Three Things Thursday

i couldn't think of anything for todays TTT so i'm going to go with Sheila's theme of favorite games from a couple of weeks ago.

1. nertz. it's a card game that i learned a couple of years ago and it's a lot of fun and really fast moving. the best way to play is with four or more people but my husband and i will play together and we have a lot of fun too.

2. apples to apples. i first played this game about a year ago and just loved it. i don't think that it was the most favorite game of the friends that i was playing with but i still enjoyed it.

3. rummy cube. this game is one that my parents use to play all the time and they taught us. when my parents first came to visit us, a couple of years ago, they bought it for us because we didn't have any games to play. so whenever they come and visit us we play it.

Happy Birthday JESUS!

merry christmas to all. my aunt and her family sent out their christmas cards this year and this was something that they printed out and taped into all the cards. so i wanted to share it with you on this amazing day.

"If My people, who are called my My name

humble themselves,

pray,

seek My face, and

turn from their wicked ways,

THEN will I hear from heaven and move My hand

And freely will I forgive their sins and

I will heal their land."

(II Chronicles 7:14)

THIS IS OUR PRAYER THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON.

WON'T YOU JOIN US?

Family Times

i'm here in the deep south spending christmas with my in-laws and family. we've had a great time seeing family and friends and just being together. i think one of our favorite things to do when we get together is to watch my nephew play. he turned 10 months yesterday and he is so funny to watch.

he loves veggie tales (who doesn't?) and we often find him dancing to the veggie songs. particularly the lip song, the pirate song, the bunny song, the hairbursh song, and barbara manatee. so below are pictures of some of the family watching him as he is watching a veggie tales sing-a-long and there is baby jacob just dancing along to the songs. he's in the standing/walking stage so that's why the bear is there. also so he doesn't get into the cabinet. aside from veggie tales, he loves his mom and dad (of course), his gammy, his uncle michael, the hallway in gammy's house because it echoes there and his green ball. you usually don't find the two of them separated. there's a few times when he's gone to sleep with it in this hand and that is how mom and dad found him in the morning. crazy, funny, lovable kid.





tonight we there jacobless (so there aren't any pictures recording our events) yet still managed to have a great time. :) some of the fam got together and we played outburst. not just regular outburst but bible outburst. it was pretty tough too. after a couple of rounds we got up and looked for the regular outburst game but had no such luck. we persevered through the game and ended up having a great time. it really tested our knowledge of the bible. these are memories to last a lifetime. hope you and yours have a memorable and merry christmas.

Traditions

christmas in the andrews family is somewhat different. every since my husband can remember his grandmother would put on a christmas auction. there would be plenty of wrapped presents under the tree and some of them are junk, some candy, and plenty with money anywhere from change to 20 dollar bills. before the games begin everyone is given 25 fake dollars to bid with. once you are out of money no more bidding for you. nana chooses a present and starts the bidding at a dollar. whoever bids the highest, just like in an auction, gets the gift. once they open it for all the fam to see then they go and choose a present and in doing so become the auctioneer. so today was auction day which also happened to be christmas eve and another thing that the family always has on christmas eve is domino's pizza. yummy. i'm not able to post pictures now from the auction so i will try to post some later.

Deep in the Heart of Dixie

things are done a little bit different here in the south. while i love a good oven roasted/baked turkey, a deep fried one is just as good. the way that it's done is this: the turkey is injected (i know it sounds brutal) with some type of flavoring and then once the fryer is good and hot then the turkey is lowered into the oil and cooked.


this is a delicate and intricate process. very manly.

my pictures got a little scrambled up when i was trying to post them so they are some what out of the order the i would have liked them to be in. the one in the top right corner is the first one and that is my brother-in-law putting the turkey into the fryer. the second one is actually what the turkey looks like once it's done cooking. the third one is my husband, father-in-law and bro-in-law making sure that the turkey is cooking right. and it was. and the final picture as you can see is that is looks like to deep fry a turkey.

Three Things Thursday

1. yesterday was my birthday. my husband, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law wanted me to have a special birthday so they threw me a surprise birthday party with all the family. it was fun. there was a strawberry shortcake pinnate and presents and a cookie cake and pizza.

2. i was suppose to be born on Christmas day but i came early. my mom got to take me home from the hospital on Christmas day so she said that i was her Christmas present.

3. my mom went into labor at a Christmas party and she was in labor for over 24 hours.

Monday Recipe Swap (MRS)

hey i'm finally posting during the week and not waiting until thursday. i've been lax about posting my (MRS) for the past couple of weeks so here's one for today. it's from a good friend of mine gretchen.

PUMPKIN CRUNCH TREAT

15 oz can pumpkin
12 oz can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
18.5 oz pkg yellow cake mix
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1 cup butter melted
GARNISH: frozen whipped topping thawed

combine first six ingredients together, pour into greased 9x13 baking pan, sprinkle evenly with cake mix and then pecans(optional). drizzle with butter, bake @ 350 degrees for 50-60 min, cool. top with whipped topping before serving. serves 15.

Three Things Thursday

so i've done it again. i've waited a whole week to post something. i'm so bad. this week was basically spent packing to go and see my inlaws over christmas break. we are very excited about the break and seeing the fam.

favorite christmas movies:

1. definatelly a charlie brown christmas. i love how they dance and sing and the sad tree that they had and that all they had to do to decorate it was wave their hands in front of it and it came out to be this perfectly decorated tree. it's hard to explain the scene but watch it and you will see that i mean.

2. almost any version of miracle on 34th street. i saw it when i was a kid and just loved it. i think that i have seen many differet versions and liked them all.

3. rudolph the red nosed reindeer. i just love that one too. the island of misfit toys is one of my favorites or the fact the rudolph sounds like he has a stuffy nose when he talks.

Spit on a Stranger/Three (or four) Things Thursday

sorry for the lack of blogging. my days are filled with work and numerous evening things on the week nights and weekends. in fact just this week, tuesday to be exact, my husband and i went, with some friends, to the roseland theater in portland to see the blue grass band

nickel creek

they were amazing. if you've never heard of them or seen them then you should check them out. it was so much fun to see them live. you could tell that they really enjoyed playing and that makes it fun. the first part of my blog title is one of nickel creeks song titles. well here are my three things thursday posts.

1. when i was growing up at christmas time my sister and i would sit on the back porch swing and we would put alabama's christmas record (the country group) on and see how high we could get the swing and belt out the christmas tunes. we did it so much that we memorized all the songs on the record and would know what song came on next.

2. my mom is a very organized person, which i appreciate about her, so on christmas morning when les and i would wake up and go to the living room our presents would be there mine wrapped in one color wrapping and hers in another, and in the same places every year and they would be numbered. so that when we opened them we would both open number one togethter and so forth and so on. this ritual or tradition was a little strange to my husband when he joined the family but once getting to know my mom more and her organization then he understands why.

3. growing up before les and i knew that santa was't real, on christmas eve before we went to bed we would take one of the dining chairs and lay it sideways in front of the hallway door/walkway. weird i know but here is our silly explanation. we were extremely excited to have santa in our house and to put cookies and milk and carrots(for the reindeer) out but we had this thing about not wanting santa to come down the hallway and look at us in the room while we were sleeping. i'm not to sure why we thought that a simple dining chair would keep him out but we did and so we did that for a couple of years and then it just became a funny thing and sometimes we would do it just to get a laugh out of our parents.

4. my sister and i would sleep in her room every year on christmas eve. sometimes i would sleep on the floor and sometimes in her bed with her (most of the time in the bed) and even when we got to old to be sleeping in he same bed it didn't matter we made it work because we had done it that way for so long.

Three Things Thursday

1. the first time i flew on an airplane i was in 9th grade and our youth group was going to chicago for a missions trip. we flew southwest and a good friend of mine was very scared so i tried to be brave but once we started to take off i got a little scared too.

2. the longest flight that i ever took was from new orleans to costa rica. we flew from nola to cancun from cancun to honduras and honduras to costa rica. there was one time in the flight that we were flying through a mountain pass in houduras (maybe san pedro sula) and the plane was doing it's best to menuver through it and i slept through the whole thing. my parents, who i was sitting next to, were shocked and told me about it later. so i was determined to be awake for the adventure on the flight home but once again i slept through the whole thing.

3. my most recent flight was to oahu hawaii during thanksgiving break. my husband and i had a great time there. the flight was fine too.