In Hopes That St.Nick Soon Would Be There

I
Have
a Santa obsession. I don't know what it is about that man. He just makes me happy.

Actually, I might know.

He is Jolly. He gives without looking to receive in return. He loves kids.

He. Is. MAGIC!


Most of our decorations have something to do with St. Nick, on some level. Or they are home made, or when all is right with the world they're BOTH!

Pictured are just the highlights, I hang curtians, I recover the bench by the front door, hang a wreath on the front door and a large garland with ornaments over the hall entryway (that I made). There are lots of silk and paper flowers that get traded out from the ones that sit in the vases and urns and baskets through out the house. Candles, and all the other little touches that go into making a home festive for the holidays too.

At first glance that tree looks like any ole tree in most homes with just a bunch of stuff just thrown at it, but when you look at it up close, there are only a few things permitted on it. 1. Strings of beads that look like cranberries/pearls 2. hand made ornaments 3. plastic candy canes (real ones melt here, and the kids eat them, and bugs, EW) 4. greenery/tree filler/floral picks (doesn't really count cause it's kinda part of the tree?) 5. my tree topper is of the "spike" variety (not sure what you call them?), we had a very pretty red and silver one all thru my childhood, and I got it when my parents divorced, about 5 years ago, our cat climbed our tree, knocking it over, and breaking it, all I could find was a silver plain one to replace it, so I got out the superglue and the glitter and panted on some dots, and snow flakes and did the tip too 6. Santa, and there are no duplicates.

Dh's mom started quilting some stockings for the kids at some point after I mentioned how I'd love for them to have some hand quilted ones. She really is my FAV person EVER! She got about half finished with the project, and handed it over for me to finish, I'm not sure if it's cause she ran out of time, or because she wanted my hand in it too. Either way I'm grateful, and they're a coordinating set, that fits in well with my decor.

The Stockings are hung on a new stocking hanger that I made at a "Super Saturday" at Church in November. "Super Saturday" is when we all got together to make a bunch of crafts. People volunteered to teach them, figured out how much it would cost per person, we signed up, they got the supplies together, so when we showed up we just got a bag with our supplies and set to work! I was the only one with a paint splattered stocking holder. It's just a plank of wood painted in your color of choice, they had the vinyl words done for us also. It was the whole phrase "the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nick soon would be there" but it was done in 2 different fonts in 2 colors, and the black bold letters were the only ones that stood out/looked good against my paint scheme. Also, I wanted to label above the nails. I just mimicked the lettering style of the vinyl letters with my black sharpie for my kids first initials.

The wall hanging, is really just a quilt top I made a few years ago that I desperately need to put a back on and quilt. ONE day I will? The problem is, when I bought the fabric for the front, I didn't buy the fabric for the back, and now I REALLY want that SAME Santa head fabric for the back, and all I have is this poinsettia fabric (ick). I'd really just look at it the way it is than "mess" it up with something less than perfect, and if that's not quilting OCD I don't know what is! Also when I go to quilt it, I think I'll quilt the names of all the reindeer around the border, with a large plate of cookies and glass of milk being the center design of the quilting. You know as long as I'm dreaming of quilted perfection.

Going up the banister is just some ribbon, DS#1 did that! it's my Santa ribbon. there are Santa heads on it, and it says HO! HO! HO!, and it's sparkly too. so it made it FESTIVE on the stairs. I wish I had some of that really soft green garland too to have wound round the banister with it. but alas, just the ribbon.

Oh, and under the tree, are the boxes we use every year to put the kids presents in. There are 4 different kinds of boxes, with 3 sizes for each kind (they nest). And we tie ribbons around the boxes to keep them shut. We do this instead of wrapping, to cut down on waste, and cost, and the kids get to "wrap" things on their own this way. No one has ever peaked! (we've used the boxes for 5 years?) It's handy, cause even when the presents aren't ready to go under the tree, it LOOKS like there are presents under the tree! (the pic of the tree was taken AFTER Christmas!).

My tree skirt (not pictured) was made by DH's mom, it is square, which is an odd shape for a tree skirt. It has the Nativity on it, each side of the square features a different scene from the Nativity story. She Embroidered it for me when we were first married, it might have been my first married Christmas present. I've used it every year.

Even tho there is a Santa OBSESSION in the house, the focus is NOT on presents, or rather, it's in the GIVING THE present. We do things a little differently. My children only receive one gift each from me, and it's hand made. I put a lot of thought into them. My husband only gives each child one gift, it's not hand made, but there is equal thought put into them. Each child only gives each sibling one present (except for the baby, she's too little to give yet) and they are all hand made. And they do 90% of the making, I only step in if there is need. Santa only brings each child ONE gift, it's something larger than Mom or Dad would have gotten. We are usually more excited to find out if the person we worked so hard making a gift for likes it as much as we hoped, than we are in opening our own. Not to say that they aren't excited to find out what is in their boxes, because there is much planning, scheming, and plotting, sometimes for months on the gifts. It's just nice to see you're work well loved. When DS#2 opned his gift from DD#1 and got his "very own Harry Potter Wand JUST LIKE DD#1 and DS#1!!" Everyone was beaming with the thoughtfulness of this well thought out gift. (a couple years before DD#1 and DS#1 had made and received wands from each other, I knew about it, it was epic) When we go on our annual trip to the toy store for "MY" present and everyone (from mom and dad to the baby) picks out a toy that they would WANT and then, everyone hands their toys to the soldiers (and no one has ever complained) for Toys for Tots, THAT is Christmas.

It's not in the "what did you GET" it's in the "what did you GIVE".

All I want for Christmas is My 20 doz Cookies

I've been gone a while. Let's just pretend that didn't happen.

I'm going to talk about my FAV holiday now, CHRISTMAS, and yes I know it's a bit late, cause it happened 2 weeks ago. I don't care. And since I'm participating in a blog once a day everyday for January I'll spread the post holiday love out over the next few days.

Today will be about COOKIES! cause who doesn't love cookies?

When I married DH I got all sorts of FUN traditions also, like the annual Christmas cookie bake. If we lived back home, we would all go to Grandma's house with at least 2 kinds of cookie dough pre made, and maybe the stuff we need for one other project, like chocolate pretzels, or what I like to call snow balls, or candied pecans, you get the idea. By "we" I mean, Grandma, Dh's mom, Me, Dh's Aunt, Dh's other Aunt and any other female relatives in town. We'd spend all day baking, and then lay the cookies out on the 2 tables in tins and the assemble trays to pass out to our perspective neighbors/coworkers/church goers/ friends/ whomever we wanted to give cookies to as a present.

I was thrilled to be included, in High School I invented a cookie. All my teachers asked me to make it when there was a class party, it was enjoyed by all my friends when they came over. I was a SHOE IN!

You should have seen my cookies for the first 4-5 years we were married. TERRIBLE things! I don't know why they had me join them, or put my "creations" on their trays. Not that they tasted bad, they were just more like "free form cakes" than cookies. And I was watched over too, recipes read to me, steps hovered over. NO ONE knew what I was doing wrong.

My early success in HS was an oatmeal based cookie, and these were all flour based travesties.

I'm glad there is no evidence of my early failures (or maybe there is, and please feel free to post with a linked pic if you have them ladies!)

I've always baked cookies for Christmas with my kids, but I cheated, stuck to oatmeal cookies or amped up store bought things. Slowly I got back into trying from scratch again. I'm not sure when the tide turned, or how. All I know is I'm now the cookie lady as well as the scone, soup, lasagna, steak, bread lady!

This year we had the Missionaries over to help with the baking, to "teach them" how to bake, but mostly to have fun. They are so far from their families and their own traditions that I thought it would be fun to have them over. We had 2 Japanese Sisters, 4 American Elders, and a Senior Married American Couple. Quite a full house with my family of 6! Some of them were taking pictures, and I'll ask them if it's all right to post them here on my blog when I see them on Sunday, for now you just get to see the finished product! We made 11 tins, and I had 3 Tupperware containers overflowing in the house (there are still a few cookies in the house).

When they all left I made Sugar cookies too, cause those are DH's fav, and somehow they didn't make it in the pic! LOL.

We made (from Top Left down, then from Top Right down) Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Chip, Monster Cookies. Peanut Butter balls (one dipped in chocolate and one not) Snow balls, Holiday Bliss, Snicker Doodles and Chocolate dipped Pretzels with sprinkles.

The Chocolate Mint recipe I just got from Food network (it uses chopped Andes mints) Same for the Snicker Doodles, the Chocolate Chip is DH's sisters recipe (don't know if I can give that out here?), the Pretzels are self explanatory.

Snow Balls: a jar of peanuts, a bag of chopped pecans, a bag of dried cranberries, stirred into 2 (or 3 I can't remember) bags of melted white chocolate chips. I melt my chocolate in the microwave, in bursts of 15 seconds, stirring in between, so as not to burn the chocolate (takes a couple minutes total). Drizzle with dark melted chocolate for contrast (and cause I had some left over from the pretzels).

Holiday Bliss: a double batch of sugar cookie dough, a bag of dried cranberries, a bag of dried apples (chopped), a Tbs of cinnamon. (I died them green for Christmas, but usually they're beige). scoop out and flatten, bake like you would a sugar cookie.

Monster Cookies (the cookie I invented in HS!): in a LARGE MIXER start with peanut butter cookie batter, add in oatmeal cookie batter (just follow basic recipes, but add whole eggs not egg whites or egg yolks, you'll need the extra moisture) add 1 bag chocolate chips, 1 bag toffee bits (or, and this is better, 1 box crushed peanut brittle), 1/2 bag shredded coconut. scoop bake 12 min, should be soft when removed and allowed to finish on hot pan out of oven.

well that's it! Tomorrow I'll talk about decorations, and after that I'll start clearing out all the random food pics I have on my hard drive! And I've had a request to talk about crazy Japanese candy. so looks like I"ll have a lot to talk about for a while!

OH!!! AAAANNNNDDD I get my MRI results for my stinking ankle in the morning so we'll finally know what's going on with that, so maybe I can start walking like a normal person? I'm not holding my breath tho!

Might as well eat worms!

3 of my children have birthdays in the summer. DD#1 in mid July, DS#2 in mid August, and DS#1 end of September. And for some unknown reason they all prefer to have one giant birthday party together?

Odd I know.

I make sure to do something special for each of them on their day. DD#1 got her skirt, and a pedi, DS#1 had his during our adventure, so he got a present, and small cake with his name at on it in the terminal on Hawaii, and we took him to Chili's for supper.

This cake was from the folks over at Family Fun and it's called "Bug Mountain". DD#1 frosted it, the boys made and put the dirt on, and it was a group effort to put the bugs on (the bugs are plastic, and the worms are gummy). It was Strawberry on the inside.

The swarm of teenagers came over and decorated the trees, went in the house and got the food out. Pretty much made it so all I had to do was knock on the neighbors doors and say "Come eat!"

Besides the cake I made my black bean salsa, and chicken with spinach salad put into puff pastry. The chicken salad is just regular chicken salad, I just add spinach when I am filling puff pastry, the puff pastry's are not hard to make, just fiddly.

Bring 1 cup and 6 tablespoons of butter to a boil, remove the pot from the heat, beat in 1 cup of flour, 1/4 tsp salt, (1tsp sugar for sweet pastries) put back on heat, continue to beat till it pulls away from the sides of the pot, but in bowl, continue to beat till cool enough to add in 4 eggs, beat till batter is smooth. Fill pastry bag (zip top bag) pipe out to desired size (1 inch across for bit size, 3 inch across for sandwich size). With a wet finger, smooth over the tips, bake at 400 for 15 min and then at 350 for another 35 min. Let cool, for sandwiches, cut open and fill, for cream puffs, poke a hole in the side with a small piping tip and squeeze in filling (whipped cream/pudding/gnash/moose).

Everything was set up, and we were waiting on one more person to come out when the rain started! in the scramble to get everything covered I realized that if we just ate the puff sandwiches we'd have less to try to cover. Then the rain stopped and we gave up waiting.


Also this week, I made some fresh corn bread for breakfast, and on the side we had apple sauce. Nothing fancy, but I was craving it, and the kids like it.
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
6 tbs melted butter
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 cup corn meal
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 table spoons sugar
1 cup corn

Combine wet ingredients then fold in dry, will be lumpy. Pour into a greased pan bake at 400 till light golden.

To make this more "breakfasty" I tripled the sugar, left out the corn, and lightly sprinkled the top with brown sugar to make it pretty.

Better Get Me To The Church on Time

Most of you know (because we saw you) that we went on vacation for 3 weeks to Florida.

This was exciting, now excitement can be both good and bad, and we had both on this trip, as it took us 5 days to get to Florida we spent 8 days there and it took us 8 more days to get back. We traveled Space A with the military to get to the States, and then commercial once we were stateside.

The reason we went to Florida was, DH's Best Friend since they were like 10 was finally getting married! He brought her here to Oki last time we were stationed here, and we heartily approve of her! SO, we couldn't miss out on the big day! (also they have a 4 bedroom house, so they have room for us and our brood!) It was a short wedding, in their back yard.

At NOON. IN JULY. IN FLORIDA!

The reception lasted the rest of the day and was as informal as the wedding, with finger food an snacks, and "Rock Band" played well into the night.

My camera was safely on DH's desk here on Oki while we were on our adventure so our pics are limited to what I could scavenge from other people. Till right at the end of our trip where we realized that we could purchase "throw away cameras" and have them developed at a 1 hr place.

I was delegated to cutting the fabric for the backdrop for the ceremony and making the rice krispie squares in the wedding colors. This still saddens me, but as our arrival could not be guaranteed the bride could not depend on my skills.

Most of our trip was spent in various terminals and hotels throughout New Orleans, California, and Hawaii. Checking out every morning and hauling our things with us in Taxi's to see if there were any available flights for our family of 6 back to our part of the world.

On the return trip we got "stuck" in Hawaii for 4 days (who wouldn't want to get stuck there right?). I had had enough of hotels, and walking around, bum ankle remember? More on that later I'm sure. So on our very last day (as we had given up on flying Space A, and bought tickets back from Hawaii) I splurged and took the family to the Polynesian Cultural Center (google it, it's worth the effort). I'll link in my flikr page so you can browse all the pics.

In Hawaii, there's a most remarkable breakfast item called the "Loco mocco" it's a bed of rice, with a medium sized hamburger pattie, and 2 fried eggs, covered with brown gravy. MMMMM that thing is DIVINE, if you wait till about 9/930 ish to eat it, all you need for lunch is a fruit cup and you're set till supper time. Also Poi is kinda (almost exactly) like the purple sweet potatoes here.

And if you're a family of 6 going on vacation and on a budget, stay with a newlywed couple, that had too much food at their wedding, your mission, eat all the food! LOL

It was good to see everyone, I wish we could have had more time!

Bowling for Soup

I'm a month late in posting this one, but in my defense we were getting ready to travel to the other side of the world the next day, so my mind was on other things?

Better late than never right? So, here's what I did on July 23!

This was my first attempt at homemade soba soup. I think it turned out more like Ramen due to the style of noodle I used beeing too thin, but it was Uber tasty. I served it with "pork cutlet".

To make the soup I boiled the heck out of a ham hock. Boiled it all day in fact, in just plain water. I just checked on it to make sure it had water in the pot all day. Once I was ready to make the soup, I picked the ham hock clean and left the meat in the broth then added half a head of cabbage, chopped, and 1 and a half bags of noodles and their flavor packtes ( not sure what's in those flavor packets) and just heated till the cabbage was soft and the noodles heated through. The Pork Cutlet is just "scallopini" (a thin cut of pork sirloin, if you cant find it, cut a sirloin roast into half inch slices and then pound flat) seasoned with Chinese 5 spice, and salt and pepper. First dredge them lightly in cornstarch, then dip in eggs seasoned with salt and pepper, and then coat with Panco (bread crumbs found in the Asian section, or there's a Corn Flake's version.) Pan fry till dark golden, and then turn over.

It's a simple but filling meal and the clarity of the soup is a nice contrast to the fried cutlet. This is served at restaurants with a shredded raw cabbage salad.

It’s alright to tell me what you think about me I won’t try to argue or hold it against you

DD#1 and I have a tradition. She has a birthday, and I sew her whatever she likes.

This year she wanted a skirt made out of a particular fabric. So I whipped out a circle skirt with a handkerchief hemline, trimmed in two kinds of lace. On her birthday she climbed in to bed with me and we had this conversation.

I told her she was growing up way too fast, and she said "NO, Mom, it's going VERY slow."

The sad part is, I can remember seeing it from her perspective. But I can also swear I was just changing her diapers and snuggling up to my first baby! Hopefully she never outgrows letting me sew for her.

I also took her to get a pedicure, she loves having her toes painted up.

OH WAIT, COOKING!! right

I have been doing some of that, not anything too exciting. Made a good last minute stir fry on the 10th. I used 1.5 lbs Sukiyaki (thin sliced beef) carrots and spinach and a bottle of Teriyaki (one day after our trip to the states I'll make Tracy's but I had a bottle in the pantry, so it got used) and put it over rice.


On the 15th I broiled some Salmon (random herbs) and made one of my favorite summer side dishes. Black bean salsa! 2 cans drained and rinsed black beans, 1lb thawed bag of corn, 2 cans of tomatoes, parsley, garlic, onion, salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature. It's kind of a starch and a veggie at the same time, so I didn't fix anything else to go with it. And was refreshing after spending the day out in the sun weeding the flower beds.

Every day for us something new (except today)

Been doing boring stuff for dinner, spaghetti, salad with pork strips (instead of chicken or steak), hot dogs, just regular non blog worthy food.

I'm also trying to whittle down my pantry so that IF we manage to get to the states for the end of the month I won't have a lot of food in the house while we're gone.

We did have a fun cookout with our neighbors (well half a cookout) for the 4th. One neighbor cooked everyone's meat (hot dogs, ribs, steak strips, Korean style ribs) on the grill while the kids all played in the yard, and we all made our own sides, then the bugs set in so we divided up the meat and ate in our own houses.

I'm also slowly on the mend with my ankle, and my hand is feeling about half better? See totally not blog worthy at all.