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Dessert. It always comes with a price, somehow…..

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After Christmas and before New Year’s the planets were in perfect alignment and I was able to spend an evening with my very dear friend, A and her 6 children (and my 2 girls).  Short version:  my hubby was working.   my boys were with my sister and her family and I was on my way to get them.  A’s hubby was at the beach with his parents for a vacation (a few days ahead of her while she took care of some stuff–I think she got the better end of the deal!).  So for a few short hours our kids played hard, ate pizza, watched movies and she and I were able to catch up (mostly uninterrupted with life’s usual interjections), drink wine, eat pizza and THEN.  she made dessert. Not just any dessert.  Simply the easiest dessert to make.  However, don’t let its simplicity distract you from its deliciousness, which is what our kids refer to it as.  I call it “The Devil”.  And I won’t be making it any time soon as it completely contradicts my weight loss goal for 2012.  boo hiss.

So, you start with these, and generous side walls to contain the next ingredients:

Which are these:  a good cup of butter and cup of brown sugar, always a scrumptious couple!!  Pour it on the crackers and bake it in the oven a few minutes until bubbly:

Then add these (which I had NO idea came in such a monstrous size–obviously I don’t shop @ Costco!!!)  when the pan is  hot out of the oven and spread all over until melted and covered up.  Chill for a bit in the freezer. Break it up and voila!  So amazing.

You end up with this and good luck taking a picture before anyone gets to it.  Vultures I tell you.  Vultures.

**as a side note:  if perhaps your pizza spilled over into the oven and you forgot to clean it up before preheating the oven, this might go off and after about 10 minutes of searching for breakers and on/off switches, you may be driven to climbing a ladder and using whatever tape is available and dishrags to muffle the noise until the husbands can be located for guidance.  always good for a huge belly laugh.  good times, good times.  gotta love girlfriends.  and their kids.  and their dessert!!!  Happy New Year to you and yours!!!

The merriment continues…or…how much more can I pack into this month???

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We are half-way there, baby!  Should that strike fear into your heart if you haven’t begun your Christmas shopping, fear not…..there are still 12 11 shopping days left!!  This gives me GREAT pleasure as currently we have only purchased ONE gift for 3 children with the 4th child’s gift to be procured today.  Which means at some point I need to get crackin’ on the online shopping…….but let me stop there, because I feel my anxiety level rising at the thought of it!  Let’s move onto other things that December is bringing…

We’ve enjoyed the Christmas parade………

A middle school Holiday concert, it was actually pretty good.  Now at the end, we were unknowingly seated RIGHT where the percussion section marched to, the video I was going to upload** does NOT accurately convey the LOUDNESS of this seating arrangement, but perhaps the lady plugging her ears does somewhat.  I know.  My life is good.  Please don’t hate.  **at this time of year I have neither the time nor the patience to figure out how to change to format to be included…forgive me...

Flag football and Softball games in between the merriment of December, bringing their own joy, shouts and late nights….is it over yet???

A broken toe….

The Nutcracker ballet with my girls.  A first for ALL of us and we thoroughly enjoyed it to decide it should be an annual tradition!  (our youngest really WAS thrilled to be going, she was NOT, however, thrilled with the fact that her mother was running her usual LATE and insisted on photos in spite of running late!  that’s me, always pushing the envelope–and for the record, we made it RIGHT on time!)

My annual (big) Girl’s Night Out, Christmas dinner edition.  This year at a fun, loud and delicious German restaurant near us.  Entertaining.  Relaxing.  Good laughs.  Catching up time.  And my fingers are slowly returning to their regular size after all the sausage, sauerkraut, cabbage and pork!  Only a month-ish until our Girl’s Weekend….ahhhh, let the good times roll!

Dress rehearsal for the church Christmas performance.  This year we have an angel and a dancer……

West Side Story, performed by a local high school.  FANTASTIC!  WOW!  I can’t say it enough.  The talent was truly amazing and I was crying at the end…which my husband found humorous…whatEVER!!!  It was tear-worthy!!  (and I don’t say this because my girlfriend’s son was “Tony”, either)–no pics due to copyright laws…ah BOO!!!

Christmas cards are wrapping up and should be in the mail this week.  Today.

In between school wrapping up this week and work, there’s still lots ahead….more baking, Walk through Bethlehem, church Christmas program, football, softball, and all that shopping, wrapping and eating!  Carry on with your busy selves!

The Merry, Crazy month of December!

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And so it begins…..the merry, crazy, chaotic, overscheduled month of December.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are positively my favorite holidays of the year.  Thanksgiving because the focus is on family, food, friends and taking a few seconds to appreciate how much we have to be grateful for.  And blessed we are.

(Ok, this picture is actually from last year because I took NO food pictures this year, possibly because I was truly enjoying the moment, however, the bounty was similarly traditional and full!)

Hubby was truly thankful to be enjoying non-institutional food with his favorite people on the planet (US!!).  My grandparents joined us last-minute due to car trouble while driving to SC to see my aunt and cousins.  I know she was sad to have missed the trip, but it all worked out and we had a great dinner. and somehow there just weren’t as many leftovers as I had thought….and it was all worth it!!

The remainder of the month will be filled with:

  • the town Christmas parade:   2 of 4 children participating
  • school programs:  band concert x 2
  • shopping:  any time I can fit it in…lunch time is UBER productive during December!
  • church programs:  2 of 4 children participating
  • cookie exchange:  an annual event by my old roommate, her mother in law and sisters in law and the focus is on fellowship, food, exchanging AMAZING cookies and Jesus.  Yes, I said His name, Jesus.  This IS Christmas people, notice the “Christ” at the beginning of the word?  The entire season is because it is a celebration of Jesus’ birth!!!  (had to clear that out….political correctness has no place here..)  It is a fabulous time!!
  • “Happy birthday, Jesus” party with my grandparents, an annual event which we ALL look forward to!
  • tree decorating, holiday baking
  • dinner with our Priest at our house
  • Walk through Bethlehem with one of the local churches
  • Hiding Finding our “Elf”, Friefel
  • West side story high school production (date with hubby)
  • Sending and receiving Christmas cards (of which we are ALL in this year!!)
  • Nutcracker with the girls.  It will be the first time for ALL of us and  a total surprise for them.
  • finish up with regular school, work, flag football and softball and it’s a crazy month.  And I bet YOUR month looks JUST the same!!

(these delicious Peanut butter Buckeye balls are the favorite of our family for holiday baking!)

Don’t forget, the Reason for the Season.  Christmas is a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the days leading up to that, Advent.  The waiting on the Lord.  The anticipation.  Enjoy every moment.  Every morsel.  May your Advent season and Christmas be as joyous and filled with thanks as ours!!!

Learning to let go of perfect…

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Edwin Bliss has said, “The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time.”

This past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote.  In a busy world, with four active children, a husband and full-time jobs for both of us, we are blessed.  Like many of our friends, neighbors and acquaintances in this wildly busy life, we cram as much as we can pack down, shake a bit and pack some more into most days/weeks/months.  Unfortunately, we (hubby and I) both err a  little on the “perfectionist” side of things…one of us <ahem> more than the other, but we both want things done and we want them done well.  The danger in that is, that we (me) often lose sight of what is important.  I become more focused on doing it ALL and doing it ALL (seemingly) effortless and perfectly.  It’s exhausting.  (the kicker is, the end result is RARELY perfect)  And now I know why….I’ve lost focus on what in the heck I am doing.  I am more interested in executing perfection than finding gratification and excellence.  It IS frustrating and leads me to completing tasks “perfectly” and seldom gratified and often grumpy.

To change focus.  It’s going to take some practice to let go of “perfect” and settle for gratification.  I’m not sure if I can do that, but it’s got to be worth the effort.  Right?

The “Duggar-conversation” + 2 Middle school boys=interesting….

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Just in case you don’t follow the headlines, the Duggar family just announced they are expecting baby #20.  This is a show we enjoy watching as a family.  I think we are truly fascinated and inspired at how this family lives their lives with such a large brood.  Of course, I’m certain plenty of editing takes place, but for the most part they appear to be a well-rounded family, loving, kind, respectful and living out their faith in spite of what society believes to be the “right” number of children in a family.

Driving my middle-school boys to school the other day, we somehow got on the subject of the Duggar family.  Both boys adamantly believe 20 kids to be “crazy”.  Now, with 4 kiddos in our family, we are larger than average, however, we have several friends with 4 or MORE children and so to us, it’s normal.  It was an interesting conversation on imagining OUR lives to be that of such a large family, to which one boy said, “well, I wouldn’t be changing ANY diapers OR babysitting” and to which the other boy said, “Mom, is this your way of telling us you’re pregnant?”.  In which I respond, “not to my knowledge”…and they both heaved a huge sigh of relief.

I did let them know that if we ever DID (which I canNOT fathom), that YES of course, they would change diapers and babysit.  And they would love it.  And then they proceeded to tell me how THEY would raise that brother (because THEY can’t fathom any more sisters…) in the art of burping, wrestling, running, farting and so on……OH, Lord have mercy on me…..