Twas the Night Before Christmas.........

And all through this house, creatures Were stirring, I think even a mouse....
The stockings were hung by the kitchen with some care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be here.......
Our Jonathan, Finallyyyyyy....nestled snug in his bed,
Certainly with visions of Avatar & Legos in his head,
And Mamma back in her jammies, & Seannie with his Kindle in hand once AGAIN!!!!

With the dilemma of wrapping still not complete,
I set my mind to better visions of what I'd rather defeat,

Our tree is fake & 3 foot tall at most,
My father makes fun from the southern coast,
But, simplicity this year is what truly matters most.....

Boxes arrive with last minute gifts,
this year we stay home and avoid all family tiffs ;)

A special envelope arrives that says "do not open until Christmas Day",
Ha, yeah right, no possible way,
It must be urgent as far as I deem,
The best gift on earth, gift certificates for massive amounts of Ice Cream,

So at age 31, I still do not listen,
My Dad will laugh & smile with glisten,

I say silent prayers for all of our soldiers near and far,
Having great pride for them all, for they are all Exceptionally above par,

So tonight, this one night, regardless of health,
My Husband & Son define my great wealth,

I sit next to my husband with love in my heart,
Knowing that soon we again shall be apart,
I will enjoy some hot cocoa & snuggle with Sean,
& have peaceful dreams of Ms. Aida's delicious flan..........

Merry Christmas to all, and to all A Good Night...............

Thank you for a Wonderful Dinner Sanchez family!

Christmas Cookin

It's a tradition every single Thanksgiving & Christmas Eve to make Orange Glazed Cinnamon Rolls by the one & only Pillsbury for Breakfast. My Dad started this & it has lived on in my home for 12 years now. I have had many homemade Cinnamon Rolls over the years, but to me and mine....none compare ;) It's simple & if you take them out of the oven at the perfect time, they melt in your mouth.
I think Sean enjoys the blog even more than I and he is behind the camera encouraging an update. Me in my Christmas PJ's making the crust for Misti's simple Double Layer Pumpkin Pie.
The crust is simple, 1 1/4th cup of crumbled Graham Cracker Crust, 3 Tablespoons Sugar, & 1 1/3rd cup of melted butter.
Bake in the oven on 350 degrees for 8 minutes or cool in the refrigerator for an hour.
Fixins you need for the pie.
The bottom layer is 4 oz cream cheese, softened, 1 tablespoon milk or half & half, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 1/2 cool whip (extra creamy). Mix & spread.
For the filling 1 cup cold milk, 1 can pumpkin (16 0unce), 2 package jello vanilla instant pudding (4 servings), 1 tsp, ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, & I modified by adding 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie seasoning and sprinkle on top of pie.
Misti's recipe says "set 4 hours in refrigerator and serve your daddy with a great big loving smile ;) ". Misti made this pie for my Dad several years ago at Thanksgiving & it has now become his, Jonathan's, & Sean's favorite. I myself do not like pumpkin pie, but I must say, if you have to eat it, this one goes down with the least amount of "GAG" HA, every pumpkin lover seems to love it & I'm bringing this one to our friends house for Christmas Eve Dinner!
Merry Christmas Eve all........

Fool's Toffee Recipe

Here's the Recipe Kristy, from the kitchen of Elissa

Fool’s Toffee

1. cup butter 3 –4 dozen
1. cup packed dark brown sugar

36 2x2 – inch saltine crackers

11½ ounces milk chocolate chips

½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I used Heath Toffee)

In small saucepan over medium – high heat, blend butter and brown sugar. Heat to boiling and boil for 4 minutes. Cover 10 X 15 – inch jelly roll pan with foil and butter lightly. Place single layer of saltines on foil close together. Pour butter mixture over crackers, spreading evenly. Bake at 375 degrees for 5 minutes. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Allow to soften and spread evenly over cooked crackers. Sprinkle with nuts. Refrigerate until cool. Break into pieces and store in tin container in refrigerator. Can be kept in refrigerator for 1-2 weeks.

Divinely simple. Simply divine!

My Husband, Fools Toffee, Flowers, & Friends

Sean bought me these festive Christmas flowers for the table.......
They looked so pretty on the table & two of my friends stopped in tonight and visited with me for quite a long time. It was so great to eat, chat, and laugh with them. We did a bit of eating & a lot of laughing.
Thanks to our sweet friend Elissa, I was able to make "fools toffee" today. She sent me the recipe for the 2nd time and I actually followed the directions this time ;). I did however use toffee pieces rather than nuts.
It's so tasty & makes great goody gifts.


Winter 2009........

Invictus

Aside from Morgan Freeman, who makes a fabulous Nelson Mandela, there's this to savor about Invictus, a rosy tale of racial reconciliation neatly wrapped in a triumphalist sports movie: The film is blessedly free of Obama parallels. Also, we could use a happy global moment, and Eastwood picks one out of the otherwise rocky history of South Africa, when the country's first post-apartheid president stepped out of the jail where he'd languished for 27 years and firmly set aside revenge politics in favor of national unity.

An Inspiring Movie worth seeing, I loved it & for me it was well worth the outing!