Christmas

So I'm excited to say that in my stocking I found a new memory card for my camera so I have picture capability once more.

Christmas was a wonderful weekend with way too much food. We decided to try a new tradition where we switched the Big feast with the Snack foods. So Christmas Eve we had a Bocce ball tournament and our nice Christmas Dinner. Then we went over to Nicki's house for a Christmas Eve party and enjoyed sausage sandwiches, clam dip, and treats from other families.

Christmas day we had all our snack foods, more sausage sandwiches, more clam dip (I brought way too much to Nicki's party), crackers with meat and cheese, deviled eggs, little smokies cooked in bbq sauce, sfinci's, etc. Along with our stocking goodies, we had enough leftover's that we did not have to make anything else for the next 2 days.

As for gifts we had a simple christmas and the kids enjoyed their presents.

There were two gifts that brought the best reaction but for some reason can't seem to load video so I'll just have to tell you. We were able to get Kyren a drum set. She was so surprised! That's probably the most excited I have seen her, she was speechless. As for the other one we were able to fix the family trampoline. The mat had ripped over a year ago so it was replaced and set up for use Christmas morning, second best reaction of the morning!

Kids enjoying the family gift

Thanksgiving

So, My camera is broken so I wasn't able to take any pictures so I'll just recap it. Sam and Melinda and their family as well as Nicki and Chad and their family all came for Thanksgiving weekend. The older kids had a blast playing and hanging out. They went to the store or park multiple times, anything to get out of the house. The smaller children played happily with each other as well. I am quite pleased by how well these cousins all get along.

Well, without pictures I can't think of many details so that's about it.

Butchering a Chicken

So we butchered our first chicken today, or should I say Jason did. The deal when I agreed to get chickens is that I would not be part of that process at all! So after butchering and de-feathering said chicken we learned a few things.

1. I did not handle it too well, even though he was outside and I was in. Just those few glances I caught with the head still on with a slit throat, or it waiting to be killed hanging upside down in a "killing cone" was just too much for me.

2. Our knives are too dull. Even after all the sharpening, it took a pair of kitchen shears and hacking away at it with a couple of knives to get it done. Glad I was not doing the hacking!

3. De-feathering a chicken is not as easy as some you-tube videos say it is. While the large feathers came off not too bad, you are stuck with all these tiny little feathers that don't want to come off. Which is presenting a problem with how to cook this thing.

4. After killing one chicken with dull knives, giving the other one away doesn't seem like a bad idea.

5. Put free chicken on craigslist and you will get 5 calls within 1 hour, first one within 10 minutes.

So, I finally did it. I promised a certain sister-in-law that I would join the blogging world if she joined a competition that our family was doing. That was about 5 months ago but I never said when I would do it. The funny thing is that i actually made this blog up probably over a month ago. This is exactly why I stayed away for so long, I just don't know how much I'll update, and then I'll be one of those that people say, "why don't you update your blog already!" You may not say it but I know your thinking it, because I think it too. So once again here it is. I know most people don't read these and just look at pictures so here's a picture that has nothing to do with what I'm taking about.

Jason updated the blog, hi, very busy, and most of family is sick.