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11/20/09

Fragmented Freewrite #18




Some Thanksgiving/Fall decorations in our home...





And, Luke came up with this on his own...



It seems that everyone is finally feeling normal here, so I'm excited about next week. Sam is out of school all five days, the weather is supposed to be nice and we will celebrate Thanksgiving with a Cajun fried turkey from Copeland's!


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I'm nearly finished with my Christmas shopping. Just a few gift cards to pick up. Can I get a "Woot! Woot!"???


I remember when I used to LOVE wrapping all the gifts. Now, I really dread it. It's hard to find the necessary alone-time and it's a pain to "re-hide" everything. Our next house must have a secret lair! Yes. A pool and a secret lair.

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Sam was star student this week in his Kindergarten class. He had to take in his favorite book, which was "A Big Cheese for the White House" and his favorite toy, which is currently (anything) Bakugan.

We also made a poster about "Sam" and here are some things he came up with...



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Pumpkin Spice cupcakes
with cream cheese frostin
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  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 2-1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
  • 2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 cup buttermilk

FROSTING:
  • 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 4 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

  • In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin.
  • Combine the flour, pie spice, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and ginger; add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.
  • Fill paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
  • For frosting, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and cinnamon; beat until smooth. Frost cupcakes. Refrigerate leftovers.

Yield:
2 dozen.


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Enjoy New Moon the weekend
and HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!





25 comments:

michelle said...

Wow. You finished Christmas shopping already? I haven't even started yet. Eeek.
Cute kitty picts

Have a good weekend

Unknown said...

I can not talk to you!
You are finished with Christmas shopping?
Stop it right this second!
that is craziness.

And the kitten is SO cute.
I can NOT take the cuteness!
Can not even take it for one second!

Martha said...

Kitty on the plate is too cute. I'm glad to hear you are having Cajun turkey for Thanksgiving and NOT said kitten!

Christmas shopping, I've got only two things purchased! I hated wrapping too when Tara was younger... I would always wait until after she went to sleep XMAS eve and hoped she would stay in bed!

Happy Friday!

My FF

won said...

You definitely deserve a "woot woot" for the shopping feat!!! Way to go!

Cat said...

Cute cat! That recipe sounds delicious... which means I need it as far away from me as possible :-P

Jen said...

Your decorations are so cute, love that the kitty stole some. hehehehe. And holy crap, you are done Christmas shopping!?! No way. I need to get my butt in gear.

Wonderful World of Weiners said...

Love the pics. The cat decoration is fantastic!! If I baked, I'd make those. They sound yummy. But I'm a kitchen phobe. Scared to do much more than boil water.

Hallie :)

brainella said...

You are almost done with Christmas shopping? So jealous.

I'm thinking Pumpkin Spice cupcakes will go good with braised short ribs... :)

Unknown said...

love the decorations LOVE Copelands OMGosh they have the best food...

can not believe you are already about done with Christmas shopping now I feel like a slacker lol

hope you have a wonderful weekend!
oh and you know how I feel about those kitty photos cute cute cute

Emmy said...

Oh those cupcakes sounds good!
Good for you for getting your Christmas shopping finished! And I agree, wrapping/hiding is a pain.

Thanks for coming by my blog today. And you should make the turkeys, they were run and really not hard at all.

sarah @ life {sweet} life said...

Congrats to Sam! How fun. :) And I'm SOO jealous you almost have your Christmas shopping done...I need to kick into gear!! Thanks for the yummy recipe...I will definitely try it!

Anonymous said...

Mmmm those cupcakes sound good!
And those bakugan are pretty cool.

Confessions From A Work-At-Home Mom said...

You loved wrapping Christmas gifts? WOW, good for you! I've always been terrible at it... paper cuts and all. I'm very impressed that you're almost done shopping. Want to tackle my list now? (Well, first you'd actually have to *make* a list!)

~Elizabeth
http://confessionsfromaworkingmom.blogspot.com

Stacy Uncorked said...

Those Thanksgiving decorations look great! Wanna come to my house and work your magic to make Princess Nagger happy? ;)

I miss the days when I was organized enough to have my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving... :) I hear ya on trying to find alone time to wrap gifts - and the PITA it is to hid them again. I'm going to add 'private lair' to my wish list for our next house, too - right above 'pool'. ;)

I love it that Sam is into Bakugan - Princess Nagger LOVES those, too - along with dinosaur. :)

Those cupcakes sound YUMMY! Can you pass me one or three, pretty please? :)

Happy FF! :)

Liz Mays said...

I love the pictures from Sam's poster!!! And the cupcakes, I really love them too!

I can't believe you're almost done shopping. I'm so jealous!

Hey, guess what arrived today? The necklace! It's unbelievably beautiful. I love, love, love it! Thank you so much!!!

Claudya Martinez said...

Yum! Thank you for the recipe.

debi9kids said...

Congrats to your son being student of the week! how cute his drawings were :)

The cupcakes sound DELISH!

Done your shopping??? I so so wish I was even halfway there. UGH! Well done!

mub said...

I didn't realize you got a new kitty! Or maybe I did and my swiss-cheese brain forgot!

I'm pretty impressed that you've managed to get most of your shopping done. I haven't even thought about mine yet :X Which is double bad, since I need to ship stuff and that usually takes 2-3 weeks!

Kristin - The Goat said...

When I was growing up (and now, too) if we were told "Don't look in this bag it's a Christmas present" we didn't look. The bags and boxes could be in the middle of the living room and it was considered the plague! Usually the bags were put into a closet, but we were told where they were so we wouldn't peek --- and none of us ever did. I can't imagine having to hide the gifts after wrapping. That's my favorite part.

Mrs4444 said...

Wow, Kirby. That's impressive; almost brings a tear to my eye. Very impressive.

I have been known to hide the kids' presents in their dresser drawers. Seriously; they live out of their laundry baskets and never open the danged dressers.

Way to go on the Christmas shopping! I just started yesterday...

Nancy C said...

I am so with you on the secret lair. The possibilities are limitless...hiding of presents, hiding from children, plotting evil, socking away the kids when sending off an empty hot-air balloon and alerting the media....

I could really use a lair.

LisaShaw said...

I so enjoy hearing about your boys, your family things and seeing great photos. You're such a blessing to us in blog land! Thanks for sharing your family with us.

I pray a wonderful thanksgiving for your family.

jennykate77 said...

WOOT WOOT! Way to go on the Christmas shopping! You rock. I'm so behind.

That recipe sounds delish...anything pumpkin is good in my book!

Congrats to your little man on being Star Student in Kindergarten!! That's awesome! I love the poster!

Hope you're having a great Monday!♥

Unknown said...

Just stopping by to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! I know things are ficxin to get busy for everyone and I didnt want to forget to wish one of my Favorite bloggers a Happy Turkey Day!

Carla said...

A secret lair??? Why didn't I think of that!!??!! Great post-recipe looks good too.