Mojo Christmas to You!

I found it! I found it! All I needed to do was start baking and it showed up!

(Recipes are at the end of this posting as well as a quilt!)

I made 7 dozen One Cup Cookies and
4 dozen candy canes or peppermint patty cookies
and
1 pan of Cherry Bliss bars
They were all wrapped and delivered that evening for a little cheer to my neighbors before all their frazzled events began.

Then Hubby and I finished the decorations on the outside of the house, so we would be ready for my niece Carol and her family to arrive. (Stick with me - there IS a quilt!) In addition to the 24 wreaths with red bows hanging on the fencing around the house:

See the reindeer antlers? Do you remember the Locust thorn in my foot last year? At least I've found a use for them!

Then there is Hubby's childhood sled is at the front door:

The tree is decorated along with the stair garland in place.And at last we are ready for Christmas! Let the fun and quilts games begin!

My niece Carol and her family arrived Sunday for snacks between their bell ringing and scout activities. She was very close to my mother, and I thought she and her hubby would enjoy a quilt made from the embroidered squares my mom made before she passed away. Carol and Tom received a quilt from me as a wedding present, oh so many years ago, and it has worn out. So, it's time they have another, don't you think? Mayo the dog is pretty goofy with friends, but Carol's eyes lit up when she saw the quilt!

Merry Christmas!



Recipe: One Cup Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c. white sugar
q c. brown sugar
1 c. butter
1 c. oil
1 egg
1 c. Rice Krispies
1 c. Oatmeal
1 c. Choc chips
1 c. pecans
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
3.5 c. flour
1 tsp vanilla


Method:
Mix well, and drop by small spoonfuls (about the size of a walnut) on
a greased cookie sheet. Pat down to make a little flatter.

350 degrees about 8-10 minutes (mine took about 15).

Optional to add butterscotch or Peanut Butter chips.

Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red food color
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy
1/2 cup granulated sugar


Method:
Heat oven to 375. Mix thoroughly butter, shortening, confectioners'
sugar, egg and flavorings. Blend in flour and salt. Divide dough in
half: blend food color into one half.

Shape 1 teaspoon dough form each half into 4 inch rope. For smooth,
even ropes, roll them back and forth on lightly floured board. Place
ropes side by side; press together lightly and twist. Complete cookies
one at a time. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Curve top down to form
handle of cane.

Bake about 9 min or until set and very light brown. Mix candy and
granulated sugar. Immediately sprinkle cookies with candy mixture;
remove from baking sheet.

About 4 dozen cookies.

I finally got tired of making the twists, so I just made patties
instead, put the peppermint pieces on top and baked them that way.

And the Cherry Bliss bars are from http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/search?q=cranberry+bliss I changed the cranberries to dried cherries.

Winter Wonderland

I had every good intention of cleaning the old stewdio (formerly my mother's apartment downstairs) today. Instead, I've spent most of the day getting all the Christmas cards addressed and ready to be mailed tomorrow (if we can get out). The reason? Alas, we were woken at 4:30 this morning with our automatic generator starting up, which means only one thing in Kansas this time of year: no power. For once, the weather guessers had it right, and the rain, sleet, and freezing stuff started right on time yesterday afternoon and kept going through the night. It's still coming down now, and if the temperatures stay where they are, we won't get much more than rain. All it will take is one or two degrees lower and we'll have a bigger icy mess than this morning. By the way, the power to the neighborhood grid came back on around 1PM, so they won't be calling us to camp out tonight, I guess:)

Here's what it looked like outside at my bird feeders. Poor babies! You can click on the pictures for close ups if you'd like. And don' t those poor cardinals look cold?

This is my husband's attempt at keeping the squirrels out of the premium food. If you look closely in the platform feeder, you'll see that the squirrel is smarter than hubby thinks he is. We had 11 cardinals at the feeder at one time today plus all the other birds of winter: woodpeckers, nuthatches, juncos, wrens, and chickadees.

All the white stuff on the ground is ice, not snow - and here's how thick the ice was at about 2 PM today. This is the view to my right as I sit at the computer.
And as I looked out while waiting for the pictures to load, this is what I saw. I guess we have a day crew AND a night crew at the feeders:


I thought you might like to see the transformation in my stewdio . I've put away the sewing machines, the books and the fabrics away for now, and I've replaced them with our snow village, the tree and some other decorations. All this has to be done, including the downstairs organization before this Sunday when we have our big Open House. We've decided to do all the food ourselves, too - what were we thinking? All these photos were taken without flash so you can see the details a bit better. More decorations another time.

The Christmas tree

The snow village - the snowflakes on the window glow in the dark!

This is the first Christmas wall hanging I ever made.