Elves are so Mischievous

Remember this post from last year?  When on a yearly excursion to Bronners, in Frankenmuth I purchased the Elf on a Shelf for each of my daughter's families.  They were all thrilled to adopt an elf, but one of my grandchildren was very skeptical at first.  Michael, the eldest of the bunch couldn't understand why someone would purchase something to spy on him.  It took him quite a while to warm up to the idea.

Kelpo Sammy Whitnum's family has posted on all his mischief on Face Book and I'm not sure if I can link up to that naughty little guy.   He has been up to some pretty questionable mischief with the Barbie dolls and he's also been into the syrup (and you wondered what kept those elves going night and day).

Relf has ended up in some predicaments of his own making, like the old Pheasant under glass trick.  You can read about him here.

Fiddle Faddle, who likes to be called Fiddle for short hasn't been published, but I here he's active and entertaining the three year old at his house as well.

And the fourth elf has the youngest kids to keep track of and I think his job is the easiest. He's laying low and taking advantage of the situation, but I do believe in years to come his job will be much more difficult keeping up with the girls in the Roberts family.

I've also been seeing what Mipsy has been up to this year on one of the blog I follow.  It's fun.  Some people like to go see Christmas lights, they love the crowded malls, traipsing out in the snow to sing carols, me I'll sit by my tree filled with only bird ornaments and white Christmas lights and go elf watching.  Where is the world is the most mischievous elf?

Toasty Pumpkin Waffles

This is a recipe that I tried this past weekend when my daughter, Ashley and her family came to celebrate an early Christmas with us.  I wanted breakfast to be special and it was, this recipe was amazing.

Toasty Pumpkin Waffles with Maple Cranberry Butter

1 cup flour
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg beaten
1 1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup pumpkin
4 1/2 tsp butter, melted
1/3 cup pecans

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.  Whisk egg, milk, pumpkin and butter: stir in dry ingredients until blended.  Fold in nuts.  Bake in preheated waffle iron until golden brown.

Maple Cranberry Butter

1/2 cup cranberries
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup butter

Meanwhile in small saucepan, combine cranberries and syrup.  Cook over medium heat until berries pop, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to mixing bowl and cool slightly.  Beat in butter until blended.  Serve over waffles.
Yield 4 servings. 

I doubled the waffle recipe, but not the butter and still had plenty to go around.  If you do not make the special butter to go on the waffles I would increase the brown sugar and add some spices to the waffles.

Very yummy and may just become a traditional Christmas holiday recipe.

Ugh! Not Again

I attempted to post this morning and the results were not good.  I had trouble down loading Christmas pictures of Daniela, and then when I put the card back in the camera is said the card wasn't formatted and there were no pictures.  I had to put everything away before something worse happened.....like me losing my temper and smashing something.   Hoping to post something soon, anything just to post.  I can't believe my blog entries have crept further and further apart.  It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's that there's never enough computer time.  I dropped one family off my schedule and then the other two picked up extra hours, so I'm still super busy.