Yet More Gingerbread

A few pals have asked me to post photos of my sis-in-laws' gingerbread houses as well--and here they are in all their splendor. It's quite extraordinary how our houses match our personalities. I present to you Stephanie's masterpiece:



And here is Maren's grand opus:



Also, as a bonus, a photo of my abject failure of a pecan pie for Thanksgiving:(I can usually pull off a pecan pie but not this time)

Oye, Tonto!

My mom spent every summer growing up at the Tonto Natural Bridge in Pine, AZ. My grandparents used to own it, and they boarded guests every summer. My mom and her five siblings used to help run the place. Lots of work--cooking, washing clothes and all the linens, cooking, cleaning, cooking, entertaining, cooking, etc. for many houseguests every day would be exhausting. This is the hearty stock I come from. No wonder Marc makes fun of me for bellowing at him for not finding the closest parking spot because I'll have to walk farther. (like 10 feet). I suppose I could buck up a little.

Now the State of Arizona/Parks and Recreation runs it, and it was fun to go back and hike under the bridge like we used to do as kids every summer. Miraculously, out of about 80 relatives, nobody managed to break a limb, and mountain goats Caroline and Jackson loved the challenge and ditched us quick.

Tonto was the Lone Ranger's horse. Interestingly, "tonto" also means "stupid idiot" in Spanish.

The Day After

I love hosting houseguests I decided. For the past decade, it's been my dream to have my whole family here at my house for Thanksgiving, or any other holiday for that matter. No brutal delayed plane flights with cranky/sick kids. People actually came to us! My brother Gavin and his wife Ashley and their fun kids, Dalton and Shelby, stayed with us this year, and it was a good stay, not just a couple of days where you're always rushing. Kids loved it. Plus my brother John and his family, my sis Megan and her family, my sis Susan and her family, and my parents (all staying at other places, I might add). We had a Randall Reunion with Thanksgiving Feast at Aunt Jane's (only 112 of us)with scads of my Randall cousins, and a fantastico trip to the Tonto Natural Bridge. (photos later when I can track down my camera).

It's always so depressing to have everybody leave, so anticlimactic. Conversely, would it kill me to do a load of laundry already? The grim reality is that once the holiday is over, it's back to L.I.F.E. Business as usual. Not that that's bad. It's probably for the best, considering I spotted a couple of dreadlocks in my hair today from not having had time to wash it since the late 1980s. I miss houseguests.

We Are Thankful

For Family Night last week, the kids did the "We Are Thankful for..." alphabet tree. Idea courtesy of www.lovelifemagazine.com. Thanks Iowa overachieving friends who just created it! Check out the link, it's a fabulous new online magazine for moms just like me who want/desperately need to breathe new life into their recipes, minds, FHEs, souls, families, Ipods. I love inexpensive homemade decorations like this. "O" was tricky, but we decided that yes, indeed, we are VERY thankful for opposable thumbs.

Indoctrination

As I'm putting laundry away last week, doing my usual inadvertent eavesdropping on the girls' seemingly-mundane-but-usually-entertaining-gabfests, I get a chuckle out of Caroline hurling what she considered to be her worst epithet to her stuffed animals as she's trying to get them to go to "sleep". Frustrated, she mutters:

"Go to bed, you silly democracks!"

Marion Barry, maybe. But Texi the Horse and Uni the Unicorn? Please.

She has subsequently asked me about every member of our immediate and extended families' political affiliation. "Is Great Uncle Reynold Republican or Democrack?" (If you must know, we're a politically well-rounded family--Marc's side Democrack and my side predominantly Republican). My politically astute 1st grader.

PB & P

Addicting recipe alert. Peanut butter popcorn. As I was eating the entire bowl my mind kept screaming "Abort Mission! Abort Mission!" But I never did abort mission and ate the whole bowl. Plus most of my kids. Muy bueno.

Got this recipe from Laura Graff a la Iowa City, who also got me addicted to peanut butter fudge last Christmas. Love peanut butter. Plus all things with peanut butter. Peanut butter chocolate ice cream, Scotcheroos, aforementioned peanut butter fudge, Loretta Parker's peanut butter fudge brownies, candy bars (what happened to Reese's Fast Break? I've not seen it around lately), etc. etc. Really all the world is a medium for peanut butter. And butter. (just ask my dad).

Tried it tonight and it was a crowd pleaser for family movie night. And it was fun staging the photo. Like I was working for a food magazine or something but not as professional.

1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. Karo light syrup
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
Bring all this stuff to boil in saucepan and pour over 2-3 bags of microwave popcorn.

The Price We Pay

PRO: Our gracious landlords left their golf cart for us to use.

CON: It's a totally pimped out USC Trojans golf cart with a lift kit and a sound system. (actually we like the sound system a lot, except Jackson makes us turn it off as we approach the school because he's so embarrassed).

PRO: Kids love riding to school or Walgreens or driving thru McDonalds in it.

CON: Marc hates driving it, because, did I mention that it's a USC Trojans golf cart that says "FEAR THIS" on the hood? (Sorry Jill and Scott). One of our favorite days was when our Texas Longhorns beat the Trojans in the Rose Bowl a couple of years ago. Hook 'em horns.

PRO: It is outfitted with seat belts for the kids so they don't fly out.

CON: I look like a freak driving it around with my infant car seat in front by me, and am anticipating the call from CPS any day now.

PRO: The weather is PERFECT for driving the golf cart all through winter. This time last year we were colder than stink in Iowa.

CON: Lest I seem braggadocious, consider this: warm weather in AZ is ideal for insidious bark scorpions. We've already found one right by the baby's room and in the kitchen, and use a black light at night to hunt them down in the yard and kill them before they come in the house.(it's kind of fun). The freaky things glow in the dark.

Nothing spells S-A-F-E-T-Y quite like having an insect two feet from your baby's room whose sting requires an antivenom. No pesticide is really effective against these creepy, ugly, gross little crunchy exoskeleton things, which is why they have survived since prehistoric times practically. It doesn't help that I hear different versions of "too horrific to even imagine" or "urban legend" stories about the parents whose baby was screaming and eventually they found a scorpion in the diaper and had stung the baby like 19 times. Then there is my neighbor, Margo, who was driving to work and was stung on her bubs by one hiding in her bra. No words describe the creeps I feel just thinking about those things. Marc just came in right now and said he found another one in the garage on the wall. I've had one in the shower with me (hiding between the shower curtain folds), and one dropped down through our recessed can light.

Come visit soon!