New Year's Eve-Eve sunset

Pretty sunset!

Better than new!

Michael got a new bike for Christmas. His favorite color is green, the bike was yellow, red, and black. Brendon took it all apart and I took the parts to work and used the sand blaster to remove the old paint. Brendon used his autobody repair skills and put an automotive quality paint job on it. Looks better that new don't you think?

Christmas jammies!

Michael in his new Christmas jammies!

News Article

The local paper included an article about Jared. Go to:
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/12/24/3616174/grapevine-looks-to-stand-tall.html
and read all about Jared. Mom and Dad were able to watch him play in four games. Grapvine won two and lost two. Jared played well. He even dunked it especially for Grandma and Grandpa. I'll post the picture later.

Christmas Eve Revelry at the Randalls'

The theme for our Christmas Eve festivities this year was Christmas around the world. Jeff's parents were with us as well as his brother Mark and his family. We ate dishes from different countries: Poutine from Canada, Tamales from Mexico, Fish sticks (representing the seven different kinds of fish they eat in Italy), and some American salads. For our program we talked about customs in the different countries some of us had either lived in or descended from. English Christmas Pudding was my subject. And we finished the evening with a buche de Noel from France. Our version was decorated with Legos. Here are a few pictures.

Tamsyn and Megyn were the Lego builders and decorators of the cake.

All of the characters represented different countries, except for the skeleton who stood in for our ancestors. Notice flags from different countries, too.

Famous "L" tree

Kennedy and Tristan on the "L" tree

Jack

I love this picture of Jack tossing leaves. Makes you feel like a kid again

Kennedy

Kennedy with her parents at the church

Kennedy's testimony

Christi asked Kennedy to go to her room and write her testimony on a piece of paper. She was supposed to display it on a table at her baptism. She wrote it without any adult supervision and she did a pretty good job.

Kennedy

Kennedy

A close-up of Kennedy

Grandma's Christmas Cake

A few days ago, something got me thinking about a Christmas cake that Grandma used to make. Does anyone else remember the cake with orange slices (the gum drop kind) in it? I did a bit of digging and found this recipe of Grandma's. It doesn't have the orange slices listed in the original recipe, but I think this was the cake she put them in. I made it for Mom and Dad as part of their Christmas present and asked them to tell me if it was as good as I remembered. They liked it, and so I'm passing it on to the rest of you. I've added a few directions for the icing that Grandma didn't have.

Note: I substitued the same amount of orange slices snipped into pieces for the candied fruit.

Christmas Cake
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese
1 cup margarine (I suppose butter could also be used)
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2-1/4 cups flour
1 cup mixed candied fruit, ground (orange slices, snipped)
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
Blend cream cheese, margarine, sugar and vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time. Sift dry ingredients and beat into creamed mixture. Add fruit and nuts and mix well. Bake in a well-greased tube or Bundt pan at 325 degrees for 1 hours. Let cool. Pipe on icing.

Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp margarine, softened
1-2 Tbsp cream
1/2 tsp almond extract
Beat together until smooth. Fill a gallon ziplock bag with icing, cut off a bit of the corner, and pipe icing over cake. Sprinkle with colored sugar, if desired.

Kennedy

This was taken the day Kennedy was baptized. Doesn't she look like a little angel?

Maxton

I took pictures of Maxton Moffett yesterday, one week old. His mother is a daughter of Max and Kathy Anderson, if that means anything to you. Her oldest sister married Jeremy Bradshaw. Anyway, I was looking around for something that looked Christmasy and saw my wreath hanging on the wall. I took it down and noted that the center hole was just about the right size to hold the big white bowl that I have photographed many kids with. Voila! Turned out cute so I though I would post it.

Hardware

Jared, his teammates and hardware pose for victory celebration

Recap

Ron and Marilee were able to see some good games. We just got back from the best game of the tournament. After going two wins and one loss, Grapvine played for the "Bronze Championship". The opposing team was solid and the game was hard fought. The other team had their hands full trying to contain Jared. He scored 19 points and led his team to victory. Grapevine went 3 and 1 for the tournament. Jared scored 19 points in two games and 13 points in two games. We have enjoyed sitting next to Ron and Marilee as we cheered our team on to victory. Sadly, Ron and Marilee leave first thing tomorrow morning. We have had a good visit. Tonight, we are going out on the town. We are going to "Babes" for dinner (not what you think), then we are going to go see Rachel's apartment. These past few days have gone by way too fast.

RM&CS (Ron, Marilee and Cowboys Stadium)

Shout out to Lyssa and Taylor...wishing you were here!

Christmas surprise

Siennah

Siennah

Three Kelseys

Families can be together forever

Tyff, Jason & Siennah

Siennah

Siennah

Siennah has grown up a lot since I last took her pictures. Instead of the little toddler who wouldn't look at the camera she has evolved to a poser. She came up with her own poses and was having a ball posing for G Grandma.

Jack

Mother-Daughter

Christi and her three cute kids

Christi and her three kids in front of the tree they picked out at the Christmas tree farm.

Kelsey family

I took this picture at the Christmas tree farm when we picked out their tree.