December 15th ~ Elf Day

This is the sign that greeted us as we arrived to pick out our Christmas tree this past Sunday.  We had to wait until Kelsey was back in the fold so all of us could go out together and bring home the chosen one. The Christmas tree blog too will have to wait, for it sits in it's stand with the lights and ribbon on but no other adornments. Midterms are this week and again by orders of the kids, no ornaments can be hung unless they are all involved. So on that note...we shifted gears and had Elf Day today. 

No, we are not doing what you are thinking. Since Cameron is 12, he is past the point of falling hook, line and sinker for Elf on the Shelf. I do believe from what I have seen on Facebook that Mr. Elf is going strong, and some parts of me wish that my crew were young enough to follow his every move...other parts are very thankful that I do not have to remember to change his position every night and think up creative spots in which he would appear. Trust me, after being the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa for the last 22 years, poor Cameron (the youngest)  heard some bizarre excuses for waking up in the am to find that the tooth fairy had forgotten about his newly lost tooth...yet again. Add it up, five kids times approximately 20 teeth lost a piece equals one hundred nights of remembering, finding the dollar, spraying it with hairspray so the "fairy dust" would stick and then sneaking into the room to find the itty bitty tooth in the dark, under their pillow without waking them. Another one of those thankless jobs we as parents do, for we give all the credit to someone else! When they are old enough to realize that they have been mislead, they are usually too cool for school and would never think of thanking you for those many dollars nor the lost sleep. It will all come back to them when they have kids.  Did you know that the tooth fairy flies by the seat of her pants? That she cannot fly on windy nights, nor nights with snow, rain or the lack of moonlight?  She is scared of cats, dogs and mice. She also frequently runs out of fairy dust and she cannot possibly fly without it. If you need excuses as to why she did not come at your house...call me. 

Being a stationery lover and and a lover of writing notes, I WOULD fall for this beautiful little book of letters that I found and ordered for the Barn Sale. 

It will take you through three years

of your child communicating with his/her own family elf...aka...you. There are some wonderful activities in the book and I love all of Sugar Boo Designs stationery products. 

Love this large notebook pad of paper with beautiful thoughts printed on the bottom. We also have 100 Thoughts for my Child pads as well. 

I am a sucker for handwritten calendars, lists, notebooks and journals and especially ones with a vintage feel! Sorry to have digressed...where was I? Oh yes, Elf Day. Since I just announced that we do not do Elf on a Shelf or write notes back and forth to our family elf, what activity do we do that brings elves into our house that is appropriate for the age of our kids?

We pick names out of a hat and you are an elf for the person that you pick. You secretly do nice things for that person and try to not let them know who is their elf. The kids have thought up all sorts of things, from making the bed to leaving candy on that same bed to doing the chore of their selected person. It is a simple activity but adds a little Christmas joy to each day.

In joyful merriment~

Meg

December 12th ~ 14th Candy Cane Day/ Theme Thursday and Making ready for Kelsey's arrival

Three days all rolled into one blog~

Doesn't it seem like the days of December pass much more quickly than those of other months?

It is now December 14th and it seems like I blinked on the 12th and here I am on the 14th...the very tail end of it at that!

We froze our little keisters off up in the barn during our Theme Thursday on the 14th. Thank you to all of you who came out to see us and froze yours off as well! We love the company and at one point my partner Chris said to me, "We must be really passionate about what we do here to work in an ice cold barn for hours." It took me the evening to thaw out and then I woke up and it was the 13th...Friday the 13th. 

A couple of months prior, part of our daughter's ceiling fell down due to unseen leaks coming in through the chimney. Old houses have a way of sneakily falling apart over the years and then letting you know their state in one fail swoop, or in this case, one "fall" swoop. When Kelsey was complaining about her windowless basement bedroom during her semester abroad, I cheered her up by sending her this picture...that was in Septmeber. I have no idea why construction projects always come down to the wire, but they do and this one was no different. So...Friday the 13th was the mad dash day to get the almost finished bedroom put back together before the aforementioned daughter returned home from her semester the next day. There was a lot of pressure here due to the many dropped comments about so looking forward to being back in her bedroom. "Mom, I can't WAIT to sleep in my own bed!"

I have a knack of thinking I can get 140 things done in one day...don't we all? Well I think I did today and none of them were centered on Christmas...at least not overtly. A myriad of other occurrences happened during the day that kept pulling me away from my task at hand and made me doubt my lack of believing in "Friday the 13th." When my husband called later in the day to tell me that he thought he heard gushing water out by the chicken coop when he had left earlier that morning and could I check it for it might be a burst pipe, I am sure that the manic laughter that he heard on my end might have alarmed him.

Midway through putting the room back together, the hay delivery showed up. Shoot...did I schedule that for today? What the heck was I thinking? After tucking two hundred and thirty bales of hay safely under the eaves with the help of my strapping son Christopher, it was time to pick up two other sons. Sometimes don't you wish school ended at 6? Only sometimes? 

Just enough time to put a few more things back in the room, jump in the shower and stick some chicken nuggets and fries in the oven before my husband and I got in the car and drove up to my husband's home town to visit his childhood friend who had just lost his father suddenly. Talk about a dose of reality and beauty at the same time to bring home the point that family and friends ARE everything. As we watched this family along with close friends support each other, celebrate their dad's life and mourn his passing, it made all the little annoyances of the day fade and brought home, yet again, the fragility of all of our lives. 

Back home we drove to awaken the next morning and pull it all together. As we awaited the anticipated snow and our daughter's flight, we all pitched in and got it all done. The bedroom, the removal of everything that is not going back in, the stacking of the wood to keep the fire burning, a homemade dinner and notes to their returning sister. 

Since it was Candy Cane Day, they laughed at their prior candy cane works of art

enjoyed Trader Joes' Joe- Joe's, their favorite 

and we topped it all of with a full family viewing of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. That has not happened in years and I think they all realized that you are never to old...

for a lot of things!

As we all fell asleep under one roof again...I know that I was smiling for 

"Life truly is good."

Meg

Shoot...I forgot to get the boys haircuts and we are taking our Christmas card picture tomorrow. Oh well, you can't win em all!

Homemade Sweet and Savory Treats

We had a little way lay with the scheduled Advent activities with the arrival of some snow and a wholeheartedly welcome snow day! Love them! 

We are back on track until the next unannounced guffaw happens and we will adjust our sails again. Since our Theme Thursday in the barn today was Homemade Edible Treats we spent yesterday making goodies and then decoratively packaging them. Do you think I picked this theme for the Barn Sale for a reason? Every year, I love to give some homemade goodies. This gave me an excuse to get the project done well before the night before Christmas. Only one of my kiddos helped out on this one due to school schedules and the fact that they were still sleeping when I got up at 4 this am to finish. I thought waking them at that hour would be a bit unkind.

I have attached recipes to some of my favorites at the end of the Blog and took some pictures of the finished packaging. All of the ideas can be done quite easily and you can adapt them and the packaging to whatever "floats your boat."

Once I have made all the recipes that I have chosen, I put them in airtight containers to keep them fresh. I then package them to give as gifts. Before I start to package, I gather all the supplies that I think I might use. I collect jars that we have reused and tags, ribbon and embellishments that we either sell in the barn or that I find at the after Christmas sales. I always stock up then. I put it all in one place so that it is readily accessible.

This year I focused in on two color patterns; traditional red and green with a vintage feel and

silver, white and cardboard.

Bakery boxes make great packaging for Chocolate Bon bons that have been prepared in candy paper wrappers. Printed recipe cards give the recipient something she/he will be sure to be asking for once they bite into these goodies.

Once the boxes are filled they can be decorated in a multitude of ways. Here I used silver sparkle yarn and printed tags that I made from a vintage image I love.

Papare tape serves two purpose, it both seals the box and does it in a beautiful way. We have a couple of boxes of these Cavalini paper tape rolls available in the barn!

Nestled inside these cardboard decorative food boxes that I got at Michael's last year, after Christmas is a batch of homemade double hot chocolate mix. Paper lunch bags also make a cute package if you put the hot chocolate mix in a cellophane bag first and then set it in the lunch bag, fold over the top, punch a double hole in the top and run a ribbon through to close it.

Ball jars or leftover jars that you have kept and cleaned make easy to decorate containers for the mix as well topped with mini marshmallows. You can also add crushed candy canes for color and flavor. I used a cardboard gift tag that happened to fit the lid attached with foam stick dots to snazz it up. A cardboard tag edged in glitter makes the label that is attached with double sided tape.

If you make the hot chocolate mix, be sure to cover some plastic spoons with melted chocolate and give  with the mix as stirrers. When the chocolate melts, the mini marshmallows that are nestled in the chocolate on the spoons, float in the hot chocolate. You can also sprinkle crushed candy cane on the spoons as well.

I hope you can use some of the recipes to make some treats this Christmas season! If you do, make sure to give me a shout and let me know how they turn out.

Happy Baking!

Meg

Scampi Butter

1 stick butter, slightly softened
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper

1. In a med bowl, with wooden spoon, beat butter, parsley, garlic, lemon peel, salt and pepper until blended. Pack into a small crock suitable for gift giving and refrigerate overnight until firm. Seal with plastic wrap and give as a gift with a pound of pasta. Use within a week or freeze.
2. To freeze: Transfer butter to a piece of plastic wrap; shape into a log about ! inch in diameter. Cut butter roll into 1/4 inch slices. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap; freeze up to 3 months. You can freeze entire roll and let the recipient freeze it.
3. To use as a baste for chicken, fish, or vegetables, simmer scampi butter over low heat about 2 minutes to blend flavors.

*Can use any choice of herbs and mix into butter to flavor it

Hot Cocoa Mix (yields 19 1/2 cups hot cocoa mix)
 This is a great class activity to do with a young group of kids for a Holiday party. You can all it snowman soup and add marshmallows.

1 box (1 pound 10 oz.) nonfat dry milk (8 cups)
4 cups sifted confectionary sugar
2 jars flavored nondairy creamer (16 oz. total)
1 jar nondairy creamer (11 oz)
1 box chocolate milk mix (1 pound)
1/2 tsp. salt

In a VERY large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Store in an airtight container. Give w/ serving instructions and package in either canning jars or paper or cellophane bags. Decorate!
To serve:
Stir 3 heaping Tbls. into 6 oz hot water and stir.

Chocolate Covered Spoons and Candy Canes

Prep time 5 mins

2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels

wax paper
extras : mini marshmallows, crushed candy canes, choc chips

1. Place morsels in a microwavable bowl.
2. Microwave and heat on defrost or the low setting for 30 seconds.
3. Remove and stir until smooth.
* you might have to put back in if not totally melted but only heat for 20 seconds at a time or you can over heat

Dip spoons into mixture and place on wax paper to dry. While still wet, place a couple of mini marshmallows in the spoon part and let dry or any other topping of your choice



Merry Marshmallows

1/3 cup cold water
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 water
1/4 cup corn syrup
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp.vanilla extract
confectioners sugar
colored sugar

1. Pour 1/3 cup cold water into a large mixing bowl, sprinkle gelatin over it and set aside.
2. Combine the sugar, 1/4 cup water, corn syrup and salt into a med saucepan over med heat, stirring until dissolved. Stop stirring and heat the mixture until it boils and reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Carefully pour the hot syrup over the gelatin mixture and beat with an electric mixer on high speed for 12 minutes. Blend in the vanilla extract, then scrape the batter into a 9 by 13 inch pan lightly coated with cooking spray.
3. Let the marshmallows sit until they are dry to the touch (this may take up to 12 hours depending on the humidity in your area). Invert the pan onto a cutting board dusted with the confectionary sugar. Pour the colored sugar onto a plate or a shallow dish,* then use 2 inch cookie cutters to cut marshmallow into shapes. Press the top of the marshmallow into colored sugar. Store in an airtight container. MAkes 24 2 inch marshmallows.

* you can skip using the cookie cutters and just cut them into squares.

Cereal's Sweet Side (Homemade bonbons)

6 oz of chocolate chips or chocolate melts
4 cups cereal (Cornflakes work well)

Melt chocolate until soft about 30 seconds, stir in micro and melt for another 10 seconds until pourable. Do not over melt or the whole batch will stick together.
Stir in 4 cups of cereal.
Drop tablespoons of mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing them 1 inch apart.
Refrigerate until set.
Place in paper candy cups, and arrange in a box with tissue paper. Tie with a bow.

December 8th ~ The Christmas Village

Tonight was the night to turn Chris' office into our Christmas Village. I know, it sounds like a strange place to assemble a lit up village of glass houses and fake snow. As the years have passed and the houses have accumulated, we needed a large flat open space that could hold the transformation. Thus entered the tops of the bookshelves in the office. This project is done almost entirely by the boys and Chris. Each one has their say in where the perfect spot is for the city assemblage and the country one as well. You can't very well have Santa's workshop that is supposed to be in the North Pole right next to the Fire Station and you can't have Farmer Brown's cows in the streets of NYC! I just thought I would show a couple of shots of the finished project. Which by the way, takes a couple of hours to complete. The boys, including the hubby, all seem to have poor attention spans as they start the project like gangbusters and then wander in and out of the room as they loose steam, adjusting and moving objects around as they filter in and out. 

Finally it is complete...the connections are made and the bookshelf becomes a snowy winter wonderland!

Of course the boys all have their particular roles. There is the set designer, the technician, the overseer and the clown who hangs people upside down out of the windows. Come on...you did not think that four boys would neglect to hang somebody out of the window now did you? I was just thankful it was not each other!

It does look very pretty at night when the lights are on with the cotton snow. We choose that originally for it hides the wires fabulously. Pain in the neck to take down and clean up but very effective now.

Even the farm animals are assembled at the right spot.

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!

Charles Dickens

May you all experience a little bit of your childhood days this Christmas season!

Meg

December 7th ~ Greens and Garlands

So many memories of my Christmases past involve the scent of the evergreen. It is synonymous with the season and I love to breathe in the scent of it at this time of year as well as to adorn anything I can with it. Wreaths, garlands, sprigs, branches, trees...you name it! Most of the bountiful branches I cut from trees. The garlands and wreaths I purchase at Produce Junction, the most inexpensive place around to get them.

Today we adorned whatever we could with greenery. Shortly thereafter, nature added her own little sparkle in the form of snow to make things even more beautiful.

You can hang wreaths in a variety of ways but this year I am hanging some of them with a roll of upholstery ribbon. I love the texture of it against the greens and the small stripe of blue. We got the rolls of ribbon in for the Barn Sale and I have had a hard time keeping my hands off of them.

I still hung some with my traditional burgundy bows.

Other areas I adorned with white, another one of my favorite combinations with the green of the pine.

I Love using a variety of ribbons with garland.

Cut branches of pine can be tucked in almost anywhere. Add a few pinecones and nature's bounty does all the work!

Greens can even fill a vintage red box atop an antique sleigh.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Meg

December 6th ~ Christmas Cards

Ah...the proverbial Christmas card. That is my Advent activity for the day. Not taking the picture nor writing them but crafting a fun Christmas card holder that you can use to festively display the beautiful cards that you receive at this time of year. One of my favorite activities of Christmas is picking out and then writing the Christmas cards. Before photo cards took over, I used to spend hours at various card stores to pick out the right combination of verse, design and overall feeling that the card conveyed. I still do that but it has changed somewhat with the stress of first taking the " perfect" family picture. Come on, admit it...Haven't we all yelled, "Smile!" through gritted teeth as Tommy engages Johny in a strangle hold for the tenth time? Dressed the kids up in matching outfits at least once to hear their wines and groans about why they had to look like this? That is for another blog.

Clothespins...love these little guys. They are totally functional but can be dressed up as well, if needed, to do the job.

To give them some glam with glitter, spread them out on a sheet of wax paper and line them up. 

Use a can of spray adhesive and spray it on 5 or 6 clothespins at a time. (It dries quickly)

Pour glitter of your choice on top of the clothespin and shake off excess onto wax paper. Repeat until they are all covered. Once finished with the whole batch, spray a sealer on top to set the glitter and you are all set. Clean up is easy using the wax paper. I take the clothespins off once dry and then pour the unused glitter back into the container. 

!Words of caution...whenever using glitter please check the face area before going out in public, it has its way of sticking there with the owner of said face unaware of its presence.)

Here I put the clothespins in these simple little muslin bags and topped them with a finished clip to alert you to what color was inside the bag. Now what does this have to do with the Christmas card you ask?

Tie a length of twine onto the bag and attach a stamped tag and you have a ready made Christmas Card hanging kit! They make cute little gifts and we have them here at the barn. Just string the twine across your doorway and you have a place to clip those beautiful," tons of effort used to produce those buggers"...Christmas cards on.

Joy to the World!

Meg

December 5th ~ Entertaining

Ahem...remember when I said in the opening Blog about not sweating it if your schedule of Advent activities gets thrown out of kilter?  Ours just did, for the barn was open last night for a fundraising event for the Scholarship Fund Program of our alma matter, Catholic University. Our original Advent day activity was going to be Evergreen Day but there was no time for evergreens after school so the kids went without, (I think they will be fine)! I switched my topic to Entertaining since that was the focus of my day yesterday and will be the focus of your day at some place and time during this month. 

I thought I would start off with the table which I think is where you should always start when planning a gathering. There are a number of questions you should ask yourself that will get things going for you.

1. How many people are you having and will it be a sit down or a buffet?

2. Based on that info, where will you be eating? What kind of table do you have and do you need to bring in any additional seating?

3. Is there a theme or a color scheme that you would like to use? That can be based upon what kind of dish ware, linens and the like that  you already own. Will you be using paper or plastic?

4. What linens do you have that you can use? Do they work with your color scheme? Based on your color scheme or theme start pulling things out of your cabinets that might work as a centerpiece. I always start that way and work my way out.

In this instance, the party was being held in the barn. The large area, high ceilings and long table allow for large and dramatic centerpieces. They actually have to be or they would get lost in the cavernous space. One thing I love to use are  lamp shade frames that you can tower and make into tiers of different levels of interest.

Here I placed one large lamp shade on the table and then added a square tray on top with a smaller sized lampshade and then another rectangular tray to form the top tier. I then cut greens and placed them on the tray along with silver balls and a reindeer or two. As you can see I did not use a table cloth on this table because I love the bare wood of the old farm table. I use paper runners that cover just the center and give it a pop. That is how I came up with the color scheme of the silver/ grey/ white and green with a natural base.

Given the largeness of the centerpiece, I felt that it needed flanking materials that were equal in size. I pulled two of the outside urns and filled them with assorted cut greens and snow covered branches (fake). You can spray your own with white paint and then either a can of fake snow or glitter spray. Add a few pine cones here and there and you are all set.

This is the table in full but it was set up for a previous party and some of the objects sold. Everything in our displays are for sale so they change on a day to day basis. (Except for the lamp shade bases which I have not been able to find more of so if anyone has a source...please let me know!)

I LOVE to cook and come up with menus, but when hosting these events, there is only so much you can do so...here comes in my caterer friend Loraine. Her cooking is to die for and we work really well together as a team with staging and presentation. She will let me incorporate my crazy ideas of using chairs and lamp shades as food presentation pieces.

My point in showing you this chair set up is that you can use anything you have on hand if you think outside the box!

I like to print the menu on something if it is going to be a large gathering. This prevents numerous questions of what each dish is. Chalkboards are great for this and so are these Cake Vintage Place mats that have a blank section on them where you can write out the menu. A customer bought a pad of them and had a calligrapher write out her menu on them for her wedding.

Now onto the presentation of the food. Here Loraine lined individual square glass cups with a lettuce leaf and then topped each one with a dollop of cocktail sauce and a dollop of Salsa Verte (a green salsa). Yum! We lined our large square wooden trays with Cake Papers and that made a great serving area for the individual shrimp cups. 

Mini Fillet Croutes topped with sauces line a wicker round tray. I love to use various shaped serving platters, be they wicker, wood, glass or ceramic. It is okay to mix them up!

Here Thai Crab lettuce wraps are served upon an antique silver platter.

Cheese is always a staple. This is a Chevre topped with local honey.

Another great component of a great buffet is differences in height. It makes a much more interesting buffet table if you can elevate some of the food items so they are all not on the same plane. I used a tin stand that I sat upon a wooden try so I could have two levels of the same food item.

Don't forget about the beverages! Loraine made some killer eggnog, spiked of course, and we served it in a glass bowl that was nestled in ice that was held by an antique copper bucket.

Glassware was stacked in old wooden crates. They make great carrying vessels!

All of this was set upon a bar with a green recycled glass canister and a jar of candy canes to give it a little festive air.

We got these cute little tin buckets with a chalkboard tag in this year that I used to house coffee creamers and little prepackaged biscotti. We also planted some paper white bulbs in them and they are doing very nicely.

Top your evening set up off with lit candles. They add so much ambience! I know that this was a set up for a large gathering but you can easily adapt some of these ideas to use into a smaller gathering. I will be posting later this month some smaller gathering set ups and our Theme Thursday Event on December 19th in the Barn will be chock full of last minute table decor ideas that you might be able to use if you are hosting any festivity over the Christmas and New Year Season.

Happy entertaining one and all!

Meg