Christmas Blessings

As Christmas quickly approaches, it is time to take a few minutes to reflect on the true spirit of Christmas.  Christmas is about more than gifts and Santa.  Christmas is about celebrating love of a father, the blessings of a son, and the gifts of the spirit.  Even if one is not religious, love, family and hope are still a foundation of Christmas.  

Christmas is a time to count our blessings for the year as we look ahead to the next.  Even if it has been a rough year, there is still bound to be one or two good blessings.  Blessings for our family include:  Princess graduating to underwear, Pumpkin writing his name for the first time, Hubby being unharmed in a freak accident, and for me- taking some really incredible shots with my digital camera this year.  Take some time to reflect on your blessings and see what you come up with.

Christmas is about hope.  Growing up my Sunday school teacher's favorite saying this time of the year was "Jesus Is The Reason For The Season!"  One year she gave everyone in her Sunday school class a simple ornament with that saying and every year it hangs on my tree.  This time of the year is about hope and the promise of goodness to come.  Hope is a foundation which we build our lives on.  Without hope we can become lost and fall into despair. 

Christmas is about love and family.  Dad always says "You can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family."  That is quite hilarious but very true.  Love is unconditional when it comes to family, just like God loves us unconditionally no matter what.  You may not always agree with your family and there may be differences of opinion from time to time, but families forgive and families love and families share hope for the future. 

Christmas is also about memories of years past- your history.  Just as the Bible tells what happened many, many years ago, we also remember to earlier times in our lives.  The smells of a freshly cut Christmas tree, the joy of a family making Christmas cookies, remembrance of gifts from Christmas past, family traditions past down from year to year, and missing loved ones that have gone on before us.  These memories are what make us who we are and can define where we are going in life.

Our family wishes yours Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with hope, blessings, and love!

Cookie Time!

Earlier this week we had our annual family cookie making day at grandma's house.  It was my sister, grandma and I making our Christmas treats.

This year our day had an interesting twist with the oven deciding not to open and keeping the lemonade cookies that my sister was baking inside.  The repairman was able to free the cookies the next day and the birds got a special treat.  It ended up that the motor went out on the auto-clean feature (which grandma has never used) and the oven automatically locked the door.  The auto clean has been permanently disconnected to prevent a reoccurence of the problem.  So we were able to make about half of the cookies that day.  I also had to take one chilled recipe home to bake in my non-automatic oven.

Here are the two recipes that I chose this year!

Melting Snowman Cookie Balls from Kraft Foods 

(click on highlighted recipe name for direct link)

Ingredients:  

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
24 NUTTER BUTTER Cookies, finely crushed (about 3 cups)
2 pkg. (6 squares each) BAKER'S White Chocolate, melted
48 Mini OREO Bite Size Cookies
2 Tbsp. decorating icing

Instructions: 

MIX cream cheese and cookie crumbs until well blended. SHAPE into 48 (1-inch) balls; place in single layer in shallow pan. Freeze 10 min. Dip balls in melted chocolate (use two forks to coat & transfer); place in shallow waxed paper-lined pan, allowing excess chocolate to pool at bottom of each ball and place oreo on top for hat. REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Decorate with faces. Keep refrigerated.

Notes:  Well our cookie balls had a tan color from the 1/4 cup peanut butter that was mixed into the chocolate per the original recipe instructions.  I just visited the kraft website and they have removed the peanut butter from the recipe.  Next time we will just use white chocolate only for the coating.  We may also play with replacing the nutter butter cookies with oreo cookies and see how that works out.  Either way, these were very delicious. 

My Great-Grandma's Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cream of tarter

1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Cream vegetable oil, butter and both sugars.  Add vanilla, lemon extract and eggs.  Sift dry ingredients, then stir and blend all together.  Chill one hour.   Roll a teaspoon of soft dough into a ball, flaten down a little on greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugar (I use the bottom of a drinking glass that has been dipped in sugar between each cookie).  Bake approximately 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Makes 8 dozen.

Note: I use parchment paper on my baking sheets and that cuts the baking time down to about 6 minutes, so keep an eye on the first batch to get the proper timing down.  These are a favorite of mine since I was a little kid.  I remember visiting my great-grandma (whom lived several hours away) and she would pull these cookies out of her freezer and we would decorate them with colored icing before eating them.  Enjoy!!!

My sister chose lemonade cookies and a turtle treat (which has yet to be made, darn oven).  Grandma make a chocolate cookie bar and was going to make another oven requiring treat.  I think they may be finishing the rest of the cookies this coming week.

What treats are you making this Christmas season???

The Princess and The Potty

Princess graduated from potty training last week.  She is excited to wear her little undies everywhere she goes.  We have chosen to have her wear pull-ups at night for the time being.  But I'm sure that by the time the warmer months roll around she will be completely graduated.

As her special treat for graduating from daytime potty training she received a beautiful Cinderella dress.  Always so cute!!!!!

Pumpkin of course had to get into the picture action, so he brought a "Transformer" in to show off.  To him any toy vehicle can be instantly turned into a Transformer.

May the adventures continue!!!!!

Crafty Fun

This evening Pumpkin and Princess had two friends over (4 years and 17 months).  We made applesauce ornaments and some really cool coasters!!!!!

The coasters were a hit with both families.  

Needed supplies- plastic jar lids, plaster of paris, glass stones, sea shells, or other suitable materials.

Instructions- Pour plaster of paris into the plastic jar lids and have the little ones place objects into the wet material.  The plaster of paris will harden within an hour.  Don't forget to wash your hands after you finish.

Viola, some nifty homemade Christmas presents.

Astronomy Adventures

I enjoy staring up at the night sky.  I can find the North Star and the Big Dipper, but that is about it.  I can pick constellations out in an illustrated guide book, but to just look up and find them just does not typically happen for me.   

Astronomy is a fun adventure no matter the time of the year, but the dry winter air gives the best views of the night’s sky.  This inexpensive hobby can be as simple as your own eyes and a library book, or as advanced as a pair of binoculars and telescope. 

The luminous moon is always a source of wonder especially for children.  Take an evening moon adventure.  Look up at the moon, what phase is shining through the night sky?  Is it a full circle, a crescent, or has it disappeared?  If the moon is full, can you see dark spots on the surface?  Some say there is a man on the moon, while one Native American legend says that there is a frog on the moon.  What do you see?

 

Star watching is another fun adventure.  It can be a lot like cloud watching, if you connect the dots what creatures can you find among the stars?  

Look for these starry favorites:   

  * North Star           * Big Dipper

* Orion                  * Taurus

* Jupiter                * Venus

See astronomy can be fun, so stop by your local library, pick up some books and head outside to watch the show in the night sky.  Visit NASA's website for upcoming eclipses and meteor shows.