John and I spent the morning leisurely wrapping the rest of the kids' gifts, knowing that they would be sleeping in for hours after our rollicking game night with the Schmidts.
Gretchen and I had agreed that the menu should be easy and casual, so as not to take away time from the games and merriment. John (with a handy assist from Kevin) grilled up burgers, brats and chicken.
While the chefs were finishing eating, the girls got their Soccer on.
The bigger girls got their gift-exchange on. We both chose purple scarves for each other! How cute are we? I also received a beautiful jewelry set and a scoring board. Thanks,G!
Now if we look a little, uh, happy in the above photo, it may have something to do with the wine and rum&dietcokes with which we were toasting the holiday season.
That might also explain why I have no pictures of the evening after this one! We played Wits & Wagers and Reverse Charades and made a noble effort with concerto holiday crackers that each came with a differenty-tuned whistle so that, with one person (Kenna) being the conductor, we could make beautiful music together.
It wasn't beautiful music.
It wasn't even music at all!
It sounded like eight dying geese!
But it was fun! And that's really all that matters!
OK, so back to today. The kids and I decided that today we will try our hand at making Mimi's famous peppernuts. My mother has been baking and sending out these kibble-sized gingerbread treats for over 35 years! This year she decided not to make them, much to Emma's dismay. However, we really need the next generation to carry this on - it's been passed down for 3 generations so far - so the time is right for us to figure out how to bake them ourselves.
But first, we needed to get the Clue done:
EMMA: . . . its color is ali the rage . .
KARL: Ali?
EMMA: That's what it says . . . ali the rage.
ME: Oh, the wax took some of the letter off - that's supposed to say "all the rage"
Karl took over and read the clue through.
EMMA: Huh. I have no idea.
KARL: Oh! Ten speeds - I know what it is. It's the mixer, Emma.
EMMA: The mixer?
KARL: Yeah, the big one - it has ten speeds.
The number of mixing speeds on the KitchenAid is exactly the type of thing my son would remember. What he WOULDN'T remember, is where we keep it!
Finally they figured it out:
As the clue said, this mixer has been used for making peppernuts for many years. I can't remember how old I was when Mom got this mixer, but I'm going to guess under 10. Mom gave it to me many years ago when she upgraded to the larger KitchenAid. It's still running strong!
We mixed up the peppernut dough and it is currently chilling. The kids decided to play Rock Paper Scissors to decide who could lick the beater.
Emma won!
Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I have one more clue for tomorrow and we all know where the money will be hidden!
The question is . . . will they know?!
That is a great place to hide the money! Tomorrow will be interesting to see if they will know. Make the clue hard though! LOL!
Posted by: KathyN | December 24, 2011 at 07:42 PM
I love game nights! Though for me, it means board games rather than video ones. Does that mean I'm old?
Good clue! Can't wait to see tomorrow's.
Posted by: Sylvia | December 25, 2011 at 08:35 AM
I loved your video. I didn't know how a pop-up card worked. I have one die cut that does this, but I haven't used it. Thanks for the great idea.
Posted by: Lisa Davila | February 05, 2012 at 08:55 PM