Christmas Eve

I've been meaning to get this post published since...well, Christmas, but just didn't sit down and do it.

My counselor gave me the idea do a candle lighting memorial for Carly on Christmas Eve. Well, it could be done anytime during the holiday's really. I decided to do it on Christmas Eve. My counselor had gotten this idea from The Compassionate Friends after the loss of her 33 yr old son over 8 years ago. The idea behind the memorial of course is to honor the memory of your loved one who passed away. It's actually a reading to be done as 4 candles are lit. In our case, I decided to have 5 candles. The center candle was lit to represent Carly. I lit it as I explained why we were doing this memorial lighting. The other 4 were lit while reading a few short lines of remembrance. Ashleigh read and lit a candle. My cousins Cyndi and Leanne each read and each lit a candle. And my sister in-law Sandy read and lit a candle. There were many tears and much sadness as we memorialized Carly on Christmas Eve. It was very bitter sweet.



The candles were to be placed in the center of a wreath. I bought a plain wreath and decorated it. Found some candle holders at The Hobby Lobby (except I forgot a candle holder for the center candle, so we flipped a jar candle over and used it!) and made a pretty little memorial arrangement.

As I said, this could have been done at any point over the holiday's. I decided Christmas Eve was the best time. All the people who loved Carly and who Carly loved, would be together (minus my oldest brother and his family, who live out of state) and be able to be a part of this.

I also lit the candles on Christmas day and New Years Day and of course on Carly's birthday (Jan 2). This is something that we will continue to do each year. Although it sucks that we even have to. We will. We will because of our never ending love for Carly.

Last year...

..at this time, Thanksgiving that is, we had a much happier home. Full of joy. Full of happiness. Full of laughter. Full of Carly.

I thought I'd share a few posts from last year. They are "Thankful" posts. Much different posts than this year.

For post 1 click here and then here for post 2 ending with this, click here for post 3.

We're doing things a bit different this year. It likely wont feel much like Thanksgiving, and we aren't in any mood to give much thanks for anything this year, but we will try. Try to at least, get a traditional meal. We will not hide and cower away. Although we are very tempted. As I said, we are doing things different this year. We decided to change things up a bit. We will be going out to dinner with my parents and my brother and sister in-law. Normally, we all gather at my parents house. This year, it would just be to hard to be at "Papa" and "Gramma's" house. Their home was Carly's second home.

Carly will be in our hearts, as she is every day. But no one is up to doing the whole dinner thing like we usually do. Believe me, we are going to miss that little girl something awful come dinner time. Carly had this thing, her thing and she did her thing every single time we ate dinner. Especially if we were at my parents house with the rest of our family. Carly would start with me first. She would point at me and I knew what she meant...it was time to go around the entire table while she pointed at everyone and I said who they were. Not sure why she had to do her thing every gathering, she knew who everyone was...but, like I said, it was her thing.We did this EVERY SINGLE holiday gathering, until we ended back with "Carly" Oh my gosh how we will miss that this year.

I sure wish I could be singing that Turkey song with Carly again this year. Just like we did last year.

Despite my feelings toward the holiday this year. And despite my broken heart, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. And remember, life has no guarantee's. Take nothing for granted.

Mmmmmm....

Even though they don't look like Christmas
and
Halloween cupcakes.

They sure do taste mighty good!

I decided to make some cupcakes when Carly came home from school today.
She, of course wanted to put sprinkles on them.
Well.... all I had for sprinkles, were red and green Christmas sprinkles and orange and black
Halloween sprinkles. Ha!
Oh well, she was happy. And I got them used up!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Christmas 09

The final chapter ~

Move over Hannah Montana. Carly's rockin the house!

Hoping You All Have A...

2010 ~ WoW!

Christmas '09

Part 5

Christmas night at Grandpa and Grandma's house

Brad, not happy with this picture. He said,"Mom, it looks like I'm flipping the bird". Not to mention I caught him with a scowl on his face. Sorry..Brad, I'm posting it :o)

Carly was sooo into opening presents at this point. She'd open one and yell, "MORE"!

Aunt Sandy bought some clothes for Carly. Most of the time, Carly likes getting clothes. Not so much this year! See her checking out the tissue paper?? She was in search of "more" gifts!

She is very happy with this gift. Like all kids, the bigger the gift, the better. Or so they all seem to think.

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Poor Carly. She was back to the doctor the other day. She woke me up at 4:30am on Tuesday asking to go to the "doctor". She told me her throat and tongue hurt. When I put her to bed Monday night, I already knew we were going to be heading to the doctor come Tuesday. Carly had started to run a temp. She rarely runs a temp. Long story short, she is back on antibiotics. On the 18th she was diagnosed with Strep throat. Tuesday, her throat was red streaks and the doc said, "we're just going to treat her again". Today she is MUCH better. Back to eating and drinking like a champ.

A couple of cute stories. 1- Paul was talking to Carly last night about school. He asked her if she was ready to go back to school next week and see her friends. Carly answered, "NO. All done"
2- Ashleigh was laying on the couch the other night. Carly, like always, insisted on climbing up on top of Ashleigh. Planting herself on Ashleigh's legs. Eventually, Ashleigh's leg were stretched out over top of Carly's lap. (My crazy older two wear shorts yearly around here. Keep in mind, our wind chill has been in the teens all week.) Anyway, Carly looks at Ashleigh's knee and asked, "What's that"? Ashleigh says, "it's a scar. Want me to tell you how I got it" To which Carly replies, "No, (while shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head)" Too funny! Ashleigh and I laughed our butts off. It was like, Carly really could have care less about the nastly looking scar on her sisters knee.

Christmas '09

Part 4~

These pictures are pretty self explanatory.


Carefully tearing off ribbon.


Looking a little unsure of these Elmo hands!


Now she's interested in the Elmo hands. Actually, she LOVES these things. I think I mentioned before that they come with a dance along DVD.

Ick, sticky stuff on her fingers.

Checking out her new Cookin' Cookies game.

Carefully checking out another present.

As I sort through all my Christmas pictures, I realized that I do mainly take pictures of Carly.

Guess I'd better get on the ball and snap a few pic's of Ashleigh and Brad every once in awhile! Although, I do have oodles and oodles of snap shots of them in picture albums. Even in shoe boxes! Our older kids really don't mind that my pictures are mainly of little Miss Carly. I do have some pictures of them on Christmas morning, but most are of Carly. Plus, the older kids would kill me if I posted any early morning pics of them!

Christmas '09

Part 3~

Two sister's. Loving Christmas Eve time together.

This is how Carly spends most days with her "sissy" Whenever "sissy" is home.

"Sissy", much to Carly's dismay, will be heading back to Kalamazoo to begin her new job. Thankfully, not until the 3rd of January. The day after Carly turns 8 YEARS OLD!

Christmas '09

Part 2~

As far as we can tell. So far, these are Carly's favorite Christmas gifts this year.


This game is lots of fun. Kept her busy and laughing for quite some time


These are Trio's. Great for OT skills. She loves them!


I think we've watched this 5 times already! A BIG hit with all of us. I highly recommend it!


Elmo's hands...too funny! Carly has had a riot with these. They come with a DVD Dance Along with Elmo. Watching Carly in action has kept us cracking up for sure.
Wait till you see Miss Carly "in action" with her guitar and microphone. Probably her favorite gift of all!
This Fisher Price Kids Digital Camera is GREAT! This gift is running a close second to the microphone. Carly has taken over 400 pictures!!! I'll have to load them on the computer and show off her photography skills!
Fisher Price's Computer Cool School. This is a BIG hit also. Carly LOVES the computer and she LOVES to learn. Perfect gift!



Needless to say, one little girl had a Very Merry Christmas!

More pictures to come!

Christmas '09

Part 1~


Glorious...

Calm...

Blessed...

Christmas...

Is there anything more precious than Christmas with family?

The above pic was snapped after Carly had already ripped into several packages. Normally, I snap a pic of the tree surrounded with all the presents. Carly had other ideas..plus, she beat me to the living room and was NOT about to wait! See the empty spot to the left?? Carly had removed several gifts and started opening them. Even a couple of gifts that weren't hers. Oops!

I'll be back with more pictures soon :o)

Wishing You All, A Very...

Busy, busy, busy!

So much going on these last few days. I've been busy shopping and wrapping Christmas gifts. I'm nearly done! WOO WHOO!! Paul and I are meeting at the mall after he gets out of work today. My hopes are to get DONE! Honestly, I don't have much left to buy. I have our kids done. Which is a huge accomplishment for me. I even have all their gifts wrapped already. Another HUGE accomplishment for me. My goal is to get everything bought and wrapped this week. Then, next week, when Carly is off for Christmas break, we can bake and make cookies.

I will likely be absent from blogging over the next several days. We have so much going on. Not just finishing up with all the shopping. I have Carly's Christmas party at school on Friday. Saturday we are heading to Kalamazoo, bright and early. Ashleigh graduates from WMU at noon! Then we're all heading out to eat and celebrate. Which reminds me...I need to get her a graduation gift. Sure hope I can find a Congratulations to the Graduate card this time of year.

The following recipes are a couple that Carly and I will be making next week.

Golden Caramels

1/2 lb butter (2 cups)
1 lb sugar (2 cups)
1 C light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 C broken/chopped nuts

Melt butter and add rest of ingredients. Stir constantly. Using a candy thermometer, allow temp to reach 240. Remove from heat and add nuts and vanilla. Pour mixture into buttered pan and cut into squares. Wrap each square in wax paper.



Turtles

2 pecan halves on un-greased pan. Place a caramel (store bought, not the above caramels). Place in oven at 325 for 5 minutes. Pull out of oven and press down on the caramel with the backside of a buttered spoon. Work quickly. Then place a Hershey kiss on top!

Gingerbread house.

Now that my computer is up and running again...this time due to a tower outage, not our dog...I'm finally able to get back online this morning!

Carly and I made a Gingerbread house on Saturday. Her ability to stay focused with the task on hand, has improved greatly in the last couple of months. We worked on our Gingerbread house for over 1.5 hrs. Miss Carly was into it the entire time. It wasn't all that long ago, Carly's attention span would last a mere 20 minutes give or take. Now, she is up to close to 2 hours. Which is a wonderful accomplishment.

~Our finished product~

Click to enlarge!

Carly was thrilled with how our Gingerbread house turned out.

Frosted Pecan Bites

These are Paul's most favorite snacks during Christmas.

1 pound pecan halves
1/2 C butter
1 C sugar
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1 pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 275. Toast pecans for 10 - 15 minutes or until lightly toasted. Set aside to cool.
Fold sugar, salt and pecans into egg whites. Increase your oven temp to 325. Melt butter on a sheet pan. Spread the nut mixture over the pan and bake for 30 minutes. Be sure to stir every 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Enjoy!

Carmel Corn Recipe

This is another HUGE hit around here.. I make this a couple of times a year. But seem to make it every Christmas. It's a recipe that I got many years ago. Way back when I was in High School taking Home Economics Class.

Oven Carmel Corn:

3 & 3/4 C pop corn (15 cups popped)
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C margarine (or butter)
1/4 C light corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 200. Place popped corn on large cookie sheet. (I use 2, 9x13 cake pans). Heat sugar, margarine, corn syrup & salt. Stirring occasionally, until bubbly around the edges. Continue cooking over medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat add baking soda and stir until foamy. Pour mixture over top of popped corn. (I stir it up a bit to make sure popcorn is coated nicely). Place in heated oven and bake for 1 hour. Stirring every 15 minutes. When done, let popcorn cool a bit and then place it in a large bowl and enjoy!

Christmas candy

Today, I'm sharing with you another family favorite. My kids (the oldest two) have loved these since they were little. This recipe came from my grandmother. She passed away 6 years ago. She had so many recipes. She was always baking and making candies. When I got married, my grandma started giving us a candy dish full to the brim with homemade chocolate covered peanuts each year for Christmas. They were so darn good! Many times she would include this delicious treat too.

Church Windows
Melt together 1 stick of margarine (or butter) and 1 - 12oz pkg., of chocolate chips. Remove from heat and let cool for 1/2hr to 1hr. Once cooled add 1 pkg., of mini colored marshmallows. Stir them until all are covered nicely. Divided the mixture in half. Just eye ball it! Place each mixture on 2 pieces of wax paper. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Form each half to look like a loaf or log by using your hands. Roll up in the waxed paper and store in fridge until chilled. They are then, ready to eat. Slice and enjoy these very yummy treats. And pretty too!

** helpful hint ~ I roll into the log shape and then sprinkle on the powered sugar**

Christmas candy

During the month of December, I thought I would share a few family favorites. Favorites meaning, recipes for candies and cookies and all kinds of yummy treats. Time seems to really fly from the first of December right up till Christmas Day. Everyone scurrying around looking for all those great deals. Families trying to squeeze in a 'baking day'. Making sure homes are decorated. Kids in front of the TV watching all those holiday shows. Ah...Christmas, a wonderfully crazy time of year.

Since it is a crazy time of year and I too am very busy trying to get things done. I thought I would share some of our family favorites. In terms of yummy candy, cookies and treats. Today I'm sharing a recipe that I got several years ago from my cousin. I call it Heath Bar candy, but the recipe says it's Toffee. Which ever you call it, it's sure to be a big hit around your home. Plus, it's simple!

1 C sugar
1 C water
1 C butter (real butter not margarine)
1 C finely chopped nuts (optional)
1 package semi sweet chocolate chips
1 large cookie sheet (I use a sheet cake pan)
Tin foil

Add sugar, water & butter into heavy pot. Using a candy thermometer, let mixture reach 300 degrees. Make sure to continue to stir often. Once the temp reaches 300, pour in finely chopped nuts and stir till blended. Pour entire mixture onto a tin foil lined cookie sheet. You will want to make sure that you fold all four sides of the tin foil up, forming an edge all the way around. Immediately cover with your package of chocolate chips. Once the chips begin to melt, spread carefully over the top. Let sit until cool. Break into pieces and enjoy!

**helpful hint~I spray my tin foil with butter flavored cooking spray.**

Back into the swing of things. And My menu plan, returns!

It's Monday. Time to get back into the groove of things. We had a great time enjoying our family. My mom and dad did Thanksgiving dinner at their house. As my kids feel is a "tradition". Which it is. But, my parents are getting older. They wear out very easily. Not sure how much longer we can keep this "tradition" up. You know that old saying, "Everything tastes better at Grandma's house". My kids believe that 100%! And I'm a good cook!

The run down of our weekend went something like this: We ate too much. Did some laundry. Watched too much TV. Went shopping on Black Friday. Did TONS of Ashleigh's laundry. Did some online shopping. Did some more of Ashleigh's laundry. Made a couple of batches of Christmas cookies. They weren't the homemade kind though. Paul saw the Pillsbury Sugar Cookies at the store. The one's that have imprints of a Christmas tree and a reindeer and he just knew Carly would love them! She did. But, daddy loved them more! Long weekends are great. But man they really throw me off.

On Saturday, I made a turkey. Paul's boss gave his guys each a turkey the day before Thanksgiving. He purchased them from a turkey farm. So it was a fresh turkey, not frozen. I decided to just to go ahead and make it. That way, Ashleigh would have plenty of left overs to take back to school with her. I must say, that turkey was delicious. The stuffing was yummy. The gravy so tasty. We even had cranberry/orange relish...Mmm! The only real difference in our turkey dinner, and the one we had at my mom and dad's, was in terms of potatoes. My kids requested that I make Hash brown Casserole.

Carly is home from school today. Actually, she was home on Wednesday of last week too. I had gotten a note from her teacher, last Monday, that Carly had been pulling her right ear quite a bit. She also told the teacher it hurt. Although, she didn't seem to be bothered too much by it on Monday night. I sent her to school Tuesday and already had planned on taking her to the doctor Wednesday. By Wednesday Carly had developed a nasty sounding cough with runny nose...Sure enough, she had an ear infection and junky sounding lungs. The doc put her on Omnicef for 10 days. She is doing much better. Still has a nasty sounding deep cough, but the coughing isn't coming as often. I expect she'll be back to school tomorrow.

Now that things are beginning to settle down a bit with the school. I can get back to my menu planning. It really is so much easier to have a menu in place. I've missed it. Although, through the next month, I will only be doing it weekly. Too much going on to plan out that far ahead.

This weeks menu:

Monday Chili and corn muffins

Tuesday Pork chops, wild rice & candied carrots

Wednesday Hot turkey sandwiches

Thursday Potato soup, rolls & salad

Friday PIZZA!!

Saturday Baked beans with franks (hot dogs), fried potatoes & veggies

Sunday Crock pot chicken, oven roasted potatoes & veggies

I leave you with this recipe of my roasted potatoes. Keep in mind. This is my version of roasted potatoes. Meaning it's totally made up, by me. Oh, but it's so good!

Get out your 9X13 baking dish. Spray with Pam, or whatever cooking spray you use. (you can, and I do quite often, use EVOO to 'grease' the baking dish. In stead of cooking spray).Wash several (like I said, I made this up) red baby potatoes. Leaving skins on. Sometimes, I chunk these up. Other times, I leave them be. Dump some EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) into a large plastic Ziploc storage bag. I sprinkle in quite a bit of Sea Salt, (We love the taste of the Sea Salt and EVOO combo) Pepper and Italian seasoning. (I use McCormick) Seal the plastic bag. Shake up contents. Pour into baking dish Sprinkle a bit more Sea Salt, Pepper and Italian seasoning. Place in oven at 325 bake until potatoes are tender. You will need to drizzle a tad bit more EVOO on the potatoes during the baking process. I usually do it a couple of times. Being these are baby potatoes, it doesn't take long for them to bake. These are delicious. I came up with this due to the abundance of these yummy little red potatoes from our garden.

Have a great Monday!

Wishing You A...