News To Me

10 THINGS I LEARNED THIS PAST WEEK (and the stories behind the lesson)

1- my ten-year-old nephew, Jacob, can beat-box really well

STORY: After Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom's house, we were all playing games. He "beat-boxes" while he's thinking, and when he's experiencing mental "down time". He's a pretty cool kid.

2- making candy with my Mom makes me feel like a kid again


STORY: When I was little, every holiday season my Mom would rally us together and we would spend hours making homemade chocolates and truffles and toffees and mints. This year, I asked her if she would give Lucy and Gabriella candy-making lessons when it came time to make the goodies for Thanksgiving. So the night before Thanksgiving, that's what we did. It was a hoot!

3- Ruth makes a really cute pregnant lady
above: Cindy Marie measuring her "yarn guess" around Ruth
STORY: We came down to hang out with family two whole days early so that I could go to Ruth's baby shower. It was so much fun. Erin Hadderly (how do you spell that, Ruth?) put on a great shower, and it ws so fun to hang out with all my Cameron peeps and chat and laugh and hang out. Gabriella came with me - at her request, it was her first baby shower ever - and she and I both won a prize in one of the games. I won the Guess Ruth's Belly Girth With This Piece Of Yarn game, and Gabriella won the Catch Other People Saying "BABY" And Take Their Safety Pin game. And I HAVE to get my paws on that cranberry salsa recipe!

4- Cooking the Thanksgiving turkey upside down and overnight is the BEST!

above: the little kids us the coffe table for a little people's feast place
STORY: Actually, I already knew this one. I was just reminded of it again. I have volunteered to do the turkey for the last several years just because it's so stinking easy, and it makes you the Rock Star of Thanksgiving to show up with an amazing turkey and a gallon and a half of gravy. Here's the secret: after you thaw your bird and remove the neck and giblets, turn it upside down in the roasting pan and pour about four or five cups of water in the cavity (or broth, even better!). [Hey, Sarah, do you remember that one year that you and I were up til midnight trying to thaw your turkey in your kitchen sink, so we could get the giblets and neck out? We were laughing so hard, and my hands were so cold! Good times, good times.] Then you cover it and put it in the oven on low (250 or so) over night. Come feast time, you have an amazing, moist bird and enough gravy for everyone! Yeah!

5- My mom-in-law had a stroke of brilliance when she started the Thanksgiving Morning Waffle Breakfast Tradition
STORY: All my growing up, my mother told us that we could go wherever we needed to for the Christmas holiday, but to remember that Thanksgiving was at her house. Well, when Mark and I got married, Cindy wanted to do a Thanksgiving family thing, too. But out of respect for my mother's wishes (Cindy is so awesome that way), she cooked up her very own Thanksgiving tradition - pun intended. Enter the Galbraith Family Thanksgiving Morning Waffle Breakfast. We all bring waffle irons, batter, milk, OJ, a rainbow of topping choices, whipped cream, etcetera, etcetera. It's the best! And the kids run wild, and hang out and play basketball; and I think it's the most awesome way to start the day!

6- Mark is thinking, "Mmmmmmm! Gingerbread!"

STORY: Yeah, so my mother-in-law really is amazing. She also has this Gingerbread House Construction party tradition. So every year, we have a shindig where we make and decorate the houses, and do the gift exchange, and it's pretty much wonderful. Up until a few years ago, Cindy even made the gingerbread for everybody, because she's just fabulous like that. But now there are too darn many of us, so she just provides the royal icing and the graham crackers, and if we are purists (like me!), we have to bring our own gingerbread. I decided to invite my Seminary students over for a FHE gingerbread party. It was great. It was also a construction disaster. The gingerbread was too fresh, and so it was flexible. (note: flexible is BAD if you're thinking "building materials".) And the royal icing was NOT beat for 7 minutes, so it wasn't nearly as concrete as it needed to be. But oh! the fun! and the candy! and the trash talk amongst my students as they surveyed each other's construction mishaps and disasters. I'm sorry I don't have any photos of this, but I was too busy helping the would-be builders with their troubleshooting. It was such a mess. I was up until 1 a.m. cleaning it all up (and finishing up everyone's houses, because they were too unstable at the end of the evening to be transported. I embellished them and tried valiantly to use all the left-over roayl icing; and then delived the houses the next day.) And now I have all this left-over-from-the-crash gingerbread on my counter. And Mark and the kids keep eating it. I didn't know Mark liked gingerbread. He smiled at me through a mouthful of crumbs, and said, "Gingerbread is the bomb-diggity!" Well. Now I know.

7- royal icing will harden eventually, and those little brown scrapers you can get from Pampered Chef are the best way to get it off your table
STORY: see #6

8- Sarah's quilt shop is fantastic! You HAVE to go by and see it!



STORY: Sarah has been so busy lately. This quilt shop thing has pretty much swallowed her whole. I just had to go buy and see what she's up to, particularly after she posted the before-and-after photos on her blog. Oh!My!Goodness! It's amazing! Jenny was there, and so was Ron, working away, always adding to the amazingness. Hillary was there too. She's due to have her baby tomorrow, but there she was, upright and helping out. Holy Cow. Those Doans. They make the rest of us look like slackers. Good thing I love 'em.

9- I have some cute nieces and nephews!



STORY: I think it's a given, personally. Mark and I come from good-looking stock. I'm not being a snob about it, just truthful. It's not like I can take credit for it, anyway. But, of course, I LOVE taking pictures!

10- Grandpa and Grandma Mason's house looks fantastic!



STORY: And the contractor was installing the hard wood flooring while we were there. Click on the pictures to see them better. Fabulous!