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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

What Fun, What Fun!



We had a blast yesterday! Santa came!!! Luke got TONS of toys. Way too many! I mean we tried to be reasonable.. but everybody else did not!! Oh well, such is the life of the only grandson on all sides!! As of yesterday our den looked like this:



Yes, this is the damage of one child (and his father). Thankfully it only looks half as bad now.
I hope that your Christmas was filled with lots of love and family time! I thank God for the wonderful blessing of His Son, Jesus Christ! Without Him I would be nothing!



Friday, December 21, 2007

Leah's Recipe Exchange

I joined Leah's Recipe Exchange last week and just posted my second recipe. It's a yummy coffee cake that I'll be making for Christmas morning. Please go by and visit the page and browse all of the yummy recipes that have been posted!

ETA- for some reason the "link" isn't showing up (on my computer at least). You should be able to click on "Leah's Recipe Exchange" or you can also click the icon on my side bar!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Christmas Tour

So, I was late for officially getting in on Boomama's Christmas Tour of Homes, but I have had fun looking through all of the homes. You should definitely check them out.


Here's the wreath that hangs on the front door. Sorry it's at an angle, I wasn't about to go outside this morning in my pj's in the freezing cold! Plus we live in the parsonage.. so I'm not sure it's appropriate to go outside in my pj's anyways. It needs a bow or something at the top but I don't do bows.. my mom makes all of mine!


And here is our 'skinny' tree. In our previous house we didn't have much room so we bought this skinny little thing. I would love to upgrade one day.. but not this year.

Yep, my mom made that bow....

Here are a few of my favorite ornaments:

This one is from Christmas 2005. I was about 3 months pregnant around Christmastime and my mom and dad gave us this "Parent's-to-Be" ornament.




This little sweet ornament is from last year, Luke's first Christmas. A very talented woman at the church where R and I met made it. It has Luke's name hand painted and his little handprint on it.



Here is the hutch in the dining room. I am not one to take down everything and replace it with all Christmas things. I just don't have that kind of decorations, I've only been decorating my house for 4 seasons... so I've got some years of decorations to collect! The stocking is my hubby's stocking from his childhood.





Here is a little closer look....



This is the other corner of the dining room with my mini tree. I hope to one day have enough gingerbread/candy ornaments to fill a large tree. And that little fellow in the mismatched pj's (and notice the black rain boots that he wore with his fireman Halloween costume, on the wrong feet mind you) is the reason why there are limited decorations at hands reach.


And here is an up close pic of some of the gingerbread/candy ornaments on the small tree, I just LOVE them!



I have a few other things out but these are my favorites. Thanks for stopping by.. and I'm so glad that it was a virtual visit. Because today my house is a mess!! I've got to shake this cold so I can do some cleaning! Hope you didn't catch anything while you were here! ;)

Luke 2:14“ Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Sugar Cookies w/ Candy Cane Kisses!



Well, I made those yummy sugar cookies with the candy cane kisses! They turned out so cute! I still have lots of them even though lots were eaten! It makes a bunch! Luke loves the cookie part but isn't too fond of the kisses in the middle.. so he eats around it! Here's the sugar cookie recipe (from a friend of mine) and I'll add the changes I made for these particular cookies at the bottom:


Rolled Sugar Cookies
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 TBS milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups self-rising flour

In large bowl combine sugar, butter and milk, vanilla and egg, blend well. Mix in flour. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate for 1 hour.
*My notes: This dough is STICKY!!! So it MUST be refrigerated! You will think it needs more flour by how sticky it gets but it really doesn't. I honestly don't think an hour would do it. I always make my dough thenight before so it has all night in the frig! I just lightly flour the plastic wrap and dump the dough on it and wrap it up!

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough about 1/4 inch thick on floured surface. Cut with cookie cutter and bake for 5-7 minutes until lightly golden on bottom.
*My notes: I have made these sugar cookies many times rolling them out and they are wonderful w/ icing on top!! I usually take about 1/3 of the dough from the frig and roll it out... cut and bake. It's best to keep the rest of the dough in the frig so it doesn't get warm. It really works best when it's really chilled! They cook fast and will burn in no time. In my oven they need right at 5 to 5 1/2 minutes. They shouldn't brown on the top at all.


Candy Cane Sugar Cookies:

Prepare dough the same way as above and refrigerate. Heat oven to 400. Break off pieces of dough and roll into a ball about the size of walnuts. Arrange on lightly greased cookie sheet about 4 inches apart. Press each dough ball into a 1/4 inch thick flat disk with a glass (make sure to flour the bottom of the glass) making sure that each cookie has about 2 inches between them after being pressed. Bake 5-7 minutes. When the cookies come out of the oven press one candy cane kiss into the center of each cookie. Immediately move to a wire cooling rack. Be careful not to turn/tilt the cookies when moving them off of the cookie sheet because the kisses will immediately begin to melt thus resulting in a big blob of melted white chocolote. These must cool for a few hours for the kisses to harden back up. This makes 3-4 dozen.


And if you're interested:


Icing (for Rolled Sugar Cookies)
2/3 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-4 TBS milk

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and milk, adding enough for spreading consistency. Add food coloring if you'd like. Spread onto cooled cookies. This icing never gets rock hard but it does harden up some.
YUM!