May muffin recipe: Bakery Style Strawberry Muffins

 

 

 Readers may remember that I'm trying a new muffin recipe each month, with an eye to Christmas kitchen gifts.  For May, I decided that I would try these yummy-looking Bakery Style Strawberry Muffins from Like Mother Like Daughter.   Although our local strawberries won't be ripe until late June or early July, there are some decent California strawberries in the supermarkets right now.  And for making these muffins at Christmas time, I thought I could use whole frozen strawberries and chop them up.

These muffins use basic simple pantry ingredients that most of us would typically have on hand.  I like that they seem very easy to make, and a crumb topping on any muffin is always a bonus.

Sadly, I will not find time to actually bake these muffins in May.  Here we are on May 31, and I've not baked them yet.  I ran out of time to get to the supermarket with the best sale (2/$4).

Our May has been packed with busyness.  If we add up the days, we spent probably half of May helping out at The Wilds of New England in various ways.  My hubby has so many skills that can be used there.  I am much less skilled but have been able to clean bathrooms, wash windows, do a simple but time-consuming computer project, fold hundreds of camp T-shirts, and much more.  Just a simple pair of willing hands can be surprisingly helpful.

As I mentioned last time,  we got Mr. T's mother safely settled in long-term care in mid-April.  He was still heavily involved with paperwork well into May.  Then, in mid-May, after receiving a glowing report as to how well she was doing in rehab, she began to decline -- and passed away on May 23.  Now the busyness shifted to making funeral arrangements.  Thankfully the services will not be until later in June. 

 

All that to say, life has been just a bit too busy (and the weather has often been too hot) for me to bake these muffins as a try-out for kitchen gifts.  Hopefully in June I can take that time.  Our church had planned a ladies' brunch for May 28, but we have had so much flu going around that the decision was made to postpone until sometime in June.  I had thought to bake these muffins and take them to the brunch.  I think I will still do that, whenever we reschedule to.

Photo from Like Mother Like Daughter

 

I'll let you know how they come out.  Watch for a June muffin recipe, too, featuring blueberries!

April muffin recipe: Cinnamon Roll Muffins

 

Photo from Jamie Cooks it Up

Again this month, I'm sneaking in just under the wire with a muffin recipe for April.  (As readers may remember, I've been trying a muffin recipe every month with an eye to next Christmas's kitchen gifts.) 

April has been just about as busy as March.  We have three family birthdays to celebrate in April -- our local daughter and two of her children -- for one thing, and of course there was Easter, and also a special Merger Sunday as our church merger became official.  My mother-in-law is safely settled in long-term care and is thriving, but it took so many people working on so many details for that to happen, and my hubby has been immersed in those details.   We have been trying to spend several days each week staying at the Christian camp where we've been helping with maintenance and other tasks.  We're also working on selling the last piece of property for my dad's trust.  It has all taken time!

Easter table at my daughter's home

So I surely count it a blessing to be able to duck into my actual kitchen this morning and try out a muffin recipe, then duck into my Christmas kitchen here and share it with you.  In preparation, I went to my Christmas breakfast Pinterest board so see if I had a pinned muffin recipe with basic ingredients.  I decided on these Cinnamon Roll Muffins from Jamie Cooks it Up.  Jamie's site has been another of those I've come to rely on for wonderful recipes.

Although there are a few steps -- making the cinnamon filling/topping, and the glaze, in addition to the actual muffin batter -- these came together quite quickly.  My muffin tins are fairly standard, but I got only 12 muffins out of the recipe rather than 15.

 

Muffins just out of the oven.  You can see how the topping bubbled over a bit.

I was somewhat disappointed with the maple-y glaze that sounded like such a yummy part of the recipe.  For one thing, there was too much of it.  Also, it was too thin.  I think that another time I would halve the glaze recipe but add more confectioners sugar.  Glazing the muffins while warm resulted not in a pretty drizzle like Jamie's photo, but just an overall glazing, even though I did drizzle it from a teaspoon.  In the photo below, some of the muffins were glazed within ten minutes, but others I glazed when completely cooled.  I did like the maple flavor, though.  Another time I would tinker a good bit with the glaze ingredient proportions.

These muffins are scrumptious and actually would work well as a part of Christmas breakfast, but I've decided they wouldn't be ideal as a kitchen gift.  The topping is too brittle and crumbly (not at all a bad thing, but messy for a gift), and the bottoms of the muffin liners (I used foil ones)got rather greasy. For serving these, I would remove the liners and either serve the muffins without them or place the muffins into fresh, decorative paper liners as I have done below.

Bottom line: a wonderful recipe, but not for a kitchen gift.  I may well make them for special breakfasts with friends throughout the year!

March muffin recipe: Cranberry Streusel Muffins

I'm sneaking in just under the wire of March 31 with a muffin recipe.  (I've been trying a muffin recipe every month with an eye to next Christmas's kitchen gifts.)   It's been a super busy month which thankfully started out with a quiet week as volunteer caretakers at a camp closed for the winter.  Much of the staff had to be out of state and my hubby and I were asked to stay on site and look after things, make sure pipes didn't freeze, and take care of any necessary snow removal.  It was a most relaxing week.  Cross-stitch on the sunny porch below was part of my relaxation.  The porch was unheated, but on sunny afternoons it was truly comfortable.

The day we returned, we got the news that my mother-in-law was being hospitalized.  She was there about ten days and is now home, but Mr. T and his siblings have been on the go trying to meet her needs and work toward long-term care.  The paperwork, the emails, the phone calls, and much, much more have kept us beyond busy.  Not to mention, our church is finalizing a merger with another church and my hubby is up to his ears in details and legalities regarding that.

So I count it a blessing that I could duck into my actual kitchen yesterday and try out a muffin recipe, then duck into my Christmas kitchen here and share it with you.

The recipe is for Cranberry Streusel Muffins and it's from my blog friend Denise Cunningham at RefreshHer.  I've also been blessed to meet Denise in person, and you can read about that here.  While you are at Denise's blog, you might like to check out her other recipes.  She's a fantastic cook and has an entire indexed page for her recipe links.

Photo by Denise at RefreshHer

 There is a bit of work to putting these together -- you need to chop cranberries and make a streusel topping -- but they are really delicious and so worth the extra minutes.  The streusel topping just makes the muffins!  It is so amazing how very small quantities of a few simple ingredients can produce such a wonderful addition to a baked good.  

I was very pleased with this muffin recipe!  It may be the best of the three I've tried so far.  Try them and see what you think!

February muffin recipe: Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Muffins

 

 Rudolph Day (and a snowy one at that) seems like the perfect day to try a new muffin recipe.  Recall, I am trying one new muffin recipe per month with the idea of finding something very special to use for Christmas 2022's kitchen gifts.

The one I tried today, Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Muffins, is a good contender for that role.  I had found this recipe awhile ago and saved it.  My hubby and I were on a 40-day sugar fast until a couple of days ago, so I had held off on baking these muffins until now.  I'm glad I waited, because baking them on Rudolph Day was so perfectly serendipitous.  

This is a large recipe which makes 22 muffins.  I didn't think we could use quite that many, so I cut the recipe in half.  That worked perfectly and I managed to eke 12 muffins out of the batter.  I didn't have any applesauce on hand so I used the vanilla yogurt option.  I also didn't sprinkle any of the mini chocolate chips on top.  They didn't look quite as pretty as the muffins from FoodTalk, but they certainly were delicious!

You might wonder if the chocolate is overpowering with the gingerbread muffins.  It's really not.  I think the fact that mini chips are used might make a difference there.  And of course I used only 1/2 cup since I was cutting the recipe in half.   I wondered if the chocolate might make the muffins overly sweet.  Again, that just wasn't an issue.  

These muffins are scrumptious, with just the right amount of molasses and spices all complemented by the chocolate mini chips.  Highly recommended!

January muffin recipe: Cranberry Poppy Seed

 

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm implementing a plan to try a new muffin recipe each month of 2022 to find a replacement for the bran muffins I give my mother-in-law each year.  I started with bran years ago, because I gave her the muffin batter in a container to bake as needed.  She liked bran muffins a lot.  The first year I also gave her silicone muffin "tins".  As time has gone by, she no longer bakes for herself (she's 95) and I've become increasingly disappointed with my bran muffin recipe.

So here is the first installment in my muffin quest.  It also happens to be free of refined sugar, since my hubby and I are currently on a sugar fast.

CRANBERRY POPPY SEED MUFFINS

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg
6 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup melted butter
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
Crumb topping: Mix together 4 Tblsp. flour, 4 Tblsp. pure maple sugar, 2 Tblsp. coconut sugar, 3 Tblsp. old-fashioned oats, and 4 Tblsp. softened butter

Preheat the oven to 400º and line 12 muffin cups with foil liners or parchment liners.  Sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and cinnamon into a large bowl (or leave them in the sifter and sift directly into the wet ingredients).  In a second bowl, whisk together the egg, maple syrup, milk, and melted butter until well blended.  Whisk in the poppy seeds.  Add the sifted dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk until just blended.  Stir in the cranberries.  

Divide the batter among the lined muffin cups and top each one with an even amount of the Crumb Topping.  Bake for 22 minutes.  Cool the muffins in the pan on a rack for a few minutes before removing the muffins to the rack to cool completely.

The muffin recipe is adapted from one by Ken Haedrich in his cookbook Country Breakfasts.  The topping recipe is adapted from one by Chocolate-Covered Katie.

All in all, I was quite pleased with these muffins.  I brought them along to our Christmas Club meeting and they were enjoyed!

The actual kitchen gift list

 

 Here goes with the actual kitchen gift list from 2021.    Let's do a little comparison of it with my tentative list:

So as you see,  I made the first 5 items on the list, then for "other cookies" I did Chocolate Mint Crisps and for "other candy" I did Heavenly Delight fudge.  

Instead of bran muffins, I made Oatmeal Jam Muffins.  More about that in a moment.

I made two Apricot Cakes with the intent of gifting one and freezing one as a birthday gift for my walking friend who loves this cake and has a February birthday.

I didn't get around to making hot chocolate mix or Christmas Jam this year.  

For years, I have baked bran muffins for my mother-in-law and added a bag of clementines and homemade hot cocoa mix to her gift.  It's been a consumable gift that she has really enjoyed.  However, over the past few years I have become increasingly disenchanted with my bran muffin recipe.  I thought I would try different recipes throughout 2021 and see if I could find a muffin recipe that might be better.  Of course, I didn't get around to doing so.  (I have made a plan, though, to do just that in 2022.)  So I ended up using an old recipe of mine for Oatmeal Jam Muffins.  If you should be interested in the recipe, you'll find it in this post: Champions of Breakfast.  My hubby baked the muffins and they were just okay.  The jam leaked and burned in some of them, but we picked the best looking ones to take to his mom.  

Hence, my plan to try a new muffin recipe most months of 2022 and see which is the winner.   The first recipe should be up tomorrow.

And there's the actual kitchen gift list for 2021.  It really does pay to keep these lists, from my perspective.

After-Christmas debriefing for 2021

 

 Every year after Christmas, I try to note down my thoughts about that year's season using the  Organized Christmas  After-Christmas debriefing form to help me evaluate how things went, what worked, what didn't, and what we might do differently in the coming year. This has been very helpful to me. 

Here are my thoughts concerning Christmas 2021:

1.  What worked this holiday season?  What changes did you make to create simpler, less stressful holidays?

Again this year, there were a number of decorative items that I didn't even get out of the attic.  A few years ago I simplified Christmas decorating by putting favorite decorative items, including the tree skirt into one large plastic box and keeping it accessible through the year.  That means I can still make things look festive even if I don't have time right then to get to the attic.

I did decorate quite a bit less this year due to an attack of sciatica that began on December 7 and continued well into the new year.

We had four of our local grandchildren over for breakfast, candy making and a bit of crafting early in December.  We had put the tree up the night before; the boys added the lights that day and we all helped with decorating.  It was an enjoyable way of getting the tree decorated -- and, as I did a lot of wrapping ahead of time this year, I then placed the wrapped gifts under the tree as I went.

Again this year, we shipped to Nevada using Click'n'Ship, and got them out in plenty of time.   We also had Amazon gifts shipped directly to Nevada where our daughter wrapped and tagged them.  Everything arrived in time!

My hubby baked nearly every Christmas cookie that came out of our kitchen this year.   I made just one variety.  That was amazing and we felt prepared for every festive event or last-minute gift!

2.  What was the worst aspect of preparing for the holidays this year?  How can you avoid the problem in the future?

I think the most difficult aspect of preparing for the holidays this year was being  hindered by a lack of mobility.  I couldn't move as quickly or easily as I liked.  Not sure, really, how I could avoid that next year, but if it happens I'll go to the chiropractor and start the exercises right away.

3.  Were you satisfied with your level of giving and/or spiritual observances?  How could next year's holiday better reflect your family's values?

We'll probably need to be more economical with our gifts in the future, but I was very pleased with the gifts that we gave.  A fun thing that we did, which we won't necessarily repeat every year, was that when we took the grandkids to a favorite candy and Christmas shop for ice cream, we still needed gifts for three of them.  We paid attention to what they liked, then at a later time we went back secretly and bought those gifts.

From a spiritual standpoint, all was good.  It was a huge blessing to be meeting with another church (which we are planning to merge with in the spring).  We enjoyed a simple but beautiful Christmas program the Sunday before Christmas, and then a most meaningful Christmas communion the Sunday after Christmas.

4.  How well did your household function this year?  Were you calm and cozy, or stressed and strung out?  What improvements could be made next year?

In general, I felt calm and cozy.  My household functioned as well as it could, although I was prevented from doing much housework.  I could do laundry if someone else carried the baskets up and downstairs, and I could cook as long as I mostly stood in one spot.  I wrapped presents standing at a desk.  I didn't really stress about what I couldn't do (although my hubby would tell you I had some moments of feeling pretty useless), because there was really nothing I could do about it.

As far as what improvements could be made next year -- one thought is to maybe plan ahead to do one of those holiday plans that help you get your house ready for Christmas.

 5.  Honesty time!  How did your holidays go?  Did you experience the expectancy, the magic, the sparkle of the season?  If not, what changes could you make to recapture the joy?

In general, we had a joyous season.  We enjoyed some lovely events and family times.  In spite of feeling lame and sore, having to use a cane much of the time, I felt that things went really well.  I was even able to share Christmas joy with others by preparing granola, frozen lasagnas, and my hubby's Christmas cookie trays for a family with a houseful of holiday guests.  That was one of the biggest blessings of our season.

And it was a sort of Christmas miracle to be able to post every day in December in both of my blogs.  I hadn't done many pre-scheduled posts, so I was doing much of it on a day-to-day basis.  It was a challenge to do this while finding stairs difficult to manage, but God gave energy and ideas and it all worked out.

So there you have it -- all in all, a blessed Christmas season!

January 2022 Christmas Club meeting

 

So yesterday, we had our first Christmas Club meeting for 2022!  Susan, Carrie and I met at Carrie's home in her beautiful new space.  It was a low-key meeting but very encouraging and productive.  We talked about our Christmases, and Susan even has pictures from hers arranged in scrapbook layouts.  It looked like such a wonderful time!  I would not have thought of documenting this, but Susan even had a photo of her home that she and Jim took when they arrived home on Christmas night.  It had been snowing, and the lights of their lovely home just showed up so beautifully.  It was a great photo to end with.

Carrie and I had both noticed that Christmas felt very relaxed this year.  What a blessing that was!  

We discussed Christmas cards.  Susan wants to do a photo card for 2022 and Carrie was able to share some tips about when she starts working on their family's photo card.  I have already purchased Christmas cards for 2022.  I was using up odds and ends of cards from previous years in 2021 and actually used almost all of my stash.  So I found some nice ones from Christianbook.com at an after-Christmas sale.  Below is just one of the designs I purchased:

We enjoyed beverages and some refined sugar-free muffins I had made -- Cranberry Poppy Seed, with a crumble topping.  They turned out pretty well.  I'll post more about this later, but I'm thinking of trying a new muffin recipe every month in 2022 with the thought of finding a good one for Christmas kitchen gifts this year.

At the meeting I also took a few minutes to share the after-Christmas debriefing that I try to do every year. 

As I looked through my Christmas notebook, I found that apparently I never did do this debriefing exercise for 2020.  But no matter -- I've now done it for 2021!  I'll plan to write a separate post about this.  

In preparation for the Christmas Club meeting, I also took some time to update my Christmas notebook in the way I describe in this post.  It feels great to have that task accomplished.

2021 was an interesting and different Christmas season for me, due to being nearly immobilized with sciatica for most of it.  I am so thankful that God gave energy and even adaptive ways of doing things to be able to accomplish all that was necessary to do.

And that was pretty much our club meeting yesterday.  So fun that we could actually meet on Rudolph Day!

The actual 2021 cookie-baking list

 

Interestingly, this was one of those unusual Christmas seasons when my actual cookie baking list lined up with the tentative list I made early in December.  Very surprising!

Mr. T baked every cookie on this list except for the very last variety -- the Christmas No-Bakes.  He left those to me, and I made two batches of them.

Of the other varieties, he baked at least a double batch of each one.  Sometimes he ended up making two double batches of each.  For the Eggnog Logs, he baked a triple batch because they are such favorites with so many people and quite time-consuming to make.

I think maybe the only one on this list that I wouldn't bother with next year would be the Gingerbread Brownies.  They are unusual and very tasty but I think next year I might make my mother's Poinsettia Brownies instead.

This year I had hoped to make Gingerbread Men and/or Peppermint Meltaway Cookies for the cookie trays.  It just didn't happen, mostly due to being somewhat sidelined by sciatica throughout the holidays.  So thankful that my hubby loves to bake and that he tackled the cookie list so successfully!

The actual 2021 candy list

 

Every year I publish a tentative list for cookies, one for kitchen gifts, and one for candy making.  If I think of it, I usually go back in January and do a reality check, noting how close I came to that tentative list.  Sometimes I end up making nearly everything on the list.  Other times, what we actually make varies wildly from the original list.  That's what happened with this year's candy list.

Of the candies on this list, we actually made only three varieties this year: Heavenly Delight, Holiday Special Fudge and the Chocolate Dipped Orange Slice candy.  Mr. T made at least 6 batches of Heavenly Delight!

Then we made some candies that weren't on the list: Salted Caramel Fudge -- aka Tasty Disaster Fudge (2 batches), -- Rocky Road Fudge, Creamsicle Fudge, and Candy Cane Fudge.  

I had placed Salted Caramel Fudge on a mental list, 

and Mr. T had Creamsicle Fudge on his mental list.

So as you see, our actual candy list for 2021 did indeed vary quite a bit from my original tentative list.  

 

This important info will now go into the Christmas notebook for next year!

Book review: The Farm Chicks Christmas

 

 I was putting away some of my Christmas books today (not all -- I am still going through some of them) and it occurred to me that I might share a review of one of my favorites, The Farm Chicks Christmas.  This is a Country Living book and the author is Serena Thompson.  This was not even a book that I was aware of until I won a hardcover copy in a giveaway.  After I received the book and paged through it, I knew that this was a book both of my daughters would enjoy -- so I went to Thriftbooks and found a copy for each of them.  So now I'd like to share this fun book with all of you.

In all honesty, I don't think I have ever heard of The Farm Chicks prior to winning this book.  You can learn more about them here: The Farm Chicks.  And you can learn the fascinating life story of author Serena Thompson here: About Serena.  This is a gorgeous book full of decorating ideas, traditions, recipes, and much more.  And all incredibly photographed!

Honestly, I wish that I could share each and every photo with you, but of course I can't.  I will content myself with simply going through the table of contents and sharing the highlights of the book with you.  I'll add in a few vintage-y images of my own, because the photography and design of this book are just glorious and I won't even try to scan the pages to show you.

The book is divided into two parts: The Spirit of the Season with 2 chapters; and At Home for the Holidays with 7 chapters.

In The Spirit of the Season, the first chapter is called 'Tis lovely to give.  It is filled with ideas and traditions from Serena's childhood and from her life now with her husband Colin and their children.

The second chapter is called A Visit to the Tree Farm and tells about the Thompson family's annual Christmas tree hunting tradition with friends.  The last 2 pages in this chapter contain many warm beverage recipes, titled "Ways to Ward Off the Chill".  There's spiced cider, hot mocha, chai latte and more.

A vintage milk bottle cap!

 
In the section At Home for the Holidays, the first chapter is Holiday Welcome.  It includes dozens of ideas for front porches and other outdoor decorating and how to make every corner bright.    There are even patterns -- for example, one for a holiday scalloped bunting made out of assorted fabrics in Christmas colors.

The next chapter is The Decorated Tree.  This includes photos of four different decorated Christmas trees, a lovely story about a tinfoil star, and directions for making sweet tree trims like snowball pompom ornaments and silhouette ornaments.  It also has a page of fun ways of displaying vintage Christmas light bulbs and balls.  If I remember, I'll do a jar of vintage light bulbs for next year!

This chapter also has a section called The Gift of Giving, which includes many ideas for gift wrap, gift card holders, and festive shipping ideas.  

The next chapter is called Wreaths and Garlands.  It includes many fun ideas, and pages of glorious photos.  There are instructions for making a sweet paper garland  and a wreath made from balls of yarn.  The section Make Every Corner Bright gives many ideas for decorating with greenery and other natural accents.

 The chapter Cupboards and Corners is next.     It includes page after page of beautifully inspiring photos, and also fun crafts like colorful cone trees and a wrapping paper village.  There's a feature on Christmas collections, too.  There is SO much inspiration in this chapter that no description of mine can ever do it justice.

Kitchens and Pantries is the next chapter, and it is even more fun than the one before it.  A full 20 pages of glorious, inspiring photography and fun, fun ideas for decorating kitchens and pantries and for packaging food gifts and more.  There are ideas for displaying kitchen treasures and directions for making a "Merry" banner.

Next comes a chapter titled Happy Memories.  Again, no descriptive words of mine can describe the delight of this chapter.  All manner of vintage items are pictured, from a sequined felt stocking to a metal toy barn decorated for Christmas to toy trucks and a plaid thermos with a sprig of greenery -- oh, just beautiful!  There are also directions for making a gumdrop wreath, felt stemware coasters, and paper serving cones for snack mixes.

The last chapter is called Holiday Recipes and it is filled with ideas for beverages, cakes, nut recipes, cookies and tarts (lots of cookie recipes!), and even a page of Cookie Tips.  

 Lastly in the book are several pages of recipe cards and stickers to use in giving your country kitchen gifts to others.  Just one last touch of vintage sweetness!

I'm sure you can tell that I'm enchanted by this book.  Highly recommend it to all of you!

Swanky Swigs

 Ever heard of Swanky Swigs?  Apparently, we may own a set!  These are vintage beverage glasses that once were produced as a way to get Depression-era housewives to purchase more of Kraft's cheese products.  The processed cheese products came in glass containers that could be washed and then reused as drinking glasses.  Double the value!  You can read more about the history of Swanky Swigs here: Shiloh Museum of Ozark History.

When we cleaned out the old homestead, we had found a dusty old set of 6 Christmas glasses featuring a black stagecoach drawn by black horses, green fir boughs around the top edge, and thin red ribbons around the lower part.  I didn't really want to keep them; I didn't think they were all that attractive, and they were an impractical size -- midway between a juice glass and a tumbler.  But Mr. T wanted to keep them, so we cleaned them up and have been using them this Christmas season.

The other day, I got the notion to do a little online search and see what I could learn about these unusual glasses.  And that's when I learned about Swanky Swigs.  Now, our glasses may or may not be the actual Swanky Swigs -- apparently those were only made for Kraft by the Hazel Atlas Glass company.  But other food manufacturers made similar promotional glassware.  Products like cottage cheese, sour cream, jelly, and peanut butter also came packed in reusable glasses with a hand-painted look.  

I will need to do more research to determine what was originally packaged in our Christmas glasses.  But I am so glad I didn't just send them to the thrift store.

A thoughtful surprise!

 

Earlier in December, I had a lovely little surprise.  I usually attend a ladies' Bible study every month at a friend's home.  I wasn't able to make the December meeting due to inclement weather, and felt badly to miss it.

Imagine my surprise the next day when one of the other ladies appeared at church with a cardboard box and proceeded to hand out sweet Christmas floral arrangements to those of us who had missed the meeting.  Our thoughtful Bible study leader, Amanda, had made one of these for every lady.  I suspect  her little boys may have had a hand in these as well, since she often recruits their help in projects.

The day before, puttering around my home with a bit of Christmas decorating, I had placed on our dining table a pretty hand-quilted Christmas table topper that someone had made for my mother.  When I saw how beautifully Amanda's floral arrangement coordinated with that table topper, I was stunned.  It just could not go more perfectly!  The deep rich colors, the touches of metallic gold and of white -- they were all just perfect together.  Immediately I removed the little decoration I had placed there earlier and put this sweet arrangement in its place.

 

Christmas surprises are so much fun, don't you agree?

Gorgeous card featuring an entire cabinet of Christmas treats!

 

Here is a really fun vintage Christmas card that is just so appropriate to feature in my Christmas Kitchen!   I'm guessing that this is from sometime in the 1970s.  Cards then, approaching or around the time of our country's bicentennial in 1976, often had a handmade, antique type vibe.

This shows Christmas goodies within a cupboard, presumably with glass doors through which one can see just what is on the shelves of this handmade, hand-painted cabinet.

Inside, with the doors open, one can more easily see the contents.  Looks like a different plum pudding on both top and bottom shelf.  Jars and other containers filled with Christmas cookies and candy!  Lots of crisp red apples.  There's a jar of candy canes on the center shelf and some of the gorgeous, fun fruit slice candies.  Pretty sweet!

 
Hope you've enjoyed seeing this fun and fanciful vintage Christmas card!

A smidgen more outdoor decorating

 

 Just posted some of our outdoor lighting over at my Kitchen Table blog, so now I'm adding just a bit more.  We didn't have a lot, but more than usual.  The trees that I posted about on my other blog are new this year, so you may wish to go over and read more about them, where they are located and how we chose to decorate them.

 
The flag at the top of this post is one we have on a flagpole mounted on a tree out by the end of our driveway.  We have it illuminated with a small solar light all year round, but Mr. T hadn't thought to get a  nighttime photo of it until he was outside snapping photos of our other lights.  It looks a bit Christmasy since it's on an evergreen tree.

Now the lights below are some that we light up every year.  These are the strings of colored lights with the large bulbs.  We've had them up there for years, tucked just inside the roof line of our garage.  We just have to replace a bulb or two from time to time.  Sometimes we place a lighted star (white lights) centered just below these.

The photo below pictures neither lights nor decorations, but our stacks of cookie tins that are keeping frozen on the front porch.  They are a little bit decorative, I guess -- and people do light up when they see a plate full of Christmas cookies!

A fun vintage Christmas card

 

 For a very quick post this evening, I'll just share a fun vintage card I found recently and listed in my shop.  "A Christmas Note" is a play on words as this card has a musical theme.  Even the letters spelling out the words have some music notation attached to them.

The large treble clef appears to be formed out of white-frosted greenery and red berries.  A pretty cluster of holly and berries decorates the treble clef.

This would have been a very appropriate card to send to one's music teacher back in the day.  Hope my readers have enjoyed seeing this vintage find!

Sunday Scripture

 

Here is our fourth, and last, Sunday Scripture for December.  Remember, I am writing these posts from an Advent study that I did with Good Morning Girls in 2013.  The study, Keeping Our Hearts Focused on Jesus, is still available as a free download, so if you are interested head on over there and get it.  Scroll down and click on the book-like image similar to the illustration above, and the pdf should open right up.  More than just a Bible study, this is an ebook that includes recipes, Advent activities, and more.  I think it will be a blessing to you.

I've mentioned before that I like to use the SOAP method of Bible study, and the studies from GMG use a very similar one.  I find this method a real blessing whether I am studying shorter passages or longer ones, so I hope you'll give it a try if you haven't ever done so. Just a reminder that the S is for Scripture -- just write it out -- and the O is for Observation, the A is for Application and the P is for prayer -- concerning how you'll apply this verse or passage,  or praise for what it means to you.

Each week of this Advent study focuses on a theme: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace.  This last week's verses are focused on Peace. 

Today's Scripture is Zephaniah 3:14-15.  In the actual study, this one was from December 24 -- just in case you downloaded the study and are following along with it.

S=  "Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
"The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, He hast cast out thy enemy: the King of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more."  (Zephaniah 3:14-15)

O=  These verses are clearly prophetic.  As C.I. Scofield says, "That this, and all like passages in the prophets, cannot refer to anything which occurred at the first coming of Christ is clear from the context.  The precise reverse is true."  In the Scofield Reference Bible, this scholar has titled this section of Zephaniah "Israel's restoration and blessing: the King in the Kingdom."

So when verse 15 states, "the King of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee",  it is not really referring directly to the Baby in the manger, but pointing forward to a time when He will reign in the millennial kingdom.  In that day, it may be said that God's people will not "see evil any more".

Still, Christ's presence on earth as a Baby was a cause of great rejoicing: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people" (Luke 2:10).  Think too of the rejoicing of both Simeon and Anna as these elderly believers came into the temple at just the right moment to see the infant Jesus and the realization of God's promise to send a Savior (Luke 2:25-38).

A=  I can be glad and rejoice with all my heart, as I recall and celebrate the coming of the Savior.  I can rejoice that He is my Savior.  He has "taken away [my] judgments" in that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:1).  He has cast out my enemy -- Satan, and he is a defeated foe.  

The Lord is in the midst of me in that He dwells within me in the Person of the Holy Spirit.  I have much to be joyful about!

P=  "Lord, as much as I have tried this season to focus on You, in many ways I have failed miserably.  I have allowed busyness and stress in preparing to celebrate to crowd out my joy -- not completely, but to a much greater degree than it should.  

"I thank and praise You for the snatches of celebratory joy that I found this season -- the scent of balsam fir; the beauty of bright red winterberries; a lovely piano offertory; the sweet voices of children lifted in a carol; the generous gifts and meaningful cards from loving friends and family, and so on -- but I feel rebuked that my entire season could have been (and should have been) much more joyful, in view of our reason to celebrate.

"Help me in this day and during this week, to show my joy in Christ's coming to a needy, needy world.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

And there is our final Sunday Scripture for December!  I hope that this little series has been a blessing to you.

Merry Christmas!

 

Gorgeous image is from Gooseberry Patch

Mr. T and I would like to wish all of our friends a very Merry Christmas!  

 Our day started off with our usual quiet times and then a very simple breakfast of cheesy scrambled eggs and wonderful rye bread from our neighbor Walter (his traditional gift to us) and clementines.  This is a simpler Christmas breakfast than we ordinarily enjoy, but Mr. T wanted to get to his usual Saturday morning flag wave.  

I have a couple more small gifts to wrap and then need to put together a salad and a cookie and fudge tray to take to our daughter's where we will be for dinner and the afternoon.  During that time we will likely Skype or FaceTime with our Nevada daughter and her family.

I can't think of a nicer way to extend our Christmas wish to all of you than to share this beautiful poem by the beloved writer Edgar Guest:

God bless you all
This Christmas Day;
May Bethlehem's star
Still light the way,
And guide thee to
The perfect peace
When every fear
And doubt shall cease,
And may thy home
Such glory know
As did the stable
Long ago.

Edgar A. Guest

I pray that each of us may find that place of "perfect peace when every fear and doubt shall cease".  We can find it by committing ourselves to the Lord Jesus and by staying our minds upon who He is and the truths of His Word.  Isaiah 26:3 and Philippians 4:6-7 tell us more about God's perfect peace that surpasses all human understanding.  Perhaps you might like to look those Scriptures up sometime today.

 May you enjoy a blessed Christmas day and week and a very happy, healthy 2022!

A fun little gift from my faraway daughter

 

Yes, my lovely and dear daughter Joanna, far away in Nevada, surprised me with the sweetest little gift.  She had sent our wrapped Christmas gifts to our local daughter Carrie, to be opened there on Christmas Day.  But she left a few things unwrapped for both Carrie and me, so that we could have the fun of using them before Christmas.

The above mini ornaments are part of what she sent to me.  Look how cute: little tiny embroidery hoops!  Each is made to look as if it has a little embroidered design in the hoop.  It's hard to tell from the scan, but the background in each design actually looks like cloth, although of course it is not.  Aren't these the sweetest?  Now I want to enlarge that house design and stitch a larger version of it!

Thank you, JoJo!  You made my day!