December Daily # 15 ~ Of Fart Bomb, Tears and Christmas Break Reading

Here's a glimpse into teaching 9th grade all day. Yesterday, while we were studying for our final exams,one of the kids activated a "fart bomb." It comes in a tidy, silver package with a carton of a butt with a hole ripped out of the jeans, a bit of the butt showing through and a small explosion near that tear.

A girl brought it to class and handed it to a boy who she knew would set it off. He place a notebook on the floor and slipped it between some of the pages. When it went off the pages flew up, two of them teaning a bit and the room was instantly filled with a strong, awful sulfur smell. It made people fee like vomiting and it made their eyes water. The smell permeated about half of the school. Even the people who set it off had to suffer through the stink. You'd think that by 14 they would have been smart enough to think it through and do it as they were leaving. I did not know who did it at the time, but kids in the class came and told me who did it later. (Teenagers talk and if you are patient, you will usually find everything out.)

Later in the day I consoled a sweet and wonderful young lady who is one of my ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Her mother announced on Friday that the kids would not see their father again. He is currently in prison because he has had too many DUIs (drunk driving) and he will be deported to Mexico in February. The prison is three and a half hours away and she does not think any of her family members will take her. My hope is that her mother's heart softens and that she will get to see her father. She has only a single current photo of herself with her dad. I told her that if she finds a way to get to see him that she should take a photo. I am working with some people here to see if there is any way we can help them.

Today is the last full day of the semester and it should be a calmer one. The remaining days of this semester will be taken up with final exams. It has been a long semester and everyone, students and staff alike, are tired and worn out.

I am also a bit concerned about being ready for Christmas. At home I have hidden some presents so that the kids would not find them and now I can't find them either. Ugh! I still have handmade gifts to finish and some of them require help from other people. I am worried that it will either not come together, or that at the end it will be a huge push.

That is why I have my next tradition - reading an good animal story during Christmas break. They are always predictable and heart warming. It is not exactly high-brow, academic reading, but it is a nice change of pace for me. I have yet to pick a book for this year. I simply have not had the time to look for a new one. The animals are usually rescues who were down on their luck. The human(s) are usually being saved as much as the animal is.

This has been going on for years. I think it began with THE CAT WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS by Cleveland Amory. It was a gift to me many, many years ago, even before our kids were born. Each year I reread the story; I even preemptively cry as I read or listen to the story. These stories transport me out of my stress and pull me into another world where I know that it will be alright in the end, even though the road there is rough.

I am excited to see what story I will pick this year. I will begin it after I read THE CAT WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS, of course.

December Daily #14 ~ Decorating Cookies

It was a perfect day to decorate Christmas cookies. It seems that it was a good day to eat them, too.

I made the dough ahead of time, let it cool (and also firm up) in the fridge for a while. During that time I also made the frosting and gathered the sprinkles as well as the cookie cutters.

I also cut out and cooked a few batches so that the decorating fun can begin right away.

It was a good time. I followed it up with nice, warm bowls of beef, bacon and barely stew to offset the sugar crash that was coming. I am pretty sure that Kohlton ate nearly all of the cookies that he decorated. Remmie was happy to clean up the broken ones. I've included the recipes below. I've tested lots of recipes, and these are the best in my humble opinion.
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Sugar Cookie Recipe

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

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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Gingerbread Snowflakes
via: Martha Stewart

• 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup unsulfured molasses
• Royal Icing
• Fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling
Directions
1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. Cut into snowflakes with a 7- inch snowflake-shape cookie cutter. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.
4. Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
5. Put icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round tip (such as Ateco #7). Pipe designs on snowflakes; immediately sprinkle with sanding sugar. Let stand 5 minutes; tap off excess sugar. Let icing set completely at room temperature, about 1 hour.

December Daily #13 ~ Working with My Hands, and a Few Tools

Christmas is drawing close and I am not at all ready. My house is still not completely decorated, our holiday cards are not sent out and I am still working on several presents. In fact, that is how I spent much of my day today - making presents. I started one, but it does not match what I have in my head, so I set it aside to work on another present. Making things with my hands is very satisfying and so far I am pleased with the second project I began today. I would love to share with you what I am making, but my girl reads my blog and my son might glance at it from time to time, so those projects are underwraps, at least for now.

I am also inspired by things that other people are making. I always love to see what Posie Gets Cozy is up to, and I feel especially drawn in by her gifts of chia in small glass jars with beautiful labels (which can be downloaded for free and printed). These are among the kinds of things I love. Her house is enchanting and I am amazed that she can get so much done with a baby in the house. Those days were wonderful, exhausting and made my heart swell.

I have Christmas music playing in the house and in my car. Perhaps I will step away from creating stuff to decorate a bit more. I just have to find someone taller than me (which is not at all difficult since I am a touring 5' 2") to help me finish up a few projects.

I hope you are finding peace, love and inspiration in your life, too.

"Little Drummer Boy" is one of my holiday favorites. Here are a very different versions of the song:

December Daily #11 ~ Old Memories and Connections with Those No Longer with Us

Eleanor, my mother-in-law who died five years ago, was a magical tree decorator. She spent many years working at greenhouses, such as Echter's and Paulino's, putting up and then decorating the twinkling, fantastical forests of trees. She would decorate trees all day, full time, for over a month each year. And yet, there was still joy in decorating her own tree at home. Every year I studied her technique and asked her for pointers.

(Ellie and Kohlton in the sleigh)
Last night I took Ellie and Kohlton to Echter's to experience some of the magic that I thought we would find there. While it is beautiful, it is just not the same. They no longer have the twinkling, decorated forest of trees to shop from. They still have nice trees, but it is not just the same magic.

Ellie's memories of our time at Echter's at Christmas time is etched from when she was about 7;Rudolph and some of the other live reindeer were in a coral in the side yard. Santa was in his full glory and the greenhouse smelled of pine boughs mixed with peppermint tea and hot chocolate. For her, everything was bigger, brighter and better. I hope that her magical memories will still reside and not be replaced with more common memories of that experience. Nonetheless, I think the kids had a good time. The store still smells wonderful and the plants are still glorious.

And they still sell lovely ornaments.

(Echter's has always grown the most beautiful poinsettias)
Over the years we have been tempted to buy a fake Christmas tree, but if we did, I would feel like we were loosing a little bit of our connection with Eleanor, honoring her spirit of Christmas a little bit less. She would never begrudge us for making that choice, but I just don't see us going there anytime soon. Each beautiful, twinkling tree reminds me a bit of her.

We also include other family members in our holidays by using things that had once belonged to them. At some of our dinners we use the carafs that my uncle won as trophies playing tennis. When we have a formal dinner we use the real silver place settings that once belonged to my Aunt Zora. It makes me feel like we are able to hold on to the line of loved ones, even if it is just a little bit.

December Daily #10 ~ Caring and Continuing

My husband is a Christmas humbug. If we skipped Christmas, I am pretty sure that he would be fine with that. He feels like so much of it these days is manufactured by companies to sell more stuff. His love is of a more practical type and that is what I want to tell you about today. When Ethan is working in Denver, or at least within reasonable driving distance from our home, Larr gets up super early to be with him so that he has company at breakfast and a good word to send him off for the day.I am very touched by this display of affection and caring.

At the end of the evening the night before Larr measures out the right amount of Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats and toasts them in a pan on the stove. This deepens and improves their flavor in the morning. I love the way that it makes our home smell. I think I like it better than the smell of cookies or bread in the oven. He then soaks the oats in the pan that will be used to prepare them in the morning. Larr also sets out the entire breakfast. He places the nuts and dates in the bowls, measures out the coffee, sets out the plates, he even fills the drinking glasses. It is a tidy, lovely scene that makes me smile every time I see it. He does this in part because they will get up at around 4:00 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. to ensure that Ethan will be fully fueled and awake before he hits the dark, icy road to work.(We are finally emerging out of that week long cold snap. A week ago it was about -5 degrees outside in the morning.) He also does it to show Ethan that he supports him in this cold, often thankless work. Ethan has been working 7 days a week, 12-16 hours a day for most of the weeks since April. He is tired and sometime at his wits end. The entire crew is. The combination of the extreme cold weather we have been experiencing and the expectation that they were supposed to be done with the job more than a month ago has set most, if not all, of them on edge. We hope that this show of love and support is helping Ethan cope with adjusting to the grind of the adult working world and the harsh conditions that he works in. We are proud of how hard he is working and how dependable he is.I am also proud of how steady and practical my husband's love is for our son.

(This photo does not actually have anything to do with my topic today, but I think it is such a lovely display and a photoless post is really rather boring, so I included it just for fun.)

(These photos are from displays from Bliss, a wonderful store in Boulder. I think the woman who creates them has a good eye for color, texture and balance. I'll bet her home is really lovely.)

December Daily #9: A Putz House For Natalie

Natalie's birthday was on Tuesday and I made a Putz House for her. I don't usually give Christmas related birthday presents, but I decided that this was a reasonable exception. Afterall, she seemed to like the ones I made for myself last year.

It all started with my mother's Putz village. They were Depression Era decorations made from cardboard from crackers and cereal, the windows being plastic from other packaging.

We had to add glitter, of course.

I made a a small village of them last year. They are not hard, but you do have to plan accordingly when making them. There are a lot of small steps and lots of down time while the glue dries in between the steps. You also have to have an eye for detail and be accurate with your hands, as well as the knife.

The inspiration for Natalie's house started with a really cool box that contained a lovely bar of soap. I bought it back in April. I let that idea sit in the back of my brain for a long while, thinking about what style of house would be best. Would it need a fence? What kind of animal, if any, should be included? Then I picked a building that would fit nicely and began the process. I use a push pin/ thumb tack to transfer the main points of the design, which I then connect with a pen and then cut it all out with an Xacto knife.

I then traced over the places where I needed to create a bend or a crease with a pen. I made sure that it all fit correctly. Next, I glued on the windows. Sometimes I use pieces of frosted vellum. This time I used plastic from a box of Christmas lights. Once those were dry, I fit it together and glued it with Tacky Glue. I could have used a hot glue gun for this part, but I wanted to be a bit authentic, if possible.

Once the building and the roof were ready, I began adding the glitter. First I glittered the underside of the roof. I applied the glue and spread it out with a brush, generously sprinkling it with art glitter from the Martha Stewart line. I did not knock off the extra glitter for a little while.

Then I glittered the roof. The first coat was spotty, so I touched up spots and added more glitter as needed. If you make the glue too think, it will simply slide off.

The same goes for the walls. You really need to do one wall at a time and leave time for more touch ups.

Once that is done, I begin to plan the base. Most of the time my bases are simply squares of corrugated cardboard. I poke holes for the trees to go into, I make where the house will go. I try out animals and props. I glitter in some snow on the ground. I also add thick Tacky Glue or white Puff Paint onto the roof and the trees then sprinkle those with special iridescent glitter. I also cut a hole where the lights can go. I made the hole large enough for a fake, flickering candle.

I decorated the base of the box with sheet music and fun tinsel ribbon. Once that dried, I glue the house in place, let it dry, added chocolate into the box and gave it to Natalie.

(I had intended to include the links for the free patterns. However, it is late and I have work tomorrow. You can find the patterns by Googling for them, looking at my board in Pinterest, or leave me a comment and I will link them up later.)

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you like the house.

December Daily #8: Firefly Holiday Handmade Market (in Boulder)

Natalie had a wonderful day together. We took in lunch at Sherpa's in Boulder. Then we visited the Firefly Holiday Handmade Market - very inspirational!

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