Category: BLOGMAS 2016

This story originally came across my email and I was reminded that it is a beautiful way to celebrate Christmas Holiday spirit so I thought I’d share. This is such a beautiful story that makes you understand that things truly do happen for a reason. Don’t forget to grab the tissue box.

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.

They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc… and on December 18^th they were ahead of schedule and just about finished.

On December 19th a terrible tempest – a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days.

On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.

The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc… to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.

Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet.. ‘Pastor,’ she asked, ‘where did you get that tablecloth?’ The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.

The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and she never saw her husband or her home again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth, but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a house cleaning job.

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving.

The man asked him where he got the Tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike.

He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier.

He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.

This true Story was submitted by Pastor Rob Reid.

If you need a good Christmas laugh, check out this Jimmy Kimmel Christmas Prank video.

WOW seems like we just started this journey through BLOGMAS and here we are 3 days until Christmas.  Today and tomorrow are my BIG days preparing for Christmas.  These are the days that I’m mostly in the kitchen or cleaning the house, wrapping last minute packages or running last minutes errands for ingredients for the BIG DAY.  The only thing on my list that I didn’t accomplish was the cleaning so will spend all day tomorrow doing laundry, vacuuming and cleaning the bathrooms.

Remember when I told you I was a list girl?  Well, these help – A LOT!  I couldn’t get very good pictures, but those little presents are battery operated lights that change colors (red, blue and green) that I’m going to include on the plate when I deliver the goodies to the neighbors.  The purple list is accomplished and half the green list is done and will be finished up tomorrow and Wednesday.

This is Cinnamon Roll day too – YUMMY! One of my favorite days of the year.  The recipe originally came from one of my favorite aunts who taught me a lot about art, cooking and just plain being creative.  I have made a few minor updates to suit our tastes, but this recipe was ALL her and a secret that my cousin and I kept until the day she died.

ROLLS OF SHARON aka CINNAMON RAISIN BUNS
ROLLS
2 packages Fleischman’s Rapid Rise Yeast
1/2 cup + 2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup WARM water
1 cup scalded milk (2 minutes in the microwave)
1/2 cup Crisco stick
5 cups flour, divided
2 large eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon salt

• In a small bowl combine the warm water, 2 teaspoons of sugar and both packages of yeast until well blended. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl combine the scalded milk, Crisco stick, 1/2 cup sugar and salt. Blend well.
• Add yeast mixture and blend well.
• Add the well beaten eggs and half the flour. Mix until well blended.
• Add the remaining flour (a little more if too sticky) and mix well until dough leaves the sides of the bowl and is elastic.
• With vegetable oil, wipe the inside of another bowl.
• Place dough in bowl and turn once.
• Cover with wax paper and a towel.
• Let rest in a warm place until double in size.

• Punch down and divide into 2 balls.
• Put one on the pastry board and one back in the bowl.
• Let rest 10 minutes.
• While resting prepare the filling ingredients.

• Roll the dough to 1/8 inch thickness in a rectangle about 18×24 inches.
• Spread half the melted butter over the dough and sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar.
• Spread half the raisins over that.
• Roll tightly jelly roll style and cut into 18 rolls.
• Place rolls in greased pans 1/4 to 1/2 inches apart.
• Cover with wax paper and a towel.
• Let rise again until double in size.
• Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.
• While baking prepare the icing.

• When rolls come out the oven, put globs of icing on each one. Return to the oven for a minute or two to melt icing all over the rolls.

FILLING
1 stick melted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon Pumpkin pie spice
1 cup golden raisins

• Whisk together the sugar and cinnamon until well blended.

ICING
1 stick butter, softened
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon powdered vanilla
4-6 tablespoons milk

• Mix all together until smooth.

When re-heating rolls, put a pad of butter on top of roll before microwaving.
These freeze really well.

As we get to the end of our countdown I have remembered a few more fun anecdotes.

• • Every year we received a box of See’s candy and I was ALWAYS on the search for the sprinkle coated ones a.k.a. Milk Bordeauxs YUMMY!

• • One year my dad got my mom diamond earrings.  He wrapped them in their original box and then with my brother’s and my help we proceeded to nest these in other boxes (wrapping each box as we went) culminating with a Dishwasher box full of bricks in the bottom – Boy was she surprised and it made for chaotic family fun on Christmas Eve.

• Another year we built an elaborate scavenger hunt all through the house to lead my dad to his ultimate gift in the garage.

With ALL that has been going on this past year I feel just plain lucky to be able to decorate.  So, when it came right down to it I decorated simply and am really happy about it.

I thought about this category a lot and decided that since we were still in transition in the HOUSE FROM HELL our pictures from last year were less than stellar. So I decided to share the pictures from 2014 with you.

These pictures from the  Festival of Lights we used to do each year is now over 20 years old and a great way to kick off the holiday season. It’s ALL Volunteer and NON-Profit.  It began as a fundraiser sponsored by the Rotary Club to help get the city out of debt and then took on a life of its own and now helps with scholarships and special projects. The festival runs every night from Thanksgiving to New Years.  You can drive your own car or take a horse drawn carriage ride through the displays.  They have also coordinated a local radio station to listen to as you view the displays.  The night we went through the fog was moving in early so a few of the pictures look a bit “smoky”.

As of 2014 they had the world’s tallest (41 feet, 16,000 pounds with  working jaw) nutcracker built by a local company, 500,00 lights, 90 animated displays, 3D displays, horse drawn carriage rides through the displays and a Holiday Village with Santa, hot cider with a bake sale and a synchronized light show in the courtyard.  The displays depict fairy tales, the military, patriotism, the local logging industry, local vineyards, local fishing and the traditional Christmas songs and scenes.  People come from all over to see it. Unfortunately for locals, it doesn’t change much, but is still fun every few years.

Three of my favorite munchkins from next door were coincidentally there the same night we were so had to snap a few pictures of the discussions with Santa.

Even the lights with errors turned out cute.  It was difficult to get great pictures or continuous pictures of the animated scenes since there were so many cars behind us.

This snowman is on a corner in our neighborhood hugging a light standard.

I’ve updated last year’s list.

Funny story here – I had herb savers on my Amazon Christmas list for 2 years.  So 2 years ago I decided to buy myself a Christmas present and got the herb keepers so I could quit using a glass covered with a plastic bag.

So, a couple days before Christmas hubby holds up one of the new herb keepers and asks, what’s this?  So I begin explaining what an herb keeper is and he’s like, “No why did you buy them?”  Long story short he was getting them for me for Christmas.

So we had our first Christmas dinner last weekend and long story short the prime rib was more medium than medium rare because my OLD meat thermometers, yes both of them were really old and one failed completely and the other one clouded so it could no longer be read and we ended up with meat cooked a bit more than we like.  The next day I ordered a new digital one from Amazon and last night I pulled it out to test the chicken I was cooking and hubby was like, “where did that come from?” I’m still LMBO, he had gone and bought one for my stocking the day before.

This year we are forgoing BIG gifts and doing stockings only since this house is eating up all our disposable cash so fast! We are planning a trip for late spring to compensate.

❄ Top 2 Winter Beauty Essentials

• A NICE HOT SHOWER to relax and clean out the pores.
• A super moisturizer to keep away dry skin!

❄ Top 2 Winter Fashion Essentials

• I’m with Sandra on this!  I wait ALL year for it to be cold enough to bring out the boots!
• Scarves and gloves.  I have color combos to match anything.

❄ Favorite Winter Accessory

• HATS!!!!

❄ Favorite Winter Nail Polish

• Red for Christmas, but normally a pinky mauve. I just have too much red in my complexion to pull off many colors.

❄ Hot Cocoa or Apple Cider?

• Homemade hot cocoa and MUST have marshmallows/

❄ Favorite Winter Candle?

• Apple and Cinnamon

❄ Snowboarding or Skiing?

• Neither, but hot cocoa or a hot toddy while watching others is good.

❄ Have you ever gone Ice Skating? Are you any good or do you FAIL miserably?

• I’ve been, but don’t like the single blade thing much.  I’m much better at roller skating.

❄ Does it snow where you live?

• Not really, we got one day of snow last year, or rather, one hour of snow and it didn’t stick at all. I can’t wait to be back somewhere it does though.

❄ Have you ever made a snowman?

• Absolutely!

WOW this is a HUGE category!  One of my new favorite recipes is from just this year.  Some friends took us to lunch at Jack Allen’s Kitchen when we were visiting in Round Rock this past summer and the food was SOOOOOOOOO good that I bought the cook book and have been experimenting ever since.

One of our favorite new recipes is for pimento cheese spread made from scratch.  I made some last week and wanted to use it for this past Saturday’s 1st Christmas dinner, but didn’t want the mess of a knife and cracker crumbs so I decided to try and make a fun new way to serve it.

I had some fresh pecans and decided to grind them fine.  Then I rolled the cheese spread into small balls and then rolled each one in the pecans.  I chilled them overnight and then used toothpicks for serving. Sorry I didn’t get a picture when they were on the pretty plate.

PIMIENTO CHEESE
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1/2 pound Medium Cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup Duke’s mayonnaise
1 large Red Bell Pepper, washed, seeded, roasted and chopped fine
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Sherry Vinegar*
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• Mix together the cream cheese, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, Vinegar and salt until smooth.
• Blend in the grated Monterey Jack cheese and grated Cheddar cheese.
• Fold in bell pepper until well distributed.
• Chill well.
• Serve with crackers.

*I didn’t have any so I used Golden Balsamic Vinegar

We also love to make VAMPIRE SLAYER ARTICHOKE BREAD and cut it into small bites for appetizers. OMG This appetizer replaces any entree – it’s ooey, gooey, cheesy and literally melts in your mouth all the while tantalizing your taste buds from the very first bite!

VAMPIRE SLAYER ARTICHOKE BREAD Adapted from Crumb
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, minced fine

Another of our go to “PARTY” foods that I tend to only make at Christmas time is Cowgirl kisses.

COWGIRL KISSES
8 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons Foothill Salad Seasoning
1 slice bacon per pepper
Jalapeno Peppers
Raspberry Chipotle Sauce (see below)

• • Mix cream cheese and Foothill Salad Seasoning until well blended.

• • Clean and remove seeds from peppers.

• • Fill peppers.

• • Wrap each pepper with a slice of bacon.

• • Bake or grill over low heat until bacon is crisp.

• Serve with raspberry chipotle sauce. 

RASPBERRY CHIPOTLE SAUCE 
1 cup Raspberry Jam 
2 tablespoons diced chipotle peppers
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons apple cider or rice wine vinegar 

• • Whisk all ingredients until well blended.

• • Chill until ready to serve.  

• Warm before serving.

I LOVE advent calendars, but haven’t done one in many of years.  So I thought I’d give you a little history today on the advent calendar instead of showing you what I don’t have. Here are a couple of examples I found on google images.

Traditional advent calendars depict winter in general and feature manger scenes or Jolly old Saint Nick.  In today’s modern world though you can find them ranging in theme from sports to technology, from disposable to reusable. Some are window styled with each day being a pane of the window.  In some of the more elaborate calendars the pane opens into a box that holds a small toy trinket or a piece of candy. The windows often have a bible verse in each one.