One of Those Wonderful Nights

Today was spent at home.. I made this weekends lunches and dinners up and did some cleaning.. just a lazy day. Then tonight Dave and I headed into town for the Shop East Stanwood.. I had read about it in the local paper.. it promised carolers, twinkling lights and in house specials. Well it was said to be from 4 to 7.. we drove through at 5 and there were no people or twinkling lights.. the carolers were there but not playing.. we thought maybe it was slow to get going.. we went up the street and had some dinner... we did good and we split a small sampler tray.. had two Huge glasses of water each. Then back to to the shopping area.. found a spot right on the street... because there really was no one there around :( The carolers had gone, learned it was to cold for them and their instruments. It was nice though.. we walked in and out of the shops.. visiting with the shop owners.. all of them had trays of cookies and snacks and tea and hot chocolate.. we were good and said no thank you! At the end of the street is Stanwood Cupcakes and they had just locked their door and shut off their lights.. but when they saw us peeking in they opened up and I am so grateful. I was able to get the gift certificates for my mail lady and garbage man for Christmas... and for the first time I was able to try their cupcakes... I had the Chocolate Ganache and Dave had the Chocolate Peanut Butter...they were wonderful. Just the perfect amount of sweet and flavors and the cake was just how we like it. They are truly the perfect little treat! We visited the Frame shop.. which is the friendliest place in town... They not only have a lot of work by a lot of local artists.. but they have a selection of English treats.. candies and jams and teas... We go there to pick up treats for Dave's dad.. and for us too :) They have the sweetest dogs in the shop too.. every time I am there they saw hello and I just want to spend hours playing with them. Another place we love in that area is the SnowGoose Bookstore .. it is one of those shops that you walk into and you just feel right at home.. our only problem is that we always find a lot more books than we can afford :)

We took the long way home and drove around talking, holding hands some more and looking at Christmas lights. When we got home the house was all lite up with our lights and the fireplace had everything all warm inside. Friends stopped by and visited for a bit and it was just a very wonderful day/night.

Santa Needs to Hold His Horses

While reading blogs this morning I came across a friends post about Rushing the Holidays and I decided to add my two cents here. I am loving all the cartoons this year that are going around about this subject.

Back in September, before the kids were even back in school.. I walked into Costco and was surrounded with Christmas. I remember just standing there sort of amazed. It was finally warm after a very mild summer and they were already pushing Christmas. Not cool in my book!

We do not do much for the holidays.. never have... doubt we ever will. I am not big on the present things... never did the Santa thing at our house.. not while growing up or while raising my kids. I am not a big religious person but I do believe that this holiday is so unrelated to what it should be representing... people getting trampled on black Friday in their search for saving a buck and yet buying the coolest presents... people stressed out and fighting about who is going where on Christmas eve and Christmas morning.

Stressed.... does anyone.. ANYONE... manage to make it from Halloween to Valentines without being stressed out? We do nothing for the holidays and yet they always come with stress. Growing up there was always a fight or bad attitude on Christmas day... added to that it was always too hot at grandmas house and someone ( yes most often me ) ate too much and ended up with a tummy ache. All in all I have wonderful holiday memories.. don't get me wrong.... but looking back... so much stress. Then as an adult... when my children were babies.. I did the same thing only worse to my kids.

Last year... my oven was not working for Thanksgiving so we bought a pre made dinner from the local grocery store... there was only a couple of us here... it was fine.. not home made and awesome by any means... but it was good and it was super easy.. and lot less stress.. ordered it and then picked it up. Then Christmas was pretty awesome... we did NOTHING!! We stayed in our jammies all day I think... got up late.. ate some cinnamon rolls... watched lots of movies... maybe worked in the shop a bit... but we were super lazy.... I had told my son he could stop by since he had no other plans.. and he was so sweet he called first.. well I was being too lazy and did not even get his message so he did not come over.. that part made me sad... I would have loved to have had him visit.

I do not want to ever put my kids in a situation where they have to schedule around us... they are growing up and having relationship that come with whole other families.. right now there are no grand kids but someday there will be.. and everyone wants to see the grand kids. Well my parents did something wonderful ( I think ) for Christmas with us.. when the kids were little they did the Christmas morning thing for us all.. but it started to get too stressful..with too many schedules... so they moved Christmas to a week or two later. This has so many advantages... one.. no stress... no schedule conflicts... awesome!! Two... after Christmas shopping sales... everyone knows what everyone got and did not get and we can go shopping and hit all the great sales.. I know they are rumored to be after Thanksgiving but after Christmas is really the time to go... the stores know you will be there returning stuff anyway so they put up the end of the year sales to entice you even more :)

Last year I had my kids over after the new year... it was so relaxed... I just picked a day and called them up.. told them they could stop by any time between noon and 5... everyone brought a snack and we all just spent the day visiting and catching up. I think I want to do something like that again this year... no stress.. no mess. I will just pick a day and invite everyone.. they can stop by and visit or not. Can bring a snack but no presents... until there are little kids... and just a nice relaxing fun day with family and friends. A great way to start our New Years

And back to topic... geesh I can ramble like no one else in the world! I think that if we start planning this now it might work so I am going to share with you all and see who is on board with me. One way to avoid all this holiday stress would be... to avoid this set of holidays... I am thinking we can put in a big custom order for Bunny hats I have also seen bunny ears in her shop... and as soon as the 4th of July is over we start wearing them while out shopping.. and we keep asking all the clerks for plastic eggs and Easter grass... Yeah I know it won't work... but it might be fun :) I know I just linked to her shop with the bunny hats.. but... seriously.. if you have little kids.. or grand kids... my friends shop is so much fun... Knees and Paws Kids love to use their imagination and they love to dress up and play.. and that is what her shop is all about! NO stress just fun!

Happy Valentines Day

I wanted to make something fun for Valentines day... when the kids were little I would make a few (like 6 to 10) dozen cupcakes and invite all their friends over. Sit them all around the table where there are bowls of different frostings and sprinkles and let them all have at it. I remember kids stacking cupcakes with layers of frosting.. and kids just eating their cupcakes.. and sometimes just eating the sprinkles or the frosting. Lots of good fun memories. I always had so many kids running around that it was about how many I could make. When it came to cookies they could eat them as fast as I pulled them out of the oven. That and sneaking bites of cookie dough. I would have to triple or quadruple the recipes.

I made a cake this weekend... had not been thinking about Valentines day, I had just wanted cake... so I wanted to do something different today. I made big soft old fashioned sour cream sugar cookies and had printed out a friends recipe for butter cream to frost them with. Was just getting ready to mix up the frosting when my friend posted on facebook that she had just made the best butter cream frosting ever... she was sweet enough to email me a copy of it real quick and I gave it a try.

The frosting was so easy to make... I had to make a few changes as I only made half a batch and did not have the cream so just used milk. I added a bit of food coloring to it because I wanted pink and then I did a tiny bit of almond flavoring with the vanilla. This recipe will be used many more times.... even though I only made half a recipe I had a bunch left over.. I put it in a zip lock bag and put it in the fridge.. not sure how it will hold up but I only made 2 dozen cookies. I will update on that in a day or two when I make some cupcakes to put it on :)

*update on the frosting keeping* it keeps like a charm.. I scooped all that was left into a ziplock bag and stuck it in the fridge... pulled it out a couple of days later... sat it on the counter for a short bit... massaged the bag a bit and nipped off the corner and put it on some cupcakes.. looked great and tasted wonderful! Sorry no pictures... everyone was eating them as fast as I could frost them.

Here is the link to the frosting recipe, along with some beautiful cupcakes, recipe is at the bottom of this post ~ Butter Cream Frosting at Java Cup Cakes

Here is the cookie recipe

Old fashioned sour cream cookies

This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe... well one of them! This one is really easy and always taste great.

Mix together

1/2 cup ( one cube ) softened butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla *you could add a little dash of peppermint too if you wanted*
1 egg

add in

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Today I wanted to make heart cookies so I scooped out some dough and using floured hand I patted it flat on a floured sheet until I had them as thick as I wanted them and then used the heart cookie cutter. You can also just roll into a ball and then roll in sprinkles and press flat onto the cookie sheet. The cookies do not get any bigger when they bake.. so don't make them too flat. I like them pretty thick and soft. I bake them in the oven at 350 for about 7 minutes.. I watch them pretty close.. I do not want the edges to start turning brown.. then they can get a bit crunchy.. still good.. but I like mine softer.

~Michelle

Merry Christmas

Well the tree is up and that is it for this year. We set up the tree and decided that instead of opening up any of the hundreds of Christmas boxes in the shed we would just buy a couple of boxes of ornaments and some candy canes.. then we strung some popcorn.. first time we have ever done that and I loved it.. was a bit more time consuming than I had thought it would be.. but it was fun and sort of romantic.

Last year we did thousands of lights in the yard and on the house.. and decorated everything in the house.. all the rooms including the bedrooms. This year we are keeping it really simple.. just the tree. Three of the 5 kids have moved out and the other two are close to it... and they are all doing big things with the other side of the family.. so Dave and I have decided to just keep it simple.. maybe sneak away just the two of us and hide for a day or two.

Next year the plan is to double what we did last year and have a big 3 day open house party type thing... if that plan does not change it should be a lot of fun.. and you are all invited :)

Mt Baker and a Christmas Parade

Saturday we bundled up both the kids ( 17 and 16 year olds, they do not really get "bundled" but I do have to remind them to bring a change of socks and to throw some boots in the back and bring a warm coat) into the jeep and headed out in search of adventure. I had not been tuned in much of the last week to anything local and had no clue that our very own town of Stanwood was going to be having an all day Christmas adventure of its own and it sounds like we missed a really good time. Next year I want to be sure and check that out.

This weekend we headed north.. then some east... and ended up driving to the top of Mt Baker. Lots of snow and it was so sunny that it was just a beautiful drive up the mountain. Everything was covered in snow and shinning, it was so pretty.

We then headed to Lynden, which is a dutch town really close to the Canada border.

Dave had read about a Christmas parade they had with semi trucks and tractors all lite up with Christmas lights. We got there at 5 and the parade was scheduled to start at 6. The roads were all blocked and a few people were sitting in chairs getting ready. It was dry but a bit windy and very cold. Not as many of the shops were opened as I would have liked to have seen.... but there was a bakery... we got some cookies and rum balls and hot cocoa.. wandered around some more.. a place was giving out small cups of soup and there were other places with hot cocoa and cider. by 6 the sidewalks were full and we found a spot to stand and watch the parade while enjoying our treats.

It was very small town feeling with lots of people and lots of floats in the parade. Fire trucks and police cars and semi trucks with big trailers covered in lights. Lots of different kinds of tractors with lots of lights. It was very pretty and well organized. One thing that it was lacking was some interaction with the crowd. Watching all the little kids out there freezing and yet so happy and excited for each of the new floats to drive past, waving and waving with huge smiles on their little faces. Then only one or two of the floats had people that walked along beside them.. a couple of the drivers waved but they were paying attention to driving. I understand that the days of throwing candy from the floats is past... it is just not safe to have kids running around in the road near the floats.. but I was sad to see even the floats with the people on them... not interacting more with the little kids... Grab a couple of local high schoolers and have them walk along with each float... wave to the kids... say hi... smile at them, maybe hand out candy canes.

All in all it was a wonderful time and I look forward to visiting the town again when it is not so crowded.... I wanted to try everything in the bakery and there were a few shops who's windows we could peek in that I think would be great to visit when they are open. Well worth another trip at some point.

On the way home we stopped and did the weekly grocery shopping and picked up pizza for dinner.... came home and watched a little tv with the kids and it was a fun relaxing day.

~Michelle