Beastie the Homemaker

Here is Lennon modeling her brand new, hand made apron from G-ma Lawrence that she got for Christmas. G-ma Lawrence (Grandma Sweet/Barb's mom) loves to sew and make gifts for the grandchildren for Christmas. She has made the grandchildren all sorts of gifts, from quillows to hats to purses. I love the idea of homemade gifts (if only I could sew!), there are the ones that come from the heart and these are things we will keep for generations (or as long as they stand the test and wear of a toddler).

Lennon loves to cook in her kitchen and thank goodness she has an apron her size because she is a messy cook (just like her Daddy).

Thank you G-ma Lawrence for the perfect gift!

COOKIES!!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! You can smell it a mile away. Grandma Sweet's Annual Sugar Cookie Baking/Decorating Day. WOO HOO! I think this day is the most looked forward to during the whole Christmas season, and more so by the adults than the children. : )
When I first joined the Sweet family I heard many great things about this day. Barb makes tubs and tubs of sugar cookie dough and invites everyone over to cookie cut, decorate, bake and get into the holiday spirit. An essential family tradition. I have to say out of all the family traditions, this one is becoming one of my favorites and is something I hope that Lennon begins to look forward to every year.
This was Lennon's first year of participating in this family get together and boy did she ever enjoy it! It took a lot of effort to try and explain to a 22 month old why she can't eat cookie dough (but her Mommy can) and that she should be extra careful when decorating. As you can see she is a true artiste. It was so cute to watch her concentrate on each detail of cookie making. The painting and the sprinkles were her favorite part of the event, of course. And she didn't once pick her nose while handling the food. SUCCESS!!! It is true that some cookies get some extra tidbits of love put into them (thankfully they are usually eaten by their own makers). But that's part of the fun. Think of it as an added surprise.
I only had the energy and patience to let Lennon decorate about 4 cookies (two of which I was able to get pictures of), but I figure by next Christmas we may be able to double that number.
Hopefully by then I can get a copy of Barb's recipes and try it out myself at home. I hope to be the envy of the neighborhood with all of my perfect Christmas treats.
Thanks to Michelle I am well on my way. We spent a few long nights trying out new cookie recipes, so that we could make treats for family and friends. Next year I am sure we will get the hang of the whole "timing" thing (Who knew how long it took for dough to get firm in the fridge? Lesson learned.), but all in all it was a success. We were able to gift: Chocolate Crinkles (the favorite of all the cookies), Cheesecake Bars, Gingerbread Pinwheels, Candy Cane cookies and even a few professionally decorated sugar cookies---When I say professional, I mean the adults got a chance to decorate. : ) Thanks to Julia for showing us how the "Queen of Sugar Cookies" creates the perfectly decorated angel and gingerbread man.
On top of all that I actually spent a day at home experimenting with my own creations. Thanks to my Mom for cluing me in on how to make her pretzel treats (they were a huge hit) and to John for giving me instructions on how to make his delicious white chocolate covered pretzels. I wasn't brave enough to try that one on my own, so I
had Josh lend a hand on that one. I should have had him shop for the chocolate for that recipe too, since I am hopeless at reading directions. We now have enough Almond Bark white chocolate to last us till next Christmas! Any ideas on what to do with the extra, please send them my way. : )
In case you want to make your own special treats here is the fave recipe of this year:
Chocolate Crinkles
4 tbsp unsalted butter
8 ounces of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of baking powder
Topping: 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Directions:
1. In the microwave or double boiler slowly melt your chocolate and butter together. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale and fluffy. You want to see slow ribbons falling back into the bowl when you lift your beaters. Then beat in vanilla and stir in your chocolate mixture.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients into the
chocolate mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate
until firm enough to shape into balls (3-4 hours or overnight).
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and place your rack in the center of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set those aside.
5. Place the powder sugar into a shallow bowl. With lightly greased hands roll the chilled dough to form a 1 inch diameter ball. Place the ball into the powder sugar and roll until covered completely. Tap off excess sugar if needed.
6. Space cookies about 2 inches apart on your baking sheets and bake the cookies 8 to 10 minutes. I like to bake them for 8 minutes so that they come out a little more soft, kind of like a brownie bite. Do not over bake, this will cause the cookies to become very dry.
7. Remove them from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

These cookies are best when eaten the day they are made.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Trimming the Tree

Our first Christmas in the new house! Wow, it's hard to believe. We weren't quite prepared to decorate a whole house this year, so our Christmas trimmings were a bit on the light side. (Thanks to the Volkerts for loaning us their regal Nativity set!) Hopefully our Christmas spirit made up for our lack of Christmas decorations.

We used our small artificial tree this year. Neither Josh nor I was willing to brave the Christmas tree hunt out in the wild this December. Hopefully by next December that will change, because I sure did miss the smell of a real tree in the house. Although I think our artificial one was much sturdier than we thought, considering Lennon was all a flutter when she saw it and couldn't keep her hands off of it. Thankfully there were no Christmas tree casualties.

This was Lennon's first year participating in decorating the Christmas tree. As you can see she was very meticulous in where she chose to hang her ornaments. Thank goodness I am no Martha Stewart, expecting absolute perfection and symmetry. Lennon took a quick liking to the

Christmas balls that we had bought at Target. I suppose they were the exact size for her petite hands, which couldn't resist them. Lennon's clustering technique was a bit unconventional, but I think it could catch on. Her Christmas Cluster is rather cute.

With Lennon growing like a weed no ornament within her reach was safe. Thank goodness I learned right away Mommy Christmas Tip #1: All cherished ornaments need to be exempt from the tree or else placed high, towards the top. Her little mittens loved touching and exploring each ornament. Many of them were shuffled and found in new places. A little surprise for Mommy every day.

Lennon is much like a squirrel, she loves to hoard, pile and hide objects. Many a hook, ribbon and string were lost this year, making many of the ornaments unusable. Towards the end of the month the tree became very top heavy and bare bottomed.

Kudos to Josh for using three strands of lights on our tree. Don't worry Mom--he strings the lights just like you do! We are carrying on that Christmas tradition. We also used Grandma Sweet's (Barb) homemade tree skirt, which is beautiful and fit perfectly, aside from Lennon slipping and sliding on it as she tried to fit herself under the tree. Next year we may have to put some sort of gripping underneath the skirt so our little miss doesn't "schwip fawl".

Josh and I can hardly wait until next Christmas! We hope to rival the Griswold's in spectacular light displays and I will attempt some Martha Stewart like touches inside the house. Most of all, we can't wait to see how Lennon's face lights up with excitement as the decorations come out and how she beams with pride as she helps carry-out new family traditions.