Merry CHRISTmas

I love this time of year and I love my Savior. I am glad for the opportunity to celebrate his birth and hope I instill in my children the importance of Jesus Christ in their lives. I know he is the most important person in my life.


I love to collect nativities and I try to keep them the focal point of my Christmas decorations. The nativities come from all over the world - Jerusalem, Venezuela, somewhere in the Caribbean, Germany (Playmobil), even Texas and China.

My favorites are the Playmobil
and the wood one carved from olive wood from Jerusalem.

Here is my collection. Now I just want to get the Fisher Price Little People one.Merry Christmas! Enjoy it and remember to keep Christ at the center of all your celebrations.

30 Desserts for 30 Years

I have the most thoughtful husband in the world and I am the most thoughtless person and forgot to take a picture, so you must use your imaginations.

For my 30th birthday (yikes I'm middle-aged now) Tom threw me a 30 dessert party. I think his original plan was a more figurative thing, but I told him after he started inviting folks that if you advertise 30 desserts, you better deliver. and he did despite our family being sick all week.

Desserts ranged from cookies to pie to ice cream and rootbeer floats, to runts and nerds and chocolate covered cinnamon bears. There really were thirty thanks to Tom and some great friends who contributed.

We had tons of funs with friends and lots of sugar. Thanks for the great birthday! I'm just really sad I forgot to take a picture.

Award Winning Chili Recipe

I feel a little sheepish posting about this, but oh well, if you can't brag a little on your blog where can you?

Our ward had a chili cook-off for our Christmas party. I wanted to make a green chile-turkey chili. I haven't ever made chili before so I found a recipe that looked pretty good and used that as my guide and just kind of made it up from there. Two things made this chili so delicious, thanks to my friend Renee. First, she suggested a hint of unsweetened chocolate in the chili so I put in some cocoa. Second, I used her leftover smoked turkey from Thanksgiving. It was good turkey. The recipe would probably still be good with any old turkey, but her smoked turkey I think gave me the edge.

I am a little hesitant to share the recipe because how will I win next year, if everyone has the winning recipe? But here goes.

Green Chile Turkey Chili

1 lb. ground turkey
1 lb. cooked turkey
2 onions, chopped
2 T oil
4 t cumin
2 T chili powder (more or less to taste)
2 t oregano
2 T cocoa
1 t cinnamon
2 cans tomatoes with green chiles
1 can diced tomatoes
2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
2 4 oz cans green chiles
3.5 cups chicken stock
2 cans hominy, drained and rinsed
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Brown ground turkey until no longer pink. Drain and set aside. Sautee onions in oil until soft. Add both turkeys and sautee 1 minute. Add cumin, chili powder, oregano, cocoa and cinnamon. I used extra spicy chili powder and made mine very spicy, but use less chili powder or don't use extra spicy to get the heat you desire. Sautee 1 minute. Add tomatoes, sauce, chiles and stock. Bring to boil. Turn down and simmer 45 minutes. Add hominy and beans. I chose the hominy to give the chili a little color and southwest feel. The white and kidney beans added good color as well, but you could use any beans. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer 15 minutes or just keep on low until ready to serve.