Sunday Dinner and Vinegar Taffy

We were able to hang out with the Burtons one more time before they headed back home at Sunday dinner. My Aunt Sue and Uncle Doug also came.

 Dad and Mom with the trifle desserts

Mom with the pomanders we had made a few weeks ago - they had been down drying in the cold storage room, and now they were done

The kids went to play downstairs after dinner, and when I went down there I noticed that Nora had made this contract:

My Aunt Sue helped us learn how to make vinegar taffy - which is a recipe from my great grandma, that my mom and Sue used to make growing up, and Sue used to make it with my sisters and me when we were young, and now we wanted to make it with the kids.

First we put the butter, sugar and vinegar into a saucepan, and then heated the mixture up to the right temperature

 Evie buttering the baking sheet

 The vinegar smell was a little strong for some of the kids!

The taffy mixture was poured into the buttered baking sheet to cool

Once it had cooled quite a bit, it was ready to be pulled

The kids pulling their pieces of taffy

Sue and Ricky cutting the pulled taffy into bite sized pieces. Tasting this again brought back lots of memories!

Before we left, Dad asked us if we wanted to take out giant tub of cheeseballs home (that was the gift that Sam ultimately ended up with from the white elephants). He showed us where he had hidden them so the kids wouldn't make a mess with them - hehe.

December Misc.

A few more pictures from December:

Nora cuddling with Sadie and Dorie

Mike secretly changed the name of my pokemon buddy and waited to see how long it would take me to notice - which was 4 days. (He changed the name from Magikarp to Magicrap - hehe)

Sammy sure loves Sades!

The sunrise on our early morning drive to Ephraim to get the kids' passports renewed

The ward Christmas party

The primary performing a song at the party

One of Mom's Christmas centerpieces

Vienne helping Grandpop play his violin

I guess my head makes a good pillow...

I really liked these pretty bird stamps that we got for our Christmas cards

We visited a new park - Neptune Park in Saratoga Springs. They have some really fun and unusual play equipment. That is Evie at the top of the climbing pyramid.

Sam repurposed the little foam wraps from the package of pears

Sam and his recycled Christmas tree creation

Dorie helping with the laundry

Sadie likes Nora's violin case

I told Sam that he had to wear long pants and long sleeves when we went to meet Santa, so he just put them on over his tshirt and shorts...hehe

The mountains are so pretty in the winter

One of the many kid selfies I found on my phone this month

Mike and I went to see the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One, a couple days after it came out. It was really good - although I wish I had brought some kleenex!!

A picture I saw on Facebook...hehe.

 When Mike and I were wrapping presents, Sadie found the bag of pet presents, pulled out the cat toys, and played for a long time with the catnip carrot.

For our Cub Scout pack meeting in December, we played some Christmas themed games, and did a white elephant gift exchange. One of the boys brought a can of beans wrapped up and decorated like this. I thought it was hilarious.

I didn't know Louis had a modeling career...

Evie's cute Christmas poem I saw hanging up in the hallway at the school

I had a mishap this month where I tripped and fell into the dishwasher, which resulted in some nasty bruises - as Thomas used to say, I am "clums"

A few days after Christmas, we were able to celebrate Carrie's birthday! Marolynn had gotten some yummy bundt cakes, and she and the girls brought them in as a surprise and sang the birthday song.

I loved this minion wrapping paper, with the little minion snowflakes

Beth found this awesome Star Wars paper - I love it!

 Going on a car ride with Dorie

James made this little candy cane elf at a party, and I thought it was so cute