THE FACES OF 2013

Faces of the year. 

Note the brown-eyed Jessica hiding. 

She is something else!


Josh my rock star grandson

Jaren my other rock star grandson.

Krew and Kendrix and ?

Lexi the pilgrim

Lexi and Kendrix, fun cousins.

Teddy, Mr Ham

Kendrix, A+ preschooler!

Justin, always ready for fun. 

Proud parentals with awesome son. 

Lexi an angel?

(With her future husband, it's been decided)

Jessica, the oldest granddaughter and only brown-eyed beauty.

Granddaughters are a rare species in The Garden of Egan. 

There are only two granddaughters.  

Six grandsons!

Because going to bed with a hair covering from the ER is normal when mommy and grandma are nurses.

Kendrix rock star of 1st grade.

Favorite day of the year.

Favorite sunrise of the year.

Favorite icy frosty picture of favorite place of the year.

Favorite old photo of the year with my favorite old guy of the year. 

2014 already?????

BRING IT ON!!!!

Especially the favorite parts. 

BREATH OF WINTER

The winter has been stunning.

I'm not one to brag about winter.

But I am now.
For about a week the trees were just like artwork.

It stayed and stayed.

Watching the snowblower from the warmth of the fire.

And it was cold!

And Christmas came.

With family.

Look at those grandsons!!!  Josh, Jaren, Justin, Krew and Kendrix.

We are missing one grandson.
(Teddy isn't here)

Or are we missing two grandsons?
Yup Krew and Kendrix are getting a sibling in July!
(Will it be another grandson or a granddaughter???)
We are thrilled!

So we had six of the eight grandchildren here.
They are growing so fast!
They need to STOP IT!

We missed having Lexi here.

And Teddy.

What a little ham!

Why is this the only posed photo I took?

The grands are all enthralled with Josh's guitar.
He's a patient cousin/teacher.

Another Christmas over.
They come so fast!

And this is my 500th post.
It's taken 5 years.
It's been fun to go through the old books I've had printed.
Blogging is easier than scrapbooking any day.

And the winners of the chocolate giveaway for checking out Zaycon.

Kerin
Jen
Julia
Marlene
Email me your address.

RAISING THE WHITE FLAG

I surrender.

It isn't going to get done.

Everything will be after Christmas.

I'm not sure where the days and weeks went.
But they did.
And they did it without me.

It may be without boxes and ribbons and bags.
Or cookies and candies and presents with tags.
But it's fine.
I've enjoyed some awesome moments.
And we are healthy.
And happy.
And family.

OFFICER EGAN

We made a quick trip to Boise yesterday.
We wanted to be there for Nate's graduation from POST.

Peace Officer Standards & Training.

After 2 1/2 years in North Dakota away from family for weeks at a time.
Then 10 weeks at POST...
They can finally be together!
All the time.

Woohoo for that!

It was a very nice ceremony.

We are pretty proud of that kid!

CHOCOLATE AND ZAYCON

What do these two things have in common?

Nothing.

Except that they are both DELICIOUS!

Just before Thanksgiving I was given a beautiful ham compliments of Zaycon Foods.

I was asked to give a review.

Well, that is easy because I have had their ham before and it is good.

I should have taken a picture before we cut it in to thirds.

These two chunks went in to the freezer.

It's Applewood smoked and excellent quality.

I like it because it's not a pressed, fused, yucky texture.

We decided to be all fancy schmancy with it.

This is only 1/3!

It smelled so good while it was cooking.

 We fed 14 people for dinner. (Yes, we did have turkey.)

There was a lot of turkey leftovers.

There was no ham leftovers.

We got the recipe from one of my favorite ER docs.

Dr. Hammar's Ham Recipe

Place fat side up on a cookie sheet

Cross score ham about 1" width

At each intersection of scoring, place a whole clove

Cover with a can of pineapple slices. (save the juice)

Place in roaster.

Glaze:

Juice from pineapple

1 jar of Smuckers apricot pineapple jam

3/4 C brown sugar

generous tablespoon of dry mustard.

SLOW roast at about 180 degrees for 5-6 hours.

Baste with drippings and serve hot.

We were NOT disappointed.

If you get a chance to order ham from Zaycon DO IT!

(I'm also a huge fan of their boneless skinless chicken breasts too!)

Now for the chocolate.

Yes.

It's that time of year.

You know,

the time of year when you are really bored and don't have anything else to do with your time...time of year.

Except make English Toffee.

And dip homemade caramels.

I've only gotten started.

I love doing it.

So I NEED to have a giveaway.

Leave a comment....

and you're entered once.

Go to Zaycon's facebook and like them...

and you're entered twice.

Go to Zaycon's website and check it out....

and you're entered three times. (I wasn't going to say thrice)

How will I know you have been there?

Santa knows who's been naughty and nice!

I'll pick a couple of winners and mail you some of my hand-dipped chocolates.

(PS: I'm not working for Zaycon, they were very generous to offer me the ham to blog about. I happen to think they are a great company and had a great time visiting with them.)