Christmas in Idaho Falls

Bryson, Dave and I drove to Idaho Falls on Christmas Eve day.  Jeff and Jaelyn and family arrived shortly after and Linda, John, Jackson, Sam and Liz after that.  We ate dinner about 5:00 (egg rolls, shrimp, sausage balls, veggies and dip, bbq smokies, etc)  Jeff brought in an electronic piano and everyone had a blast with that.  It came with a microphone and you could change the sound of your voice so it made us all giggle.  Grandma had a bingo game, we sang some songs, Kayla and Lexa played some beautiful piano numbers and we read Luke 2.  (Sadly, we had no one willing to dress up as mary, joseph, shepherds and angels.)

We opened family gifts.  The Howells game Jeff & Jae a wooden pig chopping block, a cloth happy birthday banner, Love Comes Softly set of videos, and a hat with lights in the brim.  The Snows gave us a radio/charger that you can wind (for emergencies), a green smoothie recipe book and a book called Agent Bishop about an FBI/Mormon Bishop.  Mom and Dad gave each of us a new set of towels (that we always look forward to).  They also gave the Snows an electric knife sharpener.  Jeff and Jae gave Mom and Dad a special request - a membership to Sam's Club in Idaho Falls.

We had a great time opening gifts the next morning and had a nice Christmas Day with games, good food, and good company ('cept I missed my "marrieds" who were all in their home towns).  In the evening we had an incident which I liked to call "Libby didn't die this Christmas".  Kayla, Jaelyn and Lexa made a couple of trays of dipped chocolates with cashews, cherries, peanut butter and coconut centers.  They had a great time and they looked beautiful (the chocolates and the girls making them.)  Then they set them outside to cool.  A little while later, someone let Libby out.  When we let Libby in, I saw a sheet of empty chocolate spots and we thought Libby had snarfed a whole tray of chocolate!  The uproar ensued.  Kayla was upset because of all her hard work, Grandma was upset because Libby was going to make a mess somewhere (from either end!) and some of us were upset that Libby would be so sick and might die from the chocolate.  We made a little bed for her in the cold garage and put an old blanket over her.  I checked on her once in a while and she seemed confused but physically fine.

After Grandma and Grandpa went to bed, Brielle made a discovery of the missing tray of chocolates on another table outside.  The sheet I saw was just chocolate spots they had used for getting the swirls on top.  Libby was let inside, and everyone apologized and loved her up.  She was still confused but happy to be in the house.  Kayla was happy, Libby was happy and Grandma was happy when she heard the news the next morning.

Friendly Mr. Fox

Dave and I went to McCall to check on some things at the cabin and got these nice pictures of our resident FOX.  He is very friendly.

Adventures in Cooking

Last Friday night I had a craving for Creme Brulee, having tasted it for the first time a couple of weeks ago at Tucanos.  Mike Bell (Bryson's friend) was at our house waiting for him to get home from work and heard me talking about it. Mike decided we should make it and went to the store to get whipping cream.  He also brought over his double boiler and we started cooking.  Who knew it consisted of sugar, cream, eggs yolks and vanilla?  (So we won't make it again soon!)  But it was fun to experiment and try something new.  After it cooked in the oven and we put the sugar on top, Mike got out his blow torch and caramelized the topping.  Then it had to cool again.  It was worth the wait and was creamy and delicious with a crunchy sweet topping.  Does that make us gourmets??