End of Weekend Wrap-Up

Gosh, where did the weekend go? I loved this four day weekend with not having to worry about school, getting up early, making lunch, etc. Well it is back to reality for this mom.

I spent most of the weekend baking. I took today off and had intentions of stitching the day away. I ended up vegging out. I was just a blob today and I loved it. I will more than likely get back to stitching and my regular routine tomorrow when DH returns to work and the kids go back to school. I do have typing to do for the attorney I work for but other than that, I must do mega laundry. I had it all cleared up before Thanksgiving and the hampers are reproducing rapidly again.

I still have more baking to do and will try to finish it up this week. I will go faster without my little helper. (just don't tell her that ) But she will still be helping when I make some candies and we do a gingerbread house. I decided that I would like to add some more traditions to our festive season. So this year we will make a gingerbread house as a family. Just keep your fingers crossed that DH and I don't have nervous breakdowns during it. LOL

I started some of my shopping online and we went to Target yesterday for the extra lights I KNEW we needed. The outside is decorated and lite and looks just beautiful. I will have to try to get some decent pictures so that I can post them here. It really is a change from our little square brick twin we lived in just a year ago. DH did a great job and I did a great job giving orders. LOL Now we need to pull out the other boxes to do the inside. Hopefully we will have that done next weekend. Then we will probably get our tree on Sunday. I can't wait. I love Christmas. I am a big kid at heart.

As promised here is one of the recipes I made for Thanksgiving. It was a big hit and I plan on doing it again to serve with ice cream. This time we ate it with the ham and turkey as part of our side dishes at Thanksgiving Dinner.

Apple Cranberry Bake
4 cups of peeled, chopped baking apples (I used 8 medium sized granny smith apples)
2 cups of fresh cranberries (I used one 12 oz. package of fresh cranberries)
1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup quick cooking oats, uncooked
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of butter, melted

Grease a 13 X 9 baking dish with butter. You could probably use Pam but I used the wrapper from the butter that I melted.

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine apples and cranberries in the baking dish. Sprinkle lemon juice over apples/cranberries and top with the cup of sugar

In another bowl, combine oats, walnuts, brown sugar and melted butter. Stir until the mixture is moistened and crumbly. Sprinkle oat mixture over apples/cranberries.

Bake for 1 hour or until bubbly. Enjoy.

Have a great evening and a good week ahead everyone!