It Was a Graveyard Smash!

We interrupt our regular Christmas programming at the Supreme Sagers to bring you a post harking all the way back to Halloween.  The executive management at this here little wacky blog believes in preserving and archiving important events which may or may not be used for future blackmailing purposes, and it's always nice to retain that, ahem, "insurance" as it were.  Cuuuuuuuzzzzzz, you just never know when some good, solid blackmail material might come in handy-dandy . . . .

We did the monster mash!

Thanks to Grandma Pauline and Grandpa Richard, we were treated to another stellar Halloween frenzy at their home, allowing all of those skeletons in the family closet to show up front and center! And man, we have some lulus! (Just kidding.)

I was in charge of helping everyone make as much of a fool of themselves as possible, so I provided a bunch of Minute-To-Win-It games.  I would humbly say that my mission was accomplished.  *cough*

This party is a highlight for our family every year, and we thank Grandma and Grandpa for all of the toil and trouble, effort and energy, blood, sweat and tears that they put into making our Halloween a SCREAM!

Dave flipped his wig (see it?) when this skeleton sassed him but good!

Hey!  Is that Cary Grant there on the left . . . 

. . . or is it George Clooney?  

Either way, this guy obviously has that sophisticated, suave, and debonair thing down pat.

And now, here are a few of the other family skeletons popping out of the closet:

If you think this group is dressed to the nines in these pics, you should see them when they decide to get dressed up in their actual Halloween costumes!  Whoooooo, boy!  Believe me, you DO NOT want to miss that!

The F.R.I.D.A.Y. Hooligans Host Distinguished V.I.P.s!

Last week, our F.R.I.D.A.Y. frolics included a bunch of venerable V.I.P.s this go round, and to that we say:  "THE MORE THE MERRIER!"  And, "A PARTY AIN'T A PARTY WITHOUT YOOOOOOUUUUU!"  And, "IF TWO'S COMPANY AND THREE'S A CROWD, THEN EIGHT MAKES IT PERC-O-LATE!"   Ah, well, you get my drift, right?  

A fabulous time was had by all, including Aldolpho.  Oh, snap, I forgot about Aldopho!  I suppose this means that technically we were nine not eight, so I guess I need to change the above to read, "IF TWO'S COMPANY AND THREE'S A CROWD, THEN NINE MAKES IT, um, er, PERC-O-LINE?"  Say wha . . . ? Somehow "percoline" just doesn't seem to have the same ring-a-ding-ding to it as "percolate." Eight=percolate; nine=percoline.  

Hmm.  Whatev.  I've just lost you all, haven't I.  :(

Okay dokey!  Let's see if you can spy the always swingin', tight pants wearin', gold lame' shod, be-caped wonder boy!  Noooooo, not Dave.  You guys!  I mean Aldopho!  (Do we need to go over this yet again?)  So!  Where is swingin' Aldopho in this festive photo?

In our prior episode with Aldopho, you can see where Aldopho had jumped onto a huge jar behind my mom's head (did you find him?) and ended up giving her a head massage and a new 'do.  I think he wanted to make up for that one surprise kitchen cupboard "remodeling" incident which required the hiring of a professional carpenter to undo an extensive amount a wee, tiny, teensy, itty-bitty bit of damage that was done.  (Oh.  That was actually me.)  (And my brother.)  (Another story, another time.)  (I am so done here.) 

Almonds. It's What's For Dinner!

In an effort to curry the favor of my Thanksgiving Day dinner guests (I'm such a pleaser) and to gloss over the fact that I may not be the most accomplished chef to come out of Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School of Hicktown, Utah, (understatement {kitchen fires! smoke alarms! black ash wafting out of pans!}), I roasted up a bunch of almonds and brown sugar and cinnamon and vanilla, and foisted them upon my dinner guests with a big smile and a warm howd'ya do.  

No one ate them.  

But they sure LOOKED cute!  And, I suppose I would say that they were enough of a distraction from the actual dinner that my guests could say, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job!", which may or may not be a compliment now that I think about it . . . .

Anywho!  I have a spiffy little trick to share with you which I used to make these "GOBBLE, GOBBLE" labels without running my computer ink cartridge completely dry.  I'm so sensitive about that.  Are you?  It seems that it is almost more cost efficient to buy a brand new printer rather than refill my gas guzzling printer with liquid gold ink.  Sheesh. 

I found the labels on this awesome website, downloaded the file as a jpeg and shipped it off to my local Wal-Mart to be printed as matte photos.  Voila'!  (Or as some have written, waaalah!  I know.)  For as little as 19 cents each (technically 9 1/2 cents each since two tags made up one photo) at the one-hour photo rate (you could do it cheaper if you were more patient, unlike me), I had an adorable little tag for each bag of nuts.  All I had to do then was snip the tags in two, fold them in half, fill the bags with nuts and give them to my own family of nuts.  

Thank you.  My job here is done.  Now, time to go scour a charred pan or two.

Snip the tags in two

Cute, huh!

Fold the tag in half

More cuteness

Fill bags with nuts and staple tags over opening

Candied Cinnamon and Sugar Almonds

from melskitchencafe.com

*Makes about 2 cups of candied almonds

1 egg white

1 teaspoon cold water

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups unsalted almonds

½ cup packed light brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a large (11X17-inch) rimmed baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form. Add the water and vanilla and beat again until stiff. Add the almonds to the mixture and stir gently to coat the almonds with the egg white mixture. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add this mixture to the almonds and stir gently to mix well. Pour the almonds out onto the prepared baking sheet and carefully spread them out into a somewhat even layer. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for about an hour, stirring/flipping every 15 minutes, until the almonds look and feel dry. To check to see if the almonds were done, I carefully picked one up in my fingers and when I pressed around it, I didn’t get any wet sugar on my hands. The coating on the almond felt hard and crunchy. Cool completely before serving or packaging.

The Annual Ricks Cousin Roundup at Christmas

Right off the bat, let it be known that I am not in this photograph.  Sad, I know.  I had yet to burst onto the scene and reek havoc in this huge family.  This photograph was taken circa December, 1959, at the home of my maternal grandparents, Peter and Emily Ricks, in Rexburg, Idaho.  If you squint very hard and cover your left eye and crank your head just so, you can see my grandfather and grandmother peeking out from behind their grandchildren, just right of center.  The rest of this crowd consists of four (possibly five) of my siblings, as well as a mere fraction of my Ricks cousins.  (This is just the very tip of the Ricks cousins iceberg, FYI.)  My oldest sister is the big-grin girl standing second from the left in an orange top with three buttons and a plaid skirt; my oldest brother is kneeling near my oldest sister's knee wearing a plaid shirt and holding some sort of toy in his mouth (what IS that?); my other older sister is two kids to my oldest brother's left and is wearing a light blue collared dress and sporting big, wide, brown eyes; another older brother is on the front row on the right with his head turned looking with great concern at some whiney kid; and, yet another older brother quite possibly could be that curly-headed baby in blue on the front row, second from the left, looking at my oldest brother who is holding that odd toy in his mouth (what IS that?).  But, we’re not really sure that's him.  Could be, but, nobody’s willing to swear to it on the Ricks Family Bible.  


Just a guess, but I would venture to say Buddy Holly eyeglasses were all the rage that particular year . . . .






No names have been used in order to protect the innocent.  Or the guilty.  Whichever the case may be. :D

Al Gore Finally Got to Us--The Sagers Family Decided to Go Green!

Taking a cue from these tags that I made (sorta made, er, kinda made--more on that in a later post) for my Thanksgiving Day table's color scheme, I decided to use the gold and green from the tags as accents to tie everything together.  I was good on the gold front having amassed plenty of gold tableware (tragically, it's not 18k {frowny face}), but the green was a new one on me.  Soooooo, I just made stuff up as I went along. 

Alarmingly bright green napkins?  Check.

Sugared and alarmingly bright green apples that should have been pears but I was too cheap and/or lazy to go to the store to buy so I just used what I had on hand which happened to be apples?  Check.

Alarmingly bright green hand-written (due to that all-too-common ink deficiency of my printer) place cards which are taped to spindly little toothpicks which are impaled into alarmingly bright green apples?  Check and check.

Alarmingly bright green candy?  Check.  

(Can you find it?) Cute, huh.

Green fire hazards? Oh, yeah baby!  This IS the Sagers house, after all!  We have a very rigid and storied tradition of starting our home on fire during parties.  Ask around, you'll see.  In fact, after one of the many blazes at our home, I had to replace the sweater of a man *coughbobcoopercough* who didn't particularly like the new burnout look of his sleeve.  Odd.

And, here's the lineup of gluttony.  If we went green here, we would all be paying a little visit to our local insta-care facility, I fear.

So, cheers to Al Gore!  Thanks for the green inspiration!  (And, for inventing the Internet!  Where would I be today without it?)

Hey!  Wait!  How'd this picture get on here?  Blast that Al Gore and his fancy schmancy Internet allowing pictures like this to go public!  

(Considering the juxtaposition of the foreground and the background of this photograph, I think I'd better be much, much more charitable toward Al Gore.  And, I will!  I am! I do! I promise!  So sorry, Al!  So, so sorry!  I'll never do it again!  I'm sweatin' bullets here, people.  Help?  

The Wall, cont'd . . .

Just check out this year's "Wall O' Gratitude"! As my fabulous friend, Lisa, might say, BOY HOWDY!  (Thanks for letting me borrow that, Lisa.)    As you can see, I had to build an extra wing onto our "Wall O' Gratitude" this year because of the many, many grateful hearts who entered our home, either physically or via this nifty wifi doodah, and wrote on that awesome wall!


Every time I looked at or wrote on our wall, I received an overwhelming feeling of warmth and gladness and, well, uh, surprise, surprise!, GRATITUDE, for all that I have and especially for all of the people in my life whom I love and adore.  


Thank you, everyone, for contributing to my "Wall O' Gratitude." For, in doing so, you have contributed to brightening my soul and adding to my renewed realizations of the endless blessings that are ours to receive and to acknowledge if we but will.

"Hem your blessings with 

thankfulness so they don't unravel."  

--Author Unknown (but I wish it was me, because this is some kind of awesome)

Thanksgiv-mas?

Oh.  This is NOT a good look, is it.  Look at that sturdy Christmas bugle boy watching over that Halloween/Thanksgiving door decor as if it was completely overstaying its welcome. Which it was NOT.  It's just that "Winthrop," our bugle boy, just somehow jumped right into my car (true!) while I was out shopping last week, completely unannounced and unplanned, and he just had to go somewhere, didn't he?  I couldn't just make him hunker in my car for another week until Thanksgiving was over and the guilt I always feel when I decorate for Christmas too early went away, could I?  That would just be downright inhumane.  (I think our Thanksgiving Day visitors thought he was the butler.  Fine by me.)


If there was such a thing as "What Not To Wear" for houses, I suppose this would be it.  Stacy London would be so ashamed.

My First Born

Couldn't you just devour this little face?

My beyond beautiful daughter, Ashley, is all grown up!

She is a loving, caring wife . . . 

. . . and a loving, caring mama . . . 

. . . and, it's her birthday today!!!

Sorry, Ash--I made Jordan suffer through it, and now it is your turn (lucky you!):

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY ADORABLE, LOVING, CARING DAUGHTER!

WE LOVE YOU WITH ALL OF OUR HEARTS!!!

Where Are the French Fries, For Goodness Sake?!

Christian and I had a wickedly fun time at BYU's basketball game Tuesday night!  Christian totally got into the game, and I totally got into watching the crowd.  In fact, two of the reasons why I buy our mini-season basketball passes each year are:  1) the game is played INDOORS!!!* and, 2) I can't get enough of people watching.  A cherry goes on top if BYU wins the game, but I'm not there for the basketball, people!  Seriously?  No.  I go because there are about 20,000 (give or take a few) people who are just begging to be studied and admired (uh-huh).  

Compared to the rest of the world, BYU draws a pretty tame crowd, what with its no beer policy and the like.  Smoking anything is also slightly frowned upon.  Slightly.  But!  All the better!  People have to be pretty creative to stir things up when fellow attendees are completely sober, so creativity rules the day!  I just love it.

Now that you've come with me this far, will you stay a while longer and play a game I like to call, "Spot the . . . "?  It's fun!  It's educational!  It's a big fat time waster!  Heeeeeeere we go!!!

To get you started off on the right foot on today's "Spot the . . . " we'll go with a very easy challenge harking back from last year.  The challenges will get progressively dumber harder.  See if you can:

SPOT THE JIMMER!

Yeah, easy, right?  OK, that was soooo last year.  

Now, try your hand at this year's crop:

SPOT THE GREEN ANTENNAED BUMBLE BEE 

SPOT THE SLICE OF PIZZA (Really?)

SPOT THE BANANA 

(Of course there would be a banana, why wouldn't there be?)

SPOT THE TWO BLUE MAN GROUP GUYS WHO GOT TIRED OF BREATHING THEIR OWN GARLIC BREATH UNDER THEIR FULL-HEAD HOODS, AND EVENTUALLY DID THE UNTHINKABLE

BONUS:  

SPOT THE GUY WHO COULDN'T MAKE UP HIS MIND ABOUT BEING A CONSTRUCTION WORKER OR A REDNECK

AND, WE'LL END WITH A DIFFICULT ONE--

SPOT THE OSCAR MEYER HOT DIGGITY DOG!

Raise your hand if you were able to spot every challenge!  Rah, rah, rah!  Sis boom bah!  You guys are such good sports!  Awwww, I love you guys.

Ah.  I suppose somebody out there would like to know if BYU won the game.  Give me a minute.  Let's see . . . .  Um, yes.  Yes, I do believe they won, but you better ask Christian just to double check; I was too busy scanning the crowd looking for a double cheeseburger.  With pickles.

*Dave and/or Sean and/or Christian are the ones who always put our football season passes to good use.  But then, they don't mind four hours of sitting in drizzle, and 40 degree temperatures, and complete miserableness.  In fact they say they like it!  Me?  I would put those football season tickets to good use, actually.  I would light them with my Bic and warm my fingers by their flames.  That's what I would do.  Good thing Dave keeps those tickets under lock and key.

He Puts a Smile On Her Face . . .

. . . and that puts a BIG smile on mine.

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JORDAN!

In case ya'll missed it the first time around:

Thank you for being the perfect husband to our little Ashley and the best daddy to our little Kimball!!!

WE LOVE YOU, JORDAN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!