My Little Snickerdoodle

There are many things I LOVE about the holidays.  One of those many things being the food!  Who's with me?!!  I mean, really!!!  All diets go out the window when you eyeball all those fabulous holiday dishes.  I Love it!!!  I don't only enjoy EATING the food, I enjoy the cooking and preparation of it as well.  I'll admit it; I LOVE COOKING!!  I LOVE IT!! 
Every year, at Christmas time, my family makes Snickerdoodles for a lady in our church.  This lady lost her husband five years ago.  Her husband had a tradition of making Snickerdoodles every Christmas morning.  Without fail, his family had Snickerdoodles on Christmas!  Our friend was telling us about this when we were visiting with her after her husband had past away.  She had made the statement, "No Snickerdoodles this Christmas".  My husband and I both gave each other a glance and right then at that moment, we secretly vowed that she WOULD have Snickerdoodles every Christmas!  And so, every Christmas morning for the past five years, I get up and make a batch of Snickerdoodles to take to our friend on Christmas morning to continue the tradition her husband started so many years ago.
The very first Christmas we did this, I was telling her that I wasn't fond of the recipe that I had, but the cookies still tasted ok.  Through her tears, she excused herself to the kitchen and returned with a little 3X4 note card with her husband's very own Snickerdoodle recipe on it.  That is now the recipe I use every Christmas morning!
This is, by far, the BEST Snickerdoodle recipe I have ever tasted!!  I LOVE them!!! And so, I decided to share the love and pass this glorious recipe on to you!  I would also encourage you to share in a tradition with your family.  There is something special about looking forward to and KNOWING you are going to have a particular item for the holidays.  Something as simple as Snickerdoodles can really warm the heart!  Enjoy!!

Bearl's Snickerdoodle Recipe:
Mix together:
1 cup Crisco
1 cup butter/margarine
3 cups sugar
4 eggs

Sift together:
5 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp backing powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Stir together flour mixture and Crisco mixture.
Roll into balls the size of walnuts.  Roll in mixture of 4 TBSP sugar and 4 tsp of cinnamon.
Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake only until lightly browned.
Oven temp: 400 About 8 to 10 minutes.
Makes about 8 dozen cookies.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!

I am one of those people who NEVER randomly wins anything.  It's true.  Sad, but true.  I really can't remember ever winning any random giveaway or anything like that.   Yes, I hear the tiny violins playing my poor, poor, pitiful me song *tear*.  Well, hold on to your seats and fasten your seat belts, my friend, because all of that has now change!  Can I get a "Woot, Woot"?!!!
So, I follow several other interesting bloggers.  Content is as random as I am.  I follow fashion blogs, cooking blogs, mommy blogs =), fitness blogs... you get the point.  I LOVE reading the blogs I follow!!!!
Ok, so, one of the blogs is http://www.curvesandchaos.com/ .  It's a blog for, ahem, curvy women.  And, yes, I'm curvy!  AND it was at said blog that I actually broke my non-winning streak and won something!!!  Yes!!  CurvesandChaos was having a holiday dress giveaway and had six (I believe) drawings to participate in.  I won the fifth one!! 
What did I win you ask....  I won a dress from Sealed with a Kiss Designs!!  I PLAN on trying it on ASAP and getting a quick pic so you guys can all Ooo and Ahhh over it!  I'm just thrilled that I actually won something!!!  So, thank you, CurvesandChaos for allowing me to be a WINNER!! 

Take a deep breath and count to three (1, 2, 3...)

I have a six and three year old (boy and girl respectively) and they pretty much fight like cats and dogs.  Call it sibling rivalry if you will... I have no idea WHAT to call it!!!  I'm constantly trying to find what works in helping them learn to get along.  I try to enforce the "Count to Three" method, but with little success.  They jump straight to anger and the fight begins!!!  I will continue to plod along and find what works best for these guys and hope that one day they will get along without killing each other or driving me crazy in the process...
I recently had to implement the "Count to Three" method in my own life... on more than one occasion.  First of all, we are in the Christmas season, "peace on earth, good will to men"  all the happy, cheery, lovey, holiday cheer spirit being spread around like butter on a fat man's biscuit.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE IT!!!!  I think it should be this way all year around.  But, sometimes it is really HARD to keep in the spirit of things when people totally relax on their standards of business practices and think that a jolly "Merry Christmas" will make it all better.
To assure you that I'm not being all "BAH HUMBUG", let me explain what I've been through this past week.  First of all, I'm a teacher at a local preschool.  I love my students!!!  AND I love that I get a paycheck that I am able to deposit directly into our savings account.  I have been direct depositing my paycheck for the past two years.  All of a sudden, my last paycheck goes MIA.  I give it a couple of days because I know things can happen...but on the second day of grace, I begin to wonder if I'm going to get paid, so I call.  After an investigation into the matter, it is determined that my check did not get deposited because the CPA had my information wrong.  WHY DID HE CHANGE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE you may ask... I HAVE NO IDEA!!! 
I finally get things sorted with the proper sources and then realize that the check only has one signature when it was supposed to have two.  So, I'm on the adventure to find the second signature... LONG STORY...yes... Needless to say, I finally was able to deposit my check.  No one seemed to understand why this little hour episode upset me at CHRISTMAS time!!!  I DON'T CARE IF IT IS EASTER, HALLOWEEN OR EVEN HARE KRISHNA!!!!  IT UPSET ME!!!!
After the episode of the amazing paycheck adventure, I find out that a Christmas present that I ordered from a direct sales company two weeks ago is on back order.  WHY, I ask, could I NOT know that at the time of ordering?!!  I was so incredibly pleased with myself for having all of my Christmas shopping done early (or at least, early for me).  If I would have known, I could have chosen something else... SIGH.  One more thing to throw a kink in my "trying to have it all together" this Christmas season.  So, a plan B had to quickly be implemented.
On both occasions, I had to stop and remind myself to "count to three" before totally losing my temper.  Then I smiled, and returned the wish of "Merry Christmas" and pretended that I lived in a land of sugar plum fairies and all was merry and bright!
Being a mom has it's own stresses.  Being a mom that is trying to have it together, organize, be on top of it, multitasker, teacher, house-hold manager, etc, etc... can be VERY STRESSFUL!!!  If you are walking in my shoes, I feel for you sister!!!  We live a very exciting life.  STRESSFUL, but yet rewarding.  And in those times that actually taking a deep breath and counting to three keeps us from totally falling to pieces and making a fool of ourselves really works, it's a good day.  A very good day.

Ho, Ho, Ho! Here We Go...

I'm still here!!  I have not gone AWOL or MIA or any other sort of military acronym... I'm still here!!
I had recently tried my hand at "mobile blogging" and it doesn't seem to like me... I actually sent an update from my phone and on my phone's part it said it was successful...but it's nowhere to be found here online... That update is just floating out there somewhere in cyberspace.
So, I did make the ATTEMPT to update my blog, technology just was not cooperating!!
I don't always have time to actually sit down at the computer and type away, so I figured mobile blogging would be perfect!!!  I will definitely have to work the kinks out (if I can) and try again in the near future.
On another note, Christmas festivities are in full swing here on the home front.  Parties and Plays and Programs and dinners and lots of lots of sweeties and energetic kiddos!!!!!! ... WHEW!  But it is fun!  I will keep reminding myself of that... "It IS fun"!! 
Just finished this school semester out with one kiddo, Monday we will finish the school semester out for my other and then it is all the family planned festivities left on the agenda!   Holidays can be so BUSY!!!!   I will need a vacation to recover from this Holiday "Break" (I use the term "break" with tongue in cheek).

You HAVE to try this DIP!!!!

Ok, I LOVE to cook and put thing together in the kitchen... just can't help it!!! It's the Domestic Diva that is buried somewhere deep inside of me trying to get out, I suppose. So, when I run across a new recipe that sounds scrumdiddlyumptious I HAVE to try it. I ran across one of those recipes the other day. It is actually a recipe for a shrimp/artichoke dip. This is the PERFECT time of year for such a recipe with holiday parties and such. It's the perfect little appetizer, so I thought I would share it =)

Prep Time: 15 minutes

1 Pk (1 ounce) Hidden Valley(R) Original Ranch(R) Dip Mix
1 Container (16 ounces) sour cream
1 pk (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
*1 can (4 ounces) cooked, peeled, deveined shrimp, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and chopped
1/2 cup diced red pepper

Stir the dip mix and sour cream in a large bowl. Add the cream cheese and stir until the mixture is smooth. Add the shrimp, artichoke hearts and red pepper and mix lightly.

*I didn't have shrimp in a can... all I had was frozen large shrimp, so I used those and chopped them in smaller pieces. Worked perfectly.

I like this dip with Triscuits(R) and/or Wheat Thins(R)
YUMMY and DELICIOUS!!!!