Christmas Baking

We started with Chocolate Dipped Pretzels for the neighborhood cookie exchange. We got a big tub of pretzels and a huge bag of chocolate chips from Costco. I melted the chocolate chips with a little Crisco. Then the kids dipped the pretzels, while I followed after them with a bottle of candy sprinkles. We finished 72 pretzels in under 10 minutes. They were a hit at the cookie exchange!

Now on to some serious baking... These nondescript looking loaves have been the hit of the season... Pumpkin Cranberry Bread! It's made with Amish Friendship Bread starter. I already made some for the people at work and as a result have passed out many many bags of starter, along with this recipe. Yesterday, I made a bunch of loaves up for the neighbors.


Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
makes 2 loaves

1 C Amish Friendship Bread starter
3 eggs
½ C oil
½ C pumpkin puree
½ C milk
1 C sugar
2 Tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp. vanilla
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 C flour
1 box instant vanilla pudding
1 C cranberries, coarsely chopped
1 C walnuts, chopped
Grease pans. (Can be made into loaves of muffins) Preheat oven to 325F. Add the ingredients to the starter in order. Pour into pans and bake, about one hour for loaves or 40 minutes for muffins.

Another Christmas Project

This is my newest project. I got the idea from Scrapbook Deals 4U.

The template is from http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/files/birdhouse_template.pdf. I changed the birdhouse pattern to a doghouse pattern.

This will be a Christmas gift for our neighbors. I took their
Christmas card photo and cut it up... Can you see their dog inside the house? Her name is Jammer (hence the "J" above the door).

Winter Storm in Southern CA

We got our first serious winter storm this week. Here is a pre-storm photo across the lake. You can see all the black clouds rolling in over Saddleback. It was cold here this week, with lows around 40F. With a cold storm like that I'd expect Saddleback to be completely covered with snow.

Yes, it does snow in California! My friend Mary is an elementary school science teacher in Ohio. Her kids were so surprised to find out it snowed in CA! LOL! Cheryl and I went running around the lake and stopped to take some photos. It was beautiful. A lot of people were out today, taking photos, running, walking their dogs, and pushing strollers. I wonder how many people hiding out at the malls missed this...

Christmas Surprises

I'm sure you can guess what these are, so not a big surprise there... but my co-workers will be surprised! We don't give each other presents at Christmas. I thought that since this will be the last time I'm going to see them (because of my lay-off), I'd give them something to remember me by.


I have 20 wrapped candy bars for my friends. I know they aren't very fancy, but I'm sure they'll still be appreciated. I got the idea for this quick and easy surprise from the 12 days of Christmas challenge at Scrapbook Deals 4U.

Here's the quote I'm giving out with them:

A day or two ago,
I thought I’d make a treat,
For all my special friends-
A Christmas gift to eat.
My intentions were top notch,
But my schedule would not budge,
Hence, here’s this year’s edition
Of homemade Christmas Fudge!

Christmas Time is Here!

The tree is trimmed, the outside lights are up, the Christmas cards are addressed, the house is decorated, and... drumroll, please ... the Christmas shopping is done! YAHOO! We are ready for Christmas... 9 MORE DAYS!!!

The kids have 4 more days of school until Christmas break. This week for Cheryl is finals week. She is stressed out. Jim is also going to be off next week for two weeks. My last day of work is the 23rd. That gives Jim and the kids a couple days off by themselves before I get off.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays so far!

Vampire Movie Mania

It's official! The movie of the second book in the Twilight Series, New Moon, is in the works. It'g going to have a new director, so hopefully it will be better than Twilight... here's hoping anyway... It's supposed to be released on November 20, 2009. Cheryl~ I know what I want for my birthday next year!


And the first book of another favorite vampire teen series, House of Night, is being made into a movie! Vampire school is in! (or in case of House of Night, it would be called "Vampyre" School).

More Turkey Trot Photos

Here are some of the professional photos of Chris and me at the Turkey Trot. I'm surprised they got so many in the rain.

Another New Layout

I'm on a roll! I think that this makes 3 challenges I've finished in a row!

This is my newest layout created for the Sketch Challenge at Scrapbook Deals 4U. More pictures from Cheryl's Europe trip...

We've been Elf'd

I've been seeing these on my friends' blogs and had to try it.
It's lot of laughs! Hahaha!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Twilight

I was so looking forward to this movie! Cheryl took me yesterday as a birthday treat. (And thank-you for the candy money, Mom!) After all the hype. All the anticipation. All the trailers. I finally saw Twilight... and had mixed feeling about it...

I liked the book, and since I liked the book, I liked the movie (the movie was just like the book). But, I think when a book is made into a movie, the movie should bring something to the work (at least something visual that couldn't be conveyed in writing). With that said, here are my thoughts on the movie:

-> I thought the acting was terrible! Anyone one who didn't read the book would hate this for the terrible acting... very cheesy... The pre-teen girls in front of us started laughing during a tense/dramatic part of the movie. I was very tempted to join them.

-> The vampires are supposed to be beautiful. Their make-up was terrible... they looked like YUCK!

-> Seeing Edward sparkle was the only visual effect that I found worthy of making the book into a movie. The fight scene was not worth the cost of special effects.

Another advantage to making a book into a movie, is that it gets kids/teens excited about reading. It's a shame that the Twilight movie won't make the kids want to run out and read this book, because it is a great book!

Side note:
Edward vs. Harry? If we're talking movies and special effects Harry would win. If we are talking characters, Cheryl and I both pick Edward. At over 100yrs, Edward has already passed his pouty teenage years, LOL!

**Edited**
My son is reading the Twilight series. He's just starting Breaking Dawn. I asked him who is better Edward or Harry. He says Edward; Harry is too mean to his friends.

I asked him how he likes the character of Bella. He said that Bella makes a lot of bad choices and she's very annoying.

Reagarding Jacob and Edward... Chris says, "Jacob is really annoying!"

I guess nothing can be so bad to a teenager as being annoying.

Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving! We were up at 5:30am for the Dana Point Turkey Trot. The Turkey Trot is held every year to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. They hold a 10K, 5K, and a 1 mile fun run for the kids. You can see the starting line behind us. It's sprinkling... but, not too bad. There were 4000 runners lined up for the 10K.

Who would have thought that so many people would be up so early to run 6.2 miles in the rain... And rain it did! During the 2 mile leg IT POURED!!! As Chris said... it's not a rain kind of pouring, but a standing in the shower kind of pouring. Can you see the rain in the photo? That's Chris in the florescent green shirt and royal blue shorts.

Another runner near me, commented, "Hey, it's a triathlon! This must be the swimming part of the course!" LOL! The streets were flooded (CA streets are not built to handle that much rain so fast), and everyone was soaked.

We slogged on!
Chris came in at 50:11, 16th out of 72 in his age group.
I came in at 54:24, 28th out of 182 in my age group.

After that we came home and I drew the first hot shower... shhhh... don't tell Chris, I cheated... hehehe! Then I started my Thanksgiving baking.

Oatmeal Cookies

Pumpkin/Cranberry bread and Chocolate Chip Brownies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mallow Bars

I had to send the kids to the market to pickup supplies. They balked when I tried to send them back the second time, and I had to bribe them with money to stop at Starbucks.

I got all the baking and done, and after lunch we headed to my SIL's sister's house in Manhattan Beach. Here is a picture from their back door... isn't it great living in California? I doesn't even look like it was pouring this morning...

We got in a little volleyball, and others in the family were playing touch football. After the wind picked up, my hubby got out the stunt kite.

We had great food, great company, and a great day.
Hope your day was great too!
Happy Thanksgiving!