Christmas Baking

Christmas Celebration

The tree is trimmed; I found one on our lot where our shop is located. It is kind of lopsided but fit in the corner okay.
The stockings are hung; our grandchildren are all guys so hence the cowboy boots. They are filled to the top with little gifts all wrapped individually.
The Christmas baking is all done; just a sampling on the plate. I even made Red Velvet Cupcakes, a first for me.
Tomorrow we have our first turkey with all the trimmings. There will be 9 of us crowded into a dining room and kitchen area of the new house. It will be cozy but that's how it should be at Christmas time.
I even bought a new game, "Pass the Pig". The game consists of two tiny rubber pigs which you throw like dice. You score depending on how they land or don't land. You can lose all your points very easily. We played this recently with 3 other adults and it was great fun.

Christmas Decorations

One day I was in Value Village and there was a bag of red stuff for $3.00 so I bought it. Today I finally looked inside and found all this wonderful fruits, apples, cranberries, and pears along with a candle holder, which still needs a candle. I did a little decorating and it does make it more like Christmas. Dreading getting out more decorations as it is -32 out now and our container with belongings has no heat!!!

Christmas Baking

Well, I must have got some energy from somewhere as I baked all afternoon today. Chocolate cupcakes, Fruitcake cookies, Buttertarts (runny too and yummy), Rachel Ray's Fudge. The kitchen works like a charm even if I had to use pots and plastic containers for mixing and stirring. I can't wait to unpack all my stuff. That will be like Christmas. Even Hubby is impressed with the production that went on today. He thinks I may have too much counter space - ha, not for a minute!!!

Cold and more cold!

Another wasted week lying in bed coughing and blowing the nose; I could now portray Rudolph. It is going to be hard to get ready for next week-end when we celebrate the first Christmas with family. I did a little decorating today so at least I feel more in the spirit. If only the weather would now cooperate - we are at -31 as I type this and that is cold, oh so cold! I need to drive to Prince Albert to shop but will wait a few days to see if it warms up. The only good thing about being sick all week was that I got to stay in; today was the first time I ventured out. Here is a toast to all of you who have to be out tonight!

Happy 65th Birthday to Hubby!

It was my Hubby's 65th birthday on Friday. Here he is shown with his only sister the day after. He got to have an hour long massage and eat lobster at Red Lobster, his favourite food. We would have liked to have a party but with the house not completed this was not possible so we opted for the lobster instead. On Saturday he also got to have lunch with his children and grandchildren at a new restaurant called Chili's. It was good although we did not try anything spicy. I also attended a wedding shower for a niece, and a funeral for a relative. There was also shopping, and visiting with friends over coffee and tea. Think I was more exhausted when we got home than when we left. At home, we had a frozen well and that took some cold work on the part of Hubby to fix but he did it and we praised the Lord when we turned on the taps and the water ran again.

Quick Peanut Butter Blossoms

So when I bake, it is usually from scratch, however when your kitchen is in disarray and you want to quickly make some cookies, Pillsbury peanut butter dough does do the trick. Not sure how to store these though; chocolate kisses are supposed to harden again but so far they are very soft. Guess maybe you have to eat them all immediately!

Here is the recipe:
1 pkg Pillsbury Refrigerated Peanut Butter Cookies
3 tbsp. sugar
chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into 1" balls, roll in sugar and place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes. Place kiss in center immediately. Remove from pan. Let cool until chocolate is set.

** You could easily do this with your own scratch recipe for peanut butter cookies.

Yum, yum!

Ceiling

We finished the ceiling in our craft, exercise and extra bedroom. Instead of running the pine crosswise, we put it end to end from the peak down. It gives the room a totally different feel. The walls will be pine also but painted white. Can't wait for it to be done as this is where the creative juices will flow!!!!

A friend sent me this quote recently and I thought it worth putting here:

"Everybody has critics, but God isn't one of them.

God is crazy about you so return the favour."