Christmas Morning Re-Enactment

Christmas morning....what a perfect time to sit in front of the fireplace and do a little knitting. I think I'll grab my cozy quilt and my scarf project and settle in.

Well hello Butterscotch. How nice of you to keep me company while I'm knitting. We'll sure have fun sitting together while mommy knits.

Um....excuse me.....I'm sure you don't realize it but you seem to be laying on my working yarn.

And what just happened? That pillow you're using? It's my ball of yarn. We need to talk.

That's a picture I can't resist taking. You win.

So much for Christmas morning knitting.

A Gift From the Heart

One handmade gift was given this year. It was for hubby. He's one of my best supporters when it comes to my creative endeavors (although I'm fortunate to have quite a few loyal supporters) so I decided to make him something for Christmas.

This was made in lots of little snippets of time, mostly in the wee hours of the morning and while he was out clearing snow (thank goodness for a heavy snowstorm days before Christmas).

Hubby gets home from work pretty late in the evening. I save dinner for him and we usually sit together at the kitchen counter and talk about our day. He's gotten in the habit of grabbing the hand towel from the side of the cabinet and using it as a place mat under his plate. I thought he deserved to have a special place mat that was made with love.

It's not fancy, but it's nice and big and masculine enough for a man. It was fun to make, and even more fun to give a special gift from the heart.

Isn't It Pretty?

My mom has a knack for holiday decorating. She and my dad hosted Christmas Eve dinner and the house looked so pretty. I tried to capture the essence, but my photos don't do it justice. The mantle was full of color, sparkle, beads and greens. Lovely. My mom (Granny to the kids) spent days baking all of the well-loved traditional goodies and presented them on beautiful pedestals and platters. From left to right and clockwise:

:: Chocolate Scotcharoos :: Ice Cream Wafers :: Pecan Puffs :: Sour Cream Pound Cake ::

We had a delicious buffet dinner, lots of time to visit, and stockings for all seven grandchildren. We're spoiled rotten.

Holiday Reality

This year our gifts are wrapped with brown paper. I decided to be resourceful and use what we have on hand. The roll of paper was purchased from Ikea years ago, and I have a closet full of rubber stamp supplies just waiting to be loved. The theme is reindeer and snowflakes. The snowflakes are stamped with white craft ink. The nice thing about the craft ink pad is that it has a richer pigment that gives you a much more pronounced white. The negative is that it takes much longer (like almost 24 hours) to dry than the dye-based ink. I did the stamping last weekend on our snowed-in day. Fun.

The reality is that I didn't finish the project so here's what two-thirds of our gifts look like:

And the other reality is that I won't be putting any of the gifts under the tree until it's time to open them because our kitties love to eat the curly ribbon. So, early this morning I plugged in the lights, put the gifts under the tree, and snapped some photos just for fun.

Wishing you a beautiful holiday. I'll be back in a few days to show you the one gift I made this year.

Snippets of a Snowy Day

Being snowed in certainly has it's advantages. I'm on the hunt for the perfect cupcake recipe and I've been wanting to try these for quite some time. They start with a box mix and then a bunch of other ingredients are added in. I loved the consistency :: substantial and moist. The frosting consistency was fantastic :: firm yet creamy, and very easy to pipe with a decorative tip. Hubby loved these cupcakes, especially the super sweet icing. I shared most of them with my coworkers (to keep my consumption to a minimum) and no one complained. Butterscotch liked them too. He knows he's not allowed on the counter, but he broke the rules and somehow managed to unwrap this cupcake. The verdict is that I really like this recipe, and will continue to tweak it until I end up with the cupcake of my dreams. I'll keep you posted.

Christmas Magic

I've simplified this Christmas season. I'm learning to let go a little in order find balance between work and home. I didn't put any decorations in the basement except for one glass tree that I plopped on the buffet. Sunday morning hubby was out clearing the snow and needed some duct tape to wrap around the top of his boots. He asked me to run downstairs and get it for him. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, this is what I saw....................

That one little decoration, placed somewhat thoughtlessly, made me stop in my tracks. Pure magic. And since I'm showing you bits of the basement, I'll show you the curtains I'm contemplating. Clean and simple :: I think these fit the bill.

Snippets of a Snowy Weekend

It's been one of those wonderful weekends :: the kind that keeps you nestled in doing all sorts of domestic things. The pace was slow, the aroma from the kitchen was comforting, and the view was breathtaking.

More details throughout the week.

One

Yesterday was kind of special. A birthday happened. A one year birthday. This happy little place of mine began one year and 249 posts ago. As I was reminiscing about one-year birthdays, I couldn't help but share one of my favorites from 1987:

And because we're talking about birthdays and I do have permission, I'll share a two-year old birthday photo as well. This was 1988 during a very passionate Sesame Street phase: It's surprising how much you get back from sharing just a little. Thank you for sharing the everyday ordinary with me.

Progressive

We had a holiday progressive appetizer/cocktail party on Saturday evening. There were five couples participating and each couple hosted at their home for one hour.

We sampled a wide variety of delicious appetizers and admired the decorations in each home.

I decided not to take my camera. I just wanted to enjoy the company.

So tonight I took a few photos of our decorations..................and the leftovers that hubby's eating for dinner. It was challenging to come up with recipes that could be made ahead and then put out for serving in a fifteen-minute window of time (we were the second stop). Here's what we served from left to right with hubby's rating: Mu Shu Chicken Wraps (5), Sweet & Sour Meatballs (4), New Potatoes with Three-Cheese Fondue (3.5), and more filling from the Mu Shu Chicken Wraps. We also served Eggnog Cream Cheese Dip w/Fresh Fruit but I didn't get a photo of that.

The Mu Shu Chicken Wrap recipe came from this cookbook and links to the others can be found here by scrolling to the bottom of the post.