Peek-A-Boo...I See You...and You....and You

Look very carefully.

Do you see them?



This is what we saw when we looked out the window this afternoon.



The fence you see, only goes back 20 feet from our house, to give you a perspective as to how close these cuties came.




Look how furry!


And there they go...

"Going Rogue, An American Life" Book Tour | Shealah Craighead Photography

"Going Rogue, An American Life" Book Tour | Shealah Craighead Photography

This isn't the greatest of pictures, but this is me and my daughter meeting Sarah Palin :-)

Christmas Fellowship

A couple days ago, we were invited to a good friend's home for Christmas dinner. I cooked my Corn Casserole, and did some baking.

We had a wonderful time, and there was tons of great food.


The cooks....the lady on the right is the hostess.


The crew...






My daughter and her best friend


The desserts.....my chocolate pie in the foreground.


Game time!


The menfolk shot the breeze in the other room


Say Cheese!


Oh the drama


In another room, a couple of the boys played darts.


My son's "grouping"


The fun continues


The hostess' tree

Corn Casserole

This recipe is something that growing up, my family always had at Thanks Giving and Christmas. It is the smell that I associate with the holidays, even more than Turkey and stuffings.

I made this yesterday and took it to my friend's for dinner.

Start with two beaten eggs in a large mixing bowl, and pour in 1 1/2 c milk.


Next stir in 1/4 c finely diced onion and 1/2 c diced celery


Now stir in two cans of creamed corn


I have tried doing this with home-made creamed corn, but it just isn't the same.

Next add 2/3 c grated cheddar cheese - I used raw white organic.


Now add 1 tsp salt and a few grinds of black pepper...


...and 1/4 tsp paprika.


Stir in 2 tablespoons of melted butter...


Mix those all together, and then stir in 2 cups of crushed soda crackers.


Now pour this all into a greased casserole dish, and sprinkle with another 1/2 tsp paprika...


and bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees.
When the timer goes off, check it by sticking a butter knife into the center. Knife should come out rather clean, with no batter-like substance on it.



Enjoy!!!




~~~

Printable Version:

Corn Casserole

2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c milk
1/4 c finely diced onion
1/2 c diced celery
2 - 14 oz cans creamed corn
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2/3 c grated cheddar cheese
1/4 tsp paprika
2 Tb melted butter
2 c soda cracker crumbs

1/2 tsp paprika

Combine all except last paprika, and pour into a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with additional 1/2 tsp paprika. Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees. When the timer goes off, check it by sticking a butter knife into the center. Knife should come out rather clean, with no batter-like substance on it.

Enjoy!

Oktoberfest

I am a bad mother.

I deprive my children of things that would make them sick.

You know, things like excessive junk food, and soda, sugar, & Spongebob.

But I finally broke down......and took them to a fair, because they had never been on a ride in their life.

I know what you are thinking. "Those crazy unsocialized homeschoolers!"

I know.

So....my children were ages 16, 14 & 11, and they are walking into their very first fair, and their very first rides, and what does my eldest son get on first?

This monstrosity!!!!!


NO!!!!!

By all that is good and right in this world, NO!!!!

But he did.

You have to understand, this is the child who gets motion sick watching DVDs in the van. The child who, when he was little, caused me to carry plastic bags, paper towels and antacids in the van at all times...who had me on the side of the interstate because even interstates made him carsick.

And he picks this? THIS?!?!?!?

Yep.....There he goes, round and round and round and up and over and over and up and round and down and over and d......

Meanwhile, Mom is down below, trying not to lose her cookies just WATCHING the ride go round and round and round and up and ov....

Oy. I'm not feeling well, just typing this.

Here he is getting off the ride.

What is with the smile? You like torturing your mother like that?

(He admitted that the ride actually made him really ill....and he had to walk around a bit to soothe things down.)

But my youngest has better sense. He picked something safe for his first ride.

Classic bumper cars.



My elder son enjoyed them too a little later.

Look at Mr. Cool


Then they had to ruin it and go on this crazy thing.

Just look at my daughter! She went on this thing 35,000 times in a row!!!! Okay not really, but this is another one of those...Mom-learned-her-lesson-as-a-teen-and-will-never-make-that-mistake-again-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever rides.





Okay, so things were going great, so Mom decided to get in on the fun. I LOVED this ride when I was a kid. So I handed off the camera, and Mrs Q and I headed off....

"Hi KIDS! This is GREAT FUN!!!! YEEEE HAAWWWWWW!!!!"




Yes, that was me when the ride started, all fun and giggles.

This was me a mili-second later.

I said, "Oh......I'm too old for this."...



And two mili-seconds later.

...Mrs. Q laughed.......she thought I was kidding.

Then she looked at me.

And started trying to sway herself away from me so she wouldn't get puked on.



Yes....that is me. BREATHING. Hiding my eyes and literally PRAYING the ride would end or I would pass out. I just wanted it to end.

I spent the entire rest of the evening, BREATHING.

BREATHING and trying to avoid the smells of food. How do you avoid the smell of food at an OKTOBERFEST?????

So right as we were about to leave, we spotted this cool thing. You see, the Oktoberfest was held at the fairground on Fort Bragg, NC.....so of course they have to have a military zip-line!

JR was the only one that went, but he had a ball. It was too dark to get a picture of him actually going down the line, but I did get these two.





So all in all, the kids had a ball.

I got sick.

And I pondered all the benefits of being and utterly unsocialized homeschooling family.

Like avoiding giant swings that twirl your guts into a frenzy.

Dickens Holiday

Every year, Fayetteville North Carolina has a festival the day after Thanks Giving. It is called the "Dickens Holiday" or "Dickens Christmas" (depending on who you ask).

Throughout the day, characters from "A Christmas Carol" act out the story on the streets...you see Scrooge being harassed by the ghost of Mr. Marley...


"Spirits" walking here and there, street musicians...


Carriages...


and all of the vendors and volunteers have to be in period costume.
This is Annie, doesn't she look precious?




Even "Santa" is in period..


As is custom, my daughter's homeschool choir performs there every year, and this year was no exception. Of course they are not dressed in costume, but they are dressed in their formal performance outfits.

The Ladies' Chorus




The full Choir


This sweet young lady is my daughter's friend. Doesn't she look amazing?


This is my daughter's dearest friend, Emma


And this of course is my one and only daughter