Merry Christmas

Having children is an extraordinary thing! Landon and Travis have taught me how to smile and laugh more; they've taught me how to love. This year my greatest gift was sharing this special holiday with my husband and children. 



Landon and Travis looked so cute in their Christmas pj's

Jesse and I decided that each Christmas we wanted to read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. This is a story that teaches that change is possible. That no matter who you were yesterday you can choose to wake up a better person today. I look forward to reading A Christmas Carol each year. Jesse and I finished reading it on Christmas Eve.

That evening we tried to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol to see how similar it was to the book. Landon was running around the living room acting like a wild child while Travis was spitting-up every three minutes. About half way through we decided to stop everything and get the boys dressed in their Christmas pj's, take pictures and put them to bed. After they were in bed, Jesse and I shared our own Christmas with each other. Jesse got a frame for his diploma and I got a vintage plate that had my favorite quote on it.

"This Is My House

I'll Do As I Darn Please"

I plan on hanging this in my kitchen for everybody to see. It will be the Rachelle Egbert Motto.



Jesse brought both of the boys down on Christmas morning.

On Christmas morning Landon woke up at 5:30. Jesse and I decided the night before that no matter what time Landon got up we would get up too. So, being the good parents that we are, we changed Landon's diaper, gave him a sippy and let him play in his room until 7:00. All the while we were snug in bed.

Every time I leave the office door open Landon will come out carrying a pen and paper to color on. I decided it's time for him to have his own learning space. So we got him an easel/desk for Christmas. I was really worried that he wouldn't like it, but I was excited to see Landon happily coloring away all Christmas morning. Travis got rattles, teething toys, and a blanket. We even got a present for Penny. She got a bone that was 2 feet long.

Landon and Travis didn't know why they were getting so many cool presents, but they weren't complaining.

Since Jesse and I wouldn't be going to Utah for Christmas this year some of my family came to us. Landon was already acting pretty spoiled, but at 9:00 am, when my parents got here, he was so overwhelmed with presents he didn't know what to do. We finally had to put his desk in the back room so he would open the rest of his presents. For Christmas Jesse got a Kindle and I got a new bed spread. I also got my dream time out corner: a head massager, a neck pillow and a hot cup for my hot chocolate. These are supposed to be used with my foot bath I got for Mothers Day. I plan on spending a lot of time in time out.



Penny got new booties for Christmas. She slipped and face planted it in the snow. I think this pictures is so funny I had to include it.

It's the most yummiest time of the year



Travis is huge and didn't fit on Landon's lap. It didn't help that Landon didn't want cute little Travis to be touching him. Poor kid.


Christmas is the only time of year where I kick back and eat what ever I want. I love food and I am slowly but surely beginning to love cooking too. I thought I would share some of my favorite holiday recipes that I grew-up with and am now sharing with my own children.

BARBECUE MEATBALLS

75 Italian style meatballs
4 cups ketchup
3 cups brown sugar, scant
3 1/2 tspns liquid smoke
2 tspns onion powder
1 tspns garlic powder

Mix together ketchup, sugar, liquid smoke and powders in a large bowl. Add meatballs and mix until meatballs are well coated. Pour meatballs and sauce into crock-pot; cover and simmer for 3-5 hours.

WASSAIL

(Read the NOTES First.)

• 1 gallon apple cider

• 4 small cans frozen orange juice, diluted

• 2 small cans frozen lemonade, diluted

• 8 cinnamon sticks

• 40 whole cloves

• 20 Allspice berries

• 1 tsp ground ginger

• 8 cups water

• 4 cups sugar

Simple Syrup: Put water, sugar, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, Allspice berries, and ginger in crockpot, and let cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. I normally do this overnight.

Mix in 5-gallon container: orange juice and lemonade according to directions on the juice cans. Add apple cider and spiced simple syrup. Strain while pouring the spiced simple syrup into the juice ingredients 

Stir well.

Notes:

• For a deeper flavor, I add to the crockpot simple syrup, the water used to make the 2 concentrated lemonade cans. I put the concentrated lemonade in the 5-gallon container and the water in the crockpot. 

• If you don't have a crockpot simmer the simple syrup on low heat in a covered pot for 4 hours.

• We use a 5- gallon orange Igloo drink dispenser.

• Serve hot or cold; store in the refrigerator.

• Makes 4.5 gallons.

PAZOLE

Ingredients:

14 cups water
3 lbs. boneless pork country style ribs or pork loin (cut into beef stew size)
5 cloves garlic, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

Salt to taste

6 (1 lb. each) cans Juanita’s Mexican Style Hominy

1 can Las Palmas Red Enchilada Sauce

2 fresh tomatoes

¼ cup Knorr Tomato Bouillon with Chicken Flavor powder

1 tablespoon oregano

Garnish

1 bunch radishes, chopped

1 small cabbage, finely shredded

3 to 4 fresh limes, sliced

5-6 avocado's sliced

1 bag Guerrero Tostaditas

1 container sour cream (as a spread on tostadas)
Fresh salsa

Instructions

In a large pot, boil pork meat, 5 cloves garlic, and salt for about 45 minutes. Add hominy. In a blender, mix red enchilada sauce, tomatoes, 1 clove garlic, bouillon powder, and oregano. Add blended mixture to pot. Simmer for 30 minutes. Put garnish in separate bowls and allow guest to garnish how they please.

Serve with tostadas spread with sour cream and fresh salsa.

Note: Put radishes, cabbage, and limes in separate bowls. Soak the radishes and shredded cabbage in cold water and refrigerate until ready to serve. The Guerrero Tostaditas can be purchased at Macey’s.

First Snow

I don't consider it the first snow of the year until it sticks to the ground. I used to hate winter but slowly I'm finding it to be my favorite time of the year. It forces us to slow down, stay home and spend less. Our apartment is right next to a forested area and Landon loves to look out our kitchen window when it snows and point to the forest and say "no'', he is still working on his "S".

Penny began her life with the Egbert family in this snow covered forest. She loves to belly flop, eat and play in it. After every snow storm Jesse and Penny will take a long walk and take pictures of all of the beautiful scenery.

Often when Penny and Jesse come home from a walk her nose is covered in snow.

The other day I was complaining that Penny is a wimp and a useless animal. Jesse decided to take Penny on a walk and take pictures of her being confident and beautiful to prove me wrong. I must admit, I do love this dog. Sometimes I feel like she is my third child. 

Christmas Decorations

 

For Christmas this year we are staying snug as a bug in Flagstaff. So we had to get some decorations to make it feel like Christmas. Jesse surprised me one Saturday early in November and said "lets go get a Christmas tree." If you know me, you would know that I don't like to start Christmas until after Thanksgiving, no decorations and no Christmas music. Thanksgiving is just a forgotten holiday, and I for one am not going to forget it. But...this year we were in definite need of some Christmas spirit, so I didn't complain. We drove all around Flagstaff and priced out Christmas trees. We settled on a 7.5 ft tree from Home Depot. Then Jesse told me that I had no more then $30 for ornaments. This was a hard thing for me because I really wanted nice ornaments, but I finally decided this is for the kids so I just picked-out one of those shatter-proof ornament kits and decided to make gingerbread men.

After we got our tree decorated, we woke Landon up from his nap and told him to come and see the tree. He was in a really bad mood because nobody, and I mean nobody, is allowed to wake him up. Well, I guess Penny is the exception to that statement. Anywho...we told Landon to come and see the tree and he of course refused and started throwing things, so I grabbed him by the ankles and carried him to the stair landing. He stopped crying and looked at the tree for a long time then with a big smile he looked up at me and said "tee".

The next weekend we went to Wal-mart and got the rest of the necessities: tree skirt, Christmas star, stockings and garland. While Jesse did homework and Landon took a nap, Travis and I decorated the rest of the apartment.

Travis is captivated with the Christmas tree lights. He likes to have tummy time in front of the tree.

Landon likes to eat his breakfast next to the Christmas tree. Sometimes he eats the Cinnamon dots off of the gingerbread men, but it's so cute that sometimes I have to pretend I didn't see it. I am so grateful to spend Christmas with my children. It gives me great joy to see them happy and excited.

Happy Graduation #2!

I can remember while Jesse was attending Salt Lake Community College, we would have several conversations about the future: Get accepted into BYU, Get a Bachelors Degree, Get a Masters Degree, Get a PhD, Publish research, Present research and most importantly do that best you know how to do. As years go by Jesse is accomplishing our goals that we made together at the very beginning. He graduated summa cum laude with University Honors from BYU and, as of December 15th, Jesse received his Master's degree in Teaching English as a Second Language with distinction from NAU. He is officially starting his final degree.

This semester was so ugly and exhausting that Jesse and I celebrated his graduation the only way we could possibly handle...sleep. Jesse came home from his last final, ate dinner and tucked Landon and himself into bed. We are officially slowing down. No more running when you can walk.

Happy Graduation!

On December 9th I said farewell to Jesse and Landon and said hello to an easy weekend of movies and sleeping. Jesse's brother Rob graduated with his MBA, and Jesse drove to Utah to surprise him. Because I am at my wit's end with Jesse's school, finals, and research, Jesse thought it would be nice to take Landon off of my hands and give me a day or two off from Landon duty. It was a lot of fun!

Rob graduated on December 10th with honors from Weber State University. It only took one painful year to do it, and it was just that: painful. It was a two year program, and he finished it in half that time. I know he couldn't have done it without his wife, Jocelyn.

As you can see, Landon had a blast with his cousin Rylee.

Landon is a smart little boy but when it comes to girls and hugs he's at a loss.



Hmmm...what to order. Landon and Rylee had fun at The Olive Garden.

 

They're just good friends!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Jesse and I decided that because this was our first Thanksgiving with our little family we would each come up with one Thanksgiving tradition. I came up with decorating gingerbread men to hang on our Christmas tree while the adults made Thanksgiving dinner. Jesse came up with making turkey pot pies on the day after Thanksgiving. They both turned out so well, we hope to keep these going for years to come. Grandma Egbert, Cameron, Melissa and Jenna came to help create these fun traditions.

Decorating Party! Melissa and Jenna were pros.

The Feast!

We also went to downtown Flagstaff to go window shopping, after nearly freezing we decided to go and get some yummy chocolate and watch movies. When we weren't watching movies, eating, talking or playing games we were swimming. Landon and Travis had a lot of fun with their aunts and uncle.



I think there should be a swimming pool for every holiday. Whenever I got stressed out and needed my apartment back I sent everyone to the swimming pool. It was great!

Book of the Month

"The Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic adventure novel, the storyline of which takes place in the early years of the French Revolution. It is also a precursor of spy novels, as the title character, the Scarlet Pimpernel, works undercover and in disguise to save French aristocrats from the guillotine."  (http://www.goodreads.com/).

I normally don't like spy books or masked heroes, but this book was awesome. Jesse and I saw the movie last Christmas. Needless to say, he hated it and I loved it. This is a classic novel.