Merry Christmas to all....

Christmas this year was very spread out for us.....

Saturday, the 20th, we went to Mint Hill for mom's family's annual Christmas. We draw names, exchange gifts, and eat...a lot! It's always exciting to see how much the kids have grown, everyone changes, and who gets the prank Christmas gift of the year!

Christmas Eve is my favorite...we get together with my brother & his family to have an early dinner, open gifts and attend the Christmas Eve service at church. It's so peaceful & reflective, and really puts things in perspective about what Christmas really is.


Me, Kylee & Mom after church










Micah putting on Kylee's new light up jelly shoes from Papa

















Kylee telling her daddy "No no way!" when he tried to help open a gift






Of course, this year's service had a little bit of a twist, with Kylee sitting on the row with us and Jacob, her cousin on the row in front of us. It went a little like this "Ky-wee!!" when Jacob saw her, and then "hot" from Jacob repeatedly while we were lighting candles. At least he knows! Kylee even talked a little herself!

We gave Kylee a sit-n-spin, which she really seemed to enjoy standing on. Mom & Dad gave her a cute dog that played music so she danced!

After church we went back to Micah & Amanda's for dessert and more entertainment provided by Kylee. Papa fed her a little dinner so she could have a "COOKIE!!!" I think Papa ended up wearing a lot of the cookie as well!

Kylee next to her Christmas tree


Kylee & Papa with her lime cookie

Christmas Day was very relaxed....slept late & ate lunch around 2:30. A few visitors, then Thomas & I stopped by to see Paula & her family on the way out of Columbia. Once we got home we decided to take a picture to document our first Christmas!

Saturday after Christmas was our Christmas with Thomas' families. We went to Burlington Saturday a.m. and opened gifts at Thomas' mom's house. Joshua was very intent on playing with his "train" and the "track."

Thomas entertaining us with Joshua's keyboard & microphone!





Joshua & Uncle Thomas

For lunch we went to MeMaw Brooks' house with Thomas' dad, stepmom Patty & stepbrother Brandon. MeMaw Brooks cooked a LOT of food, and her wonderful Brownstone Front Cake.

MeMaw Brooks, Deborah, Nancy & Norman


Me with my best friend/ cousin Larissa


Brandon actually looking at the camera!

On the way back to Huntersville we stopped in High Point to visit Thomas' Granny B. It was a very foggy night, and misting rain. But it was nice to see her and look through some VERY old photo albums!

We arrived home at 11:00 p.m., worn out and ready for bed! Now for the fun of next week....packing up Christmas decor and getting ready for Disney World!

Stand Mixer, Part Deux!

After the debut of the stand mixer, I decided to leave it on the counter until the holidays were over and I was pretty sure there would be no heavy-duty cooking for a while. Good idea.

Decided to make Key lime zinger cookies....YUMMY! The mixer was GREAT at getting the flour mixed in. Well, after I let it mix SLOWLY before turning it up fast. Flour creates this nice white dust over everything it comes in contact with, so I once again get to clean the mixer. But it's NOT as bad as last time!

Saturday we had Christmas with mom's family in Mint Hill, so we weren't too far away. Miss Kylee was there and hamming it up...pictures will be posted soon, as they're on mom's camera in Columbia! We had a great time seeing everyone, but had to leave early to make it back to "our side of Charlotte" for the Sunday School class party. Great time of laughing during the ornament & gag gift exchange. The mullet wig & remote control spider were some of my favorites!

Thomas took tomorrow off work, so we'll be headed to Columbia in the a.m. to help mom finish getting ready for our family dinner and then it's off to church at 6:00.

I love Christmas Eve service. It is the one time of the season that everything is just STILL. PEACEFUL. There's time with family & friends. Time to reflect on the TRUE meaning of CHRISTmas. It's not commercialized. It's not political. It just....IS.

Well, that's all for now. Back to making Christmas cookies, packing up presents, packing suitcases & my favorite part....meeting Thomas for dinner at Five Guys tonight before he goes in search of my Christmas present. HA! Typical guy!

Debut of the Stand Mixer

One of the things I REALLY wanted as a wedding gift was a stand mixer. I knew it was a long-shot, but I have just wanted one...bad....for a loooong time. Thought it would make the mixing of Granny's 7-up Pound Cake recipe soooo much easier. There's lots of creaming of butter (lots), margarine, eggs (lots), sugar (LOTS), 7-up, flour (LOTS), etc. It really wears your arm out with a hand-held mixer! Plus, you have to keep stopping to add stuff....Granny was VERY specific in this recipe....eggs ONE AT A TIME, flour & 7-up are added ALTERNATELY. Seriously, you just have to do it right or it's not, well, RIGHT.

Step 1 - take mixer and parts out of box. This involved moving every box that was in front of the mixer box. Not too bad. Washed needed parts, dried them, and set mixer on counter.

Step 2 - attach bowl to mixer. Not a problem, although I was a little worried about breaking it when I twisted the bowl.

Step 3 - tilt mixer head back and attach beaters. These are COLOR CODED (woo hoo!) with red for the special mixer that's "countoured to fit the side of the bowl" and white for the standard mixer. I'm not color-blind, so got this one.

Step 4 - cream butter, margarine & sugar. Here's where things got a little hairy. I put the ingredients in the bowl, and turned the dial to "cream." BAD idea, especially since butter was not very soft. Luckily I was able to quickly wipe the butter/sugar flings off our navy blue kitchen wall leaving no permanent stains. My clothes are another story.

After turning the dial down, I realized that I may need to melt the butter a little. Here's the fun part...you can't put the bowl in the oven, microwave, or on the stove. So...

Step 5 - I decided to place it in the sink with hot water surrounding it. NOT a bad idea, and seemed to do the trick. Luckily I didn't turn the bowl over and managed not to get any water in the batter. YAY!!!

Step 6 - Pull bowl out of water, dry bottom off on towel without turning bowl upside down. (THOUGHT) mission was accomplished. Return bowl to stand, twist to lock in place, and decided to SLOWLY cream butter, margarine & sugar.

Step 7 - Add ingredients as specified. EXACTLY as specified. Kept mixer on low speeds, worked wonderfully! Still had to stop periodically & scrape around sides with a spatula, but I had to do that with the hand mixer also, not really a big deal.

Step 8 - Pour batter into greased & floured bundt pan. Here's where I cheat a little. Baker's Joy with Flour is a GREAT thing...if you can keep the nozzle unclogged! I should have remembered after the last 2 cake-bakes that it was not working right, but nope....came out in globs & I had to smear it around the pan. This creates a greasy mess, but that stuff works really well if you do it right.

Step 9 - At this point I go ahead & remove the mixing bowl from the stand. No problems, until I realize that the water I THOUGHT was dried off the bottom was in fact STILL THERE. About to drip into my messily floured bundt pan. NOT happening. Trying to dry a bowl is one thing...trying to dry the bottom of a bowl with lots of heavy cake batter is a much different story. "Luckily" some of the mixture had left the bowl earlier, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Step 10 - clean up mess made on pans, beaters, mixer, clothes, kitchen counters and walls. That mixer has cake ingredients in various stages of mixing all over it....flour, finished batter, sugar & butter mixture....all over it. Not to mention the batter I'm sure to find later when I'm moving things around on the counter.

So as I sit here licking one of the beaters (which I was smart enough to detach from the mixer first), I ponder.....Was it worth it?!?!

Oh yeah, it's worth it! And that better be the best darned cake I have EVER made!

Our first Christmas....

Thomas & I have been getting in the Christmas spirit...Decorating the house, Christmas lights, and my favorite...volunteering at Operation Christmas Child packing shoeboxes! Mom gave us "Our First Christmas Together" ornament for our tree. Thomas & I went to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens to walk through the lights 12/13....we were hoping to make it to McAdenville on the way back, but after sitting in traffic for 2 1/2 hours the lights were turned off at 11 p.m. We finally made it at 11:10 p.m., so there were very few houses still lit up and the town lights were OFF! Big disappointment, but we entertained ourselves anyway.

I've finally completed the move to NC....got my NCDL today after taking the test (yes, you have to take the written test & sign test up here), finished vehicle registration, and all that other fun stuff! Thomas & I joined Lake Norman Baptist this past Sunday, and Thomas should be baptized sometime in January or February....YAY!!! We've been visiting on & off for the past 3 years, but really feel comfortable with the people and love the pastor.

I'm still looking for a job, and praying that God will put me where he wants me in that department. It's not very "appropriate" to put "I want a job with less responsibility and no 24/7 on-call" on a cover letter. I LOVED my job at the shelter and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. But it was HIGH stress and calls in the middle of the night with child-related issues and other house malfunctions. I'm a very hard worker, but I would like to have a job where I can enjoy time with Thomas & would be more stable when we have children.

Oh well, that's my ramble. We're gearing up for Christmas time with our families, Sunday School Christmas party and all the other festivities associated with the holiday season! So here are a few pictures from our recent activities...

The Orchid Tree at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden