Taking Orders

Courtney had a Christmas party to go to and she had nothing to wear so she asked her sisters for some help. Well you know Steph and I are like Martha Stewart so we whipped up a little something for Courtney to get her into the holiday spirit!!

It's a one of a kind. We are taking orders now for the 2009 holiday season!!
I'm kidding. Courtney had an ugly Christmas sweater contest and so Steph and I just helped Courtney to put this together for the party. She actually won one of the prizes and guess what she won......STEPBROTHERS DVD!!! "Did we just become best friends??"

It appears our hard work really paid off!!

More to come
xoxo

Christmas #1

When you have a big family you NEVER only have one Christmas. Since my parents got divorced many years ago that has increased our number of Christmas. Now when you are little that is awesome...it means more gifts....well guess what...even as an adult it's awesome because you still get more gifts!! : )

This is my first Christmas of the season with my Mom's side of the family. We met the weekend before Christmas because there is so much going on during Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Isn't my Mom's tree cute?? Simple and easy to maintain. Gotta love that!!
At my Mom's house we do a White Elephant so it's really fun and relaxing. That is until people start to steal your gifts!! : ) It was a great night and a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season.

Here are some photos from the night.
Steph, Cameron and little guy we call Santa!!
Sisters in front of the tree. After this we all started singing Christmas Carols!!!

So I'm not sure if was all our photo taking experience (thanks to Portraits by Reg) or we are just that good but doesn't our photo look professional?? I think we are just that good!!! What a loving family.

One down....many more to come!!!

xoxo

Family Traditions

When I was growing every year at Christmas my Grandma Brown would make Peanut Brittle for our family dinner. Now for those that don't know I LOVE Peanut Brittle!!! It is one of my favorite things!!! Not the healthiest but whatever.

Now, as my Grandma has gotten older she stopped making it. She tried to teach me how to make about 15 years ago and it was very intense and I never tried again. Just this year my cousin Alyssa told me that she knew how to make it. I had no idea! Apparently Grandma taught her how to make it as well and she was a quick study.

Alyssa offered to make it for Christmas dinner this year. I was so excited to have it as it had been so long. Then I decided I would try to learn how to make it again if Alyssa was willing to teach me and she was!!

I went over to Alyssa's house and she had all the ingredients out and ready to go. Now the reason the peanut brittle process is so intense is because everything is centered around certain temperatures and constant stirring

See constant watching of the temperature and stiring. I took a quick pasue just to take the photo. It's amazing that something that looks like this cooking tastes so darn good!!!
Having all the ingredients ready to go makes the process much smoother. BTW always make sure you double check if it's calling for a Tablespoon or a Teaspoon. That can really ruin a recipe!! Alyssa taught me that important lesson!! : )

Alyssa was very patient with me and I made most of the first batch and part of the second batch. It was a lot of fun and not as scary as it was 15 years ago!!

This is what it looks like after you pour it out to cool. YUMMY!!!!
Once it has cooled down then the breaking can begin. It's hard not to want to break a piece and then eat a piece. You have to pace yourself. Is this piece too big for one person?? : )

Alyssa gave me a recipe card and I made a copy of Grandma Brown's famous Peanut Brittle recipe. Now, since there were some left over ingredients I decided to try to make the Brittle on my own at home. I figured if it was good I would take it over to my Mom's house for Christmas dinner. I made it with no issues and it was a huge hit at the party!! I have had requests to make it for all future get togethers!

See it was all gone before the night was over!!

Thank you Alyssa for taking the time to teach me how to make this GREAT Peanut Brittle!! Now we can continue to make it for our families and carry on these wonderful family traditions!!!

It was like an old school Christmas with all these yummy goodies that Grandma use to make. I can't forget about the haystacks either!! Thanks Shawn and Mindi for making those.

More to come

xoxo

Now I know we are in a Recession!!

This is our third year having a really big yard sale at my sister Stephanie's house. We gather things all year that we would otherwise donate and keep it for the "yard sale." Can I just say my closet is very cleaned out!!We normally have our sale right before Christmas because our "clients" seem to like to give some of our items away as gifts! We do have something for everyone!! : )

Well the last few years have been totally awesome. We made over $1000 the first year and over $900 last year. Now, we knew things were tough but I don't think I realized how bad it was until this year!!

The sale started at 6am and we had one guy there before Steph got back from putting out the signs but NO SALE! After he left we had no one for almost an hour. I was ready to cry!! We had done all this work and for nothing!!
See all the crap we had to sell!!!!
Then finally the sun came out and the people started to show up! We had new customers and some of our regulars that come every year! We love them!!

Now, we had a steady stream of people there at all times but boy where they price haggling us! I mean gosh the stuff was dirt cheap and they wanted it cheaper!! It's truly a sign of the times when you can't sell your crap at a descent price anymore!!

Needless to say we got rid of a good portion of it all but we only made a little over $400. That was the worst one yet!! Now some may say that is good and don't get me wrong we were happy with anything. I guess my expectations were just a little too high. I can only hope that with Obama coming into the office next year he will turn things around so we can get back to our high dollar yard sales!!!

More to come

xoxo

What's the game plan?

Tonight myself, Alyssa, Stacey, Stephanie and my friend Lisa are all going to see Chelsea Handler. For those of you that don't know her she is a comedian that has a show on E called Chelsea Lately and a book called "Are you there vodka it's me Chelsea." The book is awesome I highly recommend it! She is very funny so I was super excited about going to see the show.

We decided to eat at Sam's Cafe at the Arizona Center so we were near Dodge for the show. Now, I had ordered the tickets through Ticketmaster so I had printed every ones tickets. I decided as dinner was over that I would give everyone their own ticket to hold. BIG MISTAKE!
My friend Lisa (whom I love) has a tendency to forget things and my knowing this should have thought twice about giving her her ticket but I didn't. I handed them out and let them assume responsibility. After we paid the bill and hit the bathroom it was off to the car to drive over to Dodge. About a block from Dodge Lisa looked in her purse to realize she has no ticket. She had no idea what she did with it or where she put it. Panic!!! We call the restaurant and they have no idea what we were talking about nor did the hostess seem like she really cared! Lisa decided to go back to Sam's Cafe to look for herself. We drop her off and she insisted we go on to the show. All I can say is thank goodness for Ticketmaster's online service. Lisa sweet talked the manager at Safe's Cafe to allow her to get on his computer and print another ticket. She grabbed the ticket and found one of those bicycle guys that gives you rides and she was off to Dodge. She arrived literally minutes before the show started!! What an adventure!

As for Chelsea she was hilarious!!! She was drinking and having a good time and cracking us all up! I think I like her even more now then I did before.....if that is possible. Her humor is dry and sarcastic and very blunt. I mean how can you not love that!!!

We all had a great night of laughs (only a few at Lisa) and since there were no camera's allowed inside I couldn't capture the moment. However, what is an event without my standard self-taken group photo!! Here we are on the scary side of Dodge.......
Thanks Alyssa, Stacey, Steph, and Lisa for making it a great girl's night out! Oh, and as Chelsea would say "what's the game plan?"

More to come!
xoxo

Anyone have a cage??

Well, the night started off good. Shawn made us some great chill and corn bread!! YUMMY!!! We had some seven layer dip and chips and we topped it off with some cookies (made with love by Lindsay). After dinner was when the games began and the night took a turn for the worst! Take a look at the photo and you tell me who wasn't have a good time!!!
I won't go into details but let me just put it this way. I'm already pricing cage rentals for the next party and the first match will be STACEY vs. ANDY!!!! It will air on HBO PPV so check your local listings!!

I'm kidding. There was some name calling but hey that is a normal family fun night for us so it was all good!!

More to come!
xoxo

Family Fun Night Do Over!

Tomorrow me and my cousins are going over to my cousin's Shawn house for a game night. Last time we had a game night all together it was at my house and it ended with some name calling and people storming out. Why you may ask. It's because when the Brown kids get together to plan games we take it serious. We want to win and we get can get upset when we don't. Hence the name calling. Now, it's all in good fun and no one really means what they say or do they?? Shawn???? HA HA HA!! I am just kidding!!

Wish us luck on the "Family Fun Night" do over and if things don't go well the new name will be "Family Fight Night!!" : )


More to come
xoxo