2010 Open House

(The party started at 6. Last year it was 6:20 before anyone arrived, so this year I planned on not having the warm stuff ready right at 6. And they started showing up at 6:00 so I was 15 minutes late with the food. Above is a picture of the finished products!)

Once again, it was time for our annual Open House for our church family. My sweet friend, Connie, spent an afternoon looking over new recipes with me and even went on an all day day shopping trip with me helping me to get ready. I do not like to repeat recipes, so yes, I treat our congregation like guinea pigs when it comes to food. I really liked all but one of these recipes and might repeat a few in the future. Above wins the award for the most beautiful recipe. Rosemary skewers. Mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomatoes and tortellini pasta marinated overnight in champagne dressing...YUM!!!! Below: a close up. Next; marinated fruit. This was soaked in special dressing overnight and was tangy and tasty! Graham Cracker Crumbles. Tasty if you like pecans. Dee Dee's Delights. I make these every year. The kids love them. Peppered Pecans. I heard they were good. I was not about to try one. Mint brownies. Very labor intensive with all the extra steps. Took a long time, but they were delicious!!!!! Orange Blossoms. INCREDIBLE! Monterrey Jack Salsa Dip. Very simple. Very pretty and very tasty! This was my big experiment. A chicken nacho cheesecake dip. Not to hard to make, but I was very nervous when it was time to take it out of the pan. I just knew it was going to plop down onto the counter and make a mess. It DIDN'T! It worked! It looked so pretty!!! You are supposed to cut it like a cheesecake and eat it with chips like a dip. It tasted fine, but a lot didn't get eaten. I don't think people knew what to do with it. Stuffed olives. Yuck. Didn't eat any of those either, but they were all gone by the end of the evening. A pretty picture of the rosemary skewers. Marinated triple cheese stacks with marinated pepper crackers. A bit labor intensive, but impressive. They looked good and were really tasty! Though I didn't eat the crackers, not a fan of pepper flakes. Spinach and stuffing balls. Served warm with hot mustard. A lot got eaten, but I did not try one. Tiny tomato basil bites. I love these!!!! So cool and tasty. My new favorite. Crab Bites. Served warm. A lot of left overs. Not many eaten. Would not try again. My favorite new recipe from last year. The warm leek and goat cheese dip. It is so easy to make and though it sounds really weird, it is absolutely delicious!!! There was punch and champagne as well. We had about 55 people over and enjoyed visiting with everybody. Kids were running around upstairs, adults were mingling downstairs. And there were NO leftovers. Just about everything was gone. It was a wonderful night and a lot of fun. I always get really stressed out then end up having a fabulous time. We are so blessed to be a part of this church and this is our way of saying thank you to everyone.

Well, this is the last post of 2010.
Another year full of blessings and trials.
Another year full of God's mercy and grace.
Another year to rejoice and be thankful in so many things.
Thank you Lord for all you do in my life and the life of my family.
May you use us even more in 2011 to honor and serve you.

Kitchen wall remodel

Now, I know I have already blogged the above picture..but the point of this picture here again is to see the kitchen wall behind the crazy guys. The plaid wallpaper and the maroon wallboard are a thing of the past!!

This was NOT my plan for the timing. I did want it done, but not over Christmas break, there was just way to much going on. But Sam had other ideas! So we did it. I designed it and picked the colors, and did most of the rubbing on of the drywall mud, and Sam did most of the rest with Kaitlynn's help.

We LOVE the final product! Maybe one day we will actually get a table in there. :)

The first picture: We tore off the small chair rail and got the caramel color on the top.
Here are the three paint colors....I am an earth tone lover....
And done! Except in this light in this picture the bottom color looks more like baby diaper poop green than the actual brown it is.
This is better.

We got it done within hours of the Open House guests arriving. It might be summertime before we get to the other side of the kitchen though.

Thanks Sam for getting this done and forcing it to happen!!!

Christmas Weekend!

The annual pictures in front of the tree for their Christmas scrapbooks. A lifelong tradition in the Smith house!
Poppa, JuJu and Aunt Erin had just arrived from Alabama and it was almost time to go to the Christmas Eve service. It was a beautiful time of worship. Then we came home and had the traditional Christmas Eve chicken and dumplings and the coca-cola cake that JuJu made. yummy!!!

(all pictures on this blog can be clicked on and will open nice and clear. I hate how they look all fuzzy on here.)

Before we left for the Christmas Eve service, Collin asked if they could go ahead and get their pictures done and "get it over with." HA. They know the routine! Same place every year, in front of the tree on Christmas Eve. Get used to it kids!!!!!

Time for sibling gifts!! They have a lot of fun with these. We drew names around Thanksgiving time and I always tell them to keep it a secret. This year, they had it all figured out in about 10 minutes, so the gift giver wasn't a surprise, but the gifts were!
Her 2010 braces ornament!

Collin drew Kaitlynn's name this year. She had guessed it was cowboy boots from the size and shape of the box, but they were horse rain boots. I love his response. :)
HaHa has a Christmas tradition with them, she always gets them something with their names on it. This year was great mugs!! How perfect. They love them and use them all the time.

YES!!! They were so hoping for more coupons!!!
JuJu made everybody something!! The boys got Auburn blankets, Kaebrie got a pink horse blanket, and Kaitlynn got a beautiful vest. They are soft and warm and perfect! Sam and I got great aprons!
Aunt Erin was responsible for the favorite gift of the night....an autographed Auburn football. I love the absolute surprised and shocked look on Collin's face.

Aunt Erin drew us this incredible picture! She said it took her about 250 hours. We love it. It is already hanging in the dining room.

Christopher opened the one present he ALWAYS asks for, a remote controlled car. He immediately threw himself into Sam's arms. Hey Tiff, MOMMY PICKED THAT OUT!!! This one lasted the longest of any of the 5 he has ever had. Three days.
She cried. We actually surprised her so incredibly that she CRIED! We are trying to plan a trip to Norway, we will see if it can work out for this summer, and SHE GETS TO GO!!!!!
A picture of me filming her on my flip. I am multi-talented. :)
All the boys had an Auburn Christmas!! I told them next Christmas they could get NOTHING that had to do with football. :)
Collin surely had a War Eagle Christmas!
Christmas morning breakfast!!! Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage biscuits, gravy, strawberries, cinnamon rolls, and a new recipe; Kaitlynn made an orange spiced cranberry coffee cake that was WONDERFUL!

Aunt Erin ALWAYS has fun new games to play. Here she is teaching them a new version of the ROCK PAPER SCISSORS game. They loved it!
Christmas afternoon we went to the Nott's home for a huge lunch. We had a lot of fun visiting with several families, singing, and of course, more eating.

It was a wonderful Christmas weekend, filled with exactly what it was supposed to be filled with: worship, family, friends, good food and good times. Some very special memories this year.