Happy Wedding Day Jeanne!

 

Congratulations to my friend Jeanne and her husband Jon, who were married on Saturday, December 20th at Moody Church in Chicago. It was a beautiful wedding that glorified the Gospel and exalted Christ's name. We enjoyed this beautiful occassion!

O Christmas Tree!

We were able to upgrade our Christmas tree this year. Kim, my sister-in-law and Bev went out for early morning shopping the day after Thanksgiving, and were able to pick us up this pre-lit 6'5" tree for $25. It is not the fullest branched tree, but it looks pretty and is definately more STABLE than our old tree. I had a feeling this year that our son may get a little to curious, and our old tree may have come down. Let's just say I was glad when the old tree's stand was broken, and we "needed" to get a whole new tree!!!

Thanks for the old tree Mom (where did you get it anyway??), we have passed it along to another young couple - Debbie and Justin - for their first Christmas together next year. I did put up the Charlie Brown ornament you gave us to remind us of our humble beginnings!

Merry Christmas!

Looking for a GREAT Christmas Present?

I have been meaning to blog about one of my "favorites" found in Cade's library. We were given four volumes of Read Aloud Bible stories when Cade was born. He loves these stories from the Bible and I have found them to be very "on" Biblical. If you are looking for a great gift for your kids or to give away to some special children in your life, I recommend these books. We have probably been reading them for over a year now, so since Cade was one and a half. Cade is totally able to comprehend what is going on and can even tell the stories back to us. As a matter of fact, on Sunday when our Scripture reading was about Joseph being sold into slavery. Cade immediately repeated the speaker by saying "Joseph, brothers." He knew what was being read (though we did not appreciate him saying these things with his loud voice!!). Praise the Lord that our two year old has understand of God's Word. Now we must pray that Cade's heart will be penetrated by these words of Truth

Let it Snow!

We were greeted on the last day in November with a bunch of snow! I think that it caught us a bit off guard, but it was so fun to come home from church and be able to build a snowman. It was GREAT packing snow and building our snowman really took no time at all! The snow was coming down hard and as we took pictures our camera was getting very wet. We got a few pictures of our memorable moment.







Cade decided that we would name our snowman Jack. Yes, our pumpkin was named Jack too! I guess it is the name of each season's "mascot."









As Curtis and I were discussing our snowman we both had a hardtime remembering the last time we built a snowman. Curtis said that he remembered building a snowman in Oklahoma with his Grandma Mae when he was about 5 years old . . . just because he saw pictures. So Mom and Dad you will have to help me out with this one . . . any rememberances of snowman building? Yes, I do remember the sledding incident Mom!!

Thanksgiving!

This year Curtis and I decided that we would cook one of our Odell family turkies (we usually have 2 because our numbers are so big) for the Thanksgiving meal. We enjoy watching the Food Network and specifically Alton Brown on his show Good Eats. He shares the "science" of cooking and why you do what you do when mixing, baking, cooking, etc. food. I have found his insights and teachings to be very helpful for my own cooking, but also for tips for my Pampered Chef shows. So anyway . . . Alton had a special on fixing your Thanksgiving turkey. We followed many of his steps and the turkey turned out FABULOUS!!

















We first defrosted the turkey - of course! Then we made a brine that we soaked the turkey in for 12 hours. Now you may be asking what a brine is . . . well, it is basically a salt water solution with some other spieces in it. I would compare it to a marinade. After 12 hours in the cooler (orange cooler, above with Cade and Curtis) with the ice water and brine we took the turkey out and cooked him for approximately 3 hours. For the first half hour we cooked it at 475 in order to make the skin look pretty, but in the process it set off Curtis' Grandma's fire alarm. She was a bit nervous, but after turning down the temperature of the oven all was well! The turkey turned out so fabulous and delicious. I didn't get a final picture of the turkey before it was carved, but hopefully it looks good as Curtis is eating it!!



We also enjoyed a great time with family over the Thanksgiving weekend. Chuck, Kim and the kids came to Illinois from Kansas! What a great trek for just a few days - thanks for coming!!! Also at our meal was Aaron, Joy, and Allison (cousins), Uncle Ralph, Aunt Donna, cousin Lisa, and later in the day Andy, Danyelle, and Abree (cousins) came, as well! Grandma Mae was also able to come over from next door for a few hours!! We enjoyed many wonderful moments together!!