Happy Birthday, Noah

Today is our grandson, Noah's 9th birthday.  Noah is our 13th grandchild and our 8th grandson.

Here he is as a newborn and as you can see, he was already a deep thinker.

A little while ago I conducted a short phone interview with him.  Here's how it went.

Do you feel older now that you're 9?  Yeah

And do you enjoy being the same age as Anna for 5 days?  A little.
Why?  Because sometimes she's mean because she's older but not very much.

Do you like school?  Yeah.
What's your favorite subject?  Math
And what do you like best about school outside of the subjects?  Lunch and recess.
(I think I was hoping he'd say "getting home".  LOL)

Do you like having a really little brother and a baby sister?  Yeah
Why?  Because they're so small and cute.

Are you a good big brother?  Yeah
How?  Ummmm because sometimes when Clara is on her car, I push her.  What about Eli?  We have another car so we race each other.
I'll bet he likes that.  Yeah

What do you want to be when you grow up?  An artist.

When you were really little, your favorite toys in the whole world were Stacking Rings.

Now that you're 9, what's your favorite recreational activity?  I like to play outside with my friends.
What do you play?  Sports.

What do you like best about staying at the Christmas House?  I like the countdown on New Year's Eve and I also like seeing all my cousins.

Is there anything interesting about you that I haven't asked about?  I want to learn to play the guitar and I got one for my birthday.

But there are other things interesting about Noah.  He's a wonderful grandson who's smart, sweet, athletic, and fun-loving.  And we're hoping his birthday was his best one so far but not nearly as great as the many, many more to come.
Oh, and one more thing.  He's still a deep thinker! 

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Our first great grandson, Jack, was born 4 years ago today.

A little while ago, I conducted a phone interview with him.  It's not always easy to interview someone so young but after a bit of a rough start things went along pretty smoothly.  Here's how it went!

Do you feel bigger now that you're 4 years old?  Yeah.  In what way?  4!

Do you like school?  Yeah.

What do you like best about it?  Ummmmmm, they have toy dinosaurs.  What else?  Toy animals and ummmm....dress up clothes, shoes, binoculars, phones and a billboard and a big shelf with tools.

Are the other boys and girls nice?  Yeah.  But one of them isn't nice.  Ryan isn't.  Ryan isn't? No.  Yeah, he isn't.  What does he do?  He gets me and hurts people.

Do you like visiting the beach house at Christmas?  Yeah.  I liked playing with Zachary.  He was very nice to me.  He's a good friend isn't he?  Yeah

Besides Zachary, what do you like best about being there?  I like sleeping in the loft because Zach sleeps by me.  How about the shopping trip where you picked out your own Christmas present?  Yeah.  I got a blue dinosaur and an orange plane.
So how do you know so much about dinosaurs?  Ummmmm.  Daddy taught me about them.  That's why I knew all the names. 

Are you a good big brother?  Yeah.  Daddy was proud of me at Chucky Cheese.    Because you were a good big brother?  Um hmmm.  Yeah.

Do you like to help Mommy?  Yeah.  What do you do?  I went to a Santa Shop at my school and I buyed her a ring.  Do you help pick up toys sometimes?  Yep.  I clean up the toys and I don't even play with them.

Now that you're older, will you have more chores to do?  Uh huh.  I think I can clean the house.  And I got some Play Doh and I think I can do that too.

Did Santa Claus bring you lots of stuff because you were a good boy?  He brought me Ironman stuffed animals.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Ironman!   Is that what you dressed up as for Halloween?  Yep!  And Dane was Buzz and Aubrey was a pink elephant!

Is there anything else interesting about you?  I have turtles.  Snapping ones.  We put them in our room and we sleep with them.  You sleep with them?  We put them on our dresser in a tank.  Do they like it there?  Yeah.  What are their names?  Jack and Dane.

What are you doing tonight?  Mommy is going to have Daddy get the bugs out of the kitchen.  What kind of bugs?!!  They're bugs that don't move.   (I did find out that they're plastic ones he got for his birthday and Mommy said maybe he and Daddy could play with them in the kitchen.  lol)

And that concluded our very fun and informative interview.  I did hear though that when he got off the phone, he shrugged, threw up his hands, and said, "Wow!  That was a lot of questions!!"

So we're wishing a very happy birthday to one of the cutest, smartest, and sweetest little boys EVER!!!  

Happy 4th Birthday, Jack!

Happy Birthday, David

Today is David's 15th birthday.  Many thoughts run through my head when I think about that.  First of all I muse about the fact that David is our 7th grandchild and 4th grandson so how in the world could he be 15 years old already!  But the most prominent is what a wonderful person he is!

I did a short phone interview with David a little while ago.  Here's how that went.

How do you feel about turning 15?  It feels pretty good.

Do you have any special goals for the upcoming year?  I guess I'd like to play varsity basketball next year even though I'll be a sophomore.  I think that would be really fun.
 

If you had to decide your future right now, what would you aspire to be?  I probably would like to be a meteorologist like one of the weather people who chase storms and watch hurricanes come in.
 

What do you like best about school?  I like hanging out with my friends and I like gym class.  Gym is really fun this year because we're doing p90x and yoga things which are really challenging.   Really, yoga?  Yeah, yoga's really hard to do which I never thought it could be.

What's your favorite sport and if you could be a pro athlete some day, what would you be?  My favorite sport is basketball and if I could be a professional basketball center, I think it would be awesome and a lot of fun.

Are there any special gifts you're hoping for? No, not really.  I guess I'd like to have a rowing machine like I see other guys on when I go to Saturday basketball practice.  The machines have weights that you pull against with your arms and push against with your feet and they tell how far you gone - kind of like a treadmill but you're rowing.
 
What your favorite aspect of Christmas week?  (This is the week when our entire family gets together between Christmas and New Year's in a rented house or two near the Lake Michigan beach.)  Hanging out with my cousins all the time because it's really fun.  And also, the New Year's Eve party where we always have that really good food.  That's really awesome.

How do you like being the oldest in the family and do you feel it places more responsibility on you?  It's pretty fun because the rest of my siblings look up to me and I can usually tell them what to do and they'll do it for me.  And I especially feel a sense of responsibility when it's just Zachary and me at home.

 What's your favorite subject in school?  History.  Right now we're learning about Greeks and Romans and I think that's a really cool time in history.  I saw the movie 300 and it's a really awesome movie about that time in history.
 
Is there anything else you can tell us about yourself that I didn't cover?  Not really.  I do plan to start weight lifting in the Spring and Summer, not only to get in better shape, but to help me be a better basketball player.  And I'm still deciding whether or not to play football in the Fall because varsity basketball has stuff in the Fall also.

  

And that was the end of the interview.  I'm not sure how well it came through but David is one of the nicest, sweetest people I know.  And when, I put that at the top of the comments, it's saying a lot because he's also an excellent student and athlete.  Truly, he'd give you the shirt off his back....or the rock from the woods behind his house to add to my koi pond.


And, of course, I have to add that he's fun and loving to all his cousins - not just the other big guys.  Here is is participating in a dance, gangnam style, with Grant and some of his younger cousins at the beach house on New Year's Eve.
 
In conclusion, we're wishing David a Happy 15th Birthday and a wonderful year ahead.   We love you David and we couldn't be more proud of you.

Make Ahead Turkey

My daughter heard about this method from a friend whose grandmother used it every year so I thought I'd try it.  And I decided that afterwards I would post about it since a few people expressed interest in how it turned out.  So I did try it but I didn't post about it.  I'm sure of it now because I went back and looked and there was nothing there.  Yes, I am that forgetful that I could have done it and then forgot but that's a subject for another post.

We purchased our fresh, 24-pound turkey the weekend before Thanksgiving making sure that the date to serve or freeze allowed plenty of time to have it for Thanksgiving and to use any leftovers for at least a day or two.

On the 20th we roasted it and the extra breast we'd purchased and refrigerated both overnight.
 
Bright and early on the 21st I got to work.  I started by searching online for carving instructions.  In the past, some poor guy always got stuck with the task in the middle of four or five women running around putting on a huge dinner in a small kitchen with very little counter space.

On this day I was by myself with plenty of room and everything I needed to finish my task.

I sliced the breast meat and wrapped and sealed it in aluminum foil packets.

 

And I chunked and sliced the dark meat and packed it with the bits of white meat that didn't slice as attractively.

As I worked, I had plenty of room to sort and package appropriately.  Oh and I had time to enjoy my coffee as I worked.  That was a huge plus.

Some of the white meat was immediately packaged and frozen for 'cream of turkey' served over toast bites at a later date.

I separated the fat from the broth drippings to save for the next day's gravy.


And before I knew it, I was done.

And now the review.

While researching a carving method, I read that the turkey should rest at least ten minutes before carving.  I always thought this was so it would be easier to slice but according to what I read that day, it's so that all the juices don't immediately run out creating a dry turkey.  And now I'm a believer.

This was the all-time best turkey I ever ate much less served.  It couldn't have been more moist and delicious.  And everybody agreed.

Plus when those casseroles were finishing before dinner, we tucked the packets of turkey meat in wherever they would fit and it couldn't have been easier.

The one small negative that I have to include is that I thought the white meat for sandwiches the next day was just a little dry.  It could have been a lot of things like it should have been sliced thinner or I wasn't really that hungry or I didn't put on enough Miracle Whip but, with that said, it is my intention to prepare my Thanksgiving turkey this way every year.

It was the easiest, best, and tastiest Thanksgiving turkey EVER.