Our Christmas::December 30

For Christmas, our entire family was here throughout the day.

This year Bill, Josh, Hayley and Mercedes (Miah and Teryn were at their dad's for Christmas Eve), Karen, Grover, Ben and Aiden, Amber, Jared and Ruth, Emily and her boyfriend Richy, along with Matt, Michael, Steve and I celebrated Christmas Eve together.

All of the kids and grandkids slept over, and Bill went back to his apartment after the Bible readings and carol singing and poem telling. The plan was to pick him up on Christmas morning, but it snowed on Christmas Eve, so he decided to stay put until the plows cleared the road.

Bright and early Christmas morning, the kids sleeping in Jared & Ruth's trailer were called in, the kids and grandkids sleeping upstairs were woken up, and all of us saw what Santa had brought for us and we opened the presents:





At 9 o'clock, Steve picked up Bill and brought him back, and it was round 2 of presents :)



Then, slowly everyone left: Karen and Grover going to work; Richy and Emily went to celebrate Christmas with Richy's family; Jared and Ruth went to work; Hayley, Josh, and Mercedes went to pick up Miah and Teryn and celebrate with Hayley's mom and siblings, and Matt went along too. That left Bill, Steve, Amber, Michael and me at home to nap and cook and clean and play for a few hours by ourselves.

After dinner, Bill went home, and everyone but Emily and Richy trickled back to the house to play games and eat pie and have round 3 of presents with Miah and Teryn :)



Such a busy, messy, loud, wonderful Christmas it was ♥

I hope that you and yours had a wonderful Christmas too!

♥ Melody

"The Blessing"::December 22

I saw this on a blog that I read, loved it, and wanted to share it :)



♥ Melody

Josh and Hayley::The Reception on 12/13/14::Dec 15

Josh and Hayley::The Wedding on 12/13/14::Dec 15

Getting ready:






The guests start arriving:

It's time!

The cute ring bearers:

The other cute ring bearer is with his Pops. / The flower girl gets stage fright - her grandmas try to reassure her:

Signing the Marriage License

This picture struck my funny bone. It seems to sum up all of the nervous feelings we all experience as we get married (she doesn't remember why she was looking at the ceiling, and I didn't mean to capture it, but it sure was a fortuitous accident on both of our parts :) )

Grandma D's Mincemeat Pie Recipe::December 8th

My cousin Patty posted this on facebook b/c other cousins were remembering my Grandma D's homemade mincemeat pies. I don't think I've ever tasted mincemeat, but I thought I'd store the recipe here so that I don't lose it :)

I think this is it:

Mincemeat
4 # venison elk or beef
Water
2 1/2 cups suet finely chopped or grated
7 1/2 cups chopped tart apples
3 cups of meat broth that meat was cooked in
5 cups sugar
3 cups apple cider
1 C. Molasses
1/2 C. Cider vinegar
3 C. Raisins
2 T. Ground cinnamon
1 T. ground cloves
2 T. ground allspice
2 T. ground nutmeg
Juice of 2 oranges
Juice of 2 lemons
1 C. Brandy
Trim and discard fat from meat
Place meat in large heavy pan and cover with water; simmer until meat is tender. Remove from heat and refrigerate meat in cooking liquid overnight.
Remove from fridge and take meat out of liquid. Remove all fat from top of
liquid; discard fat and reserve the remaining liquid. Chop boneless meat into small cubes.
In large pot combone meat , suet and all ingredients except brandy. Simmer gently for about about 2 hours or until desired consistency. Add brandy and mix together. (I doubt if mom or grandma added the brandy because kids ate it).
Its best to let mincemeat stand at least a couple weeks before using. Store in fridge. Freeze in airtight containers for long time storage. (Grandma and mom canned theirs)
Will keep looking in case there is another version of this.

♥ Melody

Chili:: December 6

Ingredients:
4 cups dried beans
3 TBS beef bullion
2 TBS oil

Preparing and cooking the dried beans:

4 cups dried beans, cleaned (rocks and debris removed) and rinsed.

Put in a big pot or pressure cooker. Bring to a boil, take off heat, and let sit for at least 2 hours, more is preferable.
Drain and rinse beans, and rinse out the pot/pressure cooker.
Put the beans back in the pot/pressure cooker - add 8 tsp of beef bullion and 2 TBS of oil.
Using a pressure cooker:
Fill a pressure cooker with water to the line. Put on the lid and rocker. Bring to a boil on high, and when the it starts rocking, turn the heat down to med high and let rock for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let it release from pressure on its own.

If using a large pot:
Cover the beans with water and add water about 2 inches below the top of the pot. Bring to a boil and let gently boil for about 45 minutes or until the beans are tender.

Meat mixture:

In a skillet brown:
1 lb hamburger
1 med. onion if desired

Drain grease and add:
2 can diced tomatoes (in juices) (or 1 can diced tomatoes + 1 oz can tomato sauce)
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp cocoa
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 1/2 tsp chili powder

In the big pot:
Pour off liquid from beans to make liquid level with the cooked beans. Add meat mixture & stir together. Cook over low heat for about 20 minutes.










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