Happy New Year!

The Ending of Another Year

When we look back and contemplate
What we’ve been through this year,
We’ll praise You, Lord, for all You’ve done!
Your faithfulness is clear.

~ Sper

Sausage Cheese Muffins & Ham Cheddar Biscuits

Kathy and I made these yummy breakfast items for church last month. They are super easy and super delicious!

Sausage Cheese Muffins
1lb bulk sage pork sausage
1 can (10 ¾ oz) condensed cheddar cheese soup, undiluted
½ cup milk
3 cups biscuit/baking mix

Cook sausage, drain. Combine all and add biscuit mix until moistened. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full and bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.
Makes 2 dozen muffins

Ham Cheddar Biscuits
2 ¼ cups biscuit/baking mix
¾ cup milk
¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese
½ cup chopped fully cooked ham

Mix all together and drop by roundfulls on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.
Makes 20 biscuits.

Christmas Weekend

I feel like it has been forever since I really shared what is going on in my life right now. Here is a little glimpse of this weekend and then maybe later this week I will post random pictures of things I have been wanting to share but just never got around to sharing them.

Mom and Dad arrived Thursday night. Mom spent most of her weekend under 3 blankets and sleeping. That is so unusual for her so you know how sick she was. Since Dad was at the house I put him and Paul to work. They got all the items on my to do list done and I am so thankful for that. It was a huge blessing to me because it helps me get better organized and settled in at the house. Mike's antler fan was hung up in my bedroom and I love it! The pot rack was hung which allowed me to unpack all the pots. The magnetic knife block got put up and my good knives unpacked. I can't say it felt like Christmas because honestly it just didn't. But on a positive note, it was a great weekend of getting things accomplished.
We went to church Sunday morning and had a wonderful time. Mom was able to bless us with her piano playing which was a huge blessing to our normal piano player who was able to stay home and take care of her sick husband. After church we got something quick to eat and off to the airport we went to drop Mom and Dad off for their flight.
After that we went to Mandalay Bay to walk around. We took lots of pictures while we walked around. It was fun doing some window shopping.
The reason we went to Mandalay Bay is because Kathy and Paul bought me Lion King tickets for Christmas. They were excellent seats...front and center. The show was spectacular. Whoever thought up all those costumes is very creative. The performers were so talented. My favorite actor was the young Simba... that little boy was adorable but really everyone did a fabulous job! Now it is time to get myself organized to start a new year. I am striving to become more organized like Mike was. He had a special gift for organization. It came so naturally to him. I hope to one day achieve half of his organizational skills.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Thanks to Kathy for flying Mom and Dad out. Thanks to Dad and Paul for working so hard to get my to do list done! And thanks to Mom for playing the piano on Sunday on such short notice and especially since you weren't feeling well.

Surprise!

Kathy surprised me and bought tickets for Mom and Dad to fly in tonight. Isn't she the greatest! Looking forward to seeing them and spending some time together. Thank you Kathy!

DPP ~ Day 18

This is a very different Christmas season and to be honest I am ready for it to be over. Kathy, Paul and I decided we would go ahead and open gifts today. We are all ready to get the decorations put away and the house back in order. Kathy is showing Paul her cool new gloves I bought for her stocking. They have special little pads on the tips of the fingers so she can use her iPhone with her gloves on. Hopefully these gloves will keep her hand nice and warm.

Poem

I found this poem in a stack of Mike's papers. I don't know who wrote the poem but I wanted to share it.

This morning when I awakened and saw the sun above, I softly said "Good morning Lord. Bless everyone I love."
Right away I thought of you and said a loving prayer, that He would bless you specially and keep you free from care.
I thought of all the happiness a day could hold in store, I wished it all for you because no one deserves it more.
I felt so warm and good inside, my heart was all aglow,
I know God heard my prayer for you, He hears them all you know.
I thought of all the happiness that you have given me, I thanked my Lord for giving you to our family.
They say memories are golden, well maybe that is true,
I never wanted memories, I only wanted you.
A million times I'll need you; a million times I'll cry
If love could have saved you, you never would have died.
If I could have a lifetime wish, a dream that would come true,
I'd pray to God with all my heart, for yesterday and you.
...I'll be seeing you.

DPP ~ Day 16

I am sorry I am doing such a horrible job at keeping up with the December Photo Project. To be honest I just have not gotten into the Christmas spirit like I normally would.
Today was a long day at work. Paul had to come over after work and fix a computer. After the computer got fixed we went out to eat at Kona Grill. It was delicious! On the way out of the plaza I noticed these candy cane decorations. I thought they really made everything look so bright and Christmasy.

The Meaning of the Christmas Wreath

Every Christmas wreath is more than just a decoration...

it's a special reminder of Jesus, the reason for our celebration.

The circle of a Christmas wreath is a never-ending ring,

a reminder of eternal love from our Lord and King.

The Christmas wreath is a sign of welcome, inviting all to enter in...

a reminder of Christ's invitation for all to come to Him.

The middle of a Christmas wreath is a bare and empty space,

a reminder of what life would be without Christ's love and grace.

So each time you see a Christmas wreath hanging from a door,

may your heart rejoice in the One that Christmas is truly for! ~Holley Gerth

Say Thank You!

If you go to this Xerox site, http://www.letssaythanks.com/ you can pick out a thank you card, Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq.

You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services. How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!!

It is FREE and it only takes a few minutes of your time. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these?

Our soldiers over there need to know we are behind them. This is a wonderful way to say thank you. Please take the time to do this and to pass it on for others to do. We can never say thank you enough.

Thanks for taking the time to support our military!

DPP ~ Day 13

Thursday a coworker of mine came into work and gave me a gift... I was so touched...it actually brought back a flood of memories when Mike got together a 12 days of Christmas for me. He had worked so hard to get everything created and organized for me to have gifts each day that coordinated with the 12 days of Christmas song.

These gifts from my coworker are called 12 work days before Christmas. So I got a gift on Thursday, Friday and today. Thanks Dee Ann for thinking of me and brightening my days!

DPP ~ Day 8

Every time I look at these cute little snowmen I think of the precious family that gave them to me. I am also reminded of a picture I took of Betsy right after we were given the snowmen... Betsy sat in the middle between the snowmen and she was this cute little puppy then. Oh how time flies!

Frozen Blueberry Muffins

Took these to church on Sunday and got lots of great reviews!

Frozen Blueberry Muffins
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups frozen blueberries, unthawed

Topping
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl. Mix wet ingredients together in another bowl. Mix all together and pour into muffin tins. Sprinkle with topping and bake at 375 for 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Makes 2 dozen

DPP ~ Day 6 & 7

Day 6

I love listening to music while I work in the kitchen but the stereo in the living room is broken so... Merry Christmas to me! Sunday afternoon we were at the outlet mall and I found the Bose store. I wasn't planning on buying anything but they had a great deal on refurbished units. I am so happy! Now Kathy and I are working on a new project of getting all of our CDs put into our iTunes account so we can eventually get rid of all of our CDs.

Day 7

Work has been crazy busy and because of this my desk has piles of work all over it.

DPP ~ Day 5

I love it when a plan comes together!

After my baking day yesterday I was concerned about today. See, my wonderful sister signed us up to bring refreshments to church today.

I had gotten three recipes from a Taste of Home magazine that my Mom had so I was ready with a plan.

I am so glad that everything turned out this morning. Thank you Lord for that little blessing!

I will post the recipes later this week so be on the lookout.

DPP ~ Day 4

What a day!

Let's just say I was having an off day! Kathy volunteered us to bring dessert for our church Christmas banquet. We were suppose to make enough dessert for 60+ people. I got in the kitchen this morning and it seemed like everything I touched got messed up. The plan was to make 2 lemon bundt cakes, 2 double layer chocolate cakes and 2 batches of chocolate chip cookies. The lemon cake cooked beautiful but when it was time to take it out of the oven and flip it onto the cooling rack some of the cake got stuck in the bundt pan. I pulled out the 2 round chocolate cakes out of the oven. One came out great, the other one crumbles to pieces (see picture above).

The second round of cakes weren't any better. This time half the lemon bundt cake stayed in the pan. The chocolate cakes came out of the oven and they looked amazing! They came right out of the pan nice and clean but then they got stuck on the cooling rack. I was able to get the one flipped around and everything was ok but when I tried to flip the second one it split in half and one half crumbled all to pieces. I was worried to even try to make the cookies after the morning I was having but how can you mess up chocolate chip cookies. I had a few issues with spilling things and getting water all over the place when I was washing dishes but atleast the cookies turned out good.

Although the morning turned out to be such a mess the evening was fabulous. The church banquet was alot of fun. The food was delicious and the fellowship wonderful. I am really enjoying this church that God has lead us to. Below is a picture of the beautiful table setting at the banquet. Kathy and I made the "name tags" on Friday night. I think they turned out great.

By the way - we ended up buying cakes to take for dessert along with our cookies for the children.

DPP ~ Day 3

I put up the Christmas tree today... I didn't get the lights on it and it isn't decorated but at least the tree is up. I think this is the latest in the year I have ever put up my Christmas tree. I am one of those people that like to put it up before Thanksgiving. I just enjoy sitting on the couch looking at the white lights on the tree and listening to Christmas music. I can't wait to finish decorated this year so that I can do just that!

DPP ~ Day 2

Today was Paul's 35th birthday... since we all had to work we decided to go out to dinner after work. Of course we went to one of Paul's favorite restaurants ~ Panevino. Everything was so delicious. Kathy told our waiter that it was Paul's birthday and for dessert this is what they brought out to Paul. Isn't that clown the cutest thing ever?

2010 December Photo Project

Last year I participated in the December Photo Project (DPP) and I really enjoyed it. Since I haven't been blogging much lately I thought this was the perfect encouragement that I needed.

One of the ladies I work with decorated her office for each season of the year. This week she put her Christmas decorations and I thought I would share the cute decoration she hung on the door. I love the little red bird peeking out.

Looking forward to seeing all the other photos posted for DPP2010.