Pilgrim Hats

Last night the girls and I made pilgrim hats for our family night treat!! They turned out pretty cute and tasted good, too!! Kind of like a Moon Pie! These little hats are easy to make. All you need are large marshmallows, fudge stripe shortbread cookies, chocolate almond bark and yellow squeezable icing. Just melt the almond bark according to package directions, coat a marshmallow with the chocolate(just roll it around in there with a fork) and put it on top of the fudge side of your cookie. Let them dry and pipe on a yellow square for the buckle of the hat! Too cute!

A half-eaten pilgrim hat! Yummy!

A Happy Thanksgiving

Trent, Kyle,Ivy and Laci

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. We certainly did. We had my parents,sister, bro in-law, nephew, nephew's girl friend, and my nanny over to celebrate with us. We had a good time together and ate too much yummy food. Afterwards, we headed down to a windy Gold Star Park to take some pics of the kids. Here are some of the pictures I captured that day. I am so thankful for all of my family.

Ivy

A gorgeous view of the Bibb Graves Bridge from Gold Star Park.

Pecan Tassies

Just wanted to share a recipe today that I have been making for years, Pecan Tassies. They are oh so good! You surely can't eat just one! These are great for a party finger food or maybe as alternative to a whole pecan pie. On second thought, na, just make both. The big pecan pie is just too good, but pecan tassies would be a great addition to your Thanksgiving desserts. These little babies have always been a hit with my family and any party I take them too. It's gotta be that yummy crust and sweet pecan filling. So good!


Pecan Tassies
Dough for crust:
1 stick butter, softened
1 3 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 c. flour

Filling:
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. chopped pecans

First, mix together dough ingredients with an electric mixer. Refrigerate dough in covered bowl until firm. About 3 hrs.
Preheat oven to 350.After dough has been refrigerated and firm, mix together filling ingredients.Set aside. Pinch off pieces of dough and roll into marble size balls.Put dough into mini-muffin pan. Use a floured tart shaper(from Pampered Chef) to press dough in cups or you can press dough up sides of cups with your fingers. Spoon about a tsp. of filling into each crust. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is set. Makes 2 dozen.

Gratitude Tree

Last night during our family night we made this cute little gratitude tree. It's a great activity for this time of year. We talked about how when are our attitudes might not be the best, it helps to remember our blessings and the things we are thankful for. It can help turn our sour attitudes into gratitude.

For our tree, I used one of my Dollar Tree vases and the kids and I filled it with river rocks I had stashed away. I cut out leaves in fall colored card stock and everyone wrote one thing they were thankful for and then we hung our leaves on small tree branches we stuck into the vase. The leaves on our gratitude tree said things like: my family, books, our home, my whole family and computers. We had fun making our tree and counting our blessings. We plan on adding more leaves next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy being with the ones you love.
As the hymn goes that we sing in our church:

"Count your many blessings name them one by one, Count your many blessings see what God hath done."

Thanksgiving Funnies

Okay, so this is not what I had planned on sharing with you today, but since I still do not have access to my photos I thought some Thanksgiving humor would be fun. Some of the jokes are kinda corny, but I hope they make you smile. Maybe even a laugh. We all need a good laugh these days. Have a great day! Remember to vote for your favorite Thanksgiving dish on the side bar poll.


* What key has legs and can't open doors?
--A turKEY

*If the pilgrims were alive today, what would they be most famous for?
--Their age.

*What kind of music did the pilgrims like?
--Plymouth rock

*Knock knock!
Who's there?
Norma Lee.
Norma Lee who?
Norma Lee I don't eat this much.

* A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store, but couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked the stock boy, "Do these turkeys get any bigger?"
The stock boy answered,"No ma'am they're dead."

My Favorite Thanksgiving Dish

First of all, thanks to those of you who shared ideas for an ornament to make with Laci's kindergarten class. I think I will be doing the snowman hand print ornament that Tricia shared. Too cute! I'll take pictures so you can see them later when they're done.

Let me just say that I will be pictureless on my blog for the next few days. Our desk top computer is out of commission until our new video card gets here so I am using our notebook computer. William wouldn't like me to download all my pictures onto it because I can get a little crazy with the pictures. All that said, I would like to share with you my favorite Thanksgiving dish. I know it's not all about the food, but it's a pretty big part of Thanksgiving. My favorite dish to eat for Thanksgiving dinner is......drum roll...... sweet potato casserole! Oh it's so good! It's just not the same if I don't have this for Thanksgiving. I feel like I'm missing out. I will be making my casserole in a few days. I can taste it now. Yummy sweet potato, brown sugary, pecan goodness!You can find my recipe below. What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? I don't really know why I want to know this, just curious. Take the poll on the side bar and we'll see which dish wins on Friday!


Sweet Potato Casserole
3 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1 stick butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix all ingredients together and pour into 2 qt. casserole dish.
Topping:
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter, not melted
1 c. chopped pecans
Mix sugar and butter until coarse crumbs. Add pecans and stir.Sprinkle topping
on top of sweet potatoes and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Enjoy!