Our first Christmas picture of the season...

This was taken at Barkley Lake Lodge. Its tradition for us to go eat at their dinner buffet the Saturday after T'Giving with Bob's family. They USUALLY have LOTS and Christmas trees up in their lobby, including a really cute pink, purlple and green on (hence, why the girls have pink and purple on for a Christmas picture), but not this year! GEEZ!!! Oh well...its cute anyway. Sarah is really into looking directly at the camera, breaking out into a big smile and saying CHEESE as loud as she can. Its funny!

Holiday TV Specials

Here is a complete* guide to your favorite kids' Holiday Specials. (*according to TVGuide.com, so I'm not responsible for complete accuracy! Watch your local listings.) All times listed are CENTRAL STANDARD TIME, so adjust to fit your time zone, if needed!

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer - Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. on CBS
Frosty The Snowman - Friday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. on CBS
How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Wednesday, Nov. 28th at 7 p.m. on ABC or Wednesday, Dec. 5th at 7:30 p.m. on CARTOON.
Santa Claus is Coming To Town - Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. on ABC or Friday, Dec. 7 at 6 p.m on ABC-FAMILY
Nestor, The Long Eared Donkey (my favorite!) - Saturday, Dec. 8 at 9 a.m. on ABC-FAMILY
Charlie Brown's Christmas - Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 7 pm. on ABC or Monday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m on ABC-FAMILY.

ENJOY!!

Did you pig out? Sarah totally did!

She loved everything she put in her mouth! She ate 1 1/2 corn-on-the-cobs! And this is her totally devouring the Coconut Cake! YUMMY

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Favorite Thanksgiving Recipe

I started gathering all my recipes last night to start prepping for Thanksgiving dinner. I have a few (some new, some old) that I just LOVE, that are EASY and that I wanted to share. I am making Sweet Potato Crunch, one of the two turkeys, applesauce, and green beans. My mom is making the dressing, corn, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. I'm so ready to eat!

What is your all time favorite Thanksgiving Recipe?

Sweet Potato Crunch

3 cups cooked, mashed sweet potato
½ c sugar
2 eggs, beaten
½ c butter, melted
½ c milk
½ tsp vanilla

Combine above ingredients and spoon into a greased casserole.

Topping: ½ c brown sugar
1 c pecans, chopped
1/3 c flour
1/3 stick butter, melted

Combine topping ingredients and spoon over potato mixture.
Bake, uncovered at 350 for 35 minutes.

Herb Roasted Holiday Turkey
(using Reynolds Oven Bag – turkey size)

12-24 lb Turkey
1 Tbsp flour
2 stalks celery
1 medium onion – sliced
vegetable oil
1 tspn dried sage
1 tspn dried thyme
1 tspn dried rosemary
1 tspn seasoning salt

Put flour in oven bag and shake to coat.
Add celery and onion to oven bag.
Rinse Turkey and pat dry.
Brush with oil
Combine all spiced and rub the mixture over turkey.
Cook Turkey according to weight/instructions included with Reynolds Oven Bags.

Homemade applesauce

Cut and peel 10 apples, put in crockpot.
Add 1/2 cup water, 1 teaspoon Cinnamon, 1 cup sugar.
Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
Drain and mash apples. Cool. Makes about 2-3 cups depending on size of apples used.

Cracker Barrel Country Green Beans
From CopyKat recipes
Serving Size: 6

Ingredients:
1/4 lb. Sliced Bacon
3 Cans Whole Green Beans (14 1/2 oz cans & do not drain liquid)
1/4 of a medium sized Onion
1 tsp. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Fresh Ground Pepper

Directions:In a two quart sauce pan on medium heat, cook bacon until lightly brown but not crisp.
When bacon has browned add green beans.
Add salt, sugar, pepper, and mix well.
Place onion on top of green beans, cover with a lid and bring to a light boil.
Turn heat down to low and simmer beans for 30-45 minutes.
Cooking the green beans for 30-45 minutes on a very low simmer will blend the flavors.

My Little Thanksgiving Pilgrim

Well, Beth survived her Thanksgiving Program this year! YEAH! No tears! NO meltdowns! She did great!!! I didn't have time to "edit" these pictures - I wanted to get them on here ASAP!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Got Books?

If you have children in school or a daycare center, then you are probably more than familiar with Scholastic Books. You probably even remember them from when you were a kid - I do. They are an excellent source of CHEAP books (mainly because they are paperback), but still - I love them. I bought so many "Christmas" books last December that we read a different one for a week leading up to Christmas! ANYWAY - the point of this post is to let you know that they are having their Warehouse Sale SOON! I know the one close to where I live is the week before Chirstmas -PERFECT TIMING! I went through the link below, chose my state and neighboring state and found the one closest to me, registered as a "Parent" and recieved a $10 off $50 purchase and "fast-cart pass" which evidently will let me bypass whatever long line there might be to get in. I'm excited. I think books are one of the BEST gifts for kids. Check it out!

http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/events/warehouse/

(Teresa - if you want to go with me - let me know. I'm thinking of going one of the evenings - see Tennessee for closest location to us)

Attention Target Shoppers!!!

Can you help me? I am looking for the Little Einsteins Pat Pat Rocket, which is a "Target Exclusive." (but yet I can find it at places like Amazon.com, etc, for TWICE the Target price). ANYWAY - next time you are in your friendly neighborhood Target, will you look for this toy for me? I will GLADLY reimburse you + pay whatever shipping it will cost - just email me or post that you found it in the comments section!

I think its only supposed to be $30-$40 - I can't remember. Amazon is selling them for $80 and I REFUSE to pay that when Target DID have them for half that! UGH! THANKS ALL!!

I made the chocolate one...

...and it sold for $25! Not bad, huh?

I Have to Bake a Cake...

Help me decide which one! I have to take a cake to the Youth Sunday Cake Auction this weekend and I can't decide between these two. Since the Auction is this weekend, I don't see how anyone will keep their cake until TGiving, so I'm leaning more towards the Chocolate Oreo cake, instead of the 4-Layer Pumpkin one, but OHHH...the pumpkin one looks soo good.....but everyone loves chocolate, too...hum......HELP! Niether are very hard to make, so that really isn't a deciding point. Which one would you make? Which one would you BUY, more importantly?

Chocolate-Covered OREO Cookie Cake

OR

Luscious 4-Layer Pumpkin Cake

Falling Leaves

The leaves are FINALLY changing and falling here in Kentucky:

More Halloween pics....

What a WILD day! BOTH girls were crazy....maybe from the sugar....maybe from the excitement of the day...who knows! Beth is a veteran trick-or-treater at this point, so she was off and running. Sarah took right to it - maybe it was "monkey-see, monkey-do", but she was totally into it! Here are a few pics of my Belle princess and my baby bumblebee! A very memorable night, that is for sure!

The "Before Trick-or-Treating" pictures, where NEITHER girl wanted to sit still for a picture, when there was candy to be had!

And they are OFF AND RUNNIG....
"Wait for me, sissy!!"
Sarah watched, as in a candy trance, while a neighbor put candy in her bag. She was just so impressed with herself! All the girls....
And last, but not least, our traditional Halloween dinner- Homemade Jack-o-Lantern Pizza: