Ending 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! As Christmas quickly approaches we are franticly trying to prepare for it’s arrival. This week will be spent doing some last minute Christmas shopping and will be very filled with baking for Carol and April. Every year they prepare plates full of numerous goodies for neighbors and friends.

Lily is VERY thrilled to have Santa come and visit her. She is certain he will bring her a princess for Christmas. We are also prepping her for sleeping over at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. She loves sleeping in her bed but anywhere else is questionable.

 Gary has been busy with tithing settlement and is all finished. He and Carol have also attended two parties for his work. One was a catered event at a museum and the other was held at a Brazilian restaurant. Carol had some very “exciting” things happen this month. She was called to be the Relief Society president in the ward. All of the information and duties are very intimidating at first but she will do awesome. She has some very good counselors and secretary to help her out as well.

Sam is counting down the days until he gets out of school for the Christmas Break. Only two more days full of finals left. Sam has been extremely busy with all of his singing and all of the concerts he’s been in (as have Gary and Carol). A big group of us got to attend one of his Phoenix Children’s Choir concerts, it was very enjoyable. He had another concert with school called the "Holiday dinners." They perform at a local vocational school where they have a culinary program. So Gary, Carol, Stephen, Chris, and April all went, ate dinner, and watched Sam sing. At the end the alumni get to join the students and sing two songs that they sing every year. So April went and stood by her “little” brother and sang with the choirs. He is also singing in church on Christmas.

 Stephen is still working hard. He is the one of the Gospel Doctrine teachers in his ward and is excited to be teaching about the Book of Mormon next year. He is also co-chair of the ward Home Evening Committee. The name of his ward was changed to the Mesa YSA 3rd Ward in anticipation of the forthcoming YSA stakes in Arizona. Lily loves to come over and find Stephen and then play with all of the stuff in his room--especially when they get to play with animal puppets.

 Chris has been pursuing a new hobby. He goes rock climbing with a friend about three times a week. He is getting pretty good at it and has been acquiring as much equipment as possible so he can do outdoor and indoor climbing.

Sam and April did not attend his work party since all it involved was riding a bus around Phoenix and bar hopping. Sam would like you all to know that The Dear Leader, Kim Jung Il passed away ascended into heaven escorted by a multitude of cranes today. Praise Allah. Anyway, yesterday Sam held his first "Operation First Class." He’s developing a way for the boys to get a lot of the basic requirements up to first class scout out of the way so they can work on more nitty gritty stuff. It went pretty well. April is relieved that she made it to the end of the year with enough teachers in primary and is excited to start the new year fresh with only one teacher short. She’s also excited to get the new babies room all cleaned out, organized, and eventually painted. Lily loves to tell stories, we understand some more than others and her newest word is “hypothesis”. She learned it from her new favorite show Dinosaur Train.

 Well that’s it for us. See you in 2012!!!

The family newsletter

I don’t know that we’ve done much these past weeks. Of course, we all watched General Conference. My favorite talk was by Elder Bednar. Read it here . April and I always like to try new breakfast menus on Saturday and Sunday. Both were a gastronomical delight witnessed by the fact that nothing was left.

Sam took the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards or Big Test). He said he didn’t think it was too bad. The whole mutual went to see the Easter Pageant which was made even more fun by the addition of all the pizza they could eat. Sam has been working hard for his voice recital which will be in May. He and Gary aren’t going to the Father’s and Son’s campout for the first time ever (I think). Sam has a choir festival on that Friday and it won’t be over until evening. I didn’t see either one crying about it.

On Easter Sunday, Sam and I are singing in the choir, Stephen is speaking in his Sacrament Meeting and April has to sing for the Young Women in her ward. These events are all occurring at the same time so nobody gets to hear anybody else, well, Gary will hear Sam and I. We are going to Claye’s and Rakay’s for Easter dinner.

Thankfully the 15th (actually the 18th) of April has passed and Gary doesn’t have to spent every waking moment in his office doing taxes. It has been interesting this year with the new e-file law in effect.

Stephen was happy that the movie ATLAS SHRUGGED finally made it to the big screen. He finally got to see Dagny Taggart and the rest of the ATLAS SHRUGGED characters in living color.

Poor Lily was sick with the stomach flu from a Tuesday through Saturday. Both Lily and April were pretty miserable and I’m pretty sure that April was sick of getting thrown up on. Lily now has another cold, for the third time in about a month. Starting nursery has not been kind to her. She loves going, but always catches some disease while there.

I assume that Chris is okay. We can always keep track of where he is eating, because it gets posted on Facebook.

My work life has become pretty stressful this year, but so has everyone else’s at the school. I am immensely tired of listening to kids read because the kids all read the same story, so I get to hear it about 10 times a day. Unfortunately, practicing is the only way that kids get better at reading. We get out of school May 26 so the end is in sight. We are losing 4 teacher contracts at our school because of declining population which means there will also be less aides needed. I love the kids and I like helping them to succeed, but education is a stressful place to be these days. Schools can only do so much for kids when their home life stinks.

Have a wonderful Easter!

My Favorite Christmas Carols

Back in the 1960's the Firestone Tire Company released a new album of Christmas Carols every year. My mom bought one almost every year. I loved to listen to those albums played on my parents' Magnavox stereo. If I had a turn table I would still listen to them. So of course, I grew up listening to Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, etc. Frankly, I don't have much use for many of the "new" Christmas songs (except for a very few). Because they don't make 'em like they used to. So in no particular order here are my favorites:

1. The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole. One of the best!
2. White Christmas by Bing Crosby. I'd love to visit Holiday Inn!
3. Away in a Manager by Julie Andrews. One of those Firestone Favorites, but her whole album is available for purchase.
4. Star Carol by Anna Maria Alberghetti. Another one of the Firestone gems.
5. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas by Perry Como.
6. Jingle Bells by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. One of the fun songs from "A Christmas Story."
7. I'll Be Home for Christmas by Bing Crosby. The most popular Christmas carol during WWII and the Korean War.
8. Candlelight Carol by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Beautiful.
9. Let It Be Christmas by Alan Jackson. One of the new ones.
10. The Chipmunk Song by The Chipmunks. Another one from my childhood.
11. A Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives. We watch "Rudolph" every year.
12. Christmas Time is Here by Jeffrey Osborne. Always reminds me of Charlie Brown.
13. Irish Carol by Julie Andrews. Same Julie Andrews album.
14. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by the Three Stooges. We had an old 45 record with some Three Stooges Christmas Songs. I found them on I Tunes. I was so happy!
15. Merry Christmas Darling by The Carpenters. One semester at BYU we played it continually in the Business Office Lab.
16. O Come Emmanuel by Voice Male. Emmanuel shall ransom captive Israel.
17. Oh Holy Night by Nat King Cole, Josh Groban, Martina McBride and Jeffrey Osborne.
18. Penguin, James Penguin by Brad Paisley. Brad Paisley is pretty funny!
19. Silent Night by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The one from A Christmas Story.
20. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Dean Martin. A Dean Martin Twist on a old song.


My despised list (If I don't hear these during the Christmas season, I'm happy.)

1. Santa Baby by Madonna. Gag.
2. The Twelve Days of Christmas (Except the one by Straight No Chaser. It's pretty amusing.)
3. The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot by Nat King Cole. Makes me SAD every time I hear it.
4. The Christmas Shoes. Argggg.
5. My Favorite Things. This is NOT a Christmas song.
6. Anything by Mariah Carey.
7. I Saw Three Ships. What do ships have to do with Christmas?
8. Last Christmas I Gave you my Heart. Yuck.

Merry Christmas everyone!

P.S. Don't you just love the new cool title to my blog. My son Stephen made it. He rocks!

I'm Grateful

We’re looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving week. The weather will be in the 60’s and the food and the company will be grand.

“Gratitude not expressed is no good to anyone.” Bishop Burton quoted this in our stake conference last week. So here goes. . .

I’m grateful for my family. . .both the family I grew up in and my family now. We’re all healthy and happy (well, most of the time). We all have our challenges, but the Lord has blessed us so very much. What we did without Lily is a mystery to me. The world is a much more fun place since she came along. She is smart, funny and gives great kisses.

I’m grateful for music (and ipods). Music cheers and calms my soul. I’m grateful for my musical children. I absolutely can’t wait for Sam’s concert at the temple and his school concerts (both choir and orchestra).

I’m grateful for the holiday season where we have a chance to give thanks to Heavenly Father and celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who took upon himself, in a way we cannot understand, all of our sins, pains, and inadequacies. That because of this, if we will repent, we will be able to return to our Heavenly Father.

I’m grateful for the blessings of the temple that we can be with our families forever with no fighting. How could we stand to be separated from family members without this assurance.

I’m grateful for books! All kinds of books! Books can take us anywhere and oh, all the things we can learn from them--both temporal and spiritual.

Oh yes, of course, I’m grateful that it is now cool here. The best time of the year. In September, I was sure I would survive until now.

When we first moved down here, there were just the five of us for Thanksgiving most of the time. I spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself. I’m grateful that we will have 20 family members gathered at our house on Thanksgiving day.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Yet Another Famous Recipe From My Mom

I didn't really make this cookie, but it looks just like the ones Mom used to make.

This recipe came from the REALLY old red and white Betty Crocker Cookbook. And yes, it it YUMMY!

Ginger Creams

1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup water
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix thoroughly shortening, sugar, egg, molasses and water. Blend in remaining ingredients. Cover, CHILL 1 HOUR.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls 2 inches a part unto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes or until almost no imprint remains when touched with finger.

Immediately remove from baking sheet; cool. Frost with vanilla icing.

Here's a recipe I found in a cooking magazine in 1994 (doesn't seems that long ago). I finally tried it for a Relief Society Party two weeks ago. Another winner.

Cranberry Conserve

4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
2 oranges, peeled, sliced and quartered
1 cup raisins
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup chopped pecans
2 1/2 cups sugar

In a large saucepan, combine cranberries, orange peel, oranges, raisins and water. Cover and simmer over medium heat until cranberries are soft. Add pecans and sugar; stir well. Simmer, uncovered 10-15 minutes, stirring ofter. Cool. Spoon into covered containers. Refrigerate. Serve as a relish with poultry or pork, or spread on biscuits or rolls. Yield: 3 pints.

Happy Thanksgiving, gobble, gobble!

Too Many Pumpkins?

TOO MANY PUMPKINS is one of my favorite fall books to read and reread. Part of the fun of reading this book is Megan Lloyd's beautiful and clever illustrations. Rebecca Estelle has a horrible predicament. She has too many pumpkins and she HATES them. How does Rebecca Estelle solve her problem? Read the book! You'll love it too.

But meanwhile here are a couple of my favorite pumpkin recipes:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine flour, oats, baking soda and cinnamon; stir into creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-13 minutes or until lightly browned.

Pumpkin Bars

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 cups white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
4 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened
9 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons milk

1. In a medium bowl combine the pumpkin ,cinnamon pumpkin pie spice and sugar.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. Using an electric mixer, slowly add the oil, eggs and pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture.

4. Mix and pour into greased 17 x 11 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

5. To make Frosting: Cream the cream cheese, 9 tablespoons butter, vanilla together. Slowly add the confectioners sugar and milk.

Happy fall! The high today was 70.

Getting in Touch with my Inner Crafter

April and I found these cute "Gobble" letters when we were in Utah. I haven't done crafts for a long time and this looked quick and easy. It wasn't too quick, but it was pretty easy and I am pretty happy how they turned out.

The Famous Sour Cream Cookies

This is picture of my mom, Vera Rasband, dressed as a witch for Halloween. She liked Halloween a lot. One of my favorite Halloween memories occurred when I was in the first grade. Mom dressed up as a ghost and Margie dressed up as Frankenstein and they visited each of their children's classes on Halloween. They didn't have to check in at the office and they brought homemade popcorn balls. I didn't know who they were and wondered why this ghost kept hovering around my desk. There were five children between the two of them in elementary school so they made a whole lot of popcorn balls.

One of her most famous Halloween treats was Sour Cream Cookies. She passed them out to trick or treaters and people came from all over to get a cookie. In honor of Halloween here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Sour Cream Cookies

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
About 3 1/2 cups of flour (enough to make a soft dough)

Mix sugar and shortening together. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. Add dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream.

Chill dough well.

Roll out dough and cut into shapes. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

Frost with your favorite frosting.

Enjoy!

Christmas Carol

Long ago in a different city, in a different state, I attended church in this building--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Heber 1st Ward. The bishop of the ward was George Holmes. My dad was the financial clerk, so I used to hang out with him after church while he waited for people to bring their tithing into the clerk's office. He wrote them a tithing receipt and they would be on their way. Bishop Holmes was there a lot also. I don't remember how it started, but he began to call me "Christmas Carol." Know what--it totally fits me.

When I started this blog, I knew it had to have something to do with being called "Christmas Carol." I LOVE Christmas. It's my favorite time of year. I have the decorations to prove it, but it's not just the decorations, or the food, or the presents, or the Christmas programs, or even having family all around. It's remembering and being thankful for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's the fact that because of his atonement, I can live with my Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and my family forever and that's the MOST IMPORTANT thing! All these good and wonderful things are what I think of when I think about Christmas. That's why I think it's great to have a little Christmas around all year and when other people look at my blog I want them to have that Christmas feeling too.