What to do with 20lbs of Red Potatoes!

My new recipe, potato and ham soup.

Notice Grace's hand in the cheese?

She caught on quickly!

Sprinkling cheese into her own bowl.

The other day while at Ream's I came upon a fabulous deal. 20lbs of Red Potatoes for just $2.99. Having a large family and being on a budget that bag screamed at me to buy it. So I did. Then comes the challenge to find ways to cook up all those potatoes. Now, potatoes are not my most favorite food. In fact, I couldn't stand them while pregnant with Jaren and haven't been able to truely enjoy them since. But, my family adores potatoes.

My first us of the bag was to cook up some home fries Christmas morning to accompany my traditional Biscuits and Gravy. They were a huge hit. What are home fries you ask? Basically hash browns in diced form. You don't have to take the time to grate all those fries. You just dice them, blanch them and saute them up. What's blanching you ask? It just a fancy term for boiling in water for about 5 minutes. It starts the cooking process and makes the potatoes brown up more quickly.

My second use of the bag of potatoes was again at breakfast where I did make hasbrowns. Again a huge hit. But I needed to start using them for dinners.

Last night I came up with this fabulous potato and ham soup. It was gooo-ooo-oood. Would you like the recipe? Like it or not, here it comes. I love it because it is healthy and easy to make. No, really, it is.

6 red potatoes diced(skins still on. who has time to peel small potatoes. besides most of the nutrition is in the skins!).

1 onion diced

1 cup of ham diced

1. first heat a dutch oven(large pot) over medium heat with 4 tablespoons of olive oil

2. add onion and about 1 tsp salt, saute until tender

3. Add the ham and continue to cook until brown around edges, about 8 minutes

4. Add diced potatoes and continue to cook for about 5 minutes

5. Add enough water to cover ingredients about an inch

6. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes, until potatoes are tender

7. With a potato masher, mash the mixture and watch it thicken up. Make sure to leave some

texture.

8. Add about 2 cups 1% milk, bring back to a simmer, and it's ready to serve

9. As a garnish I added shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream!!

My kids all loved this as well as the husband. I served it with some french bread. It would have been better with a green salad. Another good accompaniment would have been some biscuits.

Notice there was no butter or heavy cream used in the making of this soup. So I'd say it's pretty darn healthy.

Progressive Dinner

My yummy yummy cheeseball:
1 package soften cream cheese
1 package soften 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 can black olives finally diced
4 green onions finally minced
Smash together with a fork, form into a ball and enjoy.

My stinking cute family in front of our tree.

Cory, Kelli and Alleah

Mike, Donna, Brooke and Sean

All the grandkids.
Jaren, the joker.
He was the only one not giving a good face.
So this is what he gets, that goofy face posted all over my blog.

Can we squeeze in one more tradition? Well, we have too. Cause it's a tradition. According to Cory anyway. What Cory wants, Cory gets. I'm glad he insisted that we carry on this tradition that he remembers from his youth in California. I'm sure Brent remembers them as well, but he's just not as vocal about it as Cory.
This year we started at our house for Appetizers. With all the other cooking that I had been doing I wanted to do something simple. So a homemade cheese ball it is. It was simple and it was delicious. According to me anyway. I also ended up making the rolls from scratch and they were phenomenal. No really, they were. I don't know what I did differently this time, but they were really good.
After our house we traveled to Cory and Kelli where they had prepared a delicious salad of spinach and fresh strawberries. It made me ache for spring and the wonderful vegetables and fruits that come along with that blessed season.
Our last stop was Mike and Donna's. There we dined on a Honeybaked Ham, my fresh rolls, twice baked potatoes(good job Kelli), and some frozen corn and peas(always a staple at the Wood's gatherings).
We also opened gifts, ate dessert and played some games. All in all it was a great night. A wonderful way to end Christmas.

Christmas this year was jam-packed full of wonderful acitivities, traditions(old and new) and of course drama. As I reflect on all that I did this year with the family I feel like something was lacking. The more I thought about it the more Service came to mind. We didn't serve enough this season. I really feel like that is the true spirit of the Christmas. Giving of ourselves to serve others. Then and only then do we really feel the spirit of Christ in our lives. He lived his life in service. And what better way to honor Him, then to serve others. Of course we don't just serve each other during Christmas time. I hope next season I can change the focus of our Christmas to service. Service to our family, friends and neighbors.

What did you do this year to feel the real spirit of Christmas?

Christmas Morning

The stocking.
This year were stored on the stove to prevent the animals from getting to them.



Annual picture at the top of the stairs.

Grace opening her first present, a blanket.

Annika in her scarf.
She immediately put it on.

Sweet boots.

Hannah in her new shirt
and knee high socks.

Brent and I decided to start, yet another, new tradition with our kids. From now on our kids will be receiving just 3 gifts. Something they want, something they need, and something spiritual. We started it out of necessity. We also started it to continue to center our Holiday around Christ. Since Christ received just 3 gifts, that's all my children will be getting as well. When I first introduced this to my kids I thought I'd be getting a lot of complaining and moaning about it. But to my pleasant surprise, they were okay with it.
We have a rule that no one is allowed to get up until 7am. I myself, was up at 5am in the morning. That's my bodies natural time to get up. I forced myself to stay in bed and found myself falling somewhat back to sleep. At about 6:30am I heard doors opening and slamming shut. At about 7am I heard a wave of screams come from one of the rooms and then 5 sets of feet coming storming down the hallway. They crept into our room calmly and quietly informing us that it was officially 7am.
Every Christmas morning the kids gather around our beds and we read the Christmas Story and remind them of the true meaning of Christmas. Then the kids have to wait at the top of the stairs while Brent and I go and turn all the lights on. It's a lot of fun.
They then storm down the stairs and the the real fun begins.
Christmas could have been done with the stockings. Their reactions to their scarves, beanies and knee high socks were priceless. But it didn't stop there. I'm so relieved that they all loved their want gifts. It was a good Christmas.

Pajamas, it's a must on Christmas Eve

The parents:
Penelope and Richard.

The 'Rents with all the Grandkids!

Grace and Beckham
Beckham is constantly at Grace's side.
Sometimes that's a good thing.
Other times, it drives me insane.

My cute girls

Oh Grace, she's at the point where she can't quite get the right face when you ask for a smile.
And Yes, Jaren is missing from the photo.
In typical Male fashion, he booked it for the basement after opening his bottoms.

When I started having kids, oh so long ago, my Mom started buying the kids pajamas for Christmas Eve. I'm sure a lot of you have this same tradition. What could be better then going to sleep on the most exciting night of the year in brand new, soft, sweet smelling pajamas?!!! I don't think anything beats that. Except the feeling of getting up on Christmas morning in those same awesomely new pa-j-j's!!!
This year Michelle and I secretly wrapped, in warp speed, all the kids pajamas. They didn't stay wrapped longer then 5 minutes. But unwrapping the pajamas is all part of the tradition.
The kid in me comes out at this point as well. I would love to have something new to wear Christmas morning. I might just have to start buying Brent and I new pajama pants. I'm all about traditions, and why not be included in this one!!

On the 12th and final Day of Christmas

My true loves and I played BINGO!!!!

The kids.

Grandma had better hurry before they tear each other

apart from excitment.

The little guy in orange, the one Hannah is holding,

is Quanah, my nephew.

The table of presents.
I think you could hear the squeals of delight from Pleasant Grove to Spanish Fork.

The coveted Webkins.
They aren't zhu-zhu pets, but my kids loved them anyway.

Grandma with Grace.
On their way down the stairs for the kids wild game of Bingo.

Brent
Settling in for a warm game of Bingo.

My brother Ryan and his wife Michelle.
They are both so patient with my kids.

My brother Deric(the youngest) with his Wife Monica
I don't think Monica was feeling well. She had a hard time finding her smile.

Dad, ready to call the game.
I know where Hannah gets her posing from!

Last year my Mom started a new tradition; BINGO!!!! It was such a huge hit that she had no other option but to make it a tradition. My Mom, being the great Grandma that she is, takes the kids downstairs to play bingo. My Dad, taking the less stressful portion of the evening, stays upstairs and calls the game for the Adults. It really is a lot of fun. But I have to confess that it is slightly difficult for me to play the uncomplaining adult. It was so frustrating to not be the first to get a bingo. Seriously. For the first 3 rounds I did not get one bingo. They played the pity game for me and just let me pick a gift so we could move onto the next round. The child in me quickly surfaces when I see all those tempting gifts staring at me, calling me, "pick me, pick me, pick me!" Well, I can't pick you until I freaking get BINGO!!!! Several of the gifts that I wanted were quickly snatched up by my sisters-in-law. GOSH DANG IT!!! But that's alright, I am an adult, and I wont throw myself onto the floor screaming and kicking in a tantrum. In the end, I did get a lot of wonderful gifts. Brent quickly reminds me that I got everything that I wanted. Gosh, why does he always have to be the optimist!!!

Before Bingo we had a wonderful dinner of Enchiladas. Nothing is like Mom's cooking. My kids adore her chicken enchiladas. They wont touch mine with a 10 foot pole. Along with the main course, we had salad, a special bean dip, chips, and for dessert a myriad of Christmas delights including fudge, brittle, caramel corn and truffles. Ugh, it makes me sick just to think about all the food that I've consumed in the last 24 hours. The Holidays wouldn't be complete with out the food, right?

It's so great to get together with family for the Holidays. Except when some of your family lives clear across the country and can't be there to join in the fun. We missed Jessica, Jamie, Asher and Soren. Jaren asked me before we left the house, " Jessica isn't coming this year?" I sadly told him No. It's hard to be apart for the Holidays. But I find comfort in our constant communication with each other. Family is everything.

I had no idea..

That Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol uses a "crotch" to walk with. Chuckling, Brent corrected Annika, " You mean he uses crutches?" Oh ya, crutches.

On the 11th Day of Christmas

My true loves and I just played some games and watched G-Force. I let the kids go and play with friends and then gathered them together at 4pm. I told them our first activity was going to be a surprise. Oh the anticipation of it all. The surprise was hide-and-seek. I hadn't played that in years and thought it would be so much fun to play with the kids. We have three levels and many many places to run and hide. Annika turned to me and asked," Your going to go and hide to?" YES, can you believe it? I had the kids draw numbers to see who would be the first to seek. Isabel was the first one to seek us out. I hid myself in the basement bathroom behind the shower curtain with the lights out. I thought I was being clever. I heard Isabel discover Jaren and then Beckham. Next I heard the bathroom door open, she ripped aside the shower curtain and for extra drama I screamed. Well in the process I scared Isabel's pants off. She immediatly proclaimed " I'm not playing this anymore!!!" She stormed off upstairs to her room and refused to come out. I apologized for scaring her, but it was really funny.
The second go round was Jaren. I hid myself in the coat closet. Annika declared she quit cause she couldn't find a place ot hid. I coaksted her into the closet with me. While I was in the closet I heard Brent come home. Apparently Isabel was hiding under the Christmas Tree which was off limits. She didn't hear that and got into trouble with Brent. I could hear Brent ask where I was all the while still hiding int he coat closet. Isabel came looking for me and opened the coat closet and once again I screamed and she did a quick about face crying into Brent. Brent was chuckling. Annika came out distraught cause I was scaring Isabel. We tried to convince them it was all part of the fun. The kids hid one more time with my turn to seek. I successfuly found all the kids minus Hannah. I had no idea where she was. She ended up hiding in the smallest cupbaord under the kitchen bathroom's sink. CRAZY!! I guess her toe was sticking out in plain site. So funny.
After hide-and-seek I chose to play Phase 10 with the kids. But with a twist. We never get to the last 5 phases so I had them choose a number to mix it up a bit. Well, that went well since the first number drawn was 1. There were many many more meltdown's. Jaren quit 2 or 3 times cause he wasn't drawing the right card. Annika quit a few times, and Beckham quit until I helped him out.
This evening I learned that I need to play more games with my children. They don't understand what it means to have good sportmanship or to be a gracious loser, or to go with the flow when the game changes a little bit. I.E. scary, scream in your face hide-and-seek.
At least we ended on a good note. Watching a movie. We are pros at watching movies.

Jaren's Snowflake

Jaren was appauled that I didn't post a photo of his Snowflake. So, people, here it is!!!

On the 10th day of Christmas

My true loves and I made snowflake ornaments.

I realized that I do enjoy doing things like this.

It really is a lot of fun.

Annika's creation

Hannah's cool tones.

I did this same project at school with Beckham's class.
This is what he came up with.





A Snowflake potpourri
I highly recommend this craft.
It was super easy prep and all are so individual.
Just like real snowflakes.

Today was another craft. We did it right after school. I was hoping to do it after dinner. But the kids saw what Beckham had done and wanted to do it straight away. This was so fun, and didn't last long enough for me. I could have sat there and made a dozen more.

This is one activity that I'm going to include every year in our 12 days of Christmas. I am planning on giving these ornaments to Brent's Mom and Grandmother, and every year after this.

On the 9th Day of Christmas

We made cookies and delivered them to neighbors.
Let's get this party started!

Grace not affraid to get in there.
When is she not affraid?




This was just the start of the floury mess.
I didn't get photos of the real mess due to my anxiety.

She's serious people.

Grace refused to look at the camera.

Aunt Brooke helping with the Sugar cookies.

Aunt Kelli dishing out the gingerbread.




Annika doing a superb job of rolling them into perfect balls.

Sugar cookies patiently waiting to be cooked.




Brooke and Kelli graciously accepted my offer to come and join us.
I'm so glad they did.

After a few years of not delivering cookies to our neighbors, and we ourselves receiving plates of goodies, Brent insisted we start this tradition. As with pretty much all activities that involve my 6 children there is usually a pretty big mess, lots of laughter, lots of teasing, lots of noise. This time was no different. Jaren and Beckham didn't participate too much in the making of the cookies. They were too interested in friends. Now that I look back I probably should have made them participate. But that would have meant a lot of complaining and and arguing and why this and why not's and I just wasn't in the mood to "fight". So I let it go and didn't force anyone to participate, just those that really wanted to. Aunt Brooke, Aunt Kelli and cousin Alleah all joined us. It was fun to have family with us that day. Isabel was so sweet and played with Grace and Alleah downstairs and helped them make cards to Kelli and me.

It sure is a production to get 10 plates of cookies made. It would be so much easier if I did all the cookies myself. But where are the memories in that? This year I did sugar cookies and gingerbread kisses. I will not ever be doing gingerbread again. I did not like them and I'm mortified that I actually gave them out to my neighbors.

We all hopped in the car and the kids had a blast running back and forth delivering the plates of cookies. It was hard for me to listen the struggles for seats in the back, and the back and for about who gets to carry the plate. Brent practiced a lot of patience and for that I am grateful.

On the 8th Day of Christmas

I made my true loves do another craft.

Oh for heaven's sake.
Grace found the marker more interesting to color her mouth and fingers with
instead of the paper.

Beckham deciding the pen method would work best for him.

Cut Beckham, see all his perfect curls?

Annika, determined to use the scissor methond.

Hannah, can't do anything without posing!

Beckham and his stellar tree.

Isabel and Annika with their finished products.

This is Tommy, Amy and Barrett's second child with Aunt Gaye.

This is my Uncle Barry with his first Grand baby.
His name sake, Damon Barrett the 5th.

Amy and Barrett(this is Barry's oldest).
They traveled from Delaware

Katelyn & Griffen traveled from Atlanta, GA, Quinn and Tanner
3 of my Uncle Barry's boys

Today was another craft activity. I saw these trees at Brockbank Elementary. I thought they looked simple and festive. I prepped that morning by cutting all the strips of paper. I tested one of the strips out by curling it with scissors. The same technique you use when curling ribbon for packages. I thought to myself, "Sweet. I didn't need any directions." After explaining the craft to the kids they went for it. I quickly realized that curling the paper with scissors was a little to advanced for my bunch. I never was one to let my kids have free time with the crafts. It always was to messy and too much to clean up. As a result we are a little disabled in the crafting department. I had two meltdowns. One decided not to even finish the craft and sulked in the living room with the animals(Jaren, crafts are never his favorite things to do). The other one complained her way through it, determined to not let the tree get the best of her (Isabel, can you imagine it?). Seeing that the scissors weren't cutting it, Hannah whipped out a pencil and decided to wrap the strips of paper around it. It had the same effect. Beckham calming watched everyone else and accomplished to wrap almost all his pieces on his own. I was amazed at his patience and diligence. He did a tremendous job. Annika stuck with the scissor method and slowly made her tree. I am pleased with how the trees turned out. It was a lot of fun after finally figuring out the best route for each child.

Later on in the evening, after dinner we drove to Springville for the Annual Edward's Party. This is one of those painful family parties that has to happen each year. You know it's going to happen so you gear yourself up for what ever akwardness, or strange things that might be said or done. Last year was a lot of fun and went well, I thought. This year it was graciously put on by Aunt Gaye. Otherwise, it just wasn't going to happen. The date and time kept changing to accomodate people's schedules. Long story made short, there was a lot more drama this year, more then I've ever witnessed in person. Barry and his family arrived shortly after "the scene" and had no clue what just happened. All of Barry's kids were there with their spouses. I had a wonderful time talking with Katelyn, Griffen's wife, whom I'd never met before. And with Amy, who is Barrett's wife. I know, I know, none of the names or people have any signifigance to anyone who reads this blog except for my family.

The reason I am recording this is for my own benefit. You can't choose who your family is. You have no control over who they marry. After this evening I realized the petty bickering and arguing just isn't worth it. It's all water under the bridge. So what ever hard feelings I have been harboring towards anyone in my own family, I'm going to let go of. Plain and simple, it's just not worth the heart ache. People are human and not perfect. We all say and do things that are imperfect. I am so guilty of this and should be more willing to let others imperfections go. This is all easier said then done. I'm sure it will be difficult. After witnessing what went on this evening, I must do better.