I finally broke down and bought a fake tree this year.  I love the smell of fresh cut trees.  Several of our trees were living trees and they now live in our yard.  They have gotten really big.

Having a tree in the house with a wood stove doesn’t make for a long lasting tree.  The needles are soon dropping to the floor and we could only enjoy the lights for a short time.  We didn’t want it to catch fire.

 So the decision to get a fake one was made this year.  It really is nice keeping the lights on.

We have many Christmas symbols and the tree is one of them. The pure green color of the Christmas tree remains all year.  This shows the everlasting hope of mankind.  The needles point heavenward to remind us that our thoughts should turn toward heaven.

The candy cane represents the shepherds crook. The crook helps bring wandering sheep back to the flock.  It reminds us to show love because we are our brother’s keeper.

Lost sheep are found by the sound of a bell.  The bell rings for mankind to return to the fold.

We put bows on our presents to remind us of the spirit of the brotherhood of man.  As the bow is tied, it is with love and good feelings toward each other.

The symbol of the present reminds us that as we give gifts of love we remember the gifts the wisemen gave to the infant Jesus.

God promised a Savior for the world and gave us a bright new star that shone down from the heavens as fulfillment of that promise.

The wreath is round and represents the eternal nature of love.  It never ceases, stops, or ends.  It is one continuous round of affection.

We can enjoy the fun things of Christmas without forgetting what Christmas represents.  It represents the birth of Christ and His great love for us.  It gives us the opportunity to show our love for each other.

May your Christmas be filled with joy and love.

We have cinnamon rolls Christmas morning with hot chocolate.  The other part of the tradition is we share those cinnamon rolls with our close neighbors and friends.  There have been times when I’ve made up to 16 dozen rolls to share.

As Christmas nears, I make a list of who gets rolls.  My grown sons make sure they are on the list.  One neighbor has moved to a warmer climate for the winter but makes sure she comes back around Christmas to get her rolls.

When I first wanted to make these rolls, I asked my mother for the recipe.  She gave me the ingredients, in no particular order and with no instructions.  I had seen my mother make cinnamon rolls for as long as I could remember. Putting them together came very naturally.

I want to share with you my recipe and have included pictures.  I hope yours turn out as well as mine do.  As a matter of interest, this is a very old recipe and the cup of water was used to dissolve the yeast before adding to the mixture.  I still include the water.  I also use a large capacity Kitchen Aid Mixer with a dough hook.  If you don’t have a large mixer, half the recipe in two. 

This recipe can also be used for doughnuts.

Cinnamon Rolls and Doughnut Dough

Mix together: 1 quart milk plus 1 cup water, warm in microwave…not hot.

                        5-6 tablespoons yeast  (I use 6)

                        1 cup sugar

Add:               1 cup butter

                        6 eggs, beaten

                        1 tablespoon vanilla extract

                        1 tablespoon lemon extract

                        1 teaspoon salt

                       12-13 cups flour

Add the yeast to the warm milk and water, then sugar.  Add the remaining ingredients. (I start with a mixing paddle and then switch to the kneading hook when the dough gets thick)  Mix well after each cup of flour until you get to about 10 cups.  Then add the flour ½ to ¼ cup at a time kneading well after each addition of flour.  You want the dough to be soft and just barely sticky.  Too much flour will make your rolls dry.  If you are making it in a mixer, knead for about 15 minutes after all flour is in.

Let the dough rise to double in size in a large bowl sprayed with cooking spray.  (Pam)  For Cinnamon Rolls, work with ½ the dough at a time. (Unless you’ve halved the recipe)  Roll dough out in a rectangular shape on counter sprayed with cooking spray.  Spread the dough with the following in this order:  Soft butter (use real butter in recipe for best results), sprinkle with cinnamon, light layer of brown sugar, sprinkle with raisins and nuts if desired.  (I use pecans)  Starting on the long side, roll dough into a long roll.  Cut into about 1 inch rolls.  Place on baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with Pam.  Let raise about 15 – 20 minutes. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Do not over cook.  You want them slightly brown, not dark.  Cinnamon rolls will continue to raise in the oven as they cook.  Frost while hot with icing made from powdered sugar, milk, and lemon extract. Make the icing thick and it melts into the rolls.  Makes about 4 dozen.

For doughnuts:  Roll dough out, cut with doughnut cutter, let raise, fry in hot oil, glaze with powder sugar, milk, and lemon extract icing.  Make it thin.

The trick to good cinnamon rolls and doughnuts is to not use too much flour or they get dry and hard.  You want the dough sticky but still able to handle without sticking to your fingers.

Mother said you can use this same recipe for bread rolls.  Reduce the sugar to about ½ cup and leave out the vanilla and lemon extracts.

Swithing to the kneading hook.

Dough is ready.

Transferring dough to larger bowl sprayed with Pam to raise.

You can see it is slightly sticky.

I punch it down.

Cover to let raise and double in size.

Dough is ready to roll out.

Spray counter with cooking spray.

Taking the dough out of the bowl.

Roll out the dough.

This is what it looks like.  Don’t roll too thin.

Spread with soft butter

Sprinkle on the cinnamon.

Then add the brown sugar.  A thin layer.

Add raisins and nuts as desired.  As you can see, I’m only doing half the rolled out dough.  I’m putting the following on the other side:  Mixed together 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp. maple flavoring and 2 tsp. cinnamon.  For a different flavor.  Icing is the same except I will use vanilla extract instead of lemon.

Starting to roll from the long side.

Rolling the dough.

All rolled up and ready to cut.

Cutting….

In the pan. Lining the pan with heavy duty foil makes for easier clean up and I can remove all rolls at the same time to give away.

Baked…and ready for icing.

Putting on the icing.  The thick icing will melt into the rolls.  Apply while hot.

All done and ready to eat.  Enjoy!

These are not ordinary pancakes.  Since my husband and I are in charge of breakfast at our family reunions, we make special pancakes.

A few years ago, one of the relatives asked why ours tasted different from the ones he made at home using the same mix.  He thought it might be because we were in the mountains and the pines.

I decided to share what makes our pancakes special.

I start with the base using a pancake mix that only requires water.

For a big group like our family, I pour the mix into a very large bowl…about half the bag of mix.

I add 6-8 eggs, about a half cup of oil, and a half box of cake mix, either white or yellow.

(I don’t measure, I just dump it in.  I cook like my mother.)

I then add enough water to make the pancakes thin enough to cook on the grill.  Mix it all together and cook on a hot grill.

At home for the two of us, I use one egg, 1-2 tablespoons of oil and 2-3 tablespoons of cake mix.

You don’t have to have exact measurements.  It all comes out good.

Enjoy!  Make them for your family this Fourth of July holiday weekend.

 Shaklee Dist.

My dad, her oldest child,  is now 96. 

We come together at our family center, which is a large home without some of the inside walls, leaving a large room with tables and chairs to eat at. 

We have two bathrooms, each with two toilets and two showers.  One for the girls and one for the boys.

Our meals are prepared on site in a large kitchen with two grills, a commercial refrigerator, an ice machine, and a soft ice cream machine.

The ice machine provides plenty of ice for snow cones, and the ice cream machine runs all day and goes on stand-by at night.  The kids can have as much as they can eat.

The utility room has a washer and dryer and a regular refrigerator.

Outside is a large patio to one side of the building.  A play ground for the kids is to the north of our center.  It has swings, a sand pile, a zip line, a basketball court and tether ball.

We camp-out in tents, trailers and motor homes.  

This is our granddaughter arriving for the week-end.

Mornings begin with breakfast.  We have pancakes, omlets, hash browns, bacon, sausage, watermellon, cantalope, orange juice and milk.

Our grandson is learning the tricks of cooking on the grill from his granddad.  Someday he will take over.

Here are some pictures of the kids having fun.

This is the “whirl-a-hurl” swing, so named by the teen-agers.  There was a time when they would eat a bunch of ice-cream and see who would “hurl” first. 

There are six seats and it goes round and round and the faster it goes, the higher the swings go.

 There are regular swings too, for all sizes of kids:

The older kids like to play basketball. 

The sand pile is a fun place for the little ones, especially when a water hose provides the water to build streams and dams.  Great fun for hours at a time.

Ping Pong is a game everyone likes to play.  Here are two contenders for the championship, Michael and Andy.  Michael won.  Andy challenged him to a re-match next year.

And here is an up-and-coming ping-pong champion.

Waiting on the “tower” to take their turn riding the zip line. Notice the ice-cream cone.

Another one enjoying the ice-cream.

And another….

The slide is fun too…..

 It’s all just too much fun……..

My niece singing for my Dad (age 96).  It was her talent for the talent show.

That’s all folks!

Shaklee Dist.

 Mother was born May 3, 1919. She was the oldest of three girls.

She married my dad when she was 17 years old.  Together they raised 9 children, 6 girls and 3 boys.

 I am the fifth girl in a row.

When I was about eight years old my Dad bought a dairy farm.  My mother would trade milk to pay for my piano lessons.  I’m sure my sister’s lessons were also paid for with milk.

Mother could cook about anything. My dad was a rancher and some of the things he would bring home for Mother to cook were not too pleasant, but she prepared it anyway.

She loved to can or bottle all kinds of fruits and vegetables.  In later years I asked why she continued to can all the things she did.  She told me she loved the way the finished product looked in the bottle.

When I was in high school, Mother made pies and cinnamon rolls for a local café.  All the truck drivers loved to eat there and have some of those delicious goodies.

In exchange for some of those pies and cinnamon rolls my lunch was paid for. The café was only a few blocks from the school and I would walk there each day to eat.

I learned through osmosis to make pies and cinnamon rolls along with all kinds of other things.  Mother never formally taught any of us how to cook, we learned by helping and watching.  All of us girls turned out to be fairly good cooks.

She could also sew and most of my clothes were made by her.  As I was the fifth girl, I got plenty of hand-me-downs.  Mother always remade them for me.  I was smaller than the other girls.

Some of my prom dresses were prettier and better than many of the store bought gowns of the day.

When I started my in-home business, Mother became my biggest fan, greatest cheerleader and support.  I once asked her why she used the products in the beginning.  It was because I was her daughter and she wanted to help me.

She soon became sold on what I was doing and for a while had her own business going.  Even today her downline is using products and providing income to my dad, who at this time is still living and using the products I market.  He will be 96 soon.

One of the things Mother enjoyed doing was hanging out her laundry.  Even though she had a dryer, she liked to see her clothes on the line and always remarked that whenever she hung out the clothes, a breeze would come along to quickly dry them.

After all of us kids were grown, Mother returned to school learning many things including the computer which she said did not like her. 

She learned to play the piano after making sure all of us had the opportunity first to learn to play. 

She loved to sing.  In her younger days she played the guitar and sang on the radio. 

Each year the community college presented the Messiah.  At the age of 86, she was the oldest member to sing in it.

The Sunday before her passing, she sang in her church choir.

Her last instructions to her family were: “My children have gladdened my heart! Be true to yourself.  Keep on singing no matter what. Exercise your mind and your body everyday.”

She could still do the splits when she was 86.  She wouldn’t try after that.  All of us know what “Stand like a Tree” means.

At the time of her passing she left a legacy of 9 children, 46 grandchildren, 117 great grandchildren, and 41 great, great grandchildren. 

Mother was only 4 feet 10 inches, but she was mighty in spirit.  All of us will miss her and look forward to a future glorious reunion.

Shaklee Dist.