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What did the Grinch find out about the meaning of

What did the Grinch find out about the meaning of Christmas?
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“It came without ribbons, it came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags. Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas (the thought) means a little bit more.” How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
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Be intentional and fill your heart and mind with thanksgiving. Every time you feel the pressure of the holidays take a minute to reset.

Pie Dough All-Butter Dough *For 1 double-crust

Pie Dough

All-Butter Dough

*For 1 double-crust pie or 2 single-crust pies*

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups flour
½ tsp salt
14 T salted or unsalted butter, cut into Tablespoon-sized pieces
½ cup ice water + 1-2 T more as needed
Additional flour for rolling out dough

Procedure:

1. Put all ingredients but the ice water in a large bowl.
2. With clean hands, quickly smoosh the mixture together, or use a pastry blender with an up and down motion, until the ingredients look like cracker crumbs with lumps the size of peas and almonds. These lumps will make your crust flaky.
3. Sprinkle ice water over the mixture and stir lightly with a fork.
4. Squeeze a handful of dough to see if it holds together. Mix in more water aa needed.
5. Divide the dough in half and make two chubby discs about 5 inches across.
6. Wrap the discs separately in plastic wrap, and chill for about an hour.
7. Roll out
❤️The Swanson’s thanks for sharing!!

Apple Pie Ingredients 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inc

Apple Pie

Ingredients
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
½ cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup water
½ cup white sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced (we used more!)

Directions
Step 1
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Step 2
Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.

Step 3
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

From All Recipes

Wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving. ❤️

Wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving. ❤️Jen

This team is fun! I had the joy of taking a few te

This team is fun! I had the joy of taking a few team photos for my dear friend Amy her awesome crew!

These ladies transform spaces beautifully! Check out @roomofbloom

Here’s a little bit about Bloom Painting Company

Hello! We are a Denver based painting company, specializing in cabinet painting and interior painting. We have grown exponentially through word of mouth the last few years...we think it's our secret sauce...we are an all female company with designers and carpenters on staff, so we are a little different from the normal painting company out there!

Omi's Chestnut Stuffing INGREDIENTS 1 lb. chestnut

Raspberry Rhubarb Pie *Makes one 9-inch pie* I

Raspberry Rhubarb Pie

*Makes one 9-inch pie*

Ingredients:

2/12 cups rhubarb, about ¾ pound, cut in to 1/2-1 inch pieces, fresh or unthawed frozen
1 ½ cups, about 6-7 ounces raspberries, fresh or unthawed frozen (I added strawberries too)
¾ cup sugar
A grating or two of fresh nutmeg
½ tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 tsp salt
1 T liqueur of your choice-orange, raspberry, or lemon work well
1 ½ T quick-cooking tapioca
2 T flour
1 recipe double-crust pie dough
½ T butter, more if you’d like
1 T sugar, for sprinkling on top of the pie

Egg Wash:

1 egg white plus 1 T water, fork beaten

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 425the egg white wash over the entire pie, including the edges.
2. In medium bowl, combine rhubarb, raspberries, sugar, nutmeg, lemon Juice, salt, optional liqueur, quick-cooking tapioca, and flour. Toss to coat the fruit.
3. Roll out bottom pie dough and place in pan.
4. Pour the filling into the piecrust. Top with butter broken into small pieces with your fingers.
5. Roll out the remaining dough, lay it over the fruit, and cut 5-6 vents on top, or cut strips and make a lattice top. Trim excess dough from the edges and crimp
6. Lightly brush some of egg white wash over the entire pie, including the edges.
7. Bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees F. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees F and after about 45 minutes total time, open the oven and quickly sprinkle the top of the pie with sugar. Close the oven and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes or until you see steady bubbling in the filling coming through the vents or lattice.
8. Remove the pie from the oven and let it cool completely, or as long as you can, before serving. The longer it cools, the better it sets up, and the less runny it will be.

Recipe from The Swansons

My mom taught me that if you can read a recipe you

My mom taught me that if you can read a recipe you can cook! I’m a recipe sharer. I have always found so much joy cooking with family and friends and enjoying with friends and family! Here are a few of our family favorites for Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving friends!

What is one thing you can’t have Thanksgiving without?

Loaded Mashed Potatoes 1 T. salt 5 lbs. red skin p

Loaded Mashed Potatoes
1 T. salt
5 lbs. red skin potatoes
3⁄4 C. sour cream
3⁄4 C. milk
1 1⁄2 t. garlic powder
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 C. Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1/2 C. Monterey Jack cheese, freshly grated 1⁄2-1 T. sea salt, or to taste
1⁄2-1 T. freshly ground pepper, or to taste
Fill large pot with water & bring to a boil
Add 1 T. salt to the water & return to boiling
Peel half of the potatoes, leave skin on other half
Cut potatoes into quarters
Add the potatoes to water and boil until they are fully cooked (approximately 30 minutes), test with a fork
Drain potatoes
Mash the potatoes with a mixer
Add all other ingredients one at a time & mix until they are smooth Season to taste
Potatoes can be made a up to 3 days ahead. After mixing, place in a dish that is both microwave & oven safe. Cover & refrigerate. Several hours before serving, take out of fridge & microwave 2 minutes at a time, stirring after each 2 minute cycle, until potatoes are slightly warm, about room temperature. Cover & place in oven set to 250-300 degrees for 1- 1 1⁄2 hours. (Longer at lower temperature is best, but not always realistic. Sometimes I start at 250 and move to 300 for the last 30 minutes.) Stir every 15-30 minutes & watch closely to be sure edges do not burn.

Candied Yams Makes 8-10 servings INGREDIENTS 3 l

Candied Yams

Makes 8-10 servings

INGREDIENTS
3 lbs (I used 8 yams), peeled and sliced crosswise in 1/4 inch thick rounds
2 sticks of unsalted butter (if you would like to cut the richness, use 1 stick)
3 cups of light brown sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. kosher salt

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In an ungreased 2-quart baking dish place sweet potato slices, overlapping slightly and covering the dish.
3. In a saucepan, melt butter over low heat.
4. Stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg & salt. Cook until sugar is dissolved.
5. Pour the mixture over the potatoes, covering the entire surface.
6. Cover the dish tightly with foil & bake for 40 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.
7. Remove foil and bake 20-25 minutes more or until the top is golden brown.
8. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Ages ago I was on staff at Flatirons Community Chu

Ages ago I was on staff at Flatirons Community Church and I was in charge of the 3 year old room. At the 5PM service we would have on average around 75 3 year olds and 13 leaders to help us create a safe fun place for kids to bump onto Jesus while adults enjoyed service. Our Key Leaders were faithful volunteers who helped us run the room. Susan and I formed a friendship every other week from 4:30PM to 6:30PM in the 3 year old room. We have remained friends and I’ve watched her girls graduate high school and go to college, and her son launch his career. We have had the pleasure of meeting her husband and now the rest of the family. I watch this crew love and serve in a way that inspires me. I have come to dearly love this family over the years and feel grateful to capture a few family photos on this gorgeous and slightly windy Colorado fall day.

In the times when it feels like God didn’t show

In the times when it feels like God didn’t show up, He was too late, in the waiting can I still believe He is good and find hope? Gratitude in the tears like rain, in the manure in the soil, in waiting for the seed to grow, in pulling weeds, in sunny days.... gratitude in the process not just in the harvest requires faith, hope, trust and love. Are there seeds, or sunshine, or barren lands that I can find gratitude in today?

📸 @kimlebrowncreative

As a girl who grew up on a ranch everything about

As a girl who grew up on a ranch everything about this was food for my soul. Mailee has the joy of caring for these kids on special occasions and I always hear about her love for this family and ranch life. The kids were feeding the chickens in their mini château and leading the horses. This day was marked by love. I am deeply grateful for this family.

“Spend two minutes a day scanning the world for

“Spend two minutes a day scanning the world for three new things you're grateful for. And do that for 21 days, The reason why that's powerful is you're training your brain to scan the world in a new pattern, you're scanning for positives, instead of scanning for threats. It's the fastest way of teaching optimism.” Shawn Achor
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This is a great challenge by Shawn Achor.
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Give your gratitude a voice by saying it. Give your gratitude a direction by thanking God. Tell the people you encounter why you are thankful for them.
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I was at a restaurant with a friend and she said to our waiter, “Please, tell the chef the sushi was absolutely amazing tonight.”
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The waiter left and she looked at us and explained, “After my sister passed I learned say what you want to say, someday it will be too late. I started thanking people, telling them what I appreciate about them. It’s change my life and my relationship with people I encounter. You never know who needs to hear a thank you. If you feel it, say it.”
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The waiter returned with joy and said, “The chefs said THANK YOU. You made their night. They are short two chefs tonight and they have been swamped. Your thanks was a huge encouragement to them tonight.”
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Saying thank you made a difference in someone’s life.
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This stood out to me when I was reading in Matthew 6 the message version the other day, Jesus said, “What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.”
the context is of Matthew 6:30-33.
⁣
Receive with thankfulness. Thank God with our voice. Thank the people we encounter for the ways they impact us for good. This practice can change your life.

Good morning from the kitchen of Jen Severn! Let t

Good morning from the kitchen of Jen Severn! Let the holidays begin. There’s nothing non-fat about this recipe. It’s the best pumpkin bread in town.

Baking for me is about hospitality, community and connection. Before you make this ask someone to make it with you... or... this makes two big loaves or four little loaves, so plan to share. Drop a loaf off to a person who could use some love or a neighbor. Write a note and drop it by. Something so simple as dropping off a slice of hot fresh pumpkin bread on the desk of my kids who have been on zoom for endless hours is a small way to say, “Hi. I love you! Good morning. You got this!” We have to create community. Here is one community boosting recipe for you!

This is a silly thing I learned, but it helps my scattered brain before you start, get every ingredient out. After you add each ingredient slide to a put away pile. While your bread is mixing put everything away. This simple little tip makes the process of making a quick bread smooth! Thankful for you!

PUMPKIN BREAD

INGREDIENTS
3 c sugar
1 c oil (you didn't ask for low fat)
4 eggs
16 oz pumpkin
3 1/2 c flour
2t soda
2t salt
1t baking powder
1t nutmeg
1t allspice
1t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
2/3 c. water

DIRECTIONS
Cream sugar and oil. Add eggs and pumpkin. Mix well. Sift together flour, soda, salt, and baking powder and spices. Add alternately w/ water to pumpkin
mixture and be careful not to over mix. Pour into 2 well greased (I line with parchment to make sure it doesn't stick) 9x5 loaf pans. Bake @ 350 for about an hour or until done. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan. Makes 2 loaves and freezes great too!

#pumpkinbreadrecipe #community #hospitality

Hey friends! Keep moving! 30 minutes outside is go

Hey friends! Keep moving! 30 minutes outside is good for the soul. 🔥

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” ❤️🎄

Here’s a twist on gratitude... today go through

Here’s a twist on gratitude... today go through the five senses and lost something you are grateful for in each category.
I’m grateful I saw:
I’m grateful I tasted:
I’m grateful I heard:
I’m grateful I smelled:
I’m greatly I felt:
Copy and paste and tell us what you are grateful for today!

When I was a senior in high school I took a photog

When I was a senior in high school I took a photography class. The first photos I developed in the dark room was in black and white of a snow covered basketball hoop. I loved the contrast of black and white photos. I wanted to be the next Ansel Adams. Photography is still an art to me.

I had the honor of taking Brayden’s senior photos. Brayden looks great in color, but I decided to go back to my roots and put everything in black and white for this feature.

Brayden’s mom Kristi moved here from a house with a pool and a street where she knew everyone in Florida. They raised their family with those neighbors.

When she moved to Colorado she worked to rebuild community in her life. We just live a few miles away and she found my book club. Book club was the beginning of a sweet friendship.

Brayden is a great young man. I learned he and a few of his friends work together and make a great hourly wage. He is working with a modeling agency and I learned with the same agency his friend was a paid extra in a recent movie. We squeezed this shoot in between his work/school/schedule, his mom’s work schedule, and mine. It was a fun quick shoot with friends! Grateful!

When words fail... “Trust steadily in God, hope

When words fail...

“Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 The Message

📸 @kimlebrowncreative #30daysofgratitude #grateful #thanksgiving #givingthanks

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