What Christmas Means To Us......

I saw this Idea on another blog. The way it's supposed to go is every day in the month of December you post one picture of anything that is a part of your holidays (i.e. cookies you baked, presents you wrapped, your child's favorite Christmas book, etc...) If there is a little story that goes with your pic... do tell! I love this idea, but as usual I'm a little late. I also never posted about the banquet so I decided to go ahead and do that today. It will make up for the 13 days that I missed. So I will start tomorrow posting 1 picture a day.

Every year since I was 13 I have spent the first Saturday evening in December at our church's Christmas Banquet. We missed one year because we were on our honeymoon, but the church we visited invited us to theirs so technically we've never missed. We have so much fun. Usually we are involved with the entertainment and games, but this year I was overwhelmed with school so we let the youth leader and his wife handle it. They did a great job.

Above: Some of our youth participated in the skits.

It wouldn't be a banquet without door prizes! One year we actually brought out an old door.


Unwrapping presents with oven mitts is always a fun sport.

Kevin & Anna were so busy entertaining us that I was unable to get a normal shot, but here they are in one of the skits. Next year I'll have to make sure I snap one before you guys change.

Above: My Pastor and his beautiful wife.





Above & Below: Just Us!

P.S. I'm kinda aggravated because I took a beautiful picture of "Plain Old Kristi" and her hubby and it's missing off of my chip! I went to Walgreen's to develop some pics to give to my friends. The machine messed up and printed 12 copies of Kristi's pic and forgot to print the 11 others that I ordered of other people. Now to top that off the machine seems to have eaten the image because it's not here. Oh well at least there are several copies floating around out there!

As we were getting ready to leave for school......

We noticed white stuff floating downward and landing on Eloise's hat.

What ever could it be?

When we arrived at school we were greeted by bunches of tiny noses trying to get a peek of this thing that most had only previously read about in books.



Speaking of books... I caught the librarians playing outside!

Even Sister D and Sister N went outside to investigate.
(2 dear ladies from church who also happen to work at our local public school.)

I was only scheduled to work the second half of the day so I decided to drive around town and check things out.



The picture above is our church.

These workers from the local refinery couldn't help themselves. They got so excited about SNOW in southern Louisiana that they had to pull over and make a snowman.





This is my sissy's mailbox. Isn't it pretty?

This whole snow thing brought out the Calvin in my normally dear sweet hubby. In the above pictures my husband is mercilessly bombing my cousin with snowballs. His lunacy knew no boundaries. As we were riding around town he proceeded to stick his hand out the window. I wasn't paying attention to the fact that he was feverishly scraping snow from the roof of the car because I was on the phone talking to a friend. All of a sudden..... out of nowhere......a snowball slammed into me! I shrieked you are sooooo going to have to call in to work today! He said, "Why I'm not sick? :-D " To which I replied no not sick.....DEAD!!!!!

This is our house dressed in snow.

I stopped by a local meat market to get some homemade spreads for our ladies Christmas get together and was kindly reminded that Christmas is just around the corner. I'm so excited! To me it truly is the most wonderful time of the year and the snow made it even better.

**For those of you who may live where it snows often and in great quantities.....I'll be praying for you. I would never survive living where it stays really cold all winter long. I'm sure some might think we are crazy, but we have the best of both worlds. It almost never snows here and when it does it only snows long enough for us to play in it and then it goes away so we can live our lives.

Well any way, I pray that all of you have a SAFE and MERRY CHRISTMAS season this year.

Step this way please.....

O.K. boys and girls today you are going on an adventure.....



Can anyone give me an example of a grain?......
How about a protein?.......

Now that we have discussed the different types of food that we eat.....

We are going to walk over the big pink tongue and have a seat on one of the teeth....

We are now traveling through the intestines where the blood will pick you up and take you on a tour of the heart, lungs, bones, and skin.

Thanks for stopping by guys.....

We hope you enjoyed your adventure!

Now it's time for the clean up song....Pick up clean up....put your toys away....

Whew that was a workout, but we had a lot of fun and so did the kiddies.

Be sure to stop by and visit for our next volunteer adventure. It will be a reenactment of the Battle of New Orleans at the Chalmette Battlefield in January. I'm sure We'll have plenty to post about. TaTa for now!

P.S. I can't wait till I'm finished with college and I can spend more time with the children and less time studying for exams. SIGH. ;-)

12 Years Ago On This Very Day.....

.....I married the most interesting man I have ever met. My life hasn't been the same since, but I wouldn't trade him for the world. Happy Anniversary to my darling of a husband! I love you....especially when you wear stocking antlers on your head in public so I can win a contest.

The song that is currently playing is our anniversary song. I first heard it on a Celine Dion Christmas CD that hubby bought me several years ago.

I will be posting with more pictures from our annual Christmas Banquet as soon as finals are over. I take my last one for this semester Thursday evening. THANK GOD!

Now I'm cookin like ya mom n 'em .....

For those of you who may not know....this is what we in Louisiana call a Mirliton(milla-tawn). In other places there are various names for these (see cookbook website on side bar). Any way being a native of California, I was unfamilliar with mirliton. In the New Orleans area it is very common to see these stuffed or in casseroles for the holidays. Even though I have been living here for the past 18 years I never attempted this recipe. I don't know why. For some reason I felt like this was something sacred reserved for the eldest cooks in the family. I now know the reason .... most younger women in Louisiana are too busy to fuss with such long traditional recipes. Well any way, this year I took the plunge and tried it out. I felt kind of dumb because when I went to buy them I was surrounded by maw maws and aunts and cousins who have all been cooking these things for years. I wasn't sure how to pick a good one, but around here all you have to do is ask. All of the ladies were eager to share their tips....fat not skinny for stuffing.....smooth skin....no white spots.....boil just till tender....not too much though cause the skins will break when you stuff them....some use just shrimp, but I prefer sausage, but the sausage has to be ground up not in chunks...and the sausage has to be hot sausage, but not too hot...you don't want it to be overpowering. So much advice I couldn't remember when I got home so I picked up the phone and called my dear friend Bayou Maw and she was also more than glad to help. She began ....the smoother the skin the better....no white spots....be sure to remove that floppy white seed thing after you boil em...that parts no good.......
So any way here goes......

1. BOIL THE MIRLITON IN WATER WITH A LITTLE SALT, BUT NOT TOO MUCH. I used 9 mirliton so when I cut them in half I had18 servings.
2.WHEN THEY ARE TENDER ENOUGH TO EASILY STICK A FORK IN, REMOVE AND COOL.
3.SLICE IN HALF LENGTHWISE AND DISCARD FLOPPY WHITE SEED THINGY.
4.CAREFULLY SCOOP OUT AND RESERVE THE MIRLITON FLESH.

5. IN A LARGE DEEP SKILLET MELT A STICK OF BUTTER.
6. SAUTEE FINELY CHOPPED ONIONS & GARLIC( about a cup & 1/2)
7. ADD GROUND FULLY COOKED SAUSAGE(any type-I used smoked sausage and ground it in my food processor.)
8. ADD RESERVED MIRLITON.
9. ADD 1 CONTAINER PICKED WHITE LUMP CRAB MEAT ( juice and all).
10. ADD BOILED SHRIMP(CUT INTO BITE SIZE PIECES).
11. MIX WELL.
12. ADD 3 CUPS SEASOND FRESH BREAD CRUMBS (pieces not the powdery stuff) ONE CUP AT A TIME.

13. IF ITS TOO DRY ADD A LITTLE CHICKEN BROTH...TO WET ADD MORE CRUMBS.
14. FILL RESERVED SHELLS.
15. SPRINKLE THE TOP WITH THE REGULAR POWDERY BREADCRUMBS.
16. PLACE A PAT OF BUTTER ON TOP OF EACH MIRLITON.
17. AT THIS POINT YOU CAN COVER AND REFRIGERATE OVER NIGHT OR YOU CAN PUT THEM STRAIGHT IN THE OVEN UNCOVERED AT 350 FOR ABOUT 30 MIN (BUTER MELTED AND TOP LIGHTLY BROWNED.)

THE PICTURE ABOVE IS WHAT MINE LOOKED LIKE BEFORE I PUT THEM IN THE FRIDGE. I TOOK THEM OUT ABOUT 40 MINUTES BEFORE WE ATE AND POPPED THEM IN THE OVEN.

I KNOW YOU SAW THIS PIC ALREADY, BUT FORGOT TO TAKE PICS OF THE FINISHED PRODUCT FOR THIS POST SO THIS WAS ALL I HAD. ANY WAY EVERYONE ENJOYED THEM. THIS WAS A LITTLE TEDIOUS AND TIME CONSUMING. I GUESS THAT'S WHY IT'S USUALLY A SPECIAL OCCASION KIND OF DISH.

AT ANY RATE I NOW FEEL LIKE A BONAFIDE SOUTH LOUISIANA GIRL. MAYBE NEXT YEAR I'LL HANG AROUND THE PRODUCE DEPARTMENT SO I CAN SHARE MY TIPS WITH SOME CLUELESS NEWBY.