Merry Christmas - This n That

Yuck - look at our weather today. And tomorrow will be 80% rain but the weatherman is calling for a slight chance of rain for our Christmas day (that is so far - subject to change). It is rather warm for this time of year but the cold front is coming down to cool us down over the next day or so.

I hope you all are having a nice day even if the weather is nasty where ever you are. Are you ready for the holiday? This is a busy time of year and with it often comes stress due to just trying to so much. I used to worry about making sure my kids had enough presents of the things they asked for and things I thought they needed. Always thinking are they equal. Wouldn't want to do more for one than the other. My stress consisted of getting dinner on the table. Trying to see everyone I needed to. Since the children are grown I don't worry so much. It is what it is and that is all I can do. And that is how I see it now.

I was thinking of doing something different than the traditional Christmas dinner we ALWAYS have. Was thinking of grilling steaks and all the fixins. Maybe.

I stopped in the local Goodwill and I was happy to find these plates. They will be perfect in my red kitchen when I get it done. I am going to hang them on the wall.

I ended up with lots of pecans this year. Roasted these and they are very good. Melted 1/2 stick of butter, mixed in 1 tea of sugar and poured over the nuts. Sprinkle with salt and bake at 225 for about 30 minutes stirring every 15 minutes. Increase the heat to 250 and bake for 40 more minutes stirring every 10 - 15 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.

I have done lots of baking and candy making this year. Loving the memories that is coming with the baking this year. Haven't done this much since my kids were home and my kids would get in the kitchen and help me out. My butter cookies with the icing on it - well let me say they taste way better than they look. Butter cookies, shortbread and PNB cookies. Butter cookies here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/the-neelys-butter-cookies-recipe/index.html  - Gina and Pat Neely's recipe. Of course Gina has these cute little piggy cut-outs. I sliced mine. Gina loves her little piggys I tell ya. The icing on the cookies is a first for me. The cookies turned out ugly with absolutely not color so I decided to add some. Needless to say it didn't turn out the way I wanted but they taste super good. I flavored each of the three icings with lemon and butternut and third with caramel flavoring. The shortbread cookies here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/shortbread-cookies-recipe/index.html and Ina makes some good cookies. I added butter flavorings to all my cookies in addition to the vanilla.

 Fudge, Martha Washington Balls, PNB fudge, Snowballs.

 Took this sky pic last week and just wanted to share a prettier sky pic than the one at the beginning of this post.

I just had to share my house babies. Sorry about the poor pic quality. These two don't sit nicely for photos. In fact Buddy will hang his head when he sees the camera. go figure.

 This one still doesn't have a name but I think Kitty will do. She answers to Kitty and nothing else - well she does answer when I shake the cat food bag. She is running toward me.

Wishing each and eveyone of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Hope you have the best family time this year. Be safe out there. I will be traveling on Friday and Saturday and I'll be watching my speed. (got pulled over for speeding yesterday and talked my way out of a ticket and got a warning. I was doing some smooth talking too and pleading for him not to spoil my perfect record).