Scrapbook: Christmas 2011

Sadly, my photos didn’t turn out super great because my lighting situations were pretty horrible.  And shooting wide open creates a really shallow depth of field, so most of them are really blurry and Photoshop can only do so much.  I got a tripod for Christmas, so here’s hoping that might be improved by removing my shaky hands from the equation.

Here are my hammy niece and nephew on Christmas Eve in their Santa jammies.

Christmas Morning at the DMB house…

And the day after Christmas we spent with my Dad’s extended family. (Almost) All 80+ of them.

This is just the third generation.  Well, except for that kid on the bottom right.  He’s my youngest first cousin.  I’d explain the relations further, but I’d just end up confusing you.  Or myself.

But we learned you only need two things for kids to have a blast…

Balls

And a wagon

And when you’re bored playing with them separately…

Just put the balls inside the wagon.  And voila!  New game.

I do have a few more photos to share, but I’ll save them for another day.  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Postmortem

Egad!  Not posting for five days certainly does a number to your traffic stats.  I’m hoping it’s because all you readers are also recovering from a Christmas Hangover.  Not that you’ve written me off.

But I’m back and thought I’d give you a run down of my take aways from this year’s holiday season.  In no particular order of importance…

•  If you think it’s okay to wait several days to go to the pharmacy to pick up the drugs that keep your colon from creating a scene at the Christmas party because you have to go home and bake a thousand more cookies (which you didn’t even actually do), you would be WRONG.  Lesson learned.  I need drugs to survive outside of my bed without a heating pad.

•  It’s okay to skip some traditions.  That includes the ceremonial trip to Santa’s Village.  Although it might not be the strongest of traditions since this is only her third Christmas, I still struggled with this.  Because I am a Type A, we have to finish what we started, kinda gal.  But after last year’s photo, I just wasn’t up to fighting the crowds (and my daughter) to torture her for tradition’s sake.

•  It doesn’t matter how much you plan in advance, there is always that last week before the big day when you are running around covered in marshmallow fluff and mod podge, finishing up 15 handmade gifts, buying last-minute stocking stuffers, and trimming Christmas cards because you failed to measure them before buying envelopes.  Envelopes that you went to six stores to find.

•  Four small children opening presents in a 16×8 space the night before Christmas will lead to anxiety attacks.  There is no avoiding it and no controlling it because it is pure chaos.

•  It’s not always a good thing.  The gingerbread cheesecake was a major fail.  Don’t tell me that something needs to bake for 55-60 minutes when it really takes 90.  Not cool, Martha, not cool.

•  Christmas Day at home is #ROCKSTARAWESOME.  We slept in, leisurely opened presents, threw a pork loin in the crock pot, burned a fake log in the fireplace, and watched football.  I think it was my perfect day.

•  A two-year old’s favorite gifts will include a plastic Hello Kitty hand mirror (which will be shoved into your face 564 times per day), a Dollar Tree plastic microphone (also shoved into your face at a *slightly* lesser rate), and a cardboard box.  I can’t say I’m surprised by her choices.  However, I am surprised that I repeatedly spend months agonizing over the perfect gifts when she’d be just as happy thrown into a dumpster to play with trash.

What did you learn this year?

Merry Christmas

I know you all are anxious to see how the Christmas card turned out…

I hope you’re not disappointed that I didn’t use the lollipop pictures, but I saw an image on Pinterest and had to try my hand at replicating it.

And this is what I ended up with. 

Don’t even ask me how many Starbursts it took to get her to sit still this long.  Matter of fact, she has one in her mouth in the photo.  But after an hour of trying to get her smiling, I was totally satisfied that she had her eyes open.  And may even be a little tickled by the irony of her appearing to be the OPPOSITE of merry.  Because that’s how I roll.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Peanut Blossom Cookies

I did not grow up in a house of bakers.  Unless you count rolls of Pilsbury cookie dough and box brownies. 

So when I began The Cookie Party back in 2001, I’m not certain what drew me to these Peanut Blossoms as my cookie of choice.  Of course they are delicious.  Many cookies are.  Although the combination of peanut butter and chocolate does hold a special place in my heart.

Photo Credit

But they are also a little involved.  The batter is super easy, but then you have to roll them into little balls and coat them in sugar.  Which if you are a little OCD like me, is an arduous process since I obsess if they aren’t all the same size.  And of course there is that little task of unwrapping 48 kisses….

But then there is that gratifying crack as you push the little kisses into the hot-from-the-oven cookies.  And the incomparable bliss of chocolate and peanut butter.  So that makes it all worth it. 

Print

Peanut Blossoms

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  10 mins

Total time:  30 mins

Serves: 48 cookies

 

Ingredients

• 1¾ cup Flour
• ½ cup Granulated Sugar
• ½ cup Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• ½ tsp Salt
• ½ cup Shortening
• ½ cup Peanut Butter (creamy is the only choice for me)
• 2 Tbsp Milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Egg
• 48 Hershey's Kisses

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each
5. cookie.

The Best Place on Earth…

…is not Disney World.  It’s the City Museum in St. Louis.  There really aren’t words to describe how uniquely amazing this place is, but it is a wonderland of kitschy fun for all ages.

Allison in the ball pit at Toddler Town.  (If you look really closely, you might even be able to see Victoria in there, under all the balls.)

And here she is cruisin’ in a bumper car at Beatnick Bob’s.  She was also handing me all the dropped popcorn from the floor of said bumper car.  Yum.