Celebrating Christmas:Family

 

 

Yep, we had a few outakes during our family picture session. Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

Activities of the Season

I know how busy everyone is this time of year, but I wish you all many peaceful moments as well. Here is a glimpse of my Holiday season so far.

Christmas with my Mom and relatives on my side of the family-so fun.

My daughter has been working on crafts since her college semester has ended.

There was a major malfunction with my oven. I thought it was me, but it was the thermostat!

This is cornbread after 15 minutes!

It was too cold to grill outside, so we tried cooking steaks in the fireplace. We need a little more practice.

My soon to be daughter-in-law has the cutest little niece, and I love being with her.

We decided to turn the Children's Christmas Program at church into a dinner theater-very successful!

We had to use an artificial tree for the first time at church because of the drought. The children made the snowflakes to decorate it, no one minded the "fake" tree and now there is no rush to take it down.

It has been interesting, and challenging, but fun around here.

I hope it is the same for you!

Merry Christmas!

4th of July-Celebrate!

I think this is one of the best celebrity performances of  "The Star Spangled Banner" that I've ever seen. I hope you enjoy it. Happy 4th of July!

Memorial Day, Discovery Green, Houston

I thought I would show you a very thought provoking display in the park during the Annual Conference-in reference to Memorial Day I'm sure.

Easter Revisited

I came across this picture this morning. I fully intended to include it in my Easter post but I had put it in a different folder for some reason.  I thought it was a cute idea, which I stole and simplified (from Martha Stewart). I took some pretty cupcake wrappers, shaped them with scissors and turned them inside out. Then I took half of a plastic egg, stuffed it with peanut butter-marshmallow cookies, and hot glued it to the wrapper.  Little flowers! I also filled some with Easter candy to hide with the eggs at our Church Easter egg hunt. I thought they were bright and eye catching. Easy and cute.

Scenes from my country Easter

 I loved my Easter Holiday. We attended the Easter Sunrise Service at church. Butterfly decorations were used in the Sanctuary and live butterflies were released during the service. The weather was beautiful and so was the ceremony.



Roses adorned the cross.

The rest of my weekend was spent at my childhood home. My sisters and I took 2 tours around the property that day. Both were lazy, slow drives and I was able to take lots of pictures.

 We checked on the progress of a camp house my nieces and nephews were building.

We checked on the cows to make sure all of them were where they were supposed to be, and not in the neighbor's pasture.

This butterfly loved my sister.

We startled a deer in the woods and she stood very still, allowing me to take her picture.We also saw a raccoon, 3 armadillos, a hawk, and a very long, fast snake.

As the sun began to set, an airplane caught our attention by reflecting the last of the light.

This was such a nice way to enjoy our time together.

Things to do when it's too cold outside (okay, it is warm outside now) #4

Make chocolate dipped candies for the Valentine's Day Luncheon at Church!

The heart shaped ones are vanilla and the coconut ones have a "C" written on the top.

I used a little buttercream frosting to decorate the tops.

The coconut ones are my favorite....they are all gone now. Want to make some?

Chocolate dipped cremes

Cream together: 1/2 stick softened butter

1 cup of Eagle Brand milk

Gradually add:

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

When the mixture gets too stiff for a mixer, knead the filling while you add the rest of the powdered sugar.

I divide the filling into halves and make one half coconut and the other vanilla. I added a bit more vanilla to increase the flavor of the vanilla half. Then I kneaded in 1 cup of sweetened coconut to the other half. Make the dough into 1 inch balls or roll out 1/2 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters. Place on parchment lined cookie sheets and freeze until the chocolate is ready for dipping.

Over a double boiler: melt 1 package of chocolate chips with 1/2 block of paraffin. (Look for paraffin by the canning supplies.) The paraffin allows the chocolate to harden more and keep its shape. When the chocolate and paraffin are completely melted, use a fork to set the candy on and dip it in the chocolate to coat. Allow a little excess chocolate to drip off, then set the ball back on the parchment to harden.

This makes a large amount of candy but it keeps forever. I just keep it in a tupperware container on the counter. It might sound complicated, but it is so easy. Try it!

Merry Christmas from the Griffin house!

Christmas shoebox swap: Joy!

It is really joyful, especially this time of year, to make a new friend. Thanks to All That I've Been Given at

http://watibg.blogspot.com/ I got to participate in a Shoebox Swap. My new friend Helen  https://sites.google.com/site/thelifeboatinfo/home ) and I were matched to swap gifts. This was a lot of fun! Look at the sweet items I received.

 Everything came in a pretty tote. I'm sorry to say that I sent her things in a plain shoebox. I hope what was inside made up for it. I was making gingerbread the day I received this and look at these 2 gingerbread garlands. Helen, how did you know?

 Look at this sweet face!

 The tote itself is a beautiful gift.

 Yes! This is a Starbucks card and a coffee cozy. I've already used them Helen...and there was a Starbucks chocolate bar included but I bet you can guess what happened to that. I forgot to take a picture before I ate it----while I was reading these:

 Little Christmas books in the Mitford series. Thank you!

I already have  been using my candy cane soap and Vanilla hand sanitizer.


Thanks for this opportunity, and Merry Christmas to all my friends, old and new!

Christmas Treasures

This little family of snowmen decorate one of our shelves for Christmas. My daughter made all four. They have a lot of personality, don't they? Look at the one on the right. Her beautiful ponytail cascades over her shoulder as she sweetly gazes down upon Mr. Santa Bear.

 The large one in the middle stands there, very sophisticated because he knows he was made by the "older" artist. Ky had gained a lot of experience and technique by then, making him entirely from paper mache. The tall one with the jaunty hat is not jealous. He is special too, made at a church event.

 This  little guy is one of the oldest, made by the artist when she was a second grader. Look at his shiny green eye. The other eye is missing but still twinkles from tiny drop of dried glue. The little body is a painted baby food jar that used to contain hot cocoa mix.

This picture is the perfect background. Of course, you can tell that she had not yet developed a love for Santa Claus. Don't worry, she spent a total of 5 seconds on his lap, just enough time for her to start to cry. I love that the photographer snapped the picture quickly, before I even knew it, and didn't torture her by trying to get her to smile. I also love that my son sat there, not scared just patient, with his little hands folded. That is very precious to me.

Holiday in the Country

We are having a very nontraditional meal today with just 3 of us. We currently have 80 degree weather but by 3 pm, a strong cold front is supposed to blow in. We have moved in some wood and cleaned out the fireplace in anticipation of our first indoor fire this fall. Tomorrow night, the forecast is 29 degrees. Mike's side of the family comes on Saturday for our "real Thanksgiving". We have a niece and a nephew who have never been here and we are going to show them a COUNTRY, good time. That means a visit to the shooting range and a fire in the outdoor firepit, and maybe a hayride to the cemetery way up on the hill. We will have meat to grill and a whole bunch of dogs running around. Sounds like Thanksgiving to me!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Preview: Thanksgiving menu!

 Cream biscuits

 Pumpkin cake roll

cornbread dressing

Just a few contributions to family meals that I've cooked this week. All of it was extremely rich. All of it was very tasty. I'm likely to make these dishes again. What are you cooking this week?

Veteran's day

A small man, quietly smiling stood outside of Walmart. He wore a hat and a vest with some type of insignia. I exchanged a few dollars for this Memorial Poppy. I thought of my Grandpa for some reason, and of Mr. Cox who was on the beach at Normandy on D Day. They were veterans of the same war. My Dad and Uncles, Mike's Dad and Uncles, friends at church and two of my nephews are also veterans. Several members of my family never came back from WWII. They all hold a place of honor in my heart.

Remember Veteran's Day. November 11.

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Lots of rain,lots of fun

The Fourth of July weekend turned out to be rainy but fun. We needed the showers and it didn't slow things down very much at all. The nieces and nephews swam in the rain. And, they didn't pick the swimming pool-they picked the tank. The girls waded in slowly, their hair put neatly up, gently stepping through the mucky bottom.

The boys took turns diving  and pushing each other off the small boat and covering themselves with mud.

20 something year old Handsome continued grazing in the yard-no matter how many times they led him back out into the pasture. He liked the short, mowed lawn. And he didn't mind eating in the rain.

Tank (originally Tiny Tank, but he's not tiny anymore) didn't particularly like sitting in the rain but he was sweet enough to endure it---just to keep us company.

The sun didn't come out all day Saturday. The rain alternated between slow, gentle showers (great for the plants) and hard, flood-producing downpours (great for filling up the tank and creeks). There also was a breeze so the temperature stayed low enough for me to get a little chilled taking pictures of the outdoor activities. Sunday morning though, is starting out still and humid, with the sun breaking through a bit. Later, there will be the Volunteer Fire dept. BBQ fundraiser and then our annual Picnic at church. Sounds like a great 4th of July to me.

Easter fun and games

The family was all together, fun on its own-but Shyanne and Granny added a few fun games to the mix.

Lee tries to catch a pingpong ball with an apple juice "bucket" on his head.

Peggi plays the ladder game and beats Mike.

The following game involves sucking M&Ms onto the end of the straw and....

running to another station and dropping it into a different bowl.

The object was to see how many you could move in 1 minute.

The answer: not very many-especially if you are laughing.