Just a quick check-in

 

 Just checking in for a few minutes on a cool dreary October Thursday.

I thought I would pop in and report my progress toward Christmas. 

 I have purchased a few gifts for specific people, labeled them and placed in my gift stash.  

I bought my Christmas stamps some time ago, so even if the price goes up we are all set.

Just ordered two boxes of these Christmas cards and they have now arrived.  I love them!

 Also one box of these: 

There are some beautiful cards on Christianbook.com this year!  Here's another:

I'm also saving ideas on Instagram and my Pinterest boards for kitchen gifts and special Christmas food, plus trying a recipe now and then.

I'm continuing to work on the Poinsettias and Pines sampler.  Thankfully it's a winter design and not necessarily a Christmas one, so hope springs eternal I'll finish it in the next few months.

 

I'm also trying to decide about my Sunday Scripture posts for December -- whether to do anything special or stick with Fix Your Focus.  Trying to get that figured out today, but we will see.  Hubby keeps throwing computer tasks my way ... 

I guess that's about it for me right now.  How are you readers coming with your Christmas plans?

On the last day of March

 

I just wanted to pop in and put up a short post so there would be something for March.  It's simply crazy how busy life has become.  This is the very busy season at our volunteer jobs at a Christian camp.  No campers, but lots of projects!  Mr.T is heavily involved in a remodeling project, making two apartments from an existing space in staff housing.  When other volunteers come to stay, I cook for the work crews.  So we are away from home a LOT.  I do blog while we're away if I find the time, but there's not much extra time to be had in between meal times.  I find too that as we age, everything seems to take longer than it used to.

Mr. T does bake cookies to take with us for lunch desserts, and often it is the old favorite Christmas cookies that all our friends love, such as Chocolate Mint Crisps, Whipped Shortbread, Chocolate Spritz, Secret Spice Cookies, and more.  Lately he has rediscovered my recipe for Cookie Dough Brownies, although I tweak this Taste of Home recipe in a major way by using my own favorite brownie recipe for the base. 

THE PASTOR’S WIFE’S BROWNIES

1 cup flour

2/3 cup baking cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup melted butter

2 scant cups sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a mixing bowl beat together the remaining ingredients. Sift in the flour mixture and stir it in thoroughly. (Some people will add 1 cup chocolate chips here.) Scrape into a greased 13x9” pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or just until done. Don’t overbake or you’ll lose the fudgy texture.

 I don't always use chocolate chips in the cookie dough, but if I do they are the minis and I use only about 1/2 cup.  He has in fact just baked a batch to freeze and take with us next week.  These have become a huge favorite with the staff.

Let's see, other doings .... I have been thinking ahead a lot to Christmas in July posts and even to December daily ones.  I keep coming across ideas and quotes it would be fun to share.  As time allows I will probably write and schedule some posts, but time is currently not allowing.

And I'm continuing to work on the Poinsettias and Pines sampler.

It still feels like winter here so it seems perfectly appropriate!

The day after Christmas

 

 It's the day after Christmas.   We had a truly delightful day and hope that all of you did, as well.  

For the first time ever, I would guess, Mr. T and I didn't do anything in the way of a special Christmas breakfast, no matter how simple.  We've been intermittent fasting for a month or more and so we haven't been eating breakfast.  We'll have "Christmas breakfast" for lunch or dinner one of these days!

Since Christmas was on a Sunday, our church had a special Christmas Day service, with lots of beautiful music by strings and piano, in addition to a brief Christmas message and plenty of congregational singing of Christmas carols.

 
After church we went to our daughter and son-in-law's home for Christmas dinner and the afternoon, which stretched into early evening.  You see some of the group around the dinner table, at top.  Carrie made a crockpot beef roast and I made Ranch House chicken, also in a crockpot.  Carrie's make-ahead mashed potatoes and Parker House rolls were amazing as always, and we rounded out the meal with my Merry Berry Salad.  I've been making this at Christmas (and often Thanksgiving, too) for many years.  It has a homemade cranberry vinaigrette which we really enjoy.  This time, I didn't have the sliced or slivered almonds I needed on hand, so toasted some chopped walnuts instead.  I think we liked that even better!

 After dinner  the boys washed the dishes.  Then it was time to open presents!  As always, we were blown away by the thoughtfulness of our daughter and son-in-law in choosing gifts for us.  This year they chose a cozy type of theme, beginning with two tins of coffee (one regular, one decaf) roasted by our son-in-law Jim!  From there they expanded on the theme with a gorgeous warm winter throw, plenty of books to read and a jigsaw puzzle to work on!

Holy Hygge was the book they had gotten specifically for me.  I had dipped into it at Carrie's house previously and found it interesting, so she got one for me.

We thought we were finished opening our gifts, but then Josiah handed us a very small gift bag containing some things he had made for each of us.  One was a beautiful ornament, which I will try and get a better photo of.  The other gift, for me, was a pair of earrings he had made.  He painted wooden beads to resemble snowman faces, and added them to earring wires along with a crystal bead above each.  I can't describe them that well -- but, again, I will try and take a decent photo.  Meanwhile, enjoy this fun scan of a Christmas postcard:

We had to think of a creative way to wrap Sam's snow broom (for his truck) so his gift wouldn't be a dead giveaway from the moment he saw it.  We turned it into a wrapped peppermint candy.  Of course he figured it out after holding it for a bit, but it was fun to maintain the surprise for a few moments.

After gift-opening, Carrie set out small paper plates and our cookie and fudge plates 

Photo is from Christmas 2021 but there is a resemblance!

 for people to help themselves and bring to the table to nibble as we played several rounds of Cover Your Assets.  Not a new Christmas game -- but, it's a game Grammy can play!

That was our Christmas day.  It was truly lovely.  I hope yours was the same.

Some blogging questions answered

 

My friend Vee, at A Haven for Vee, recently asked some questions of her fellow bloggers:

What do you consider your favorite posts, you personally, at your blog? Do you like putting together a Day in the Life? Décor? Recipes? Deep thoughts? Stories of days gone by? Faith for living? Travel? Book Reviews? Gardening? Something else? All of the above? None of the above? ...  Do you still enjoy blogging?

I've put together a post answering these questions, over on my Kitchen Table blog, but I thought it would be fun to answer them here as well.  My answers for this Christmas blog will obviously be a little different, and some of the questions don't apply at all.  Here we go.

A Day in the Life -- I don't do this type of post very often here in my Christmas Kitchen, but once in a while in December, I'll talk about what Christmasy things I might have done on a particular day.  And I do enjoy sharing that; they may be among my favorite posts and are fun to look back at.  You can find those posts under the label "December Daily"  in the label cloud.

Working on a Pinterest project with my daughter

Josiah helping to make hot chocolate bark, many years ago.  He's 13 now!

Preparing kitchen gifts

The lovely Miss Julia at our annual Christmas outing with her siblings

More kitchen gift prep

 

 Decor -- I surely do love to decorate for Christmas!  Logically enough, you will find these posts under the label "decorating".  The posts about my own decorating are lots of fun to write, and quite heavy with pictures.  I might also post about ideas from others about how they decorate, or decorations that they might craft.  I often do look back at these to see how and where I decorated for previous Christmas seasons.

Part of my hutch decor one year

Manger scene with stable made by my dad

One of my collection of lighted houses

  

Stories of days gone by -- yes, I have lots of memory type posts.   You can click "memories" in the label cloud to read them.  As with my regular blog, one reason I started a Christmas blog was as a place to put my memories so I didn't forget them.  They were a pleasure to write, but took a lot of thought also.

Recipes -- Lots of recipes on this blog.   Click the "recipe box" label, or just categories like "kitchen gifts", "cookies", etc.  Recipes are fun to share, and never more than at holiday time.  These are probably some of my favorite posts to write, because I love to cook and bake and exchange recipes with friends.

A simple baking vignette on my kitchen island one year

A personalized cookbook containing dozens of my recipes -- made as a gift

 
Faith for living -- Most of my Christmasy posts that touch on this would be Christmas devotionals, so if you're interested just click that label in the label cloud.  Some were written by me and shared with other ladies in a group setting.  Those were work to write, but I've posted them here so I can refer back to them.  Most, though, are devotional thoughts and encouragements shared by others -- and even ideas for not losing sight of the spiritual side of Christmas, the true reason we celebrate.

Book reviews -- While I find book reviews on my Kitchen Table blog a good bit of work to write, the ones here in my Christmas kitchen are fun to put together.  They are great for looking back at, but I particularly like sharing them so others will know what a particular book is like -- and whether or not it would be worth their while to acquire that book.  I still have many, many more Christmas books that I mean to review -- and I'm thinking right now that a few book reviews might be a nice addition to my annual December Daily on both blogs.

Something else -- Several "something else" categories on this blog are ones that I particularly enjoy writing and sharing.  You can find these in the label cloud.  I'm passionate about handmade gifts, so I love writing posts about those.  Crafts of all types and all sorts of techniques might include handmade gifts, but would also include ornaments and decorations.  I love sharing vintage things, not only because of my Etsy shop but also because of growing up in the 1950s and 1960s and being hopelessly nostalgic.  Last but not least, the traditions label includes some of my personal favorite posts to look back on.

These play mats were such fun to make.  Sadly, the hot glue didn't hold up well.  I should have stitched everything in place.

Christmas card banners made with granddaughters

This shadow box showcases some of my small vintage treasures.

Grandson Sam a few years ago celebrating our breakfast, shopping and ice cream expedition

A Kellerhaus ice cream sundae

For 2020, we had to tweak the tradition in order to make it happen, but happen it did, and you can read about it here: Tweaking a tradition.

Do I still enjoy blogging?

Absolutely!  Lord willing, I will continue blogging for a good while yet.  I still enjoy it greatly and still think I have more to share.  Hopefully my readers will agree, but I think I would blog even if no one else read it!

 

 

The colors of Christmas: red and green

 

Here goes with another post spun off of a question from Joyce at From This Side of the Pond.  This came from week before last's Hodgepodge questions: 

Besides Christmas, what do you associate the color red with? How about the color green? 

Well, for starters, how about leaves?  They come in shades of both red and green.  And there's always traffic lights.  They come in both colors too.

 I always associate red with Valentine's Day.  And strawberries, tomatoes, cherries.  Sunrises, sometimes.  I like all shades of red and I wear red quite a bit.

Green is probably my favorite color.  It comes in so many shades, from pistachio to olive.  I always associate green with late spring and early summer, when the leaves first begin to come out, and with glorious evergreens and holly in winter.  Green is also the color of growth, and spiritual growth is a passion of mine.

But I like both red and green even more at Christmas.  I've put together a few Christmas ephemera packs for my Etsy shop, and I did one each of red and green, as well as a mixed pack and a "blue Christmas" one.  All but the red one have sold.

What do you think?  Should I make more of these ephemera packs this season?  There are still so many items to list!

Christmasy questions

 

And a few nosy questions from last week's Hodgepodge:  

Is your tree up? 

No.

Real or artificial? 

I prefer real, but we're using artificial this year.

Is your house decorated? 

Partially.

Is your shopping done? 

Started. 

Wrapped?

No.

On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being Scrooge-like and 10 being Buddy the Elf, how's your Christmas spirit? 

Based on the true reason for celebration, the birth of Christ, I'll say a 10. Because that's the reality.  Based on how I'm personally feeling right now, I'll say a 7.  I'd feel a lot more Christmasy if I had started sooner with everything.  It's been a crazy year in more ways than one!

Lighting up the darkness with vintage candles

Here's a fun Christmas-related project that we recently did.  While clearing out the Christmas decoration storage area at my parents' house, we found some vintage candoliers -- the window candles with a base to set on a window sill.  The ones we found have eight candles each.  Amazingly, these antique lights still work -- and there were extra light bulbs with them!

The cute little box above contained extra bulbs.  Later, we found another, larger cardboard box with a bunch of extra bulbs in it.

Knowing that some folks are displaying candles in their windows these days as a sign of hope, and some towns have even lit the Christmas lights on Main Street, we decided to fit the candolier out with red, white, and blue lights and place it in one of our porch windows.

This worked pretty well until we decided to put the lights on a timer -- from 7 to 10 pm and then in the early morning from 5 to 7 am.  We're not sure if it's just the sheer antiquity of the lights -- they are at least 70 years old! -- or just that the timer is too modern for them, but they keep going out.  The cold damp weather could also be causing issues, we think.  These are the type where if one bulb goes out, none of the others will work.  Thankfully, my hubby has a tester that can determine which bulbs are bad.

We've now fitted it out with more working bulbs and placed it in an upstairs dormer.  Hopefully that makes a difference and the lights keep working.  This is a fun and unique way to show our patriotism.

When we see lights in people's windows, or glowing brightly in a downtown, let's thank God for the hope we have in Him and be faithful to pray for our country!

The past few days

Festivity of one sort or another has continued over the past few days. 

On Thursday evening we had our dear young friends Sam and Jennifer and their boys here for supper and to exchange simple gifts.  Knowing they had been with family for Christmas on Wednesday and a birthday celebration on Thursday (and had been eating a lot), I planned what some of my grandkids call a "snacking supper" -- including chex mix, cheese log and crackers, little smokies in barbecue sauce, and antipasto squares, along with mulled cranberry orange juice.   We had a cookie and fudge tray for dessert.  This turned out to be the perfect menu and Mr. T and I are still enjoying some of the components.

Friday evening we did a bit of grocery shopping at Walmart and checked the Christmas clearance.  All I bought was a pack of Christmas cards.

Saturday late afternoon Mr. T suggested decaf coffee and a doughnut at a favorite local spot.  We relaxed and chatted by the fireplace while enjoying our snack.  Then we did a bit of clearance shopping at Marshalls and I found some great deals which I will hopefully blog about tomorrow.  When we got home, we decided it would be fun to watch It's a Wonderful Life, which we hadn't found time for on Christmas.  We also opened the very last of our Christmas packages.

Sunday was, of course, church -- good messages and good fellowship.  In the afternoon we visited with our friend Terry and enjoyed fabulous turkey soup she made from her Christmas turkey.  For dessert she served a homemade Black Forest cake left over from Christmas dinner.  Scrumptious and we enjoyed every bite!  On the way home we took a short detour to Ocean State Job Lot and shopped their Christmas clearance as well.  I'll hopefully blog tomorrow about those deals as well.

We took Terry a small container of these.  She loves lemon!

That's been our past few days ... still some festive fun going on!