I Can't Stop Baking!

I rarely bake anymore because the hubby is diabetic and it would be insanely rude, in my opinion.  I also don't need to eat an entire batch of cookies by myself.  I bake occasionally when we go somewhere, but not often.  So, I've been baking some while I've been home.  The Bean and I tried a new recipe shortly after I got here, and then I tried another one that she found for coal (think rice krispie treats with oreos instead of cereal).  I was in trouble for making that one without her, so I will have to make it up to her when she gets back from her mom's on Sunday.  In the meantime, the brother was making Christmas Eve dinner and I said I would make dessert.  I made one of my favorites:  Mocha Pecan Balls.  They were super yummy even though they were more blobs than balls.  My mom had mentioned that she would like me to make the Sour Cream Cashew Drops that my grandma used to make for Christmas, so I made those for dessert for Christmas day.  I then decided to put most of it in the freezer since we didn't really need to eat 2 kinds of cookies, plus krumkake that the brother had made.  But, I had the baking bug, and I decided I need to just go with it.  So last night I made Cow Pattie Cookies.  We have no idea what they're actually called, but they look like a cow flew over the cooling racks and baking sheets, so we gave them that name.  Despite the disgusting name they are super rich and chocolately.  Again, I put the majority in the freezer.  Tonight I made chocolate chip cookies and did the same.  I figure Mom always needs after-school snacks for the kiddos, and it's always a good idea to have something in reserve just in case the Queen stops by or something.  Tomorrow I'm going with Double Chocolate Oatmeal cookies, and then who knows what The Bean and I will make when she gets home.  I know I just did cookie shoes a few weeks ago, but please bear with a few more.  Or just stop reading.  Whatever makes your heart happiest.

This is too pretty to eat, but it might be appropriate to bring out when the Queen comes?

Ooooh, baby cookies shoes!

These are hilarious.  I wonder what the back-story is?

I loooove Nutter Butters.  Nutter Butters with chocolate?  Yes, please.

Ballet slipper cookies.  Very sweet.

Yay, blue!  My grandma didn't appreciate blue food, but I can live with it.

I love Cookie Monster.  How can you not love Cookie Monster?

Eat the cookie.  Buy the Shoe.  And then drink the coffee from the mugs.  Works for me!

Either I'll get over this baking bug, or Mom's freezer will get to full.  Either way, I'm having fun!

Nativities

It's Christmas day, so instead of shoes, we're going to talk about Jesus.  Well, not talk so much as look at.  For tonight's post we'll be taking a tour of my mom's nativity scenes.

Mom made this one, and I love the patterns.  The characters are so cute.  But dang Jesus is a big baby.  Poor Mary!

 

I'm not sure where she got this one, but Mom's joke is that there is a Noah's ark toy somewhere missing a zebra and giraffe.  Why else would a nativity have a zebra and giraffe?!

 

This is the one the kids can play with.  We don't have any tiny kids right now, but in years past we used to find pieces of this scene all over the place.  I can't believe we still have them all.  Last year Laughter had a whole plot going where the kings had kidnapped baby Jesus and Mary had to go kick some butt to get him back.  That kid kills me.

 

This one is my favorite.  The angels aren't part of the set, but The Bean and I decided to add them anyway.  Hmmm....come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the angels for this set are at my house.  I bought them, I did NOT steal them from my mother!

 

I love this one, too.  The Holy Family used to be in an egg shaped thingie with an opening and a light, but the egg shaped thingie broke a long time ago.  I didn't break that, too, did I Mom?

This Holy Family is a candle stopper that is on a candle under the jingle bell tree.

Another one Mom painted.  I have the same set that I painted, but mine is nowhere near as good as this.   Mine looks like a 2nd grader painted it.

Mom-made.  This is the same Holy Family pattern as in the first one, and here you get to see the angels that go with this set since they aren't visible in the first set.

I even put one in the bathroom this year!

This one is a tea set.  The sheep are cups and the angel's and shepherd's heads come off.  Which is a little creepy when you think about it.

This sampling doesn't include everything.  The stained glass nativity Mom and Dad made years ago doesn't come out anymore because there isn't a place big enough to display it anymore.  Or the nativity tree skirt Mom made.  Or Grandma's set that is under the tree to Mom's room.  OR all of the various ornaments on various trees that are nativity-themed.

Finally, here is my confession.  I torment my mother at Christmas.  Many years ago I was being a dork and switched out various figures from nativities and had them go visit other nativities.  You know, so they could hang out.  Mom was not appreciative, so of course I had to do it every year, and then I taught the nieces.  This year I was sooooo good and didn't move anything until last night when I switched around all of the baby Jesuses. As you can see, I put them back where they belonged today before I took pictures.  Sorry (not really), Mom.  I wouldn't give you crap if I didn't love you!

Merry Christmas!

Silent Night, Holy Night

It's Christmas Eve, and there are no children at my parents' house (a rare occurence), so it's a calm and quiet evening for us.  Flower, Pippi, Tink, and Laughter were all here for part of the day, so it was loud chaos there for awhile.  The brother made dinner for us, and I've done a little baking, but other than that we're all just hanging out being introverted and doing our own things.  In the spirit of that first Silent Night (which most likely was anything but silent), I'm going to give you some Christmas shoe art, and keep all the blah blah to myself.

Merry Christmas, my friends.  May the light of Christ bring you joy and peace.

 

Happy Birthday, Grandma

As a kid we would always spend December 23-26 at my mom's parents' house.  The 23rd is  my grandma's birthday, so we'd start by celebrating and eating angel food cake.  (it was really the only dessert Grandma liked, despite forcing 12 different kinds down the rest of us)  So today the seester, Flower, and Laughter drove me back to the parents' and are now staying the night.  The brother came over for dinner and then we all had angel food cake and whipped cream in honor of Grandma, who would have been 97 today.  I also saved the last Christmas tree for today as it has Grandma's ornaments on it.

This is the tree in Mom's room.  Part of the ornaments are hers and part are Grandma's.  I helped Mom decorate it this year and it was fun to pull out the old, glass ornaments that I remember from so many Christmases.

 

This was also Grandma's, although I'm not sure how much it was out.  I vaguely remember it, but not terribly well.  From a distance it looks pretty good, as you can't see how terribly cheesy the plastic figures are.  I don't care if they're cheesy, though, they just help remind me of  how much I loved Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's.

I really didn't expect to find any vintage, glass ornaments that were shoes, but I was surprised.  There are actually quite a few out there.

 

Frankly these creep me out.  The shoes are fine.  The face in the last one and the cats in the top 2 are what give me the heebie jeebies.  A cat in a shoe, OK, but a baby's face in a shoe?  Why?

 

I like these 2 a lot better, especially the color of  the second one (duh).

Somewhat less disturbing for some reason.

Cute!  And look, the ornament hook is shaped like a Christmas tree!

Fun ornament, but definitely not a cute shoe that I would covet in real life.

This one reminds me of Snow White.

I miss my Grandma.  I miss the constancy of the traditions of Christmas at her house.  There are new ones, of course, and they are lovely and wonderful, but the nostalgia of the Christmases of my childhood will always be there.  

Love you, Grandma.

Lights

Today had me thinking about light.  It's the Winter Solstice, which means it's the shortest day of the year.  Less light and more dark, but starting tomorrow that balance will start back the other way, little by little.  Advent is like that as well.  We wait in darkness for the light that is Jesus to come into the world.  Each week we light one more candle on the Advent wreath, adding more and more light.  I was also noticing Christmas lights today, first on the seester's 2 trees, then on the tree at a friend's house, and finally on all of the houses as I drove home in the growing dark.  I love the lights this time of year.  Here are some Christmas lights for you to contemplate.  They won't light up the darkness in a literal sense, but maybe they'll make you smile a bit.

If I had these I would have worn them while decorating all the trees this year.

This just makes me want to cross-stitch (while also reminding me that I have a cross-stitch project waiting to be finished that is looooong overdue).

 

I'm not exactly sure what these are in terms of decorations, but they are certainly festive.

Wait, these might have better arch support for the decorating...

Yep.  The shoe tree needs these.  Maybe not in purple.  Maybe in a multicolored strand?

Hmmmm...it occurs to me that I don't actually have any Christmas socks with lights on them.  I should probably remedy that situation one of these years.

 

Not socks or shoes, but fits with the theme, and they're cute!  Double A could totally do this, I wish I'd thought of it before she went to her mom's!

My family and friends are definitely lights in my own darkness.  I spent time last night and today teaching Flower how to crochet a granny square.  She's still working on memorizing the pattern, but she is doing awesome.  Pretty sure she's way better than I was at 9.  Laughter has more energy than 10 kids and sometimes makes me tired just looking at her.  We painted with water colors today, and she made a map so we'd know where we all lived.  This afternoon was a Christmas open house at a friend's house.  She and her family recently moved into a new house, so it was a house-warming as well.  Her kiddos also crack me up.  And then tonight the seester, Flower, Laughter, and I all sat together and watched White Christmas together.  What a perfect end to the day.  

Thank you to all of you who bring light to my darkness!

Teeny Tiny

I'm being very domestic today:  dishes, laundry, packing, wrapping presents, hopefully crocheting.  I leave for the seester's this afternoon to spend a few days with them before Christmas.  It will be fun and I get to hang out with Flower and Laughter!  

I wasn't sure if I was going to, but today I decided what the heck, I'll show you the tree in the bathroom:

It's a teeny tiny tree with no lights and teeny tiny ornaments.  It tends to stay decorated all of the time, and sometimes it just stays up all year.  I was trying to decide how to tie in teeny tiny shoes, but all I could find were Barbie shoes, and I didn't want to do those again.  As usual, though, the Pinterest Friend was reading my mind because she sent me 8 pins last night.

 

Teeny tiny crocheted shoe ornaments!  Aren't they adorable?

The rest are regular sized ornaments rather than teeny tiny, but hey, they're smaller than regular shoes, so I say it works.  SKD needs these for her tree.  Green AND flip flops!

 

These are really cool.  Apparently I need to learn to sew.

 

Disney ornaments!  Look at the Jasmine shoe, her hair is the heel.

Ooooh...sparkly!  Also, ankle strap and t-strap.  My kind of ornament.

See?  I need to invest in a sewing machine.

These aren't ornaments, but I thought it was really cute.  I should have had it for the jingle bell tree post.

Once again, thanks PF!

Hopefully I haven't shocked anyone too much with this early posting.  They happen occasionally.  Just chalk it up to a Christmas miracle.