Turkey Day!

This was my first year celebrating Thanksgiving as a married person and as a college graduate, so it was also my first Thanksgiving with my church (I've been at school for the past several years at this time so I couldn't go until this year) and my husband's family. So, rather than the usual 2 Thanksgiving dinners that I go to with my family, this year I went to 5! And even though there were so many, and the people at all of them were different, they were all pretty much the same.

There was a big mish-mosh of family, a TON of delicious food, and even more laughter. I really love the holidays because of all the family-time there is, and even though sometimes going from place to place can be a little tiring, it's well worth it. We got to see my mom's family, my dad's family, my mother-in-law's, and my father-in-law's. Some of those people we don't really get to see very often at all, so it's a real blessing to have times like this when we get to see everyone.

On the right is my mom's legendary pumpkin cheesecake- you don't understand  delicious if you haven't tried it.

And after all the dinners were over and we were happily exhausted from running around all week, Chris and I went home, laid in bed, and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I remain firmly convinced that Charlie Brown should be a staple in everyone's holiday activities, so I wanted to start off our marriage the right way by having it present in our very first year of holidays!

Food Friday! Chocolate Chip Cookies

First and foremost, happy Thanksgiving yall!!! I've had such a wonderful Thanksgiving so far (it's still not over- we have another dinner tomorrow) and you'll hear all about it on Monday, but  I'd just like to take a second to say how thankful I am. A lot of people play the game where you go around the table and say what you're thankful for, but I've never done that, mainly because I just have too much! There is literally not one thing in my life that I would change, and I thank God everyday for EVERYTHING he has blessed me with. I could never list it all out, but I'll give  it a shot to list my top 3.


(1) More than anything, I am thankful for my relationship with God. Every relationship with Him starts with His call for you, and I am so thankful that He called to me. I love the peace that His love brings, and how great it feels being in His presence. It's really just overwhelming. But in a good way. And I am thankful for how much my church does to strengthen my relationship with Him. I cannot imagine a better pastor or a better church family to belong to.


(2) I am thankful to live in the United States of America. Regardless of what I think about what's going on in politics, or who is sitting in the White House, this country allows me freedoms that I wouldn't be allowed in any other country, and I am thankful for it. I have been living the American Dream for pretty much my whole life, and I am thankful for all the advantages that this country has given me. And when I say that I'm thankful for this country, that obviously extends to all our warriors. I am so thankful for everything they do to keep this country free.


(3) The members of my family are the most important people in my life. My husband, my parents, my brother, and all of my extended family and in-laws are all just incredible people, and I love them all SO much. There are so many of them, and each one of them is a separate blessing in a different way in my life, and they have no idea how much I love them all, or how thankful I am to have them all.


With ALL of that being said, I'll go ahead and give you my cookie recipe, which I brought to my church's Thanksgiving dinner this past week. I also made corn pudding for another Thanksgiving this past week, and if you want it, you can find that recipe here.

Ingredients:

• 2 & 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter (softened)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. 
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
3. Beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. 
4. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. 
5. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

These cookies are incredibly easy to make and everyone always loves them- I left church with an empty plate!

Where A Kid Can Be A Kid

As I've said before, I firmly believe that the holiday season begins in September with my birthday. However, the rest of the world seems to disagree, and is just starting to catch up to me. Now, there can be a general consensus that the holiday season has officially begun!!! Let's all take a second to give a great big cheer!!!! But wait!! There's no time for that- it's the holiday season, so now we have a million things to do!

Luckily for me, this week's million things were mostly focused on kids, which is always fun (and anyone who disagrees can go be a Scrooge elsewhere)! It began with my usual Wednesday night in Mission Friends. My husband's aunt and I are the leaders for the group, and she always has THE most creative, fun ideas for things for the kids to do. This week, due to the up-coming Thanksgiving holiday, she brought in an activity where the kids made little turkeys. Each feather on the turkeys lists a different thing each child is thankful for, and they turned out so cute!!

After this fun day, I got to spend time with kids again over the weekend, when my cousin Libby turned 2! We all went to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate, and it was just a great time. Libby in particular seemed to have a ball. She played the games,

played with her cousins,

rode the rides,

and opened about a hundred presents.

She and the other kids had a great time! And then, so did the big kids. Here's one of my sisters at the bottom of the slide- you know, the one you slide down to get out of the play structure. She, along with another of our sisters, and several cousins (all over the age of 14 by the way) all went in to play. (Side note, the picture is blurry because she was in the process of being run over by an unrelated child coming down the slide.)

It really was a lot of fun to watch them all having so much fun, especially Libby celebrating her birthday!

Then last night, we went to church for the annual Thanksgiving dinner, after which we spent time working with the shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Now, I know I've mentioned this before, but in case you don't know what that is, I talk about it here, or you can get more information about it here. Basically, it's a really great way of helping out children in need at Christmastime with basic necessities as well as toys. Even though I don't think anymore churches are collecting boxes, you can still send in money to help, as it costs $7 per box to ship them. Anyway, after dinner, we all pitched in to load the boxes into the cars of the volunteers who are taking them to Charlotte, N.C. in a couple weeks. As we loaded them into the vehicles (and yes, that's plural- we had so many that they wouldn't all fit in one!) we had them counted, and we wound up with almost 400 boxes! That's about 400 children who will get much-needed items and a happy holiday, which is just so exciting!! Here's one of the SUVs filled to bursting with the boxes!

It was an incredibly joy-filled week, with so much time spent with children, or working to help children, and I had a really great time. And then, my weekend was ended even more joyously- one of my friends is expecting!!!! Now, I won't give names because she and her husband are waiting to tell most people, but I'm too excited!!! I had such a wonderful, blessed week spending time with kids, and now there is another kid who will soon be in the world!!

God is good!!!!!!!

Food Friday! Cinnamon Buns

Everyone always loves going to their grandma's house, and my brother and I (and our cousins) are no exception. We LOVE our grandma for a million reasons, but mostly just because she's awesome. And you better believe that the awesome she is everyday carries over into her cooking. Just like my mom, everything my grandma makes is delicious. The women in our family are pretty terrific at everything kitchen-related. It's got to be a genetic family thing or something, because it's all of them. And besides their better-than-delicious everyday cooking, they all have something they make exceptionally well. For my mom, it's her pumpkin cheesecake. Great-grandma's was sugar cookies. And my grandma's is cinnamon buns.

Even though she has them waiting for us almost every time we go to her house, everyone always gets excited about them because they're seriously that good. We all sit in the kitchen and take up space and talk over each other while eating them. I've gotten to associate good feelings with kitchens because so much of the time I've spent in them has been so great, especially at my grandma's with all the cousins, uncles, aunts, my parents and brother, and those delicious cinnamon buns.

The last time we were there, I asked her for the recipe so I could try making them, because Chris and I like to eat cinnamon buns for breakfast before church on Sundays. She told me it was in a cook book, which she'd given me for our wedding, so this past weekend I looked up the recipe and tried it out!

Ingredients for Dough:

• 2 & 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 & 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 & 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 6 tablespoons melted butter

Ingredients for Filling:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

Ingredients for Icing:

• 2 tablespoons cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease round 8x8 pan and set aside
2. Combine the filling's sugars, spices, and salt in small bowl, then stir in melted butter and set aside.
3. Whisk the dough's flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. 
4. Whisk buttermilk and 2 tablespoons melted butter in small bowl. Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until liquid is absorbed. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth.
5. Pat dough into 9x12 inch rectangle, then brush with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle evenly with filling, leaving 1/2 inch border. Press filling into dough.
6. Starting at long side, roll dough to form a tight log. Pinch seam to seal.
7. Roll log seam-side down and cut into 8 even pieces.
8. Place rolls in pan, brush with 2 tablespoons butter, and bake 23-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
9. Remove buns from pan and place on metal rack to cool.
10. While buns are cooling, whisk together cream cheese and buttermilk in large bowl. Mix in confectioner's sugar, and whisk until smooth. When buns are cool, cover with icing.

After making these, I realized how much time and energy goes into them. These are not easy or quick to make, and the fact that my grandma makes them almost every time we go see her really makes me realize how much she cares about us (not that I didn't already know that my grandma loves us- she only tells us all the time!). The amount of effort she puts into everything she does for us goes way above and beyond grandmotherly duty, and I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful person in my life. I love you Grandma!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Today is November 14th, and for all of you who aren't aware, this is an incredibly important day, and has been since 1988. Why, you ask? Today is my husband's birthday! As the Lord dictates, "...the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything" (NIV Ephesians 5:23-24). As he was set forth in the Bible to be, my husband is the most important person in my life, so, on his birthday, I'd like to dedicate a post specifically to him!


Chris, you are such an incredibly wonderful man, as a husband, as a follower of Christ, and as a friend. You are caring to all those around you, dedicated to our relationship, and most importantly, dedicated to your relationship with the Lord. I love seeing your passion for all those you love and how that is reflected in everything you do. I appreciate how hard you work for everything, and am particularly thankful for how hard you worked in bringing me to a relationship with God. I thank Him everyday for blessing me with you and I'm thankful that you were created for me! I love you so much Christopher!! Happy birthday!!!!!!

One day old

All dressed up for Christmas!

Wrestling Champ!

Big kill!

With Dad after duck hunting

10th grade right before we started dating

Our senior prom

College

Captain's Ball at college

Engagement photo

Our wedding day!

Honeymoon!

Food Friday! World's Best Brownies

As I mentioned on Monday's post, I, along with many other women from my church, helped put together boxes for Operation Christmas Child this past Sunday! I just realized though, that I didn't really explain what that is! So, if you haven't heard of it, Operation Christmas Child is a program where different churches (or anyone who's interested for that matter) put together shoe-boxes that they stuff with all sorts of goodies. Hard candy, toys, school supplies, clothes, basic toiletries, etc. are all packed into the boxes. The boxes are shipped off to different, impoverished countries where they are distributed to needy children. I heard a story when we were packing about one little boy who was so excited to get a toothbrush in his box, because until then he'd been sharing a toothbrush with his father. Who was HIV+.


This story, and the many more I heard about these kids, was just really heart-breaking, and it made me so thankful to be in a position where I'm able to do something to help, and I'm even more thankful to be a part of a community that is so giving. As I mentioned in my other post, we put about 180 boxes together to be shipped, and it's really great knowing that we're able to help so many kids! If you're interested in being a part of this, please check out this link to help!


While we were packing, one of the women bought pizza for everyone (since it was lunchtime when we were doing it), another woman made pumpkin squares, and I made brownies! This is literally the BEST brownie recipe ever, and is SO worth the time it takes for the clean-up afterwards.

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 8x8 pan.
2. In a small saucepan on the stove top, melt the butter. Slowly stir in chocolate until smooth.
3. Remove from heat and mix in eggs and sugar.
4. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in chocolate mixture until smooth.
5. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I didn't for the ones I brought this week because I ran out of time, but I usually top my brownies with a homemade frosting for extra yumminess!

It's A Family Tradition!

There are few things in my life that are more important than my family, so I was incredibly excited to be able to spend all day Saturday with them to celebrate my youngest cousin's 3rd birthday. My parents, grandma, uncles, aunts, and cousins all live in different states from each other, so it's difficult to be able to get together very often. Even still we couldn't all be there on Saturday- my brother had to stay at school, my husband couldn't get off work, and one of my aunts was sick, but everyone else was able to be there! And let me tell you, we get a little crazy when we're all together. In perfect birthday tradition (for my family anyway), the adults acted like children:

We all sang incredibly loudly, off-key, and horribly when it came time to blow out the candles (there are no pictures of us doing this because I was singing just as loudly and horribly as everyone else during this time, so instead I'll give you an adorable picture of my little cousin blowing out his candles instead):

And there was a piñata (which we all still get on our birthdays even after we're long past the normal age for them):

I couldn't love my family more if I tried. We may have some strange birthday traditions, but we have a blast every time we get together, and I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. Here is me with my cousins, an honorary cousin (a cousin's boyfriend), and my brother (who I cropped into the photo because I didn't want to leave him out):

THEN, on top of the wonderful time I had with my family on Saturday, yesterday I got to spend time with some of my husband's family! We go to the same church as his granny, so I got to spend time with her while we packed boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Our women's group packed about 180 shoe boxes to be mailed away, which is just awesome, and I pray that the boxes we packed will go to the children who can best use them!

After such an exciting and enjoyable weekend, Chris and I went to have dinner over at his uncle's house, where we got to enjoy breakfast-for-dinner and more family time. WHAT a family-filled weekend it was!! God has blessed me richly and reminded me of all my blessings this weekend with so much time with the family I love so much!

Food Friday! Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Chris and I have been trying to eat healthier since we've been married because we ate so much bad-for-us food while in college. The cafeterias had Taco Tuesdays and Wing Wednesdays, in addition to an abundance of horribly delicious Oreo pies, cheeseburgers, pizza, etc. It was all very good, but VERY unhealthy. There was healthy food available on campus too, but that was only if you felt like eating fruit that was bruised beyond recognition, meat that tasted the same regardless of whether it was chicken or beef, or vegetables that were so slathered in butter that you couldn't really even count them as being a healthy option. 

So, for the last several months, in an effort to be healthier, we've been eating a lot of chicken and fish for dinner. Since we've been eating a lot of the same foods, I've been trying to find different recipes so we have some variety in our dinners, and it's not a chore to eat good foods. I don't want to be thinking Ugghh, not this again! when it gets to be dinner-time. This recipe for tilapia is a favorite in our house, and is a great way to spice up fish! Full credit for this one goes to my mom, who finds (or invents) the best recipes ever. Watching her cook every night as I was growing up is the reason I cook every night, and I feel lucky if my food comes out half as well as hers!

Ingredients:

• Several fillets of tilapia (I use 5 or 6)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons creole seasoning

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, beat eggs.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cheese, and creole seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Brush fish with egg wash, then toss in flour mixture.
4. Coat bottom of pan with oil, wait for it to heat, then fry fish, about 3 minutes on each side.

When she makes this, my mom adds coconut, which offsets the spiciness nicely, and makes a great sweet/spicy combination. The only reason I don't include it is because Chris doesn't like the texture of coconut. However, if you do, just mix in 1/4 cup shredded coconut to the flour mixture!