Leah 'Groucho' Marx

Just had to share this one with my dear readers. Leah has been digging around in a bag of Halloween costume stuff that Sarah bought this year and has been quite entertaining the last few days. At Matt's birthday party yesterday she donned this one to share with our guests. We all got a good chuckle at this one.

My Baby Turned 19!

Today my oldest baby celebrated his 19th birthday. Hard to believe he is that old now. I don't want to even think about how old I am. The party included my sister and my aunts and mother. It was a quiet celebration (which is what a 19 yr old guy wants when family is involved).

After the party ended we feasted on a delectable smoked turkey breast that my step-dad smoked for me. It was the moistest turkey I've ever eaten in my life and I'm not sure if I can eat turkey any other way now. Matt really enjoyed it.

After I rested a bit (my feet were killin' me by this time), Leah and I proceeded to pull our sugar cookie dough out of the fridge and rolled out and cut-out our Christmas cookies. We got them all baked. . . .about 40 cookies total. . . . and we'll decorate them Monday after school.

Today started off at 59°, but by late morning we had a 20° drop to 38°!!! It was a crazy weather day and not conducive to smoking a turkey I understand.

Definitely livin' in Oz

Today we had wind warnings all day long. It's no wonder they made Dorothy from Kansas in the Wizard of Oz. Check out my local weather station data on WeatherUnderground. Temps warmed up to a balmy 56°. Warm enough to have gotten the last of my tulips planted if it weren't for the wind from hell blowing out there. So I put ideas of gardening in December aside and set my sights on other more base pursuits. Food!

I started my holiday baking today, but first on the agenda was to get Matt's (my oldest) birthday cake baked for tomorrow's traditional family get-together. I made him the requested chocolate-peanut butter cake. It's a delectable recipe I found online. We'll see if it becomes a family favorite or a one-hit dud.

Next up was mixing up a batch of sugar cookie dough so Leah, my youngest, and I can do cutouts and decorate them up in our annual ritual. I also started making the white-chocolate covered pretzels and whipped up a quick batch of Puppy Chow.

I decided that since my sister, brother and I will not be exchanging gifts this year (at my brother's request) that I would prepare a little sweets package for them. They can't object to a homemade gift now could they? So I set aside some of the chocolate pretzels and Puppy Chow for their gift and saved the rest for us to nibble on over the next couple of weeks.

The pretzels are such a tedious concoction to make at home, that I wish I didn't love these little treats so much. I got one sheet pan made of them and split that for Shawn and Kate. I still have lots o' chocolate and lots o' pretzels to make more for us.

People Puppy Chow

1 (12 oz.) box Crispix cereal

1 stick butter

1 c. peanut butter

12 oz. pkg. chocolate chips

2 to 3 c. powdered sugar

Microwave on HIGH the butter, peanut butter and chocolate chips for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour the melted mixture over the cereal and stir until the cereal is thoroughly covered. Pour the coated cereal in a paper sack with the powdered sugar and shake until it is covered with the sugar. Pour this onto wax paper to cool and dry. Seal in plastic containers and may be stored in the refrigerator until time to serve.

Serves size: 1/2 cup.

Makes 16 cups