The Hunnie Pot: December 2010

Hello Spandex!

To say that I am enjoying my Christmas break would be an understatement. I am pleading the days to go by slowly so I can soak up every bit of vacation and family I can. Ben and I packed up the Christmas presents early on Christmas Eve and beat the Atlanta traffic on the way to my Mom and Dad's house. We had a wonderful weekend and I am still celebrating! Ben headed back to Alabama yesterday and I am camping out at Mom and Dad's until New Year's Eve.

Christmas is always special and we spend the entire day with family. Christmas breakfast has been a tradition as long as I can remember and it is always delicious. We were so fortunate to have a wonderful Christmas morning in Georgia surrounded by family. Unfortunately we missed the white Christmas in Alabama, but I was ok with that. I got to eat breakfast casserole! Besides spending much needed time with my family, I do believe that it is one of the best things about being at home for Christmas.

Mom's delicious breakfast casserole

Ambrosia is on the menu every year and yours truly is in charge of cutting all those oranges! (I did give up a little over half way through this year and called in the reinforcement. Thanks, Mom!)

We usually have some sort of muffin because we usually have one or two who don't eat breakfast casserole. This year we had lemon poppyseed.

Mom's glorious homemade biscuits. She taught me how to make them and I credit them with winning over my husband's love and affection :)

The most delicious grits that will ever enter your mouth.

Mom always has the dining room looking so special for us on Christmas morning.

Ben piling it on!

I piled it on too!!

However.....

I do have an excuse as I am currently eating for TWO!

Bring on the elastic waistbands!

Baby It's Cold Outside

This is one my all time favorite Christmas songs and it happens to be the ongoing theme here in Alabama for the past few weeks. We had two "snow days" at school, only one of which contained actual snow, but either way I thoroughly enjoyed it because I have wrapped presents under my tree and a semi-clean house.

Our first snow of the season.

Looks kind of dreary here, but it was beautiful!

We had several nights where the temperature was in the single digits, and as always, this is Remy's favorite time of the year. Yes, my no-animals-in-the-house husband brings Remy in on these cold nights and yours truly has the honor of bathing her when this happens. Seeing how Remy loves the water hose (see here) one would think this would be a total nightmare, but I think bath time is the only time that Remy is actually calm. I have no idea why, but she actually stands still and lets me bathe her. It's really a Christmas miracle each and every year.

Then, this is what she looks like for the rest of the night. Rotten.

What sounds better on a cold, winter night than a bowl of hot soup? This is a tried and true recipe on Ben's side of the family and it is so delicious. I have eaten it many times, but this was my first time making it, and it did not disappoint. If you like hearty potato soup, this one is for you!

8 cups potatoes, diced

1/3 cup onion, diced

1 can cream of chicken soup

3 cans chicken broth

salt & pepper to taste

1 8oz cream cheese

Place your potatoes, onion, and soups in a dutch oven and cook until tender. We also added a can of corn with our potatoes and soup - I think some shrimp would be good too. When the potatoes are cooked to your desired consistency, stir in the cream cheese and you are done! How easy is that?!? Serve with bacon and cheese on the top and you are going to make someone very happy! Enjoy!

Thankful

Ben and I have a lot to be thankful for this year during the holiday season. We were blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with his family. There was a ton of food and family and I think it was the perfect Thanksgiving. What would Thanksgiving be without too much food, too many people in the house, and mass chaos? It would not be Thanksgiving that's for sure!

The beautiful tables that my mother-in-law did

Also, what would Thanksgiving in Alabama be without some sort of "contraption"? Have you seen the insurance commercials about unsuccessful turkey frying and turkey fryer hopefuls burning their house down? Exhibit A, Mr. Insurance Agent:

Why yes, that is the turkey fryer filled with boiling peanut oil and a 20 pound turkey shielded from the raging wind with a plywood board held in place by a gas can, propped with a yard tool, propped with an antique wash basin. I have no idea how the explosion happened!

Lucky for us, we won't be making the insurance commercial next year because the turkey frying was successful. This was my first experience with fried turkey, and I have to say it was pretty good!

This is for Ben's grandmother and her love for Splender!

The kids had their own personal table!

Who's the most excited about eating?!?

I tried to get a picture of all the grand kids - easier said than done. Most of the pictures turned out like this:

However, we did get a few cute ones. Everyone may not be beaming, but they are all looking at the camera!!

Next up, Christmas!

Monkeyin' Around

I recently made some precious monkey cookies for one of my sister's blog readers who found me through her. These cuties made their way across two states for a sweet two year old's birthday.

It was a pleasure to make these cookies and work with a wonderful new blog friend!

Christmas Extravaganza

Every year, the shops close to where we live host an open house and is it is an all out Christmas Extravaganza. There is Christmas music, food, and decorations set up beautifully for you to drool over and take to your house. I think this is one of my favorite times of year around here. You see everyone you know when you are store hopping and everyone is so ready for Christmas to be here.

One of my favorite places to go is the Tiger Lily owned and operated by the very fabulous Slade (who was a helped with my absolutely gorgeous wedding flowers!) He is a food/floral/Christmas tree genius and his store did not disappoint. He store was brimming with extravagant trees and if I could, I would have taken them all home.

I may or may not have made more than one trip to this yummy food table while I was in the store!

Here is the genius behind it all! Give Slade a call if you see anything you can't live without!

On a far less serious note, there is another store in town that has some far out trees. I really don't know if people are buying these things, but I thought some of them were kind of funny.