Traditional Christmas Breakfast

Traditional Christmas breakfast in our house has been the same thing for years........German Pancakes! Never heard of German Pancakes? Well, you are missing out! They are really easy and don't take long to make and my family eats them like they are going out of style.

We get up in the morning and the first thing we do is let the kids out of their rooms. Sometimes we even have to wake up on or two of them! I know, that's an amazing phenomenon, but it happens.

Uncle Dale has to wake up Hannah, who isn't feeling well.

Next, they all gather by the tree to go through stockings. We line them up so they can be seen by the cameras that will be flashing, and let them go at it. My sister-in-law, darn her sweet heart, started a family tradition when my kids were little of wrapping everything that goes in the stockings, too, so it usually takes a while.( I've tried to quit this tradition, but my kids won't let me.)

After everyone is done with stockings, we make them put it all back in the stockings and then we start handing out presents. Uncle Dale played Santa this year, minus the hat, and he kept everything going pretty smoothly.

Of course, they don't stay all lined up for long, because it's just too dang exciting to sit still for too long! After the presents are open, breakfast gets started while kids and other adults pick up wrapping paper and packaging and try to organize the piles of loot. This year, we were all at my daughter Deseret's house, so she fixed the German Pancakes. So now, I'll show you how its done.

First, you will need, for each batch:

1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
8 eggs
Butter

You need a blender and a 9x13" baking pan. Set your oven to 350 degrees. Slice at least half a stick of butter, yes, I said BUTTER, not margarine, into the pan. We usually use a lot of butter, but you can decide how much is good for you. Put the pan in the oven to melt the butter, but be sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn! You will not like it burned, take my word for it.

While the butter is melting, get started on the pancakes. Pour the milk into the blender and add the salt. Put the lid on and turn it on high speed. Gradually add half of the flour, then add 4 eggs, then the other half of the flour and the other 4 eggs. Let it run on high for a minute or two so it is light and fluffy.

Oh! And don't try to double it, because it will come up and out of the blender! This is another thing you will have to take my word for. I have made these mistakes, so I know :).

This is only part of the eggs we used.

Open the oven and pour the mixture into the pan. You can just pull out the rack, pour it in, and push the rack back in. Don't take the pan out of the oven or it will cool off too much and your pancakes will be flat. Bake it for 15-25 minutes, or until it puffs up on the sides and in the middle.

See how they are puffed up? They were higher than that when they came out, but they go down fast, kind of like a souffle. At this point they are usually done, but you can test them with a knife. If it comes out clean, they're done! And sometimes, depending on the moisture content in the flour and a few other things, they won't puff hardly at all, and the knife will be the only way to know if they are done. That same moisture content in the flour is the reason for the disparity in the baking time. Dryer flour will cook faster and moister flour will take a little longer.

Anyway, cut them up, put them on plates, drench them with syrup, and serve to the family. They are so-o-o-o-o-o-o good!

All the family will always ask for seconds, and some for thirds! We have these a few time a year, but not too often, because it takes so many eggs, and because I want them to feel special on Christmas morning when they are served their "most favorite breakfast", as one little grandson told me. As you can see, we had to eat in shifts, which gave Dez time to make more for everybody else. She made six batches in all, I believe, or maybe it was eight. It was a lot, and it was good!

So that's our traditional Christmas breakfast. What's yours? Leave a comment and let me know. And remember that the only jewels any of have that are worth the world, are our family. Never let them grow dim. Love to all,

Happy New Year!

Back to the grindstone! We made it through the holidays in one piece and we're back home again. Thank Heaven! I love my family very much and enjoy spending time with them, but when we're all crammed in one house  (even though it was pretty good sized) for more than a day or two, things tend to get "dramatique", if you get my drift. I always love to go and I'm always glad to get home again.

We got to Elko on Friday night, and of course, Christmas Eve was the next day. We had portrait appointments at noon, and then we put the turkey and ham in the oven and headed to the park for a family game of kickball. It was a lot of fun, and after we decided not to keep score, the kids settled down to just enjoy themselves. We try to teach them that not everything is a competition. Here are a few photos.

This is the 2's team, with my son, Andy, getting ready to blast the ball into oblivion.

This is most of the 1's team. A few of the younger ones were AWOL.

Our youngest grandson, SJ, wandered the outfield a lot, usually in the company of one of the dogs, and we had to keep calling him back. He's a real cutie, almost 2.

SJ and Alex's new Christmas puppy, Quasimodo, getting a little too far away.

Rafferty gets ready to give the ball a good, swift kick!

I have way too many photos to post here, so I'll stop with these. But we did have a good time. Two of the boys had to go to their dad's house after we opened gifts on Christmas morning, so I hurried everyone into some big, family group shots. This is everyone in my family except one granddaughter, Airika, who stayed in Tennessee. Not a bad looking family, huh?

Twenty-five Halls (and Cooks, Smiths, Stevens and Simmons.)

My beautiful grandchildren.

Well, that's enough for now. I'll be back tomorrow to show you our traditional Christmas breakfast and a few projects I did with the kids over the holidays. We had fun! The only problem is, I kept forgetting to take pictures of them in the process, so mostly I just have pictures of the projects themselves. Oh, well, it'll have to do. See you tomorrow, and remember as you go through the new year, with all its new (and old) problems, that with God, nothing is impossible. Luke 1:37 Hope you are all off to a good start in the new year.

Merry Christmas!

I know it's a little early, but I am taking the next couple of weeks off to finish projects and to just enjoy time with my family. Things have slowed down a bit, but not totally. I still have a few things to make and some baking to do, but I took the day off today and I feel much better. I wanted to take this opportunity to say Thank You to anybody out there who is reading this blog. I know there aren't many of you, and I hope there will be more someday, but for now, a big THANKS to the few.

Before I take my break, I want to show you some photos of a nativity a good friend of mine made. Her name is Robin and she is one of the craftiest people I know. She is always making some goody or another, plus she sings and leads a singing group, directs and acts in plays, she's involved in church and community, and so many other things. She cuts her own wood items, too. Anyway, here is one of her nativities (she has a whole collection of them.)

The pictures were taken while it was on display at the annual Festival of Trees at the Old Logandale School in Logandale, Nevada.

Last year we spent Christmas with the six of us living in our little tiny motor home. We had very little money and it wasn't a big Christmas, but it was a good one. We had what we needed and the kids were happy and that's all that mattered. Here are a few photos from last year.

You can see our little tiny tree in the background of a couple of the photos. It was all we had room for and we loved it. We were stuffed into our little space and could barely move, but we were together. It was such a tight fit that when we cooked, or ate, or did dishes, we had to put the tree in the bath tub so we could use that little counter space.

Christmas will be so different this year. We don't have any more money this year, but we will have more family. We are going to Elko, Nevada, to my oldest daughter's home. We will have 10 adults and 15 children (I wish it was going to be all 16) and there will be lots of laughter and craziness, which is a given in our family, and there will be snow and snow angels and snowmen, and sledding and hot chocolate and, of course, presents. I hope we will not be so caught up in the chaos that we won't remember what it's really all about. My family are not active in the church and don't even think about the reason for the season, so I hope I can get them all to stop and take a minute to listen to the real story of Christmas, the only one that really counts.

I will be back after the festivities to show you pictures of my family, the whole group of them, so you can see the many reasons I have for being happy. I love them all very much. Merry Christmas to you and yours and I hope you enjoy your holiday as much as I plan to! 

The Great Christmas Tree Hunt

Today I'm going to show you our Christmas tree. This was the first time for my son and daughter-in-law to go tree cutting. My hubby and I did it the 2nd year we were in Montana, but that doesn't make us any kind of experts. So we went to the Forestry office and bought our permit, got our map, and came home to peruse it. We haven't lived here long, so when we looked at the map, we were kind of worried about getting into the wrong place. A lot of the area was checker-board looking, and it would be easy to get on private property instead of BLM or forest land. But......there was one area that was pretty much all forest land and we were pretty sure we would be okay. So that's where we went.

As we climbed higher and higher, the view got better and better. Oregon is soooooo beautiful. Anyway, we found a place to park the truck and we got out and started looking. No luck. We got back in the truck and went up a little higher. Got out and walked some more. We found several trees we liked, but they were too tall. You aren't allowed to cut any trees that are taller than 12 ft or shorter that 8 ft. so you have to be watchful when you choose a tree. Finally, we found one we liked.

It was a little taller than 12 ft. but not too much, so we decided we would be okay.

Cameron got to try his hand with the axe first.

   Then it was Hally's turn. She could barely lift the ax!

Finally, Andy got in there and took care of business! Then he got out the chain saw and sawed off the extra trunk and sawed the stump to less that 12". We carried out the extra trunk pieces and after they have a chance to dry, I will use them for camp crafts next year. They will make nice slices for any number of projects.

We tied up the tree, fastened it to the top of the truck, and took her home! Now she has the place of honor in our living room. Next year, we will go out scoping out good place to cut trees, and hopefully find some trees that are fuller, more bushy. But for this year, we are happy with our little Charlie Brown tree.

So there we are, all ready for Christmas. The house is ready, anyway. See you on Friday for Friday Friends! Until then, remember that gifts of time and love are the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas. Good night,

The Christmas Train is Here!

Well, that was a nice little holiday. Now it's time to get back in the groove. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. We did. We have this family tradition called "Pie Night", which takes place on Wednesday evening, and it really takes a lot of pressure off of Thursday cooking. (And Thursday eating!) We make all our pies before the holiday, and we get together as family and friends on the night before Thanksgiving, and have some cold cuts and snack-y foods, and then stuff our faces with pies! After eating Thanksgiving dinner, there is no room for pies, so we do dessert first! We all bring different kinds of pie, and that way we have a big variety to choose from. We've been doing this for a long time. We got this tradition from my oldest son's first wife and we love it! We don't have anyone to share it with here in Oregon, yet, but we had Pie Night nonetheless. I hope the rest of the family had it where they are.

Thursday, itself, was a fairly slow, kick-back day. I cooked the turkey in the electric roaster I got a couple of years ago, and that makes life easier, too, because there's no rush to bake rolls and extra stuffing and yams after the turkey gets out of the oven--my oven is free the whole day. I just wish I had figured a few of these things out a long time ago. Thanksgiving doesn't have to be rush, rush, rush. It can be relaxed, with time to spend with the family. Oh, and to watch the parade! I love the parade!

The rest of the weekend was spent doing projects with the kids and starting the decorating for the next holiday!

This is our mantel, where there used to be a wood-burning stove but now the TV is there. This is the train that my Dad made many years ago. It is very large and needs a long space to put it, and it hasn't been out for a long time. The mantel is just barely long enough to hold it!

One thing that my husband and I did was go looking for branches for a project of mine. We went to a little wayside and took a walk in the woods to find some branches we could "prune" and take home. We would probably have gotten in a lot of trouble if we got caught...good thing we didn't, huh? I laid the branches out and got an idea of which way to turn them. I trimmed off some of the small branches and left others, so that I would still have some greenery but not too much. Then I tied one end of them together and and twisted them and wove them together to make a swag. Then my son hung it up on the porch for me and I hung some big Christmas balls on it (my mother made them about 30 years ago), and it looks real nice. I think it would have looked even better if we had one in each section of the porch, but hubby wasn't going back for more, so I had to make do with just one. In the other sections, I hung some cute snowflake ornaments I got at Cracker Barrel at an after Christmas sale at a REALLY good price. They are too big to hang on my tree, because my trees are never that big, but I liked them and I knew I could use them somewhere, so I've carried them around for about 6 years!

I don't have the lights and garland, etc. up yet. One step at a time, please. You can't see it very well, but the white snowflake has a snowman face in the middle. It's really cute!

Well, that's enough rambling for today. Back tomorrow with a project! Until then remember..."every great dream begins with a dreamer." Harriet Tubman

Christmas is coming!

Good Morning Tuesday bloggers! I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I'm so looking forward to decorating for Christmas! Hope you had a nice weekend. I have been busy working on projects and enjoying my family. The grandkids are out of school every Friday this month, plus this whole week of Thanksgiving! That puts grandpa and me on kid patrol, since dad works and mom goes to school full time now. Yesterday we did the cutest little Christmas trees in preparation for decorating for the holidays. Night before last I couldn't sleep and I just kept working out in my mind this project for the kids to make. They are a take-off on the yo-yo trees I have been making, which I'll post photos of when they're done.

So, I just started by getting out my compass (the type you draw circles with, not the kind you find your way with) and making patterns of circles. I made circles of graduating sizes, starting with 1 1/4" and going up 8 sizes and ending with a circle 4" across. Then we cut them out of different scrapbooks cardstocks and punched holes in the middle of them. I have a long-neck punch that I used on the bigger circles, but you could use a punch meant for putting in eyelets and such. 

Start with a length of 1/8" or 1/4" ribbon, about 24" long. String a bead or bell onto the ribbon and fold it in half, with the bell at the fold. From now on, everything you put on the ribbon will go on both ends at once, and I found it was easier for the kids if we threaded the ribbon ends through a big yarn needle. Next, thread on a small thread spool and push it down against the bell. This is the tree trunk. Now string your largest paper circle, then a bead or two, then the next size circle, then a bead or two......you get the picture. We staggered plain colors with prints, and I say a bead or two because it depends on the size beads you are using and how tall you want your tree to be. After you do a couple of them, you will see what I mean. You can make then short and squatty (and very cute that way) or tall and slender, just by varying the amount and size of the beads you use. When you put the last circle on, you can top the tree with a bead or a star or a bow, whatever you like. You could even NOT top it with anything! That would make it a "natural" tree. I just happened to have these cute star beads that came from a kids' necklace that I bought at a yard sale for .50! Wasn't that lucky? And they are the perfect size for these trees. The kids loved them, too, so that made them perfect. Here's the finished product.

From the side you can see the beads and the "trunk".

A close-up.

From the top, you can see that not all the cardstock was two-sided but....

...when they are hung from the ceiling, you won't see that side, anyway.

Aren't they cute? My gandkids are 10 and 11 and this was easy for them. The hardest part for kids will be the cutting of the circles, and little ones' circles might not be too round, but I think that would make them all the more precious. I'm hoping to make some with the other grandkids when we go to Elko for Christmas. I have a few other things planned for the holidays with the family, too. It's going to be so much fun!

Anyway, that's it for today. I hope you will try some of these little trees. They are fun, fast and easy to make, and they look so cute hanging up. BTW, mine won't go up until after Thanksgiving, so I hung them on a yardstick and put it across the knobs of the cupboard doors. That's why they look a little funny and have such big shadows. It was the best way I could think of to hang them for you.

I read the funniest thing the other day by someone names Irv Kupcinet. He said, "An optimist is someone who starts a diet on Thanksgiving Day." I'm glad I already started mine, but I'm sure I'll be mad at myself the week after, when my lack of self control will show on the scale. Have a good week, and there won't be any Friday Friends this week, because I will be shopping! Until next time,

Christmas is Coming!

Wow! I am already through 1 Nephi! I read one chapter on Sunday, two chapters on Tuesday, and yesterday I found it so interesting that I didn't stop until I was all the way through the 22 chapters of 1 Nephi. That's a first for me. I usually flake out around chapter 5 or 6 and have to push myself to go any further. I seem to be understanding a lot more this time, too, so that's good.

I am the Relief Society chorister in my ward in Gold Hill, Oregon, and I am planning to do a little something for my ladies for Christmas. I wanted to do the 12 Days of Christmas, just like I do here on my blog, but I didn't have the idea until it was too late. I would have had to start the first Sunday in October for that to work. So I'm doing six days instead, starting on the 20th with a little red Christmas mouse. I'm still searching out the scriptures and quotes, etc. that I will use, but I think it will be fun. Here is the little mouse.

Sorry about the photo being blurry. Tomorrow I will have a tutorial for you and you'll get the whole "tail."

This is a short post today because its grocery shopping day. I need to go get my husband up, now that the kids are gone to school, so we can get out of here and back before noon. See you all tomorrow with the KrisMouse, and hopefully the scripture or something to go with him. Until then, here are some words from Albert Einstein, "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything."

Baa Humbug! :)

Christmas is coming up too fast and I am not ready! I am working madly to get something done for each of the kids, but I think I am fighting a losing battle. Maybe more of them will get gift cards. Yuk! I think gift cards are so impersonal, but I am up against a brick wall--both time-wise and also not knowing what to give them. They are getting older now, and have very definite likes and dislikes, and I don't know them well enough to know what they like. I didn't find an old-fashioned game this year to make for everyone, so I'm wracking my brain, small though it is, for something that I can give them that I can make in a week. HA! HA!

The library pocket books are almost finished, and they are looking really cute. I hope the library ladies will like them as much as I do. Sometimes I wonder why I do this? I could just make fudge and cookies, and call it good, and don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that, but I always seem to feel the need to do something more personal. And that something is never quick to make. I always swear that I'm going to start in January for the next Christmas, but I never seem to do it, except for last year. By last December, I had almost everything made but the last-minute stuff, and it sure was nice. I will be trying to do it again next year. I am going to try to simplify my life, and that will help.

I've been talking to some of my children, trying to convince them that they need to down-size Christmas for their kids. They need to teach their children what Christmas is REALLY about, and it's not presents and parties and stuff. In fact, they have too much stuff. I was talking to a young mother last week who says that she and her husband started a family tradition a few years back that has simplified their Christmas and given them a lot more time to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, and on giving service. She has three children, and they each get 6 presents for Christmas. One from mom and dad, one from each set of grandparents, one fron Santa, and one from each of their siblings. That's all. No more. No going into debt for huge amounts of money, no trying to make sure that all the kids have the same number of presents, no lo-o-o-o-ong lists for Santa.....just 6 simple gifts. I thought about that for a week, and I think its one of the best ideas I've heard in a long time. By the time her children get to be teenagers, they will know that they are not going to get a mountain of presents and they won't expect it! I wish I had had such an idea when my kids were little. We have always made our gifts, but I really like the simplicity of her plan. I just wish my children would embrace that idea.

Well, I really got off on a tangent there, didn't I. But I guess what really bothers me is that I've got grandchildren that don't even know what the true meaning of Christmas is! They know nothing about the Savior, his birth, death and sacrifice. To them, Christmas is Santa and presents, and the more the better. This makes my heart hurt. I'm just not sure what I can do to change it. I am going to think on it.

I wanted to do a "12 Days of Christmas Series" for you with ideas for gifts and for service, but I don't know if I have it all together. I will start tomorrow, which really is the 1st Day of Christmas, and we'll see how it goes. I may skip a day here and there and let you come up with your own ideas. So here's to you and your good ideas. If you do something and it works out well, let me know. Post it in the comments for me (and others) to read. Or you could tell me about something that may not have worked out like you wanted it to, too, and maybe we can figure out a way to make it better next time. All will be welcomed.

Oh, by the way...I am 54 today! I am never sure I will make it to see another birthday, but I did this year. My husband turned 54 two days ago, and we are quickly approaching honest-to-goodness old age. We feel old now, but I know there's worse to come. I tell myself that every day that I wake up is a good day! Both of my parents died at the age of 59, so I have a few years left to go. I'll try to make them good ones.

For now, I must bid you adieu, and remember.....time with you is better than ice cream! 'Night, Gramma G.