Happy New Year

May the New Year bring: peace that surpasses all understanding, abundant blessings, overflowing joy, true and pure love, much prosperity, and personal growth. No matter what your level of success may be, may you have the faith, hope, and drive to continue to persevere and to strive to always "be better than yesterday"!!!

Christmas Foodie Friday

In the previous post I talked about the Strawberry Pretzel Dessert that is sooooo yummy I would post for Foodie Friday. So here it is.

1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
4 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (6 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water
1 (16 ounce) package frozen strawberries


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the pretzels, 4 1/2 tablespoons sugar and melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Set aside to cool completely.

In a medium bowl, beat the sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread evenly over the cooled crust. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

In a medium bowl, stir together the gelatin mix and boiling water. Mix in frozen strawberries, and stir until thawed. Pour over cream cheese mixture in pan. Refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 1 hour.

Friends

We just did a quick Christmas visit with our good friends The Nolan's last weekend and took some cute pictures.

Abt Family Christmas

We started our Holidays with Abt Family Christmas at my brother Craig's house. Lots of great food and great family! I was asked to bring Strawberry Pretzel Dessert. This dish is a specialty of my sister-in-law Diane's so I didn't want to screw it up! I forgot to take a picture of it but it turned out great! I came home with an empty dish! I'll have to post it in Friday Foodies if I ever get around to it!!

Here are just a few pictures from our first Christmas.

Beverly Stewart

So I have this small obsession with seeing things crafty and thinking "I can do that." Ever since I was a little girl I've seen Ginger Bread House kits and always wanted to make one. I can remember looking through my mom's Good Housekeeping or Ladies Home Jounals at Christmas time to find these wonderful candy constructed houses. They always looked so pretty and dollhouse-like. So I told myself this year I'm doing it. And I had the perfect excuse, I got to babysit my nephew Nathan last night!!

So I bought the kit and essembeled the house, because it has to dry for like 3 hours before your supposed to decorate it. The box makes it sound so easy, but they forget to tell you that they have PROFESSIONAL cake decorators making these little houses. The icing/glue that you mix to put the house together has to be the perfect consistancy and stay wet or else it will harden. It drips ALL over. (I told Nathan it was melting snow.) Anyway I got the basic house built and when Nathan came over I managed the glue and he decorated it with candies. Nathan did such a good job and was very patient with his Aunt! Here are some pictures of our adventure with Gingerbread...

Jack Playing

Mommy's helper

Jacks new favorite thing is to help me load and unload the dishwasher. It's the perfect height for him to pull up on. He loves to pull and push the bottom basket and to take things out of the utensil basket. Hope he remembers how much fun the dishes are in about 8 years!!

Thanksgiving 2008

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday battling a cold! I am finally getting over it and I am doing my best to keep Jack from getting it. I think I have used a gallon of hand sanitizer! Anyway... we spent Thanksgiving Day with Grandma and PawPaw Thompson. Had some great food and Jack got the play with his cousin Carter. Then last Sunday we traveled to Ste. Gen to see Grandma and Grandpa Abt and have Thanksgiving with my side of the family. Great Grandma Strubbe didn't make it out to the house but we got to see her at the care center. Se looks awesome for 94! Here are some pictures!