Mele Kalikimaka!

Our local church group had a Christmas Luau this last Saturday. I am on the Activities Committee and volunteered to make a "Roasted Pig" cake. I've been inspired by friends (Charly mainly...see her blog for more cakes) and by watching Ace of Cakes, a show on the Food Network.

I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt with fondant! I crushed some cinnamon graham crackers to make sand around the base. I used three cake boxes, two boxes of fondant, and one snack package rice crispy treat (for the nose and mouth). You can't really see it, but it also has a little curly tail!

It was a BIG hit at the party. Everyone wanted a "piece of the pig."

Now they want me to teach a class for the ladies on how to make a pig cake. What have I gotten myself into? Oh well. I had fun and will definitely do more some time but only for special occasions. hee hee

The story of the Coat Rack Christmas Tree

Once upon a time...two young ladies, named April Ann and Lacey Lynn, met while at school. They became wonderful friends very quickly, even though they liked different things. April Ann was very smart, like to clean things, and hated seafood. Lacey Ly6nn was very goofy, kind of messy, and loved seafood.

April Ann had a extra room in her house and Lacey Lynn needed a place to live. So they agreed to be roommates and Lacey Lynn moved her clothes, her bed, her dresser, her toothbrush, and her coat rack into the extra room at April Ann's house.

They had fun listening to music, playing games with friends, and cooking together.

Christmas time was coming soon and April Ann and Lacey Lynn wanted to decorate a Christmas tree. Lots of trees were for sale in town, but April Ann did not want to get a real tree because the pine needles would make the floor messy. And Lacey Lynn did not want a real tree because the sticky sap would get all over her fingers. Besides, they had no extra money to buy a tree.

Now, you must know that although April Ann and Lacey Lynn were very different, they were both very creative and liked to use their imaginations. "We could MAKE a Christmas tree," said April Ann, "but what can we use?"

They looked around at the things in the house to see what they could use. "How about my coat rack?" said Lacey Lynn. "It can be the tree trunk."

"We can use my hula hoop for the bottom," April Ann replied.

They gathered some string, cut three equal pieces, and tied it to the top of the coat rack. They they tied it to the top of the coat rack. Finally, they tied the other end of each string to the hula hoop until the hoop and the coat rack were in the shape of a tree.
"It doesn't look much like a Christmas tree yet. What about ornaments?" said Lacey Lynn.

Being the smart young lady she was, April Ann ran to her bedroom and came back with her hands full of jingle bell earrings and some Christmas colored ribbon. "We can make our own ornaments!" April Ann said excitedly as she hung the items on the tree.

Lacey Lynn thought of some things she had that would make great decorations for the tree too. She ran to her room and returned with a plastic wreath pin and two candy canes to put on the tree.

They each grabbed any little thing that would hang and put it on the coat rack. It looked a little silly, but they were having fun decorating.

A friend named Charyl came by and saw the make-shift tree and said, "I have some Christmas lights you can use. That will really make it shine." So they wrapped the lights around the strings holding the hula hoop in place. Then another friend, named Darin, saw the tree and said, "I have some apples you can hang on your tree", so they tied the apples to the tree as well.

Slowly but surely, the coat rack began to look more and more like a real Christmas tree. Finally, they all stepped back and looked at the beautiful Coat Rack Christmas Tree they created and smiled.

April Ann and Lacey Lynn continued to add new ornaments to the tree each Christmas. Every year since then, the Coat Rack Christmas Tree has gotten bigger and better. It now has several hula hoop layers, beautiful green garland, hundreds of lights, and is topped with a beautiful star.

The years passed, and April Ann and Lacey Lynn grew up and had families of their own. But they still make ornaments with the children to put on their very own Coat Rack Christmas Tree. Even though it started as a simple coat rack, it became as bright and brilliant as any Christmas tree there ever was, because of two young ladies and their wonderful friends.

Written and Illustrated by: L.L. Smith

The last few weeks...

The last few weeks have been CRAZY-busy around here. (Thus, the lack of blog entries.) Thanksgiving was good. We had Josh's dad, Dave, here from Oklahoma for a few days. We have done Thanksgiving with him for a few years now because Josh's favorite holiday is Thanksgiving...food and football!! Dave loves to watch football with us, especially if Texas is playing Oklahoma. (We're not talking about Oklahoma right now though.)




So, I made a turkey, three pies (pumpkin, apple, and a cherry one for the neighbors), candied yams, squash, Sister Schubert's rolls, and Josh and Dave made their two pans of stuffing. All of this for three people and Lincoln. Don't judge me... hee hee

Lincoln loved having turkey and all the fixin's. He really loves sweet potatoes, so the yams were a big hit, as well as the rolls. I tried to sneak some veggies in there too, which he liked.


By the time Dave had to leave, we were all stuffed and in need some stretchy pants. It was good to see him though and he had fun with Lincoln.


Now I'm working on our Church Christmas Luau this Saturday. I'm making a luau pig cake. I've been inspired by all those cake shows on t.v., so we'll see how mine turns out.

I hope EVERYONE had a wonderful Thanksgiving and will have a JOYOUS Christmas season.
Lots of Love!!!