happy thanksgiving

We are going over to my sister’s for Thanksgiving. I love going to her house as she pays so much attention to detail and makes every effort for the family to feel welcome.

She has always had an eye for design, lighting and color. We shared a room growing up until she left for college. She was always the one who would say, “Inge, it’s time to change the room around and I have been thinking about arranging the beds so they face north.” North? I was just getting used to the latest arrangement of the bedroom. She liked rearranging things so much she changed her major from Nursing to Architecture/Interior Design. Her house showcases her passion for interior design and I love it!

I am being commissioned to make my mouth watering Carrot Soufflé that my brother-in-law loves. I love the fact that he loves it. He was raised in Trinadad and he can make the most delicious food. I feel honored that he likes this dish. Here is the recipe:

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Carrot Soufflé

1lb. or 2 cups of carrots
½ cup melted butter
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
Salt
1 tsp. vanilla
Cinnamon
Nutmeg


Peel and cook carrots until tender. Drain. Add melted butter to carrots and beat with mixer. Add eggs, one at a time; beat after each egg. Add sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and vanilla. Mix Well. Put in greased 1½ quart casserole dish. Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on top. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Stick knife in center; should come out clean. (Use 3 quart dish when recipe is doubled.) This recipe makes 4 servings.

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This is pretty easy to make and you can always cut back on the sugar. Though not the healthiest dish, I guarantee it is tasty. I admit to sneaking this for breakfast the following morning when the kids are not looking.

I wish for you to have a safe and wonderful holiday. I hope you can genuinely smile, graciously hug, willingly serve, sweetly delegate and ask for help before you desperately need it. : ) And lastly, be most thankful for the little things you have in your life.

I am thankful for...

The health of my family
Living close to family and friends
Watching my boys grow up with their cousins
Having electricity and clean water

Really, what else do I need?

O.K. besides chocolate!

MILK! It Does The Floor Good!

Sometimes it is better to make a picture with spilled milk rather than crying over it!

The boys were amused. I was too.

Happy Saturday!

boxes

Last Saturday, I was invited to a friends’ surprise birthday party. My friend has five sons and one daughter (which she home schools). I really wanted to get her a mini-vacation-get-away, or a day at the spa. But my budget is limited, so I opted to make a dainty hand-made crystal bracelet. I didn’t have a jewelry box to put the bracelet in so I found this cool box template online. I printed it out, traced it on pink card stock and embellished it with stamps, and a ribbon. I really like how it turned out and also enjoyed making it!

Here is another adorable box template over at How About Orange.

** I must warn you. **

Do

Not

Click the link

How About Orange

unless you want to smile, see fun creative things and lose an hour perusing the site.

Don’t tell anyone I didn’t warn you. : )

Enjoy!

the party

My son’s five-year-old birthday party went well.

It was packed with family, friends and Star Wars madness.

We served Yoda Soda, Carbonite Jello,

Galactic Space planets and the Hoth themed birthday cake.

We played pin the lightsaber on Yoda, decorated prince and princess hats and enjoyed an action packed skit with Count Dooku fighting Darth Vader. The birthday boy told us later on that he thought it was really Darth Vader until he looked down and saw my oldest son’s brown crocs peeking out under the black cape! **I love it**

To my surprise, a thrown together idea was the hit of the party. We had the children fold their own paper airplanes with directions I printed out before hand. The mission was to fly the 'spacecrafts' through the galactic lasers (orange yarn crisscrossed between two poles in the basement) and safely land onto the landing dock of the Death Star (our pool table). Who knew?

His favorite gift was from his Aunt Alice, a Charlie Chaplin cane. When he unwrapped the cane, his eyes lit up and he started dancing with it around the room. My husband put on ‘Puttin' on the Ritz’ and all the children started dancing with him!

I found this Death Star cantaloupe idea on the internet but ran out of time to carve it! Maybe next year!

Through my five-year-olds’ eyes, I really was Princess Leia. He was very pleased as Daddy dressed up as Count Dooku and I did my best to whip up a Princess Leia outfit!

Also, a friend posted a link of this video on their website and my husband and the kids enjoyed it! The video has 11,482,905 hits so far! Pretty creative!

My mother and the birthday boy!