November Photos

I think this is a rocket ship

The lovely ladies in my Sunday school class

A byproduct of lice at school, the dolls get checked for nits

Wearing her red braids just like Anne of Green Gables

Sunrise on a morning run

With Thoughts of Christmas

One of the local radio stations has been playing Christmas music 24-7 since the beginning of November.  While the rational part of my brain tells me it's too early for such things, the non-rational and Christmas-loving side of me has been listening anyway.  Feliz Navidad, anyone?

So, in that spirit, yesterday we made a big batch of peppernuts.

Yep, the recipe makes two gallons.  Every couple of years we do this, mostly in memory of Great-Grandma, who loved peppernuts and made them every Christmas.

The girls helped for about ten minutes, then got bored and began to play while Grandma and I did the rest.  Every once in awhile a finished cookie would accidentally drop to the floor, and then one of them would come running to eat it.

You make them by rolling the dough into a snake and then slicing off pieces and baking them.  The "traditional" method is to make them tiny and bake them until very crispy.  We prefer ours (by Great-Grandma's example) a little larger and softer.

Next week the girls have their International Thanksgiving Lunch at school, and they will take these cookies as representative of Germany.  Their German name is pfeffernusse.

The girls have also been thinking of what they want for Christmas.  Hannah put together her list using the following little poem, which I love: "One thing I want, one thing I need.  One thing to wear, one thing to read."  You can see her choices in the photograph below.

I tried to talk Sophie into doing the same, but she wanted to write a traditional letter to Santa.  She asked for a number of cooking items to supplement the green cutting board and knife that she got after getting her last teeth pulled.  Her letter will go out in tomorrow's mail.

As you can see, Christmas is in the air in the Hendricks household!

Weekend Pancakes (and then some!)

This happened on Saturday morning:

And this wasn't even all of them!  The left stack are triple-chip for Hannah (chocolate, peanut butter, and white chocolate chips) and the right stack are plain for Sophie.  This is what was left after they and Charles ate their fill.

This is the pancake mixing crew, one of whom accidentally added twice as much water as the recipe called for.  (I won't name names, but it's the bigger guy.)  So, more dry mix was added as well and they ended up with a quadruple batch of pancakes instead of the double batch they were aiming for.

Sophie worked on her pancake pouring and flipping skills.  (She also worked on her pajamas and bedhead look, in case you hadn't noticed.)  So, now it's pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

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I signed up last week for a November "Pile on the Miles" challenge that encourages you to pile on extra miles of running and/or walking during the holiday eating season rather than gaining pounds.  I set a goal of 30 miles of running, in addition to continuing my circuit/strength training 3-4 days per week.

I got off to a good start this weekend with runs on both Saturday and Sunday morning.  It was chilly both days, but now I have 7.5 miles toward my 30!  Below are some photos from my Sunday morning run.  Somehow, the pictures never do justice to the real life views.

Sunday was also All Saints Day at church, where we honor and remember those who have gone before us.  Not many Mennonite churches celebrate this church holy day, but I like the tradition at our church of remembering all the church members who have died throughout the church's history, going all the way back to the 1950s.  The names are read during the service and albums of photos and life stories about all the saints who have passed on are available for folks to look through and remember.

There's also a time for the congregation to come forward and light a candle in remembrance of a loved one.  I was singing in two small ensembles during this time (beautiful pieces, "Go Silent Friend" and "Angel Band") but Sophie came forward with Charles to light a candle for great-grandma.  I lit one on my way back to my seat in honor of all my grandparents who have joined the ranks of the saints.

Halloween 2013 in Pictures

Superhero poses

Watching the cakewalk downtown

Never fear... Super Girl and Wonder Woman to the rescue!

Trick or treating downtown

Getting their fortunes told -- Wonder Woman will live in NYC and Super Girl will live in Las Vegas

Trick or treating at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Sorting her loot -- see the chocolate eyeballs?

Crying her eyes out, literally

Pumpkin Butter, A Year Wiser

OK, so I totally found the indescribable deliciousness that is pumpkin butter last fall.  I made batches to keep and batches to give away.  This year I am giving none away.  Beautiful green mint jelly with red bows will be Christmas giveaways, but the pumpkin butter is mine.  ALL MINE!

Last year I tried a couple of different recipes.  Now I know that this one is my favorite, hands down.  No other recipes need be tried.  I made several batches this fall, and here are some photos from the last batch.

Getting ready to de-seed the pumpkins

Pumpkins and seeds ready for the oven

Nice and shriveled, ready to puree

Boiling pumpkin butter makes a pretty big mess, the splatter shield helps a little

The finished product, quite messy!

Cooling on the counter before going in the freezer (well, not the seeds)

Halloween on the Square

Our beautiful court house

Saturday we braved the frigid cold to participate in Halloween on the Square.  The morning started below freezing, and by the time the event began on Court Square at 10am it was maybe around 40 degrees.  From 10am-noon there were all sorts of activities set up around the square, and from noon-2pm kids could visit downtown businesses for trick or treating.

Much of Court Square is shaded and it was breezy, so it was quite cold, especially for two little girls wearing only tights on their legs.

The Wonder Woman "power pose"

After visiting the touch and feel station (with plastic pumpkins filled with Halloween scares, i.e. grapes for "eyeballs") and making a first aid kit at a different tent, we decided to go inside and warm up a bit.  So down we went to You Made It! where they had clay for kids to play with.  Sophie made a jack-o-lantern, and Hannah attempted one as well but then decided to make a snowman instead.  This was a favorite activity of the day and a great way to warm up on a chilly morning.

When we ventured back to Court Square around 11am it had warmed up a bit.  Hannah passed on many of the activities (perhaps she's outgrowing them?), but Sophie got her hands messy making slime and got her tights messy while painting.  The painting activity was two canvases, each with half a jack-o-lantern, for kids to add their artistic touches to.  A really cool idea, and it occupied Sophie until we had to drag her away for other things.

As we continued around the square, Hannah did participate in a couple of tossing games, and then we found a line where an artist was drawing caricatures of kids for free.  Sophie wanted him to draw her, so she and Dad stood in line while Hannah and I scoped out restaurants for lunch.  While we were waiting, the costume contest paraded by and we got to see lots of cool costumes for entertainment.

Oops!  She missed the first time.

Posing for the caricature, we enticed Hannah to join her.

We grabbed lunch at Capital Ale, which was a first for the girls and me, and then we did our trick-or-treating around downtown.  All in all, it was a fun day.  And since they're now calling for rain on Halloween, it's good that we had this opportunity on Saturday.

And once we returned home the girls had fun riding the 4-wheeler with Dad to collect leaves in the yard and then play in them, of course!  Can you find them in these piles?

Fall Festival Fun

Last weekend was homecoming weekend at EMS, which for the last several years has included a fall festival hosted at the elementary campus.  It is an event for prospective students and families, but current students are always welcome and encouraged to attend as well. 

The girls went with Dad and Grandma while I stayed home to catch up on some work.  There's typically a wagon ride pulled by horses.

They also played corn hole, made trail mix, painted pumpkins, and passed on learning a dance.  There was a cool, old device used to get kernels off dried corn.  I thought this looked like fun!

And a couple of random pictures of the girls, just for fun!

Is there a girl under there somewhere??