The Day After Christmas... Now What...?

Ahhh... It was a very nice Christmas. It was kinda sad to not have any visitors this year but overall it was a fun relaxing day with Monica, Connor and Elijah...

I don't know how Monica does it... She was up nearly all night Christmas Eve working on a present for Elijah, and then she and Connor were up pretty late last night, too. Elijah and I were asleep a little after 10 PM. Consequently, we're the only one's awake this morning...

It's 9:30 AM... I'm going to blog a bit and send email out about upcoming programs. The forecast for today is rainy... I don't know if I'll do anything outside today. Although I'd love to get some exercise... A long walk would be awesome...!

If it dries up a little bit I'd also like to take Elijah fishing, or perhaps play tennis with him in our driveway...

Today has the makings of another 'Lazy' day...

What We Did On Christmas 2008

Monica was up almost all night working on her special Christmas present for Elijah. We all awakened around 9 AM and opened presents under the tree... I cooked breakfast for everyone and then we watched the movie Horton Hears a Who, a present from Granma and Granpa Ohlemacher. We are currently watching one of my favorite Christmas movies... White Christmas, with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye...

I've got a ham smoking on the pit and we are just 'chillin'...! It has been a peaceful, sweet Christmas so far...! YEA...! I wish it were cooler, though. A White Christmas would have been neat, but I am very thankful and very content with today...!

Trying a New Recipe... Corn Casserole

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 (8.5 ounce) package dry corn bread mix
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (14.75 ounce) can creamed corn
1 cup sour cream


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and lightly grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.
In a medium bowl, combine butter, eggs, corn bread mix, whole and creamed corn and sour cream. Spoon mixture into prepared dish.

Bake for 45-55 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown.

This sounds good... I'll let you know how it turns out...!

Oyster Dressing and Other Christmas Memories

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped onion
3 cups chopped celery
1 cup butter or margarine
1 pint oysters in liquid, drained & chopped (reserve liquid)
4 cups herb-seasoned stuffing cubes
4 cups cornbread crumbs
1 cup pecans, chopped
3 teaspoons sage
1 1/2 teaspoons thyme
salt and pepper, to taste
3 cans chicken broth or homemade

Preparation: Saute onion and celery in butter or margarine. Mix all ingredients together well and pour in a buttered baking dish. Cover with foil; bake at 325° for 35 to 45 minutes. Remove foil and brown.

Oyster dressing is a Chadwell Christmas Family Tradition. The recipe posted above is the one I'm using this year....

I remember back when I was a little boy that we would pack up the family and drive to Refugio, Texas to my grandmother's house each Christmas. Grandma was an excellent cook. One of my favorite dishes she would make was Oyster dressing... My mom also made some good batches of Oyster dressing in her day. And my sis, also.

Currently, I am the only one in my house who appreciates the culinary delight of oyster dressing. So tonight I have made two pans of dressing, one with oysters and one without...

Some other fond Christmas memories include enjoying Grandma's fireplace on cold days and nights. (we never had a fireplace growing up) I also remember my brother an I trying to play grandma's piano.

Back home in Bay City I remember we used to always try to go to midnight mass on Christmas eve. I also remember for the longest time we had a silver artificial Christmas tree with a color wheel. I cried when mom threw it away one year, saying it was too old and worn out...

After Grandma passed away Christmas didn't seem to be as special as it used to be.

Now that I'm married and with children, Christmas is a magical time again. I love how Elijah and Connor get so excited. I love preparing the food. Monica and I love making great memories for our children. (She grew up as a Jehovah's Witness and did not get to enjoy a traditional Christmas as a child, herself.)

So as I close this post it's 10 PM here in Texas... Only a couple of hours until Christmas... Monica's working on a Christmas project in the garage and Connor and I are watching Star Trek on Sci-Fi.

Chadwell Christmas Update...

OK... So this photo has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas... But it does have to do with CHRIST... These are a few Easter photos I've been meaning to publish for a while...

After church Easter Sunday we did some fishing... Monica was the only one to catch a fish...! It was a very fun day for the family!

I feel very blessed to have such a cool wife like my precious Monica...! I have been dying to go fishing lately but we either haven't had the time or the weather has not been cooperating....

We are currently busy getting ready for Christmas.... Elijah and Connor are getting excited that Christmas is only a few days away... -(Coach Sam is, too...!

Walking the Doggy...

One of the things Elijah and I enjoy doing together is going for a good walk... Here we are about to take Riley for a walk.

Today we're letting mommy sleep in and Elijah and I have been up early watching Caillou on television. We're going to take Connor to school in a minute and then go to the donut shop for breakfast. I only have one tennis lesson scheduled so far today so I will probably focus mostly on administrative duties. Who knows...? Perhaps Elijah and I will take Riley and Roxie both for a walk later this morning.

We have some Thanksgiving photos to publish but they are not downloaded from the camera yet. maybe I'll do that later... That's it for now... Thanks for checking in Coach Sam's Life...!