Christmas cookie baking day

Here are the cookies I made for assorted gift-giving and family enjoyment this year - very similar to my cookie lists of years past!  I figure a day of cookie baking is sure to chase the holiday blues away...at least that's what I'm hoping!

Gingersnaps
3/4 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1/4 c molasses
1 egg
2 c flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 T ground ginger
1 t ground cinnamon
Colored sugar or sprinkles
Preheat oven to 350.  Cream shortening and sugar, mix in egg and molasses.  Sift the dry ingredients and mix into wet. Form into 1 inch balls and roll in colored sugar.  Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet and bake 12 minutes.

 These are so great right out of the oven and they freeze well, too

Graham Cracker Cookies*
14 sheets graham crackers
1/4 c sugar
2 T dark brown sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 salt
6 T butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1/2 t vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 and prepare your cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Crush grahams until they have the texture of sand.  Whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt and add to the crumbs.  Add the butter, egg, and vanilla until you have a soft dough.  Roll 1 inch balls of dough and space 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes, then let cool before you transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. (disclaimer:  I added mini chocolate chips to these because, chocolate!)
*I got this recipe from the Kitchn website - they have great cookie recipes!

Toasted Oat Cookies (my mother's recipe)
3/4 c. butter
2 1/2 c oatmeal
1/2 c flour
1 c light brown sugar
1 egg
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1/2 t soda
1 t vanilla
optional:  1/2 c raisins, nuts, or craisins (this time around I used candied orange and slivered almonds. My candied orange peel came from the bakery here, but you could sub in whatever you like or even leave it out entirely)
Pre-heat oven to 350.  Melt the butter in a heavy skillet, add the dry oatmeal ad cook til lightly toasted, stirring often.  Set aside to cool.  Mix brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until well-mixed.  Sift the dry ingredients and add to the egg/sugar mix.  Stir in cooled oats and raisins or nuts if desired.  Drop by spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet.  Bake approximately 10 minutes.

Russian Teacakes (a favorite from my childhood)
1 c butter, softened
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
2 1/4 c flour
1/4 t salt
3/4 c finely chopped pecans
Pre-heat oven to 400 and line your cookie sheet with parchment or a Silpat.  Mix the butter and powdered sugar with vanilla,  Sift the flour and salt and gradually work it into the butter mixture. (this is a very stiff dough!) Add in pecans and mix well.  Form into 1 inch balls (they will not flatten while baking).  Bake 10-12 minutes.  Cool slightly and roll into powdered sugar.  Cool completely and roll once more. 

I also made Kitchen Sink cookies, to use up some nuts, chocolate chips and coconut in my pantry - I just changed up a basic chocolate chip cookie.  I bought some cute containers for gift giving,

and will freeze some for our family on a pretty tray, all ready to pull out on Christmas Eve.  With some hot cocoa and the fireplace going, it will make for a sweet evening!

Gina

What the week holds and the final push to Eagle

The final push is on for several things here and I am sure Bubbie is feeling the burn - I know his parents are.  On his very full plate is finishing up his Eagle work, finals and finishing up the semester, and practicing parallel parking so he can finish up on getting his driver's license.

On a dreary evening last week, I waited 2 1/2 hours for him to fulfill some volunteer hours at Austin Creative Reuse.  Not that I'm a nervous Nellie or anything...But no way was I just going to drop him off at a shop in a strip center across from a closed mall.  Nope. I'll just wait right here, son.

This will be the last year I buy a kid's ornament for the kids' tree.  (18 ornaments times 4 kids = not enough room on this tiny tree) I think it's fitting that the last one represents such a goal - he and his dad have worked hard to get him to this point.  Keep your fingers crossed that he gets everything done on time without losing his mind!  I haven't hung it on the tree yet, because I don't want to jinx him...  This week I am in charge of the Monday Mini Holiday party at work, taking Bubbie to the dentist (yet another drain on his free time), going to Brenham to take Christmas gifts to my mother, and hopefully meeting The Girl at Saddlehorn on the way home.  Hubby has traveling to do, and we have Christmas shopping to finish up, as well as planning Bubbie's 18th birthday.  New Year's Day will be here before we know it!  What does your week look like?

Thrifty clothes for downtimes

One day last week I went shopping for myself out of desperation to be comfy on my off days.  Fist on the list:  these cheapo men's house shoes/moccasins from Academy.  For some reason I have been really wanting a pair!  I wear them around the house with socks.  They have zero padding or arch support and I don't care.  And for $8 I consider them thrifty, since they are lined with flannel and made of suede.

 All the women's styles had bows and/or fluffy fake sherpa inside them.  ugh.

I went to my fav thrift shop and found a bonanza of blue jeans!  Five pair of  jeans in my size and in great shape!  A couple of them will be "working in the yard" jeans.  The others I can pair with a sweater and clogs while I am out running errands.  Jeans are so expensive nowadays...these were marked $6 or less apiece AND the lady gave me a senior discount after tsk tsking me that I hadn't come on Wednesday when all the clothes were marked 50% off.

I also found 3 long sleeve shirts - one flannel, one corduroy, one broadcloth.  I love that you can roll up the sleeves and usually I look for men's thrift store shirts so that I have more sleeve to work with.  With my stylish moccasins I paid less than $30 for all of the above and now I am cozy comfy on my days off!  What about you - done any thrifting lately?

Gina

Scout

Is it true that a grown-up is merely a child with layers on?  I think it's true that we see in our kids a glimpse of who they are destined to become.  We see it in their nature, their way of speaking and moving, how they go about their day as children.  Then we can get a spark of what they will be like as adults.

 It's certainly true that I can see the adult layers on Scout, but also the little boy still inside. Still gentle and kind.  Still loving.  Yep, still my boy.

  Willing to spend time with me still, even if it includes going to his brothers' high school band concerts,

and sitting next to a mom who does a poor job of  "secretly" photographing him. It's nice to be near Scout.  He does a good job of making a day seem a little softer around the edges.

Gina

5 thing Friday - traffic, candleglow, wagon, sammie, cup tree

Driving in Houston is bad.  Maybe not as congested as Austin, but still, if I think on it too hard, I feel like a nervous wreck knowing that my child navigates it daily.

 Plus, the weather in Houston is awful.  I lived on the Gulf coast for 11 years.  

I do not miss it.

This time of year feels hard for me.  I have no real reason to be sad, but I feel like I lost something that helped anchor me to the holidays, and that takes a little of the shine off of Christmas.

This is the same wagon I plucked from a dumpster.  Stay tuned to see my not-Pinterest-worthy use for it.

One day last week, Bubbie and I took a morning off to go to a city council meeting.  It was such an interesting morning!  And I was craving lunch out, but I had to get him back to school.  So when I got home I made a Rustown Mom version of a Schlotzsky's sammie - turkey, ham, havaarti, colby jack, and mixed greens with apple cider vinaigrette on butter-toasted bread.  It was delectable. 

My $10 thrill of last week.  I love me a mug tree.  I had one years ago and it was such a sweet addition  to the counter and I am loving all of the cabinet space it cleared up.  We no longer have to fight for space in the cabinet for hot drinks and fixin's. I don't know why I didn't buy one sooner.   It's a good thing, Martha.

Gina

The 2016 Christmas tree

The tree farm is one of those family traditions that Hubby is just not ready to let go of.  I think a couple of the "kids" still like it, too, so I guess until it's just the two of us, we will continue on with it!

We always mean to get there early, then Friday after Thanksgiving dawns and no one feels like getting up and moving too fast.  So, by the time we get there, they are very busy.  Which is not all that terrible according to Hubby's philosophy - where else do we have to go and what else do we have to do?

We were going to skip the tractor ride out there - our peeps are older and we can walk out to the trees ready to cut,

 But The Girl wanted Teddy to enjoy the ride.  And he did!  So many things to smell.

Firstborn was at work, otherwise I would have gotten a pic of the four of them together.  That's harder and harder to manage nowadays.

 

There are lots of photo ops, even with cloudy skies.  

Someone had the idea to spray paint a few.  Surprisingly, they were selling!  Scout and I couldn't resist taking some pics of them - the purple one is probably living large in some hipster's den right now.

The one we settle on is almost always 7-8 ft tall and so wide you can't easily sit on one side of the couch and that's exactly how my peeps like it.  For them, the bigger the better in Christmas trees! 

Gina

Adventures in moving

Last week we moved The Girl from her two bedroom apartment on the third floor, to her one bedroom apartment on the 5th floor.  It was an all day doing, commencing at early-thirty.

We packed a peanut butter waffle breakfast and headed for Houston.  According to The Girl, it was storming there, but it passed through before we made it into Houston.  

Scout and Bubbie were thrilled, as you can see.  That's before they knew The Girl had a sofa, recliner, kitchen table and chairs, desk and chair, gigantic pine dresser, three night stands, queen mattress and box springs, baskets full of stuff, a cabinet, a hutch, bookcase, dog crate and bed, and a billion pounds of clothes and household items to move.   I didn't get pics of that process - we were way too busy making multiple trips back and forth between apartments that were approximately two blocks and two floors apart.

  

 

  

The moving crew was pretty worn out.  While we waited for a load of cleaning rags to wash and dry we even put the Christmas tree up.  Then we packed up the leftover pizza and some frozen items into a cooler and headed back to Camp Rustown to get ready for Thanksgiving the next day. I hope she and Teddy enjoy the new space, and I am glad we could get all of her things safely there and ready for the holidays!

Gina