Christmas - Part I

We spent a week in Odessa for Christmas this year. It was great to be able to see both sides of our families over the holidays for the first time in many years. The first few days were spent with the Hardy family. And, when I say the Hardy family, I mean a lot of people. When Daniel's family has a get together, they all show up. It's an anomaly in modern-day families, i.e. they all like each other. I know, it's weird. 

We had a great Christmas dinner of fried turkey and all the trimmings. Gammie's broccoli-rice casserole was a special treat we don't have the chance to partake of very often. And, as usual, I baked up a swarm of pies for everyone.

The kids loved having all their cousins to play with, and the noise level was almost as high as the pile of toys they collected. Avery enjoyed prancing in her tutu Aunt Stephanie made for her, and Harrison was pleased with his Stetson Uncle Hardy picked out for him. 

The kids especially enjoyed the endless wagon rides from whomever was suckered into pulling them all around. (Thanks PaBear and Gigi for the wagon! The neighborhood kids have been enjoying it now that we have it at home.)

We capped off our last night at Gigi and PaBear's house with a quick read of the Polar Express, and then the kids all snuggled together to watch the Polar Express movie.

Candy Factory

We have many Christmas traditions in our family, but one of the messiest is candy making. 

We set aside an entire day and turn the kitchen into a candy factory. This year, we were fortunate enough to both take day off work while the kids were in school and get knee-deep in chocolate. We made dark chocolate and white chocolate covered pretzels, haystacks (peanut butter and butterscoth yummy goodness), white-chocolate covered Ritz bits, peppermint bark, spearmint bark and chocolate covered peanut butter balls.

It was about 12-13 hours of baking, which is a bit more than my patience can take. Fortunately, Daniel is the star candy baker and persisted until the end.

In the end, we were happy to share our treats with neighbors, friends and family members  as a way to say "Merry Christmas!"

Sea World

Earlier in December, we spent a Saturday at Sea World in San Antonio. We've been trying to visit the park since we moved to Texas, but just haven't been able to be there when they were open. Finally, I was insistent that we make the time over the holidays. And, it was extremely worth it. The park was beautiful from the moment we stepped in and saw this huge tree, and where there weren't trees, there were mounds of poinsettias.

One of the most interesting events was the beluga whales and dolphins show. It was very Cirque-like in that it had crazy music and acrobats jumping and diving from all parts of the venue while the belugas and dolphins jumped and danced in the water. One of the most unique parts of this show was that one of the belugas had recently given birth and the baby would not leave the mom's side. The baby was practically attached to the beluga, but the beluga continued doing her part of the show as if the baby were never there. It was interesting interaction to see.

Of course, the best show was the Shamu show. There were three orcas and several trainers participating in the show, and they were all impressive. But, what was most impressive, was the story they told. There was accompanying video and musical performers on the side of the pool telling about the miracle of birth and especially the miracle of the birth of Jesus and the true story of Christmas. I think I'm still a bit shocked that the children were able to hear this at Sea World, of all places, but I was most pleased that this was the case.

The show that was not impressive was the sea lion show. We were a bit bored by the show, but sea lions are Abigail's favorite so it was not to be missed. The best part was getting to meet one of the sea lions, having our picture taken with him, and Abigail, Daniel and Cooper all got to pet him. I think that was certainly Abigail's highlight of the day. We also took the chance to feed the sea lions after they performed. Though, it was disappointing that we couldn't get that close to them.

There were other encounters we enjoyed, such as the dolphins. The kids and Daniel enjoyed petting and feeding the dolphins. It was nice that they were able to be so close to them as long as the dolphins were interested in eating.

And, we closed out the day by watching Abigail take a ride on a rollercoaster. She's ridden these a few times, but she was disappointed we didn't let her go on the large, adult, scary coaster. This Shamu coaster was not what she had in mind, but I think she was appeased. (You can see her in the middle cart in a red sweater, seated by herself.)

We had such a blast at Sea World that we upgraded our one-day passes for 2009 season tickets, so we're hoping to have many more days of Sea World fun in the next 12 months!

Deck the Halls

I know it's New Year's Eve, but I'm just now getting around to sharing some of our Christmas pics. We spent so much time celebrating throughout December, that there was no time left to share our celebrations on the blog. So, I've got plenty of photos stored up to make Christmas last at least another week, on the blog, that is. 

This year, we weren't home for Christmas, and there just wan't enough time to decorate, so most of our Christmas accessories didn't make their way from their Rubbermaid tub homes this year. I wasn't even planning on getting the tree up, but Daniel insisted and put it up one night while I was at a PTA function. Unfortunately, we never did get around to our annual family decorating night, so it was never completed. It was a pretty tree, filled with silver beads, silver and gold ribbon garland and all sizes of glass balls, but it wasn't our usual tree filled with ornaments Daniel and I have been collecting the past 30 years. We are fortunate in that each of our parents gifted us with an ornament every year. We've continued the same tradition with Abigail and Cooper.  And, we've added to our collections by picking up ornaments everywhere we travel and live. Needless to say, we have a lot of ornaments. We love decorating the tree each year and reminiscing about the teacher's class we made the popsicle sled or the silly hobby we were into the particular year we received that ornament or the thoughts of a long ago vacation in places like Vegas or the several Hula Santas we accumulated over Christmas 2003 in Hawaii. 

I never did get a picture of our tree this year because it just didn't look like "our tree," but I did snap a few of the other arrangements around the house.

The dining room...

The Living room mantle...

The kitchen table...

The kids' trees...

I first did this last year and loved the outcome. For Abigail's, I used some pricess-themed party favors. I transformed tiaras into ornaments and feather boas into garland with one of her play tiaras as the tree topper. The pink tulle tree skirt was an obvious decision.

For Cooper's tree, I used leather ribbon to transform a bag of cowboys and Indians figurines into ornaments, made garland from twine rope, topped the tree with a red cowboy hat and used a yard of burlap for the tree skirt. 

There was also a cowboy nutcracker placed under Cooper's tree, but his gun is now broken off and he's been put away for own safety. 

Tuesday Treats - Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

My specialty around the holidays is dessert. Yeah, I can handle the rest of the meal, but what I truly enjoy are the pies. My most-requested recipe is Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake, a recipe I snagged from my mom who snagged it from her friend Sandy. Thanks Sandy for being the source of many compliments I've received!

The first thing you need to do is prep your springform pan by wrapping the bottom and sides with foil. I recommend the widest and thickest foil you can purchase. I usually add three to four layers of foil. Then, I use a tin roasting pan to create a water bath.

CRUST:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

1 stick butter

dash of cinnamon

Combine ingredients and press into bottom of pan.

FILLING PART 1:

3 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese (softened to room temp)

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

3 eggs

2 T vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in milk until smooth.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Separate 1 cup of filling and set aside.  Set aside remainder of filling.

FILLING PART 2:

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t ground nutmeg

Mix pumpkin, sugar and spices together. Add pumpkin mix to main filling (not cup set aside) and mix well. Layer half of pumpkin mix and half of cup of reserved mix in pan. Repeat layers. Cut through batter with knife several times to create swirl effect. Bake in water bath at 350 degrees for one hour. 

Movie Monday

I'm hoping to give myself a bit more structure on my blog, and am adding a couple of mandatory subjects that will (hopefully) make it easier to post on days when I feel like I have nothing to write. Of course, I have plenty of stories to tell and pictures to show from the holidays. But, I'll have to get to that later in the week. Today, I'm debuting Movie Monday. 

It's been about a month since I saw Ben Stein's Expelled, and I'm still finding ways to tell people it's a "must see" flick. Of course, I'm an uber-fan of Stein's.  He's a former political speech writer (my dream occupation), hosted an entertaining game show (I'm a Game Show Network watcher.), was a frequent guest on Glen Beck's CNN show (the show's demise was tragic for me) and an all-around smart/funny/witty guy. Of course I had to see a movie he made. 

The movie, co-written and narrated by Stein, investigates the idea that educators and scientists are being stigmatized for believing and/or teaching any form of Creationism. What is intriguing to me is that religion plays little part in this movie. The scientific evidence and historical links to the subject are more than interesting. I was most intrigued when Stein ventured into the subject of the Holocaust and discussed how Hitler's view of Darwinism led to the atrocities committed against the Jews. In all my years of history classes, I've never once heard a professor make that connection. Yet, it just makes sense once you hear it. 

If you're at all interested in documentaries or even just another view of the Creationism vs. Darwinism debate, I highly recommend checking out Expelled. Stein isn't giving away his money or looking for Ferris Bueller, but he's entertaining and enlightening.

Hardyisms

After working nine straight 12-hour night shifts, Daniel finally has a day off today. Why would he sleep when he could entertain us?! Here's a scene from today as he works to install a garage door opener at our house:

Daniel: Have any of the neighbors borrowed any tools lately? I can't find my stud finder.

Stephanie: Shawn has the tall ladder next door but no one's been in the garage. I have no idea where the stud finder is.

A few hours later...

Stephanie: Did you find your stud finder?

Daniel: Yeah. I just walked around the garage until it went off.