I think my last post came out sounding like I hate Halloween and was refusing to let my kids have some fun. I promise I don’t hate it, I just don’t love it as much as I love Christmas. I do however love the look of total excitement and wonder on each of my children’s faces as they make the rounds trick or treating, dressed up in their cute costumes and having so much fun. I love the parts they love about it, they make it fun for me, and I enjoy making it fun for them. And frankly, after many tries at getting them interested in carving pumpkins, I have stopped torturing them, and we now just buy and display uncarved pumpkins on the porch, and now everyone is happy. If they really want to carve them they can, but so far no takers.

Last night I made our spooky dinner since I knew tonight would be too busy and crazy, which of course it was. We had ‘Green Goblin Soup’ with ’Graveyard Guts’ sandwiches on the side, and a pitcher of ‘Spider Venom’ to drink. Mmm, spidery! And tonight was our neighborhoods trick or treat party which was a total blast for all of us. G was so excited, this was her year, she loved all of it. Last year, she only wanted Mom, so it was so cute to see her holding her Daddy’s hand, and trick or treating with the big kids this time as they made their rounds. I loved handing the candy out with F as my helper, and he contributed lots of drool and smiles for everyone. C and D were both off with their friends, each stopping by at some point to ring the doorbell and scare up some candy for them and their cohorts. Ahh, teenagers.

The kids made out like bandits with their candy, and had a lot of fun in the process. This year N was a ninja, H was a Halloween fairy, sparkly wings, crazy tights, spray glitter and all (I was up until 6 am this morning finishing the tutu…ahhhh!), M was Thomas again (we still can’t find the other bag of costumes in storage, so no Buzz Lightyear this year), and G was a ladybug, resplendant with wings, antennae and her sparkling red glitter shoes that she HAS to wear at all times (but of course, since she and H are the resident princesses here!). Anyways, I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween, had lots of fun, and made out like bandits with a ton of candy! I know we did! Happy Halloween everyone!

   I’m not that big on Halloween. Really, I’m not. I just don’t want to decorate for it, spend a whack of money on costumes, or have to get myself all dressed up. In fact, this year, I didn’t even buy any pumpkins *gasp*! not a single one! And I have been known in the past to buy pumpkins, and never even carve them *oh the humanity*! They just sat on my porch (and one year in my garage) and rotted, until one night some neighborhood kids smashed them in the street. They didn’t know it but they did me a great favor because now I didn’t have to worry about trying to dispose of the mushy messes, it was done for me! Thanks neighborhood hooligans! I just don’t have much interest in getting pumpkin guts all over my house, kids, floor and kitchen. Pumpkin carving is really something best left to adults and teenagers if you ask me, but then again, being that I’m not into Halloween, maybe you’d better NOT ask me! I know, how can anyone be so un-fun? Frankly, to me, Halloween is just the last commercial bump in the road until the stores bust out the Christmas stuff, and that’s where my heart really is. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! It’s my favorite holiday, and no, it’s not about the presents. I love the snow, the carols, the trees, the decorations, the holly, the angels, the nutcrackers, the old holiday cartoons on tv, the nativity, the fun of surprising my kids, I just love everything about it! I noticed that our Wal-Mart already started to get their Christmas stuff out and onto the shelves 2 weeks ago, so I have already begun browsing the shelves in the back, checking out the new ornaments and wreaths, mentally picking my favorites for when I’m ready to buy. I know, I’m such a Halloween Scrooge. But guess what? I don’t care, I’m too busy smelling the sugar cookie scented candles, ogling the Christmas dishes, and checking out the stocking display to notice that your egging my house and t.p.-ing our yard.

   A while back, H asked me if we could make some ghosts for Halloween. I’m not that into the whole “kleenex tied on the top of a tootsie roll pop” thing, since I am not a big fan of having a bunch of candy in my house (what can I say, I’m a mean mom), so I went in another direction instead. H, N and I sat one night and drew all sorts of ghost shapes, faces, bodies, and such, until we had a whole assortment to choose from (designing ghosts with those two was a lot of fun, and I plan on doing some more projects like this with them again). Then I had the two of them pick their favorite ghost body shape, face, and piece of ribbon for a tag, and then had M and G come and choose too (I chose F’s ghost for him). I cut the pattern pieces out of cardboard, traced them onto white fleece, cut them out as well as the face pieces from some black fleece, and pulled out my sewing machine (in between showing the house to potential buyers) and temporarily set up in the kitchen. It didn’t take me long to sew and stuff all five of them, and they have each been snuggling with their ‘ghosties’ in their beds every night since. They were quite a hit, and I had a lot of fun making them for each of them too. There are some more pics in my gallery of them loving their ghosties if you want a closer peek!

   With another showing looming, I have had enough of trying to work our dinnertime around the arrival of real estate agents with potential buyers, so we decided to head into Loagn. Tonight, Mammy’s house was the place for dinner. I brought the leftover Italian Chicken from last nights dinner, some MacIntosh apples that were dying to be used, and a loaf of garlic bread for good measure. As soon as we arrived, I started right into making the Apple Brown Betty from Lor’s recipe, and my Mom and Heidi grabbed the leftovers I had brought and magically made a delicious dinner with it. The Italian Chicken is really good when you add a jar of Alfredo sauce to it, it was given a second life, and everyone loved it a second time. Then we dished up the just-from-the-oven Apple Brown Betty with a bit of ice cream on the side for our dessert. Lor, all my life I have been searching for that recipe. It’s exactly the way I want Apple Brown Betty to taste, and it never has, until now. It was so awesomely delicious, it was all I could do to NOT take the entire pan, hide in the closet and polish it off myself! I had to make myself stop eating it. I had doubled the recipe, and by the time I was packing up to go home, I saw that there was only one serving left, just enough for my Dad to enjoy some. And Lor, you were so right, the Mac’s were awesome in it, yum! That recipe will be getting some definite mileage at our house! 

   Here are the recipes for ‘Creamy Zucchini Soup’ and ‘Italian Chicken’. I have also added them to the recipe site, so stop by and check them out, and maybe even add a few of your own delicious recipes while you’re there!

Creamy Zucchini Soup

2 TBSP. chopped onion

3 TBSP. butter

3 TBSP. flour

2 cups milk

1 cup water

1 tsp. chicken bouillon granules

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 large zucchini, washed, unpeeled, then shredded

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in the milk, water, bouillon, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for 2 min or until thickened. Add the zucchini. Simmer, uncovered, stirring constantly, for 10 min or until zucchini is tender. Stir in cheese until melted. Serve hot, in bowls. Makes 4 servings.

Italian Chicken

Melt in the crock pot:

3 TBSP. butter

Place into the crock pot and coat in the butter:

6 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts

Sprinkle on the chicken:

pepper to taste and

1 pkg. Good Seasons Italian dressing mix

Cover and cook on ‘LOW’ for 4 hours.

1 hour before serving, shred the chicken.

Add to the crock pot:

1 (10 3/4 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup

1 TBSP. dry onion flakes

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, cut into cubes

Cover and cook the remaining hour. Add a little milk to thin the mixture before serving.

Serve the chicken mixture over:

Hot cooked noodles or rice.

If you would like to read “The Coral Island”, the link at the bottom takes you to a site that has the entire book posted online to read. The table of contents is listed on the left side of the page with all of the chapters so you can click on whichever one you need as you progress through the book. Happy reading!

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=ballantyne&book=coral&story=_front&PHPSESSID=dba983ca449a9763465eff22d0a933ae

   Lorelei’s post on favorite books made me think a lot about this recently, and how much I loved books and stories as a child, and still as an adult. When I was growing up, my dad would often have “turn off the lights and talk” night. We would all get our blankets and pillows, get comfortable on the floor, and he would tell us stories in the dark while we listened quietly. I think that by doing this in the dark, we tended to be quieter, and there were fewer distractions, we just listened to him as he told the story. It was here that I first heard about of Jean Val Jean, from ‘Les Miserables’, although I didn’t know it was that then, and was completely caught up in it, and loved the story my Dad told. Then there was ’Beauty and the Beast’, and even though we knew the story already, my Dad still had us completely entranced the entire time, taking in every word as if we had never heard any of it before. I also have very fond memories of my Dad reading to us from “The Coral Island” each night. I loved getting lost in the story of Ralph, Peterkin and Jack, and I hated it when we had to stop for bedtime, looking forward to the next night when we would pick it up and start right back in again. My Dad was gone a lot when I was growing up, he had a lot of work, church and school repsonsibilites, but when he was home, he really made the most of it, and always tried to do fun things with us, which I always appreciated. I love that both of my parents are avid readers, which I am as well, having spent many a happy hour engulfed in a book lost in a whole other world. I loved it when my mom would enjoy a book enough that she would pass it on to me. One that I remember the most, and really enjoyed so much then and now was “A Countess Below Stairs”. It was such an enjoyable and charming story, so fun to read, and one I that I often think of even now. I wish I had more time these days to read, but I know things change fast, and that time for me will come again. Do you have any fun memories of stories or books from when you were growing up?

Last night I had the incredibly fun opportunity to go with C to ’Young Women in Excellence’. They made a fabulously delicious dinner for us (for which I am currently hunting down the leaders to get the recipes), the girls shared their talents with us, and then each mother was asked to stand and talk about their daughter. It was so fun to be able to talk about my cutie girl C, she is so sweet, and there was far more to say than I ever had time for. I could have gone on and on! I also discovered last night that she is the resident giggler in YW, and appropriately nicknamed “giggles” by her friends in class. She and the girls in her YW are all very close, it was so nice to see them all the best of friends, regardless of the age differences (I am SO not looking forward to leaving this ward). I don’t often get to spend much one on one time with C, so it was a treat for both of us last night, which we made sure to leisurely enjoy. Craig was at home with the rest of the children, and I had Finley with me, of course, and he was completely entertained with all of the musical numbers, laughter and talking going on around him. It was a very fun evening made even better by the fact that I got to spend it with C. Now I just need to get my hands on those delicious recipes!!!

   What is it about Miracle Whip with a slice of cheese and ham (or bologna) on two pieces of honey wheat bread that makes my mouth water? And if I have some crispy iceburg lettuce to throw on there too? Even better. Wow, it sounds even more lame when it’s all typed out on here. Oh well, what can I say, it’s a favorite, as well as easy to throw together when I’m on the run, which happens to be most every day it seems. Do you have a quick and easy ‘go-to’ sandwich?

   This year, I want to make an Advent Calendar so we can countdown the days to Christmas. Specifically, I am looking for a Nativity themed one, or at least one that deals with the birth of Christ. Santa is nice and all, but I want my children to think about the “Christ” part of Christmas more than the “merry old soul” with all of the elves and stuff. Well, so far, I haven’t had much luck, unless I want to spend a whack of money that is. (hey, I’m not ‘cheap’, I’m ’smart’ with my money, and I don’t like to waste it!) Seriously, who thought a kit with felt, thread, sequins and characters that are cutesy bordering on “Precious Moments” would run me about $45 or more? And if you know me at all, then you know how I feel about Precious Moments (I won’t go into it, I don’t want any hurt feelings). Anyways, I’m toying with just making my own design instead, but I’m still holding onto the last shred of hope that I can find a nice kit or pattern that makes a timeless looking, quality advent calendar at a decent, down to earth price. I want to be able to bring it out each year, and make it a fun tradition for us. I have a few ideas on what I want to do as we mark off each day, I really want to impart something besides just “Presents!” to my children as the big day draws nearer. So wish me luck, I don’t know how this one will end, but here’s hoping it’s with a lovely advent calendar hanging on my wall!