Kelly Times Two

From our family to yours! May your season be touched with the simple grace of Christ's love. Merry Christmas! (These cute cookies of our family were made with love by Jennie...thank you! Thanks to everyone else who brought us treats. ) "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." --Luke 2:11

Since Kelly took Christopher away, I wanted to post some pictures of him, eight years ago, just after we'd moved to Texas. This was when we lived at Riverlodge Apartments on FM 2222 while our house was under construction. He was pretending to be asleep while Lindsey took these shots of him with his monkey and Winnie the Pooh, two of his favorites. He's always been a really snuggly little boy and still is. He learned to read at age three by his dad, who was so patient with him. He could read anything by the time he was in preschool and always blew everyone away with his reading skills. The boys are camping tonight (Friday night) with the scouts on this cloudy, mild December evening in Texas. Lindsey and I are home alone. It's past midnight and I just wanted to say that I know they're having fun and I look forward to hearing all about it tomorrow. Now I'm stalling to head upstairs to sleep in our king sized bed all alone, not looking forward to freezing. It's...

(from TPC's More Stoneware Sensations Cookbook, page 24) 8 cups popped popcorn 4 cups Chex cereal 2 cups mini pretzel twists 1 cup pecan halves 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup butter 1/4 cup light corn syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon baking soda Preheat over to 300 degrees F. Sift unpopped kernels through cooling rack; discard. Combine popcorn, cereal, pretzels and pecans in large bowl. Combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup in 2-quart saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil over entire surface. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook without stirring 5 minutes. (Mixture should continue to bubble gently over surface.) Remove saucepan from heat. Quickly stir in vanilla and baking soda, stirring carefully. Pour over popcorn mixture into large roasting pan, stirring until well coated. Bake 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes. Transfer popcorn mixture to large piece of parchment paper. Cool completely, breaking mixture into clusters as it cools. Yield:...

It's only snowed about three times ever, since we've moved here nearly nine years ago. These images were taken last week and our kids were hoping that school would have been canceled, but their wishes didn't come true. Apparently our pool and spa have an anti-freezing mode that we didn't realize we have. When I woke up the morning after the very light snowfall, our waterfalls had come on automatically to prevent the pipes from freezing. That was handy! It kind of startled me when I thought someone had turned them on manually. Lindsey and Kelly had covered the Pygmy Date Palm trees the night before when we heard the forecast for freezing temperatures. Lindsey always thinks of the plants. She's got quite the green thumb, and the thought hadn't occurred to me. The Pottery Barn pillows I got on clearance and the Target chairs on clearance (great finds!) were iced over slightly, but you cannot tell here. It's beginning to look a lot--for Austin--like Christm...

One of the most delightful things about the holiday season is the festive treats and creative goodies shared among family and friends. Check out the apple scrapple (something like that) bread and the reindeer root beer! Yesterday I made four batches of caramel corn snack mix to mail out in packages to my family. I snacked on a good bit too! Happy baking and treat sharing this season!

There was a strange black figure up ahead in the distance as our Pathfinder was approaching our driveway tonight just past midnight. At first I thought it was a cat, but it had a more pointed looking silhouette. As we drove closer, I realized it was a possum and it ran into the flower bed. Kelly stopped the car and I handed him my camera and asked him to get a picture. The nasty looking critter then ran across the driveway onto our front porch and tried to hide beneath the wooden swing. I was nervous as the headlights put Kelly and the possum in full view. Kelly was crouching down low on the ground and I kept staring, fearing that I might observe an encounter and my husband could somehow get rabies. He was only about two feet away, practically lying on the ground when he snapped this shot. It's pretty sick looking, but I'm glad it only hissed at Kelly.

I've already mentioned that I celebrated Michele's birthday with her last week, but because I like her so much and she's so cute, especially here in front of the fabulous pastries at La Madeleine, that's one thing I've been up lately instead of blogging, partying with my sweet friend. One day, I took a tour of Carol's new house, she's a former mission companion who lives here in Austin. Her new house has some very non-traditional features in it, such as a high school sized gymnasium, an elevator, about three kitchens, a movie theater with reclining leather seats, a massive chandelier, pictured here, and a Sistine Chapel style of painting on the entryway ceiling, and hand-made mosaic in the master bath, to name a few. Click on the photo if you'd like to get a closer look. It's huge and took a long while for the tour, and I was practically out of breath by the end. I would love to watch a football game in her home theater. They hosted a zone conferen...

Paige and her family joined us last night for dinner and family home evening and to celebrate Paige's 29th birthday. We had chicken fajitas and Streusel Berry Tart and her sweet kids, Avery and Tyson, and darling husband, Brent were all delightful guests. Paige brought me roses! Aren't they pretty? I love these. The vase was from Mandi way back when she lived here. On Thanksgiving, Michele brought me this lovely bouquet and it still looks nice, five days after she brought them. We had an awesome Turkey Day with her family and my niece, Aubrey, and Kelly's cousin, James, and Michele's family. I posted pictures on Facebook--which takes less time than blogger, but haven't added any to my blog yet. One of the best things I loved about living in The Netherlands is this lovely tradition of bringing your guests a bouquet of flowers when you showed up at their homes. My awesome friends sure do know how much I love flowers and the Dutch sentiment. Thank you so much!