Christmas 2014

We spent a week with Brett's family in Pattonsburg, Missouri for Christmas.

Brett gave a merit badge workshop for a group of boy scouts in the area there. He taught the Sustainability badge - a very extensive one. The workshop was over 5 hours long, and the boys must have completed requirements beforehand, and will have to work with their families on more requirements over the next month too. Despite the long workshop and many more hours of work required, the boys were attentive and participated enthusiastically.

We had several animals with us for Christmas too. They were fun to have around, though my allergies were crazy.

Most of the time we watched television and played games.

The games on Christmas Eve were the highlight of the week for us.

Drawing Christmas trees on disposable plates on top of our heads.

The weather was pretty gloomy and damp and cold where we were. But on Christmas Day it cleared a bit and Brett and I took a nice muddy walk down the road.

As a family we all went and did temple work at the Kansas City temple one night with their ward. The next day as we headed home Brett and I went and did more temple work together. Although we did the same work both days we got to experience new things each time that (I have a feeling) don't happen very often. It is such a blessing to be able to live near a temple. From Joplin it takes almost 3 hours to get to the nearest temple in Kansas City, so we were very excited to be able to attend twice this week.



We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

....Meanwhile....

*sigh*

We are so excited to move out of this apartment..... someday.

Yeah, that's stove hood.

Making a List and Checking it Twice

 

Last year the big hype was about solar houses. We heard from a few people after building our annual gingerbread house that they were disappointed that we didn't build a solar gingerbread house. So....this year we have a solar panel. It is really the only decoration on the rooftop this time because someone (that would be me) decided to be the engineer of the wall-building, and I totally failed at that job. We found that by the time the roof went up, the walls were too wide, so the roof has no support from the walls - so roof pieces are hanging by the white of the icing. Every time we touch it, the whole thing comes down. We tried a couple times to reinforce it, but, let's face it, a cookie house is pretty crummy.

Let me introduce you to our Christmas tree. It's our first one! Thanks to the Parsons family - I believe it was a re-gifted white elephant gift ;)

I am lovin' it! It was the star of our Feliz Navidad theme table at the ward Christmas party last weekend. Everyone thought it was the coolest little tree. I used the disposable camera to take pictures of it, and I finally used up all the film. I tried to take it to Walmart to develop the pictures and they told me they don't develop them anymore! "But you're selling them!" I actually yelled right there at the lady. (Sorry Walmart photo lady.)

This week is a busy one, I'm sure for all of you too. We are going up to Brett's parent's for Christmas and have a lot to do before we go. 

Brett's long workdays fall on this week, plus he's working overtime. Long long days for him. 

Brett's young men want to go give cookie plates to all their home teachees for their mutual activity this week, so that means I have to make them. ...and I did! Two batches of different cookies were both a success, I am so grateful for new cookie sheets. (They are helping this cookie dummy tremendously!)

Brett also signed up to bring rolls for his work party....so I'm making rolls too.

I have to make a trip to Rolla to get Brett's glasses fixed. The frame snapped in half at the bridge right before church last Sunday. Good thing they're under warranty. The optometry had to order new frames, so I've got to make the drive to the office whenever they come in so I can get the glasses fixed before we leave for vacation.

Meanwhile, I am crossing my fingers that all the gifts I ordered on Amazon arrive before Friday. 

And all that other usual weekly grocery shopping, and house cleaning, making meals...

I have so many lists going on right now I have to have a list to double check everything so I don't forget anything.

Holiday Wishes from The Osmonsons

We are thinking of our friends and family far away and hope everyone enjoys the holidays.

Photography by Tiffany Seavy

Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Love, Brett & Whitney

Click *here * to watch one of my favorite short Christmas videos.

First Snow

Since Halloween it's gotten much colder in southwestern Missouri. Like a biting dry cold, which I don't remember feeling since I lived in Idaho.

Last night after dinner we were all comfy in our pajamas, enjoying warmth, and we got an urgent phone call that the Bishop needed to see us right away in his office.
So we hurried to get dressed and to the church, all the while, every possible scary thought racing through our minds about new callings, chastisement, someone dying.....dreading what could possibly be so urgent (since we already had an appointment to see him the following afternoon).
When we arrived at the building there were other couples waiting there and we were ushered into the clerk's office right away. The bishopric counselor comes in all cheerful and smiling, and says "We are giving you an extended release Sister Osmonson."

What does that mean?

He explained that the current Primary presidency I've been working with has been serving for over 3 years, and it was time to give them a break. That naturally meant that since I'm also in the presidency that I get released too, and someone else is going to replace me. As of yet, I have no new "calling" (or serving position) other than the other calling I have as the choir accompanist. 

This morning right before church it started to snow really hard all of a sudden! Not many people showed up there and in the middle of the meeting the Bishop announced that at the closing of the first meeting we should all go home because the snow was getting worse. It's weird to come home from church so early, but I'm glad we did because the roads were pretty slippery.

This past week I tried a recipe I had written down back in November 2011 (I actually date my recipe cards - you can laugh at me). To my surprise it was way better than I ever would have imagined. I can't say it's super healthy, but if your looking for a great Fall/Thanksgiving potluck side dish, this one is sure to please. We've actually been eating it for dessert because it's that good. It's an alternative to those candied yams or sweet potato casserole. In my opinion, this is better than both.

Acorn Squash Casserole serves 8

For the casserole:

3 acorn squash, halved and seeded (save those and toast them like pumpkin seeds)

2 1/2 Tbsp butter/margarine, softened

2 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup milk or half-and-half (depending on how rich you like it - I used 1% milk)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

For the topping:

2 1/2 Tbsp chilled butter/margarine

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional - but very good)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake the squash, cut side up, until flesh is soft (about 40-50 minutes). Cool, then scoop out the squash meat into a medium size mixing bowl.

Prepare the topping while the squash is baking. Toss together brown sugar and flour. Cut in cold butter until crumbly. Stir in nuts. Set aside.

When the squash is done, lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 11x7 or 9x13 baking pan.

With an electric mixer beat the squash until smooth. Then beat in eggs, white sugar, milk, vanilla, salt, and softened butter until well-blended. (It's okay if the butter doesn't fully incorporate as long as pieces of it are even throughout.)

Spoon squash mixture into the greased pan. Sprinkle topping over the squash. Bake uncovered until lightly browned, about 40 minutes. Serve hot.

Grilled Salmon Tacos with Spicy Cilantro-Lime Coleslaw

Halloween itself is not very exciting as an adult when you don't have kids and you don't live in an area where you get trick-or-treaters coming to your door. So, since it happened on a Friday night we made a movie date night out of it. I made some homemade soft pretzels and we watched "Casper". I remember watching that movie as a really little kid. I was probably about five or six. I only know that because my first goldfish's name was named after one of the ghosts on the movie.
We couldn't believe we even watched it as young kids. There's some strong language in that movie. So, the movie was kind of a blast from the past, but we decided that it's not worth seeing ever again.

Brett found out that the plant is closed for the whole week of Christmas, so for the rest of the year he's working overtime every day to make up for the hours he'll have off for all the holidays. So since he's working late we had to scramble yesterday to get to our voting location on time before it closed. I prepared a yummy portable dinner to take along so that we wouldn't be cranky voting on empty stomachs.

As I was planning dinner meals for this week I found a lovely picture on Pinterest and was really inspired to make our delicious take-out dinner on Election Day.

Brett thought they were really yummy as he ate them on the car ride to the poll. I just pulled it all together before I went to pick him up. I had prepared the coleslaw about 3 hours beforehand and covered it to sit in the fridge to chill. The salmon takes very little time to prep and cook. I warmed some corn tortillas on the griddle and then assembled the tacos on squares of foil, wrapped them up and bagged them "to-go" style. So easy.

This meal made enough to feed the two of us with a little extra leftover for me to eat for lunch today. But these recipes can be adapted to feed as many people as you want.


Spicy Cilantro-Lime Coleslaw
In a large mixing bowl whisk together 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup sour cream, grated peel and juice from half a lime, 1/2 tsp red chili pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp honey (or more to taste), and 3 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro leaves. I also added a couple dashes of cayenne pepper to give it a more spicy kick. Then toss together with 4 cups of finely shredded green cabbage. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover the bowl and refrigerate at least 1 hour. I promise it will be best if you make it a day ahead.

Honey-Lime Grilled Salmon
First preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. I covered a baking sheet with foil and greased it with olive oil, then sprinkled salt and pepper all over it. Then I placed my salmon fillets (no skin) into the baking sheet. In a small heatproof bowl or a mug I melted 2 Tbsp butter. To it I added about 1 teaspoon of honey and juice from the other half of the lime from making the coleslaw. I swirled it around to dissolve the honey and then poured it evenly over the tops of the fish. Then I sprinkled cayenne pepper over the fish to taste. Bake the fish for 15 minutes, then set under the broiler for another 2-4 minutes. I let the fish rest a couple minutes after removing them from the oven, then cut them lengthwise into 1-inch wide strips to fit inside the tacos. Eat on warm tortillas with cold Spicy Cilantro-Lime Coleslaw.

Ready for Halloween

Aldi is so cool because they don't sell their produce by weight. So I got us a 30-pound pumpkin there for a flat $3.99. We carved it into a howling wolf. Maybe it will win us a prize at the pumpkin-carving contest this Friday. We have tricks and treats ready for Trunk-or-Treating and we'll bring our best chili for the Chili Cook-off contest too.

I'm treating the pumpkin again to keep it fresh after carving. It worked pretty well last year, so we'll keep doing that from now on. I dunked the whole thing into a gallon of lukewarm water with 1 tsp bleach to kill the bacteria to keep it from going bad too quickly. I just put it out on a towel upside down to air-dry. Once it's dry I'll spread a solution of 2 Tablespoons of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and 1 quart of water onto the flesh of the pumpkin to keep it fresh.

Coming up with a great design is the hardest part of pumpkin carving. We looked at a website where you can find hundreds of beginner-easy to hard-advanced printable designs for FREE!

We saved all our pumpkin seeds too so we could toast them for a snack. I also saved some seeds from the acorn squash we had for dinner last week. I made one batch into a salty-spicy mix and the other into kettle corn flavor. Both are yummy!

Want to Hear a Gross Story?

I went out with the Sister missionaries tonight to be there for a lesson with a new convert in our ward. We all sat down in the living room and one of the sister's says "Want to hear something really gross?" And then the other sister companion says "Oh! Tell it quick!" and cringes. So we all brace ourselves for this story:

"We were coming out of the church building last night after dark, walking to our car, when we saw this giant spider on the sidewalk. It's body was this big (hold up her fingers in a big circle) and had these hairy toothpick-long legs. [We Missourians established it as a wolf spider. More common than I would ever like around here.]

We didn't want to risk it crawling up our legs if we tried to step on it, so we started throwing rocks at it. But we kept missing. And then THUMP! I nailed it on the head! We were so relieved we didn't get attacked by the giant spider.

And then, it literally exploded and all these baby spiders came pouring out. There were so many that the sidewalk was black with them and we screamed and ran. 

This morning we were back at the church and we saw one of the baby spiders, so we stepped on it, but we found no trace of the big spider." - and that was the end of her story

So I come home and tell Brett about the spider story and I get to the end where they didn't see any remains of the big spider and Brett casually says very knowingly "Yeah, because the babies devoured it."

BIGGEST FIT OF WILLIES IN MY ENTIRE LIFE HAPPENED RIGHT THERE!!

Now I’m laughing about it, but it still makes me cringe. If exploding roach eggs were enough (because that happens around here), the exploding cannibal spiders really kick the pumpkin.

Happy Halloween!