Weekly Wrap Up - Christmas Week

The weekend was busy with Olivia and Tom both working, and Lindsey was at Lantern Tours every night.  Of course, technically this is now working for her now that she's an employee and no longer a volunteer.  All of the shows this year are sold out, which is wonderful for the museum!   This first week, Lindsey was in "England".  Here she is with the cast from that skit.  (I don't know who took the photos, but gosh I wish my phone was this good!)

Every year we get a photo of "the triplets".  The two girls on either side of Lindsey are siblings, one a year younger, one a year older than Lindsey.   But they always look so much alike they've been dubbed "the triplets" for the last several years.

Saturday I went to Christmas tea with my pal Yvette.  We had a lovely time, and even got to decorate gingerbread houses after the meal was over.  So much fun, and such a nice way to slow down from all the busy things of the season. 

Sunday was the usual church and work, with everyone going their separate ways.   Tom and I went and picked up supplies for a big project we'll be working on over the holiday break.  He is off 12 days, so we're tackling something I've been putting off for a while.  I'll post about it when we're done.  I was able to have a sit down dinner with 3 of the 4 of us before Lindsey had to leave for lantern tours.  Olivia had to warm her dinner up when she got in from the barn.

Monday was a regular work day for Lindsey, and the start of a 4 day break for Olivia.  I worked on laundry, and baked more cookies to continue our elf project.  I was short one batch of red velvet, so those needed to be done.  Olivia ended up going to help at one of her farms, since bad weather is expected this week and one of the owner's is still not well.  She worked on getting round bales of hay in for the horses and filling the wood shed in case of power outages.

Tuesday morning the kids slept in and I headed out to visit my brother and take Christmas cookies to him.  He fixed sausage, gravy and hot bread for our breakfast and it was so yummy!  He gave me a cute little light up gnome decoration. I put it by the tree to stand guard over the gifts, isn't it adorable?

Lindsey was on the last site of lantern tours, and didn't get home until almost 11.  The last tour starts at 8:30, but it takes a while for them to work through all the sites, and travel over to the new world.  She was so cold, and tired when she got home.

Wednesday, Lindsey had a babysitting gig from 7:00am - noon.  She got her school work completed before she left.   I met Yvette for a quick coffee and then made the arduous trek to the grocery store.  With an incoming winter storm, combined with being just a few days before Christmas, this was not a fun shopping experience...but it's done.   Olivia made her rounds to her horse folks dropping off gifts and baked items.  Lantern tours continued on through the night, with sold out shows again.

Thursday morning Tom worked from 6am until 9am, and then Christmas break started and he will be off until January 3.  Sleet, freezing rain and rogue snowflakes started around 5am, but by mid-morning the temperature started to rise to a balmy 34 degrees, and heavy rains set in.  We had a late breakfast then we all worked together to move items in the basement from the finished side, to the unfinished side.  A huge project will be completed over the holiday break, there will be a post coming.  I made a huge pot of potato soup for us for the next two days.  With the temperatures hovering so close to freezing, and precipitation continuing to fall, I made the decision to have one of us drive Lindsey to and from lantern tours in case things got slick.

Friday here's what we THINK is happening.   Olivia has to work.  Lindsey has to go feed the chickens and other animals where she's pet sitting, and then is supposed to have lantern tours tonight.  However, we have this mess of a weather situation expected.  Temperatures are supposed to plummet by 8am, and a "flash freeze" of all the lingering precipitation is supposed to take place making travel impossible.  High winds are then expected, causing possible power outages from downed trees.  By 6pm, our temperatures are supposed to be in the single digits with wind chills of -16.   The museum has to decide this morning if they are going to cancel tonight's performances (likely so, for the employees and patrons safety).   So....having said all of that, I have NO idea what the day, or the holiday weekend will be like. I'm getting this post done early and that'll be one thing off my list.

Merry Christmas to everyone!   Stay warm, stay safe!!

Weekly Wrap Up - Christmas Week

The weekend was pretty low key.  Olivia worked her regular morning/afternoon shift.  We went out Saturday to pick up a few last minute items (fruit cake being the big item on my list).  We also went downtown and checked out the pop up market and roving entertainers.  There was a lovely bagpipe group playing Christmas carols on the square.   Lantern tours wrapped up and now we're just chugging on towards Christmas with no commitments.

Monday morning, Tom and Olivia headed off to work early.  Lindsey worked on her school work while I ran out to "elf" our mechanic and a few other places.  We waited for our trash collection guys to come by so we could give them their plate of treats for the week, and then we were off to elf long distance.  We went out to my older brother's house and he fixed us a feast for breakfast, including homemade sausage gravy!  I had difficulty locating the younger brother, and he didn't answer via text so we left his package on his front porch and hoped it was still there when he finally went home.  

Tom's boss texted around 4:30pm to let him know the plant got furloughed the rest of the week.  He will be off work starting tomorrow and won't return until January 4.  We elfed a few other people in the evening and watched Christmas movies.

Tuesday Lindsey and Olivia were both out the door early to go to work.  Once Lindsey was dropped off, and the coffee kicked in, Tom and I tackled a big project I've only recently decided to do.  We'd had a HUGE pine tree beside the driveway when we bought the house.  I'd planted a lovely shade garden under it.  However, two summers ago, there was some screw up with the utility company and they butchered the side of it and left it lopsided and a danger to the house and the neighbor's house.  In tracking down the culprit, the electric company then came and cut the whole tree down.  My shade garden became an overgrown ugly mess.  We tackled getting all the plants and vinca vines uprooted.  We had 14 huge black trash bags full of vines.  It looked much better (although I forgot to take a before photo, so the after makes no sense).   My brother stopped by in the afternoon for a visit.  I completed laundry and we had dinner before the girls left for jiu-jitsu.

Wednesday Olivia went to work early, Lindsey didn't have to be anywhere until 1:30.  Lindsey finished up her school work for this calendar year and is officially on Christmas break until January 3.  I worked on indoor projects and deep cleaning.  I put baked potatoes in the crockpot early in the day, and we had a simple baked potato dinner after Olivia got home from work.  The evening was spent watching Christmas movies.

Thursday morning only Olivia had to work.  Lindsey and I ran to the grocery store to pick up milk and a few other last minute grocery items.  It slays me that two days before Christmas there was only one check-out line open, my mistake was going to Walmart instead of one of the other grocery stores.  The girls had jiu-jitsu in the evening, and then we all watched the Charlie Brown Christmas show.

Friday morning (Christmas Eve) was the only day that everyone has off work.  We all decided to sleep in...which meant I woke up around 6, followed by Tom and Lindsey by 7am.  Olivia takes her sleeping in seriously and I'll likely have to wake her up sometime.  In her defense, she's working long days out in the cold, so she deserves to rest.   I'll work on laundry and do some dusting today.  I'm putting macaroni and cheese in the crockpot and we'll head to the in-laws for dinner at some point.

I hope you've all had a great week.  Have a Merry Christmas!

Weekly Wrap Up - Christmas Baking

Lindsey had Lantern Tours all weekend.  Saturday was an early night, as there were no tickets sold for the 7:30, 8:00 or 8:30 show.  Sunday we had winds and rain, and the shows were sold out, go figure.  Olivia helped me make fudge and peanut butter balls on Sunday evening.

Monday everyone was off to work early. Lindsey did some school work before she left, and took the remainder with her. By 8am I was in the kitchen in cookie making mode. I baked cookies until about 3:15, when I ran out of energy and patience.  This has been a tradition with us since the girls were tiny. We'd bake and decorate cookies for days, then go about "elfing" family, friends and random strangers on occasion.  It was always a huge deal, mostly because we were just in the kitchen working together and having fun.  Now that everyone's grown and working, it's not nearly as much fun for me to do all the baking alone.  I'm thinking this will be the last year for this tradition.  We were all able to sit down and decorate sugar cookies together after dinner.

Tuesday morning was another early day for everyone.  Lindsey had to take part of her school work with her again.  I made the last three batches of cookies and then worked on my Christmas dinner shopping list and cleaned the house.  The kids had jiu-jitsu in the evening and we watched old Christmas commercials on you-tube while they were gone.

Wednesday I dropped Lindsey off at work and then I headed to the grocery store for the week.  I picked a couple of gift cards and my shopping is officially done.  Once home I boxed up a couple of packages that needed to ship, and once those were ready I headed out to the post office.  I was really dreading the trip, but walked in with nobody in line and was in and out in less than 5 minutes!  I grabbed a cold soda on the way home from the post office and puttered around the house doing a few odds and ends.  Church wrapped up the evening, this was my last night to teach until January.

Thursday I dropped Lindsey off at work and headed to the chiropractor.  On the way home I dropped off some baked goodies at a friend's house.  I spent the morning cleaning house and doing laundry, and then the in-laws stopped by around 11am.  I picked Lindsey up at 1, and dropped off a plate of homemade goodies for the family she babysits for.  We watched Christmas movies until everyone else got home and then had dinner.  The girls went to jiu-jitsu in the evening.  When they got home we did our traditional trip around town to look at Christmas decorations, while sipping on chocolate peppermint shakes from Chick-fil-a.

Neither girl had to work on Friday.  They both slept in a little, Lindsey was up earliest of the two to get started on school work.  She'd doubled up on a few things during the week to give her a lighter day today.  Once we're all up and functional, we're driving out to another nearby town to go to a great little bagel shop for breakfast and then visit a couple of farmer's markets in that area.  I thought we might find some last minute treasures, but if not, it's just a nice slower pace than going to big chain stores.

This is the last weekend of Lantern Tours and then it's just full steam ahead until Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!  There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for!

Merry Christmas

 

Weekly Wrap Up - Christmas Week

Hello all!  I'm wrapping up this week early, since we'll be enjoying Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with family. 

On Friday we had friends stop by to bring some baked goods and support with the passing of my father.  Saturday my BFF sent me a lovely flower arrangement to brighten my day.  Both were a nice surprise.  It's nice to have that tribe that just steps in and makes things better.

Monday we began our traditional elfing project. It's always nice to see some of the gruffest people get excited when they see the elves approaching.  Our mechanic shop has two guys, one is very southern and calls everyone ma'am and sir, super nice; the other is gruff and rude and grunts instead of speaking.  I told the gruff one years ago "I'm going to make me like you, whether you want to or not."  I found out, through the nice one, that the gruff one loves gummy bears.  I sent in a plate of homemade goodies, and a separate gift back of Christmas gummy bears and I got a loud "WHOOP" and a happy dance.   Mission accomplished.

Lindsey had a regular school day, so she worked that in around our local elfing project.  She also found out that one of the interpreters she worked with at the museum moved in on the street directly behind us.  She went up there for about an hour to meet the children, and now has them as her newest, steady babysitting gig.  She starts next week.

Tuesday we had some long distance elfing to do.  Lindsey chose to stay home and work on her school work, so Olivia and I made the trek out to my brothers and a few other folks in that end of the world.  The girls had jiu-jitsu in the evening, and took a plate of baked goods to share with everyone.  One guy "misunderstood" when the girls said "There's cookies on the counter if you would like some" and took the whole plate.  They were both too shocked and polite to point out his error.  We all had a huge laugh over it when they got home, and determined that next year they'd take individual size packs of goodies.

Wednesday Lindsey finished her school work for this calendar year.  She's officially half way through her science, over half way through geometry and a little more than half way finished with civics too.  The girls cleaned the house and we did laundry and did some prep work for Christmas dinner (we're hosting here this year).  We'll be having breakfast for dinner tonight, then heading out to Chick-fil-a for their chocolate peppermint shakes to enjoy while we ride around to look at Christmas decorations.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with your families, in whatever way you celebrate this year!

Weekly Wrap Up - Christmas Prep Week

We did get to go see Lindsey at the lantern tours last weekend, and as promised I got a photo of her for you.  Kids on the tours keep calling her "the pilgrim lady", which she doesn't much care for, but it is accurate to her appearance.  The bulky wool layers make her look so much different in shape, I had to look closely at first to make sure it was her.

This has been our week to make our Christmas treats to share with family and friends.  We've made fudge, peanut butter balls, sugar cookies, peanut butter blossom cookies, ginger snaps, cherry chip cookies with chocolate frosting, chocolate cake mix cookies, white chocolate macadamia cookies and sea salt caramel cookies.  We also decided to make Christmas popcorn for the first time (popcorn drizzled in almond bark and sprinkled with crushed candy canes and red/green M&M minis).   Here are photos of various parts of our food making week.

Lindsey has kept up with her academics during the week.  Olivia was off work Monday - Friday, but worked last weekend at both farms and will do so this weekend as well.

Wednesday we had a snow and ice storm move in.  We ended up with a little over a quarter of an inch of ice, and little snow.  I was glad we avoided the 24 inches that had been in our forecast.

Thursday took an unexpected turn when my father passed away.  The rest of the week has been a blur of questions and answers and decisions for arrangements.  Due to current restrictions in our state, the service will be held at a later date.

I hope you all have a great weekend as we head into the last few preparation days before Christmas.  I hope it's a stress free weekend for you all.

Weekly Wrap Up - Thanksgiving Week

Olivia had her first day of training at her new horse farm last Friday evening.  She worked three hours and enjoyed working with the barn manager.  She even saw a few folks she knows who were there for riding lessons with their kids.  The owner was out of town, and left no instructions as to when Olivia was to return, and didn't answer messages from Olivia or the barn manager.  We're not at all impressed with this place (the owner specifically), so until she learns communication skills and common courtesy, she's down a workhand.  

Monday was a pretty nice, cold morning.  Olivia went to her regular job and spent 6 hours stacking firewood for the owners.  They paid her really well, and she got quite the workout.  They are also recommending her to another horse person for extra hours as well.  A good work ethic opens doors.  Lindsey worked on her school work and I worked on doing some touch up painting in the kitchen.   I also worked on laundry and bills, job security, right?

Tuesday was deep cleaning day.  Both girls worked on their lessons and then worked on cleaning their rooms.  Lindsey had lantern tour practice in the evening, followed by jiu-jitsu class.

Wednesday morning I ran to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute items.  The rest of the day was spent working out the cooking schedule and getting things out of the freezer for thawing.  Lindsey had a normal school day, and Olivia worked on her German.    

Thursday was of course Thanksgiving.   I hosted dinner at our house this year.  I mixed up my own concoction of herbs to make a turkey rub, and it was DELISH.  Dinner was really good, fellowship with the family was great!  With everything that was going on I forgot to take any photos.  I guess that's good in a way...no proof of how many people were in our house (governor strikes again).

Friday morning we took Olivia to look at a truck.  The truck actually overheated during our test drive, so that was a clear sign that this was not the one for her.   She worked the afternoon shift at the horse farm, and then we all worked on decorating the house for Christmas.  We'd planned to go to an outdoor Christmas Market...it got cancelled (another governors edict).   We'll be dining on leftovers today, and then going to visit another little town that is hosting an after dark downtown Christmas shopping event.  Don't tell our governor...ahem.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, however you chose to celebrate it this year!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Ornaments and Family Fun

When I planned out this academic year I also planned on doing a daily Christmas ornament craft with the girls every day in December, up until we broke for the holidays.   Yeah, so then reality set in and between Olivia's heavy academic load, playing JV basketball and everything else going on, I saw that the likelihood of us having time to do something every day wasn't likely.   Instead I scheduled a crafting day and left it at that.

Most of the crafts here can be found on my Christmas Pinterest Board if you need more in depth directions, or if you want to see what it SHOULD have looked like in comparison to what ours actually DID look like.   As you can see, Santa stopped by to craft with us.

We made little felt ornaments, little hats, decorated glass balls and make some yarn orbs.   Here's a peek at a few of the finished items (the yarn orbs are STILL drying, so the balloons haven't been popped).

Our ornaments didn't turn our perfect, and we didn't get to nearly as many of the projects as I'd had planned.  But we spent 4 hours laughing, talking, singing Christmas songs and making memories, so it was a very successful day!

Popcorn Balls

My husbands grandmother made popcorn balls every fall/Halloween.  It's one of his favorite childhood memories.   I've endeavored to keep that tradition alive for him and make it part of our children's memory bank as well.

For the first couple of years, I used a recipe that called for lots of ingredients, and they were good.  But pouring boiling liquid over popcorn and then trying to form balls without getting scalded wasn't my idea of a fun family activity, so I adapted.

I pop my popcorn on top of the stove in a big soup pot, but you can use microwaved popcorn or a popcorn popper, it really doesn't matter.   I fix enough to fill my biggest Tupperware bowl.   Then melt a bag of marshmallows in the microwave by melting 30 seconds, stir, repeat as necessary until melted.   Then combine the popcorn and melted marshmallows.   Combining works best by using your buttered hands, not a spoon or spatula.

There is nothing redeeming about these treats.  It's total sugar/carb overload.  It's ok to do that once a year, right?

Christmas Baking

The girls and I love to make cookies and candies together at Christmas each year.   With this weekends schedule, and Olivia working at the museum most nights for the lantern tours, I didn't think she'd get to help us bake.   Thankfully, the polar vortex moved in and cancelled one night of the lantern tours, and then a freak ice storm caused basketball to be cancelled on Saturday, and I was so happy to have both of my girls home baking!

Traditionally we make fudge and peanut butter balls, and sometimes potato candy.   For the cookies, we make sugar cookies, peanut butter blossoms, ginger snaps, chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia, cake mix cookies (usually devils food) and molasses cookies.   This year I broke tradition and made pumpkin spice cookies instead of molasses, because I'm a rebel, grins.

 Here are just a few photos of some of our fun, and our mess....and our memories.

 

I realize how quickly the days of childhood are going by.  I hope that the time spent together baking and laughing will be some of their fondest memories, and that those memories will quietly call them back home for years to come.

Merry Christmas!

St. Nicholas Day Cookies

 

If you've followed my blog long, you've read about our lovely neighbor Ms. Kay.  She was a young child during World War II and the Occupation of Luxembourg (do pop over and read that post, it's a living history lesson).  Anyway, growing up in Luxembourg, Ms. Kay was used to celebrating St. Nicholas Day (December 6), but adapted to the American Christmas over the years.   Each year, the girls and I do something "traditional" and surprise her with it.  This year we made traditional St. Nicholas Day Cookies.

Recipe:
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3 tablespoons milk
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cup) butter, cut into pieces

In small bowl, cream brown sugar and milk, set aside.

In large bowl or food processor combine flour, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, baking powder and salt.   Cut in butter with, blend until mixture resembles cornmeal.   Stir in brown sugar mixture, mixing well.

Form dough into two 7X2 inch rolls and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight.

Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before rolling out.

Roll dough out on lightly floured board to `/8 or 1/4 inch thickness.   Dip cookie cutters in flour before cutting out cookies.  Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes, or until cookie edges start to lightly brown.   Cool and decorate with royal icing.

Royal Icing:
4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
1/3 cup warm water

These cookies are dense and firm, almost hard (think ginger snap), with a lightly sweet and spicy flavor.   The frosting adds just a hint more sweetness.   These go great with coffee or a cup of hot tea in the evenings...and they may make elderly European ladies squeal like a little girl when she finds them waiting by her front door early in the morning on St. Nicholas Day, wink.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!