Holiday Traditions

Christmas parties!

This was a Young Womens' gathering of girls from church. We played the most fun game and learned another "magic" trick which was killing all the girls because they couldn't figure it out.

THIS IS THE BEST PURCHASE WE'VE EVER MADE

according to me, but I think my family would agree:

a bread maker!!

As you can see, it makes HUGE loaves! We got one for our wedding from my most excellent boss and his wife (thanks, Evans!) and then it went M.I.A. when we moved to NH 2 years later. Man, what a loss!

So we got a tip from a friend (thanks, Caroline!) on this type, which is what I wanted, after having one just like it; I couldn't remember the name (i think it's Japanese), but with my friend's suggestion, I found it on Amazon and they shipped it the day!

We have LOVED eating and giving away our two favorite loaves: Italian Rosemary Bread and Apple Oat Cinnamon bread. I just put in the liquids, flours/salt, oil or butter and turn it on. 2 hours later (thanks to Rapid Rise yeast) we have a HOT loaf to take someone or cut into.

It has been my favorite things to give away because I don't know ANYONE who doesn't ADORE a hot loaf of bread! During Thanksgiving week, we have away one a day as Thankful Loaf. Now they are Christmas Loaves.

Cookie Swap!

These beauties were the highlight because they were the most unique cookies at this particular Cookie Swap: Carrot, Orange, and Walnut Delights with Cream Cheese Orange Frosting

Recipe thanks to Culinary Mystery Author, Josi Kilpack, Lemon Tart

If you want the recipe, email me: robynb68@gmail.com

Cookies are soft, not too sweet and uniquely flavored

Watching Christmas movies

and the First Presidency & Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast (of our church leaders) Decorating our tree, house, and putting up lights

Having dear friends come to dinner, who are becoming like family to us here in Texas (we love you, Long family and Steve!) and using all our Christmas plates and bowls--yea!! I've realized that I love this festive tradition. I love cooking delicious recipes, deluxe goodies, and having wonderful friends & conversation together in our newly arranged dining room with red and green bowls and plates, fancy napkins with napkin rings (that match of course) and lovely goblets covered in a ring of holly that I picked up, quite unexpectedly at the Dollar Store. I'll admit it, I may be a food snob, but I'm not a decorating snob. If it looks good at a yard sale or Dollar Store, it will good at my house. Our GIGANTIC wreath on the house, covered in light, shiny red ornaments, and big velvety bow came from a yard sale in our neighborhood our first year and just makes the whole front of the house sparkle!

Nestling and snuggling in our beds...

Thanksgiving with Texas friends

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life."

"Gratitude unlocks the very essence of worship. When you walk with gratitude you do not walk with arrogance and conceit and egotism, you walk with a Spirit of Thanksgiving that is becoming to you and will bless your lives."

Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, it also unlocks the doors of heaven and feel God's love.

Gordon B. Hinckley

We were blessed to spend the day with the following families from our church family:

The Ballards (like siblings to Ted and I)

The Sanders (like grandparents for our kids)

The Boss family with great kids (future BYU roommates or dates!)

Relatives of the Ballards

Parents (newly off mission from So. Africa) of the Boss family

We ate a GINORMOUS feast and the tradegy was that there was so much dessert, so many pumpkin pies, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin dips, fruit salad, chocolate moose pie (compliments of me via my sister, Holly), chocolate chip cheesecake pie (moi) and the best pecan pie in Texas, by Lynnette. Her pie will have a special place in my heart and memory because on my first birthday here in Texas, she made me one and brought it over to me on my birthday! I'll always remember how that made me feel; and I'll not forget how it tasted, either!

Ted and Nick spent the morning playing football with Dads and their sons from church as the local middle school. This has been a tradition that Ted started when we moved here: the Turkey Bowl...and the men & boys would start practicing for a couple of weeks beforehand. The men were few this year, so Nick and his little friend, Ben, got to play. Nick said that he sacked Ben, mightily, quite by accident! :)

Maddie got our the Christmas stuff (7 big Tupperwares!) and I was melting chocolate over the double broiler (is it "brioler" or "bioler"?) and whipping up cream and shaving chocolate for the pies. How unbelievable that I FORGOT to take a photo of these gorgeous, rich, chocolate moose pies!! quel dommage!

And finally, at the end of the night, Ted came home and got out all the outside lights and put them up. We will do our bushes later this weekend; we'll get the tree up tomorrow and tidy up in GREAT hopes that someone will come look at our house...

Maddie's Birthday weekend

When we asked Maddie what she wanted to do for her oh-so-special 12th birthday, she said, "Go to the Dallas (LDS) temple..."

We took her and she was able to go inside to see the baptismal font resting on the backs of 12 oxen (representing the 12 tribes of Israel). We brought the names of some of our Czech ancestors and she was baptized in their behalf (vicariously) for them. We believe and follow what the apostle Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:29...that people back then were baptized for their dead, knowing it was a required ordinance to return to God. We do that in our temples all over the world. It was a super special and memorable day! Mom and Dad with Maddie at the LDS Dallas Temple

Of course, Maddie also wanted to celebrate all weekend at school and at home.

She made 3 pans of brownies throughout the week; one for her great friend, Jordan's going-away (moving) Wind Ensemble (band) party, one for another school-event, and the last pan on her actual birthday for her homeroom class. She puts extra chips in the batter and once they come out she sprinkles little pieces of Andes mints. Oooh, delectable!

Blowing out her candles! She wanted cupcakes (neon, but they didn't turn out quite as bright as she'd hoped) and she shaped them into a huge peace sign...

She went swimming with her long-time school friends. She has had these friends since 3rd grade when we moved here; in fact, I remember substitute teaching for all of the 3rd grade classes and knew them all then, too. How fun!!

Sunday night, our good friends and neighbors came over to enjoy ice cream cones in chocolate-dipped cones (Maddie's scrumptious choice). They raced on foot and scooter. Then I got the bright idea (from my childhood) to grab our extra balloons from inside and...

tie them around each kids' ankle (and we got Ted out there, too!)

The kids ran around trying to stomp on the other's balloon, while trying to protect their own balloon. It was crazy and perfect birthday fun!

Maddie brings such brightness, compassion, creativity, and fun to our family. We love her like mad and can't wait to see the great things she does in her life!

Against all odds: BYU rocks it!

We came home to this set up in our TV room:

The kids stayed home and watched the BYU OU game that we attended in Dallas at the new Cowboys stadium (more like it's own planet!)

We were lucky enough to have visitors from Provo, my dear kindred spirit friend of all time, Christy Bacon Boots and her husband and parents. Her nephew is captain of the BYU football team, so they were excited to come to the game and stay at Buckwalter Lodge, where the company is fabulous and the food is almost as good :) Here's the whole Bacon (well 1/8th of them) clan after church. We had them visit us in NH several times and this is their first time to visit us in TX. I think they like New England better. All we could offer them here was the Stockyards Rodeo and some steaks :)

The JUMBO screen at the game!!

The groovy friends who gifted us some tickets to the game! We love you, Ballards!!

Ted loved this sign when we saw it on the Jumbotron (is that what those are called?)

Final score: Amazing outcome! Fans went wild. OU was devastated, rightly so.

Most of you have probably never seen mild-mannered, introverted TED look like this!

Came home (at midnight) to find Nick in his shirt & hat w/ football snoozing soundly in living room...

and Maddie was zonked, in Nick's Max Hall jersey, his knitted Y hat and remotes nearby.

Peach Pickin'

A kindred-spirit friend (and our kids' piano teacher) invited us to go peach picking with her last month. She is from back east and like us (when we lived in New Hampshire) used to spend summers picking fresh fruit from local farms. We used to go blueberry and strawberry picking every summer. We have missed it much and now had the chance to go peach picking here. Texas peaches are reknown and some towns even have Peach Festivals.

Tons of fat, furry, juicy peaches!!!

Filling our buckets...

They were so delicioso that we dove in before we left the property! Then they serve you up some fresh peach soft-serve ice cream! Deluxe! I topped mine off with some freshly sliced peaches that we had just picked. Super fun tradition that we now have here in Texas. Thanks, Caroline, for inviting us!!

Small town Fourth of July

For the past five years we have celebrated the Fourth in our small town's parade. It is one of the very enjoyable things about a small town, although the town is growing very quickly and the celebration gets bigger and bigger every year...

The kids decorate their bikes and ride a few blocks from Mr. Jim's Pizza to the Haslet park. Maddie was so excited this year to have her big beach cruiser; we could barely fit in the car, but with her incredible determination and positive outlook, she thought up a plan that worked and we got it there sans truck!

Here are the kids with friends from our church and town. I think the Wildes (in car and w/ blue balloon) have been in this parade for the past 5 years with us! New friends, the Johansons, joined us for their first parade as new to town.

Our kids were first in the long line of kids riding bikes this year (following all the fire trucks, church floats, and old fashioned cars). Ted was really wishing he had his own "General Lee" (Dukes of Hazzard) to ride around in the parade...he did find his "inner redneck" later on as you'll see in the photos to come--

More of our wonderous neighborhood/church buddies, the Johnstons and the Smiths.

And here are some dear friends and cute chicks: Tasha and Maegan. I love these two and appreciate their friendship and the fact that they live so close to me!

What would a 100 degree parade march be without snow cones??! So then we get to the evenings festivities. We stayed inside all day because is was SO HOT! The kids and Ted played the Wii for about 2-3 hours which is probably a record. Our summer has been busy so far, so they have rarely played. Ted was thrilled with the chance to be a couch potato and the kids were equally excited to beat him at all their games.

I went to work making the BEST homemade brownies (rich and fudgy) and a cinnamon apple cobbler. Quite delish! Our friends, the Watsons, brought us a jar of homemade salsa which was a real treat! Nice holiday gift!

Then two families that we knew in New Hampshire (who now live here within about 10-15 miles of us) came over for dinner and fireworks. All the men work at Fidelity Investments which is what brought us all here to this part of Texas.

The guy below walked in our front door in a ghetto "Rednecks Rule" baseball hat with mullet attached...we were cracking up! Ted was inspired; Nick laughed as he and this guy have joked since Nick was 4 years old about mullets...

Ted had to go find his mullet wig, Freedom Bandana, and his Witness Protection Program T-shirt (he always jokes about getting into the WPP).

Sparklers, of course...

The Watsons and the Olsons. We have a great time reminiscing with these families and a lot of laughs due to the great combined humor of the 3 men in this photo. We are glad they live by us and remember us back when Maddie was a baby (and later Nick when he came along; he was born in NH). Old friends are fun to have near! We look forward to more holidays away from home (when all of us are in TX we are without relatives nearby) with these friends from our old "home" in NH.

Watching our small-time fireworks was a bit scary for our friends' little kids, but the later show put on by our subdivision was fabulous! Huge, bright fireworks for about 15 minutes, once it got dark. And all from the comfort of our front yard. Now that is a great Fourth: good food, good friends, no crowds, no driving, no traffic coming home. Ahhhhh.

Come on back, now, ya hear--

(isn't that the final line of all the Dukes of Hazzard episodes?)

see you next year!

~ Ted, a/k/a Ricky Joe, and Ryan, Lee Wayne

Baseball finale

Ahh, the bittersweet end of baseball season: sweet because the weather is getting unbearably hot and humid, but sad because Ted (head coach) and Nick have enjoyed the season SO much and our team has seen so much improvement!

Nick up to bat. Number 32 comes from BYU's football, Dennis Pitta's number... Nick played 2nd base and at the last game, played 3rd base.

Here is on base after hitting the ball...if I can dig up some more exciting photos, I will. The games they won, he would come home so psyched, so happy, singing and tooting his team's horn like crazy! It was something I enjoyed hearing so much!

BIG SEASON FINISH POOL PARTY!

at the team mom's house in Haslet

Maddie loves all the team parties and participates like the team cheerleader and PMA specialist! She is a huge supporter of Nick and his teams. We love it!

Nick and long-time friend, Michael, whose dad was an asst. coach. Thanks, Charles!!

Coaches handing out trophies to all the boys.

There is Ted surrounded by his great asst. coaches. He loves coaching baseball, just like his dad did and we LOVE that he is carrying on the tradition! Great friendships develop with the wonderful coaches and dads and it blesses our life.

Then Ted got a game of waterbasketball going with his team--they loved it!

Nick is cracking up at the boys who are tackling Ted in the water. Plus, I think Nick just made a 3 pointer from the sidelines... :)