Merry Christmas!

The holiday season has officially arrived!

Last night we loaded the kids in the car and drove to downtown Rochester for their annual light show event. We had never gone down to the event before, in fact, I never new the event existed. It was well worth the 30 minute drive and the 30 minute wait in traffic. Downtown Rochester is aprox. 1/2 mile long of fun little shops. They had decorated all of the shops with thousands of lights and then had a count down to the lighting. We made it just in time for the count down. Santa was also there (which Aiden was more than geeked about!). The crowd was crazy. I felt like I was at a Grateful Dead show (not so much of the people that gathered, but the crowd in general). The lights were truly spectacular. The picture really doesn't do it justice, the lights went on a lot further and lined both sides of the street. I love the holiday season!

Apple Pie

Let me start off by telling everyone that reads this that I have the most amazing apple pie recipe. I found it on the website allrecipes.com, which I absolutely love. I tried the recipe a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with it. The crust reminds me of the crust from an apple pie from McDonalds, life just doesn't get any sweeter!

Let me get to the point of my blog, I made this amazing apple pie for my mom and Ben's birthday celebration (Happy Birthday Mom & Ben!!!). The plan was to go to church and then head over to Susan's house to celebrate. I loaded up the pie and placed it securely on the ground of the van. When we got to church things got a little hectic with trying to get out of the mini van (easier said than done when there's 5 people trying to all get out at once), then I looked over and Aiden had so suavely placed his foot right in the middle of my pie. I seriously couldn't believe it. I wanted to have a fit, but I was in the church parking lot so I contained myself.

Regardless of the footprint, the pie still tasted great.....we all just ate around the footprint!

If you want to try this amazing apple pie (minus the foot) here's the recipe-

Ingredients:

1 recipe pastry for a 9 in double crust pie

1/2 c. unsalted butter

3 T. flour

1/2 c. white sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. water

6 big apples

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in four to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar, and water, bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and simmer 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Pour almost all of the sauce over the apples (I left out around 1/4 of a cup). Cover with apples with the top crust. Cut a few venting strips in the crust. Brush the crust with the remaining sauce.

3. Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for 40 minutes.

4. Enjoy!

Nothing New!

I never thought I'd be so delighted to share that I have absolutely nothing new going on in my life! With the last couple of months being crazy, hectic, and out of control, it's finally nice to have nothing new and no drama. We spent the weekend working in the yard (I've never seen Nicholas work so hard....I think I have a pyro on my hands, he really liked burning the leaves). We also went to an alcoholics anonymous club. I'm trying to be upbeat and supportive with this whole NA/AA drama, but that club was about as boring as it gets! It was nice to get out alone with Rick, regardless if the club was lame. I hope that my next blog entry is as equally as lame as this one!