2016 in Review

This has been another busy year for us.  We were gone from home for about 30 weeks, mostly in Hawaii.  We are healthy and blessed.  Here are our monthly highlights, many of which never got blogged about:

January
We made our first of eight trips to Hawaii.

February
We settled in to our rental in Hawaii Kai - our home away from home for nine months this year.

March
March was full of highlights:
I got my second bike - My Bella Vita:

Les' dad, Bill, stayed with us for a few days on his way home from Guam.

I went to the Big Island for the Hawaii District Ladies Conference.  Sis. Claudette Walker was the speaker and it was wonderful to see her after so many years.

April
I raced the Ford Island Bridge 10k and Les raced the Tantalus Time Trial.

May
We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!  We had an amazing two week vacation to Europe.  If you haven't read the details, there are a ton of posts under the 25th Anniversary Trip tab.  Living life with Les McElhaney is a grand adventure and I wouldn't have it any other way!

June
I spent the entire month blogging about our trip!

July
I continued to blog about our trip!  We did go to a Fourth of July picnic, but I couldn't find any pictures!  Les had a cycling race on July 3rd.  It rained the entire time (of course!)

August
Les celebrated his 53rd birthday.  We had dinner at Duke's in Waikiki, then while we were relaxing in the courtyard of the Moana Surfrider Hotel we saw Bro. and Sis. Bryant from Mississippi.  I have known Sis. Bryant since we were teenagers.  It was the first time we have just bumped into someone from the mainland while we have been in Hawaii.  I never blogged about that either. 

September
Les raced (and I volunteered at) the112 mile Dick Evans Memorial Road Race (did not blog about it.)

We were also very busy at New Life Pentecostal.  We attended several Bible studies with the students at the University of Hawaii.  And the district was blessed with a music workshop led by Mark Yandris.

October
We really enjoyed the Hawaii District Marriage Retreat with Dr. and Mrs. James Hughes.  We also moved out of our rental in Hawaii Kai (no post written.)

November
We were so happy to be home almost the entire month!  We celebrated Pastor and Sister White's 35th Pastoral Anniversary, with guest speaker Elder Morton.  No photos taken, but I did blog about it!
We also enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family in Visalia.

December
We split December in half and spent the first half in Hawaii and the second in California.  There was the NLP Christmas banquet...

 Honolulu Marathon...

 Tea for two with Sis. Mac...

We made it home in time for the Victory Tabernacle Christmas recital that I did not blog about...

Christmas morning the church was full for our Sunday morning service (no pictures or post.)  Our door is full of cards from many wonderful friends and family...

Les spoiled me this year with gifts.  I see this gift every morning when I wake up, it is pretty special...

Thanks for being part of my journey in 2016.  I'm looking forward to 2017 being a great year!

Merry Christmas!

Friday Foodie ~ 2016 Christmas Baking

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!  We got home a week ago and are looking forward to spending Christmas in our own home.  Through the years I have done a lot of Christmas baking.  You can check out other editions here, here, here and here!  Some years I've made a huge variety, others not so much.  This year I made four kinds of cookies: Butterscotch Oatmeal, Peanut Butter, Gingerbread (all starting with a mix) and I tried a new cookie - Cranberry Orange Shortbread.  I also made fudge (recipe from the Marshmallow Cream jar) and Peppermint Cracker Toffee.  Here are my two new recipes:

Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies from Mom in Timeout
Ingredients:
½ cup dried cranberries (Craisins)
 ¾ cups sugar, divided
2½ cups all purpose flour - spooned and leveled, not scooped * this is very important!  It was not on the recipe when I printed it originally and my dough had way too much flour.  The cookies still tasted great, but getting the dough rolled together took a lot of work.
1 cup butter, cubed (and cold)
1 tsp almond extract zest of 1 orange
1 to 2 tbsp of fresh orange juice (optional)
additional sugar to coat cookies before baking if desired

Instructions
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Combine cranberries and ¼ cup of sugar in a food processor and process just until the cranberries are broken down into smaller pieces. Set aside.
Combine flour and remaining sugar in a large bowl.
Use a pastry cutter to cut in butter. You want very fine crumbs.
Stir in extract, cranberries and sugar mixture, orange zest and orange juice (I personally don't think the orange juice is optional as it brings out the orange flavor.  It's subtle, but it's there.)
Use your hands to knead the dough until it comes together and forms a ball. Work the dough until it comes together. Shape dough into a log about two inches in a diameter and wrap in plastic wrap. * here is where I ran in to trouble because of having too much flour.  The dough was way too dry. I ended up with three smaller dough logs because they were easier to handle.
Refrigerate for two hours or up to 72 hours.
Preheat oven to 325F.
Cut slices of cookie dough about ¼ inch thick.
Place about a half a cup of sugar in a bowl and coat the cookie slices with sugar.
Place cookies on baking sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or just until cookies are set. Do not over bake. I pull mine at 12 minutes. *mine only took about 9 minutes, I think my oven runs a bit hot.
Let cookies cool for several minutes on baking sheet before removing to cooling rack. Let cool completely.
Store in airtight container for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

These cookies were not pretty but they sure did taste good! I will make them again but measure the flour more carefully.

My other new recipe is Peppermint Cracker Toffee from Shugary Sweets.  I've been seeing quite a few cracker toffee recipes lately, it's something I'd never tried but it will become part of my mix from now on!

Ingredients:
40 saltine crackers
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 package (11 oz) white chocolate chips
6 candy canes, crushed (about 1/2 cup)


Directions:
Line a 15x10x1-inch baking sheet with the saltine crackers. (My pan was a little smaller so my crackers overlapped a little.) Set aside. Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add in sugar and bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Once it begins to boil, remove from heat.
Pour over saltine crackers. Place in a 375°F oven for about 10 minutes, until crackers are browned and caramelized.  I should have pulled mine at about 8 minutes, again my oven was just a little too warm so the edges got a little burned.

Sprinkle with white chocolate chips and allow to sit for several minutes (until they melt).

Spread with a spatula evenly over crackers and immediately sprinkle with crushed candy.

Allow chocolate to set and store in airtight container for up to 5 days.  Mine did not break apart in cracker sized pieces but they sure were good!

Tea at 1024

Sis. McGriffin and I have been wanting to get together for lunch for a while and we finally made it happen on Tuesday!  We met at Tea at 1024 for afternoon tea.  This is a quaint place right in the heart of downtown Honolulu.  We got to choose our own teacup from the collection:

There were hats and boas to wear if we wanted, but we passed!  Of course we ordered "Afternoon Tea."

The presentation was beautiful and every bite was delicious.

They gave us the best seat in the house - the window seat!  Along with the fancy chairs, it sat right in the window facing out to downtown Honolulu.  We thought about posing as mannequins when people walked by, but were too busy talking and eating.  And the best part was sharing some time with this sweet lady!

Hawaiian Happenings

Les and I are on our final full day in Hawaii for 2016.  This is our eighth trip for the year.  Les has been busy with work but we've still enjoyed the beauty of our island home.

Sunsets at Waikiki are the best!

Sunrise runs are awesome, too...

Especially when I can pull this guy along with me...

Friday night fireworks from our balcony.

We were here for the New Life Pentecostal Church Christmas banquet.  We love our NLP Ohana!

Little boys in rain boots might be one of my new favorite things!

Acai bowls at Honolulu Coffee

Seen on my run...

The Honolulu Marathon was on Sunday.  I did not run it, but Les got to be on the cycling team that escorted the wheelchair competitors.  They were flying down Kalakaua Avenue:

The winner finish in just over 95 minutes!

About 20,000 runners were on the course.  And the winner set a new course record of 2:09:37!

Christmas, Hawaiian style.

And finally, the full moon has been spectacular the last few mornings!