christmas: goodies

I was successful in my Christmas treat making! There was only one planned item I did not get around to (Sorry, Em, it was the monster cookies. But I have all of the stuff, and once things aren't so crazy, I will make them!). So the list, some of which is pictured below, is: cinnamon popcorn, caramel popcorn (really, Brian did this, on two separate occasions, and most likely after 1 am so I could go to bed), zweiback, cinnamon rolls (all on my own from my grandma's zweiback recipe the day after the lesson), wild rice and corn casserole, butternut squash puree, butternut squash bisque, chocolate candy cane cookies (which I, oddly enough, really liked despite my usual aversion to mint chocolate), and cutout sugar cookies (which I can really take little credit for since my mom gave me the dough as a present to accompany new cookie cutters and Brian made the frosting, which is almost not pictured here because I forgot to take pictures until we were basically down to the unfrosted last ones). Whew. It was fun. And yummy. And fairly unhealthy.

a lesson in baking

My dad's side of the family has traditionally done a soup potluck for Christmas for a number of years now. Growing up, my grandma's (dad's mom) zweiback were the best! She hasn't baked for a few years now, but I thought it would be fun to have some of "her" zweiback at the reunion. My dad's cousin's wife makes my grandma's recipe, so I asked her if she would consider making some for hire. She had a better idea -- I could come over for a lesson and bring grandma too. It was great! I got a wonderful lesson, fun times, and tasty zweiback. I'm so glad this happened. Thanks, Mary!

I should have scanned in some of the photos that Mary took and printed for me, but here are some from my camera. Hm, no evidence of baking here...

christmas: friends

The holidays were blessed with getting to see many friends. I failed to photograph all friend encounters, but I got to see all of the mod who were in Kansas (unless there's someone I don't know about); Beth, who I hadn't seen since high school; and Pete and Andrea. I missed out on a lunch I planned with some others due to car trouble, but Brian, Kate, Mark, and I did manage to squeeze in annual Home Alone. I hope I'm not forgetting anything else...

christmas: tree

Oops. We never got around to taking a picture of our first real Christmas tree, and it was put out for pick-up earlier this week. However, pictured here is a portion of our Christmas tree, decorated in the same colors as our tree but without the colored lights. Yes, the bird was terrified of it, as expected. You may also take this moment to notice my incredibly gimpy free-handed cut star.

12.17.08

It seems a new post is in order. But I sit here with no good topics in mind. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming holidays and the time away from work -- only 2.5 days left! My Christmas shopping for Brian is done (has been for a while, but I just picked up the last item from the post office yesterday) except for maybe some stocking stuffers. Which, by the way, we finally got stockings this year! I've been looking for stockings for a few years and have never been very taken with any I've found in stores. I randomly checked out Pottery Barn a few weeks ago and found stockings on sale there! The ones I got are simple but nice (the red with ivory cuff velvet, regular shaped ones). And since I saved the money on the stockings themselves, I justified getting them personalized with our names. Makes good sense, eh? Anyway, I'm quite excited about Brian's gifts this year. But I can't tell you what they are yet. Other than those, I am started on the gift for my family member (we drew names this year) but not finished. I want to do some holiday treat making sometime before Christmas...we'll see if the motivation remains. Example: Last Saturday I planned to make cinnamon popcorn to accompany our Angel Tree gift. I got the recipe/instructions from mom -- even borrowed their Whirley Pop -- and bought all the ingredients. Sometime while reading in the afternoon, I fell asleep, and then never made the popcorn.

don't sign me up

Got this ad on my Facebook today. I admit my pearly whites don't really live up to that metaphor, but if this product will make my mouth look as freaky as this? No.

weekend play-by-play

My weekend was very full. Friday and Saturday Brian was in Nebraska, so those days are singular; Sunday is plural.

Friday
5:20-5:45 pm Arrive home from work. Change for the evening.

6-10 pm Serve at the dinner theater benefiting the local homeless shelter.

10-11 pm Go through mail, play Minesweeper before bed.

Saturday
6:45-8:20 am Wake up and get ready.

8:20-8:45 am Drive to Moundridge.

9-11 am Christmas Tea at Eden Mennonite Church.

11 am-1:30 pm Spend time at the farm watching the deer get butchered, eating lunch, trying the new massage chair, gathering Christmas decor.

1:30-1:50 pm Drive home.

1:50-2:05 pm Check out Five Places of Christmas at the Ad Building. Buy peppernuts.

2:15-2:45 pm Drive to Wichita.

2:45-8 pm Brave Hobby Lobby, the mall, and Super Target.

8-8:45 pm Eat supper at Felipe's.

8:45-9:15 pm Drive home.

9:15-10 pm Brave Wal-Mart.

10 pm-12:45 am Decorate for Christmas.

Sunday
9:20-10:25 am Wake up and get ready.

10:30 am-12 pm Church.

12:15-1:45 pm Lunch with mom and dad.

2-2:45 pm Jesse Graber's book signing.

3-3:50 pm Work on getting our Christmas tree in the stand.

4-6:15 pm Small Group.

6:25-6:45 pm Square up the tree in the stand. Much vacuuming.

7-9:10 pm Deutsche Weihnachten.

9:10-11 pm Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Ruth and Jesse.

Monday
7:06 am Wake up feeling in need of a weekend. Or at least needing to go back to sleep.