Winter decorating

We've finally taken down all most of our Christmas decorations, but I'm not ready to leap into spring yet. After all, we still have several weeks of winter left, so I've been trying to incorporate some winter themed objects while still keeping the decor light and organized.

What feels right to me this time of year? Lots of silver, white, and brown; reminders of the holidays (in the form of Christmas card photos stashed in a cachepot on a silver tray in our entryway); pinecones collected by James and my dad; magazines neatly stacked and boxes used to store odds and ends (isn't now the time to get organized?); and new candles to burn (I like ones that smell like winter: woodsy but still fresh).

 

 

Perfect cut-out sugar cookies

Over the weekend we made some Valentine's Day sugar cookies to share with friends.  I have been on the hunt for a good sugar cookie recipe for a while.  I want them to taste buttery, but with too much butter the cookies don't hold their shape properly, making the batter useless for cut-out cookies.

I've finally found a recipe that seems to work well, and I like that it has lemon zest, almond extract, and vanilla extract, which gives the cookies a really good flavor.  I also found a dynamite icing recipe that dries glossy and not too hard.  All in all, this is my most successful attempt at cut-out cookies yet.

The sugar cookie recipe is helpfully calculated for either a huge batch or a more manageable number (which I used).  I do recommend rolling the dough out in batches, keeping the excess in the fridge at all times, and then briefly chilling the cut-out dough on cookie sheets before baking to help the cookies retain their shape.  Parchment paper also makes it easier to lift off the entire sheet of cookies onto the counter in preparation for icing.  I just used a small spoon to spread the icing, but I'd like to try using a pastry bag for a slightly more precise application.  After icing, I let the cookies sit for a couple hours for the icing to harden, then stored in an airtight container with waxed paper between layers.

Hope you have a fun Valentine's Day!  Ours will likely be snowy and cold!

{RECIPES: Cut-out cookies, Icing}

{All photos mine}

Season's greetings (and valedictions)

 Apologies for the total lack of posting the last week or so.  It's not like the world desperately needed to hear my voice online, and I was instead making it heard clearly in many more personal ways--comments on final exams, instructions to my son on how to make French toast, notes in Christmas cards, letters of invitation to holiday parties.

This time of year is very busy for me, as it is for most people, with holiday traveling, shopping, wrapping, and baking, plus the frantic closing of the academic semester.

 So I will leave you with the hopes of a merry Christmas and a pleasant and safe holiday season, and I'll be back in the new year to post about my usual collection of decorating and cooking ideas.

Happy holidays!

All images mine.

Easy Valentine's Day treats

With Valentine's Day coming up next week, I thought I would give you a couple ideas for little treats you can make that are fast and easy!  For both, I used Ghirardelli boxed brownie mixes to speed things up, but you could also make your own brownies from scratch* (I really like this recipe -- also from Ghirardelli, but using their Sweet Ground Chocolate cocoa powder).**

Option #1 - Brownies with chocolate glaze and red and pink hearts

Bake one package of Ghirardelli Ultimate Fudge brownie mix as directed.

When the brownies come out of the oven, smooth the chocolate glaze on top, then sprinkle with Betty Crocker Valentine Hearts Decors.

Option #2 - Heart-shaped double chocolate brownies

Bake one package of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownie mix as directed.

When the brownies have cooled completely, use a cookie cutter to cut out heart-shaped brownies.  Plan your cuts carefully so you have as few scraps as possible.

Either option is quick, easy to bake with kids (they love helping add the sprinkles or cut out the hearts), and great to tuck in lunches or serve as a little treat after dinner.

* For those with allergies, check out this recipe for gluten-free brownies
** And it probably seems like this is a Ghirardelli-sponsored post, but it's not, I promise!  I just really like their products and use them a lot.

Valentine's Day heart banner

In our house we have been in Valentine's Day mode for over two months now, ever since we watched an episode of Caillou in which he makes Valentines for his friends.  Now that it's actually February, I feel like we can finally celebrate the holiday within a more societally-appropriate time frame.

So last night we pulled out the watercolors and printer paper and made a little Valentine's Day heart banner to hang above one of our windows.  It's a very simple project and fun to do with kids.

Draw a few hearts on the paper and then color or decorate them however you want. (Tip: it's easier for kids to cut the heart shapes out after decorating them rather than trying to color within the lines of a pre-cut shape, so paint first, cut second.)

We used watercolors, but you could easily use markers or crayons, stickers, or glitter to decorate your hearts.  I saw at Hancock's that all the Valentine's Day merchandise is 50% off right now, and they had some plain red foam hearts that would be great for this project too.

After cutting the heart shapes out, punch a couple holes in the top of each heart and thread them together with ribbon.  It may help to lay them out on a table first to determine the order before you start threading.

We chose to hang out little banner above a window in our breakfast room, but I think one of these would be really cute hung on top of a mirror too.  If you're really ambitious, you could make a banner that goes all the way around the room.

I like that it's not perfect; my son helped me draw the hearts, paint them, and cut them out, and I really like that handcrafted look.  

So there you go!  A really easy craft for this weekend!

Crazy Christmas lights

I wish I could do over-the-top Christmas lights, but I am too lazy and too stuck on my little white lights.  I don't own any colored lights, even though I like them (especially the big bulbs that look a little retro).  When it comes to outdoor Christmas decorations, our house is pretty boring--a wreath, some lights in the windows--but I do appreciate those people who are willing to spend days tacking up strings of lights and staking plastic candy canes along their sidewalks, and who surely pay a gigantic electric bill in January.


Every year our family takes a little tour of the city lights.  We always start off at Starbucks and then, crammed into the car, warm drink in hand, and Christmas music on the radio, we drive slowly around town, annoying other drivers who have more important things to do.

Here are some of the best lights we saw this year:

{Two huge nutcracker sentries, a snowman, a nativity scene, and assorted illuminated holiday symbols}

{A gingerbread house look-alike}

{Pretty little white house with white lights}

{I love this one with all the claymation characters from those '50s and '60s Christmas specials}

A fun Christmas book that describes one father's efforts to outdo the neighbors in Christmas decorations is The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza, by David Shannon.  You can find used copies of the paperback and hardcover here or buy it through Scholastic.

The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza tells the story of Mr. Merriweather, who feels that his usual string of white lights and wreath simply aren't good enough, so he proceeds to add more and more decorations, until the whole neighborhood--and his family--begin to get upset.  The illustrations are great: vivid and detailed.

In our light tour this year, the house that most closely resembled the excess of the Merriweathers' home was this one:

Another view of the same house:

{My favorite part is the reindeer on the roof.  They are not pulling a sleigh; they are just mechanized to look like they are grazing, eating snow off the roof, apparently.}

And just because I know quite a few readers are also Kansas Jayhawks fans, here is a Rock Chalk light show for you:

Have a Merry Christmas!

Fruitcake

Why do people hate fruitcake so much?  I don't understand it.  I think there are very few foods in the world that deserve scathing and mockery.  After all, they are just foods.

This year I made fruitcake.  Don't feel compelled to read this post if you are a hater.  When I was buying all my ingredients at the grocery store, the clerk very politely said, "It looks like you're going to be baking!"  I replied, "Yes, I'm making fruitcake."  She became markedly less friendly and said, "Well, I hope you enjoy that."  I do enjoy fruitcake.  I wouldn't eat it all year, but I don't mind a piece around the holidays.  Even if you don't like it, you should appreciate the time it takes to make a fruitcake.  Here are the steps:

Step 1 - Assemble your ingredients

Step 2 - Chop up the fruits and nuts

(I used apricots, citron, orange, golden raisins, pecans, and walnuts.  Save a few whole pieces to use in decorating the fruitcakes later.)

Step 3 - Mix everything together

Have fun mixing six pounds of dried fruits and nuts by hand!

Step 4 - Bake everything in a water bath for a few hours

Step 5 - Decorate the top of the fruitcakes with a few whole fruits and nuts and then brush a glaze over everything

Step 6 - Wrap up the fruitcakes and store them in airtight containers in a cool, dry, dark place for a few weeks

Step 7 - Wrap each fruitcake in parchment paper

Step 8 - Package your fruitcake (I used cellophane bags, but you could also use a tin, some tissue paper over the parchment paper, ribbon, etc.)

Step 9 - Add a tag and attach it with a sticker with a slight subliminal message ("You will gain great joy from this festive loaf.")

Step 10 - Enjoy your fruitcake and learn not to let other people's food negativity spoil your snack

P.S. If anyone wants the actual recipe, leave me a comment and I will happily post it.

Five days till Christmas...

This is what my house looks like this week.  The tree is decorated, the stockings are up, the presents are wrapped, and the dog is curled up in front of the fire.  I really wish I could join him.  All I want to do is sit on the couch, mug of apple cider in hand, and spend a few minutes looking at the snow outside, maybe listening to some Christmas carols, just thinking about Christmas.

Instead, I will be working.  I have editing to do, classes to plan, errands to run, and a little bit of shopping to do yet.  But I still love this week because Christmas is almost here, but it's not here yet, and it's not over.  To me, looking forward expectantly is the best part of the holiday season.  Right now there remain doors to open in the Advent calendar, puzzlement over that one oddly-heavy present, the excitement of the kids as they count down the days, and the promise of a warm home and welcome hugs from family and friends at the end of our travels.  So even though I am busy this week -- and you probably are too -- I am going to do my best to sit down each day, reflect on the year that is almost done, enjoy the anticipation of Christmas, and, most of all, consider the miracle of the incarnation -- deity come to dwell in the fragile body of an infant and to grow up, celebrate holy days with His family just like we do at Christmas, but die a remarkable and singular death for our sake.

Wishing you a week of Merry Christmas!

Love,

Nicole

Christmas card book

Every December, we pull out a few piles of Christmas books and stack them on our coffee table so we can read them throughout the month.  We are beginning to get a pretty big collection, so we try to rotate the books, but two that we always read are J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas and Allan and Janet Ahlberg's The Jolly Christmas Postman.

{Available HERE}

Letters from Father Christmas is a compilation of letters that Tolkien wrote and illustrated for his three sons over the course of twenty years.  The letters describe what Father Christmas does the rest of the year at the North Pole, including lots of cleanup from his accident-prone North Polar Bear and problems with the goblins who live at the N.P.  The link above is to the full collection of Tolkien's letters.  We have a small hardcover version of the book that contains only a selection, but they are printed as actual letters and placed in envelopes so they can be taken out and read.  Very fun!

{Available HERE}

In this story, the Jolly Postman delivers the mail to several familiar nursery rhyme characters: Red Riding Hood gets a fun game from Mr. Wolf, Humpty Dumpty receives a puzzle while he's in the hospital mending from his fall, the Gingerbread Boy gets a tiny book just his size.  Even the Postman himself gets a little pop-up surprise from Santa Claus.  All the mail comes in little envelopes so you can slip it out to play with it.

Now, on to the DIY part...

Like most parents, we have a baby book for our son.  To keep track of all the cards and letters we have sent out, I use the blank pages in the back of the book (for clippings, artwork, extra pictures, etc.).  Whenever I want to include a card, I glue the envelope to the page and slip the card or letter inside.  Each year I keep our family Christmas card, letter, and photo, and I write a little note to my son in the card.  I also keep a few other cards, like his first birthday invitation.

We all love to leaf through the book, open the envelopes, and pull out all the old Christmas cards.  We are running out of room, so we may move to a scrapbook of some kind next.  No matter what kind of book you use, a collection of family Christmas cards over the years would be so much fun to look through later.

All you have to do is save a card, write a note inside to your children (or have everyone scribble down something they want to remember about that year), and paste all the envelopes into a book.  Don't forget to write the date or a description beside each card.  You could add family photos if you have space, but I think the best part is the envelopes themselves.

Have fun making your own little Christmas book of letters!

Framing Christmas cards

This is the time of year when the Christmas cards start showing up in our mailboxes.  I have a hard time throwing away the old cards and letters from previous years, especially when they are really pretty cards or they have a family picture.  I have a whole box of old Christmas cards in the basement.  For the next couple of days I thought I would include a few ideas for displaying or using Christmas cards--from this year or years past.

My uncle lives in Washington, D.C., so one year he sent us a lovely card featuring a painting of the U.S. Capitol at winter.  I really liked the colors and design of the card, so I decided to frame it.  I already had a frame that was nearly the correct size, so I just cut the front of the card off and trimmed it to fit inside the frame.  

I have it sitting on the sideboard in our dining room, next to a white ginger jar lamp and on a red velvet runner that picks up the bits of Christmasy red in the painting.

For a similar look, go through your old cards and pick out the ones that have designs you like or colors that match your holiday decor.  Then, find existing frames and temporarily switch out the art or photographs for old Christmas cards to add a little bit of holiday cheer to the different corners of your house (and for no money at all!).

Gingerbread houses

We had never made a gingerbread house before this year, so this is our first attempt.  I used a kit because they are on sale right now at Target for just $7.99 (look in the bakery section); you can't even buy the bags of candy and baking ingredients for that price!  It came with the house pieces, three different colors of icing, the candy, fondant, and three little figures--a snowman, Christmas tree, and gingerbread man.

Our 4-year-old says the gingerbread man is actually Caillou "because he doesn't have any hair." Maybe he has a point...

If you want to go all out and make a homemade gingerbread house this year, here are a few resources that may help:

Paula Deen gingerbread house mold - $25

The Ultimate Gingerbread House website has tons of information for beginners and advanced gingerbread house bakers (is that really a significant subpopulation of the world?).  Check out this complex farm and barn...very appropriate for the Midwest.

A gingerbread recipe to get you baking!