Christmas Cookie Recipes

The Christmas baking season has commenced!

All three cookie recipes can be seen here.

Candy Cane Cookies/Spritz Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
food coloring

Cream butter, shortening and powdered sugar.  Blend in egg and extracts.  Stir in flour and salt.  Blend in food coloring, fill cookie press and press onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes.  Dark pans go less, light colored pans go a little longer.  Allow to cool 1 minute on pan and then cool completely on cookie rack or foil.

Butter Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 beaten egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix as usual for cookies - fat, sugar, egg, vanilla, dry ingredients.

Roll into small balls.  Roll in colored sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly.  Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes.  Dark pans go less, light pans go longer.  Cool for 1-2 minutes on pan.

Mixed Nut Bars
(Although I didn't have enough butterscotch chips these still turned out well and they were so delicious.  Everybody loved these.  Warren loved the edges where the butterscotch sauce cooked up a little firmer.  I liked the gooey centers better.  They were all around winners.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup + 2 T. cold butter (divided)
1 can (11.5 ounce) mixed nuts - I've used salted and unsalted with good results
1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 light corn syrup

Combine dry ingredients and 1/2 cup butter in food processor until crumbly.  Press into a greased 13x9x2 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with nuts.  Melt butterscotcch chips in microwave in 30 second blasts stirring well until melted.  Stir in corn syrup and 2 T. butter and throughly mixed.  Pour over nuts.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Cool and cut into 1 x 2 inch bars.

Jesus Calling::The Story of Christmas {review & giveaway}

Happy Advent

Merry Christmas

I am always looking to add to our Christmas season collection of books and after last year's fiasco with over 20 of our books getting wet and then moldy it's even more important to me than ever to build up our collection again. 

Replacing our old favorites and adding new titles is how it'll be done.  Jesus Calling::The Story of Christmas by Sarah Young is a new book out this year and it is so sweet.

First off the dust jacket is sparklized.  And who doesn't love sparkles at Christmas?  Only Grinches and Scrooges that's who.

Then even better than a sparklized cover is the fact that there are three versions of the story on the pages of this book.

There's scripture on each page, which when in hurry tells the whole story in under 6 minutes.  Busy parents still needing to wrap presents on Christmas Eve would never dream of only reading the scripture to get through the book quickly, but I tell you that just in case.

There's also a nice wordy story portion on each page.  It takes the scripture and puts it into story form.  Longer, yes, but beautiful and sweet and meaningful and all the things.  This was my 5 year olds favorite storyline.  

Then there is the Jesus Calling section on each page.  This is written from Jesus' point of view in first person.  Each page has a reminder of what Christmas is all about and what we should be waiting for or doing to get ready for Jesus.

So this is like three books in one.  For super snowy afternoons reading all three sections is a meaningful way to cuddle up on the couch with the kiddos.

Choose to read only one "storyline" on busy days - if you ever have those.

OR

Crazier yet, let the kids look at all the pictures on their own and tell the story in their own words to their siblings.  That's one of my favorites because they add in all kinds of embellishments.

WIN YOUR OWN COPY

You can find the signup form by following this link to enter to win your copy of Jesus Calling::The Story of Christmas.

And it's OK if you simply want to buy it.  Here's my Amazon affiliate link (thank you so much).

It's currently 29% off!!

And since I'm always on the lookout for meaningful Christmas books, what's your favorite?  Share in the comments.  Thanks.

Our Christmas Gift and Wrapping Tradition...(still going strong)

Having 7 kids in the house makes for a wild, exciting, exhausting, yet fun Christmas Eve.  For years we've followed the same tradition of 3 packages to unwrap on Christmas Eve and a stocking Christmas morning.  Back in 2010 I shared the details of how we choose gifts, wrap presents, and how we keep track of whose is whose without name tags.  It's really a lot of fun and the teenagers still enjoy the tradition.  The only thing that's changed since then is we've added two more kids to the clan and now most of the presents are on top of the TV cabinet instead of under the tree.

Actually, just last night I placed a few of the larger gifts under the tree (just to see if the little kids would leave them alone).  It didn't take long before I heard the sound of ripping paper.  Joseph was the culprit; I taped it back together while Peter scolded him and so far so good, no more unwrapping.

What Christmas traditions do you have? 

Please share in the comments.

*just a note about the pictures in the 2010 blog post, for some reason they are turned and blogger will not let me rotate them to an upright position, sorry for the disruption

Tis the Season to Shop.....or Not

Shopping, shopping, shopping!  This is the time of year for it.  Or is it?

As I made a Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping list, I was given a gentle reminder that all the gifts in the world don't make tiny tots happy.  See, as I was trying to decide on which tights Maria would like better and what type of gun Peter would like, plastic or wood, they had their own idea of what fun really is.  At first, their fun looked like a collection of trash bags from the bedrooms and bathrooms.  Really?  We have bins of animals, blocks, Duplos, cars, a play kitchen and I'm trying to decide what else to buy for their toy collection and they play with garbage.  

Once I took a closer look and asked, "What in the world are you doing?"  did I realize that this little game of theirs was actually quite sweet.  They were wrapping stuffed animals in plastic bags and tying them with rubberbands. These were all presents for me.  One look around and I counted 18 of these presents and they wanted me to open each and every one.  I obliged with oohs and aahs and then convinced them to help me with the clean up of all the bags, rubberbands, and stuffed animals.

Little kids don't need much.  Save your money for those big kids with big wants.  After this little escapade I tossed the Black Friday list and decided to keep Christmas VERY simple for our little ones.  Simple for them translates to simple for me.  A win-win!

HAPPY ADVENT

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.  Desmond Tutu

My Daily Dove Chocolate

Yesterday I bought a bag of Dove Mint Bark at Walgreens.  Don't you just love their deals?  Last week I purchased holiday m&ms and a $5.00 coupon printed for more candy.  Love it!  I had to use the coupon this week before it expired and wouldn't you know Walgreens had Dove Christmas candies on sale for 2/$6.00 with a $2.00 register reward printing at checkout.  I used my $5.00 coupon and essentially made a $1.00 with that transaction.  Ok, so I tried the Dove Mint Bark and OH. MY. GOSH. It is divine.  I tore open the bag in the solitude of my bedroom to help get me through hiding Christmas presents in my closet and this is what I found:  a perfect little square of dark chocolate topped with a layer of crushed peppermints in white bark. I ate 2, then put away a couple things, ate another and twisted the bag closed.  Who was I kidding?  Put away a couple more things.  Opened the bag and had another 2.  I wasn't piggy about it though, I did pause between bites to read the cute little sayings on the wrappers.  My favorite was this:

Togetherness for the holidays is a gift in itself.

We all know this is true.  Being together with family and friends during the holidays really is a gift.  But my wanting to have a plan for everything brain read this as togetherness = having a plan, being organized, being ready, having supplies handy.  Moms know that with all that is expected from now until the New Year a plan is essential.  I believe it goes a step further.  A WRITTEN plan is essential.  My brain has so much swimming around it that if I don't write it down it's not going to happen or get done.  I've tried using all kinds of free printables in the past and find that really all I need is a simple notebook dedicated to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years planning.  I do make a paper pocket that I tape inside the front cover.  That's where I keep my online shopping confirmations and store receipts.  For those of you who like printables for everything under the sun, here's a great website with tons of free printables for planning your way to a "Together" holiday. 

Thanksgiving Planner

Christmas Planner

My holiday planner is gradually filling up with lists of gifts to buy, cookies to make, new recipes, homemade ornament ideas, Advent books to read and a big reminder on every page that there'll be a newborn in the house.  Anything that gets checked off the list will be a good thing.  So since the holiday planning in underway, so must the holiday candy eating.  I'm heading off to have another piece of candy.  It'll only be my third for the day, but the bag is slowly emptying.  Hats off to a well-planned, enjoyable holiday season starting with Thanksgiving and ending with the New Year.



Christmas Day

Christmas Day brought more fun.  It was up early to see just how good we all were this past year.  Santa treated everyone to a nice assortment of stuffed animals, candy, 22 shells, stickers, tiny trucks, lotion, pop guns, and an electric guitar.  You can see three of the kids' expressions when they discovered the guitar under the tree in the collage above.  There was mass, violin duets, piano solos, shepherding, visiting, and just being filled with the spirit of Christmas which is another way of saying the kids were loud all day and Grandma can attest to that.

Christmas Eve

This is just a tiny clip from our Christmas Eve celebration. The shoes, why in the world would I take a picture of my shoes? Well, I did so to document that I wore high heels all day Christmas Eve. It seems, as a child, I remember the grown-ups waiting until the work was done to put on the nice Christmas outfit, but people would start showing up and lets face it, Christmas brings a lot of work especially if you have kids so the work is never over. At first I grabbed a pair of sweats on Christmas Eve morning thinking of all the tidying up, cookie baking, laundry and last minute gift wrapping that had to be done. But I knew that would put everyone into the "mom's gonna make us clean today" mood and knowing I wanted a happier mood set I decided to put on a sparkly top, nice blue jeans and high heels. I put on makeup and jewelry right away too. And I was right everyone pitched in with the jobs and cookie baking with a Christmasy spirit. Amber and Emily even ran back to their room to change into pretty clothes too. At one point I was dusting, wearing satiny red high heels and Amber said, "You look pretty cleaning with your high heels on, but isn't it hard to do?" Well, yes it was a little....slow. Heels really make a woman take small steps. I guess I needed that reminder to slow down. I tend to start in with the day expecting everyone else to mimic my level of fortitude. I've been known to bark out orders until everyone is sick of me. But on Christmas Eve day my heels were a reminder to slow down, do everything with purpose and be happy with what got done.

Merry Christmas

I'm taking a moment to stop in at my lonely blog to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas.  I realize I haven't posted anything in December but Christmas preparations, homeschooling and vacations have literally taken every minute of my time.  Here are a couple views of our tree with presents sprawling out from underneath.








This is a good time to share a couple of our gift giving and wrapping traditions.  I really can't remember where these ideas came from.  I suppose we could've come up with them on our own, I just don't know.  Each year we get the kids three gifts:  something to read, something to wear and something for fun.  We use these categories loosely and use our creativity to the fullest.  Last year a shotgun with a sling became something to wear.  We also wrap the gifts as we buy them and put them under the tree as soon as we have it up and decorated.  The kicker is the gifts are not labeled.  In advance I choose 5 different papers and then decide which child will get which paper and wrap all three of their gifts in that paper.  So when we place the gifts under the tree they do not know whose gifts are whose.  There's always lots of guessing throughout the weeks and hoping that the paper with the largest presents is for them.  Then on Christmas Eve we hide scraps of each paper with their name on the back and as they find the squares of paper the mystery is revealed.  It's great fun to be a part of this tradition and this family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ~ MAY YOU HAVE A PEACEFUL HOLIDAY

Week Before Christmas School

When last minute Christmas preparations sneak up it's time to relax the math, spelling and language and go heavy on art (sewing, cutting, gluing, framing, glitter, wrapping), physical education (sledding, ice hockey) and of course daily living skills (dusting, scrubbing, tidying, slicing, chopping, mixing, baking). We haven't forgotten about reading though. I bought lots of new Advent/Christmas books this year. We're also listening to A Season of Gifts.

And when Amber and Sam are feeling the need for a little phonics practice, Starfall always delivers. They love it and so do I. Amber was trying to spell Claus as in Santa yesterday and when I prompted her with au sounds like? She said oh I learned that on Starfall and immediately spelled it correctly.

Post Thanksgiving Shopping

When in the right mood, I love shopping. This mood doesn't come very often - usually starts the end of November and ends right around Christmas. Today was a perfectly sunny and crisp day to embark on a shopping trip. Since we had to take my mom home, Grace, Lou, Grandma and I made a few stops along the way. First up was Walgreen's. I love Walgreen's! Just the right size. Just the right amount of choices. Just the right sale prices and I love their coupons and rebates. In the past I've received $40 worth of rebate gift cards, enough money to purchase my entire Walgreen's list for the next month. Then I rebate again and the cycle continues. The most prized item purchased at Walgreen's was by Lou. She finally got the Fart Putty she'd been wanting for her entire life of November.

Then we headed off to McDonald's where, once again, Lou was in her glory. I encouraged her to drink all her milk, play and then take her food in the van to eat on our way to Kohl's. She looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said "Are you sure you want me to play before I eat all my food?"

At Kohl's I found exactly the items I was looking for and they were all 50 and 60% off and mom had a $10 coupon. Jackpot! Just two more stops and Nice As New and Target and then to take mom home. It's amazing how fun shopping can be when the boys stay home. Not that they're naughty, they'd just rather not be there, and it shows.

The Salvation Army red kettles are out. The stores are jammed with customers. Christmas songs play 24 hours a day on certain radio stations. Christmas is upon us, but let's not forget Advent. The very message of Advent is preparation. There's gift ideas, wrapping, baking, cleaning, writing cards, decorating and so much more. But let's not forget to prepare a place for baby Jesus in our hearts, homes and lives. Confession, weekly Advent devotions, well chosen Christmas stories - these can help us to prepare everything with love for Jesus' sake.

Preparations

Cranberry harvest, vacation week 1, Thanksgiving and deer hunting are over. This year the calendar is being very good to me. There is a full week between Thanksgiving and Advent, which will allow for some extra special plans. Of course, I have to clean the storage room in the basement in order to find all the Christmas decorations, first. I bought Christmas Mosaic from Hillside Press and am impressed with the number of books highlighted. I put together a Christmas Mosaic Advent Fun Packet. The plan is to work through a number of the books during the month of December and early January, using the packet as a learning guide. I prepared packets for each of the kids, according to their level, which will serve as a place to keep all their Advent reflections, devotions and coloring/art work. I am extremely pleased with how the packets turned out and will post more about them as we start the month of Christmas Mosaic.

Christmas in July

Lee: Is Santa Claus real? Caleb said he's dead and that he died a real long time ago, like in 1989 or something.

There's a lot to ponder in those two sentences. First is the Santa Claus issue. I wish we'd tackled Santa like other animated figures. They are cute, fun to pretend with and about, but definitely not real. But we didn't. Our kids believe that Santa is a real and fantastic being. So my best answer, for Lee, to the question was that if you believe Santa puts toys in your stocking and you wake up Christmas morning to find toys actually in your stocking then most likely Santa put them there. How was that? Am I causing psychological trauma? I hope not! Next is the dead or alive part. Indeed there was a real St. Nicholas and he was known to throw sacks of coins to the poor children. He was alive and did in fact die a real long time ago. But 1989? Come on, that wasn't that long ago. Once I explained that I was 17 years young, a teenager, in 1989, Lee decided that wasn't that long ago after all.

Then, later in the day Lou begged to make graham cracker gingerbread houses. In July? It must be the soaring temperatures are making us all wish for cooler weather, but not quite like December. Today it's 89 degrees F. Mid 90's are forecasted for this weekend. So I obliged and out came the graham crackers, frosting and sprinkles. And when it was all done we sat down for a very tasty snack of walls, sidewalks, fences and chimneys.