Christmas Cookies

Mom and Dad came up Thursday to watch Baylor on Friday.  Mr. Pete had a knee replacement on Tuesday and Mrs. Brenda was off all week. Since they were going to be here we decided to make our Christmas cookies on Saturday.  Friday night as I was cleaning out the back of the baking cupboard I pulled out bag after bag of assorted chips and such.  I filled my largest tub over flowing. I posted on Facebook that I had enough chips to last until the end of the world and since that was happening on Friday I had better get to baking. 

 

 

Saturday morning came soon enough and this was what I saw for most of the day.  That and the oven door. 

 

My helper was eager enough in the beginning because he had requested black (chocolate) Christmas trees for Santa and he was going to help me with them.

 

I bought dish towels last year after Christmas at Target to make aprons for the kiddos and Monday night I whipped out all four of them.  Baylor had to put his on he said because that made us chefs.  I had mine on naturally as did Grandma.  Baylor told her she was a good chef's assistance. 

 

Spiderman even helped to roll out the dough. 

Finally it was rolled out enough to start cutting out trees.  Each tree had a star on the top and were decorated liberally with sprinkles. 

 

We gave Grandma jobs she could do sitting down such as filling cookies or dropping them on the to cookie trays. 

 

After this we were too busy for more photos but we had the oven on for 13 hours, used 4.5 lbs of butter, two bags of flour, a ton of white and brown sugar, over a dozen and a half of eggs.  And when I turned off the oven I still had a dough for the roll out cookies in the fridge.

 

On the plate are Petite Peppermint Sandwiches, Gingerbread Pinwheels, Fudge-filled Irresistible Peanut Butter Cookies, Minty Cocoa Fudge Sandwich Cookies, Snickerdoodle Cookies.  Eggnog Sandwich Cookies, and Chocolate Caramel Cookies.  Also on the plate but made by Mom earlier in the week are Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut-butter cookies, Pecan Sandies, Maple Pecan Cookies, Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

 

And here is the pile up of them.  I took a cookie tray to Nana Heidi's and Steph said she does not have time to make cookies so we hooked her up with two contaniers full.  Lori is going to take a tray to work and I will also.  We will share with the neighbor's for Christmas and then I really want them out of here!!  I like to make them but I don't want them around to eat. 

 

Sunday morning we made the roll out cookies with lots sprinkles. 

 

 

While I was baking Baylor was playing with the truck.  It was a fort, a playhouse, a pirate ship and maybe a few more incarnations I missed out on.  It has a locking arm but it is not fool-proof.  We wedged a wooden hammer in the gap to keep it up for good.  He packed it full of items he needed on his adventures!  

 

 

And I finally remembered to take a picture of the back yard. Nothing going on back there.  Friday is the first day of Winter and possibly the end of the world.  I guess we will see on Saturday! 

Fall

 

I am behind in my fall photos.  Last week I think I just needed a rest after all the October festivites and never got around to it. 

 

Some time last week.

 

 

 

Saturday morning.  We had a hard frost and it was very crisp even at 8 am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trick or Treat

 

With the passing of my grandma so recently and history of  Halloween being a time when the veil between their world our ours lifts, I felt the need to also celebrate the Day of the Dead.  I only decorated one of the paper mache skulls which was harder than I thought it would be.  I could not decide what to put on it.  But I did what I could and tried to have a few items with meaning and mostly decorative items. 

 

 

I put a photo of my grandparents with their dog Girl, or Jenny as she was originally called, and a photo of Lori's sisters and their dog Petey.  We lit the candles and I asked Lori to tell me a memory of her sisters and Petey.  She comes from a family that loves to sit around and tell memories and stories so for her it was easy.  For me, not so easy.  But I managed to come up with memories from when I was young and we had come to PA for vacations.  I lit the candles for two nights but I think we will keep the photos all year.  I know it is good for Lori to talk about her sisters and it is good for me to learn how to share memories. 

 

So here is the back yard today.  The leaves are all down, they are brown and even after a tropical storm, they are still on the ground.  So we will have to mulch them up because I don't like raking them.  I take Grandma's philosophy, why rake them up when they will eventually just blow away. 

 

Heather hosted the Aunt's meeting today and her house looked awesome decorated for Halloween.  She goes for the animated and spooky items and the kids loved it.  And the adults also. 

 

I did not see Baylor unless he was hurt or hungry. Connor and Baylor stopped just long enough to eat chicken corn soup and Baylor also had bacon for extra energy. 

 

 We had to leave a bit early because Trick Or Treat was moved to Saturday at 2-4.  We decided to join Steph and her kids in Nana Heidi's neighborhood.  We went their for his first Halloween when he was almost one.  He had fallen asleep in the car and was not happy awake for the first eight or so house.  He sat on my shoulders and the kids would take his bucket to the house or bring something back for him.  Eventually he was willing to hold the bucket and when I asked him if the thought he might be able to walk himself, he said he would give it a try. 

 

Off he went and was right in the swing of things.  He was very polite and said thank you (at least I heard it when I was listening). 

 

 

 

We had quite a haul by the time we made it back to Nana's house.  We also drove over to Steph's friend's neighborhood to see their daughter's costume.  We hit a few more houses and headed home. 

 

It was a good day and having it in the day light made it easier to keep an eye on the kids.  Baylor loved it and amazingly only wanted to eat one pack of skittles and a peppermint patty.  What a good little boy I have!  Certainly did not get that control from me. 

Our First Halloween Party

My friend's daughter stayed over Friday night to help (mainly with Baylor) and they were a good team working together to move the hay bales and other small projects.

I was busy putting it all together and I really do not know where to start.  So here is the garage door opening with its spooky fringe.  I found most of the ideas on Pinterest. Shocking, I know.  The fringe is black garbage bags that are cut up to the bottom and then lightly stretched.  I am sure Martha Stewart used a heavier gauge trash bag than we did because they were more likely to tear than to stretch. 

The white cabinet that holds pool supplies and other stuff was covered in creepy cloth, paper jack-o-lanterns and a painting canvas. I had three guessing games: the weight of the pumpkin, how many gum balls and how many candy corns in the jars. 

Lori has two work benches in the garage that were perfect for the party.  One was the craft table with paint chip dot art, thumbprint pumpkins, and a few foam craft items. 

 

The other table was the main food table.  We had pulled pork, hot dogs, and mac and cheese made with Halloween shaped pasta I bought on my shopping trip to VA a few weeks back.  I was afraid the shapes would turn to mush in crock pot but when I cleaned out the dried stuff stuck to the sides the shapes were still identifiable. 

We had strawberry lemonade, sodas dressed in spooky labels, water and juice boxes. 

And Scarecrow Crunch snack mix and lots of yummy cupcakes made by Tara and my coworker Danielle. 

I love the eye balls.  They were awesome! 

And I made red velvet cake pops, some with sprinkles and some with eyes. I have never made cake pops before and I made them the old fashioned way with a baked red velvet cake and a can of frosting.  The candy coating cracked on nearly all the pops but there was nothing I could do about that.  The eyes were a gummy lifesaver with a mini chocolate chip pupil. 

 

I had two tables set up.   Both had goodies all down the center of the table.  This one had all kinds of gummy treats including chicken feet, eye balls, bones, snakes, and star fish.  We bought them at a really awesome candy store in Lancaster near my parent's house.  I am not a gummy fan myself but they were a hit with everyone else. 

The other table had cookies of all kinds.

Butter cream filled pumpkins and skulls.  They were Baylor's favorite.

Pumpkins, black cats, spider webs, skulls, bats, and candy corn. I also made small cut out cookies in vanilla, chocolate, gingerbread, and pumpkin pie spice.  The large cookies we made a few weeks ago and put in the freezer until we had time to frost them.

Mom learned how to use royal icing to outline and flood the cookies.  She was invaluable!  I would not have been able to do it all without her help.

There was a small table with the molded chocolates.  We made vampire, alien, and werewolf teeth.

And all kinds of lolly pops and some flat candy ghosts and a BOO!  Fortunately these keep really well so I was able to work on them for several weeks and keep them in a cool place until the party.

The games were pretty much all outside on the driveway.  I had labels and treats at everyone so everyone could play at their own pace.  If you did the trick, you earned a treat. I put candy and little toys inside the labeled cans. Thankfully my slight hoarding problem worked out in my favor.  My nephew buys whey powder in huge containers and I have been stashing them away for a few months because you never know when you will need a huge plastic bottle.  And I used them all plus the two he had downstairs that were empty.

We had the can toss that had bean bags to toss into the cans to earn the treat.

We had a bat bean bag toss and a pumpkin bean bag toss.. I made them both card board slip sheets from work.  They were just the right size for making the games.  I used boxes glued to the back to hold them up and catch some of the bean bags that did not get tossed into the garden.  

A bucket toss with light up eye ball bouncy balls that ended up all over the place.

We had ping pong balls on golf tees that we knocked down with a squirt gun. The guns were being used to squirt other kids too and it caused a few upset party goers.

This game used dart guns and painted plastic cups.  The guns were also a bit of a problem and I know I did not pick up all the darts in the yard. 

And I had an I Spy Corn bin with a list of things to find in the corn.  It was a big hit with all ages.   Tara has a really good photo of the boys playing in the bin.  I did not take as many photos as I thought I would but hosting a party, even a play as you want party, it still a lot of work and did not leave much time for photos.  Next year maybe I will hire my friend Mark to take the pictures!

There was a Witch Pitch which was a black witch's hat with small cauldrons sitting on it.  You had to toss candy corn into the cauldrons. 

There were several scavenger hunts.  One was a large jointed skeleton that I took apart and hid his bones around the yard.  By the end of the party he was all back together.  There was a witch hunt.  I made copies of three little witch images and Robin and I planted them all over the place.  The kids could turn them in for extra candy or toys from the treat cans. 

The first half of the party was for my friends with kids Baylor's age and then later Gavin's friends showed up and it was chaos after that.  Which was fine and exactly what I wanted.  And it gave me some time to sit and talk to my friends. 

Steph's whole family was there: her sister Ann, Nana Heidi,Pop pop Robin, Cheryl, Robin, and their three kids, and Kristia and Ethan.  I offered to start a fire for them but they did not want to be responsible for it.  It was a gorgeous fall day that was not too cool and certainly not hot.  But a fire would have been awesome. 

Ethan borrowed Baylor's first costume, a little monkey. 

Riley came over from next door.  She let Robin and Lily paint her whole face.  Most of the little kids got small things on their hands.  The girls set up their face painting shop in the playhouse. 

Cullen was a transformer, I think!  Lucas was a frog but you will have to check out Tara's blog again to see him.  Again, did not take enough photos. 

Brigid was her cute adorable self!  And I fed her lots of cookies and one cake ball.  And some mac and cheese and pork. 

Connor was there of course and had a good time with all the kids.

Danielle brought her daughter Addison and her nephew Darren.  They had fun with the kazoos!

Baylor was a farmer, super easy because he had thermal shirts and overalls.  And he was barefoot, as was I, for the entire time. It takes us a while to switch over to wearing shoes and socks!   

The bigger boys climbed the tree behind the playhouse.  I think there were 5 or 6 boys in there at one time.  They boys loved it and I am sure the tree did too.  Baylor is excited to learn how to climb trees and it is good to see they are good trees to climb. 

We, I, made these milk jug ghosts for the porch.  My neighbor was very kind and brought me her empty containers because we would never have been able to collect that many at our house.  We never buy milk in a gallon, it would go bad before it was a third gone.  We had the doorway to the basement decorated with the black fringe and the downstairs bathroom had a wood pumpkin with orange lights on it and a few other items to decorate it. 

Since the drive way was full of games and was roped off at the end, everyone parked in the field behind the house.  The wagon was useful in toting stuff to cars.  Tara was the last to leave, (thank you for staying and helping out!), and I hollered over for her to come in the driveway and afterward I remembered she had the wagon.  It did not take long for me to see she had that covered!  I was so proud of her! 

By 6 Baylor and I had picked up all the trash we could find, put away all the yard equipment that was parked behind the garage and gone inside to have some much needed quiet cuddle time. We watched Madagascar 3 (which I love!) and Baylor fell asleep at 6:30. I stayed up until the movie was over, got ready for bed and was asleep by 8.  Was it a lot of work? Yup. Was it worth is? Absolutely.  Will I do it again? See you next year! 

And the back yard, well the leaves are nearly all down.