Unexpected Gifts!

Sometimes I think the best gifts are the unexpected ones!

Today a package arrived for me in the mail from one of the sweetest people I have had the pleasure of meeting through blogging - Della over at Del's Shells.  If her name sounds familiar to you, it's probably because she did a fab guest post for me a couple of weeks ago.  If you missed it, go back and read it here.

Anyway......  Della sent me the prettiest shell earrings that she hand made.  Aren't these beautiful?  I love the color and design of the shells.

Della knows how much I love the sea and seashells and now I can carry a piece of them with me at all times.   The photos don't even do them justice - they are too pretty for words.  Let's just say that when I walked out into the front room wearing them, Chablis jumped up and said she would definitely be borrowing them sometime soon!

FYI - Della also has an Etsy shop, Orange Blossom Crafts, and with Christmas right around the corner, you should go check out her shop for beautiful jewelry like this.......

Unexpected gifts, like unexpected friendships, are something to be treasured.  I'd like to thank Della again for her generous gift - I will treasure it always.

Donkey Kong Country Returns

Donkey Kong Country Returns OR How to waste an entire day playing Wii games.....

Several years ago we played Donkey Kong on Nintendo until our fingers were ready to fall off.  It was my favorite Nintendo game!  So last year for Christmas I bought Donkey Kong Country Returns for our Wii.

Somehow the game got misplaced and last week when I was cleaning up the front room in anticipation of this weeks upcoming Christmas decorating, I found the game jammed down behind an end table.  I know, I know, that doesn't say much about my housekeeping in general, but that's an entirely different story and not really one that I care to explore.  Anyway......

We opened the game on Friday morning and decided to play the first board while we were drinking our coffee and eating toast.  Both of the kids wandered into the front room and plopped down to laugh hysterically at our pathetic attempts to get through the first board!  Let's just say that Louie and I are not very good at some Wii games.   Chablis and Tony each took turns playing the game and managed to get through more boards in one hour than Louie or I would have in 3 hours.  I got disgusted with my quality of play, so Tony and I left to go to the gym.  Chablis and Louie stayed home to explore the game further and were still intently at it when we returned home 1 1/2 hours later.

I took a shower and joined Louie on the sofa to attempt another board when Chablis left to go to work.  Tony strolled in and out of the room, usually long enough to snort at us, take the controls and breeze through another board.  He would return to the kitchen to study while Louie and I jumped Donkey Kong through barrels, along roller coasters and up vines and made very little progress in general.  Tony left for work at 5:00 while we sweated and swore our way through more boards.  I promise, we were enjoying this!

At 6 pm Chablis came home from work and gave me the long puss because dinner wasn't ready.  "Hello!!!  I have been extremely busy playing Donkey Kong all day and I do not have time to be cooking meals."  Louie solved the dilemma by ordering a pizza and we cheerfully watched Chablis work on another board while eating dinner in front of the game.

Fast forward to 11 pm when Tony got home from work.   He took one look at the 3 of us sitting bleary eyed in front of the game and shook his head.   Run, roll, jump, pound, fall, get killed - it was a never ending, obsessive cycle.  The 4 of us sat up until midnight passing the controller around like a hot potato.

At the end of the day we had completed 4 worlds.  Donkey Kong for Wii is by far one of the best games I've ever played.  The graphics are amazing and the challenges are fun and really clever.  Most kids these days would probably plow through the game in no time at all, but for Wii challenged folks like Louie and I, it's providing hours of entertainment.  Plus, we have the added bonus of roping in both of our kids for a couple of fun family hours.  It may have been a wasted day as far as accomplishing anything, but any day spent laughing  with my kids is a day well spent!

Louie's Venison Chili

Now that we have a freezer full of venison, Louie gets to start cooking.  I love his chili recipe and thought I'd share it with you.

Chop up 1 large onion and 4 stalks of celery.

Put them in a large pot and start to fry with 1 stick of margarine and 2 Tablespoons of olive oil.

Add 2 pounds of ground venison to the same pot.

Since venison has very little fat, don't drain it.  Once the meat is cooked through, add 4- 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes....

1 can of tomato soup....

1 - 15 oz. can of chili beans in sauce....

1 - 15 oz. can of drained, kidney beans....

You can use any brand of the canned goods that you like.  We just use these brands, but you can use whatever you can get where you live.

Add salt, pepper and garlic salt to taste.
Add 2 teaspoons of chili powder if you like.  It's optional.

Let it simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring to keep it from sticking on the bottom.

Doesn't that look good?  I like mine served over nacho chips, with some cheese and sour cream.  If avocado's weren't so darn expensive right now, I would have made guacamole sauce to go with it as well.

Enjoy!
(sorry for the poor picture quality on some of the photos)

Thanksgiving Geocaching

The weather in Kentucky over Thanksgiving weekend was perfect for a little geocaching and hiking.  Chablis, Nicki and I headed out to Land Between the Lakes in search of a few caches.

The first stop was for a quick park and grab cache at Barkley Dam.  Last spring when we were here, this whole area was flooded.

Chablis dodged off trail to grab a cache in a stump....

My favorite cache of the day was about a 3 mile round trip hike.  Right off the bat we started on a steep decline, so Chablis and Nicki did a little "surfing!"

I like narrow trails like these that wind through the woods.  Every once in awhile we would catch a glimpse of Lake Barkley....

The GPS put us right at the edge of an embankment.

 The cache could have been either down below towards the beach, or up top, where we were.  Chablis and Nicki decided to search the upper level and I climbed down to the beach....

It turns out that Nicki found the cache up top after all, near this cross...

The view was really nice so we sat for a few minutes to enjoy it before heading back to the car....

By this time we had worked up an appetite, so we headed over to Patty's 1880 Settlement for lunch and some Christmas shopping.  We ate at Mr. Bill's Restaurant, which was decorated for Christmas and I love these colors....

With lunch we got one of their specialties, which is a loaf of bread baked in a flower pot, and served with whipped and/or strawberry butter.  It's wonderful!

Afterwards we walked around the shops, looking for gifts.  They had a snow flake machine churning out snow, which looked so pretty dancing in the wind....

They were setting up their center gazebo with decorations and lights in anticipation of Santa's arrival.  Chablis sat down to rest for a second.....

Walking back to the car, we noticed this building.  We had to laugh at a building that housed a cafe, a golf cart rental and a bait shop.  I'm glad we didn't have lunch there!

All in all, it was a really nice way to spend a mild November day.

Geocaching on Sanibel Island

 I’ve been asked by my dear friend Della from Del’s Shells to do a guest post and explain a little bit about my favorite hobby, Geocaching.  She thought her readers would enjoy hearing about my fun excursions while looking for hidden treasures.

Geocaching is quickly becoming a popular worldwide hobby.  Here’s the basic premise:  Geocachers hide objects, post the GPS co-ordinates on the geocaching website, and then other geocachers go find the object.  It’s kind of like a modern game of hide and go-seek.  Once you find the object, you don’t take it.  You sign the logbook inside, replace the geocache where you found it so others can also find it and then record your find online at the geocaching website.  Visit the official geocaching website for more information and to sign up -   It’s free to sign up!

One of my favorite places to visit is Sanibel Island, Florida.  Every time we vacation there, we make sure to find a couple of geocaches.  All the caches I’m going to show you are hidden on Sanibel Island.

This cache was hidden under some exposed tree roots, near a beach….

 This box was hidden on a gazebo, overlooking a nice stream….

Sanibel has an historic lighthouse and this cache was hidden close to the lighthouse.  The lighthouse is located at the eastern end of the island and it’s an interesting place to discover and explore.

There’s an intriguing story behind this small cemetery and it’s a beautiful setting and its fun to walk around and look at all the headstones that are decorated with seashells.  There’s no cache hidden here, but you do have to get some information off of a particular headstone and mail in the answer in order to get credit for the cache.  This is the cache number GCD6EE (Near the Chapel).  Click on the link to see what a cache page looks like. 

This next cache was hidden almost in plain sight on the street, in front of someone’s house.  I’ll bet a geocacher lives there…..

I really enjoyed this next cache.  We had to walk about a mile down a beach in order to find this nicely hidden cache.  We also looked for shells the entire time and then swam our way back afterwards.

This cache was hidden behind the island grocery store, and very near a small pond.

The location of this cache was outside a mobile home park, and inside the park is a small petting zoo for kids to visit.  Check out that cool tree!

Another thing I really like about geocaching is that it takes me to places I would probably have never found otherwise.  I’ve been going to Sanibel Island for years and never knew about this great lookout tower.  Yep, a cache was hidden there and the view from the top was wonderful!  Imagine looking all over this structure to find a hidden cache.

I’ve tried to show you several different types of hides and different kinds of cache containers.  I can almost guarantee you that no matter where you go or where you live, there is probably a geocache hidden very close by.  Geocaching is really lots of fun and kids in particular enjoy the thrill of the hunt. 

I’d like to thank Della again for letting me share this with you.  If anyone is interested in giving it a try, please feel free to visit my blog for lots more information on the topic.

Happy caching!