an Alien concept...

 Christmas!

It's been a busy season.  It was a rush, but I did get a couple of Christmas gifts made.  First, this hat/glove set (Beeswax)...a real delight to knit, even if knitting anything with cables automatically doubles the knitting time.

The second was a fun project for Todd.  Our plastic Scrabble tile bag is in shreds, so I decided to make a new one with fun fabric.  This bag was a real challenge for me, since I have a terrible time following written directions and there were several new techniques involved...but...I love the finished product.

The bottom has pleats (!!!) so that it will sit nicely.

It's lined, and has drawstrings at the top to keep the tiles contained.  I love this bag.

A lot of usual Christmas traditions here.  A different-flavored Christmas cookie each night in the week leading up to Christmas, all flavored from a basic sugar cookie dough:

A week of Elf on the Shelf, culminating in one of my favorites...an Alien-themed scene.  Todd and I are huge fans of the (first two) movies, and it didn't take long to stitch the basic Facehugger shape out of felt a couple of days before Christmas Eve.  Our "household Elf" is fairly sinister, so this is a fitting ending for his week!  :)

We watched loads of Christmas movies, spent Christmas day in pajamas, and had some delicious homemade sweet bread.

What we Midwesterners call Mexican Wedding Cakes, but Todd calls Russian Tea Cakes...

A slightly stuffed...but happy!...day!

The kittens loved the huge piles of wrapping paper, although we were infringing on their territory a bit.  They've claimed the floor space by the window, both cramming into a small dog bed there.  It's so sweet, though, that we don't mind a bit.  Kitten love!!

There's quite a lot to see, and always nice to have a snuggle buddy!  It's become the popular hangout spot in the house.  Even Borga wants in on the action!

Just one more day of leisure before we get back to the daily grind.  Temperatures have been cold here, although we missed the big snowfall that other places received.  Still, it was harsh enough outside to keep us inside!

Looking forward to a final vacation day today...tidying up the Christmas mess, eating leftovers, and curling up in front of the fire with a good book.

Hope you had a great holiday season!

snow white

 I had a fairly brilliant idea a few weeks ago.  Someone had once gifted me a Martha Stewart cookie cookbook, and I remembered her bombshell recipe:  one base dough + many varieties of flavorings = a wide selection of different cookies with little effort.  

We're definitely Christmas crazy here.  We've got the tree, the lights, the garlands, the decorations.  Every morning, we have a Christmas music extravaganza while we wake up and move through the daily routine.  We open Advent gifts.  At night, we watch a Christmas movie and do a Christmas reading (since I didn't want to pull a bunch of disjointed selections from the Internet, I decided to use my Little House books.  They celebrate Christmas in each one and they're pure and joyful).  I even simmered oranges and cinnamon in the crock pot for the "Christmas smells."  But what about taste?

There are so, so many things that I'd like to bake for Christmas, but a family of two does NOT need a ton of sweets sitting around.  I love the idea of daily Christmas cookies, though, so I took a base recipe from the Internet, halved it, and winged it.   One dough, split into 6 portions, flavored, and split again.

Daily Christmas cookies for us to eat and enjoy during our nightly Christmas movie...just one cookie each.  No guilt, no regret, and no sugar hangover in the morning.  

I took the 6 portions of the base dough and flavored each differently:  peanut butter chocolate chip, cranberry pecan, chocolate with chocolate chips, pumpkin spice, orange chocolate, and plain chocolate chip.  I split the portions in half so each of us would have a cookie, rolled and wrapped them, and stored in the fridge.  Every night I pull out a different pair, bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees, and enjoy!

It feels like Christmas inside, but outside, not so much.  We still haven't had snow to speak of.  We had about 3/4" one day, and it was gone the next.  But that one day was glorious!

I got to search out animal tracks in the snow, like these little bird tracks:

Deer:

Coyote?

And, um...cat.

I love seeing our neighbor's bright red barns through the trees when it snows.  They're completely hidden in the summer.

I love the summer/winter contrast, like the front garden...from June and December.

You can see that I left several tall stalks standing.  These are for the birds, and "winter interest."  

These almost look like cotton with the snow!

And so...many...birds.

Even without snow, our heavy frosts make beautiful morning pictures:

We're still hoping for a white Christmas, though.  

Have a great holiday season, whether you're gathering around the tree with a group...

...or spending some quiet time alone.  Here's to a great 2021!  It's got to be better than 2020, right?

Enjoy!