12 Days

With 12 days left until Christmas, I thought it was time for a couple of Christmas projects. I told the girls that if they did their chores really well this morning, we’d have time to do some fun things in the afternoon. And lo, they cleaned up! An early Christmas miracle.

 

This is stage one of our first project. I will have to finish stage two later – when there are less kids jumping around. Can you guess what they are?

 

Then, on to cookies! We decided on Gingersnaps today.

 

Diligently rolling the dough balls in sugar.

 

But ready to pause for a photo-op.

 

Or a little goofing off.

 

There was a lot of “tasting” throughout the process.

 

The finished product! Some of them anyway. It wouldn’t be Christmas baking if we didn’t at least double the recipe, right?

It turned out to be a productive afternoon. Hope your preparations are going well, too!

7 Random Christmas Takes

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Here is a bit of what ours looked like.

 

1. I’ve really enjoyed having Paul home the past couple of weeks. Besides being a big help with the kids, it’s just been nice to spend the time together during the day. He goes back to work on Tuesday, so we’ll see how I adjust now that I’ve been spoiled.

 

2. Through the fault generosity of my mother, we’ve acquired a variety of singing Christmas animals over the past couple of years. I put them on the mantle with some of the other Christmas decorations, but naturally they didn’t stay there long. Jacinta in particular has been quite enamored of them. While for the most part I don’t mind the music, there are one or two that may mysteriously lose their batteries between now and next Christmas.

 

3. Speaking of Christmas, Veronica finally got the dinosaur that she asked to be her prize for potty training. She’s done really well over the past couple of months - though she sometimes has an accident if she is too busy playing – and for the most part she can go number one independently. Barring the occasional gratuitous use of toilet paper or fifteen-minute hand washing session.

 

4. Apparently it is just too much to ask your children to smile nicely for a Christmas photo at church.

 

5. Or to put down the new toy to get a nice dress picture.

 

6. When opening presents Christmas morning, Jacinta felt that the floor was just too uncomfortable. So she got pillows for herself and Veronica to sit on. Ahhh, much better.

 

7. After a lovely Christmas dinner with Paul’s brother and his family, the cousins engaged in a game of knights. Why yes, Veronica is dressed like Darth Vader. Or, as she put it, wearing the black armor. It was a great night with fun had by all.

Happy Christmas week!

7 Holiday Recipes

 

For this week’s 7 Quick Takes, here’s some new (to us) holiday recipes we’ve made this fall and winter.

 

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1. Pumpkin Cornbread – A tasty variation of cornbread that is perfect for fall. Just be careful not to let it dry out, like I did the second time I made it. My oven seems to run a little hot, so I need to bake it for less time than the recipe calls for.

 

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2. Crispy Pumpkin Cookies – I love pumpkin cookies, but my husband is not a fan of how soft and chewy they are. Well, these cookies are the best of both the pumpkin-flavored and crispy cookie worlds.

 

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3. Candy Corn Bark – I saw several different variations of this recipe pop up all over Pinterest before Halloween. This version turned out fantastic! And I even found real white chocolate chips (made with cocoa butter instead of oil) at the grocery store. Super yum.

 

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4. Meringue Cookies – I have a lot of leftover egg whites from making ice cream (see below) and I decided to give meringues a try. I went with the Vanilla Rum flavor, it tastes great! Mine are definitely not as pretty, though.

 

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5. Peppermint Bark Fudge – I’ve been on a real peppermint kick lately, and this seemed like the perfect recipe to try to get my fix. So easy, and so good.

 

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6. Peppermint Ice Cream – Speaking of peppermint, one of my favorite holiday treats is Peppermint Ice Cream. I simply must have it around Christmas. Since my homemade ice cream has been turning out so well, I wanted to try my hand at making this holiday treat, and The Pioneer Woman came through for me as usual.

 

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7. Eggnog Ice Cream – Finally, a new favorite in our house, we discovered Eggnog Ice Cream last Christmas and fell in love. So, of course, I had to try my hand at this one as well. I used The Pioneer Woman’s Vanilla Bean Ice Cream as a base (and cut back on the vanilla a bit), then added flavorings from this recipe. I did compensate for the difference in volume between the recipes, but I think I would even go a little heavier on the spices next time.

If you have a chance to try any of these, do it! They are all fantastic ways to celebrate the season.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Cookies!

One of the projects that kept Paul and Veronica busy last week was a super batch of butter cookies. It happened in stages, making up the giant bowl of dough one day, then rolling, cutting and baking the next. Finally it was time to decorate!

 

Veronica was in charge of sprinkles, which was fine by her.

 

Jacinta got to “decorate” a cookie. Which meant licking the frosting off and starting over again. And again.

 

All the sprinkles have to be sampled, right?

 

Done! Didn’t I say it was a super batch?

 

Along with the more traditional Christmas shapes, Veronica picked out a few others that she liked. Thank you to Deb and Clint for the timely gift of fun cookie cutters, without which this cookie would not have been possible.

 

Nor this one. Dinosaurs are popular in our house.

 

This fish was the cookie that Veronica picked out to eat first. She took a few bites then set it aside to “save for later”. She still hasn’t finished it. Girl just doesn’t have a sweet tooth.

 

Jacinta, on the other hand…

 

A fun Christmas baking project. Now what to make next?

A List

1. I had intended to write all sorts of witty holiday posts leading up to Christmas and New Year’s. But time got the better of me. A lot. So I didn’t.

 

2. This is one reason for my busy-ness. Oh, and making the horse kept me busy, too.

 

3. I made one for Jacinta, but I don’t expect her to ride it for at least another month or so.

 

4. Aren’t they sweet?

 

5. Veronica got sick the day after Christmas. At first we thought it was because she found a step stool in my mom’s kitchen and kept using it to sneak cookies and chocolates off of the dessert tray, but she really did have a little something. It didn’t last long. Longer than her guilt over stealing treats, though.

 

6. We went on a little trip. More on that later.

 

7. Aren’t they sweet?

Christmas Baking

One of my favorite things about the holidays is all the tasty food that goes along with them. From Thanksgiving until New Year’s there is no lack of edibles, no matter what your taste is. And a sure way to tell that Christmas is approaching is the heavenly smell of something in the oven, that staple of Christmas fare – Christmas cookies!

 

This year I decided that Veronica was old enough to give me hand.

 

No, the smiles on our faces aren’t because of the six pack of beer that I neglected to move off of the counter. You can see they’ve all still got their caps on. *Hic*

 

 

Operating the sprinkles was the job of choice.

 

And she was good at it!

 

A little too good. How do you dispose of excess sprinkles?

 

Eat them of course!

 

Yum!

 

Jacinta helped by sitting and being cute. She was good at her job, too.

 

It’s always been a tradition in our family to bake butter cookies for Christmas, so it was fun to share with my daughter. Just like my mom did with me and my siblings, and her mom before that. And while it makes me miss my grandmother a lot, it’s nice to know that a part of her still lives on with us when we continue to share holiday traditions like this one.

Happy Baking, everyone!