holiday mugs and turkey leftovers

This little monster is obsessed with the snowman mug.  he wants to drink everything out of it constantly.  he calls it his snowman sip.

And Thanks to some inspiration from cousin Amy and yaya, I made a delicious turkey tetrazzini with the leftovers of our eleven pound turkey.   The name tetrazzini has always thrown me off. I thought it was some complex recipe with obscure ingredients that I was sure to never have. Turns out tetrazzin is oh-so-simple and delicious.  And I'm sure it can quite simply become chicken or tuna or any other kind of tetrazzini.

6-8 oz (about half of a box) Skinny winny fettucine noodles (multigrain!) 
chopped onion and garlic (as much or little as you'd like)
4 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
1.5 cups of chicken broth
1 c milk
1/2 c parm cheese
chopped turkey - 2 cupsish
1 bag peas
breadcrumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking dish.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes or until al dente. Drain, and place in the prepared baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions and garlic until bubbly. Stir in flour. Stire for 1-2 minutes. Mix in chicken broth and milk. Cook and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Stir in Parmesan cheese, and remove from heat.
4. Mix mixture and turkey and peas. Add to pasta.  Bake 40 minutes  in the preheated oven, until surface is lightly browned. Add bread crumbs 5-10 minutes before you remove from oven.
   

Makes an 8 by 8 small glass casserole dish. 

O, Christmas tree! O, Christmas tree!

Some of my favorite childhood Christmas memories involve tree shopping with my family!!  One of my most devastating childhood Christmas memories was the year my parents announced they were switching to a FAKE TREE!! thanks a lot mum and dad.  It still makes me sad to think about.

Since we are sticking around for the holidays this year we decided to get a real tree for our place!! I am so excited. it smells so so good already.

 Tuesday night we went out in search for the perfect tree.  Prior to our search we'd set a measly budget and realized we'd be getting a charlie brown tree of sorts.  I actually kind of like scrawny little trees so I wasn't too disappointed.  A scraggly real tree is better than a grand fake one any day.

Zeb loved running through the rows of trees and seeing this huge Santa.  As soon as he saw it, he stopped and said, "Santa is ginormous! He's so high in the sky!".  Ginormous is one of his favorite words right now.

 After hitting a few tree lots, Kent was ready to buy- but I was sure we could find a better deal.  I begged to drive down one of the main streets here just one more time.  That's when we saw Home Depot.  They were selling trees.  CHEAP trees.  Cheap BIG trees.  We brought this beauty home for 14.97!   Zeb is still shocked that we put a tree in our house.  He wakes up every morning, runs to see the tree, and giggles, "Mama- there's a tree in our house!".  It's pretty funny.

I'm finally just about caught up from the weekend!!

Sunday we finally had a day to relax and just sit around- so I decided that I wanted our own big Thanksgiving dinner.  What's thanksgiving without the leftovers, right?   I really wanted cold turkey sandwiches on homemade rolls with cranberry sauce and salt and pepper this week and Kent wanted green bean casserole for lunch everyday. We bought ourselves a baby turkey (eleven pounds) and made a big dinner.  I was bummed that I didn't have time for pies- but just as I began to wallow in self-pity- one of Kent's classmates called and invited us over for homemade pies!  Yum-o. 

Zeb took this picture for us.  He's getting really good at taking photos. He LOVES the camera and could take pictures of his t-rex and trains all day long.

And here are my two monkeys fresh after haircuts.  You'd think we were actually cutting fingers off the way Zeb howled and wailed.  Dang turkey.  They both look so much better now, though. Sunday at church I felt like I was the mother of two ragamuffins so I asked kent to get out the clippers.  He's so much better at it than I am!

my favorite christmas kickoff tradition.

What I am going to do when we move from Toledo and can't run Maumee's holiday hustle?! we may have to create our own wherever we go.

We were lucky enough to find some friends at the start of the race- sorry we missed you shelly!- and ended up snapping this picture (thanks, alison!). 

I planned on walking the route because apparently my stitches and cuts are the least stable between weeks 1 and 2 (due to the dissolving sutures and whatnot) but my pride got the best of me.  How am I supposed to go to a race and walk?!  I have been feeling fabulous and felt confident that everything would be fine. Plus- I ran half the race with a surgeon (thanks, kurt!). I was confident in his abilities to do something (call 911?!) if I collapsed and was bleeding out. In his defense- he did NOT encourage my running.  And apparently Kent wasn't too worried about my condition because he ran way ahead of me.  And in his defense- he needed to beat Santa Claus so that we could get a free movie ticket.  I ended up running the entire race and felt great.  I was a little sore the next day- but nothing extraordinary.

Here's a shot of what both kiddos looked like all night long. Zeb would NOT wipe the grimace off his face.  Even after the race, when we met up with his friends to watch the parade, he continued to grump.

I think he finally smiled a little when he saw all the lit up trains, racecars, and big trucks in the glow in the dark parade!

Check out his scowl as we waited for the parade to begin.  He informed us that he was "a little bit cross".

 The parade was fun and festive- albeit rather cold- and we had a good time.  One float in particular caught my attention and I had to include a picture.  It is a giant fire (major flames came out of his mouth) breathing dragon with a message.    The part you can't see says "papa's comin' boys".  It was a little bit strange to see in a small town parade- but a very creative dragon nonetheless

blacky black friday.

I went to bed thursday night at ten-thirty so that I could get started nice and early for my day of deals.  I know I've mentioned this before- but I LOVE meijer. 

This place is wonderful. It's like a happier, cleaner, and friendlier Walmart. Prices can be a little higher- but when you shop their sales and use coupons, the prices can't be beat. All of my major "needs" this black friday were here.  They are open 24 hours and are just a mile from our house so it couldn't have been more convenient. I went over at three and grabbed my spot in the I-touch line.  Kent needs it for school (or so they say) and the deal couldn't be passed up. They were fifty dollars cheaper than anywhere else I'd seen.

I chummed up to the people in line around me so that I could do some multi tasking. Once I had sufficiently befriended my line neighbors I proposed a plan. Since the store was open and many of the good deals were already out on the floor- or being put out periodically- I offered to hold places in line while they looked around, shopped, used the bathroom, etc- if they would do the same for me.  My plan worked like a charm.  By four thirty (we could make our purchases at five) my cart was full of everything I wanted.  I got my I-touch at five, rang up, and was out of there by 5:05.  We got two FREE knife sets, a wonderful external hard drive, and some great stuff for the kiddos.  I love meijer.

I got home and took a shower- and was just about to take a short nap when all the kiddos started to wake up.  we fed and clothed them and then Laney joined me for phase two of the shopping.  We hit up walmart, target, best buy, big lots, and meijer one more time (I'd forgotten to take my coupon that morning) before heading home.  It was a really great morning.  I can't believe the sales that these stores have! and I can't believe how wonderful it is living OUTSIDE of Utah for black friday.  Sure, things are are crazy- but not insane.  You can go to the stores at seven or eight and still see products on the shelves!  I am totally finished Christmas shopping and it feels great. Plus I feel even better that I spent under budget (my camera and kent's I touch were in a separate budget that we'd been saving up for) and came out with forty dollars in giftcards and two free sets of knives!  really, it's like we almost MADE money.

Upon arriving home from shopping, we were met by an unwanted visitor.  The norwalk virus somehow hitched a ride (we drove through the Norwalk, OH, twice on our jaunt to and from ashland) and had infected us.  Kent was throwing up and others were exhibiting unpleasant symptoms.  We (kent, zeb, and Ike and myself) took a long three hour nap while laney, taylor, and Henry went downtown to check out the Imagination Station.  Good thing they snuck in some fun before the virus got them.

The plan for the evening was to head to the fallen timbers mall to check out the reindeer, see santa, and get free twenty dollar giftcards.  Henry and Taylor had to leave early due to some non stop vomiting but the rest of us enjoyed getting our free money and starting off the Christmas Holiday.   I think standing in lines and meeting strange people is one of my favorite parts about Christmas!!

 We spent our last night with laney and taylor eating pizza and watching a movie. It was so much fun to have family here for the holidays.  Too bad we gave them the throw-ups while they were here!  Laney ended up sick on the ride home and taylor started once they reached buffalo.  Sorry, guys.  I think I am the only one that remained totally unscathed. good thing it was a quick little bug.

Where have we been?!

we've been having a non stop party for the past few days.  No time to blog. Only time for eating, shopping, and laughing.

Laney, taylor, and henry showed up tuesday evening- and late wednesday afternoon we made the short trek to Ashland. 

I love this picture.  Oh, the lucky men who married these crazy ladies.  What were they thinking?!  Being able to visit cousin Amy and her in-laws is one of the highlights to living in Ohio.

 Thanksgiving was absolutely amazing. I had been nauseous and and not eating since last friday (thanks to the surgery) but luckily it all wore off just in time for the holiday.  Thanksgiving dinner hasn't tasted that good in quite some time.

Here's Jack- the turkey carver.  He also did some chiropractic work on me Thanksgiving morning to help fix my tmj.  Thank you, jack!  I'm doing my home exercises!

and dessert was especially delightful. Just ask Amy.  I LOVE this ridiculous picture of her. 

And after dinner we got to celebrate our gratitude in an extra special way.  The boys pulled out their guns for a shoot off.  I got to try my hand at a handgun- a 45- and an AK-47.  I'd have to say the AK-47 was my favorite.  Just shot after shot tearing up the back lawn :)  Those starkeys sure know how to put on a good Thanksgiving. 

And apparently as soon as you put a gun in my hands- I put on a funny face. 

After all of the eating and shooting- we took a needed rest and then packed up to head home. Black Friday was on the horizon and my game plan started that night!

Thank you thank you thank you Starkeys for a wonderful holiday. 

I woke up this morning and found myself.  I was starting to worry that this surgery had permanently made me miserable.  Thankfully when Kent left for school/work this morning and woke me up at six-thirty to say goodbye, I realized I hadn't been tossing and turning all night trying to find a painless position and I hadn't woken up AT ALL to take any motrin.  Plus, I didn't even feel like throwing up.

For some ridiculous reason I had decided that recovery was going to be a breeze.  I can have babies with perfect recoveries- so why not a cholecystectomy? those stones were waaaay smaller than Zeb and Ike, right?  Apparently size has nothing to do with it.  The past three days have been hell.

We still took it pretty easy today and stayed home-  but only to save up energy for Thanksgiving and Black Friday!

Poor little Zeb has been really confused about it all, though.  Today he kept asking to go to "meijer" and "malmart",  We see his friends or go shopping or at least go out somewhere every single day- but he's been cooped up in here since saturday.  He just wants friends or social interaction of some sort. Good thing Laney, Taylor, and Henry will be here any minute!!!!!!



And- of course- the very moment I start feeling better, Ike gets all snotty and coughy on us.  Lucky for him, we've got choo choo soul.  Both of my boys LOVE LOVE LOVE this show.  We got the dvd/cd pack from the library and it's been the music of choice around here lately.  It's not even all that bad. I'd highly recommend it.

I think that Ike has a crush on Genevieve.  He's tapping his legs to the beat in this picture.



And here's the monster entering the phase that I hate MOST.  emptying every shelf of every item ALL DAY LONG.