Family Fun

Seems like all we do together as a family, is EAT!! We do have fun doing it!
And we must discuss livestock, dentistry, and general "guy" stuff
Mostly, it's just fun to get together once a month and hang..... good times!!!!!!

Christmas in Kamas!!!

We all bombarded Jared and Becky this year and headed to Kamas for the Chisholm festivus. We had a great time making a gigantic mess of their beautiful home, especially the kids! We ate lots and lots and lots of good food, played fun games (What is YOURS like?) and really enjoyed each others company! It was fun to spend time with just the adults at our adult dinner. After some initial problems with the bread situation and other small issues, we had our white elephant gift exchange, Definately the highlight was Riana's contribution of her cast from when she broke her leg when she was 11 (or something like that, she was very young anyway) I'm sure Becca will treasure it forever and ever. The kids loved sledding, even though most of them had frozen hair, eyelashes and toes when they came in! It was great to see Grandma and Grandpa, home from warm Samoa. We were excited to give them our gift of old movies we found when cleaning out Loreen's basement (and yes, Cathi and Becky have learned a valuable lesson, Riana and Loreen:.......we won't throw away EVERYTHING ok? :) It was really cool to see the great grandparents and grandparents when they were young, priceless!!! It is always so fun to get together, we are so blessed to get a long so well, our kids love each other, we love each other and we have a great time together. Thank you so much J & B for hosting us all, it was worth the mess and the work!!! No grievances this year, so time to put away the festivus pole! Happy New Year!

Chisholm Halloween Bash

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Peach Crisp

I know some of y'all love peaches like we do, so here's a VERY yummy recipe using them!!! Enjoy!!!

(it'd be nice if some of y'all posted while you're trying the crisp :)

Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce

1 cup flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. (one stick) butter, cut into bits
5-6 cups, peeled, sliced fresh peaches
Juice and grated zest of ½ lemon
2 T. maple syrup

*Maple cream Sauce, for serving (make beforehand, see instructions below)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Cut in butter with fork or pastry blender until mixture is the consistency of coarse meal. Place peaches in 9-inch square baking pan or smaller baking dish. Gently mix in lemon juice, rind and maple syrup. Top with crumb mixture. Cover tightly with foil and bake about 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake20 to 30 minutes more or until top is crisp and brown. You might want to broil fora couple of minutes to ensure good color. Serve warm with maple cream sauce.

Maple Cream Sauce
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
5 T. maple syrup
3 T. light corn syrup

Combine all ingredients in heavy sauce pan; cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly until thickened and reduced by 1/3, approximately 20 minutes. Chill until thickened. Drizzle generously over Peach Crisp.

The "Chisums" do DOWNATA

What a great little family reunion we had, thanks to Loreen who planned the trip and got us all up there, KUDOS  Lurleen!!  We missed the parents, Shane and Riana, Rich, and 3 of their kids and two of Jon and Cathi's kids though, So....it was a "half" reunion!!

We had lots of fun in the warm water springs, which were nice because it was only in the 60's and cloudy and windy most of the time. The kids loved the slides, playing with stick guns on the mountain, playing at the park, and of course, the fire.

We had our usual RIDICULOUS amount of food, half of Costco was brought into Idaho over the weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed it! Bummer that Gracie and Becky got the flu while we were there, hopefully no-one else gets it!!

The cabins were clean, cute and fun, Becca will have to pay for that decorative pillow though :)

Overall, we had a good time together, (except for Cathi who will always and forever be the SCUM of the clan :) the cousins had a blast and the adults had a good time too. We always manage to laugh our guts out, be very silly, get a little crazy and have fun. We have a great family, here's to many more fun times!!!

I am not kidding ,this bread is FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!Excited to see you all next week!! Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Recipe adapted from Cooking Pleasures

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cups mashed bananas (about 3)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa (I prefer dutch process)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350. Spray bottom of 8x4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

2. Beat sugar, eggs, and oil in large bowl at medium speed until combined. Beat in banana and vanilla at low speed. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; beat into banana mixture at low speed just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

3 Spoon batter into pan. Bake 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

The Latest from The Parents

I just got this email from mom, along with some items of business. I thought everyone would appreciate this!
Riana
I didn't know if any of you are "Survivor" fans but this is kind of interesting. It looks like they will be doing a series from Samoa. The historic hotel here called Aggie Greys is booked up from May to October with Survivor crew and they have a 200 person capacity. Three of the prettiest beaches here have been closed to the public until October for filming. One of them, The Black Sands Beach, was one of our favorites and Dad went there at least once a week although it was an hour's drive each way.
He has found a lovely little beach just a 10-minute drive from the house, called Palolo Deep. You go through about 100 yards of not much on the bottom and then, all of a sudden, you get to a spot where the coral looks beautiful, fish are plentiful, the variety is extraordinary, and the water is almost always calm--great for snorkeling.
About ten days ago, one of the crew of survivor came in with a dental problem and I took care of him. He wanted to pay me, but I told him we didn't charge. About a week ago the doctor who traveled with them came in and requested if I would see to the emergency dental needs of their cast and crew. I told them I would on a first-come, first-served basis. Then she said, "I hear you won't take money for it". I said, "that's right, we don't charge." Then she asked if they could make a donation of equipment or something." I said, "Yes, you can make a donation of something the hospital here needs." She said that she though she could work that out
Anyway talk to you again, Dad is ready for a game of Yahtzee. He's been beating me ever since I slaughtered him by getting 4 yahtzees in one game for a total score of over 600.
Love ya,
MOM