THE LAST GOODBYE - Tribute to LOTR and THE HOBBIT coming to a close

"The Last Goodbye," a beautiful song sung by actor Billy Boyd (who played "Pippin" in The Lord of the Rings trilogy), is a tribute to all the Tolkien films by director Peter Jackson as they come to a close. What a journey for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and for all those who were in the films or contributed in some way to make them the awesome movies they are. Have a listen and watch the cool video on Peter Jackson's official Facebook site or on Youtube. I love it! Below are the links.

Peter Jackson's Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152783652041558&fref=nf

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ir8rVl2Z4

Really Good Recipe: Soft and Chewy Gingersnaps

Photo Credit: http://lecremedelacrumb.com/2013/11/soft-chewy-gingersnaps.html

SOFT & CHEWY GINGERSNAPS

Recipe from: http://lecremedelacrumb.com/2013/11/soft-chewy-gingersnaps.html

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup butter (1½ sticks)

¾ cup molasses

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

3½ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon ground ginger

⅛ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl cream together brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add molasses, egg and vanilla and mix well. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, ginger, salt, cinnamon, and cloves and whisk to combine. Gradually mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients, 1 cup at a time. When flour mixture is completely incorporated and dough comes together, cover dough and chill 10 minutes. Place ¼ cup sugar in a small bowl. Roll about two tablespoons of dough into a ball and roll in sugar. Place dough ball onto a lightly greased baking sheet and lightly press to flatten slightly. Repeat with remaining dough, leaving about 2 inches between balls for spreading. Bake 9-10 minutes. Allow to cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Use a thin metal spatula to remove cookies from chest and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Store in airtight container.

Our Halloween Haunted Hollow

We finally had a large enough parcel of land to have fun with a haunted hollow this Halloween. Thanks to the local thrift store, dollar store, donated items from family members, and my husband bringing home free cardboard and styrofoam from work, we were able to create things for our spook alley rather cheaply. Using every bit of rope we owned, he made a pathway that wound through our property, resulting in a good 15 minute walk complete with jack-o-lanterns, creepy lighting, spooky sounds on giant speakers borrowed from his brother, scarecrows, witch cauldron with dry ice, fortune teller booth (with fortune cookies), a headless horseman, werewolf, fake spider webs, a giant spider made of plastic bags, a pacman scene, and gravestones with witty quotes and names on them (some we made up, others we found online). Here are some pictures of our hollow. They were taken during the day, so they don't look very spooky, but at night with all the lighting and sounds, they turned out great. It was successful enough that we may attempt to do it again next year. AANNDD, not wanting anyone to feel left out for not knowing about it, I need to explain that this being the first year we did it, we used only four families as Guinea pigs to try it out. Next year we'll tell more people about it.

The styrofoam gravestones were knocked down by the windy afternoon at the time I took the pictures, but the evening was great after we set them up again. 

I originally put "Here lies the Pillsbury Dough Boy - Died of a yeast infection," but my husband prefered "He will rise again." I still like mine better *smile*