Holiday Treats

I think I could dedicate an entire blog to my favorite treats since eating is practically a passion for me. The special treats I make just once a year do add to the enjoyment of the holidays and since I haven't really mentioned them in my blog yet, I figured I should do it now. I think part of the reason they are on my mind is that we are finally running out of the Christmas treats and I am getting anxious for more and the New Year's celebration doesn't seem to be getting here fast enough.

I made these chocolate reindeer cupcakes for my husbands home teaching families. I got the idea from studio 5 (Alisa Bangerter) and it was easier than I thought. The antlers are made from almond bark melted and then drizzled into the antler shape onto wax paper from either a zip lock bag with a hole cut in the corner or a pastry bag with a medium sized tip. The cupcakes themselves are just from a cake mix, but the frosting is homemade (I am not a big fan of ready made frosting in a can). You sprinkle the tops with cocoa powder and then you decorate the face. You can use any candy you want to decorate the face. I just used butterscotch chips or chocolate chips and red spice drops. I was excited with how they turned out.

Anyway, I have two favorite sugar cookie recipes one is my Great Aunt Klea's melt aways which take me back to the Christmases of my childhood. They are my absolute favorite and it just doesn't seem like christmas to me without them. One funny side note. I have been super clumsy this pregnancy and I dropped a whole tray of these cookies in my inlaws drive way Chirstmas Eve on top of a jar of olives that had fallen out of the car and shattered.

1 lb butter (pretty good start eh)
1 1/2 C Corn starch
1 1/2 C Powdered Sugar

2 C Flour

Beat together until creamy. Roll and flatten slightly and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes (I usually check them starting at about 8 minutes). They are very fragile cookies, so bigger is not better in this case. The recipe says you can use 1/2 margarine, but I have always just used butter.

Frosting:

6 oz Cream Cheese

2 tsp vanilla

2 C powdered Sugar

pinch of salt

I tend to add more powdered sugar to make a bit thicker frosting.

The next recipe I have only been making since I've been married since my husband for some odd reason doesn't love the melt aways like I do and he prefers this Sour cream sugar cookie recipe. This recipe is also fun for the kids because it is a traditional roll and cut, but with the sour cream and almond extract I think they taste a lot better than most cut out sugar cookies.

1/2 C butter (not margarine)

1 C. Sugar

Cream together butter and sugar then add sour cream and eggs.

2 eggs

1/2 C sour cream

add remaining ingredients (combine dry ingredients and add slowly) and then refridgerate for at least 2 hours.

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Roll out and cut desired shapes. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Frost with favorite frosting with a few drops of almond extract added to it.

I have found if I follow the original recipe above I cannot roll it out because it is too soft and sticky so I end up adding at least 1-2 cups more flour. I add it very slowly because I don't want to take away from the softness of the cookies. I also end up adding 1/2 C. more sugar because I don't want the extra flour to take away from the sweetness of the cookies and make them too bland. I am still perfecting the recipe, but so far I haven't really found anythng better in a cut out sugar cookie.

The last recipe is one I love on either halloween or new years and it is my favorite carmel corn (I am a fan of the gooey caramel corn).

This recipe says just to use the popcorn in a bag from the chip isle, but I usually just use a couple of bags of whatever microwave popcorn I have on hand with the unpopped kernals removed.

popcorn

1 cube butter

2 1/4 C. brown sugar

1 C. Light corn syrup

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

Bring butter, sugar, corn syrup and milk to a boil. Boil for 2 min. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour over popcorn and mix well.

I did try one other version that I really liked which starts with crunchy caramel corn with drizzled white and milk chocolate over the top.

Enjoy!

An early Christmas present

Today we took Beck back to the orthopedic Dr. and they removed his cast. Yay! Beck fell asleep in the car on the way there and he was so tired he slept through the X-rays and the removal of the cast. He woke up when they took the actual cast off but he slept through all the cutting. I had my hands over his ears which helped. I have heard that part can be kind of traumatic for them, so I figured the longer he slept the better. He kept saying "cast boken" and "leg boken". He doesn't seem ready to stand or walk on it yet, but it sure makes crawling a lot better. I am excited to be able to give him a regular bath without having to make such a huge ordeal out of it and that he can fit better in his PJs. It is a nice early Christmas present. I was getting tired of having to carry him constantly. Hopefully he will be more mobile by Christmas.

Celebrating Christmas

I am combining the topics for this week and last weeks Tuesday tell all. Last week's was your favorite Christmas carol and this week is how do you bring the spirit of christmas into your home. I love all the hymns of course and I really don't have a favorite among any of the hymns. Aside from the hymns I would have to say that my next favorite Christmas carol is "O Holy Night" which if I am focused on listening to can really touch my spirit and bring tears to my eyes. In the catagory of radio versions of Christmas music I would have to say my favorite is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" by the Bare Naked Ladies/Sarah Mclachlan. However, I think this year this "Jingle Bells" by my son Beck is going to be my favorite. whenever he hears "Jingle Bells" or even "Jingle Bell Rock" he will start singing and dancing. He gets distracted easily though so I usually have to prompt him to keep going and it is very difficult to get on video. He is much better live than when we try to record it, but I thought I'd post the video anyway. He will sometimes sing the la la la la la la la part of "Deck the Halls". but he is not as good as he is when he sings "Jingle bells".

As far as bring the Christmas spirit into our home. This year I decided to do an advent calendar for the kids. I got the idea to make it out of a mini muffin tin from Studio 5 which worked for us because I didn't need to spend any addititonal money except for the candy. I could just use the muffin tin and decorate it with left over scrap book supplies. It has candy, but also activities to do to celebrate the Holdiay season. The kids are really enjoying it.

Each year I try to get the decorations up as soon as I can so we can enjoy them for as long as possible. I love having nativities around to teach my kids that Christmas isn't really about Santa and toys. They love pointing out all the animals and making the sounds and then pointing out baby Jesus. I also listen to as much Christmas music as possible. I am not much for cold weather and my kids are still small so as far as Christmas lights we usually just see them from the car. I do like to have snow at christmas time and of course the kids love building snowmen with daddy and going sledding.
I think the most important thing that helps me feel the Christmas spirit is the focus of our family home evenings during December.

I know my kids are small, but I really want them to understand who Jesus is and all the things he has done for us and to help them develop a sense of gratitude instead of greed at Christmas time. We are trying to find ways to minimize the focus on the the gifts and if you want some good ideas you can visit Suzanne's blog: goldilocksandthe3bears.blogspot.com. Another way to focus on being content and happy with the blessings we have instead of wanting more is to spend time doing charitable service during Christmas. I like that my kids are able to see us gathering food to give to the food bank and to hear the bells of the Salvation Army donation collectors everytime we go to the store and to discuss the answer to the question "why are they ringing a bell momma?" I like that there are so many opportunities to give in the community whether it is a clothing/coat/shoes drive, toy drive, angel trees, sub for Santa, etc. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but I think it is how Jesus would want us to celebrate the season. I think my favorite thing is the wonder, surprise, excitement and joy that you see in the eyes of your children. They are so young and innocent that a simple candy cane and a checkers game from the dollar store is enough to make them happy on Christmas. They don't need or want a lot and they are just happy with life and being with family. I never realized how much my children would teach me and Christmas time is another time to be reminded of how much I need to be more like them.

December Events

Congratulations to Josh and Steffany Briscoe who were married Sunday Dec. 7th 2008!

Kate didn't want to dance with daddy. She only wanted to dance with kids, but all her boy cousins are getting into the girls have cooties phase and wouldn't dance with her.
Kate's aunt Emma was nice enough to buy all the nieces these beautiful dresses. Thanks! It was pretty cold, so the girls weren't very excited about the pictures and poor Elle just wanted mom.

It was a very busy weekend, but it was so fun to have family in town from Arizona and Colorado. Things can sometimes get pretty crazy with a family of 8 kids. Especially when a couple of the middle children like Eli and Dani get together.

Beck really loved playing basketball with his uncle Jake. He had a huge smile and his whole face lit up when he realized all the clapping was for him. My favorite part was probably the food (what else do you expect from a pregnant woman). Eli's dad made some excellent lasagna for the rehearsal dinner and then there was the shower with some of my favorite breakfast foods and not to mention the Krispy Kreme donuts after the Christmas lights on Friday Night.

December Birthdays:

I also wanted to tell my niece Kiaya Happy Birthday! She will be 9 years old tomorrow Dec. 1oth.

I have a nephew whose birthday is also coming up on the 20th of December as well. Happy 2nd Birthday Julian!

Sleeping like a baby

It is funny how kids can sleep anywhere and in almost any position. Since Beck has been a tiny newborn he has prefered to sleep on his stomach. He didn't sleep well the first six months because I was too affraid to put him on his stomach for fear of sids. The only way I could really get him to sleep was to let him sleep in a partial sitting position in his swing. He slept much better once I started putting him on his stomach to sleep.

He didn't sleep through the night probably until he was 14 months old or so and lately it is like I have a newborn all over again. He has had the stomach flu and has been vomiting and having diarrhea all throught the day and all through the night. I think he is finally over that, but still not sleeping very well. I think his body is trying to make up for the lost fluids and nutrition. He wakes up several times a night for drinks and wakes up very early (before 7:30 feels like 4 am to me) for toast. Usually I can get him to lie down for a bit until I wake up completely except this morning he was literally yelling "toast", so I had no choice, but to drag my groggy body out of bed.

This weekend we decided to put Beck in the shower with daddy and I double wrapped his leg and triple taped it, but it didn't work like I was hoping and he got the inside of his cast pretty wet. It took several hours of blow drying to get it completely dry. He fell asleep during the process. I guess all the warm air and the white noise just did him in.

Kate is a great sleeper, but she refuses to take naps even though her body eventually wins out in the end if we are traveling in the car in the late afternoon or if she decides to take a break from her play to rest on the couch.

The other day when Kate actually took a real nap I was waking her and her daddy up to go and neither one would get out of their beds. I told Kate she is just like daddy because she won't get out of bed. Her response was "No I am not like daddy I am like a sleeping horse".

Here are a few more updates not related to sleep about Beck. He is growing up and learning so much so fast.

Beck is getting to be quite the talker and it is so cute. Here are a few of my favorites words.

Bell la la: Elephant

Lilla: Gorilla

Bebra: Zebra

Melmo: Elmo (He calls all Sesame Street Characters Melmo)

Nandy: Candy

Nack: Snack

I think it is also cute that everytime I say something about dinner Beck asks "Daddy Home?"

After the Thanksgiving holiday and spending so much time with daddy Beck has been asking me several times a day "Daddy go?"

If he is hungry he will usually yell "Nack!" "Nack!" but lately it has been "Dinner ready? Dinner ready? Dinner ready?" like 10X in a row.

He refers to himself as "baby Beck" especially if he is looking in the mirror or looking at a picture of himself.

The other day he heard me say something about going to Nana's and Papa's house, so all day he kept whining "wanna go papa's house"

If he sees something he thinks is cute he will say "oh coot".

He also makes up these cute little dances for music he hears whether it is daddy singing or the TV.

He has also been saying "ohhhh" with great emphasis when I tell him something that is new.

Another thing I have noticed lately is that he really likes telling his big sister what to do. Whenever I am yelling for Kate to come he will start yelling for Kate also or he will say things like "Come on Kate" or "No Kate" I think it is kind of funny that eventhough he is the youngest he thinks he is the boss. I am sure it will be even more pronounced when he has a little sister to boss around.