Shake rattle and roll....

Not really but we had an earthquake here last night(or early this morning). It was a 3.3 magnitude. Now for many of you in CA this is not a big deal but for us, it was huge. We live in South Central PA.We were standing in our bedroom and the entire house shook and rumbled. And it did seem to go on for a long time. Longer than a shake made from say, teenagers wrestling in the living room. (which is what we thought it was). So pretty crazy huh?

Anyway, we are still in the middle of Christmas parties and visiting so this weekend will be a busy one for us. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy your weekend.

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

It's Christmas Eve!!! I have a couple of errands to run and woke up with freezing rain and icy streets. Figures right? But it will all be OK. We plan to spend a quiet evening with the kids tonight. Planning to have their favorite finger foods for dinner and hopefully they will go to bed and actually fall asleep within a reasonable amount of time so we can play Santa.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and a new year full of good health, happiness, love, joy, and everything your heart desires. Many of us will be traveling over the holidays and I pray for your safety as you travel. My niece had this video on her facebook page and all though my children are all past the car seat stage, I know many of yours are not. Please take a minute to watch the video because it could save the life of someone special in your life.

Just for Leeann

Since Leeann was nice enough to drive me crazy with the hamster song(keep reading to post below this one) I thought I would repay her by posting this one.(you have to watch the first 3 minutes before you get to the song) This is the other song that my kids tortured me with this weekend while I was held captive in their rooms cleaning and sorting and throwing out a ton of crap.

Crazy dreams and a menu

My friend Kathy keeps emailing me to tell me all about these crazy dreams she has been having about me lately. They are very strange dreams that make no sense to her or me. So in response, I have been having some crazy dreams of my own the last couple of nights. They are very strange and wake me up several times through the night. I cant actually remember anything of them except that our cat apparently was sick in one of them and shrunk down to the size of that darned hamster here

(which thanks to Leeann, I can't get out of my head).




Monday: Cheeseburgers, fries
Tuesday: Spaghetti, meat sauce
Wed:Shrimp, crab melt aways,potato skins, veggies and dip(Christmas eve finger food)
Thursday: Christmas day-we will be going to Baltimore
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: going to a wedding
Sunday: Party in Baltimore(husbands side of the family)

Christmas Cookie Palooza

Last weekend the kids and I made some Oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate chip cookies,butter spritz cookies and ginger molasses cookies. Well, all of the oatmeal raisin cookies are gone, half the chocolate chip cookies are gone and the ginger molasses cookies are still around.- but, they liked them it is just that we have a lot and they pigged out on oatmeal raisin. So the problem is, I am assigned the task of bringing cookies to my parents on Christmas day and now there are not enough cookies left so today, I baked. I baked, and baked, and baked. All. Day. Long. But I am done! We have cookies!

First let me again say that I made butter spritz cookies over the weekend and they are cute and little bits of buttery goodness.

I also made these ginger molasses cookies. They are yummy if you like spicy cookies. We apparently do.

Today I made your typical toll house chocolate chip cookies-about 5,963 of them.

Then I made Pioneer Woman's chocolate candy cane cookies. I saved the dipping candy coating part until the kids got home from school and Brooks helped me. He enjoyed decorating and eating them. I thought the chocolate cookie tasted OK. Not great but not bad at all. Just sort of bland.(I think I may have mentioned that I like spicy cookies). But the candy cane crunchies were a nice surprise.

I also made more (crazy) oatmeal raisin cookies. This is the recipe I used. It is pretty much your typical oatmeal raisin recipe with the addition of ginger to the dough. Yum! Spicy! See? I told you.. I also reduced the amount of white sugar to 1/3 cup instead of the 1/2 cup and I added some craisins just to be crazy.Crazy oatmeal raisin!

Next I made snow balls which are kind of a pain in the ass but they are delicious and look good on a cookie platter.

Next I made something completely new Honey Peanut butter cookies. ( saw the movie The Secret Life of Bees over the weekend and it got me thinking honey..) I liked them. I added some chocolate chips to some of them and it was a good addition. I also put less sugar in and more peanut butter because I tend to like my cookies less sweet and when you are putting 1 cup of honey in I don't think you really need a full cup of sugar too. Right? RIGHT? Oh and instead of white sugar, I used brown sugar. I don't know why. I just felt like it. Rebel? Maybe...

So, I think that is it? I usually make sugar cookies because the kids like cutting them out but I don't think I will this year. We have a boat load of cookies and really, we don't need any more.

So what kind of cookies did you make this year?

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Sweet Italian sausage with sauce and pasta

Tuesday: homemade chicken nuggets with seasoned potatoes

Wednesday: Roast beef, cole slaw

Thursday: Hot beef sandwiches, fries

Friday: Dinner with friends (kids get pizza)

Saturday: Breakfast for dinner(french toast or creamed chip beef)

Sunday: crock pot chicken, potatoes, spinach

The Secret Life Of Bees

We went to the movies this afternoon and saw The Secret Life of Bees. It was really good. I think a great family movie that will most certainly open the lines of communication among the members of your family who are not growing up during a time when such extreme and repulsive racism exists. I would suggest you all go see it or rent it when it comes out. It was really good.