Christmas Lights Party Bus Tour

As a treat to the family, my mother took all of us on a Christmas Light tour in a party bus. We had a fun time.

We go down and see the City and County building every year. Here I am with Ethan and my mom.

Ellie's friend, Christy, came along, too.

I've passed this house many times during the year and never noticed it. You can tell that they love doing the displays.

This is another part of their yard.

The man who lives here has a lab named Daisy who rides in a cage attached to his Harley. They go to Sturgus together each year. Daisy and Bob were happy to greet everyone who came to see their display.

This family made a diorama or two every year. Each one represents some aspect of their lives. The husband is a carpenter and the wife collects dolls. They both seem to love the trains. They've been decorating like this for 29 years.

I think I liked this box best.

The trains were fun, too.

Here's his son's house just a half a block away.

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And a little video to set off the day:

Zoo Lights - A Lovely Date with My Husband

Christmas lights are my favorite non-people part of Christmas. Last night my husband and I went to the Denver Zoo to take in the glow of the season. It was a perfect evening. Cool enough to feel like wintertime, with just a slight breeze, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable.

We arrived a bit early to see who would be out. Not a lot of animals were walking around. They were mostly interested in watching for the dinner time delivery. Many of the enclosures had Christmas trees. The Rhinos like to eat theirs.

The birds seemed the happiest. I had never noticed the giant swans before. We watched them for a long while. There was a goose who wanted to tell me all about it, even as its dinner sat untouched.

The penguins seemed pleased, too.

We were surprised at how many people were there. The zoo closed at 4:00 and the Zoo Lights started at 5:00. It was kind of magical to watch it all unfold and notice all of the glorious colors.

There were lighted arches where you could take your photo.

Many of the light sculptures had motion.

This was one of my favorites. There was a big tree dressed in a similar fashion. The lights faded from white to red. There was a clever display that looked like a Yeti was tromping through the trees, complete with the sound of foot steps in the hardpacked snow. The red eyes are the last thing to fade in that display.

A Small Hallway Enlightened

We have a small, pivotal hallway in our home where three rooms and a stairway intersect.

It had been left white - uncharacteristic for our house. For the last 19 years I have simply be uninspired to do something about it.

However, Ellie, my girl with creativity and drive, was inspired. So much so that she spent a few days before Christmas painting it. I think the colors she had in her head were different than what was in her head, but in the end we all love what she created. It feels so much more inviting now.

I wonder what her next project will be. The two of us have ideas for my bedroom, but they have not come together as of yet.

A Lighted Headboard - a Special Gift For My Girl

Every year I try to make a special gift for each person in our family. As the kids get older, it has become more of a challenge to find the right thing to make. Ellie, being the teenage girl that she is, loves to redecorate her room. She has a talent for it, too. (It's true - I would say this even if she was not my daughter.) She has wanted a headboard for her bed for a long time and Christmas lights are one of her favorite things.

From: Shelterness.com (very basic instructions)

When I stumbled upon this light up board, I was set on fire. I knew instantly that this was the direction I needed to go. I also knew that those kinds of things are always harder and more expensive than they look. In my excitement I drew up a sketch of what I wanted to do.

I tromped down to the wood shop teacher at my school and asked for his advice. John is wonderful that way. He never poop-poops my ideas, but gently grounds me in reality. He said that it would be an easy project. I would need to get a special drill bit to deal with putting holes in the Lexan. I would also need special screws called furrows so that they would look nice.

Next up, I went to our robotics teacher, Daryl, who is an equally wonderful guy. We had a chat about the virtues of plexiglass versus Lexan (polycarbonite).He invited me down to have lunch in the electronics room. In the interim he pulled out a small strip of each of the materials. He did a hand-on demonstration of the difference. Lexan is a wonderful, nearly shatter proof product. Plexiglass can be broken. Both can be easily treated with sandpaper to make it frosted. The catch was the cost. A sheet of plexiglass for my project, measuring 39" x 24" would be about $26 (I had a special birthday coupon from Ace Hardware and got it for half off.) whereas the Lexan would have been around $67. Since we had to buy not one, but two sets of snow tires and two dental crowns last month, I knew which option I had to take. It would be the plexiglass, but I was okay with that. No one would be sitting on or hammering the headboard; it would be a safe option. Daryl also demonstrated how I could take an orbital sander with 220 grit sandpaper and frost the surface. I could take out any patterns from that process by repeating the process with a much finer grit of sandpaper. Thank God for such great and helpful people in my life! These friends armed me with knowledge and the confidence that I needed to move forward.

Now, this new found knowledge is good, but I still needed more help. That help came in the form of my father-in-law, Don. He is a great woodworker. We have many lovely things that he has made for the kids over the years. I sent him the link I offered above. I also shared my sketch and away we went. Don, being the creative type that he is, redesigned it so that the plexiglass would not sit on the surface, but would sit in grooves instead. He sent me off to Jordan's Building Center with a list of what I needed: 2 2"x4"x8' pine boards, 1 piece heat temptered hardboard and a bunch of specific kinds of screws. We hauled that into the basement and away he went. When I returned the next time, Don had it mostly constructed and stained. Some of the measurements were off, so we had the plexiglass recut. I spent time frosting the plexiglass and then holding various parts together while he put in the screws. Originally we were going to install two verticl brace, but those did not work. He applied a small, wooden block to keep the plexiglass from bowing too much. I took three sets of special white Christmas lights with little faceted globes around each light and set to work attaching them with gluedots. (They are a wonderful, thick, sticky dot that was perfect for the application.)It was more challenging than I expected to make them random. My eyes and hands wanted to make them evenly spaced. In the end it took much longer to get done than we had expected, of course. (One should estimate the time for a given project and multiply that by 4 to get a real time estimate!) However, I am ever so pleased with the outcome. It felt really good to do that project. I needed that to help move away from the stress of getting everything ready for Christmas and tap into my creative side instead. I think it was good for Don, too. He seemed to enjoy having a special project to work on. I am thankful that I have such a great father-in- law who loves his grandchildren.

I was gitty with excitement to give her the gift. I had hoped that it would have been a complete surprise, but it was not. Ellie had started to move her bed into her loft when her dad stopped her. His remarks led her to guess what the big project that grandpa and I were doing was. I thought surely that she could not guess that it was a light up board, but somehow she guess that it involved lights, too. I don't know what she thought it might look like, but she is oh so clever and sly like that - kind of figuring out my surprise for her! Anyway, I dispensed with trying to hide it. The headboard was too large to stow away in my van without notice and it seemed silly to schlep it to the basement. Instead, we threw a blue sheet over it and called it good. Christmas morning Larr plugged it in and we waited the kids to stumble down the stairs to begin the holiday. Ellie seemed to like her present, thought I think I was way more excited than she was. I am an exuberant person, she is much more restrained. She installed it that very morning. One or two of the lights came free from its gluedot, but otherwise it traveled beautifully. She brought everyone up to her room to see her new stuff for her room. This included the lighted headboard, the new grey and white curtains I made for her windows and the cool light up Flamingo lamp that her dad got for her. My girl's room is stylin'!

Relaxing in the Post Christmas Glow

I have a small confession to make- as fun as Christmas is, I think I like it best once we have arrived at Christmas morning and begun the day. I might even enjoy the days after even more. I have a good time decorating, baking, making presents and going to parties, but I love the relaxation after it is all over. My house is mostly clean. The presents have been completed and there are less demands on my time. I have certain traditions, like listening to or seeing "The Christmas Carol" or reading "The Cat Who Came for Christmas" by Cleveland Amory, but they often have to wait until after Christmas so that there is time to focus on and enjoy them, instead of feeling like I am stealing time away from something else that I should be preparing.

We hosted the Christmas festivities at our house this year. It was a big change from the past. We used to have a special breakfast and open presents here at home, but then go to Don and Eleanor's house for Christmas Dinner and extended family time. I contributed several things to that dinner (usually rolls, a side dish and a bushe de noel for dessert) but the time there was very relaxing. After Eleanor died three years ago we kept a similar schedule, though I cooked much of the meal, the other families brought food to the party as well, and we all relxed at Don's house. His house works well for that kind of party. This year he was not up for that so it happened here. We cleaned the house and set tables in three rooms, with five people at folding tables in the living room, three at the craft room table and five or six in the big room at our usual dinner table. We moved out some of the furniture to make room for it all. I was worried that we would all feel seperated, but it worked out well. Every one seemed to have a good time. With Ethan, Evan and Anna all 18 years old, post high school plans were discussed. The boys spent some time together. Ethan and Evan talked skateboarding and long boarding well into the night. My cousin, Marianne, and I also had a chance to have quality time together.

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Ham and Potato Soup
via: Allrecipes.com

3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1/3 cup diced celery
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
3/4 cup diced cooked ham
3 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper, or to taste
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
Directions

Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.
In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.
Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.

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Split Pea Soup


1 pound Split Peas, dried, rinsed and cleaned
8-10 cups Water
Ham Bone
Extra Ham (at lest 1 pound, diced or cubed)
3/4 cup Carrot, thinly sliced
3/4 cup Carrots, thinly sliced
1 Onion, diced
1 1/2 tea. Thyme
3 Bay Leaves
1 1/2 tea. Parsley (optional)
1/2 tea. Smoke Flavoring (optional)
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put the ingredients in the slow cooker or in a large stew pot. Cook slowly until the peas have softened. I cook my soup overnight in the crock pot.

The Tinkling Lights of "Silent Night" and Ushering in the Holiday Season, plus a few fun recipes.

Today was a day for finishing handmade presents and prepping for Christmas. We will be hosting the party and the dinner at our house this year. It has been a lot of work, but I am pleased with how it has all pulled together.

Every Christmas eve early evening is spent at my mother's house where she hosts an annual party. When I was little it was the meeting spot for the neighborhood, and what a bustling place it was. Walt and Audra, an adorable old couple, lived nearby. They would waddle, hand in hand, from their house to ours. They would have gussied themselves up,both of them wearing a little too much of Audra's perfume. But we did not mind. It was fun just to watch them take note of everything, like they had not seen it before. They would savor every bit of the food they were served. They would beckon us over, one by one, and ask us about our year, what we had enjoyed, what we hoped for in the new year. They would pat us on the head or shoulder, lean in for a quick hug and press two quarters into the palm of our hands. One of them died and the other followed quickly. We missed them, a whole where their glow had been, each year at the party. I imagine that I carved out some distance as I became a teen-ager. One of the constants was going to the candle light service with my mother. I knew all of the songs by heart, every verse they had us embrace. I knew the story by heart, but listened to it each year, as if it were new to me. My favorite part was when the lights would be dimmed and we would light our small candles. We would softly sing "Silent Night" as the candles twinkled. When the kids were smaller we went to church, alternating from year to year, which grandparent we would accompany. Some years I would miss the service, being too drawn up in the frenzy of Christmas day preparations to take time to attend the special service. This year, though there was still much to do at home, I went to church with my mother and my sister's boys. We have had a big snow storm of late, so the older crowd did not make it in. They simply could not make it through the snow. The gathering was small, but sincere. Nelson, a man who had introduced me to many adventures when I was in the youth club at church, sang several songs beautifully. As he sang, I could not help but think of my first camping trip and ski trip he helped make possible. I watched as an elderly mother leaned into her elderly son, his arms around his family, as they sang "Silent Night"with all of their hearts, swaying to the tune. Near the end of the song he raised up his candle in honor and praise of the event. I was thankful to witness it. Going to church with my mother was the very thing I needed. We held hand through most of the service, my heart thankful that she is my mother.

Back on the home front the rest of my little family put up a few more decorations, set three separate tables for dinner and helped me feel more ready for the holiday. Ellie had taken several things from my craft room table and hung them up. It was a good way to usher in the actual holiday. I spent a bit more time making a few last items for our party tomorrow.


SARAH'S BEST HOMEMADE HOT CHOCOLATE
via: Cooks.com

1 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. water
1 c. milk
a bit of vanilla, if desired
Combine cocoa, sugar, and water in a small saucepan. Heat it on low heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the paste from sticking to the pan. After about 1 to 2 minutes, add milk and vanilla. Mix it all together until it reaches your preferred temperature.

Ellie tops this lovely hot chocolate with a pile of whipped cream, a few colorful sprinkles and a few chocolate shavings.

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Russian Tea Cookies (Also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies)
via Shared Sugar.com
makes about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely chopped/coarsely ground pecans

Directions
Toast pecans in oven at 400 degrees for 5-7 minutes. Or, if lazy (like me) or always in a hurry (like me), take the easy route and toast them in the toaster oven for 2-3 minutes. Using an electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon and salt. Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture, beating until well blended. Mix in pecans with a wooden spoon.

Divide dough in half; form each half into ball. Wrap separately in plastic; chill until cold, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Working with half of chilled dough, roll dough with palms into 1-inch balls. Arrange balls on large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until light golden brown on bottom and just pale golden on top, about 16-18 minutes. Check cookies throughout baking to be sure not to over bake. If baked too long, bottoms will burn and cookies will be very dry.

Pour 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar in pie dish. Cool cookies 5 minutes on baking sheet. Gently toss warm cookies in powdered sugar to coat completely. Transfer coated cookies to rack and cool completely. Roll cookies in powdered sugar again once cooled. Repeat procedure with remaining half of dough, or reserve remaining powdered sugar and freeze dough for later use. Cookies can be prepared 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature. For extra powdered sugar on your cookies, save leftover powdered sugar and sift over cookies just before serving.

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Nantucket Cranberry Pie
(inspired by the recipe found on The Pioneer Woman)
2 TBL Butter
12 oz. (about 21/2 cups) Fresh Cranberries
1 cup Pecans (or Walnuts)Chopped
2/3 cups Sugar
1 cup Flour (Whole Wheat Flour works nicely)
2/3 cup Sugar
1 stick Butter, melted
2 whole Eggs, Lightly Beaten
1 teaspoon Pure Almond Extract
1 Tablespoon Sugar For Sprinkling

Preparation Instructions

*Adapted from a recipe by Laurie Colwin*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Generously butter a cake pan or pie pan. Add cranberries to the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle on chopped pecans, then sprinkle on 2/3 cup sugar. Mix this around to combine nicely.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, 1 cup sugar, melted butter, eggs, almond extract, and salt. Stir gently to combine. It will be very thick.

Place the batter over the top of the cranberry mixture. Spread gently if necessary.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Five minutes before removing from oven, sprinkle surface with 1 tablespoon sugar for a little extra crunch.

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Magic Spinach Ring

1 box frozen Spinach, thawed and drained
1 egg
Seasonings to taste = salt, pepper, garlic, dried onion, cayenne pepper, basil, etc.
1 pound Swiss Cheese, grated
2 packages Pilsbury Crescent Rolls (I think the Garlic ones are best)


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix the spinach with the egg and season to your liking. Add the grated cheese.Unwrap the crescent rolls, using them to form a star on your baking sheet. Mold the center of the star to hold the spinach mix. Scoop the spinach mixture to form a circle, twist up the crescent roll dough into the center and press into place. Bake for 45 minutes. Let it rest for 15 minutes before serving and enjoy!

Making Cookies with Friends (Plus a few recipes for cookies, frosting and chili)

We love to decorate cookies during the Christmas season. Some years it is my friends and I making fancy, intricate gingerbread snowflakes. Other years it is a wild explosion of colors in the form of copious amounts of buttercream frosting and a festival of sprinkles.


This was one such year. We had some young friends over earlier this week to enjoy dinner and some time together.

Jack, David, Christy and Ellie seemed to have a good time.


Each kid had his or her own style of decorating their cookies. Ellie only made a few, but they were nice.

Christy seemed happy to develop a Sponge Bob theme in her decorating.


Jack was very industrious, cranking out more cookies than the other kids. He seemed to have a lot of fun.

David spent some time decorating and some time visiting with Larr. He, too seemed to have a good time. Here he is with his zombie snowman cookie.

Gina, Connie and I took the chance to visit. I liked talking about knitting with Gina. SHe has two shawls in the works, aiming for Christmas.

It is definitely my favorite sugar cookie recipe. It is not too sweet and has a nice crumb in the mouth, but holds together nicely for decorating.

Sugar Cookie Recipe
from: Sweetopia blog

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups butter (at room temperature)

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 3 tsp vanilla)

5 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt
Instructions:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed. (Use the paddle attachment). Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more.

Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough. If you’d like a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you’d like the cookie to hold its shape.

2. Add eggs slowly and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.

3. Cut open your vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Add to mixing bowl. Alternatively, add liquid vanilla extract. Stir briefly.

4. Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, baking powder and salt).

5. Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won’t escape. Mix on low speed for 3o seconds. Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready. It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough (the glutens in the flour develop and the dough can become tough).

6. Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.

7. Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.

8. Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.

9. Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.

10. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.

11. Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!

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Royal Icing Using Egg Whites:
from: JoyofBaking.com

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

For Royal Icing with Egg Whites: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

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Butter Cream Frosting
from:the Created By Diane Blog

1 cup butter

1 cup shortening

6 cups powdered sugar

2-4 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract. if you are making white frosting use clear vanilla.

Beat butter with mixer until pale and fluffy, add sugar and milk along with extract mix until smooth and creamy.

*If the weather is super hot, over 100 and I’m afraid the buttercream will be a mess, I sometimes use all shortening.

**If I want a very rich butter taste, I use all butter and no shortening.

*** for Chocolate Buttercream I use ½ to 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa in place of some powdered sugar.

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Chili
(I made this recipe up with stuff I had at home as I did not want to go out in the snow.)

2 pounds Ground Beef
1/2 Onion, chopped
3 Garlic cloves, minced
2 cans Busch's Beans
1 can Tomato Soup
1 cup Water
3 tea. Beef Bouillon
2-3 TBL. Basil, dried
1 tea. Cumin
1-2 tea. Chili Powder (depending on how spicy you like it)
1-1.5 tea. Smoked Paprika
1-2 cups Corn, frozen or canned

Brown the beef, pouring off excess fat. Saute the onion and garlic with the beef. Add in the remaining ingredients. Simmer for at 30 minutes. Serve with crackers.