Thimbleanna – Page 110 – My little online diary.

Christmas Cookies

51 Comments / December 21, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Holidays, Recipes

Wow! Thanks for all the fun Christmas Top Ten lists. I had a great time reading through them all. I hope you are all enjoying your top ten and are well on your way to being ready for the big day!

It was a good weekend here in ThimbleannaLand. I had a good time in the kitchen and made my Christmas cookies. Here’s what the family will be snacking on this year:

Lemon Gems. Buttery and lemony — and cute!

Raisin Filled Pockets. I thought I was using the old family recipe this year, but it was different. They’re good, but they flattened out an awful lot.

Chocolate Caramel Delights. Chocolate and Caramel. I have nothing else to say.

Chocolate Dipped Shorbread. I used my fun little “cookie writer” that I previously blogged about here.

Grandma Hill’s Browned Butter Cookies. We’ve had them every year since I was a little girl. And we don’t always wait until Christmas to make them, ’cause we LOVE them.

Angel Slices. Our number one Christmas cookie. They go so fast, we have to make twice as many as the other cookies.

January is going to be extra painful this year. But, it will be SO worth it!

XOXO,
Anna

My Christmas Top Ten*

43 Comments / December 18, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Holidays

10. Hot Chocolate. Thanks to my sweet and fabulous friend Brigette, I can now make a great cup!

9. It’s a Wonderful Life. THE perfect Christmas movie. I cry every time. I hope they don’t make the Miracle on 34th Street mistake of trying a re-make – nothing can top Jimmy Stewart.

8. BIG, old-fashioned Christmas lights. Small and twinkly are pretty, but these are the real deal.

7. Cute, kitchsy stocking stuffers. Jingle bell bracelets were my favorite last year.

6. The Christmas Eve family sleep over with Christmassy pillow cases. All the characters in ThimbleannaLand over there on the sidebar (well, not the Quilty Peeps or Hester) celebrate our Christmas Eve by sleeping at whoever’s house is hosting Christmas (MeMum’s this year!) That way we all share the fun of Santa’s arrival (and rumor has it it’s going to be a good one this year.)

5. The Annual Gingerbread competition. I thought we wouldn’t be able to have it this year because it’s the in-law rotation for TheFirstChild and SweetiePie, but they’re going to pop in on the 23rd. SweetiePie was here two days ago (poor thing had to have a root canal!) and she helped cut and bake all the house pieces, so bring on this year’s competition! And just so you know, MyDadLovesMeBestSister told me last weekend (while I was slaving away on the ladder doing Christmas lights and she was lying around on her bum making fun of me) that SHE has a plan this year and SHE is going to win! (It’s not too late to make your own gingerbread houses — recipe and pattern can be found here.)

4. Holiday music playing while I’m decorating/baking/wrapping.

3. Grandma’s Christmas Bells. A wonderful piece of childhood, now living at our house.

2. Santa Claus. Santa. Claus. When I was a little girl, trying to sleep on Christmas Eve, I peeked out the window and saw his sleigh and reindeer on the neighbor’s roof. Then I heard the bells on our roof. And THEN, I had to squeeze my eyes shut and pretend to be sleeping because HE came to check on me — I saw that pretty white head of hair from my top bunk bed. I DID! Oh the magic!

and, my absolute, Numero Uno…

Christmas Cookies! Bake ’em! Eat ’em! Love ’em! They deserve a post all their own!

Ok, let ‘er rip — give me YOUR top 10!

XOXO,
Anna

*Not counting family, joy filled hearts, the reason for the season and all that other mushy stuff. ;-)

Moving Right Along

32 Comments / December 15, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat, Sewing

Well, how did the weekend go? Did you all get tons of stuff done? My holiday mojo finally kicked in and I got all my decorating done (well, sort of, I scaled back a bit this year) and half of my shopping done. I even had time to help MeMum and BigDaddy with their big Christmas tree. It was lots of fun, although they probably didn’t think I was having fun — I’m pretty slow stringing those lights and it’s not real fun up on the ladder. But, we finished the tree and it’s very pretty!

In between the decorating, I squeezed out a little smock apron for my MIL.

It’s very similar to the one I made for my Aunt last summer. These smock aprons are so comfy and they cover lots of area for sloppy cooks like me — I need to make some for myself!

Also, on Saturday, after a looooong day of shopping, I was super happy to find a Straight, No Chaser special on PBS. If you don’t know about them, they’re a men’s acapella group that met at Indiana University about 10 years ago. They became “famous” on the internet a year or two ago where an exec at Atlantic Records found them and they’ve now made an album (or two.)

You can go here to play a video clip of them singing The Twelve Days of Christmas the song that made them famous. (I sure wish the embed command at YouTube would work with wordpress!) The video clip isn’t the greatest quality and certainly doesn’t do them justice, but it gives you an idea of what they’re all about, if you’ve never heard of them.

Anyway, it was a 90-minute special, well worth the watching. If you’re a Straight, No Chaser fan, I’m sure PBS will repeat it again before the holidays are over (it repeats on Christmas Eve in our area).

Ok…off to bed! Hope you have a great week — fun times are just around the corner!

XOXO,
Anna

Puttering

44 Comments / December 11, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Around the House, Crafting

Just popping in to say hello and Brrrr! It’s COLD out there. Old Man Winter arrived this week and it hasn’t been pretty. We didn’t get much snow, but the wind has been bone-chilling. We’re actually having a heat wave today — it’s 20F (6C) out there now. I’m staying in today!

I didn’t get much done this week – mostly just going to work and trying to stay warm. I did finish one little project. When I was a freshman in college, one of my roommates brought a family book to show us. Her mother had taken all of her five children to see Santa every year and had compiled a book of Santa pictures. I loved seeing their family grow right before my eyes — from the very first little baby on Santa’s lap to five big grown children crowding around Santa for a picture. That book had a big impact on me and I knew I wanted to have one someday when I had a family of my own.

So now, after many years, I finally have one. (Well, two – one for each boy.) It was a lot of work over the years to remember to go and see Santa (we forgot one year — I remembered on Christmas Day and by then Santa is all packed up and resting for the next year). And getting teenage boys to go and sit on Santa’s lap wasn’t easy either, but they’re sweet boys and they don’t like to see their mother cry. They’re very simple books — I didn’t want a lot of embellishments to take away from what’s really important — those Santa pictures. I love looking through them, but it does bring a tear to my eye as I know that having completed books means that the boys are all grown up now. {Very Big Sigh}

Ok. I’m outta here. Must. Decorate. Today. You should see the front porch. The glitter bells are hanging on the front door and the snow frosted pumpkins are on the steps. Classy.

Have a Great Weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Glittered Bells

50 Comments / December 7, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Crafting

Thanks for all the great comments on my cookie bake-off post. I had a great time reading them all and I even got a few new sugar cookie recipes to try – you guys are fabulous. And apparently even Martha read my post, ’cause not twelve hours after I posted, she sent me her sugar cookie recipe LOL. (You can subscribe to get Martha’s cookie of the day e-mail here.)

Anyway, speaking of Martha, did you notice that her December issue had a main cover and two alternates? One of the alternate covers (for me at least, it might have been the main cover in your area) showed two glittered bells, hanging with some greenery.

I looooove Christmas bells, so when I saw them, I knew I’d like to make them. Lucky me, out of all my Christmas decorations, I’ve never had a wreath for my front door, so I killed two birds with one stone. Mine are a little different than Martha’s, but I still think they turned out super cute. You can find all the instructions for making these bells Here.

This was my first glitter experience and I’m hoping for lots more. I love Martha’s glitter — not even close to the type of glitter we used when we were children. And look at Martha’s glitter:

Inquiring minds want to know the purpose of those little metal handles on the glitter container lids. Any ideas? I’m thinking Martha planned ahead — if you decide you don’t like glittering the bells (it’s so fun, I’m not sure how that would happen) you can always hang the glitter on your front door. No???

Before I go, I found two other fun things this week. I got an e-mail with lots of really good cookie links from Woman’s Day recipes. How cute are these peace shortbread medallions? You should snoop around among their cookies — there were some pretty good looking ones! And I thought this fun little gift bag might come in handy during the Christmas season too — you’ll think you have the wrong video, but stick with it.

I hope your Christmas preparations are going well. I’ve done almost no decorations, no shopping and no cards. WooHoo! It will hit me soon and then I’ll be in a panic. Have a good week!

XOXO,
Anna