Oh What Fun..It Is To...

Make hard candy at mom's house! With everyone there to help make a HUGE mess!! We made 9 batches yesterday..mom, me, Rylan, Jen, Bart, Sam, Tyler, Mimi, and Laney..oh..and Bart's sister Katie came for a bit to help too. We had waaayy too much going on in the kitchen..between washing dishes(so we could reuse the pans for hard candy), salsa cheese dip, cranberry tea, potato soup, and hard candy..two batches at a time, I might add. And with all of us in the kitchen..IT WAS NUTS!! But we had a blast..made some good candy..and a terrible mess of powdered sugar.

We made watermelon, pomegranate-watermelon, cran-raspberry, blackberry, spearmint, peppermint, and 3 batches of cinnamon. The pomegranate-watermelon and blackberry are my favorite! If you have never made hard candy..you have to make plans to make it with us next year! It is definitely a fun event that everyone should get to experience.

Jen decided to show us a game they used to play at camp in Colorado. They would line up flour along the tables and at random places, make a bigger pile. You have to put your mouth right on top of the line and say chugga-chugga all the way down the line till you hit a big mound..and then you say choo-choo..and keep going.

 

So Jen demonstrated for us with powdered sugar..and it went EVERYWHERE. But it was absolutely hysterical! So then we made Bart do it too..

This would be a great game to play when you're outside..it made a big mess in mom's house..but it was already a mess from making hard candy.

Fun times!!

12 Days of Christmas Correspondance

I had to put this on here! We had our Ladies Fellowship Christmas Party for the church Monday night. We are asked to bring a story, poem, or song we'd like to share and a lady reads this every year and we all laugh hysterically..even though we've heard it several times! I never get tired of hearing this! ENJOY!

***
December 14th
Dearest John:
I went to the door today and the postman delivered a partridge in a pear tree. What a delightful gift. I couldn't have been more surprised.
With dearest love and affection, Agnes
***
December 15th
Dearest John:
Today the postman brought your very sweet gift. Just imagine, two turtle doves.... I'm just delighted at your very thoughtful gift. They are just adorable.
All my love, Agnes
***
December 16th
Dear John:
Oh, aren't you the extravagant one! Now I must protest. I don't deserve such generosity. Three french hens. They are just darling but I must insist.... you're just too kind.
Love Agnes
***
December 17th
Today the postman delivered four calling birds. Now really! They are beautiful, but don't you think enough is enough? You're being too romantic.
Affectionately, Agnes
***
December 18th
Dearest John:
What a surprise! Today the postman delivered five golden rings. One for each finger. You're just impossible, but I love it. Frankly, John, all those squawking birds were beginning to get on my nerves.
All my love, Agnes
***
December 19th
Dear John:
When I opened the door there were actually six geese-a-laying on my front steps. So you're back to the birds again, huh? Those geese are huge. Where will I ever keep them? The neighbors are complaining and I can't sleep through the racket. PLEASE STOP!
Cordially, Agnes
***
December 20th
John:
What's with you and those birds???? Seven swans-a-swimming. What kind of joke is this? There's bird do-do all over the house and they never stop the racket. I'm a nervous wreck and I can't sleep all night. IT'S NOT FUNNY.......So stop with those birds.
Sincerely, Agnes
***
December 21st
OK Buster:
I think I prefer the birds. What am I going to do with eight maids-a-milking? It's not enough with all those birds and eight maids-a-milking, but they had to bring their own cows. There is poop all over the lawn and I can't move into my own house. Just lay off me. .
Ag
***
December 22nd
Hey:
What are you? Some kind of sadist? Now there's nine pipers playing. And do they play! They never stopped chasing those maids since they got here yesterday morning. The cows are upset and are stepping all over those screeching birds. No wonder they screech. What am I going to do? The neighbors have started a petition to evict me. You'll get yours.
From Ag
***
December 23rd
You Creep!
Now there's ten ladies dancing - I don't know why I call them ladies. Now the cows can't sleep and they've got diarrhea. My living room is a river of poop. The commissioner of buildings has subpoenaed me to give cause why the building shouldn't be condemned. I'm sicking the police on you.
One who means it, Ag
***
December 24th
Listen Idiot:
What's with the eleven lords a-leaping? All 234 of the birds are dead. I hope you're satisfied, you rotten swine.
Your sworn enemy, Miss Agnes McCallister
***
December 25th (From the law offices Taeker, Spedar, and Baegar)
Dear Sir:
This is to acknowledge your latest gift of twelve fiddlers fiddling, which you have seen fit to inflict on our client, Miss Agnes McCallister. The destruction, of course, was total. All correspondence should come to our attention. If you should attempt to reach Miss McCallister at Happy Dale Sanitarium, the attendants have instructions to shoot you on sight. With this letter, please find attached a warrant for your arrest.
-Merry Christmas
 ***

A Much Needed...

4 day vacation!! Rylan and I definitely enjoyed our 4 day weekend! We didn't have the usual amount of Thanksgivings to go to this year..so we really got to spend some quality time together. Thursday we had Thanksgiving at noon with the Rusks and then we stopped by Grandma's to see everyone. Friday we got out our Christmas decorations and put up the trees. Oh yes! Plural! TREES!

Our tree is not real..oh yes Jared Cummins..we are communists! :-) (Rylan was highly allergic to real Christmas trees when he was a baby..not so much anymore..however..we don't want to chance anything) Sheila and Larry gave us their old tree and it is beautiful!! We have both of our ornaments on it from the time we were little..all the way up to our first house and first Christmas ornaments. Such a merry little tree it is!

And then we have the weeee-little silver pom-pom tree. It has old ornaments on it and some in the apothecary jar next to it. It needed a tree skirt so I used an old quilt remnant that I had. I just love this little tree!! It's definitely my fav!

We put away the fall decorations and re-decorated the house for Christmas. We went and cut down some greenery so we'd have some to decorate with both inside and out. Saturday we got things ready for the Bromm Thanksgiving..cleaned..ran some errands..and we to the Christmas Parade that evening. Our church won the Queen's Award!! Woo Hoo! Way to go everyone!

Sunday was the usual..church and then Thanksgiving with the Bromms. We did a lot of lounging and got some much needed rest! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

More Pics of Cait

We took quite a few pictures of Caitlyn yesterday. There were sooo many good one's that it was hard to choose which to post..but here's a few! Again...the camera loves her and she just knows how to pose and smile. I loved her hair in these! So festive and wintery!

Christmas Lights

We put up Christmas lights yesterday at mom and Pat's. What an adventure..as it always is! We decided to put lights at the very top of the front of the house this year..wehich we've never done..so nails had to be put into the wood before hanging the lights..and the ONLY way to hammer the nails in and hang the lights on that side is to lay on your belly with half of your body hanging off the roof. This picture is just that..Jen on her belly hammering in the nails while Bart holds on to her legs. Bart really had NO idea what he was getting himself into when he signed up to help. And any of you who have seen our house as Christmas know that we outline that ENTIRE house..sooo..needless to say..Bart had an all new experience yesterday.   :-) But I know he loved every minute of it!

This picture may be a little hard to see..but this is Jen and Bart on the little roof...they were trying a new way to hang lights..so they climbed out the bedroom window (the ONLY way out..no joke!) and they have a stool. Now I did not get to watch what or how they attempted to make this work..but I'm going to guess that Jen tried to stand on the stool while Bart held onto it..so it wouldn't fall off the roof. Just my speculations from across the woods..(I was taking senior pics of Cait). Funny stuff we are!! Always coming up with new ideas and new ways to TRY to make things easier?!? or more comical!

Jen is finishing things up in this picture..usually the antenna is the last thing to do..since you wouldn't want to climb up or down it with lights strung all over it..hence you'd crush them!! And we all know that mom does NOT need another strand of lights that don't at all or half way light up..stupid broken lights!!

I think days like this are the reason we all really don't want to do our own Christmas lights on our own houses. Not that we don't have a good time..because we do and I can remember whenever we'd skip school to hang Christmas lights without mom knowing until she got home. She'd be mad that we skipped school..but SOOO happy the lights were done and that she didn't have to help! :-) Gotta love the memories we've made! Maybe I'll post pictures of putting up mom's 12 foot tall Christmas tree this year..if I remember to take my camera when we help..hopefully there won't be any peeing of the pants this year..we won't mention who is famous for doing that.. :-) Love you Jen!!

Pictures Again

I took pictures of Rylan and his sisters yesterday at Mom and Pat's. We got some really good one's and some not so good one's..I really like the three below..

 

Rhett & Leslie's Engagement Party

We went to Leslie and Rhett's engagement party Saturday night. It was quite the gathering..if I must say so myself.. hehe :)