It's A Wrap....

I'm throwing in the towel on this whole one blog post a day thing. I already missed one day and quite frankly I've got a million and two things that need to get done each day and by not having to do this every day, I'm down to a million and one. I gave it the ol' college try.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving everybody!

Menu Monday.....

If you read my last post, you'll see that I started my holiday baking. I came across a new recipe this year and just had to try it. If you like puppy chow, you will love these cookies!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookie Treats (aka cookie crack)

1 pouch (1lb 1.5oz) Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon water

1 egg

Coating:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 - 2 cups powdered sugar

Heat oven to 375. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, oil, water and egg until soft dough forms. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. On ungreased cookie sheet place balls 2 inches apart. Bake 8 -9 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool completely - about 15 minutes. In small microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, butter and peanut butter uncovered on high for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes. Stir until smooth then add vanilla. Place powdered sugar in large ziploc bag - set aside. Place 12 cooled cookies in a large bowl. Pour 1/3 of chocolate mixture over cookies in a bowl. Using rubber spatula, toss cookies gently to coat. Place cookies in bag with powdered sugar; gently turn bag to coat cookies. Remove cookies and place on cooling rack to set. Repeat with remaining cookies.

Bullet Post....

Whoops. Looks like I forgot to post on Saturday. Oh well, what's a girl to do?

A little weekend recap:

• was awoken by my youngest at 6:45am on Saturday morning telling me that his belly hurt from all his "cough-is" (That's plural for cough to a 4 year old).
• cleaned the kitchen and had 2 loads of laundry in the process by 7:45am
• ate lunch at Cabela's. yeah, you read that right....
• went shopping at Cost-co only to enter into operation abort your cart because it was so stinking busy in there it was ridiculous
• came home and started my Christmas cookie baking only to realize once I started I didn't have enough eggs, nor did the neighbors. It all ended well, but had to run to the store since I left my eggs in the cart at Cost-co
• awoke to glare ice and slid sideways in the car on the way to teach Sunday school
• thanks to Mother Nature, shopping plans with a girlfriend had to change to a late lunch. still fun, but not as fun as some shopping would have been for us.
• getting ready for a short but busy week

Thoughts For Thursday.....

This year at work, I'm on a committee that is coordinating efforts to adopt families for the Christmas season. We had no idea how many families would get adopted as this year has been hard economically for many. To our surprise, we had to go back to the county and get more families as the initial 20 families were all adopted within 5 days.

I was lucky enough to have the list of all the families needs and wants and asked my oldest child to read through them. I didn't have to say a word about the types of things the kids on the list were asking for. He just looked up at me and said, "wow."

It really puts things into perspective when 14 year-old boys are asking for sweatshirts, shoelaces and chocolate for Christmas instead of Ipods, gaming systems and Lego kits that sell for $50+.

I'm really excited to be adopting a family this year. It gives me goosebumps every time I think about it to know that the employee's I work with are helping over 100 people have a brighter holiday season.

Do you or your family have a tradition of giving back each Christmas?

Wordless Wednesday....

2006 - Little did I know how much these boys would fight with each other and little did I know how much love they would show each other.

Kid Honesty.....

The scene:
Mike driving his truck. Colton and Brett in the backseat. Mike making up a goofy song to pass the time in traffic. Mike gets done with his little tune.

Mike: Did you like my song?

Brett: Bad.

Mike: What? What do you mean bad?

Brett: Horrible. But I still like you.

Menu Monday....

Crock Pot Stroganoff

1 1/2 pounds round steak cut in bite size pieces

3 small cans of mushroom pieces

1/2 stick of butter

1/2 medium onion diced

3 cans cream of mushroom soup

salt & pepper to taste

3/4 16oz container of sour cream

Combine all ingredients except sour cream. Cook on low for 8 hours. Add sour cream and heat through - about 20 minutes.

Serve on egg noodles