One of the best sounds in the world is to hear your family trying to contain nervous, excited laughter together!
Have you ever gone Boo’ing? We went Boo’ing for Family Home Evening on Monday night and it was a blast! Last week I was reminded of it when reading a favorite blog and when I explained it to the boys, they loved the idea. In fact, they immediately disappeared into their room and began drawing and cutting out ghosts with “You’ve gust been booed!” written on about a dozen sheets of paper. Easton thought it was gut-laugh-funny to write “gust” – he’s got such an easy sense of humor!
I baked up three loaves of my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip bread and wrapped them up so that we could go out right after dinner. I showed incredible restraint because I've been craving baked sweet breads lately. We were going to drop these treats on doorsteps of friends, ring their doorbell, and run like heck so we wouldn’t be found out. The kids were sooooo excited they could barely stand it!
Easton climbed the three sets of stairs to get to our neighbors with two little girls. He dropped the loaf outside their door, rang their doorbell, and ran down the stairs as fast as he could. He heard them open the door and begin calling out “Hallo? Hallo?” to which he couldn’t stop giggling over and Ryan couldn’t stop grinning!
Meanwhile, I’d already begun walking up the street with Morgan and Jake bundled up in the double stroller. McKay was hanging back so he could Boo the Blauchs as Dad and Easton left our building. McKay soon came running up the street with Dad with the biggest grin on his face! Success! Dana was brave enough to answer the door at night while her husband’s deployed but called to make sure it was us so she felt comfortable eating the treat from someone she knew.
Then we walked into downtown Schonaich to get our last door done, the Williams. This one would be tricky because they have a big friendly labradoodle and a locked gate we know how to open. Ryan took Easton, McKay, and Morgan on this one as I headed around the corner and down the street a bit – ya never know how families with strong young boys are going to react to being ding-dong-ditched and I wanted to get a good start. Soon enough, my crew came running and giggling down the road to join me. Seriously my favorite thing ever – hearing them all trying to contain their nervous, excited giggling!
It was the perfect clear, crisp fall evening and the walk home was filled with giggles and stories of their success. We've had a beautiful sunny fall this year! My family growing up enjoyed doing this sort of thing now and then for FHE. As much fun as it is to be on the receiving end of delicious treats, I think it’s so much more fun being the giver!
And because I'm in a serious sweet bread baking mood and perhaps you are too - especially pumpkin -- here's the recipe!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread - Moist, Delicious, Easy!
5 eggs
1 cup oil
1 15oz can of pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
2 3.4 oz packages instant vanilla pudding
2 cups chocolate chips, optional
Preheat oven to 350F. Mix first three ingredients, beat well. Add remaining ingredients except pudding and mix until blended. Then stir pudding into mix, add chocolate chips, and pour into bread tins. Bake for approximately 1 hour - mine took 1 hour 20 minutes to pass the clean toothpick test. I placed foil on top for the last 30 minutes to prevent the top from getting too dark.
Makes 3 medium sized loaves or two 9x5 loaves. Recipe begged from my friend, Diana Porter. Enjoy!
