Thanksgiving

 

Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family and really enjoy all the gifts that god has blessed us with this year. This year at Thanksgiving we had so much to be thankful for, although it was also a tough time because Bill was not feeling the best. We just wanted to get together as a family and be there for each other, praying together, laughing together, and making good memories. Throughout the weekend, I really felt more connected to the Vennes family. Bill was always the one that really enjoyed preparing the thanksgiving feast for all of us, and I always enjoy watching him prepare everything perfectly! This year, he was not feeling the best, so Margi pulled through and decided to give making the Thanksgiving feast a try, and she did an absolute wonderful job!!! Bill was very proud of her, and we all were too! I praise god for the gift of family, and I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family to spend the holiday with. Noah and I have not been home for a thanksgiving with family together, so this was a very special Thanksgiving and I was thankful for every second of our time with Bill,  and the family. Here are some pictures to show what our Thanksgiving weekend looked like. And, yes, we had some white stuff to greet us on Thanksgiving- something I wasn't exactly sure I was thankful for, but it did look nice. :) And the kids and Bailey enjoyed playing in it :)

 

 

 

 

Sisters- together forever!

Making snow angels!

and snowballs!

 A Thanksgiving tradition that I have not yet been a part of with the Vennes side is putting up the Christmas Tree on Thanksgiving. I was thankful to be a part of the tradition this year because I have always loved puting the tree up with my own family, and it was so neat to watch the Vennes family put there's up. the girls started putting it up, slowly but surely...

 They have an aritificial tree, and it reminded me of the tree my parents have too! Each section of branches has a letter, and you have to organize all the letters in piles before you start assembling them on the tree...needless to say it is confusing, and although the girls gave it a good start...

Ben ended up finishing up putting the branches on with Jaiden! :) They were a good team and Uncle B saved the day again this year! :)

Margi did such a good job cooking the Thanksgiving meal! I had to take a picture of her AWESOME and very juicy Turkey!! Good job Margi! Bill still did the turkey carving this year, and we had such a great meal together. Homemade mashed potoatoes, grandpa Bills famous stuffing (that we can never have enough of!), grandpa bill's grog, and Noah's homemade cranberries! All of it was delicious and we were so thankful for Margi's great cooking skills! :)

 

Jaiden even made homemade whipping cream for the pies! :)

Uncle Noah and Gracie just hanging out

Once they spotted the Paparazz they got all camera shy!

Friday after Thanksgiving it was time to decorate the tree. It was fun to see all the ornaments that the Vennes family put on their tree, and get the explanations of each ornament from Karen and Bill. This is something I love about Christmas, so I enjoyed being a part of it with the Vennes family this year and hearing all the ornament stories. Gracie really go into putting the ornaments on the tree, so I had fun capturing her finding the perfect spot! :)

Jaiden picking the perfect spot- Bill thought so too! :)

 Each year Karen and Bill get the girls an ornament, this year's ornaments:

Gracie got a cute lion.

Jaiden got a beautiful glass ornament.

picking from the ornament box

Gracie carefully placing them on the tree

Final one. Tree looks perfect! :)

Family traditions are so much fun! Watching the Vennes Family traditions with Thanksgiving and putting up the tree was so much fun for me ! I felt like I got to learn a little bit more about my family through this weekend! Thank you god for a my health, my wonderful family, great nieces, time with Bill,my wonderful husband Noah, and the time that we are all able to spend together.

First Snowfall in MN

Before I get too into my Christmas blog I have to document the first snowfall Noah and I experienced together in 2012 in our new place in MN! Since we live in a townhome, we are in charge of shoveling the sidewalks and our porch etc. Well, crazy as this sounds we didnt own a shovel! So, we actually had to go out and buy a shovel to clear away our path! Luckily we have really nice neighbors who took the brunt of the shoveling for the first few hours anyway! :) When all was said and done that day, we recieved 15 inches of snow!!

Luckily it was on a weekend, so we didnt have to drive in it! The streets were up over my calves and Miss Bailey was so confused as to where to go potty! She didn't know what to think of this crazy white stuff!

 

When we took her out to the bathroom her said, " MOMMA, Where do I go to the bathroom now?" She decided the street was fine now because it was white. :)

 

It really was a beautiful snowfall! Everything brown and ugly was now painted white!

So, as Miss Bailey sat in the living room and watched outside just mezmorized by the snow fall, I decided this is the perfect time to bake!!! :) And, thats what I did! I made this delicious toffee recipe that I decided to share with y'all! Wish I would have found this recipe when I lived where the fresh Pecans grow! :)

The Toffee Recipe:
(which I got off of the "my recipes" website- December 2007)
I took pictures of the process because I love to snap photos, and I wanted to pretend what it would be like to actually be a food blogger- had so much fun with it! Enjoy! And try the recipe- seriously the best homemade toffee I've tried, and it gets nice and crunchy!! 

2 C. Pecan Halves                                   1 TBSP Vanilla Extract
3 1/2 C Suger                                          12 Oz. Bittersweet Chocolate
1 1/2 C Butter                                         2 tsp. Coarse Sea salt
1 tsp. Salt

Ok, now here comes the fun part of pictures with my recipe. :) I just wanted to practice my camera skills as well. :)

Preparation:

1: Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Put pecans on a rimmed baking sheet and cook, stirring occasionally, until toasted, about 8 minutes. Take them out and allow them to cool enough to handle.

 

Once cool enough to handle, divide the pecans into 2 batches. Chop 1 batch finely, and one batch chop slightly. Set both batches aside.

 

2:  Put Sugar, butter, slat and 3/4 cup water into a 4-qt saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionaly. Now it takes a little bit for the sugar to start to melt, so I decided to multi-task and while this mixture was melting down, I prepared my baking sheet for the toffee. Line  a 10-in by 15-in. rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, so you are all ready once this mixture gets to the candy level.

 

Once the butter has melting, increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally until mixture is a deep golden brown and measures 310 degrees on a candy thermometer, which is about 20 minutes. I set up my with my lined baking sheet right by the stove, and I clipped my candy thermometer right on the pan.

If you dont have a candy thermometer yet, I recommend one like this one pictured below that has a clip on the back side, so you can easily clip the thermometer to the pot.

As you can see here, the mixture is starting to turn a golden brown, and has reached the 310 degree mark.  Remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla (mixture will bubble up) and finely chopped pecans.

Pour mixture into your 10-in by 15-in rimmed sheet. Let toffee cool until set- about 30 minutes.

3: Chop chocolate and put into a metal bowl. Fill a 10-in frying pan with 1/2 in of water and bring to a boil. Place metal bowl on top of boiling water, and stir chocolate until it melts. (or use double boiler if you have one- I don't so I have to improvise :) Pour chocoalte over toffee, spread evently. Sprinkle with the remaining roughly chopped pecans. Let sit 20 minutes or until chocolate is cool.

4: To remove, peel parchment paper off the toffee, and break toffee into chunks. Sotre in an airtight container. ENJOY!!

 

And, that is all I have for this post! This toffee was so easy and turned out so nice and crunchy- try it and let me know what you think!

 

Have a great day! Until we meet again...

December Birthdays- Mom's to Start!

Well Happy New Year! Now that it's 2013 I thought it would be a fabulous time to get caught up on my blogging from 2012! :)

December was a very busy month and there were so many wonderful things to celebrate! I will bring us all the way back to December 10! Mom's Birthday! My Mom, Carol,  was born in December and I truly think God knew that she would be the best "CHRISTMAS CAROL" ever! She loves CHRISTMAS, just like her mom always did, so its always been a fun time of year! She doesn't skimp on anything, as soon as the Christmas songs start on the radio station in November, she is jamming!! From decorating inside and out, to baking 10 different kinds of cookies, to wrapping the presents, she has a smile through it all!
We decided to celebrate her birthday by doing one of her favorite things in December- baking cookies!!!! Stanley and Everett were able to join in the fun this year too! I haven't baked cookies with my mom and sisters in a while, so it was fun to get back into baking the "Grandt" traditional cookies that my mom always had for us growing up! We didnt get as many made as we anticipated but we sure had a great time!

Here are a few pictures that help explain the celebration!

Everett was ready for the party! All Smiles!



Time for the party Hats!

Birthday Girl and her little Grandson!

Gina and her little Stanley!

 Jennaveeva and Everett!

Now the picture below gets a little explaining. So growing up in MN I used to love to suck on icicles that were hanging from the roof or whatever! Granted, now that I'm older, maybe they are not the best thing to eat, but I'm still alive and they are fun, so of course my kids will enjoy them too, if they like them that is! Anyway- I dont recall ever eating them in the house but maybe sometimes I could eat them in the house. HOWEVER,  for the most part if I did bring them inside, I ate them until my hands froze and then I couldnt hang on to them anymore-more importantly I usually had to
"eat them outside". Funny how grandsons change everything!! Stanley loves icicles, so I opened the patio door to get him one, and then my mom said, "Oh Stanley should we get you A MITTEN so your hands dont get too cold!" Now that is a nice grandma! So, now days the grandkids get to eat icicles in the house, with mittens!! Which I think its great- love seeing my mom love on her grandsons- its a lot of fun to have them around-they truly do bring great joy and make you feel like a kid again!


Stanley Eating his icicle.

BACK TO THE BAKING- So this year Gina decided to try to make ROSETTES- our grandma always made them and they were so good. We never really realized how difficult they were to perfect, so alot of time was spent trying to get the oil just right. We were thankful to have the internet right at our fingertips to google "why they were sticking to the rosette rod" but we never could figure it out, so here are a few of the pictures. Maybe next year?! :)

Mom trying her hand at it...

They looked pretty! :)

My attempt to dip the peanut butter cups-lets just say the chocolate was not cooperating!

Everett eating his banana like a big boy!

Mom is excited to have her grandson sitting by her on her birthday!



Cake time, and Grandma and Stanley were on the task of blowing out all 54 candles! Well we did let her off easy with just the number. :)

YAY! Stanley loves it when they all blow out!



Happy Birhtday Mom and her little Claus! 
 

One of the greatest blessings of moving back is definitely the time we have been able to spend with our families! Happy Birthday to the best mom ever!