Christmas

Over the Holidays our house was a constant hub of activity. Beginning with that life affirming first cup of morning coffee shared with fellow pajama wearers, to the wee hours of the night, snuggled on the couch watching a barrage of Christmas movies, the house buzzed. Michelle and her family were around for most of it... departing for home only for a good night sleep. Although the children handled the long days and chaos quite well, every once in a while 3 year old Pixie needed to find the lap of a nurturing adult, where she chilled and regrouped before rejoining the other children.

A couple of nights after Christmas, Pixie climbed onto my lap. I was sitting in our family room, happily nestled between my computer desk and felt table, chatting away. As she sat, she was fingering one of the many ubiquitous skeins of yarn that can be found hither and yon in our house. Without giving it much thought, I asked her to show me her yarn. I picked up the lid of an embroidery floss container, and began wrapping the yarn around and around as I talked. She was fascinated. Then, over the next 10 minutes, I tied here, braided there, and clipped loops until, wah lah, a multi-colored yarn doll came to life. She was enthralled! I can't tell you how many boy and girl yarn dolls I made over the next few days. Pixie began hitting my stash in the attic closet to bring me different yarns with the anticipation of yet another new dolly friend.

Yarn dolls were one of the first crafts I remember making as a child. There is something so awe inspiring to take a simple skein of yarn, and in minutes, create a doll that takes on a life of its own. If you've never crafted yarn dolls, you are in for a real treat. Young crafters will quickly join you, and before you know it, your house will be over run by yarn dolls! The directions for the Yarn Dolls can be found HERE or with our FREE Patterns. Enjoy!  

The last of our children headed for home today, leaving Tim and I alone for the first time in almost 2 weeks. What a wonderful time we all had. And with the exception of a couple of broken glass Christmas ornaments, resulting from Bug's new bow and arrows, the house remains intact. (BTW... I would like to point out that Bug did not break the ornaments... his rowdy Uncles can take full credit for the destruction!)

So, here I sit, sorting through the Christmas photos, smiling at the mayhem, marveling at how tired I usually looked ;) but feeling extremely blessed. I am hopefully that everyone had a marvelous time with their loved ones.

I am taking the next couple of days to put the house back in order and do some serious snuggling with Tim. Michelle and I will be back on Monday, January 4, with lots of New Projects for the New Year!

I wish you much health, happiness and good fortune, and may we all delight in the smallest of blessings this coming year!
 

We would like to wish everyone the Merriest Christmas! We are taking the Holidays off to be with family and friends. We will be back after the Holidays ready to share a New Year of crafty goodness! 

Joy and Peace of the Season!

Fondly,
Kimara and Michelle 

"Glory to the New Born King!"

I was very excited to see this recipe. It is unlike any cookie I've ever made. How cool is that? Chiska shared this recipe and gave us a lovely little story about how it came to her family. I can't wait to give this a try. Thank you so much, Chiska, for this lovely contribution!

I wasn't sure if there was still time, but I wanted to send you this recipe and finally got it made so I could take a picture. Thanks for sharing all the fun recipes.

This cookie is a recipe that my mother's aunt made for Christmas. Her "recipe" didn't exist and so my Mom tried to come up with her own and then eventually found a recipe that also revealed it's name, Kefil and it's German origin. It's the cookie that gets made when there's no time for anything else. I was a little nervous about involving my 4 year old this year, but it was great fun. He spread sugar and got to use a pizza cutter to cut the cookies with a little help. We used a bash-n-chop as a straight edge to try and get the sort of uniform.

Edit: Chiska just shared her blog with us. Pay her a visit at Muddy Spring :)

Aunt Margaret's Kefil

3 1/2 Cups flour
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Cup Butter
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/4 Cup water
Full Small Container of Sour Cream (original recipe calls for 3/4 Cup if you'd rather not have so much sour cream)
1 Whole egg
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup of sugar (this varies a little depending on how much you sprinkle on it, I tend to use more)

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup water. Combine flour and salt, cut in butter as you would for a pie crust. Add dissolved yeast, sour cream, egg and vanilla. combine thoroughly by hand. Cover with a damp cloth and refrigerate for 2 hours. Roll into large rectangle, sprinkle with sugar (think cinnamon rolls), fold into thirds, roll again. Sprinkle with sugar, fold in thirds again. Repeat one more time. After the third sprinkling fold in thirs and roll lightly, sealing the edges. (This should be a smaller rectangle). Then cut into strips and twist. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Baking time at my high altitude (about 6800 feet) is about 22 minutes. I recommend removing them from the cookie sheet as soon as you can after removing them from the oven. They tend to stick even to the greased cookie sheet.

No matter how much we plan or how well we budget our time, we always wind up with the Christmas Crazies, trying to finish those last minute jobs. And, all of a sudden, it seems like the number of children we have has doubled as they try to help! One way to manage the kiddos is to have a few easy peasy projects on hand for them to do while you are finishing up your own.

What could be easier than old fashioned paperdoll chains? In this variation, I used strips of brown paper (used for my gift wrapping) and we cut out a Gingerbread Men Garland. For those of you that may have somehow missed out on making paperdoll chains as a child:

1] Make a copy of our pattern.
2] Fold a length of paper accordion style. The width of the pleats should be the width of the pattern. (In this case it is 2 3/4") Fold so both ends are on the same side. You can make the chain as long as you like. I made chains 3, 4 and 5 gingerbread men long.
3] Cut out the pattern. Place it on your accordion pleats so the arms and legs are touching the 2 loose ends. Trace the pattern on the accordion pleats and cut out.

Depending on the age of your children, they may be able to do the whole project themselves, or for the youngest, you will need to cut out the garland for them. Then, the children can decorate the gingerbread in any fashion they want. The grandbabies used markers to color theirs, but if you're feeling more adventurous, put out glitter, yarns, google eyes, etc. 

The pattern for our Gingerbread Men Garland can be found HERE or with our Kids Crafts. Enjoy and good luck with your last minute projects!   

I can remember the first time I had these Chocolate No Bake Cookies. I LOVE fudge, but it can be tricky to make. These cookies satisfy me every bit as much as fudge, but with much less work! I haven't made them for a while, so a big thanks to Beth, at Snoodle, for reminding me about them and for sharing the recipe. Although we don't have a pic, you can imagine that they would be a lumpy-bumpy glob of brown, adding a fun color and texture to a holiday Christmas tray. BTW... they are yummy year round and are a PERFECT cookie to make with children. Remember to pay Beth a visit at Snoodle!

My family, like so many others, are very nostalgic. My siblings and I have all started our own families, but we all cherish the same items that we had to share during our childhood. My sister gave each of us a copy of our beloved Betty Crocker's Cooky Book (as you've found: reissued) for Christmas a couple of years ago so that mom could keep hers! Apparently, it didn't actually come oily, penciled-in, and scorched!
There's always a discussion about who will make the Chocolate Crinkles p. 23 and the Candy Cane Cookies p.37. There's never a doubt that Grandma will make the Sugar Cookies. We all know that dad likes to help decorate them with the Grandkids!
Those are my favorite Christmas cookies, but my favorite cookies are the No-bake Cookies that used to sit on my lunch tray in Elementary school. My daughter is now a Kindergartener at the same school, and the current lunch lady was happy to share the recipe. I hope you enjoy it!
-Beth
Snoodle.typepad.com

No Bake Cookies
1/2 cup milk
2 t. cocoa powder
2 c. sugar
1/2 stick butter
1 t. vanilla
3 c. oats
1/2 c. oats
1/2 c. peanut butter

In a saucepan, melt butter, add cocoa, sugar and milk. Stir, bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Add the peanut butter. Mix well. Add oats. Drop on wax paper and cool.

Michelle and I are getting ready for our Holiday break. Family is coming in, along with lots of cooking and playing. We still have a couple of cookie recipes to share. We would like to thank everyone that shared a recipe with us. It is always fun to see what other people make around the Holidays, and it has helped Michelle and I with content!

Today, a very special thank-you to Laurie Ann. She is sharing a recipe for Chai Tea Cookies. I'm afraid I won't get a chance to try them until after Christmas, but we need cookies then, too :) They sound so yummy. I LOVE Chai Tea. I can't wait to bite into one of them. Make sure you make your way over to Laurie Ann's Blog, The Rebel Blossom, and see what else she has been up to! Thanks Laurie Ann!
 
Hello! I hope I am not too late to contribute a cookie recipe...
This is a great recipe, fast, easy and Oh! so tasty! If you like Chai Tea or Chai Lattes...give these a try!

Chai Tea Cookies

2 cups pastry flour {whole wheat or white, both are good}
1 tablespoon Chai tea from tea bag
1 cup butter {unsalted}
2/3 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Shape into log. Wrap in parchment and freeze 1 hour. Preheat Oven to 350.
Slice and bake for 13 minutes. Cool on rack. Makes about 24 cookies.
Enjoy!

I am attatching a picture...there is only 1 left...they are THAT good :)
Merry Christmas!

EDIT: It had been my plan to just include the last paragraph of this blog, first printed December 8, 2008 on One Generation to Another. Since this morning, I've gotten 3 requests for the complete blog... so here is the post in its entirety... titled... Polish for the Day.

I have a strong Polish ancestry. With the possible exception of contamination from an amorous invader that I am unaware of, I am 100% Polish. (Poland's history is laced with invasion and occupation from...well, from just about all neighboring countries!) I think I'm fairly rare today...a fourth generation American with a pure blood heritage. It stopped with my children, however. Their father is...well, he's a mutt. Nothing wrong with that; mutts have many wonderful qualities including hardiness and longevity. But this does mean I can't share my pedigree with my children; they too are mutts! What I can share with them, however, is the few remaining vestiges of my Polish ancestry.

You would think with all this Polish blood pulsating through my veins that I would be well versed in the culture and traditions of Poland, but I'm not. Both my maternal and paternal great-grandparents were born in Poland and came here hoping to improve their lot in life. Like most immigrants, they settled with their own kind. They spoke Polish in their homes and amongst their friends. It was their children, my grandparents, that ventured out into the American melting pot and brought English into their homes. So, the progression was, my great-grandparents spoke predominantly Polish, my grandparents spoke Polish in their homes, but English everywhere else, my parents could read Polish and speak it well enough to converse with their grandparents but English had become their native language, and I, well the only Polish I know is this rather naughty song that some relative taught me, but it would prove useless if I needed to communicate with a Pole!

Polish traditions followed the trend of the Polish language, with each generation giving up a little more of their connection to their motherland, until now, I'm left with the cultural equivalent of a little naughty ditty! The only time my Polish ancestry surfaces is at Christmas dinner. I serve pierogi (stuffed dumplings), kielbasa (sausage), golabki (stuffed cabbage), makowki (poppy seed bread), kluski (thick buttered noodles), kapusta (sauerkraut), mizeria (cucumbers and sour cream) and sernik (cheese cake). If that sounds Greek to you, it does to me too! In our house we use the English words for most of these foods.

The lovely thing about Christmas dinner, besides some seriously delicious food, is my connection to my past. There was a time when these foods were a mainstay in my ancestors' daily life. Today, they are reserved for special occasions; actually A special occasion, Christmas dinner. I wish my grandparents were still around to share this feast with us. Since they can't be, at Christmas I bring not only the memory of Bushia and Grandma Pearl in the kitchen with me, I bring their pictures. On my kitchen counter are photographs of my grandmothers as young women, taken at a time in their lives when they would have been busy preparing Christmas dinners.They remain with me in the kitchen throughout the month of December. I rather think it would make them happy to know I still feel a strong ancestral tug. I also have pics of my mom and daughter there too, even though they spend the day helping me with Christmas dinner. But it pleases me to see the 5 of us together, knowing full well, that if not in body, certainly in spirit, we're sharing in the festivities of Christmas day, and that although my connection to my ancestry may be tenuous, it's still alive!

Around here, children are in the kitchen almost as much as the adults. The minute the grandbabies hear me putzing in my kitchen or every night when Michelle starts dinner, we know it's only moments before we hear, "Can I help?" And the answer is always the say, "Sure". Sometimes it is hard coming up with a task that they can perform, but it is always possible to find something for them to do. They are especially enthusiastic about helping in the kitchen when there is holiday baking to be done! Who can blame them? The sites and smells are enough to drive anyone to distraction.

Here you can see them helping us make Kiss Cookies. Notice the hair on the girls.! This is definitely a Gammy thing. The minute I enter the kitchen my hair goes up in a truly no fuss, no fashion sense bun! (And there are times I forget and leave the house with a nest like this piled on my head!) 

The Kiss Cookie was not one of our family's holiday cookies. It came with Tim, via his sister Lisa... thank you Lisa :) It is now a mainstay in our holiday baking, and it is the tin of cookies that  mysteriously losses volume at an alarming rate. (You can't see it but I'm giving a sideways glance at Tim...) Anyway... they are fun to make, encourage child participation, and are yummy to eat. Hope you enjoy!  

Kiss Cookies - make 4 dozen

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoon milk
1 teaspon vanilla
14 ounce Hershey Kisses

Directions
Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg, vannilla and milk together. Add dry ingredients. Roll into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with fork in criss cross pattern. Bake for 8 minutes. Take out of oven, press chocolate kiss into cookie, return to oven for 2 minutes.
 

Every summer Britta and Axel, along with their children, leave the Thicket and head to the city to visit Britta's sister, Greta and her family. When they go, Britta makes sure to bring gifts from the Thicket including acorn jam, dried mushrooms and toys for the children whittled from wood. In turn, Greta and her family come to the Thicket to spend the Christmas holidays. They never come empty handed. There are many things Greta and her husband Eldar can find in the city that are not available to the Thicket gnomes. They bring buttons and small bolts of cloth. Cooking pots and books. But this year, they brough special gifts for Britta and the family. Something that she never even dreamed of owning... their very own city bed! No longer will they need to use their sleeping bags. Beds! Britta is so excited the first night in her new bed she can barely sleep! Britta decides here and now to make something extra special for her sister's family.

If you would like to craft your own Gnome City Bed like the one Eldar made or a mattress and pillow like Greta made, click HERE or the directions can be found with the FREE patterns. Enjoy!