Christmas in Saluda, Part 3 and Final

Amidst the craziness of goats and the chameleon, we truly had a wonderful weekend at Momma's.  

Saturday:  We baked. We watched movies. We played with the 7 dogs, 2 goats, and 1 chameleon.  We ate BBQ for dinner then went to a shooting range!  It was my first time at an indoor range, but it was very fun!  After shooting, we went back to Mom's and opened some Christmas gifts. You have already read about the most interesting gift. 

Mom's house, built in 1900, decorated for Christmas!

Sunday:  We got dressed (I think all of us actually took showers!) and drove up to Lake Lure Inn for Sunday Brunch. Yum.  After brunch, we took family Christmas pictures.  Then we went shopping for goat stuff. And Valerie & Zebediah worked on finding new goats.  Zeb built the goat pen, and we did more baking.  We went down to Tryon to have dinner with Uncle Charlie, Aunt Betsy and Charlotte.  It was a treat to see them since it hardly ever happens--it has been an especially long time since we had seen Charlotte.  After dinner, they finished the house for the goats while I had some time to myself (much needed for this introvert!), then we opened the rest of our gifts. 

Monday: Valerie & Zebediah left fairly early to go get their new goats from a couple hours away.  Matt, Laura, Mom and I hung out around the house and did more baking and cleaning up.  We finally left Saluda in the late afternoon and had an uneventful ride home.  We went to bed early to prepare for Christmas Day with Matt's family (post coming).


I spent a lot of the weekend laughing, which is a true gift.  My Mom and sisters are some of my closest friends, and I realize what a blessing that is.  We know all the crud about each other but still love each other.  We have a pretty healthy balance of grace and truth with one another, and there is something VERY special about that to me.  This has not always been the case.  

As we traveled home, I spent a lot of time thanking God for my family and the weekend we had celebrating together!  

You can view my Facebook album from the weekend here.

 

Christmas in Saluda, Part 1 (Goats)

We gathered with my side of the family for the weekend before Christmas.  Lots of things were new this year with this side of the family, so we weren't going by many traditions... just tried to figure it out as we went along.  It turned out very well as we had a wonderful few days with family! 

We all drove up to Mom's Friday night (late).  Driving with Zoe is not a picnic, so it was a much longer and painful drive than usual.  Mom was at work and didn't get home until Saturday afternoon.  This meant that the 5 of us children were unchaperoned for a few hours before she got home...  

When we got up on Saturday morning, we all made our way to the kitchen eventually and decided what we would do for the day: bake.  We got recipes from Pinterest, scavenged Mom's shelves, and made a grocery list.  While Laura, Matt and Zeb went 'to town' to get the groceries, Valerie and I baked a little and watched YouTube videos of goats.  

Naturally, by the time the other three got back from town, we had decided that we wanted goats.  Matthew and Zebediah were too happy to oblige--being that both husbands had tried talking us wives into getting goats in the past. Zebediah had especially been working on Valerie which is what started the whole YouTube thing anyway.  It didn't take long to find some pygmy goats listed on Craigslist nearby.  After changing into presentable clothes (and admonishing Valerie that she did not have to get 'dolled up' to go buy a goat), we made our way 2 towns over and found ourselves on a lovely farm.  

Matt and I with "Hippo"

After much deliberation, we settled on two goats.  A brown one for Matt & Tricia who we named "Hippo" from the song, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas", and the gray one for Valerie & Zebediah... who was named "Sebaaaaaastian" on the way back to Mom's.  On the drive back, we joked that "we got a KID for Christmas".  We introduced the goats to the dogs (all 7 of them!), and it was clear from the beginning that Zoe was not a fan of the little pygmies.  So, within an hour of getting Mr. Hippo, we decided he could not be part of our family after all.  We would either return him or see if Mom wanted him.  

The dogs meeting the goats.

By the time Mom got home, we had the goats tucked away in her outside closet so they could stay warm and remain a surprise until it was time to open presents...
only we didn't account for the noise they made.  When Mom got home from work, she heard a strange noise and went to the closet thinking a cat was locked up in it.  Instead, she saw two "cute little things" and realized she had ruined a surprise so promptly came into the kitchen to tell us she had discovered the "cute little things".  

After much excitement, we introduced Mom to Hippo, her goat-which-had-become-a-Christmas-present.  She was appropriately surprised, reluctant, yet intrigued.  After a few hours of cuddling and care-taking, she quickly launched into 'very excited'.  

Mom with Hippo

The next day, we went to Tractor Supply and Home Depot so she could get pen materials, feed, and materials to build a goat house.  She had also decided that she wanted to keep both goats because goats aren't meant to be by themselves.  So, Valerie & Zebediah started the process of trying to find themselves a new goat(s). 

We loved cuddling the baby goats and doting on them.  Zebediah built them a nice pen, and they seemed to be quite at home when we left on Monday afternoon.  

More Christmas Updates coming soon...

**Update, sadly, Hippo died a couple days after Christmas.  He wasn't quite well from the beginning, but we attributed it to transitions.  Apparently, he just wasn't well.  Thus, we successfully went from giving Mom a very cool, unique, exciting Christmas present to giving her the WORST Christmas present ever... one that died a few days later... launching her into grief and remorse.  Note to friends and family and anyone else who wants to give good gifts--Do NOT give pygmy goats as a Christmas present... especially if you don't know much about them.***

You can view my Facebook album from the weekend here.   

High-Hat Cupcake "Date"

This week, we had a fun at-home date night.  Matt found this picture on Pinterest, and he's been wanting to make these things for weeks:  

Source: bakerella.com via Matthew on Pinterest

Well, we gave it a good try... and had fun in the process.  That's what's important, right? 

My first collage.  Thanks for the tip, Brooke. Look forward to playing with this more!

It was definitely a fun (and fairly inexpensive) date night.  We had one little oops with the almond extract (cough:::Matt), so they aren't really as tasty as I thought they would be. 

Our finished product.  *Disclaimer: Matt says this was the worst-looking one.

But Matt likes them and wants to try them again later.  My opinion is that we should leave the hi-hat cupcakes to Martha and Bakearella. 

Christmas Baking!

It's one of my favorite things of the year, especially the Christmas season. This year, Mom and I spread it out over 2 days and didn't have much help from the other 2, but that's okay. We had fun!

Coming to a Christmas plate near you (maybe!):
-Peanut Butter Delights (my favorite!)
-Rice Krispy Treats
-Haystacks
-Rolo Pretzels
-Peanut Butter Kisses
-Fudgemallow Squares
-Peppermint Brownies

These were the results of Day 1, but I don't have any pics of those being made.

When I got to Mom's, she had already done all of these. We know for sure we did 140+ of peanut butter cookies, most of them with kisses in them.

And a couple of batches of RKT. We ran out of some crucial elements, but Laura did graciously make a grocery store run for us.

Rolo pretzels in the making. This is the first year I remember helping with these. Super easy!

Getting everything ready to go to different homes!

All done!

I know that none of those things are super-complicated, but it's just a fun thing to do with my Mom every year. And I also LOVE delivering these treats to friends and family. Not everyone appreciates the calories, but I think most people appreciate the time that went into them. :)

A first for me...

So, last week, I wrote about having an excuse to bake. I was really excited as baking is a good stress reliever for me, but I didn't have any mixes in the cabinet and didn't want to go to the grocery store.As I was rummaging through my cabinet, I found a recipe for chocolate cake (and frosting) on the Cocoa container.I made this cake ALL from scratch. It was SOO much fun and reminded me of cooking/baking in Uz, where I got to learn a lot of the basics of made-from-scratch cooking from my friend Emily.

Though it wasn't the most structurally-sound cake I've ever seen, it tasted just fine. :)

Christmas Baking at Momma's

My Mom had a tumor removed from her ear yesterday. Doc said it was most likely benign, and she went through the surgery well. After the surgery, she and I went to her house for an afternoon/evening of resting and lounging on the couch watching movies like any normal person would after surgery... or not.

Because my Mom is such a trooper, we actually ended up doing hours and hours of Christmas baking.


Haystacks were the first on the list. (Super-duper easy and tasty and something different than chocolate) 6 batches of those.

2nd were 'peanut butter blossoms'. (Peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's kiss added just after coming out of the oven.) 4 batches of those.

Next were brownies with holidays minty chocolate chips mixed in and on the top. 2 batches of those.


Then came my favorite: peanut butter delights. (you know, the oatmeal, cocoa, peanut butter no-bake cookies) 1 big batch of these. And last, but not least, rice krispy treats with festive decor. 2 batches of these (after Laura had to make a grocery store run to restock the marshmallows after the first attempt proved disastrous)



Add a few of each of these things to a Christmas-y tin, and you have a great Christmas gift for neighbors and friends!

It's been a Tyndall tradition for years, and I hadn't gotten to help bake for a long time, so it was a very special time with my Momma! And, both Valerie and Laura joined in partway through the evening, which made it even more special.



I am really, truly loving being with my family so much this holiday season. There's been a lot of drama and some heartache recently, but we're even more mindful this year of the power of Christmas.