Christmas 2015

The Christmas morning mimosas.

Presents ready to go under the tree.

Christmas breakfast table is set. (See the cooked meat pie there? Mmmm-mmm!)

The tree is ready to celebrate the holiday.

Presents opened, we neatly fold the tissue paper so it is ready for next year.

After that were games of Chronology, iKnow, a nap, a walk and a ham sandwich dinner!

Mmmmm-mmm! Meat Pie!

Meat pie has returned as a Christmas morning breakfast item! Here is the meat part, waiting to be wrapped in dough!

And here it is uncooked, but ready to go in the oven!  Yay meat pie!

In which some decoration finally occurs.

Hey look!  I finally got the cards up!  Hooray!

Christmas expectations lowered again.

Hey!  Do you know what is fun? Taking pictures of a macaroni and cheese recipe's ingredients if you have tripled them.

Do you know what isn't fun?  Burning the cheese sauce because you tripled the recipe.  Too bad this was my main gift.  Perhaps the burnt smell won't come through in the final product.  (She says hopefully...)

Christmas Prep in action.

Here are some Christmas food failures.  On the top, a pound of chili bacon peanut brittle.  Sadly, in getting the candy to the proper temperature, I burnt it. Not only did this waste $8.00 in bacon and other items, but it also meant a lot of scrubbing on my pan.

Below the failed peanut brittle is the failed fudge.  I tried a new recipe from Parade magazine and the result was a half-fudge, half undissolved sugar concoction. The nuts and the fudge floated to the top, the undissolved sugar concoction sank to the bottom.  In hindsight, I probably could have sliced off the good fudge top and saved it, but I didn't think of it in time.  Also, there was a lot of scrubbing with this pan too.

There was also a Poor Man's Toffee which was only so-so.

I was rescued from my holiday prep doldrums by this recipe from Cooks Illustrated.  They had me make chocolate cookies, bake them and place an Andes mint on the top of each cookie.

Then the mint is spread to make a delicious minty frosting.

The cookies stayed soft, the frosting stayed chocolate minty for many days. I finally took them over to my Aunt's house and left them there with the rest of the Christmas cookies, so I would stop eating them.

Xmas prep

I had a carefully planned out schedule of easy steps to a prepared Christmas.  It was a really good plan.  I didn't follow any of it and now have a lot of catching up to do.

To the left of the stove:  the non perishables.

To the right of the stove: the perishables.  

Phew.  Shopping is over.  Now I only have to make everything.

Dead Relatives Tour 2015

Our theme this year?  Feet!

At my grandparent's grave, that's Mom, Aunt Pat, me, Aunt Carol, clockwise from upper left.

At my great-great grandparents' grave that's mom, Aunt Pat, Aunt Carol and me. I had to step one foot out because I'm not Gumby.

At my Great-Great Uncle Tom's memorial, we have Aunt Pat, Mom, Aunt Carol and me.

Uncle Tom's bouquet is in the upper left corner. It looks like the space next to him is available, if anyone is interested.

Merry Christmas from The Orange Door!

Here's hoping your day is filled with lights and laughter.

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 24

Intro is here. 

My favorite part of this calendar is that it acknowledges how silly and circuitous this quest has been.  FINALLY he looks in the living room and there he finds what we are defining as Christmas.

Apparently ,it has to do with decorating the tree and having five bears in the room.

It's always bugged me that this calendar poops out on the day before Christmas.  Shouldn't "He" bear find Christmas on Christmas, not Christmas Eve?  Could he not have looked just one more place in the living room?  Nope.  For reasons I bet have more to do with layout, our quest ends one day shy of the big day.

I hope you are about ready to find Christmas too.  I know I am.

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 23

Intro is here. 

Sigh.

It's not going to be on the bookcase.  You'd be better off looking in those stockings.

Will "He" bear ever find Christmas?  Is he doomed to walk the crowded rooms of his house forever, spinning around and around the one room that has Christmas (or how this calendar defines Christmas) in it?  Stay tuned.

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 22

Intro is here. 

You've been reading C. Clement Moore, haven't you?  Santa will indeed come down this chimney, but not for a few more days.  Find somewhere else to look.

(And based on the fact that we still have to do the 23rd, I bet you are going to look in this very room.)

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 21

Intro is here. 

Okay, again, not a bad place to look.  But it's not here either.  

I kind of like the portrait above the fireplace.

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 20

Intro is here. 

Ah, we get ever closer to the Christmas date and "He" bear is wasting time in the kitchen!  It's not in the oven, it's not in the cookie jar, it's not going to be on the kitchen cabinet.  Guess what you dumb bear.  Based on the pattern we have established so far, if Christmas isn't in the first place we've looked in a room, it's not going to be in other places in the room.  Move on, "He" bear, move on!

Also, you seem to have a mouse problem. Unless you are okay with mice in your kitchen?

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 19

Intro is here. 

I'm all for looking for Christmas in the cookie jar.  Did "He" bear  not find it?  Maybe the cookie jar was full of cookies that were not specific to Christmas, like Oatmeal Raisin?

Keep looking little dumb bear.  

And it's probably not hygienic to stand on the counter top.

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 18

Intro is here. 

I always thought this was the maid doing the cooking, like Alice in the Brady Bunch.  But maybe that's "He" bear's mother?  Anyway, you can probably find Christmas in the oven if you know when to look. Like now, where there are clearly cookies.

Also, don't look too far in that oven.  Maybe there's a wicked witch that wants to push you in.

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 17

Intro is here.

(note stylin' red thread.)

Oh, "He" bear,  you are so very, very close. Don't you see it in the very next room?  It's the place you are going to find on December 24.  Why can't you see it now?

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 16

Intro is here. 

Who is that bear in the bathtub?  It looks exactly like our bear, minus the ribbon. Is he staring at his own self?  I'm so confused.  

I do like the rubber duckie, though.

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 15

Intro is here. 

Again, a good place to look for presents, but not for Christmas.  Maybe if someone introduced "He", the bear on the advent calendar to the concept of a calendar "He" would have a better idea of time passing.

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 14

Intro is here. 

Oh "He" bear, how did you get on the roof?  Should you really be out there, you with your tiny brain?  I can only guess that you are looking for Santa going down the chimney.  But it's too early for that.

A Beary Merry Christmas: Decembear 13

Intro is here. 

Ah-ha!  So now we know that rooms are assigned!  And "He" bear has been exiled to the attic.  And someone is sleeping in his bed, yet he doesn't seem concerned.  Also, no Christmas here. 

In one of the greater "No way!" moments of my life, I just Googled "A Beary Merry Christmas Advent Calendar"  It seems my loathed advent calendar is selling for a pretty penny on ebay.  Or at least being offered for a pretty penny.  The uncut fabric panels are selling for over $100.00 and even the finished ones are going for a lot of change.  There's one right now that is nicely quilted and very pretty and only $42.00.  It's missing the bear, though.  Another finished one is offered for $300.00 with 11 people watching. Who knew I was sitting on such a treasure trove of theoretical cash?