ThOrNtOn ThOuGhTs: Soup Swap Christmas

December already...Oh my gosh! I was super excited all week for the downtown Old Fashioned Christmas Parade on Mass Street which started Saturday 12/1 @ 11. Around 10, monkey got really tired so I decided to let him rest instead. Next year will be more fun anyway when he knows what a horse is. :)

Here are a few pictures my friend Amber took.

JT ran some errands and apparently got stuck in "traffic" when the horses were headed back the the Fairgrounds. SO....I got to see the parade afterall. With JT's commentary, I think I got a better "show" lol

Video from JT's car :)

This weekend was our annual Christmas get together with some friends. April had the best idea to do a soup swap. Everyone made soup (a lot of soup) and brought one sample of their soup to serve. The rest of the soup was frozen and put into quart size bags so that each of us went home with 6 different soups. YUM! I was stressing about making that much soup, but JT came to the rescue and made it for us. How wonderful is he? He's a much better cook. I hope our friends love our "soup"

We made chili and sweet cornbread. For the cornbread, I mixed 1 Jiffy cornbread with 1 box of yellow cake mix and cooked according to the time/temp on the cornbread box. You mix these together using the directions on the back of each box (substituting milk for water) It was delicious!

Below is what everyone made. I was in heaven! I love just about any soup and they were all so delicious. I am thinking we should make that idea an annual tradition. :)

April- Goat Cheese Tomato Basil Soup & grilled cheese croutons
Kent- Potato Bacon Soup
Thornton's Chili & Cornbread
Rierson's- Veggie Chili
Emert's- Indian Stew
Shoemaker's- Cheesy Chicken Tortellini Soup w/ french baguette
Hopkins'- Tortellini Soup

Directions for a Soup Sawp

1. Make 6 quarts of your favorite soup. Making it ahead of time to allow time for it to freeze.
2. Label 6 freezer ziplock bags with the name of the soup, date, and any instructions needed to re-heat or garish the soup.
3. Put 1 quart (4 cups for those of you that are bad at math like me) into each bag, laying the bags flat in the freezer making them easier to store.
4. Bring the recipe and the soups to the party
5. Bring a cooler/ice to transport soups.

April is so sweet, she sent us all an e-mail with tips which are below.

Quadruple your recipe.

Use a 6 Quart pot

Buy freezer quart bags

4 cups = 1 quart

find a large measuring cup, or pitcher that can hold 4 cups. Ladle the soup into the measuring cup, and then pour it into the baggies.

Release the air and lay flat.

Lay it flat in a freezer basket or a box.

If everyone lays their soup flat, it will be really easy to store!

For the white elephant exchange, JT opened the santa suit which meant he was "black" santa for the night. Talk about funny! Most of the kids were scared. Harper was so sweet. Last year (when her dad was Santa) she was terrified. This year she was all over Santa. Maybe she likes black men :) Not sure what Isaiah's deal was. He was not in a good mood all night. He was fighting to stay awake the entire time and was fussy. Our night ended earlier than expected, I felt bad for him and knew the second we got into the car to go home, he would fall right asleep...And he did.

Here are some pictures/video from the night.