Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas everyone!
Thought we'd post today with some faves, highlights and a few lowlights for the Smithereens from 2010.

First, some faves that we everybody had on their list:
TV - The Middle - we all cackle at this one every time we watch.
On DVD - Gilmore Girls - (you can see our previous post here) We've made it through season 5 and are gearing up to start season 6!

Now, everyone's specifics: (You'll note some common themes, but the above are the only ones that ALL of us agreed on)

Karen:
Movie - Toy Story 3 - lots of laughter but pass the tissues!
Books - The Help by Kathryn Stockett; So Long, Insecurity by Beth Moore; The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero; Forgotten God by Francis Chan; Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Podcasts - Harvest Church, Billings; North Point Church, GA; The Village Church, TX; Focus on the Family
Random faves - Americano w/ Half & Half; Pandora internet radio, especially Chris Tomlin, David Crowder and Hillsong; Anya's knockoff recipe for Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Highlights - Experiencing and seeing God's healing touch above and beyond what I had asked or imagined; Homeschooling Emily
Lowlight - Grieving the loss of Baby Blake, the newborn son of my niece Becca, her husband Randy and son Cam.

Anya:
TV - Phineas & Ferb; Hawaii Five-0; The Good Wife; Avatar (animated series)
Movies - The A-Team; Despicable Me; Toy Story 3
DVD - The Italian Job
Books - The Help, FableHaven series, The Hunger Games series, Academy 7, The Mysterious Benedict Society; and best of all The Count of Monte Cristo! Yeah baby!
Song - Pedal to the Medal by Kazzer
Artist - Fee; Owl City
Food - Pioneer Woman's Parmesan Chicken
Candy - Shockers
Highlights - Going to Disney World this summer; expanding shelves of books!; baby sitting all the kids of church staff families
Lowlight - High school...nuff said!

Emily:
TV - Avatar (animated series); The Good Wife, Hawaii Five-0; The Event
Movies - Toy Story 3, The A-Team, Despicable Me
DVD - The Italian Job
Books - Every Soul A Star; Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life; The Mysterious Benedict Society series
Food - Almost everything Mom makes; dark chocolate pomegranites
Artists - Brandon Heath, Fee
Highlights - Going to Disney World; being homeschooled
Lowlight - having wisdom teeth removed and getting braces - they hurt!

Jenna:
TV - Hawaii Five-0; Phineas & Ferb; Avatar (animated series)
Movies - The A-Team; Despicable Me
DVD - The Italian Job (editor's note: can you tell our girls love this movie about thieves driving Mini Coopers?)
Books - Akiko series; Holes
Food - Anything Mom makes is good; Bajio!
Highlights - Getting Marshmellow (my stuffed bear my sisters gave me for my bday); Cinnamon (my stuffed cat my parents gave me for Christmas) (Editor's note - she's allergic to cats, so this is the only one she can have, although she'd LOVE to have a real one); getting to go to Disney World
Lowlight - Having to get braces

Rich:
TV - Lost - I miss those people!; The Good Wife
Movies - Toy Story 3; Inception
Books - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose; The Hunger Games series by Suzann Collins, The Help
Random Faves - Americano; Tillamook Northwest Berry Patch Yogurt; Jason Gray's Everything Sad Is Coming Untrue; Peanut M&Ms
Highlights - Taking over Children's Ministry at our church; Disney World with our fam, G'pa and my sister's fam; Fridays at home
Lowlight - discovering the depth of my despair and resentment toward God, but finding my way back to Him and His unfathomably deep love!

That's us! Hope you enjoy some space and peace during this Christmas/New Year's week, and that you realize the joy and passion God feels for you!

In Defense of the Blessed Bean

There's a problem here in Utah. It goes unnoticed by those of you outside the state, unless you actually venture here and experience the problem first-hand. It's a discrimination, a shunning, a devaluing of an entire species.

It's not racism, not misogynism, not even religious persecution.

It's worse, as it affects people of all cultures, races, genders, nationalities and creeds.

This scourge of Utah, this vile offense?

I call it javaism.

Because the majority of the citizens of our fair state belong to a faith that deems coffee sinful -- even going so far as to equate it with drugs during Red-Ribbon week at our girls' school -- those of us who partake of its joyous aroma, who sip from its savory umber pool, are seen as suspect, and, unlike those of you in the rest of America with a coffee shop and/or drive thru espresso shack within a coffee beans throw of each other, are made to travel inordinate distances to enjoy the fragrant lusciousness dispensed by that soul-patched barista lest the availability of it's goodness entice others into its buzz-filled web.
I love the simple cup of coffee. I don't love it for the caffeine rush (honestly, I don't even notice a jolt...but I may be immune to it after 25+ years of imbibing). I don't want it with frou-frou creamers or flavors. Just give me a warm cup filled with water that's run over those roasted and freshly ground beans, and I'm satisfied. Content. Happy.

What could possibly be wrong with that lovely cup of joe? What offense can be found in its aromatic enticements? I know not.

What I do know is that there are few created things as gratifying, as restful, as simply blissful as my morning java.

So I defy the prevalent javaism of my community. I embrace the ever-present coffee scent that permeates my home. I smile graciously at the passerby holding that white and green paper cup that he carries like a scarlet letter. And I boldly drink the nectar of the blessed bean, in my car, in the store, at the park, yea, even in a restaurant after dinner.

And I savor it, thanking the Creator of all good things for His wisdom, His foresight, His oh-so-wonderful ingenuity in making that unassuming little plant, that one day would provide the cup that enriches my life today.
Thanks, God, for coffee.

It is very good.

How it should have looked

During the post about Jenna's birthday, I showed you our less-than-beautiful cake that we made.

Here it is again in case you forgot.
We made it again, and while it still wasn't perfect -- I can NOT figure out a way to get it to completely release from the pan. We've made this dang cake about 15 times, and it always sticks a little. Maybe we should rename it Sticky Cake -- it did turn out closer to what we want it to look like.

Voila.
Honestly, though, either way it is ridiculously good. It's probably a ridiculous amount of calories as well, but it's made with dark chocolate, so I just think about the antioxidant value of it's lusciousness.

And try to forget the shamefully large amount of butter that's in there as well.

A President, a Bennett and a Ferret...er, a Fairy

Here in Utah, if halloween falls on a Sunday, everyone Trick-or-Treats on Saturday night. I don't know if this is occurs else where (it didn't happen in Oklahoma when we lived there), but during our 8 halloweens in Utah, it's taken place twice.

So, on October 30, 2010, our girls donned their costumes and headed out for the annual collection o' the candy.

This year, our candy excursion was attended by Miss Elizabeth Bennett (of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice)...
(yes, Anya was also Lizzie last year, but loved the costume that Grandma made her so much she wanted to do it again)

A delightful fairy...
with a modern twist, hence the jean jacket. Anya designed and applied the fairy makeup.

And our 16th President...
Anya made the beard for our little emancipator.

I must say, that Theater Makeup class that Anya took last year has really come in handy.

The whole crew of revelers.Emily and her "24 carat gold" friend, Jessie.
Had a great time, as always, and made a grand haul of sugary goodness.

Gilmore Girls...and guy

Back when Emily had her oral surgery, Karen checked out the DVDs for the first season of Gilmore Girls. We'd never watched this show while it was on, or seen any of it since it left the air, but had heard recently from some friends that it was a fun diversion, and since Emily was pretty much confined to a chair without the ability to speak for the first 2-3 days, Karen thought some new TV might be a nice distraction from the pain.
We all loved it. Fast-paced, pop-culture rich dialogue, quirky characters, lots of laughter, fun relationships; if you haven't seen it, it's about a single mom (Lorelai) and her daughter (Rory) who live in Stars Hollow, CT, along with their eccentric friends and family. Our whole family got hooked. We went back to the local library and got season 2, and had just as much fun with the second season.

So on a recent Friday night, when the girls got home from school, we had the third season ready for the DVD player, and an evening with the Gilmore Girls planned.
The Gilmore's love coffee, especially from Luke's Diner, and are rarely seen without a coffee cup in hand, so all drinks we had that night had to be sipped from to-go cups, from Luke's naturally. Even if they weren't coffee, they had to look like coffee.
All snacks were retrieved from Doose's Market, Stars Hollow's only grocery store.
Our homeschool room became Chilton Academy, the private high school where Rory attends to prepare for her Ivy League college career, and hopeful future as the Christiane Amanpour of the next generation.
Lorelai has never cooked a meal in her life. If we were really eating like the Gilmore's we'd have had massive amounts of takeout, but we opted instead for foods that could be put in the oven or microwave without preparation. We thought that was Gilmore-esque.
No, it wasn't healthy, but it was good, and we had a marvy time catching up with all our Stars Hollow friends.

Besides, what evening isn't better with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts and Popcorn, Indiana Cinnamon Sugar Kettlecorn?

A Cheftastic Birthday

Back on October 26, Jenna turned 12. (Yes, I know this is late, I've already dealt with that in a previous post). On Friday the 22nd, she had an early out day from school, so she invited a few friends over for a Chef Birthday Party. (One was sick :( -- we missed you Hannah B!)
Prior to the festivities we made personalized aprons and decked the place out in cooking utensils. Upon their arrival they decorated their chef hats and their goody bags.
Because it was a chef party, they made their own pizzas (with Karen's fabulous homemade dough, of course!), mixed up cookies to later decorate, and made coffee ice cream.
Once the ice cream was mixed, it was time to freeze. We put it in an ice cream ball: it has two chambers, an outer one for ice and salt, and an inner one for the creamy yumminess. Then you roll the ball around for 20 minutes to freeze it. We played cold potato to make the mixing time seem a little shorter.When the cookies had cooled, they had to be decorated. Each kid had an individual king size cookie; we did these in lieu of a cake.Hannah F wanted her cookie au naturale.
With all that sugar, sometimes you need to get out some energy.Big fun, good food, lots of laughs, great friends!
Since my birthday is on the 24th, we combined our family celebration on Jenna's actual day. Both of us wanted this delicious made-from-scratch chocolate cake. Unfortunately there was a mishap during the baking process -- it grew out of the pan and started spilling over into the oven. And this occurred while Karen was picking up Jenna from school, leaving Anya and Emily to deal with this unexpected catastrophe.

And while neither I nor Karen were here to witness this event, I feel quite confident that had someone surreptitiously videoed the goings-on, it would be viral on YouTube by now. Karen was on the phone and able to get an audio play-by-play. First, the frantic call from Anya that the cake has overflowed the pan -- what do we do?! Her's and Emily's marked fear of putting their hands inside the oven to clean out the spilled batter (now burning on the bottom of the oven) and shrieks of shock (no actual burning of flesh) at the nearness of the heat to their skin -- it's so hot! It's scary! -- then the cries of confusion and frustration when the smoke alarm begins to go off -- Make it stop! How do we make it stop?! -- the lamentations that they just can't do this, please get home quickly, and WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE REST OF THE CAKE STILL IN THE PAN?!?!?!

Whew.

They managed to clean it up and put the remaining cake batter back into the oven for another 20 minutes of baking. But as you can imagine, a cake that has to be taken from it's cooking home for 15 minutes and then returned to that heated environment doesn't come out flawlessly.

On the plus side, it did bake through, and tasted fabulous.

On the minus side, it looked like this
after being dumped/scooped from it's baking pan.

But, honestly, we've had the cake the "normal" way numerous times, looking all perky and chocolate-shiny-luminous. This way made for a much more memorable birthday. Normal is w-a-y overrated.
We spent the family birthday celebration night playing Monopoly. Karen found a vintage one at a garage sale for $2, and I don't think it had ever been played. The money was still so crisp the bills kind of stuck together the first time we played it.In the end, neither of the birthday peeps was the winner. Anya was the property tycoon of the night.But we all enjoyed the cake.

Moabites continued

During our time in Moab, we stayed at a new location. There's a church in Moab that owns a cabin about 30 miles outside of town, up in the mountains at about 8000 ft. They rent it out to pastors and their families for a song. Literally. I just met them at the church and sang a verse and chorus of "All Creatures Of Our God And King" and they gave me the keys.

Okay, not really a song. But dirt cheap. The song was just out of gratitude.

It's a 40 minute drive, through a beautiful winding canyon that follows the Colorado river and then up another beautiful winding road to the cabin.
We'd seen pictures, and they made it look quaint and clean, but we had very low expectations; the attraction was the price.

It was all we'd hoped it would be. Yes, quaint, not too big (2 beds, 2 baths, living room and kitchen), but very clean, very quiet, very comfy, and gorgeous views.Yeah, the decor was probably leftover from the 70s and 80s, but it was warm during the cold nights, had plenty of chairs and couches for us all to sprawl out to relax and read in the evenings, and had a rustic feel without feeling like we'd moved into the Ingalls' cabin and needed to chop wood for the fire, kill a deer for food or sew a quilt by hand. And, where else could we stay and enjoy such a delightfully retro shower?When not at the cabin, we did make a trek into Arches Nat'l Park. We couldn't be that close and not pay some of our favorite arches a visit.And we saw them in a way we'd never seen them before.
See all those colored dots below Double Arch? Those are people. Scads of people. This was the first time in our 7 years of visiting that the park was bursting at the seams with visitors.

We didn't stay too long. We have too many fond memories of quiet moments under and near various arches to have them tainted by the huddled masses and the dull roar that they bring with them.During our lunch stop, in front of Turret Arch, we were serenaded by a man playing some sort of Native American instrument. Kind of like a really big recorder, only tuned to a pentatonic scale. And if that means nothing to you, think of a hollow sounding flute that only plays 5 notes and you get the idea. Mildly soothing for about 30 seconds, then borderline annoying, then just background noise for the crowd that gathered to snap pictures of Irritating-Indigenous-Flute-Playing Man as I fondly have dubbed him.He did move on and tootle his magic flute near another majestic formation. I appreciated the relocation.

We found a hike that was off the beaten path (it didn't lead directly from the parking lot to an arch), so spent a nice 45 minutes away from everyone else, and Emily practiced her rock-climbing skills.That little leprechaun at the top of the pic is her.

After a crowded day, we returned to the cabin for a quiet night, and a beautiful sunset.
Not a person to be heard or seen. Just the mountains, the sun and some spectacular clouds.
Sigh. Thanks, God!