On my tree

I am fortunate to have many special ornaments on my tree. The ones featured are all from My Big Martha, Mom2 and Grandma O. Enjoy!

Happy holidays, everyone!

Baking blitz

And the girl in the back said "Everyone attack!" and it turned into a baking blitz...baking blitz...

Okay, that's not exactly how the song goes, but that's what I was singing this past weekend.  The Big Guy and I made hundreds of cookies--it really was a baking blitz!

We made cookies for the Big Guy's coworkers:

We made cookies for the neighbors:

We made a cookie platter for the lovely ladies at the Little Guy's daycare:

And I made cranberry-white chocolate-almond cookies for my work's cookie exchange: 

It was electric, so frightfully hectic...at TMI we had a baking blitz!  Baking blitz!

Craft project--painted glass ornaments

Here's a super easy and super cute Christmas craft project--painted glass ornaments.  I made these a few years ago so there are no pictures of the process, but I'll go through it step-by-step.

For this project, you'll need hollow glass ornaments with removeable tops (found at any craft store), an empty egg carton and several small bottles of acrylic paint in various colors (also found at any craft store). 

1. Remove the ornament top and squeeze in a few drops of paint.
2. Rotate the ornament and put in a few drops of another color of paint.
3. Rotate the ornament once again and put in a few more drops of another color of paint.
4. Being careful not to tip the ornament over so paint runs out, rotate the ornament all around to get the paint to cover the entire interior surface. 
5. Once the inside is covered with swirls of paint, put the ornament upside down in the egg carton so the excess paint can drip out.
6.  Let the ornaments dry for a day or two, then put the tops on. 

That's really all there is to it.  Aren't they gorgeous?  I remember making these as a Girl Scout--shout out to my troop leader, My Own Big Martha!  Hi, Mom!

I think a set of these would make a lovely gift.  And this is a great craft project for kids.

When the Little Guy is older, we'll be making these for all the relatives. Until then, I'll just have to enjoy my own set.  Happy crafting!

Martha Monday--Christmas Menu

Are you hosting Christmas?  I've never hosted Christmas before...until this year.  To plan a menu, I naturally turned to Martha.  She has an entire spread of holiday menu ideas here. 

As a first-time Christmas hostess, I will NOT be making this:

Quite frankly, I'm not even sure what animal this comes from. 

My menu is a bit more down-to-earth:

Turkey breast
Ham
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Scalloped potatoes
Corn bread casserole
Green bean casserole
Glazed carrots OR broccoli/cauliflower
Jello...

...and possibly this for dessert:

It's Martha's chocolate-peppermint cake.  YUM!

What are your plans for Christmas?

Wrapping party

I recently had some friends over for a "wrapping party."  I've done this in holiday seasons past:  we simply get together, eat, laugh, wrap gifts and work on various Christmas projects.  It's a good time.

It's also a great way for me to share my abudance of bows, wrapping paper, ribbon, gift bags, etc. that I stock up on every year after Christmas. 

The Big Guy thinks I have problem.  "Honey," I say, "if loving gift wrap and owning 30 or so rolls is wrong, then I don't want to be right."

To start, I put bows, tape, scissors and gift tags on dining room table.    The buffett held the tissue paper, ribbon and gift bags. 

If you do this, be sure to provide a large variety of gift bag sizes...it's a good thing.

I provided about 25 rolls of paper for my wrapping crew.  We went through several rolls.

I wish I could show you pictures of the happy little elves at work, but I was too busy laughing, talking, eating and wrapping gifts to pick up the camera.  But trust me, we had a fun and productive time.  Special shout-out to Anita for wrapping some gifts for me.  Thanks for a wonderful evening, ladies!