Last-Minute Christmas Rush! Pt. 2--My Middle Child Turns 4 And Has A Party

One December family event that always threatens to be overshadowed by Christmas is Celeste's birthday; it's on the 13th. This year, she turned the Big Four. On one hand, it's hard to believe that she's four already; on the other, she has always acted pretty "worldly" and "knowledgeable" for her age, so it sometimes feels like she's been four for some time already!

Since Celeste had a birthday party for her third birthday, we didn't go too crazy this year; we made pink cupcakes (at her request; however, I was not a fan of the strawberry flavor! Maybe I'll just try food coloring next time), and handed out the cupcakes at her dance class and amongst her family members. We also took her to Peter Piper Pizza's, and she got to invite one friend (she chose Alex, a preschool buddy, who brought along most of his family). A good time was had by all, and much pizza was consumed.

All the girls LOVED this whirly-gig thingy

Daddy and Celeste enjoying their pizza

Celeste's buddy Alex gave her a Barbie for her birthday!

 And when the "big day" arrived (a few days after the pizza party), we put Celeste's birthday presents under the tree--we try to get the birthday presents out before any Christmas presents, to make her birthday stand out:

Awww...isn't she cute??

However, Celeste did get the honor of opening the first Christmas presents as well (you can see one in her hand in the above picture)--Grandma Nash sent us our Christmas tree ornaments for 2011!

Thanks, Grandma & Grandpa Nash!!

Celeste also got to be the first kid to hang up the new ornaments!

And here's the birthday girl, beaming over her special birthday cupcake:

Celeste is probably least like me, personality-wise, of all my children. But that is turning out to be a good thing; she is just so laid-back and charming and sweet (and pretty sharp; she can recall details of conversations held months ago!). Plus, she is growing up to be a very beautiful girl inside and out. I love you, kid! Here's to many many more great birthdays.

Last-Minute Christmas Rush! Pt. 1--More Christmas Cookies, and a Piano Recital

This veery Christmas-y house belongs to a nearby neighbor. It's not on our way home, but our kids still want to drive next to it every single night! Ah, Christmas.

I haven't blogged in a while, but that was partly due to events out of my control...I had a Very Crazy Week, and then our internet was out for several days. Sad face. But all that's in the past now, so it's time to get caught up! I'll probably knock out several short posts over the next several days, including our family 2011 Christmas letter ('cause I'm cheap like that; don't check your mailbox!). However, I have a lot of other holiday (and birthday) stuff to cover first. So, without further ado...

Shortly after my last blog post, I had to "go dark" for a while--mostly because I was in the kitchen, baking a lot of sweet treats for many many people. A few friends have asked for recipes, so I'm posting a bunch of pictures here in the hopes that they can identify the cookies involved and send me requests. So here are a few of the things I made (not including your "standard" stuff like fudge). Also, I realize these pictures are not the greatest...sorry. I have been pretty rushed the last couple of weeks, and I don't work for Our Best Bites, so what can ya do??

 First were these terrific cookies (admittedly, they don't look gorgeous, but trust me--they're great!). These are butter cookies with a cranberry-pecan-brown sugar "swirl" pinwheeled inside. Oh yeah, and there's orange rind in the cookie dough, which makes it just a bit tart. Sooo good.

Another holiday standard at the Barrett home are the peanut butter blossoms--although I think I made these cookies too big! The poor Hershey's Kiss seems a little lost inside all that cookie. Well, I have more Kisses left over--oh, darn, time to make more cookies!!

Here's another "cookie" I've been making for the last few years; it's a peppermint meringue. There are only four or five total ingredients, but it still takes kind of a long time to put them together (plus two hours to bake!). However, it's worth it! I love the flavor; it's like taking a bite into a soft cloud of peppermint. Mmm...

I also make jam thumbprints every year as well; I find them a nice nutty alternative to some overly sweet cookies (even if the jam might make them a little messy). I didn't have any walnuts left (my usual nut with these cookies), so I used a combination of peanuts and pecans, and they tasted great! (The jam is my homemade raspberry jam)

Here's a new cookie I tried this year (I finally got brave enough to use food coloring!). It's mainly a three-layered sugar cookie, but the pink "chunks" are actually ground-up maraschino cherries! I thought they looked very pretty, but I found the flavor milder than I'd hoped for. I'm trying to think of ways I could heighten the cherry flavor; maybe more almond extract? Maybe try a bit more sugar next time? It'll come to me, I know it! At any rate, I definitely want to try them again next year. And (by way of experiment), these cookies taste very good dipped in hot cocoa!

So, long story short, I made lots of cookies. And I have enough raw materials left over that I can see myself making a few more batches in the weeks to come (my kids have three weeks off of school for the Christmas holiday; I've got to fill the time somehow!!). The vast majority of these goodies, however, were sent out to family & friends--including several very talented piano students I know...

That's right, I had my semiannual piano recital on December 10th, at our church building. I'm now teaching seven students, which has been a lot of additional work but which has also been very rewarding. They are all very sweet, very talented, and (as you can see above) very cute!! After playing, there was great applause and much rejoicing (especially by me, since I had been stressing about putting this together), and then everyone went to the kitchen & ate a bunch of yummy goodies. Because that (among other things) is what Christmas is all about.

Christmastime Is Here...*cue "Charlie Brown Christmas" music*

I'm back already! It's been very enjoyable putting up our holiday decorations in our new home. Our beautiful Nativity was set up on the piano, as usual. However, I'm a little more nervous about it being there now that our stairwell is right next to it; as you can see by the picture, it would be all too easy for curious/destructive little hands to reach through the bars and wreck havoc on some of our beautiful breakables. For now, I will cross my fingers and trust my luck. My kids are not normally destructive people; well, not most of the time.

And here's our tree! Our ceilings are "only" eight feet high, so our tree (which really isn't huge) certainly looks tall in our front room! Another problem we faced--apparently both our strings of lights decided to die sometime over the previous year. Not cool. Anyway, we took the opportunity to do something we've been meaning to do for a while--we upgraded the tree lights to the energy-efficient LED lights. They burn just as bright, but they are much cooler (reducing fire risk), and they use less energy to boot. They also include purple and blue bulbs, which means that our whole front rooms has a very bluish glow when the tree is turned on at night.

Before you ask: yes, I am aware our star is "listing" a bit. What can I say? We aren't professional tree trimmers; I also think it adds to the tree's charm! Also: this is a REAL tree; I realize they are a lot more hassle sometimes, but I just can't resist that wonderful smell in my house!

As many of you know, Christmas is also the time when I make lots (lots) of cookies, fudge, and other sweets and give them out at various occasions. In years past, I have made dozens of batches of stuff, and handed plates out to everybody I could. This year...well, I'm a lot busier than I was at this time last year, so we'll see if that actually happens. I may try to ease up on the baking by only doing a few batches when I get around to it, and giving them out when I have a moment.

However, that hasn't stopped me from cooking a few things, and trying some new recipes out. Here's what I've made so far this Christmas season:

First I whipped together a batch of one of my family's favorites: chocolate scootcheroos! Basically, it's Rice Krispie Treats made with corn syrup and peanut butter instead of marshmallows, topped with melted chocolate & butterscotch. Soo sugary and yummy.

I also made these very easy pecan/Rolo/pretzel snacks, which is just as simple as it sounds. First, you put a Rolo candy on top of a pretzel; repeat until the bag of Rolos (or pretzels!) is gone. Second, you put them all into a 350-degree oven for about 5 minutes. Then, you remove them from the oven, press a pecan half into the Rolo, and let them cool completely. That's it! If you like caramel, they are a must; plus, they're a nice salty alternative to many of the ultra-sweet Christmas treats out there.

Here's a recipe I tried for the first time this year, but it was fun to make! Basically, they are gingersnap "logs" (although I think I'll shape them into balls next time). I take crushed-up gingersnap cookies and mix them with sweetened condensed milk and a few other things. Then I roll that dough into shapes, then cover it with the white topping (a combination of canned store frosting and white chocolate for baking). It tastes sort of like a high-powered gingerbread cookie; I liked it, but think one is enough!

What else did I do last week? Shopping, shopping, and more shopping. The good news: I think I'm done shopping for my family. Yay! However, I've still got some extended family to take care of; plus, Celeste's birthday is just around the corner, as is my piano students' winter recital. Hopefully I'll survive (and be alert enough) to fill you in on all that later.