For Katie!

I make these cookies every Christmas.  They are fattening and delicious.  I am posting this for my fave cousin, Katie! 

Kentucky Sugar Cookies
1c. butter, softened
1c. vegetable oil
1c. granualte sugar
1c. powdered sugar, sifted
2 lg eggs
4 c. flour, sifted
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat butter and oil at medium speed with an electric mixer until well combined.  Gradually add sugars, eggs, and vanilla.  BEat well.  Combine flour, salt, soda and cream of tartar.  Add to butter mixture, mixing well.  Drop by rounded teaspoons on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 9-10 minuttes. 

Semester 1=Wrapped

Yikes! It’s been a while since my last entry.  I blame it on the close of my first semester of teaching!  I cannot believe it is already over!!  As  I have had some time to reflect and RELAX over the last week, I realize just how much I enjoyed this last semester.  Don’t get me wrong, I have had several days of driving home from school, close to tears, wondering why I thought I was capable of teaching these monsters.  But as I was leaving school on the 17^th,  I was saddened to think that I only have one semester left with my kiddos.  I have been truly blessed with the classes  I have this year.  After all of the horror stories I have heard from first year teachers, I feel as if I have gotten off way too easily.  (I am currently knocking on my coffee table as not to jynx this statement.)  With this being said, the last 12 days have been absolutely heavenly!  No discipline to be given, no grading papers, and most importantly-NO one calling me Ms. Hoff!  My goal for next semester is to have more labs in my class.  I will be braving the unthinkable- twenty eight- fifteen year olds with fire and corrosive chemicals.  Wish me luck, folks. 

Last year, my Dad and I made tamales.  We started at 8am.  We ended at 10pm and swore that we would never make tamales again.   For those of you who know my dad even a little bit, he is notorious for swearing that he will NEVER do something again and then given enough time, he will inevitably be doing the same thing he swore off.  This year, we started making tamales at 9am...

  You have to boil the meat for several hours.  Next, the pepper sauce.  You have to first clean and clear out the seeds.  I learned the hard way to use gloves for this task.  Last year, my hands burned for two days.  Boil the peppers and then blend them up in a blender with some other secret ingredients.  After this you make the masa.   This is the easiest part.  Dump some ingredients in a bowl and stir.  When the masa is ready you smear it in the corn husk and then give a precise measurement of meat.  It takes several tries to get the proportions of masa to meat to be just right.  The most difficult part of the process is the rolling of the tamales.  Mine look pretty deformed most of the time, but they taste GREAT!  We made two types this year.  A traditional pork and a chicken cilantro variety.  They are both delicious!  This year we finished by 2pm. It is safe to say that we are getting better since we cut our time in half this year!  While I don’t think that we will be going into business any time soon, this is a day that I hope we will continue forever.   

Christmas was wonderful.  It is as most of you know, my favorite holiday.  We went to our Christmas Eve service as usual.  It was by far the loudest church service I have ever been to.  I am not talking about the volume of the pastor or the singing of hymns, but the children.  They must have been so hyped about Santa coming that they couldn’t control their chatter.  It was as if the entire population of children was speaking in tongues.  Screaming, yelling, and chitchatting all with excitement about CHRISTMAS!!!!  It was the first Christmas Eve Service without our long-time pastor, Pastor Henry, as he retired this year.  While this is my favorite church service all year, there was something lacking with the absence of Pastor Henry’s warm greeting and then his Merry Christmas at the door, always followed with a hug.   We quickly RAN out of the church to prepare for our annual Christmas Eve Open House.  This gathering has become a tradition not missed by our closest friends and grandparents.  Great food and great fellowship makes this evening the merriest place to be on Christmas Eve anywhere in the world.  I was looking around the room and was moved by how happy and festive our house and guests looked.  It is a night looked forward to by all who attend, and provides memories and a tradition that all will remember. 

I have been incredibly blessed in 2010.  It has been a year of a lot of change for me.  As we CRUISE into 2011(yuh yuh yuh) this year, I will look fondly on a year that I have gotten to spend with my family and friends and look forward to what 2011 will bring. 

Barkley and I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year! 

This is the true story of a bulldog and a teacher, picked to live together and have their lives blogged.  Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. 
The Real World Lampasas