Wishing you and yours...

May your 2010 be filled with good health and happiness!

Tradition

The first Christmas my Sweetie and I were married a cute little tradition started. On Christmas Eve when it was time to unplug all the outside lights and turn off the tree before turning in for the night my husband said, "Let's leave them all on tonight." Now I'm the type who would leave every lamp on 24/7 if left to my own devices, but my better half is not. He's the frugal fellow with an ever mindful eye on the electric meter, making sure I don't send that little spinning contraption (or him) into orbit during the month of December. Giddy about leaving the lights on, yet curious about the logic I asked, "Why?" He sweetly responded, "So Santa will be able to see the house." A tradition was born. Global warming and exorbitant electric bills we care not for thee. On Christmas Eve, the lights stay on!

For Christmas traditions both sentimental and silly pop over to the blog of our fabulous hostess Beverly for a complete list of today's participants. My tree will light your path. Merry Christmas!

Noel

This is one of my favorite decorations. I keep her out year round, but at Christmastime she takes center stage. She is guardian over the bottle brush trees and the butter mints. What a delightful occupation, don't you agree?

For a glimpse at other dear treasures, pop over to the blog of our wonderful hostess Beverly for a list of all of today's participants. Hope you are enjoying each day leading up to Christmas!

Christmas 1974

I don't remember what was in this package, but I do remember that the Christmas I was four my family bought a brand new artificial tree and all new candy land themed ornaments to go on it. We previously had a white tree with all blue ornaments, but that year we wanted something different. I remember vividly going to Sears to help pick out the new tree and all that would go with it.

The ornaments were my favorite part. There were gingerbread boys, girls and houses along with glittery white reindeer and snowmen that looked like sugar cookies, yet were made out of styrofoam. To my four-year-old sensibilities all these delightful decorations looked good enough to eat. So much so, that is just what I did. One by one I sampled each type of ornament. I left some of the houses with tentative teeth marks in them while the gingerbread men suffered more severely by having whole bites taken out of their heads. What was not bitten was at least licked. Hey, I'm not proud, I'm just reporting the facts.

In this photo I was caught red handed, absconding with yet another decoration. I can't tell if a gingerbread man was about to be crippled or if a reindeer was about to become lame, but it didn't look like I had much remorse over the whole thing. So much for our new decorations.

Thanks so much for strolling down memory lane with me. For more fond recollections of Christmas past, pop over to the blog of our wonderful hostess Beverly for a list of today's participants. Hope your Christmas is delicious!

Snow Day

I'm so excited! School was cancelled today because of the snow we received overnight. My four- year-old was a little grumbly because Friday is Show and Tell Day at her school, and she hated to miss it. The girl lives for performing. LOL! I on the other hand was elated to stay home. My high schoolers have their own daily version of show and tell, and frankly I have seen and heard enough of them to tide me over for awhile ;>)

To detract from the trauma of missing Show and Tell, we decided to spend some time making paper chains for Christmas decorating. We had quite the assembly line going. She would glue and I would make the paper loop. I started referring to her as "Glue Girl," and she then started calling me "Paper Lady."

In my opinion they are never too young to learn the value of crafting in pajamas.

Hope you are having a cozy day!

Fairy Wafers

Hello sweet friends, thank you for stopping by for Scrappy Jessi's 3rd Annual Cookie Exchange!
The recipe I am sharing is tea party perfect and a delightful companion cookie to the Cherry BonBons I showed you last year. I call them Fairy Wafers. They are light as air and delicious! Enjoy~

Fairy Wafers

1cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup butter

3 to 4 tablespoons half-and-half

Powered Sugar Frosting

Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place flour in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender cut in butter until pieces are pea size. Sprinkle one tablespoon of the half-and-half over part of the mixture. Gently toss with a fork and push to the side of the bowl. Repeat until all is moistened. Form into a ball.

On a lightly floured surface roll dough until slightly less than 1/8 inch thick. Using a 2 inch fluted round cookie cutter, cut out dough. Place cutouts 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges start to brown. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.

Spread 1 teaspoon of Powdered Sugar Frosting on the bottoms of half the cookies. Top with the remaining cookies, bottom sides down. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes about 20 sandwich cookies.

*IMPORTANT NOTE *If making a batch of these for a blog photo shoot, let your family know in advance so that they don't act like wild monkeys and eat over half of them, leaving you with only six for the picture.

Powdered Sugar Frosting

In a small bowl stir together 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon of softened butter, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in about 1 tablespoon of half-and-half, 1 teaspoon at a time to make frosting of spreading consistency. Tint with paste food coloring.

Hope you have fun making these but more importantly hope you enjoy eating them. For a complete list of Cookie Exchange participants pop over to the blog of our fabulous hostess Jessi. Happy Holidays!