Christmas Cookies

Did you bake cookies this Christmas? We did. See the little bears in the lower left of the photo? Those were my favorites. I used to read a book to my girls when they were little called, "The Gingerbear's First Christmas". I think I bought the book from the Current catalog. It was a cute little story about a family who had many things on their list and they were so tired from all the extra activities that had to be done for the holidays. The mom fell asleep in a chair. The little bears did all her baking, did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. You can tell the book was fiction as no one except moms do the dishes and clean the kitchen!!! lol Well, I made my gingerbread cookies to look like the Gingerbears with little cinnamon red hot hearts.

Mrs. Claus (my sister) invited me to her house to bake lots of cookies.

I took two days of vacation before Christmas, loaded my cookie cutters, cookie sheets, parchment paper rolls, recipes, rolling pins, etc., etc. and headed out at 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning.....in the pouring California rain! I think you might've heard a little something about our crazy weather. I'm not used to getting up that early but my hubby thought even though it was raining, I wouldn't hit as much traffic as if I left later. It was a good idea but I had to have a little cat nap when I got to my sister's house while my sis got her shower and got ready. Once I rested, we baked all day. We started with all the batches of dough that had to be refrigerated. By early afternoon we had some cookies rolled out and ready to frost. I stayed the night and headed out the next day with cookie tins in tow. It was a much nicer drive home.

I came home to some pretty homemade Christmas cards from my stampin' buddies. I'll share those in my next post. And this adorable potholder from my buddy Carolyn. It's so cute, I think I'll give up cooking so I don't risk ever getting it dirty. LOL

Do you take your Christmas decorations down right after Christmas? I don't. I love, Love, LOVE Christmas and even though I'm ready for my house to be back to normal, I'll wait until New Years weekend to take down all of the decorations.

Merry Christmas to you!

To all my bloggy friends and family, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I am off to get some veggies ready and put some munchies together for my kids and my SIL/BIL tonight. Enjoy your holiday and I hope Santa brings you something crafty this Christmas. May God bless us all at this wonderful time of year.

Disneyland at Christmas

My friend Susan invited me to Disneyland with a free pass. It was beeeeeautiful! Here are just a few pictures to let you know I'm alive. I'm at my sister's house baking Christmas cookies so I'll be back soon, hopefully before Christmas to say hello again!

The tree on Main Street (looking up from the base).
It's a Small World all done up in sparkly lights. So pretty.

Merry Christmas!!!

Tis the Season.....

....for giving and love and twinkling lights. And a little exhaustion. :o) I finished my decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving and got my cards done at my card party but I was four short. I cut four more out last night and finished addressing all the store-bought cards. Got the postage and labels on and mailed them off today.
With all of the activities going on, and trying to squeeze in some shopping here and there, it is also my turn to hostess Bunco. Needless to say, there is no sewing going on at my house. :o( So I've got Bunco tomorrow night and our family Christmas party on Sunday. I thought I better post something so you knew I was alive. hehe
I bought this wire basket last year at an antique mall. I got two packages of ornaments from the after-Christmas sale at Target and this year, I have a pretty centerpiece. The tablecloth was an after-Christmas item too, from Gooseberry Patch when they still sold giftables and not just cookbooks. (The day I got that email that they were no longer selling gift and kitchen items.....I was SO SAD!!)

Here is my Christmas tree....... Using "The Clapper". "Flash on"...

"Flash off!" I can never quite capture a perfect picture of my tree with my little Sony camera. My husband says I don't need a new one because this one works just fine. Somehow, I don't think my reasoning of it taking bad pictures for my blog a good enough reason to get a new one. LOL

This is the first ornament I painted back in the old "tole painting days". I made it in 1987. I got a scroll saw for Christmas the year before so I could cut out my own stuff. That saw is collecting rust now but I sure got my use out of that puppy!

This was another painted ornament. A little heart upside down to look like a cute chubby Santa.

A few years ago, I 'paid' someone to cut these out for me and I painted them up for an ornament exchange at a retreat with quilty friends. I didn't realize it was blurry until I posted it. Darn it.

I'll be missing again for a few days but will try to check in soon. Until then, I hope you are able to check things off your list and get all of your "to-do's" done. Try to grab a cup of warm tea or cocoa and sit by the fire and take in the wonder of the season. Even as crazy busy as I have been, I am trying to take little breaks in my house with the lights turned down low while I catch a classic Christmas movie!

Christmas cards....check!

I had some of my girlfriends over on Saturday for a Card-making get-together. There were six of us sharing my little house. We did it potluck style so that I could play and make cards too. I made turkey pot pie and pumpkin dump cake. Michelle, from one of my Yahoo group sites and her two little girls brought Chinese chicken salad with the most delicious dressing. Yum!! Two of my daughters came over. Kelley made meatballs in spaghetti sauce. They were delish!! Stephanie came from work so she brought sodas. My buddies Susan and Neena came too. Susan brought a 7 layer dip and chips and Neena spent an hour looking for a grocery store in my neighborhood. (They're hiding!) She finally gave up and came and joined us and gobbled down the more-than-enough food that was already there.

Michelle, Stephanie, Susan, Kelley


Most of us made Christmas cards but Michelle worked on projects for her daughters school like little decorative match boxes for classroom gifts and packaging items that would be sold at the school Christmas boutique.


This is the card I made with last years Stampin' Up! Christmas paper. Gotta use it up so I can use this years paper next year! LOL I copied this card from one I had seen online but theirs had a bow on it. I decided not to add a bow and just use the flat ribbon because of the cost of postage already. I didn't want to make add another 17 cents a card for a little bow. Whatta cheapskate, eh? ;o)

This adorable card is one of Neena's. It is even more adorable in person and can't believe Neena cut out all of those gingerbread people!!! She made six of this card. That's 24 gingerbread people! (She's a show-0ff!) lol

This is Kelley's prototype for her cards. (She already changed the drawing.) She has drawn her and her boyfriend Jason for the last few years so she thought she would keep up the tradition again this year. She used bakers twine and some little brads she found at the dollar spot at Target. Cute, yes? (I know, I'm biased!)

This is Stephanie's card. She only got one done because she was putting all of her new stamp sets together. I love the colors. I think the stamp and cardstock was SU sky blue. You might have to click it to see the details.

So now, I need to make some labels and get mine addressed and in the mail. So, it's not quite a "check" off the list but it's getting closer.

Woohoo!

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last wrote a post. Time has a way of flying by this time of year. I suppose I don't have to tell any of you that though, right?
Let me think....what have I been doing? I went to Joann's on Black Friday but I wasn't crazy enough to go at 6:00 a.m. It was more like 6:00 p.m.! :o) I got a few notions and gifts. Saturday my hubby and I got the bins of Christmas decorations down and I decorated the house all weekend. Ahhhhh, I love those twinkling lights!
Last night I finally made it into my sewing room after many, many days of not playing in there at all. I finished my Christmas stocking that I cut out a few weeks ago.

I bought enough of this focus fabric to make me and my girls a stocking and the guys stockings out of a Christmas stripe. My girls put the brakes on my idea saying their stockings that they've had since pre-school are just fine and leave them alone. (You can see a little of Kelley's stocking to the right of mine in the picture.) I had to laugh. I bought them at a craft bazaar the school was putting on as a fund-raiser and they are made from store bought pre-quilted fabric. I put their names on them with slick paints. Remember those?? The paint yellowed and cracked over the years so I peeled it off and rewrote their names. I guess I should be happy they cherish their hokey little stockings. When I showed my hubby my stocking, he said I could make him one out of hot rod fabric. Gee, I guess I should find a project for all that striped fabric I bought. LOL
Do you have any turkey leftover? My buddy Carolyn shared her Chicken Pot Pie recipe with me a year or two ago. It's the easiest recipe and so easy.

It was delicious! I used leftover turkey and didn't have cream of potato soup so used cream of chicken. Still delicious! And I had the rolled pie crust instead of the deep dish frozen ones. Instead of cutting off the extra, I just rolled it up and crimped it. Not pretty but guess what? Still delicious. LOL Have a great rest of the week!