Christmas Cookie Baking

This weekend I started baking cookies. Only two different kinds were completed. I will work on 2 other today or tomorrow after work. Every year this is a tradition for me...no matter how busy or how tired I am....or I'll tell myself, "I'm not doing it this year"...something happens and I end up doing them. Only because I LOVE my peanut blossoms. So does my family. Peanut Blossoms are peanut butter cookies with a Chocolate kiss stuck in the middle. My mom made these cookies as I grew up and they were my favorite then. It's definitely a Christmas tradition in our house to have these around during the holidays.

This year I documented preparing them. I couldn't help myself! Only because I love my camera and I wanted to share with all of you.

So....here we go.

First off I had to unwrap what felt like a Bi-jillion Chocolate kisses. This year I tripled the recipe and wanted to insure I had enough of these unwrapped. Turned out, I was only 4 unwrapped kisses short. Not bad for a guess.



Next putting all the ingredients together to mix up. This step included, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, milk, shortening, vanilla and of course PEANUT BUTTER!!!



Then add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix all together!



Once mixed and all of the ingredients are blended together, roll them up into balls, roll in sugar, place on baking sheet.



Bake for 8 minutes, pull out of oven and strategically place a single chocolate candy kiss in the middle. This part is fun as it defines the cookie!



Bake for an additional 6 - 7 minutes and WHA-LA....yummy cookies! And the house smelled great too!



HAVE A YUMMY CHRISTMAS!!!

FINALLY - the Tree is up!

For some reason, I was having a heck of a time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. It may have something to do with starting a new job on December 1, which involves developing a new company image, company mission, new pipeline.......or maybe I was in denial that it was already Christmas. But late yesterday afternoon it finally hit me. I was going to get my tree up no matter what. And guess what? Once I got that dang tree up, the Christmas spirit finally came to me. There is something to be said about twinkling lights and putting up ornaments that come out once a year that bring back some great memories. Over the years I've saved the ornaments that the kids have made throughout preschool and school. Other ornaments have special meaning too. Actually every single one of them do. And every year I make an effort to buy a new ornament with special meaning to develop new memories.

Here are a few of my favorites....although, it's hard to pick favorites, because as I am sitting here typing this, I am thinking of others tucked away that didn't make the tree. Believe me I have boxes of this stuff!

Kevin made this in elementary school. Unfortunately this does not have a year on it, but I'm guessing it's early elementary school. ;-)



I remember buying this one at the Robinson's Christmas store in the mall. It's a little known fact that my husband likes carousel horses and I put this on a present as decoration for him. I had the words, "I love you" put on the back side of the horse.



This ornament was given to my oldest Son Michael in 1994 from his Daycare providor "Weezie". "Weezie" who's real name is Louise took care of Michael full-time while I was off overseas in Desert Storm.



I remember picking this ornament up 5 years ago at the Hallmark shop in the mall when Roxy was a puppy. I love this little guy!



John's mom made this ornament along with 3 others. 1 for each member of our family. She made these even before she moved out here to California. In fact the one pictured below was for Kevin when he was a baby.

Quote of the Day - Dec 3, 2009

Action is the foundational key to all success.

- Pablo Picasso

Quote of the Day - Dec 2, 2009

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

- C. S. Lewis

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dude aka Deet da dee checking out the view from Phone Booth Hill


As is our annual tradition for close to the last 10 years, we are enjoying Thanksgiving out in the Desert. This year will be the biggest crowd yet. We are pot lucking with 28- 34 people from our Salton Sea Neighborhood. We've been emailing each other for the past 2 weeks on who is going to bring what. How many Turkey's we'll have here and I think we're going to have 28 pumpkin pies. ;) Everyone is bringing their favorite family dish or dishes. We'll be sharing Sweet potatoes, Stuffing, Scalloped Corn, Brussels sprouts and pearled onions with White Sauce. I will also be cooking a turkey. But mine will be for the sole purpose of Turkey sandwiches over the couple of days. That's the best part of Thanksgiving right? The leftovers!



The phone booth is on top of one of the highest "plateaus" in Truckhaven. The views from up here are AMAZING

We've been out here since last Sunday in the Desert. We went on a ride to the phone booth day before yesterday. We took Dude and Roxy with us. We let them off leash to run down the hill from the booth and Dude aka Deet da dee gave everyone a good laugh. He has NO experience with Sand and wasn't sure what to make of it. He was leaping, spinning, taking two paws at once to get the sand out of his eyes.....but then he would leap down a hill and just prance in pure joy. He absolutely LOVED it. Dogs are amazing how much they make you smile.



The gang all up on Phone Booth Hill.

Yesterday was a down day where we ran into Indio to the grocery store to get last minute items for the BIG dinner. Then baked pies, sat around and talked, watched a movie. I also went on a mini ride with the teenage boys. What a blast! The only part that bothered me was the dust. But I quickly got over that. Always a great feeling to be out!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!! I will post some pictures from our big dinner.



Roxy LOVES the desert!

Disneyland AND California Adventure

I have to admit, I am blessed that I live in Southern California. There is SO much to do here. We live an hour and a half south of Disneyland. I haven't been to Disneyland or California Adventure in close to 7 years. So when I found out that Veterans day is a holiday at my job and that Kevin had the day off from school and football practice, we took advantage of this and went north. Kevin also invited his girlfriend Cierra to join us.

I went to Vons the night before and picked up the 1 day park hopper passes for us. These allowed for us to go back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure as much as we wanted too. Plus having the passes in hand mean't that we didn't have to wait in line for tickets there. We started off at Disneyland, rode Space Mountain, Star Tours, Splash Mountain and Matterhorn (in that order). We then went over to California Adventure and had lunch, then went on California Screamin, Soaring over California, Tower of Terror, back to California Screamin, then back to Tower of Terror. Then we went back across the way to Disneyland. Boy did Disneyland pack up BIG time while we were at California Adventure. We were headed for the Castle when Kevin and Cierra found two fast passes for Indiana Jones on the Bridge and the window of time that was slotted on the fast passes was that very moment. So they went on the ride. I watched the parade in honor of the veterans.

To cap off our fun day, we stopped at Fuddruckers on the way home in Lake Forest and had some yummy burgers.

I did not carry the Nikon camera around with me, instead I brought the Canon Powershot. Which is small and compact. I am including a couple of my favorite photos.

Cierra and Kevin got a little wet on Splash Mountain.


So I took a picture of the picture that was posted after the ride.


This picture just cracks me up. And it was PURE luck that I was able to get such a good shot. This was on the Matterhorn and I was sitting in front of Kevin and Cierra and just happened to hold the camera behind me and click....of course check out the faces I got.


Another picture of a picture. This is Tower of Terror in California Adventure. Our 2nd time on the ride that day and Kevin and I decided to pose. Cierra decided to hold on for dear life. We're in the last row on the right. That ride is great! So much fun! The big guy sitting next to me, said that was the first ride that ever lifted him out of his seat...and he was a BIG guy!

Quote of the Day - Nov 5, 2009

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

- Robert C. Gallagher