12-18-10 Kaiser Christmas 2010

Routine Saturday, with girls and I in the kitchen, and Dad and the boys outside. Dad did payroll and other errands in Morton, and everyone was inside by 2:00 or 3:00 to get ready to go to Christmas with the Kaisers around 4:00. We all had a wonderful time and so appreciate Grandpa and Grandma and all they do for us. We are blessed to have them, and especially blessed that they have such good health.

Joshua has been so fussy all week – we keep thinking he’ll have cold symptoms but hasn’t yet; when all else fails, blame teeth. He started out outside with the boys and Dad but didn’t last long and spent the rest of the morning inside with us. He’s happy as long as he’s occupied; he was a great (??) help putting silverware away this morning.

Oreo Balls were on the list for the morning. This is another fun kid-friendly recipe (although it’s NOT healthy at all which is why we don’t often do it). It’s still a recipe to remember:

Mix 20 oz. finely ground Oreos (we use generic)(grind in Vitamix) with 8 oz. of softened cream cheese. Roll into balls:

Think edible play-doh [smile]. Also note: Joshua’s balls were kept separate from the rest!

Put them in small batches on plates in the frig to chill for an hour or so. It’s important that they’re REALLY chilled good, because if they’re not, the balls will kind of crumble apart into the white candy coating, making it look pretty bad (although taste is not affected).

Once these balls were chilling, we mixed up some Cookie Dough Truffles and Buckeyes, which we also rolled into balls and refrigerated.

Cookie Dough Truffles

Mix well with mixer:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 cups flour

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped nuts (we didn’t do this because we don’t love nuts)(last year we did and they were better though)(I’m the only one who loves nuts)

We had to refrigerate the dough awhile before we shaped them into balls; again, we put them on plates in the refrigerator to chill.

 

Buckeyes

Mix well with mixer:

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups peanut butter

1# (4 cups) powdered sugar

2 cups crispy rice cereal

These were almost too dry to roll into balls; we added tiny amounts of melted butter until they were a better consistency and held together better. These too went into the refrigerator on plates to chill.

Then we started on the dipping. Simply melt white and chocolate almond bark in the microwave, and use a fork to dip and a toothpick to scrape the balls off the fork. We started with the Oreo Balls, because they were chilled the longest, and it went really fast and they turned out ALMOST as nice as Aunt Jill’s do! And they tasted DELICIOUS!!! WARNING: These little goodies are VERY addicting; they can shoot a diet REALLY quickly.

I do have a fancy glass cookie plate, but I don’t think I’ve ever used it. These candies would be much prettier on such a tray, but I didn’t want to take the time to be fancy.

Tori and Kate did most of the drizzling; I didn’t fare too well at it. Too impatient, I think.

We did white and chocolate both for the Oreo Balls, and then we dipped the truffles in chocolate only.

The Buckeyes were dipped in this mixture of 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips, 6 8 oz. milk chocolate candy bars, and  2 oz. paraffin wax; due to the slow melting of the paraffin, we did it in a double boiler. For the record, we started it in the microwave, and the chocolate was completely melted but the paraffin was completely hard yet. Rather than scorch the chocolate, we moved it to the double boiler, and it worked fine. We had a lot left over because I used more chocolate than the recipe called for, but that’s fine because we just chilled it in a Tupperware in the refrigerator and ate it as a candy bar. With more chocolate, the dipping went really fast and was easy.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished Buckeyes; maybe next time. They are VERY good too!

Meanwhile, outside – our men moved out the pigeon coop, which is 99% finished. I think it looks great!

Travelling to its new home…

And there it is – needs to be leveled yet and a little more work, but I think it looks really really nice.

Beautiful sunny day outside!

Onward to Kaiser Christmas. Traditional soup for supper was delicious!

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Some awfully sweet great-nieces and an adorable great-nephew.

I had the hardest time getting a picture of these three giggle-boxes…Kate was hugging them so tightly she covered herself right up. It was so cute!

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Whoops!

Finally!

 

And, lest you didn’t notice Kate’s curl, right in the middle of her forehead – look again. If ever there was a little girl to fit that nursery rhyme, little Kate is it! When she’s good, she’s very very good, but when she’s bad, she is --- well, I won’t say the word, but she can be ornery I know! Oh yes, our little girls can be just plain bad too, but Sarah and Jewel don’t even have one curl, let alone one so beautifully placed. We love you, Kate Allison!

Wonderful Christmas carols.

After the Christmas story was read, it was time for gifts…our kids were excited about the sleds from Grandpa and Grandma.

We gave Grandma her completed Our Family Circus in a 3-ring binder. It could yet be bound in a book, but for now my job is done; I met my goal of a completed document by Christmas. It remains to be seen whether or not it’s ever published in a different format than this.

 

Joshua liked his truck from Grandpa and Grandma.

Uncle Brett helping Lincoln with his new puzzle.

Grandpa checking out his annual basket of goodies.

Enjoying some new books.

Playing school :)

Home again and ready for bed in their new pajamas from Grandpa and Grandma.

That’s it…another very full, very fun, very blessed day. Thank You Lord!