Holidays – Page 9 – Thimbleanna

Busy, Busy

43 Comments / December 20, 2011 December 20, 2011 / Holidays

Well Hello — Anyone out there? It seems like everyone is busy prepping for the holidays or playing on Pinterest. So much inspiration to be had over there!

Did you have a nice weekend? It whizzed by here — as always. I had a few work friends over on Friday night for dinner. We had a “Favorite Things” party. Have you heard of them? I read about them one day, after a little blog hopping from this post. It’s based on the Oprah’s Favorite Things shows she did every holiday season. Only we don’t have an Oprah budget. Everyone brings a favorite thing, in the $5 – $10 price range for everyone else at the party. It was lots of fun to learn a little more about each other. Some of the favorite things were Thiorlo Socks (love those things! — purchased on sale to meet the budget), a box of tea and a movie ticket (“we” were her favorite thing, so “we” will all be going to a movie together soon), a Barnes and Noble gift card (books are her favorite thing but she wanted us to choose), a book from a favorite series, and a super cool travel mug.

For my favorite thing, I baked up some of my favorite cookies (as always, credit goes to Ms. Farmhouse!)

and packed them into my favorite obsession — those glass jars that are great for holding most anything. (This size is $7.50 at Wal-Mart — what a bargain!) Anyway, we had a great time and the favorite things were a really fun idea — I think everyone really enjoyed it.

Today was gingerbread making day here in ThimbleannaLand. There’s a reason they say “slow as molasses”. It took forever to get the molasses out of those bottles.

If you’ve been a reader here for awhile, you know that we have an annual gingerbread house competition in our family. I always try to get the gingerbread parts done several days in advance so they can dry out a bit.

Our competition will be on the 23rd this year. I don’t like having it so close to Christmas, but it’s the only time this year that everyone will be here. We drew the teams this past weekend. Should be interesting — it’s kind of funny that, with the exception of SweetiePie, our family of four is together on two teams.

Go Team 5!!!

I hope you’re getting all of your last minute goodies done. Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Cranberry Christmas Pudding

28 Comments / December 14, 2011 December 15, 2011 / Holidays, Recipes

Ooops, I didn’t mean to be gone for so many days. It was a busy weekend here — we got MeMum and BigDaddy’s big Christmas tree put up and then I did the decorating here too. Jane suggested that I needed a good dose of Christmas movies to get me going — instead I’ve been listening to Christmas music while I work. TheManoftheHouse surprised me with the Christmas CD from that Michael guy. It’s definitely putting me in the mood.

Isn’t it fun to work around the house, listening to music and think about Christmas? Christmas past and Christmas traditions. I love to hear all about what other people do for their traditions too. You know, stuff like … do you open your gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? {A little of both} Big dinner on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? {Christmas Day} Turkey, Ham, or Roast Beef? {Turkey} And what about those traditions that must be repeated every year … or if you don’t there will be mutiny among the troops? (I love watching the making of the Christmas Cake and mincemeat pies on so many non-US blogs. What fun traditions!)

One of our favorite traditions is the Christmas Pudding that MeMum has always prepared for our dessert after our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Day. We all love it so much that we save it until the end of the day — long after all the dishes are done. I hated it when I was a child, but I LOVE it now — most of us do love it. This isn’t a creamy American pudding. It’s a British kind of steamed pudding — more like our cake. Served with a “gorgeous sauce” that is fabulous. The more gorgeous sauce the better. Drown that pudding in gorgeous sauce!

MeMum has a great steamer pan. I just have a little pudding mold that MyDadLovesMeBestSister gave me years ago but it works great. You just have to be able to cover the batter (MeMum’s cake pan doesn’t have a lid so she ties brown craft paper over the top with some twine and it works great). Here’s a picture of my little cake pan — it’s sitting upside down on our stove.

The cake pan can’t be sitting on the bottom of the steamer pan. It must be placed on a rack in the steamer. I don’t have a rack, so I suspended my cake pan in the steamer by using some wire. It worked just fine, but I really need to get a rack.

Ok, so here’s the recipe:

Cranberry Christmas Pudding

Pudding:

2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/3 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Add soda to molasses. Stir in the water and dump in a large bowl. Sift flour and baking powder in separate bowl. Toss cranberries in flour mixture and then add to molasses mixture. Add nuts, if desired.
Grease small cake pan. Pour pudding mixture into pan and cover — with lid or tie brown paper over top of the pan with some twine. Steam in 2″ water for 2 1/2 – 3 hours. (Check water level every now and then to make sure water hasn’t boiled dry.)

Serve by breaking bits of pudding into a bowl and pouring gorgeous sauce over the top. Top with a generous dollop of whipped cream. (I didn’t get a picture of the whipped cream — I was scarfing it down before I remembered to take a picture!)

Gorgeous Sauce:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup butter

Cook sugar, whipping cream and butter over boiling water for 5 minutes. Serve.

Yum, Yum, Yummy — I can’t wait until Christmas Day!
XOXO,
Anna

Oh, Fine.

56 Comments / December 9, 2011 December 9, 2011 / Holidays

I guess I can’t avoid the Big C anymore. We’re well into December by now. Here is the official start of Christmas 2011 here in ThimbleannaLand:

I decided to make some little soldered pendants. I found this cute Santa on Pinterest. (Yay, I actually used something I found on Pinterest!)

I thought they would make cute gift tie-ons and I love them with the divine twine. I put Merry Christmas 2011 on the back of each little pendant.

But, just so you know, I’m dragging my feet here. I still have pumpkins on the kitchen table. Hopefully I’ll get some decorating done here this weekend. Have a good one!

XOXO,
Anna

The Bliss Quilt

43 Comments / November 28, 2011 November 28, 2011 / Holidays, Quilting

Well, how was Thanksgiving for you Americans? Are you stuffed? With your fill of turkey and pie??? We had a wonderful time — it’s always fun when everyone can get together. The weather was perfect for late November. And, as always, with our crew, it wasn’t uneventful.

The highlight definitely had to be when CrazyBIL opened a bottle of homemade brewski and it went everywhere. Fortunately, the kitchen ceiling hasn’t been painted yet. Sorry for the blurry picture, but I was laughing — at the panicked cleanup and the opportunists in the family. Not sure I’d want anything dripping off of the ceiling, but apparently some people will take it however they can get it!

Ahem. I LOVED having a whole week off of work — I could definitely get used to that. The weather was so beautiful that we spent two full days doing yard work — the annual pesky leaves have been conquered. And FINALLY, I managed to finish the piecing on the Bliss Quilt (so named because the fabric is from Bonnie and Camille’s Bliss line from last year). Sadly, by the time I had time to take pictures, it was rainy and gloomy outside. Sorry for the dismal indoor lighting, but you get the idea.

As you can see, it’s a remake of The Ugly Duckling. (Which is perfect, ’cause I’m betting after I’m gone, someone is going to wonder what I was thinking with that aqua — it’s meant to be bold like the pink in The Ugly Duckling.)

I don’t make quilts out of collections very often, but I love these fabrics and I thought it would be fun for this remake. Each little square is 1 3/4″ x 1 3/4″ just like in the original. I chose to piece the solid blocks a little differently than from the original and I decided not to do borders. I also didn’t pay too much attention to which fabrics touched which fabrics. Every once in awhile I’ll spot two of the same fabric touching each other. And in one spot there’s a row of 5 green pieces — doh! I’ll leave it as is though — hopefully, it will make someone wonder what happened.

It’s a big quilt — weighing in at 88″ x 88″. I wanted it to be big enough for a double bed and be able to tuck in all around the sides of the mattress.

So, here she sits all ready for some quilting. The big debate has been whether to machine quilt or hand quilt. I’m thinking hand quilting will win out. Cross hatching with some sort of wreath or something in the aqua blocks. We’ll see. Hopefully, someday, you’ll see the finished result.

Yipes! Now, we must think about Christmas. I’m just not ready — are you???

XOXO,
Anna

Pie Day

39 Comments / November 23, 2011 November 23, 2011 / Holidays

Thanksgiving is here! Just popping in for a second — the kids are coming in the back door as I type. I was making my pie doughs just a few minutes ago and the sun was so pretty streaming through the window that I had to stop and take a picture. What a beautiful day to be thankful for!

Tonight, SweetiePie and I will finish our preparations and get the table ready. It will look just like it did two years ago — the last time we hosted our family Thanksgiving.

I’m so thankful that my little sweeties have arrived safely and that my family will all be here for the holiday. If you’re in the US, I hope you’ll have a wonderful holiday, surrounded by friends and family and all that you love!

Happy Thanksgiving!
XOXO,
Anna