Day 5: Our Crazy Life!!!

Well, I knew this would happen I'm a day late!! The last two days have just flown by so fast! Friday morning found me very happily listening to Michael telling me about how he was going into work but would be home in few hours to be with us around the house. Wow, were we excited! Daddy staying home doesn't happen often, he's a work-a-holic of sorts. Even on snow days he's waving his good bye through the back window of his Four Wheel Drive.

Since we didn't have much time before Dad would be back we launched into getting as much school work done as we could. If Dad is home it's always a holiday, so we worked quickly and got math done in less time than normal, practiced piano in between reading and writing. A quick spelling bee for the older kids and some practice naming colors for the little kids. Wild Man had a great time learning to write the number 3 and proceeded to make sure every one's paper had a bright orange 3 at the top. Much to Sis's distress I might add, but Kaykay was able to hide away her journal just in the nick of time. I guess he thought since everyone seemed so impressed they needed one of there own! :-)

Soon, Dad was walking in the door where he was dog piled and the wrestling began. I was surprised he brought me a soda (Coke with just a little ice :-) ) and quickly rescued it!! I began to let Michael know about all the wonderful sales that were going on this weekend and how we could probably finish all our Christmas shopping in just one trip. I would even help him pick something out for me!! BUT, as I figured he would he had a plan of action for all of us. The wood trailer was getting mighty empty, in fact the rest of the wood fit into the stove. He built it to hold practically a whole rick! Well, not quite, but it's big and it would be hungry soon. His plan was for all of us to get our chore clothes on and fill the trailer high with firewood to last us through the cold spell that is coming on Monday. So the Weather Man said anyway. We all bundled up and headed out, the kids made a little fun of me. I don't like to get cold so I had several layers on underneath my coat, hat and gloves while they were more comfortable in a heavy jacket. It didn't take long out in the timber where the wind wasn't blowing to work up a little sweat and soon I was peeling. It happens every time I think, I over dress and end up throwing most of it on the tractor. I really wish I had pictures of us all out there, but my camera is missing. I seem to have lost it somewhere between now and yesterday :-). It didn't seem to take long, with Michael cutting down the trees and slicing them up into stove size bites, me piling brush and helping the kids stack the wood onto the trailer we made a good pile in a couple hours. Of course the kids are always up to something. They are building a log cabin and had to take a little time to drag usable pieces for the walls and "build" a little here and there. Bubba likes to find a tall cedar tree and climb to the top. You know he must be up a tree when he is there one minute and had totally disappeared the next. Usually you'll find him pretty quick if you scan the tree tops for large red objects. The girls are starting to get brave and soon they'll all be up a tree! ;-) Once we were all loaded with firewood we climbed on the tractor and trailer headed back for the house. Rowdy decided since we had worked so hard he was going for a swim as we headed around the pond, that silly dog! The harder I try to keep him clean and smelling sweet (or as sweet as a dog can smell) the harder he tries to stay disgustingly dirty!

Well, tonight is the night of our adult Christmas party at our church, and it was time to get ready. I had my heart set on making some baked crab rangoon. I had gotten a recipe for it earlier this week. It looked soo easy, but I have never used crab for anything before so I wasn't sure how expensive it would be to make up several batches to serve at the party. Knowing though, that this is one of Michael's favorite things at the restaurants I sweet talked him into running me to the small town nearby and getting what I needed to make them. Of course being a man, a hungry man at that, he thought we ought to make at least 80 of these things!! I talked him down to 60, which wasn't too hard since the package won ton wrappers came in that amount. :-) We found what we needed and headed home with some cookies for the kids. Soon the house was smelling wonderfully good with the crab rangoon, which I wrapped up for travel. Michael loaded the 3 youngest kids, the food and gifts for the party while I ran through all the rules again for the older kids. I still can't believe they aren't babies anymore!! I gave them a long list of fun things to do and then we were ready. The church dining hall was all decorated and smelled wonderful as the food was set out. Food is my favorite hobby you know, at least eating is! :-) A group of teenagers relieved me of the little kids and they were off to play. The crag rangoon was soon almost gone, so I'm taking this as a sign that it was a good recipe to pass on. Fresh from the oven would probably have been the best option, but Michael was satisfied so I'll take that as a good sign.

Baked Crab Rangoon

1 can (6oz) white crab meat, drained and flaked

4 oz cr. cheese, softened

1/4 C thinly sliced gr. onions

1/4 C mayo

12 won ton wrappers

Mix the four ingredients in bowl with spoon. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray and gently place won ton wrappers into the wells. Place a spoonful of mix in each wrapper. Bake @ 350* or 18-20 minutes or until edges are golden brown and filling is heated through. Garnish with extra chopped green onions (opt) and serve warm.

You will also find this recipe on Kraftfoods.com with a short video included. Of course they will tell you exactly which brands to buy too! :-)

After everyone was stuffed till they couldn't see their toes, the Dirty Santa game began. Now, let me tell you that we are all a nice bunch of people and I have never seen anyone upset, maybe they are good at hiding it but either way everyone seems to have a really good time and tonight was no exception. I usually don't do this but this year I brought a gift that I really wanted to keep! It was a metal tricycle decoration that had been welded together with a planter basket for a seat. It's not quite 2 foot long and a little over a foot tall. I put together some flowers for the basket and it was painted up to look rustic, all together I thought it was just incredibly cute. Well, if you don't know, this Dirty Santa game can be a little tricky. See, everyone has a number on a ticket. The other half of your ticket has been thrown into a large bowl. All the ladies gifts were placed on one table and the men's gifts on another. When the first number is drawn that person chooses a gift from the table and unwraps it showing it to everyone. The next number is drawn and that person has a choice to choose a gift from the table OR stealing the gift already opened. Then the game continues in that manner with loads of laughs as gifts are opened and stolen, great antics are used with bribes and jokes, everyone trying to give or steal away gifts. Well, my tricycle was opened before my number was called and I had a hard time staying loyal to that trike as I watched all kinds of cute and neat things being opened. Including a quesadia maker I would have loved to taken home for the kids to try! But when my turn finally came around I was mean and stole the tricycle hoping I would get to keep it. As my luck would have it though it was soon stolen from me. Now, everyone needs a friend as sweet as this, my wonderful good friend ??? (can't tell ya who!!) had also brought a gift she wanted to keep. A gift certificate to Bath and Body Works, she had been the one to open it and was so far able to keep it. She quickly motioned for me to steal it from her and then she would steal back my trike. Hmmmm, is that cheating? :-) Well, it was worth the risk so we put the plan to action. It all fell through shortly though when the gift card was stolen from me. I felt soooo panicky, WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO!! I looked to see if "She" had another idea, she just laughed and shook her head, so I wandered to the gift table to try again. I couldn't believe it when the gift I opened was a soap set from Bath and Body Works!! The game ended soon and "She" was happy to trade with me knowing she could keep the set or exchange it. I never could quite explain it to the kids why I came home with the same gift, they couldn't understand why I had taken something I didn't want to give away!! I would have been happy with anything all the gifts were nice but I proudly displayed my new tricycle on the piano and made threats to all who thought about touching it!! LOL! It would take more time than you or I have to explain all the stealing and trading that went on on the man's side!! Michael did come home with a nice set of pliers and wrenches in exchange for the Galileo thermometer that he took. That was stolen several times times till it was pronounced "dead" on the third steal and that thief got to take it home! ;-) Hope ya'll had a fun Friday night too!

Photo of me and WildMan taken when we knew where the camera was!! haha!