Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

First off...Merry (Be-lated) Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! I was able to spend a wonderful, albeit very busy, Christmas week with my family. Kiki and her family came down from Idaho and spent the whole week with us. I was fortunate to have the whole week off from work so I was able to spend time with them. We tried to cram as much fun in as possible....

The Annual Arthur Schaub Family Christmas Party was held on the Monday before Christmas. The turn out was a little disappointing; probably because it was held at an earlier time and my aunt and uncle who live out in way west Phoenix hosted it and most of us live out in way East Valley. Anyways, those of us who did go had great Mexican food, and a visit from Santa.My cousins Kristal & Adam Tieman sitting on Santa's lap.

My cousin-in-law Beth, cousin Kandice, cousin Kristal, Uncle Ken, Aunt Kelly holding Beth's baby Cadence, Aunt Jan, and Aunt Donna.

On Tuesday we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the Chihuly exhibit. I thought it was just as spectacular the second time around.

Wednesday night we had our Schaub Family Christmas Eve activities. My family always celebrates Christmas Eve together and there are 2 things that we ALWAYS do...

1) Eat pizza
Kara is eating her first Christmas pizza.

Kiki is enjoying some of Papa John's best.

2.) Read/Act out the story of the birth of Christ.

Here is the cast of this years production. After watching the "live" version acted out, we usually watch the Luke 2 video put out by the Church.

Here are a few other shots I took Christmas Eve while the kids were anxiously crowded around the Christmas tree waiting for "PRESENTS"!

Kate, Enoch, Kaylie, and Jacob
Jacob, Ellie, Audrey, and Zack.

Again, I hope each of you has a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve and I wish you a coming year full of blessings, laughter, strength, and beautiful memories.

Love - Megan

Hummus -- The Most Delicious I've Ever Tasted

I just came up with the most delicious Hummus that I've ever tasted. It is soooooo yummy! I just had to share

Hummus
1 (15oz) can of garbanzo beans, drained
2 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 TBS tahini (my roommate found it at Walmart -- it's sesame seed puree/oil and looks like runny peanut butter)
1/2 a head of roasted garlic**
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 to 1/3 C. olive oil

In a blender or food processor, puree all of the above ingredients. If you want it really creamy, blend longer and add more olive oil.

**roasted garlic -- cut a whole head of garlic in half (cut it horizontal to the counter - you should have a top half and a bottom half). Put the garlic halves on a sheet of tin foil with the garlic cloves facing up, drizzle olive oil all over the garlic and add a dash of salt. Seal up the tin foil so that you make sealed packages. Put the packets on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. When done the garlic will be toasted and squishy. Use a fork to pop out all of the little cloves.

Enjoy!

Sweet things in life

On Saturday my mom made gingerbread houses with some of the grandkids. It's something she tries to do every year. She carries on the tradition she started when my brothers, sister and I were young. Every Christmas she would make (from scratch) the COOLEST gingerbread house you ever saw. Every kid in the neighborhood would come over to see our gingerbread house. Now, because of shear number, she buys a couple of kits, but puts just as much love and attention into assembling them with the munchkins.

Saturday was also the day for sewing. I've decided to make all the Christmas presents I giving out this year (ambition with a touch of lunacy). Saturday I sewed adorable pillow cases and 2 aprons. I'm now seamstress, but I think they all turned out adorable. Now I just have to finish all the others gifts on my list.

Some hiking and some Chihuly

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while...I've been busy. So I thought I would at least put something new up tonight. Here are some photos of a few things I've done in the past couple weeks.

Went hiking with my parents up the Barnhardt Trail, which is south of Rye, AZ.Went and saw the Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden with a friend. Chihuly is one of my very favorite artists. In fact, one of my goals in life it own a small piece of Chihuly art -- mind you it would have to be VERY small for me to be able to afford it. The exhibit was MAGNIFICENT and I would highly recommend those who live in AZ go see it. It will be at the DBG until about March.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with the larger Schaub Clan...which we haven't done for YEARS! Uncle Ken and Aunt Donna hosted everyone in their beautiful new home. There was plenty of room for the 50 or so people and the 2 tons worth of food. Here are a few of my favorite shots of the occasion. To see ALL of the pictures, check out my Picasa Album.

My Uncle Ken and cousin Natalie, carving up the turkey...we went through 2 turkeys and a ham.


My sister-in-law Rachel, her daughter Kara, my cousin-in-law Tomena and her baby girl, Claire.
My cousin Melanie, cousin-in-law Kyle, Melanie's husband Kevin, Aunt Jan, and dad.
Hudson Suman, my cousin Melanie's son, trying to decide if he wants gravy with his turkey.
This is my cousin Natalie's absolutely adorable little boy Dallin.
The Thanksgiving afternoon ended with some trampoline time...Avery, Tyler, Jacob, and Tatum.
I am thankful this day for so many things. My Heavenly father has richly blessed my life with family, friends, memories, freedom, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's raining

It rained off and on today. What a nice change and look what I found out side of my apartment just now.

Picture this...

I found a cool new site that got my creative juices flowing...http://shuttersisters.com/

So it inspired me to take a new look at some old photos. I picked a few of my favorites and decided to post them, just because.

This is a picture of my dad "burbling" a pea.
We were playing croquet in the backyard one Sunday evening and Ethan got the better of his red ball.

Atlanta and Ice Skating

It's been a little while since I last posted and there's been a fair amount that has been happening. Last Saturday, I flew to Atlanta for the National Dropout Prevention Network Conference. It was my first conference in my new job. I did marketing for Pinnacle there at the conference for 3 days. It was a whole new experience, but rather reminiscent of my missionary days. I was at a booth for 2 and a half days and I had to brush-off my old tracting skills. I exercised my skills with the old "commitment pattern". And what do ya know, it still works...a little BRTing and some "Will you..." questions. Very interesting.... Anyways, one BIG thing I learned, Traveling for business is NOTHING like traveling for fun. IT'S WORK! I was very tired by the time I flew home Wednesday afternoon. I didn't get to see much of Atlanta, but I did take some pictures of the fall leaves on the trees outside my hotel. In January I'll be off to Clearwater, FL and in February it will by Myrtle Beach, SC. I asked my boss when he thought we'd be heading to Maui...he gave me the get-real look.


Wednesday night some of the Schaub clan met at Polar Ice in Gilbert to do a little ice skating and celebrate Ethan's 9th birthday. None of the kids had ever tried skating before. Let's just say that it was a harsh introduction to the realities of slippery ice and small metal blades. Regardless, they all seemed to have fun. It was definitely more work for the parents than for the kids. I declared myself the "unofficial" photographer and took my pictures, with my shoes on, from the safety found behind the glass. I think the kids had enough fun, that we just might find ourselves heading back there again.

Friday Flashback -- 1981

The Year Is 1981...

• Federal spending: $678.25 billion
• Median Household Income (current dollars): $19,074
• Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.15
• President Reagan's gave his first inaugural address
• The Royal Wedding - Prince Charles and Diana Spencer marry
• The birth of MTV, the 24 hour-a-day music television station
• Sandra Day O'Connor becomes first female Supreme Court Justice
• Atari releases home version of Pac-Man in the US and sparks a huge craze
• The first IBM-PC's begin to roll of the lines
• Top grossing film: Raiders of the Lost Ark -- $242 Million

The Twins are two and Jeff is a year old.

Kiki, Justin, and Megan (I'm 7).
Life seemed a lot simpler then.

How the American Tax System really works

The Story of How Taxes Are Paid In America

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for drinks and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, itwould go something like this:

* The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

* The fifth would pay $1.

* The sixth would pay $3

* The seventh would pay $7.

* The eighth would pay $12.

* The ninth would pay $18.

* The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar everyday and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily drinks by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.'

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his drink. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

* The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100%savings).

* The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

* The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

* The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

* The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

* The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. 'I only got a dollar out of the $20', declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!' 'Yeah, that's right', exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar,too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!' 'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!' 'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!' The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill,they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how ourtax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

AMEN!

Random pictures on one of my favorite topics...FOOD!

So I was cruising all of my favorite family and friend's blogs and I was thinking about all the fun family traditions that we have, with the thought that Thanksgiving is coming up in a few weeks. So naturally my thoughts then turned to FOOD. So I was looking through my old photos for family and food pictures and here's what I came up with -- Some of our families favorite food/family traditions.

5. Inari Sushi -- This is a picture of my Grandma Johnson making Inari. Inari is just beancurd pockets stuffed with sticky rice that is flavored with vinegar and sugar. I pretty sure its a Hawaiian thing. All I know is that my family eats it like they're potato chips. Any time we have a luau with my Hawaiian family members, you can bet there will be tons of inari....BTW I prefer mine with just a dash of soy sauce on it Yum!!

4. Aunt Kelly's Homemade Tamale's -- I am soooo picky when it comes to tamales. I've tried all kinds of tamales and the only ones I like are the ones my Aunt Kelly (and Andrea Brown) make. In fact two years ago I asked her to show me how to make them, because I was worried that if Kelly ever stopped making them, I'd never see a good tamale again. :( So in 2006 Kelly & Andrea taught me, my brother Ryan, and my sister Kiki how to make her tamales. You only make them around Christmas time and due to the significant amount of work involved in making them, you make about 50 dozen. We had sooooo much fun and the tamales were delicious. Last year, Ryan and I made them on our own and the turned out pretty good. I think we'll give it a go again this year. Delicious...BTW - I prefer to eat my tamale with a bunch of ketchup on it. It's perfect that way.

3. Hamburger Stroganoff -- Whenever you talk about the Dennis Schaub family and food you HAVE to mention Hamburger Stroganoff. This was the ABSOLUTE favorite meal of the entire Schaub Family. From the day we are born, until the day we die, when asked what we would like for our "special" meal, almost every single one of us will say "Hamburger Stroganoff". I don't know what it is about the meal, but it can't be beat for comfort food. I LOVE IT!! I'll have to post the recipe some time so ya'll can try it. BTW -- It is always served on sticky rice with a side of peas!

2. Schaub-ka-bobs -- You don't hang around with the Schaub klan (and I'm talking all 60 some-odd of us) and not know about Schaub-ka-bobs. These delicious breakfast morsoles are pop-up biscuits on a stick cooked over a camp fire. We serve them at every Schaub Family campout -- big or small. The kids absolutely love them (what's not to love about cooking something on a stick over a fire). And as an adult I can vouch for how delicious they are. When you slide the cooked biscuit off of the stick there is a nice long hole down the center that you fill with squeeze butter and honey, it's just heavenly. The heat melts it all and makes the last bite the VERY best part! YUMMY!

1. Mom's Homemade Rolls -- In heaven I'll be able to eat all the homemade rolls with butter that I can handle (and not gain a pound). If I was stranded on a desert island and I was only allowed one food, it would have to be my mother's homemade rolls. Just the thought of how the house smells while my mother is baking her rolls, brings tears to my eyes. These things are perfect in texture, taste, and consistency. I really have never tasted better. And for some darn reason, I can't seem to make them as well. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, but I'm not giving up.



"Food Glorious Food"