Melted and re-hardened butter may not function the same as original
butter in many types of baking anyway.

There are a few issues with the common directions circulating on the Internet at this time (Spring 2006):

1. Physical safety and food quality: In the provided directions, the jars are preheated in an oven (dry-heat), which is not recommended for canning jars. Manufacturers of canning jars do not recommend baking or oven canning in the jars. It is very risky with regard to causing jar breakage. There is no guarantee that the jars heated in this dry manner are sufficiently heated to sterilize them, as we do not have data on sterilizing jar surfaces by this dry-heating method.
2. The butter is not really being 'canned'; it is simply being melted and put in canning jars, and covered with lids. Due to some heat
   present from the hot melted butters and preheated jars, some degree of vacuum is pulled on the lids to develop a seal. It rarely is as strong a vacuum as you obtain in jars sealed through heat processing. The practice in these 'canned' butter directions is referred to as 'open-kettle' canning in our terminology,
   which is really no canning at all, since the jar (with product in it) is not
   being heat processed before storage.
3. Although mostly fat, butter is a low-acid food. Meat, vegetables, butter, cream, etc. are low-acid products that will support the outgrowth of C. botulinum and toxin formation in a sealed jar at room temperature. Low-acid products have to be pressure-canned by tested processes to be kept in a sealed jar at room temperature. It is not clear what the botulism risk is from such a high-fat product, but to store a low-acid moist food in a sealed jar at room temperature requires processing to destroy spores. A normal salted butter has about 16-17% water, some salt, protein, vitamins and minerals. Some butter-like spreads have varying amounts of water in them. We have no kind of database in the home canning/food processing arena to know what the microbiological concerns would be in a butter stored at room temperature in a sealed jar. In the absence of that, given that it is low-acid and that fats can protect spores from heat if they are in the product during a canning process, we cannot recommend storing butter produced by these methods under vacuum sealed conditions at room temperature.
4. Some other directions do call for 'canning' the filled jars of butter in a dry oven. This also is not 'canning'. There is not sufficient, research-based documentation to support that 'canning' any food in a dry oven as described on this web page or any page that proposes oven canning is even sufficient heating to destroy bacteria of concern, let alone enough to produce a proper seal with today's home canning lids.

In conclusion, with no testing having been conducted to validate these methods, we would NOT recommend or endorse them as a safe home-canning process, let alone
for storing butter at room temperature for an extended period. We do know that the methods given for preheating empty jars, or even filled jars, in a dry oven are not recommended by the jar manufacturers or by us for any food. Aside from the physical safety and quality issues, and the fact that it is not canning at all, if there happened to be spores of certain bacteria in there, these procedures will not destroy those spores for safe room temperature storage.

Why do I always do this?

I don't know why there are times when I let so much time lapse between posts. Whenever this happens I dread playing the catch up game, but I know that I will need help remembering the past some day (Today I might even need help remembering yesterday).

Saturday, November 22 Go Utes! We had friends over and watched the game. Luckily this game did not give me the ulcers I have become accustomed to in other games. Since Oregon St. lost over Thanksgiving weekend, we have our fingers crossed for Fiesta Bowl dreams. However, if this occurs I don't know where we will put everyone who has asked to stay with us. Anyone want to rent out some rooms?

Tuesday, November 25 - The girls and I flew up to visit family for Thanksgiving. We arrived really early so I dragged the laptop to airport so the girls could watch movie while we waited. I didn't really need it because by the time I got the entourage to Wendy's, then to the bathroom before we ordered, then back to the Wendy's line, ate dinner and got to our gate we were getting ready to board. I guess that is what happens when one adult and 2 kids have 1 purse, 1 laptop bag, 1 small carry-on suitcase, and 2 backpacks try to get through the aiprosrt. Brian says I made the backpacks too heavy. I claim I didn't put very much in them. It was cute to watch Kelsey struggle into the airport with the backpack that was bigger than her and her little suitcase.

Wednesday, November 26 - Brian flew in after work.

Thanksgiving - I ate too much delicious food. First stop was my parents for the traditional pull apart breakfast (okay we stayed at my parents but it was good eating). The next stop was my Uncle Dale's and then on to Brian's parents. My contribution to the meals was homemade rolls at my uncle's.

During the rest of the stay I continued to eat too much junk food. The girls did there part in the festivities by baking some cookies with Grandma Wendy.

They also helped put up the ornaments on her tree. JT had to help make sure all the ornaments didn't end up on the bottom. With him the girls don't need a ladder.

They also went to Grandma Lue's with my mom and I to help put up her Christmas decorations.

I did some Christmas shopping, but did not join in the door buster madness. Some years I will do this, but this year there was nothing I desperately needed to buy. We played some Ticket to Ride and did a little Wii fit (My brother wanted to weigh me again claiming I hadn't done this since July. I said not while I am pregnant.). I saw 3 movies. My family went to see Madagascar 2 (the kids are still singing "I like to move it, move it."). Brian and I went to see James Bond. My mom, sisters, brother, brother-in-law and my sister's boyfriend went to see Twilight. In my opinion James Bond was great. I liked it and it was worth my money. Twilight was okay. It could have waited for the dollar rental for me and then I wouldn't have cried to miss it. It wasn't bad. In fact as I watched it I realized some things I felt the author could have done to make the book more exciting. Edward's red lipstick was too much. I guess the movie just goes back to my theory that action/suspense movies are for the theater and all else can be seen at home.

Macy and Kelsey also got to have a sleep over with all the girl cousins at Brian's parent's home. We also made it out to visit our friend's the Hodlmairs.

Of course the girls had to love/torture my sister's dogs. My sisters live with my parents so of course Macy and Kelsey had full access to the dogs. The dogs actually would go into their kennel to try to escape.

Here they are taking the dogs for a walk so I guess it wasn't all torture.
Sunday, November 30 - Brian flew home.

Tuesday, December 2 - My adventure home with the girls. This one requires a post of it's own.

So Happy be-lated Thanksgiving!