December and Christmas - 2016

I really was going to post in January but obviously that didn't happen.  Things move along too swiftly at Nice Smart Acre.  Now that I want to post videos of Tulips kids I better get this post out.

Emily made a bunch of bread again from Lucy... even cinnamon swirl.

I have been crocheting edging on the edges of handkerchiefs (now that all the temples have been dedicated and we don't need hosanna cloths anymore). Then I embroidered initials on them... freehand after looking at fonts on the internet.

Rather proud of myself...

Although after doing the first N part of the M I thought maybe I'd give it to somebody whose name starts with an N instead of an M :)

There is a ton of stuff going on at Temple Square during the holidays so Aaron had us go up there one afternoon/evening.  We listened to a men's group sing in the Joseph Smith Memorial building and then a children's group.

It was fun.  Jared, Amy, Gage and a couple foster kids came with us too!

Moms been doing some house purging of stuff and brought us a bunch of quart canning jars (anyone else need some more?) so I decided to try that dry canning beans method in the pressure canner.  It was fun!  Aaron used the beans in broth in soup and they were way good.

Oh, and we also canned a couple batches of cream of turkey soup too using up the rest of the Thanksgiving turkey broth.  Turned out great.

The Choir sang the week before Christmas...

Note to self, have the choir come early to go over the music, even if it is just for 5 minutes!  I said we weren't going to cuz we had to practice after church again since they were singing ON Christmas as well.  Still learning here.  That's what they get when they call lay choir directors.

On the way to NM for the holidays (so thankful for the nice weather this time!), Daisy moseyed onto Aaron's lap.  Best seat in the car!

Lighting farolitos Christmas eve.  I didn't take a lot of pictures this year of Christmas... was having too much fun :)

They wouldn't stay lit because of the wind..

But we all tried..

Bethanie showing off the ones by the house that were a bit protected.

All the kids love helping to light then.

Some with lighters :)

Others with candles.

Everyone has to help!

That way it gets done before it gets too dark.

I wanted a picture of caroling to send to everyone so I did it at the Packs house... seemed appropriate :)

Aaron and his Christmas eve present... Wise men if I ever saw one!

Waiting on the stairs Christmas morning..

Always some shenanigans...

Almost everyone!  The dogs try to participate..

My view...

Aaron got an alto recorder from Emily!

Daisy helped (I need to remember to record longways!)


And I got sunshine in a jar!  I love Solar stuff :)

Hmm... guess I was planning this to be two posts...

Thanksgiving... 2016

I do mean to keep up on this.. its tough :) Work is crazy and I had way too much fun in NM not doing anything else...

The really important part of Thanksgiving was the fire..

Emily likes fire..

And rubbing butter on Turkeys in preparation of wrapping with tinfoil and placing in a pit of coals..

Mom and Dad came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us!  Its because they love us.
Mom helped (dancing like the carrot)

Dad helped too.. by bringing Mom to us :).

We had a great meal (apparently I only took pictures of the food, not of us eating it)

The plate... do you like our purple mashed potatoes? From Emily's garden of course.

Nathan and Neita invited us to see the lights on temple square with their family.. I took just a few pictures.

We all got hot chocolate cuz it was kinda cold..

See mom behind there taking a picture?

Are you impressed with my photographic skills? Me neither.

Then Bluffdale had a fun tractor light parade that Jared wanted to participate in but he was still in Oakley... so Aaron drove the tractor instead! It was way fun.

Here he comes!

There he is!

A couple videos...



And they had a spot we could get a picture with the Grinch (didn't want to wait in line for Santa)

Dad looked a little lost in all the pictures :).  It was a fun little comunity thing to do and the hot chocolate and cookies were free!

We didn't win a prize (didn't know there were prizes) but next year we are going to pull Clark's trailer filled with farolitos (there is controversy as to the correct name of christmas paper bag lanterns, or at least there is in Northern NM according to Wikipedia. So since my parents live in Northern NM I'm trying to keep the discussion alive) , ristras, Pottery, and maybe a cross or a lady of Guadalupe.  New Mexico Christmas!

Sunday dinner we had Turkey soup with homemade noodles over mashed potatoes (in the pressure cooker)... Always the best way to use up the turkey bones broth (2 turkeys make lots of broth).

Then it snowed... getting off the commuter train in SLC...

Waiting for the train to go home...

And getting off the train at Draper...

K, next up, December!  I have gotten out of the habit of taking pictures so just FYI.  Will be pretty sparse... and Late :).

Bringing in the Harvest and other stuff...

Just so you know... I'm posting up a storm... kinda.

This is all about bringing in the harvest.  Should have posted this in November too but...

This is a pan of tomatillo sauce, some onions and garlic in the upper corner and peppers in the middle.

Roasted... so pretty.

And now all blended up ready to be canned..

Pretty tomatoes... This year the yellow and orange did much better than than the red tomatoes.

Canning from that day.

I guess Halloween is the other stuff!  Aaron suggested I use some cookie cutters to decorate my pumpkin for Halloween..

Turned out pretty good.  Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of our pumpkins... Emily's is to the right and shows a nice tree scene.  It just doesn't show up in my picture. I think Emily got a good picture...

Emily got ambitions and made tons of Lucy bread (Lucy is our sourdough starter)!  It was way good and the nieces and nephews were suitably impressed at Sunday dinner (not pictured, English muffins).

This is what happens when you wash all the aprons together...

more canning.. tomatoes, apples and apple juice.  Aaron pressed it and I wanted to see what it would taste like if we canned it... tastes like apple juice!

Most Fridays I make pizza on Naan bread made with Lucy.  WAY easy.  and I put squash and fresh tomatoes on it when we have them.  Also use our own Mozzarella.

More canning... Apples and salsa.

Applesauce, salsa, tomatoes, apple juice,

Apple jelly (used up the rest of our small cans)

Emily asked me to bring in the celery.

Look!  It looks like celery!

There was quite a bit from the two she planted... it multiplied to the side.

We dried a bunch but its pretty sad to have all that work go into one small jar (not pictured).

So Emily canned cream of celery soup!  It was way easy and tasted great in the green bean casserole Emily made for Thanksgiving.  We will probably can more cream of soups since it was so easy and came out great.

We also stored 2 bunches in water in the fridge (the two with some roots left on them) so we could use fresh for Thanksgiving.  There is still part of a bunch on our counter cuz it looks pretty and has started to grow more roots and leaves.  Its an experiment on how best to keep celery.

This is us bringing in the corn stalk harvest for the goats...

Emily had bought a chipper.. the goats don't eat the stalks unless they are in smaller bits.

We got quite a few bags stored away for winter!

Since Jared helped us, Aaron and I went and helped him chipper up a bunch of his brush pile.  Then we brought the chips back to our house and mulched some of our front garden beds.

Unfortunately the bees didn't work out again this year.  Aaron opened up the hive to discover they had left rather than died as Emily feared.  It appears the queen was killed the last time Aaron and Alec opened up the hive and they tried making a new one but for some reason it didn't work out so they all left.

It was nice to know the reason as to why it failed but as Emily says, this operation is getting rather expensive if we have to buy bees annually...

More canning... applesauce, tomatillos, and beets.

And just in case you are wondering, this is about how much our chickens weigh.

Aaron made a chicken feeder such that the chickens open up the lid themselves by stepping on a flat lever.  This way Emily doesn't have to feed as many wild birds since chickens/ducks weigh more than sparrows/doves :).

I need to get a picture of the final product.  Emily and Aaron are still working on getting the proper balance on the weights and having the fowl understand what they need to do.

K... hopefully next post will be about Thanksgiving.  Try to get it in before more Christmas craziness.