Saturday with the Kramers

What a crazy Saturday here at the Kramer house.  It all started Friday.  Buck was planning on coming home and deer hunting with Karl and some family friends.  He planned on bringing some of the kids and I’d have them over the weekend while he hunted.

Kalissa had to work the overnight shift on Thursday and Friday so I had the boys and Craig came to pick them up at supper time so we were going to have a big family supper.

Then Kelli called me and told me there were doing a mandatory on-call for her as they didn’t need as many nurses.  That always puts her in a bind as if she is on-call they can call her and she needs to be at the hospital in 30 minutes.  That leaves no time to get a babysitter for Georgia.  So I told her to come home, stay overnight with Georgia and if she got called in, I’d just take care of Georgia.

So after a big family supper with Craig, Carver, Gannon, Buck, Scotty, Karl, Kelli, Georgia, and I, we hung out and made plans for the next day.

Buck and Karl were going hunting.  Craig had to work so Kelli and I would keep Carver and Gannon along with Scotty and Georgia.  Kelli decided we’d do the Christmas baking.

Before Craig left I asked him to check my ice maker on the refrigerator again…UGH.  YES, it was frozen again.  This is so annoying.

Craig had Carver helping him…

…and I had Georgia and Scotty helping me.

At least we know what the problem is and can fix it.

That was Friday night, now onto Saturday.

I was up at ‘um on Saturday starting what I could without Kelli.  She was up a short time later.  I started baking and she made breakfast for the kiddos.

They were a busy bunch and kept us hopping but we managed to get a lot done.

Kelli wanted to give cookie/goodie platters to her neighbors.  She’s been pretty sick with this pregnancy so I knew it would be hard for her to accomplish that so I figured I could help her by helping her bake… and boy oh boy did we bake!

We made
two batches of the Ritz peanut butter cookies
two batches of the Popcorn crack
one batch of Muddy Buddies and bagged that up
two batches of pretzel/rolo/M&Ms
one batch of Christmas M&M cookies
two batches of Waffle Cookies with white frosting and sprinkles
one batch of Mud Puddle Cookies
one batch of Brownie/Rolo Cookies

There are links to the recipes for some of the things we made.  Simply click on the word to get to the recipe.

The kids left us alone and played until we started needing the kitchen table.  Then they wanted to be in on the action.

Buck lives south of us and he has a snow plow route and had to go home as they got 4″ of snow.  It was sad to see Scotty go…but such is the life of a snowplow driver.

Shortly after that, Craig came and picked up the boys.

By now it was noon and Kelli needed to nap so she’d be ready for working the Saturday overnight shift.  It was noon, and we had done great getting all the baking done…

But the kids had trashed the house while we were baking…This doesn’t look nearly as bad as it was!!

…and we had trashed the kitchen.  Oh my.  It was me and Georgia and all of the mess.

I decided that the kitchen was already a mess so I would make a couple more things so I made almond back covered pretzels and Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies.

That took until 2 pm and then I laid Georgia down for a nap.

I knew I needed to clean up, but admittedly, I was pooped.  So I went into the living room and turned an episode of floss tube on and started cleaning…anything to be out of the kitchen for a second.  Once the room was clean, I sat on the couch long enough to finish the episode.

Then it was time to tackle the kitchen.  Oh my.

Georgia was up at 4:30 pm but I still wasn’t done cleaning.  Kelli was up at 5 pm and by then, I was about done.  What a day!

Kelli left at 6 pm loaded with Christmas cookies and treats.  I can’t tell you how many times she thanked me saying she could have never done it herself.  I knew that and that’s why I helped.

After that, I wrote a blog post, and then Karl came home to tell me about his hunting expedition.  They didn’t get any deer.

By 8 pm, I was on the couch with Rosie and cross-stitching.  Oh my, it was a big day but I’m super glad we tackled all we did.

Kelli and missed having Kalissa and Kayla with us as we’ve done big baking days in the past with all of us, but we decided we accomplished quite a bit without them there.  I think with just the two of us, we were on a mission.  When all of them come, we visit and chat a whole lot more.  Whichever way we do it, I always enjoy it.

So the baking is checked off the list…the cards are sent.  We’re getting closer to Christmas.