Christmas Eve (updated)

We spent Christmas Eve day at Don's parents. We were going to have everyone up here, but since the we got another snow storm and the roads were so bad - we decided it was easy and safer for us to drive down in our four wheel drive than for all of them to try to make it up here. And that was an adventure in itself. As we were skidding all over the ice trying to make it up the hill, Don backed up to the level part of the road in front of our neighbor's house to get a running start so that we could make it up the hill. And as he was backing up the car slid off the road into the ditch - what fun. He tried to dig it out. It didn't work. So then he went to our neighbor's house and asked him if he would be able to pull us out of the ditch with his big truck. Luckily, he was able to do that and an hour or so later we were on our way again.
Teresa, Stuart, and Audrey and Great Grandma Coates couldn't get out either because of all the snow, so they weren't able to join us :( - Wished we could have had everyone together.

Here some pics from the day

Courtney opening her gifts from Grandma/pa Coates

Mel (& Lori in the background)

Lori & Andrew!

Don helping Dayton with his "boy bag" -- with 3 older sisters around, Dayton loves to walk around the house with one of the girl's "girly" purses. (of course it is filled with his cars and trucks) - but none the less, this gives Don grief. Don would ask Dayton what he was carrying - if it was his "man bag" and Dayton would say "No, it's my purse." As much as Don tried to convince Dayton to call a purse a man bag - he would not. :) So Lori made Dayton a cool "boy bag" for Dayton to put all cars and trucks in. Dayton (and Don) were both thrilled! Thanks Lori & Matthew!

Emma sorting the gifts

Melanie and Emma put on a dance recital for us - it was so cute & they were both so very much into it.

They rehearsed the show for hours at home and were thrilled to perform it. They even payed Courtney to play the piano for them.


Courtney was thrilled to play all of the Christmas songs she has been practicing (& also thrilled to make some money from her younger sisters for doing it).

This the book, Don's mom wrote this year and gave to us for Christmas.


This is a drawing of a ship, Don's mom did. It has all of her family (brothers, sisters, children, in-laws, and grandchildren) names written/hidden in the drawing. She had a copy made for each us. I love it & can't wait to frame it.

Matthew & Lori came down to visit & also to bless Andrew, but since Church was canceled (due to all the snow), they blessed him at Don's parents home on Christmas Eve.

The cute family

The Proud Father!

The Proud Grandpa!

What a cutie!! Lori made him the cute blessing outfit

The gang

These are some of the mixes we gave (the yummy cereal is from Bob's Red Mill - one of our favorite grain stores). The bread mixes are some of our favorites recipes that we found & made up the mixes for. Here are the recipes for two of the yummy mixes:

Cornbread
(for 150 servings)
2 cups dry milk
12 cups fine ground corn meal
4 cups coarse ground corn meal (polenta)
13 cups all purpose flour
7 cups sugar
1 cup baking powder
3 Tablespoons Salt

to cook:
add 2 3/4 cups mix
1 cup water
1 egg
3 ounces of butter (3/4 of a stick)
mix and
pour into 8 X 8 pan (that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray),
cook at 400 degrees F until golden (about 20-25 minutes).
This is one of the best recipes for corn bread that we have tasted (and believe me we have tried lots of different recipes).

Golden Wheat PanCake Mix
(big mixture for 120 pancakes)
13 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
10 tsp salt
40 tsp baking powder
2 cups dry milk

(small mixture for 12 pancakes)
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
4 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1/5 cup dry milk
(add 1 TBS of oil to batter to make waffles)

to cook:
add entire small mixture with 1 eggs and aprox. 1 - 1 1/2 cups of water,
mix well, and fry pancakes on lightly greased/sprayed griddle

for larger mixture add 4-6 cups of mixture with 1-2 eggs (your preference) and approx. 2 cups of water (depending on how thick you like the batter - your preference),
mix well, and fry pancakes on lightly greased/sprayed griddle.

We love these pancakes - we used to be addicted to Bisquick Pancakes - but now we are eating these whole wheat pancakes instead (killing three birds with one stone) -

• using our food storage
  
• saving money instead of buying the more expensive pre-made mix and
  
• eating whole grains which is healthier.