Idaho Won !

Well the excitement was at Chris and MB's this afternoon/evening as Idaho was playing in the Humanitarian Bowl Game in Boise and they won ! MB made a great pot of chili and it was fun to stop by and see the crowd there to cheer on her Dad who was coaching the team on to a win 42-41 win in the last minutes of the game ! I missed the ending as I had another event to be at and only got to stop by after work before heading out again. But they all enjoyed cheering them on, Chris said Steve got to call and talk to the AZ contingent cheering for them after the game ! What alot of fun for the Axman family ! Go Vandals !

Cream Puffs

Here's a recipe for you all that I tried as our dessert on Christmas Eve. Linda had told me about doing them and how really easy it was but how pretty they looked to serve. So this recipe is out of my old Betty Crocker cookbook, so thankyou Linda and thankyou "Betty" ! They were so easy, I actually made the puffs a week ahead and froze them. Then the day before I made the pudding so it'd be cool, then the morning of actually filled them. I'm thinking this might be great for a friends lunch too using the puffs to hold chicken salad, or miniature versions. Have fun if you try them ! They looked really pretty on each plate with the cherry pie filling dribbling down the sides of each, yum! Cream puffs
1 cup water
½ cup butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Vanilla pudding ( cooked kind, made according to package …I made it ahead so it would be cold and put plastic wrap right on the top to avoid a skin forming)
Confectioner’s sugar
Cherry pie filling - optional
Chocolate glaze – optional

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Heat water and butter to rolling boil. Stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat about 1 minute or until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat. At this point I put it in a bowl that I could use my mixer in. Beat in eggs, all at one time; continue beating until smooth. Drop dough by scant ¼ cupful’s 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 35-40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool and cut off tops. Pull out any filaments of soft dough. Carefully fill puffs with vanilla pudding. Replace tops, dust with confectioners sugar. At this point I made a chocolate glaze to drizzle over the tops using milk, powdered sugar and a square of semi sweet chocolate I had melted. Store in refrigerator until serving. When serving top with a spoonful of cherry pie filling. (I found my pampered chef large scoop wonderful for getting all the same size dough mounds and also for filling with the pudding)

Christmas Day

We had such a nice dinner on Christmas day at my parents house, what a treat to not host the party and cook it all ! Mom had the table so pretty, she had those white angel little pots that have a candle in the angel's skirt and it has a live tree in it, so Marcy and I each got one of them to bring home ! It's so cute. We had a nice dinner with ham and turkey and mashed potatoes and I made some yummy glazed carrots and a new recipe for a cranberry/cherry fruity jello salad. Here we are by their tree.

Ken and my Dad had a great time with a puzzle, it was one I had given them last year made out of an old family picture, so they had fun finding parts of everyone and a nose here or someones eyes and then guessing who it was !

Mom and Dad and Marcy and I.

Mom and Dad

We had such a nice day, a relaxing morning at home puttering around and having some overnight butterscotch rolls with coffee. Then on our way home we stopped at the Riparian preserve to go for a walk, we stopped in by where the telescope was and the club that runs it was there and we got to go in and see what they were looking at that night for the public and it was Jupiter. We could see it thru the telescope and it's 3 moons, that was so neat ! While there the earth and turned enough and Jupiter had moved enough they had to rotate the roof that opens so that was neat to see too. What an unexpected fun thing to do on Christmas night. We both said we've got to bring Aiden here to see this !

Merry Christmas Everyone !

Well after everyone left on Christmas Eve and the house was put back together we decided it was time for a walk at our favorite spot. ( walk off some of those calories !) We timed it perfect and watched the sun go down. So we wish everyone a Holiday that is peaceful and full of family and friends, and as 2009 ends we wish all a safe and Happy 2010. Our Christmas will venture into January in wait for Jeremy and Jamie's arrival. The Christmas cards never went out, they kept getting bumped on the list, so don't feel neglected, I'm hoping for a family snapshot in early January so one never knows if Christmas cards might morph into Valentines ! Won't that be a surprise in your mailbox !

Here's an Arizona sunset on a brisk and chilly Christmas Eve. Blessings to all !

Christmas Eve Memories

We had a nice afternoon today celebrating Christmas Eve with family.

MB and Chris

Amy and Chris and our Grandsons were all here.

Ken's folks joined us for some relaxing time to visit and munch on appetizers before dinner.

MB and Amy and Delores

Garrett and his winky smile ! It's so fun to be 3!

Me with the 2 Chris's and Garrett.

I made lasagna, MB brought two kinds of yummy breads, Amy did a salad and I made some baked zucchini ( I'll blog that recipe one of these days). We had coffee and all kinds of sweets for dessert, I'll have to show you the cream puffs another blog !

Garrett and Aiden and Chris with me.

Here are Gene and Delores.

The kids each got to open a present, we are waiting for our " January Christmas" for the rest. Ethan really did think the chocolate santa was the best part ! Garrett got to put his giant puzzle together and we got to play Aiden's new Zingo which is a fun form of kid bingo.

Here are Gene and Delores with some of their Great Grands. We were all reminiscing some about last Christmas and everyone on the Schuld side visiting and how all you CRAZY guys jumped in the pool. It was 55 today so not near as balmy as last year, I don't think you'd have been so brave !

All are gone now, home to put out cookies for Santa and some on to the next family party, so Ken and I cleaned up and will enjoy a quiet evening. Merry Christmas everyone !

Janne Family Christmas Party

We had a great time last weekend hosting my family's traditional holiday party. The kids were all so cute, here is Aiden, the next one is Ethan and Cailyn checkin to see what is going on ! It was so cute to watch them together.

Ethan

Amy and Grandpa

The boys had a blast with the fuseball game, the big boys included ! There seemed to be someone playing all the time and a bit of cheering going on !

Ethan snitching a cracker. We had lots of time for appetizers and visiting.
Amy and Chris

MB, Alissa, Jen and Amy

We made the guys stand for a

picture interrupting a game of pool !

Alissa, Marcy and Jen

Chris and MB

We had a very nice visit from Santa, what a surprise that was ! Aiden had the sweetest smile the entire time he was here.

Santa had a wonderful file box with certificates and he looked thru and yep, there was one for each of the kids as being on the "Nice" list. They each got a certificate with santa's picture on it saying they had been nice. Cailyn was even intrigued !
Garrett was so cute and definitely wanted to do whatever Aiden was doing when Santa asked for help delivering presents !

Ethan pretty much wanted nothing to do with him ! He kept the tightest grip on his Mommy the whole time he was here ! Cailyn was brave tho to sit on his lap ( so did MB ! )

We had a great time playing some games. We played a fun little dice/gift game that involved alot of fast rolling, presents and stealing ! LCR was fun and Chris won everyone's quarters this time !

Yummy dinner, I made a ham and a turkey and everyone brought wonderful side dishes, desserts and appetizers.

Jeremy and Jamie got to join us thru skype ! They'll be here Jan. 6 to continue our Christmas celebration !

Baking cookies !

We had an Arizona rainy day today, perfect for baking cookies! All the boys and Amy got to come over to help me bake some christmas cookies . We started with some rice krispie treats all ready to dip in chocolate and sprinkle and sprinkle and sprinkle ! That was fun ! They did a great job too !

Ethan took a break from moving every chair he could to climb on something and watched us for at least 30 seconds.

Then we moved on to sugar cookies. Garrett was great with the rolling pin.

And cutting out shapes, he stuck with it until there was a tiny ball left just to play with.

Aiden got his 2 pans full and we baked them all and had some lunch.

Then it was time to frost, so they all picked some fun colors to make the frosting, and had fun stirring all that powdered sugar !

Lots of sprinkles again, they ended up looking so pretty. They took them home so they should have a great dessert treat after dinner tonight !

And I'm going to bring in the hose !!!