Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007 has come and gone. The celebration this year was very low-key compared to years past. There were only 4 of us in attendance - Emily, Blake, Britney and me, but we managed to have a delightful few days together. The highlight for me was all the game playing we did. Most games require at least 4 players - the chick and I only constitute 2 - so we don't get to play games until someone comes to visit. Blake and Brit indulged us and we spent most of our time together competing, eating and just enjoying each other's company.


I'm sure one of reasons the game playing was such fun this year is because I actually won - more than once. I won at Blocus and twice at Settlers of Catan. Wow!
I was not so lucky at Ticket to Ride. Fun, fun games! Thanks Blake & Britney.


Now on to another subject. On Saturday Emily and I went to the beauty shop to get all gussied up for the New Year. The chick has come to believe that blondes do not have more fun, so she opted for a much darker hair color this time. Really changes her looks and makes her eyes much bluer - don't you think? I am now more strawberry blonde. . . sometimes change is good and you can always grow it out and change the color next time! :)

Christmas Baking

I came home from work on Friday and this is the sight that greeted me. Lots and lots and lots of cookies!! The chick's last final was on Thursday. Friday was her first day of vacation from books, papers, tests, etc... and she spent the whole day in the kitchen making cookies! She made sugar cookie angels, stars, hollys, trees. . . chocolate chip cookies, Martha Stewart chocolate marshmellow cookies, chocolate and caramel wrapped pretzels and chocolate toasted coconut candy. Friday evening we prepared about 15 "goodie" plates and some "goodie" bags. What fun it was to go around delivering our Christmas bounty all weekend. My little chick is quite incredible!! I thank Heavenly Father every day for the blessing of a sweet, loving, talented daughter!


Here is the recipe for the Martha Stewart cookies - they are yummy!


Martha Stewart Chocolate Marshmellow Cookies

1. Cream together 1 stick of butter and 1 cup of sugar

2. Wisk together 1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Then add to the creamed mixture.

3. Add 1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk

Drop by ice cream scoop on baking pan and bake at 375 for 10-12 min. (Just until cookies are firm to the touch) Cut a large marshmello in half. Put the sticky side down on the cookie and put back in the over for 2 minutes. When cookies are cooled frost and enjoy!

Frosting

2 cups powdered sugaar
4 Tb. meltes butter (cooled)
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Christmas is coming and the old hen is back!

I'm back online - Yeah! My computer crashed! It was devasting around here for a while! Hooray!! I have a computer again just in time for Christmas blogging! I am posting some pictures of how my home looks this year. The chick and I have had a lot of fun setting everything up and trying out some new decorations this year. We quite like it! It really makes a difference when the home you live in is really yours and not someone elses. Which leads me to think of all the blessings I have received this year. It was about this time last year that the purchase of my townhome was finalized. It needed lots of work and updating. I must admit I was quite intimidated at the thought of supervising home remodeling projects. But . . . with determination all has worked out quite well and I love the looks of my little "nest" now!




Now on to family news - First, a big congratulations to Blake who is now a CPA (you can read about this at http://www.blakeandbrit.blogspot.com). Tyson's family will be moving to Rockford, Illinois in January - they also have a blog: http://www.tyanderin.blogspot.com.

Now I have a computer again I will be sharing news of the chick and I more frequently. . . so check back soon.. Love, THE OLD HEN

Witches, Shopping & Repairs

Every once in a while my "chick" and I decide to have a "shop like you are visiting Utah" day. When I lived in Idaho I looked forward to a vacation in Utah. Emily and I would spend all day (and often into the evening) shopping when we came here. We both talk about those days with fond memories. Now. . . since we live here in Utah, the shopping is not so intense - except for maybe once or twice a year when we declare it a "shop like you are visiting Utah" day. And that is just what Saturday was.

The first place we visited was Gardner Village. All the witches were out and we could not resist taking a few pictures. There were witches in the trees, on top of the shops, playing baseball, quilting and even fishing in the pond. What fun!!
Emily noticed a real, live black cat checking out one of the witches and snapped this picture.
After we left the witches, we ventured over to Nordstrom Rack looking for bargains. We also hit several other stores. During our adventure we discovered a new Discount Disney Store. Emily was able to find a couple of darling hoodies there. During our excursion she also found "the perfect pair of pants" - in her eyes that alone made the shopping marathon worthwhile.

Now on to another subject - a wheel fell off the track on the garage door thus preventing the door from opening. So - all week I have had to park outside and with winter coming I was considering hiring a handyman to come fix the door. Well . . . my little "chick" decided she could do anything a man could do and went out to the garage this morning and used her ingenuity (and some tools) and fixed the door. Hooray!! I am so blessed to have my little "handy chick" still living with me!

Lemon Bars & Conference

I spent most of this weekend being lifted and inspired by General Conference. There was a new apostle - Quentin Cook (I don't think he is related) and Elder Eyring was sustained as 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency. Conference weekend is truly one of my favorite weekends of the year. I am always sad when it is over. So much good advice and counsel to think about and digest. And. . . speaking of digest, Emily made her yummy lemon bars during the afternoon session yesterday. Her lemon bars are better than any I have ever tasted. Here is the recipe:

Frosty Lemon Bars

Crust:
2 1/4 sups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened

Mix together and press into a 9 x 13 pan.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Filling:
4 eggs
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder

Beat eggs, add lemon juice and mix well.
Add dry ingredients and beat thorougally.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Cool and
sprinkle top with powdered sugar.

Snow & BYU

When I looked out my kitchen window this morning guess what I saw? SNOW! The tops of the mountains received a fairly good dusting of snow yesterday and it really does feel like fall outside today. Yeah! I'm ready!





Now to change to subject. HOW ABOUT THEM COUGARS!!! They won their game again last night. They are doing awesome this year. However, I fear a certain family member may have gone to the game last night and not cheered for the cougs. (gasp) How could this be? I must do some further investigation into this!

The Chick's side of things

Well, okay...so you have Mom's acount of the scrapbook convention below....here's mine: We got to the convention around 3:00. The first thing we did was sign up for the raffle drawings, of course. We found a table, planted our stuff, and started around the loop looking for make-and-takes. I was working on a cute little flower card, when, low and behold, "Emily Rule" comes over the loud speaker. Mom pulled me away from the booth and shoved me in the direction of the announcer. Excited, I rushed to the center, expecting stickers, paper, pens, something awesome. What did I find??? What, I ask you, did I find?!!! An organic sock doll. I am SOOO not kidding. This random lady had set up a booth selling baby products that are made of all organic cotton. Random?! Disapppointing?! Yeah.


So I returned to mom, confused and disgruntled over my "baby safe doll" (who, by the way...had no arms. What's up with that?), and we continued around the loop. We got to one booth about half way through that was having a "super-duper special." The guy sold lines of paper with the embellishment in packs for $20 each and every hour, on the hour, he would throw two or three kits in a bag and sell the bag for twenty bucks. When you bought a bag, you'd get a raffle ticket and ten minutes after the hour there would be drawings from the raffle tickets. Well, mom and I ended up at this booth and the guy who was bagging the special was...well, basically totally incompetant,...and needed help. Being the kinda nice, OCD person that I am, I offered to help. Another lady joined in and, afterwards, the guy insisted that me and the other lady take extra raffle tickets. Thinking that there would be no chance that I would win, I accepted. Well, not ONLY did mom win a raffle, I won the grand prize. SOOOOOO not kidding. I got not one, not two, but 32 little bottles of buttons!!! A $92 dollar value!!!! Random? I think so. Sooo....all in all...it was a great night. I walked away with 32 bottles of buttons, over 400 pieces of designer paper, and....and organic doll. Very, very good night.

One Reason I Live in Utah

I love to scrapbook. Utah is like the scrapbooking mecca of the world. Many of the major scrapbook companies are located here and there are lots of really cool stores. Also, twice a year, in the spring and the fall, is the SCRAPBOOK USA EXPO.
The EXPO puts on a crop, which is a chance to sit and scrapbook (added that for all you non-scrapbookers). The crop begins at 10:00 am and goes until midnight. There is a DJ playing "The Hustle", "YMCA", etc...(you get it :), there are prizes and contests. All the while, thousands of "die-hard" scrapbookers are furiously shopping and madly working on scrapbook pages. LOTS & LOTS OF FUN!!! I have been to this scrapbooking extravaganza four times since I moved here. The first year I went with Erin (miss you, Erin!). I think we were both a little overwhelmed at the size of it. The second time I went alone. I sat at a table with women whose husbands were stationed at Hill Air Force Base. Really fun group!!! Last year I talked Emily into going with me. I think she was a little surprised at the size and all that went on. This year I didn't have to talk quite so hard to get her to go - (I AM SO GLAD I HAVE A CUTE LITTLE CHICKIE TO DRAG ALONG WITH ME TO THINGS LIKE THIS!) We got there about 4:00, found our table and joined the throngs of other creative seeking women who express themselves and their love for their families through the art form of scrapbooking. Yes, I really am glad I am a scrapbooker!

Yummy Peach Crisp

Last week my neighbor, Shirley, brought me some delicious peaches from her sister's peach tree. They were not quite ripe, so I set them in a bowl on the cupboard. Yesterday I noticed the peaches were at the perfect stage to make a peach crisp -- and so that is what I did. This time of year there is nothing better than fresh peaches or crisp, juicy apples turned into a crisp. The recipe I use is quick and easy it calls for:

5 medium size peaches or apples

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

Simply peel and slice the fruit, then lay it in the bottom of an 8"x 8" baking dish. Soften the butter in the microwave, add the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix together (it will be kind of grainy) and then spoon over the fruit in the baking dish. Bake at 375 for about 35 minutes. ( You want to cook it until the top is quite brown and crunchy). Top with whipping cream or vanilla ice cream. It should look something like this. Enjoy!!

The Chick

Hey all, This is the said "chick." (Emily). I just wanted to update everyone on what I'm learning at BYU. My physical science TA showed us this movie in class last week and I found it so...*ah humm*...educational...that I thought I'd share it. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-jVAHAuiS4

I have been lurking around the internet for quite some time - enjoying reading other people's blogs - and have finally decided that I need a presence here on this marvelous world wide web - thus the creation of my "Old Hen" blog. Of course all of you who will read this will know immediately who my "chick" is . . . and she may post on here occasionally too. So . . . WELCOME to the BLOG of AN OLD HEN AND HER CHICK. Bookmark this site and come back to visit often.

I must admit that fall is my very favorite time of year. The mountains here in Utah are beginning to turn colorful shades of red and orange. (Emily says they look like they are bleeding!) I am posting a picture of the mountain I look up at every day when I come out from work. This mountain never looks the same and always kind of takes my breath away at the beauty and majesty of it. How blessed I am!

I have been working at getting my little townhome all fixed up (which I will post pictures of another time), but probably my favorite part of all the fixing up has been the completion of my deck overlooking the lake. I love to sit out there and enjoy the sunsets. Yesterday Emily caught a family of quail perched on the back fence - what fun!