Jokes of the Week

Ok, I was trying to decide what to do for a new "of the week" series for 2009. At first I considered a "mantra of the week" and then a "quote of the week", but then I decided to do a "joke of the week" because we all need a good chuckle every once in a while. So make sure you check the blog every Tuesday for a new joke. Please comment if you find one to be especially funny (or NOT)...here's a taste of things to come........

Hello, welcome to the psychiatric hotline:

• If you are obsessive-compulsive; please press 1 repeatedly.


• If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.


• If you have multiple personalities, please press 3,4, and 5


• If you are paranoid delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.


• If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.


• If you are depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer.

A family of three tomatoes were walking downtown one day when the little baby tomato started lagging behind. The big father tomato walks back to the baby tomato, stomps on her, squashing her into a red paste, and says, "Ketchup!"

Recipe of the Week

This will be my last "Recipe of the Week" entry (for now). I hope to do a new segment for next year...I just haven't decided what yet. I've made this recipe many times. It's more of a "summer" treat, but since it's also very yummy, I felt I had to include it. It's a no-bake cheesecake (what's better than that?) which includes frozen summer berries. I found the frozen berries to be so convenient and easy to use. You can use any combination of berries that you like best. The frozen blackberries tended to be a bit tart. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
• 6 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 pkg. (8 oz. each) Neufchatel Cheese, softened (you can also use regular cream cheese)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 pkg. (12 oz.) frozen mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries), thawed, drained
• 1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

LINE 13x9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Mix graham crumbs, melted butter and 3 Tbsp. sugar; press onto bottom of prepared pan. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

BEAT Neufchatel cheese and 3/4 cup sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until well blended. Add drained berries; beat on low speed just until blended. Gently stir in whipped topping. Spoon over crust; cover.

REFRIGERATE 4 hours or until firm. Use foil handles to remove cheesecake from pan before cutting to serve. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's 65th birthday. We wanted to pass along best wishes. Hope you have a great birthday and a wonderful year!

New Years Resolutions

2009 is nearly upon us already. Each year seems to go by faster than the last. This is the time when most people make the same New Years resolutions: lose weight, exercise more, save money. Although those are worthwhile goals, they tend to be broken relatively quickly. So I thought I'd make some different resolutions this year which I might actually accomplish and that will not only better myself, but perhaps bring me some peace of mind. Here is my list:

1. Make it to the top of Multnomah Falls (we are going in June)

2. Clean out the garage and throw away anything I haven't used in the last 2 years

3. Throw or give away one shoe box full of stuff every week

4. Not buy anything to replace that shoe box full of stuff

5. Be kinder to my husband (ie REALLY listen when he talks)

6. Walk Winston 2x a week (this is to help him reach HIS goal of losing 5 lbs)

7. Repaint my porch (it's not looking too good)

8. Go to 6 places in Washington I've never been to before

9. Get passports for me & the girls

10. Hang our family portraits that we took 3 months ago

Christmas 2008

Ah, Christmas is finally here! Everyone had a great time this morning opening presents......Santa brought lots of goodies for us.... guess we've all been especially good this year :) Even Winston got a present....."Naughty Dog" bones! Gabby's favorite gifts were in the manatee theme: two adopted manatees, manatee earrings, a stuffed manatee named Manny the 2nd and manatee socks. Oh, and she also loved the cocoa Santa put in her stocking. Corey's favorite gifts this year were a Corgi calendar and the "Twilight" series books ......she'll probably have all 4 read before Christmas break is over! Scott's favorite gifts were a New York Giants sweatshirt & "Grinch" lounge pants. Susan got the green iPod Nano she was coveting....oh yeah! Now if only she can figure out how to NOT sync all of Scott's lame songs onto it. (Sorry Scott) And we can't forget the family gift that Santa brought: a Wii! Everyone is enjoying playing it. Gabby is awesome at bowling and keeps beating us all! After opening all the presents we had breakfast and then played our new board games. A special thanks to Gamma, Gigi, Aunt Kym & Connor, Grandpa and Aunt Patty for all the great gifts you sent....we sure wish we could have been together this Christmas. We hope you all had a great Christmas wherever you are!

Christmas Presents 2008

Christmas Eve

Well, it's finally here.......Christmas Eve! With the extreme weather we've been having around here, we've been so busy concentrating on shoveling snow and keeping warm that we almost forgot that Christmas was just around the corner! As you can see, it will be a WHITE Christmas for us this year. Here is a photo of Gabby & Corey spreading "Reindeer Food" which they made at the LDS breakfast a few weeks ago. Hopefully Santa's reindeer will get a chance to come down and eat some. We couldn't quite get on to the roof to spread some there...too much snow! We wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I know the girls are very excited for Santa to make his appearance! We are baking some chocolate chip cookies for Santa right this minute. They smell so yummy, we might just have to eat a few. He he. I'm sure Santa won't mind.

Recipe of the Week

With everything that's been going on with the weather around here, I almost forgot to post a recipe of the week! But alas, I remembered at the last minute, so here is the recipe for Chocolate Drops. I just made these this past week for a cookie exchange. They are really easy to make, and one batch makes around 5-6 dozen depending on the size of the cookies. Make sure you chill them well so they're easy to roll into balls. This is one of the kids' favorite cookies. Enjoy!

Ingredients for Cookies:

4 squares BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2-1/2 cups flour

Ingredients for Glaze:

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping (Do not thaw.)
6 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate

COOKIES: Microwave unsweetened chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add sugar; mix well. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour; mix well. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

SHAPE dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets. (I like to use parchment paper so I don't have to grease the baking sheet.)

BAKE 8 min. or just until set. (Do not overbake.) Let stand on baking sheet 1 min.; transfer to wire racks. Cool completely.

GLAZE: Place frozen whipped topping and semi-sweet chocolate in microwaveable bowl. Microwave on HIGH 1-1/2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is shiny and smooth, stirring after 1 min. Let stand 15 min. to thicken. Spread over cookies. Let stand until glaze is set.

Will it EVER stop snowing?

I know you're all getting pretty tired of all the snow pictures, but I just had to add one more. This is a duplicate of the picture from our last blog entry which was taken last night, but if you look closely, the snow on the table has grown by about 4 inches. Last night there was a gap of about 4-5" from the top of the snow "donut" to the bottom of the umbrella. This morning it is touching the umbrella. We lost power for about 7 hours between 3am and 10:30am this morning, and boy was it cold! We have never been more happy to have our power back on than we were this morning! As of now it's snowing big fat flakes and Scott & the girls are trying to dig out the driveway yet again. Last night we had to dig our neighbor across the street out of the snow when he couldn't even get into his driveway. This is definitely NOT normal Western Washington weather. Global climate change??? I'd say so.

Another Snow Update

Here are some updated photos of our house & backyard earlier this evening. Look at that ring of snow on our patio table! Since around noon the snow has been falling steadily. I think we have accumulated at least another 2-3". We ventured out earlier today and the roads were packed with last minute shoppers trying to get their Christmas shopping done before tonight's big storm. After that we took the dog out to the high school behind our house and let him loose to jump & run around in the snow. He absolutely loved it! It was so deep in parts all we saw were the tops of his ears. Good thing Winston's not white or we wouldn't have been able to see him in all that snow! I am very thankful tonight for a nice, warm house in which to burrow to wait out the snow.

Lost Tooth

Gabby finally lost her tooth that's been hanging on for weeks! This is the first tooth she's lost since January of 1st grade. She is looking forward to the tooth fairy making his/her appearance tonight. I hope Winston doesn't scare the tooth fairy away.

Snow Day 3

Another snow day for the girls. Scott & I kind of had one also because we both left work early. Corey's friend, Madi, came over and brought her boards so the girls did some sledding. I got a bit of video-sorry it's kind of grainy, but what can you expect from a pocket camera? We really need to get a new video camera! Scott even got in on the action. Enjoy!

Snow Day II

Snow Day, the sequel. We got at least another two inches of snow today in Tumwater. School was cancelled once again. I called the school emergency line and school is closed tomorrow also. What luck! We are supposed to have more snow tonight and then clear but cold tomorrow with more snow on the weekend. Now they are calling for a possible snow/ice storm Sunday night. Yikes! Those last minute Christmas shoppers are probably sorry they procrastinated! Here is some video I took this evening. I didn't realize I had left it on when I was walking around, so you'll see some great footage of my boots for a few seconds, but then more interesting video will follow, so please keep watching! (Ok, it's just footage of Winston-not that interesting, but you have to love him.) I couldn't figure out how to edit it out. My tech skills need improving I think!

Snow Day!

Well, the girls got to get a "snow day" today as school was cancelled. Unfortunately Scott & I still had to work. It wasn't snowing yet when we went to bed last night, but when I peeked out the window at 5:10 (yes, a horrible time to be awake) there was some snow on the ground. By the time I left for work (6am) there were about 1-2 inches. When I left work at 2:30 Scott had to dig my van out of the parking lot at work. Good thing we work in the same office! After I got home the girls and I measured nearly 6 inches of snow! Wow! We haven't had that much in a long time. As of right now it's still snowing on and off. It's supposed to actually warm up a bit and there is a slight chance of rain which will make it nice and slushy for most people's commute home. But the low tonight is 27 degrees so all that slush will have a chance to freeze. Joy! Well, at least the kids are enjoying it. They went over to a friend's house today and played in the snow all morning. After I got home they (tried to) shovel the driveway. Gabby also made a cute little snowman. I'm thinking tomorrow might be another "snow day".

Making Playdoh

Gabby's teacher sent out a letter last week asking for volunteers to make playdoh for their class. They will be using the playdoh to make relief maps of landforms, rivers & cities in Washington. Fun! So I decided to volunteer even though I've never made playdoh before. The directions looked very straight-forward. We got tagged to make yellow playdoh. I must say it turned out pretty good. Gabby did most of it and did a great job! If only I knew about this when they were young instead of going out to buy all that playdoh! Shucks!

2 C water
2 C flour
1 C salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 TBSP vegetable oil
few drops of food coloring

Boil water w/food coloring, then mix with rest of the ingredients. Set aside to cool. Put playdoh in a zip lock bag.

Recipe of the Week

This is a recipe I just made this past Saturday for the LDS breakfast. It is called "Monkey Bread" (I'm not sure why) but I would categorize it as cinnamon pull-aparts. You will need a bundt pan. Preparation is done the night before and then baked the following morning. They turned out really well and were very easy to make. Enjoy!

24 Frozen Rhodes rolls
1 1/3 c brown sugar
2 TBSP milk
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C melted butter

Place frozen rolls in a greased bundt pan. Mix brown sugar, milk, cinnamon & melted butter & pour over rolls. Cover (I used a kitchen towel) and let rise overnight on counter. Bake @ 325 degrees for 25 minutes then 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Tip bundt pan over onto a platter. Remove pan after 5 minutes. You can also add some pecans or walnuts. Yummy!

Winter Wonderland

It's been snowing lightly pretty much all day. We've accumulated about 2 inches so far-not bad for Tuwmater. The girls & Winston couldn't contain their excitment so they went outside and had a snow-ball fight. Winston loved rolling around in the snow. I'm not sure how much we'll get when it's all said and done, but for now we'll just enjoy the beauty of it all. It doesn't snow around here that often, so this is definitely a treat.

Santa Claus

My kids are notorious for being afraid of Santa Claus, but Gabby was brave enough to go visit the Santa who came to the LDS Christmas Breakfast yesterday. I think it helped that all the other kids were willing to go up there to see Santa, too. Fortunately for me Marti had brought her camera to the breakfast (darn! the one time I don't think to bring it!) and was able to get this picture for me since I have no other pictures of the kids with Santa. Now at least I have one picture of Gabby on Santa's lap. What did you ask him for, Gabby?

First Snow 12/13/08

Well, it started lightly snowing last night before we went to bed and when we woke up there was some white out there. But only what the weather people would call a "trace" of snow. Nevertheless, I think it still counts as the first snow. The "arctic blast" that the weathermen predicted is here! It is currently showing 31 degrees with a high of only 32 today. Look at the weather forcast below. BRRRRRRRRRR! I guess winter was anxious to make its appearance this year. It's not even officially Winter for 7 more days. Yikes.

Holiday Fun

Holiday Fun

Today we visited the Capitol again, but this time we went inside to view Christmas decorations. The tree was very beautiful. There was even a Santa chair beside it, but alas no Santa could be found. After this we went to Tuwmater City Hall where the annual tree lighting event was going on. The girls decorated cookies & made colorful tubes with different colored edible sand. They also decorated Christmas ornaments and Corey's was the first one of the season to be placed on the Tumwater Christmas tree. We didn't stay for the actual lighting of the tree (we never seem to make it that long because it's always FREEZING), but it was still fun.

Recipe of the Week

Ah, Muddy Buddies-the perfect snack for chocolate & peanut butter lovers (Sorry Gabs!). The last time I made these they got gobbled up very quickly. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
9 cups Corn Chex or Rice chex
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Prepare:
Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside. In glass or microwave-safe plastic bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Fun in Seattle 12-6-08

Westlake Center & Seattle Center

We wanted to do something this holiday season that we've never done before. Marti suggested heading up to Westlake Center which is something that their family does every year. She made it sound like so much fun that we decided to go and check it out. Luckily the weather was very nice-cold, but not rainy. We headed up and parked at Westlake then took the monorail to Seattle Center where we walked around and then had lunch. The girls were excited to actually "touch" the Space Needle. They both got pretty wet running away from the fountain. We met an ice sculptor who did a sculpture of a nutcracker. Gabby rode the carousel outside the ice skating rink. There was a miniature train village on display and we watched the train ride around. Of course we couldn't leave without buying some fudge-yum! We rode the monorail back to Westlake and went to the Washington State Connections store where we got to meet Santa Butch & get some pictures. That was the highlight of our day. Go Cougs! We walked around Macy's and Nordstrom's and when we left Nordstrom's a little old lady outside asked us to help her flag down a yellow cab. Poor thing could barely see and had a cast on her leg. So Susan & Gabby did something they've never done before: hailed a cab. It only took us two tries. Guess we're "big city" folks now. After this we walked to the Sheraton Hotel and viewed their Gingerbread house display which had a super heroes theme-very cool. A visit to the Cheesecake Factory rounded out the day. In all, everyone had a great time. The decorations around Westlake were beautiful. We hope to make this a tradition for our family as well. Thanks, Marti, for that great suggestion. Enjoy the pictures. P.S. We even saw a Red Ferrari-but that was the ONE THING Susan wasn't quite quick enough to get a picture of. DARN!

Cool Picture

I found this picture of Mt Rainier while searching the local news websites for the weather forecast. This was taken today and I thought it was really cool. I guess this cloud pattern is an indicator of rain, and it must be true as rain is in the forcast starting tomorrow late afternoon just in time for the weekend. Oh well, at least we got one beautiful, sunny day! Gabby said she saw this cloud in person and thought it was pretty cool also.

Santa's Sleigh Food Drive

Tonight, just like every year, Santa makes a special stop in our neighborhood to collect food for the local food bank. It's always fun to see & hear the firetrucks as they roll through in search of food donations. The volunteer elves not only collect food but also hand out candy canes-yum! This year it was REALLY COLD but we braved it (except Winston who was freaked out by all the commotion and hid in the downstairs bathroom) to hand out bags of food. The girls wouldn't go and see Santa (per Gabby she's not afraid of the REAL SANTA, but find the "lookalikes" a bit creepy). I managed to get a couple of pictures even though the girls wouldn't go up to the sleigh. Oh well, maybe next year!

Recipe of the week

Ah, brownies...one of life's simple pleasures! This is a quick & easy recipe for Blonde Brownies. I really like it because you use very few ingredients-many of which are laying around your pantry. I just made some the other week for Scott to bring into work and they were a big hit. It is definitely one of the kids' favorites. Here you go!

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups (12-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan.

COMBINE flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Beat sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Spread into prepared pan. (I like to spread it until it's about a half inch to an inch from the side of the pan and when it bakes it oozes out to fill the entire pan. If you spread it all the way to the sides of the pan the edges become hard & crusty.)

BAKE for 20 to 25 minutes or until top is golden brown. Don't overbake. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Enjoy!

Hello!

This is a special hello to my Dad who will be viewing this blog for the first time from Thailand. Hope you like it!

Christmas Tree 2008

Putting up the Xmas tree

Our tradition is to put up the Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving, but that was postponed this year due to Christmas light malfunction. So today we went out and bought some new strands which the girls did a great job of stringing on our Christmas tree. Poor Winston did not care for all the hoopla and spent a lot of time hiding under the coffee table amongst ornament boxes. Scott helped by putting hooks on all the ornaments. Of course Susan was in charge of making sure there were good photos for the blog. It was Corey's year to put the Angel on top and after several attempts found the piano bench to be very helpful. The tree looks great thanks to Corey & Gabby. Are those presents I see underneath there??

Black Friday 11/28/08

Another year almost gone by....can't believe it's nearly December. We had a great Thanksgiving with Susan's family in Puyallup. We taught Julie & Tony to play "Kings, Queens & Paupers" and I think they're hooked! We hope they will join our monthly card group. This morning Marti and I headed out to get some great after-Thanksgiving deals. Thanks, Marti, for getting up so early and coming with me! We made it to Fred Meyer by 5:40 and had free donuts & orange juice and spent too much $$. We also made it to Target & JCPenney's (which was really crowded) before heading home. Good thing I have a mini van now-we bought a lot of stuff! But I had a great time and got some really good deals. I started wrapping some gifts and Gabby promptly told me I had bought Scott too many presents and didn't get enough for her. We'll just have to wait & see what Santa brings!

Recipe of the Week

This is a recipe I've made before but haven't done so for a while. I decided to make it again yesterday just to make sure it was "blog-worthy" and it sure is! The following recipe is for Pumpkin Cheesecake. It's rated as "intermediate" but I didn't find it very hard to make. I put the original recipe below, but for mine I did make a few changes (see remarks following recipe). I think the best thing about baking is being able to put your own special touch to a basic recipe. I actually tried this after I made it and it was very good. The true test was that Gabby ate a whole big slice, crust and all! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 c butter, melted
• 1/4 c granulated sugar
• 3 pkgs (8oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1 c granulated sugar
• 1/4 c packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
• 2/3 c (5oz can) evaporated milk
• 2 TBSP cornstarch
• 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 container (16 oz) sour cream at room temperature
• 1/3 c granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

For crust: combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter & granulated sugar in medium bowl, press onto bottom & up 1 inch of side of 9 inch spring form pan. Bake 6-8 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.

For cheesecake: beat cream cheese, granulated sugar & brown sugar in large mixing bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs, pumpkin & evaporated milk. Add cornstarch, cinnamon & nutmeg, beat well. Pour onto crust. Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until edge is set but center still moves slightly. (I found I had to add 10 extra minutes per my oven).

For topping: combine sour cream, granulated sugar & vanilla extract into small bowl, mix well. Spread over surface of warm cheesecake. Bake for 5 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Remove side of spring form pan & serve.

My changes: I decided to do a gingersnap crust instead and used gingersnap cookies that I then crushed. They were really hard to crush. I put them in a bag and used the smooth side of a meat tenderizer to get the crumbs. But if you're one of the lucky ones who has a food processor, I'm sure it'll be a snap. I also added 1 tsp of vanilla to the cheesecake filling when I added the eggs & evaporated milk.

Just a tip regarding the springform pan. It can leak sometimes, so I placed mine on a jelly roll pan covered with aluminum foil for easy cleanup. I made a cheesecake once without doing this and there was goo all over the bottom of my oven. Live and learn, then go forth and bake!

Olympia Capitol

One of the advantages to living in Tumwater is that we are so close to the Capitol in Olympia. Today started off cloudy and misty, but by around noon the clouds had burnt off and the sun made it hard for us to stay inside. We decided to do one of our favorite family activities-walking the dog around the Capitol grounds. The thermometer in my van said it was only 46 degrees. BRRRR....but it felt a bit warmer in the sun. We visited most of the war monuments and also walked across the bridge onto the side of the street where a lot of the state buildings are. We usually get to take Winston's leash off and let him run around in this area, but the sun brought out too many other people hoping to enjoy some outside fun before winter rears its ugly head. But that was okay, we were still able to poop Winston out by just walking around. I guess that's a clue that we need to walk him more often. We also got to see some fabulous views of Capitol Lake and the Puget Sound. It was a great day. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Olympia Capitol

Recipe of the Week

Here is a very simple recipe for Chocolate Pudding Pie. If you don't like chocolate pudding (which is hard to believe) don't try this one. But everyone in my family loves chocolate pudding, so we make this one a lot. It's incredibly easy, especially since you can just buy the already-made crust. You can use any kind of pudding. I tried the mint-chocolate one before and it was very good. I like to add different sprinkles on top to make it more festive. Another variation is to lay sliced bananas on top. Just use your imagination. If you use the bigger pudding box (5.6 oz), just add an extra 3/4 cup of milk and a bit more Coolwhip. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups cold milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) Chocolate Instant Pudding
1 Oreo Pie Crust (6 oz.)
2 cups thawed Coolwhip, divided

Directions:

Pour milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Spoon half of the pudding into crust. Gently stir 1 cup of the whipped topping into remaining pudding; spoon over pudding layer in crust. Top with the remaining 1 cup whipped topping. Refrigerate at least 3 hours. Store any leftover pie in refrigerator.

Christmas Lights Already?

Yes, we put our Christmas lights up today. We couldn't help it....it was such a beautiful day that we felt compelled to get it done. First, though, we had to rake up all the leaves in the back yard. And Scott even went out there and raked the leaves with his coat OFF! I should have taken a picture of this momentous occasion! Darn, I missed my chance! I was too busy trimming my roses. It was the perfect day to get outdoor chores done. The sun was out and though the Internet said it was 53 degrees, it felt more like 62 (which is freezing if you're from Hawaii, but warm to us sturdy Washingtonians). The lights were SO beautiful! We wrapped them around our porch columns and up-and-down our porch railing. We can't wait for the day after Thanksgiving so we can turn them on and enjoy them! Yeah! We love the holiday season!

Recipe of the Week

I just made this recipe yesterday-it is called Mini Chip Snowball Cookies. It's basically a Russian Tea Cookie plus mini chocolate chips. I added the WHOLE bag of mini chips per the recipe, but I found that it was TOO CHOCOLATY. Ok, to some that is NOT POSSIBLE, but if you want to taste more cookie and less chocolate, I would recommend adding only HALF of the bag. I omitted the nuts as no one in my family will eat nuts (except me). My family really liked the cookies. I didn't put powdered sugar on some for variety and it was just as good. I brought these to work and they disappeared pretty quickly. Not sure if it was because they were so yummy or because state workers just love to eat! Maybe a bit of both. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) mini chocolate morsels
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
Powdered sugar

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla extract and salt in large mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in flour; stir in morsels and nuts. Shape level tablespoons of dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. I mushed these down a little when I placed them on the baking sheets. Place on ungreased baking sheets. BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are set and lightly browned. Remove from oven. Sift powdered sugar over hot cookies on baking sheets. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar, if desired. Store in airtight containers.