Coyote Hunting

Marc got to go coyote (read: ky-oat, not ky-oat-ee) hunting yesterday with Micah's husband, Aaron. They went to a ranch down by "the river" between here and Liberal. 

Marc got all "geared up" last year for coyote hunting and went a few times but never had any success. He has a caller and a wounded rabbit tail that flits around, along with a rifle and scope...and probably lots more. 

Well, yesterday was his lucky day! He got a coyote! I was really happy for him. 

Marc's first question when he got home was, where's Cole? He was disappointed to hear he was napping. 

Marc was excited to show Cole his kill as we left for the Christmas Eve service. Cole took it all in stride. 

Way to go, Marc!

(Coyotes are a pest and nuisance. I think they are always in season. Landowners are happy to have people hunt them to protect their livestock, chickens, and even dogs and cats. Some can be quite mangy but this one was a "good lookin" female. Marc just plans to discard of it.)

Gift Wrapping Rondezvous

A week ago my friend Alice Isaacs came over for a soup lunch and our annual Christmas gift wrapping session. 

I love it for so many reasons!

1. I don't have a lot of traditions with friends, so it's fun to have something we do every year. 

2. Alice lives in Turpin, OK so I don't get to see her much but I value her friendship. I'm glad to have this built in point of connection. Our conversation always flows easily. 

3. It motivates me to get my shopping done early!

4. I love having pretty presents to put under the tree early in the season. It adds to the Christmas decor. 

5. It makes a mundane task fun because you get to chat and catch up with a friend. (And it proves my theory that some of the best conversation happens when you're busy with your hands - not having to look each other in the eye.)

(I almost made a special trip to Garden City to go to Hobby Lobby for wrapping paper because I have become a Hobby Lobby paper snob - it's so good! But I swallowed my pride and used the *ugly* paper I've been avoiding since the first year we were married. And would you know, it still did the job!)

Where's Cole?

I think I mentioned that Cole likes to climb into containers and then usually stuff toys all around him. It happens multiple times every day. I thought I'd try to catch him in the act to show you...

This morning at the Voth's inside an upturned stool

Inside a basket last night 

In his toy box

In a Christmas package box

On the kid-size couch at the library

In his netted cube

In the cube that holds his shoes 

 A green thing

Oh so sweet!

Third Time's a Charm

Pumpkin scones!

Sublette Hayride

On Friday our sublette ladies bible study planned a hayride around town to look at the Christmas lights with our families. We met at Whitney's, filled our cups with hot chocolate, got all bundled up and climbed aboard this huge trailer decorated with white icicle lights and laden with hay. It was SO MUCH FUN!

Cole had his big coat and stocking cap on and was bundled up in the stroller sack (both thanks to Katie) and stayed cozy warm on his daddy's lap for the 45 minute ride. 

There were two ladies who couldn't come because their families were sick, so we took the opportunity to stop by their houses and carol from the trailer. They loved it!

We returned to Whitney's house for more hot cocoa, let the kids play, the guys talk hunting, and us girls talk Christmas plans while we kept our eyes on the guys and the kids - hoping everyone was behaving and having fun. 

We ended up at the pizza place at 7:30 for an impromptu dinner outing. 

A few thoughts from the night:

1. I don't know how we would get a hayride together if we lived in the city but as it was, we had at least 3 girls in our study that had access to a trailer and hay. Ha! The joys of living in a rural community. 

2. Us girls in the study are becoming great friends but our husbands aren't, naturally. They don't hardly know each other and their lives rarely intersect. So while we girls are loving spending time together, they don't get to enjoy the same comraderie. So, it was super fun to see them finding some common ground and talking farming and hunting. Definitely a highlight. 

3. I am over the top grateful for this group! What a gift. 

Dad's (Dave's) Birthday

Elsy and I decided to make Snickerdoodles and surprise my dad at his office for his birthday. She was a good helper, rolling the cookies in the cinnamon sugar. 

But when we got to his work, Grandpa was no where to be found! So we waited in his office patiently!

It was pretty cute when Dad came down the hallway though - Elsy ran to him! I'm sure dad was pretty proud :)

One of the ladies in his office asked if we were going to go upstairs to see Santa. What??! Santa was there?! They were having a Christmas event with Santa, crafts, food. What a perfect day to visit!

Elsy did surprisingly well with Santa!

And then we treated Grandpa to lunch - McDonalds!

The day ended at Zio's, celebrating with the rest of the family!

What a special guy to celebrate!

Friends!

Our friends, Caleb and Kate moved to Olathe on Monday! We met them in OKC and immediately clicked. They had some issues with selling their house so we are so excited they are here. Tonight we had our first official game night (which we did weekly in OK). Here's a picture of the boys being goofy. 

Gma busted OUT!

From Georgann

Doesn't Gma look great?  She went to dinner with us tonight at Ruby Tuesday. She was almost giddy when she got in the car. She enjoyed being OUT.  She loved seeing the Christmas lights and decorations and enjoyed a tasty meal. At the end of the meal, she commented that she was ready to go.  It was a great first outing for her. Hope we didn't allow her to overdo it!

Christmas Brunch Prep

From Dana:

Somehow I never managed to get signed up for something to bring to the Burrichter Christmas brunch at Thanksgiving. When I contacted Cindy about it later, she graciously asked me to bring plates and napkins, since that would be easy to transport. I was more than willing to bake something but wasn't going to argue. 

Then, Julie and Cindy came and Julie requested my pumpkin scones (introduced to me by Katie Metcalf). Super easy to make. Super homey and delicious. When Cindy reported this to Charlotte, Charlotte was "envious" - she would like a scone. So, I thought, "ah, that would be a perfect thing to make and take for the brunch."  

I got to baking on Tuesday knowing I could put them in the freezer and just be done with it. I had pumpkin leftover, so it was going to be simple. 

As I was preparing them, I thought, I should take some pictures and post to the burrichter Facebook page. Of course, I forgot and I realized when I had the dough all rolled out that I had also forgotten the baking soda! The baking soda! What would you do? 

Not wanting to waste it, I put the solid dough back into the bowl and sprinkled the Tbs of baking soda on it and tried to kind of knead it in, rolled the dough out, cut the scones, put them in the oven and hoped for the best. 

I got all the dishes washed (including all the pieces of the food processor, which I hate - so convenient yet so cumbersome) while they were baking and pulled them out and let them cool. They looked fine.  Took a bite and they were so bitter! Ugh!

My conclusion: I didn't get the tbs of baking soda mixed in well enough! Much to my dismay, they headed to the trash and THAT's when I remembered to take a picture for you. 

In disgust, I left to take a shower and prepare for babysitting Corbin, in less than an hour. While in the shower, I thought, I think I can get another batch in before he gets here. All the dishes were washed and out and ready to be used again. Might as well. It'll be nice to have it done. 

I kept telling myself, haste makes waste, haste makes waste. I carefully followed the recipe, got them in the oven with 15 minutes to spare. When Cole woke up, we tried one together and would you believe it? They were bitter!!! Are you kidding me? 

I raced to the recipe and would you know it, it called for baking POWDER! I was so upset. What a waste - of precious nap time, of ingredients - and I STILL didn't have the scones I was needing. Guess where they ended up? Yep, second batch in the trash on top of the first!

How frustrating! Third time's a charm!

Walk to Big screen to Neighbors to Frog eyes to Fundraising

From Georgann


We have had such a fun and busy week.  It started last Saturday...

Saturday - went to our friends Dave and Marlene Ellrich's famous annual ebelskiver breakfast. Anthony, Elsy, Kathryn and Brad went too.  Ellriches plan to move to Iowa next March so it was bittersweet.  We also addressed Christmas cards that evening. Yay for a task completed.

Sunday was "Walk to the Manger", our Christmas musical at church.  All the planning and preparation our office has done since August paid off.  It was wonderful.  The morning was also an opportunity to give toys, clothing and monetary gifts to local and international missions.  The generosity was amazing.

Su

Monday - Dave, Mary, Janet and I went to see the movie "White Christmas" on the big screen - a first for us.  It was great!  It was fun hearing the crowd's reaction to different parts of the movie and there was a round of applause at the end, just like in the good old days of the movies.

Tuesday - Our neighbors Matt and Penny Knight and their son Reece give us a plate of homemade treats each Christmas.  Delicious!  Each year we have nothing to give in return.  This year I decided to reciprocate by inviting them to dinner.  Knights had never met Kathryn, in fact they doubted she even existed.  So to squelch those rumors, we also invited Brad and Kathryn to dinner.  Penny accused Brad of hiring Kathryn as a "Bride by the Hour".  However by the end of the evening, Kathryn had charmed them as only she can.  They think she's a keeper!  It was a really fun evening.

Wednesday - tonight we got to have dinner with Ladell and Norma to celebrate the birthdays of Ladell and Dave.  We ate at Q39.  I had never been there and enjoyed it a lot - the food AND the company.  On the way home, I asked Dave if he'd take me to see the Christmas light display over by the Olathe Community Center.  You know, one of those where you tune into a special radio station and the lights move to the music.  It was really festive and cool! The evening ended with me making some Frog Eyes for Dave to take to work tomorrow and SNOW!  Our first of the season.

Thursday - if the weather doesn't prevent us, we are taking Lois to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's.  One of Dave's colleagues is on the heart transplant list.  Friends are planning all sorts of fundraisers to collect the $74,000 the transplant will cost.  They've planned a restaurant fundraiser every two weeks.  Last one was at Chipotle's.  We'll enjoy a meal out while raising funds for Melissa.  Can't beat that.

Uggs

By Cindy 

I am sitting here doing my cards and I was looking at my Uggs, they really are ugly! 

Don't want to sound ungrateful for the gift from my Chinese friend, because I love them. Most of you know my feet get cold but not with wool socks and ugly Uggs.  Every time I think of Dana's cold cure I still shiver, maybe I should use my Uggs!

Candy Making

From Dana:

I have been in the mood to do some Christmas baking. So, I pulled out my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook (a wedding gift from Kay, I believe) and found a tried and true recipe for toffee...

And super easy fudge...

(Have you seen the recipe for non-easy fudge?!!! It's really not easy.)

I whipped up the fudge this morning while Cole finished his breakfast. He got to lick the spoon (or spatula...or rubber scraper, as Charlotte would say).

I think he liked it. 

Merry Christmas!

No Thumbs

Cole got some new big mittens to try to keep his hands a bit warmer. But being so big, makes it a challenge to get his thumbs in the holes. We aborted the mission and just played at the park on this 30 degree, no wind morning with no thumbs!!

He made the best of it!

Buffet table

from Kathryn:

   So at the beginning of this semester, our KLIFE board president offered me a buffet table that her friend didn't want or need anymore. Since I can rarely say no to free things, I accepted the table. I decided to try my hand at re-painting and distressing furniture. That's all the rage these days and there are so many DIY tutorials on Pinterest that I had seen before I figured it couldn't be that hard.

  After deciding what color to paint it and buying all of the supplies, I went to work. After doing lots of sanding, stripping the finish, priming, staining, sanding again, and finally sealing the whole thing, it's finished! It only took me a couple of months to complete.....I get distracted easily and bogged down by big projects.
  
  There were a couple of set backs along the way too. I think one problem I had was I used old sealer. When I did that, it left a yellow-y tint to the piece that I didn't see until it had completely dried. I was upset about it at first and I still don't love it, but I guess it adds a little bit to the antique look and I'm too lazy apparently to fix it. Another issue I had is according to the blog that I was following I was supposed to sand the top in between the two coats of sealer. Well, something went wrong along the way and I still don't really know how it messed up. It basically ruined the top! So I had to re-sand the entire top again (which took a while) and then sealed it one more time to finish it.

  My conclusion- it's fun to say I've done it once but I don't think re-purposing furniture is going to become a new hobby of mine. You can be the judge, here is a before and after pic. What do you think?

The original

The finished product! (please ignore that I haven't added the handle to the right door yet)

The little Ellis's decorate

From Kathryn:
Hello all! Merry Christmas! Brad and I had a lot of fun getting to decorate our house for our first Christmas together. Here are some pictures of the final outcomes...

I was so impressed with how many ornaments Brad owns! The majority of those ornaments on the trees are his. We also bought a special one this year to celebrate our first Christmas together. We also picked out or tree skirt together. Well actually, Brad picked it out! Didn't he do such a great job??

Special thanks to Abby for those cute gold letters :) Thanks for being crafty and for leaving some of your cute crafts behind :) Let me know if you'd like them back sometime! Brad also had the great idea of moving the "Plaza at Christmastime" painting from the dining room to above the mantel to add to the decorations. Isn't he smart? I think it looks perfect! And the letter "E" always looks good :)

Here's a quick glance at the outside of our house. First off, our house got painted recently! We are really happy with the color and how it turned out. It used to be a cream/peachy color with dark navy/black shutters. I think the new color really helps the bricks pop! We added wreaths to the windows and a lit garland around the front door. We also have lights on the house but you can't see them in this picture.

  Thanks for letting me talk about our house and for taking the time to read this post :)

"Dad, What is Your Face Saying?"

From Dana:

A few weeks ago this text conversation happened, started by my dad to a bunch of us kids. Let's see if you can figure out what's going on, before I did. It had us in stitches by the end...

Reading back over it still makes me laugh. I wanted to share it here for posterity's sake. Gonna go down in history.