christmas

Well, I can hardly believe christmas has come and gone, this year has flown by its amazing, and I had a very blessed year and am eager to see what 2009 will bring!

Christmas this year was very non-christmasy if thats a word. For one I had to work on christmas, which was ok, they just instilled an incentive pay for working on holidays which isnt much but better than what we used to get which is nothing more than the pay we get on a regular day.

My family (minus brother) celebrated christmas on christmas eve so i could enjoy the festivities. We didnt do much there wasnt even a tree



Kinda sad but my parents were doing several renovations and putting up a tree was not on the list of things to get done, its ok, i can have my own tree next year :)

we watched our traditional movies we watch every year , Its a Wonderful Life, Elf, and National Lampoons Christmas.

We ate dinner which B made an Awesome Ham
here he is checking on it


we also had a fire!!!


It may be San Antonio, and it may be 70 degrees on christmas but it was chilly in the house to me and i wanted a fire on christmas so B so kindly made us one :)

So we watched movies opened gifts ate too much , you know the usual festivities, nothing too exciting but I got to spend time with family and we had a good time!! Im thankful that I do have a family to spend christmas with even if it was not a real christmasy christmas

some more photos for your viewing pleasure :0

Amazing Fudge made by Mom


Too much sugar


My Fave

the baking curse has been broken

SO in the past no matter what I try to bake if it doesn't come from a box it fails miserably even if I follow the directions to a T ...I am cursed... well I have been craving apple pie, it has always been a thanksgiving tradition and this year we went to my grandparents house and apple pie wasn't on the menu :( so I have still been craving apple pie so I took it on myself to attempt an apple pie... completely homemade

I found a recipe online from better homes and gardens

you'll need for the pie filling:
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs. all purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 cups peeled and sliced apples
sugar to sprinkle on top (I used brown sugar)

Crust:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/3 cup milk

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees F, In a large bowl stir together the 1/2 cup sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Add apples and stir to combine. Let stand while making crust.


1B. PIE CRUST: In a bowl stir together flour, sugar, and salt. In a small bowl stir together milk and oil; add all at once to flour mixture. Stir with fork until dough mixture comes together, with floured hands form into a ball. Divide into three equal balls. proceed to step 2.

2. For pie crust, with your hands firmly press two of the dough balls firmly into 9inch pie plate and up the sides; continue pressing to form and edge at the rim. Set aside

3. Divide remaining dough ball into 6 equal parts. On waxed paper pat each dough portion into three inch circles; set aside. Transfer apple mixture into pie shell, top with dough circles Sprinkle with additional sugar.



4. Place a baking sheet on oven rack; place pie plate on baking sheet. Bake pie for 65 min or until filling is bubbly in the center. If necessary, cover top of pie with foil for lat 10-15 min to prevent over browning. Remove pie from oven, remove foil, place on wire rack to cool completely



This pie really was so easy to make and I couldn't have done it without the help of this from pampered chef

Its an apple/peeler/corer/slicer and I had all my apples prepared in about 5 minutes, its an amazing and fun gadget... I digress...

So this pie came out perfect, even with all my handling of the dough it was perfect and flaky, however I would next time make extra dough because I really had to press it and make it stretch so I had enoughto cover the bottom and sides of the pie dish and I still didn't have enough to make the whole rim of the pie crust and I also added some brown sugar to the apple mixture and on top as was suggested by Bryan the family chef expert and it turned out great and I will definitely be making this again as it was so easy

I think the baking spell has been Broken

Where are my brains!!!

So today I get up and get ready for work just like any other day, I stop on my way to get something to eat, I'm kind of early as I pull in to the parking garage so i figure I'll look at my schedule to see who I will be working with.... only to realize... IM NOT ON THE SCHEDULE FOR TONIGHT!!! I was so glad I didnt actually go to the unit I would have felt like an even bigger idiot.

So, i get to enjoy the night to myself which is a good thing, I have many many things on my to do list.

where is the logic!!

So, my cat has been sick, we dont know with what yet he has a history of urine crystals which on a male cat can cause a blockage of the urethra and thus death within 24 hours if not caught... so know we think he has a kidney infection... the damn cat has caused me so much money and stress in this past year its a whole other long story we wont get into here...so i digress...

he has been sick and wont eat his regular dry food or his reguar wet food for that matter all he wil eat is tuna with water added...the vet says this is ok when he feels better he will eat his regular food just feed him what he will eat right now. OK. SO i even try mixing the tuna with his normal wet cat food, NO, he will NOT even touch it.

So his dry cat food had been in the bowl for a few days so i tossed it in my little bathroom trash can and give him some fresh JUST IN CASE he decides he wants to eat it. Well I come home and im washing my face and i see him digging in the trash can... HE IS EATING THE DRY CAT FOOD I THREW OUT IN THE TRASH CAN THAT HE REFUSED TO EAT FROM THE BOWL!!!!

WHATEVER, if he's eating i suppose it doesnt matter where it comes from, but it makes no sense to me.