Merry Christmas from White Picket Fences!

Happy Holidays from My Family to Yours!

Today we are off to my grandparents house for a few days.  This means no internet (they still have dial-up).  So enjoy the holiday and I'll be seeing you on the flip side.

White Christmas

My favorite Christmas movie of all time is White Christmas.  I own it and every Christmas I force Chris to watch it with me.  I think of it as quality time even if he could care less.

I love all the songs and the sets and the costumes.  My favorite part is near the end when Rosemary Clooney is singing at the Carousel Club in New York.  Her dress is to die for!  A fabulous little black number with gloves!  It is a great dress but is complemented by the awesome set.  Pink, white, black, silver and gold; bold stripes paired with delicate details and actual carousel horses.  What's not to love!

I couldn't find a picture of the back but let me assure you it is equally as stunning.  I would love to own this dress and have somewhere to wear it to.  Maybe one day (sigh).

Christmas Tablescape

Since Claire was born we have hosted Christmas dinner at our house.  This year we will be visiting my grandparents for a few days before hand and won't be back until late Christmas eve.  We MUST be at home so Santa can bring Claire the baby doll she has been asking for since September. 

Anyways, I decided to go ahead and set the table so that I don't have to do it in a rush Christmas day.  I've never really decorated my table before.  Usually, I put some flowers in a vase and call it a day but I felt the need to dress it up this year.

The table decorating started with my off-white linen tablecloth and a conversation that went a little like this:

Me:  Do you think I would be sad if I dyed the tablecloth blue?

Chris:  You would be sad if it didn't turn out exactly the way you wanted it to.

Me:  (sigh) Good point.

I have so much white in my dining room that I didn't want the entire table to be white too.  How boring.  This got my wheels turning trying to figure out a way to put blue on my table without spending a lot of money. 

Then I had the bright idea to make a runner out of an old curtain panel.  It took a total of 15 minutes, including ironing, and turned out fabulous.  Plus, it's my favorite color so I know that it will make future appearances.

Next, I pulled out my gold chargers.  I bought these a few years ago at Target and I use them all the time.  They are the easiest way to dress up a table and they make any plate look fancy.  Which is good because I don't own fancy china. 

I decided to use my blue flower plates to add another blue element.  I'm sure they have a name but I don't remember what it is.

I was really pleased with myself when I thought to use the mini picks as napkin rings.  I bought them last year at Walmart after Christmas (on sale for .50 for 3) with the intention of putting them on Claire's mini tree but I thought they looked cuter here.

For my centerpiece, I used my owl pitcher and filled it with tree limbs.  It has actually been filled with limbs since the beginning of the month but I decided to jazz it up with some sparkly red picks and gold ornaments. 

Add some votives and a few more red ornaments and "decorate table" is checked off my list.

Notice the empty oval frame?  It is patiently waiting for a Berkley Illustration print that I posted about here.  I am hopeful Santa will leave one or two under my tree.

And if you were wondering where Claire sits, she is the plate right in front with no silverware.  She gets the same plate as everyone else but a special fork.

Merry Christmas from Minnie Mouse!

The whole table cost me $3 and is just perfect for a low key family dinner Christmas day.

Handmade Presents for All!

I told you yesterday that this week is full of parties and presents for me.  Chris gives gifts to all of the ladies in his front office and to his fellow principals for Christmas.  This usually involves a trip to Walmart the night before the last day of school and me putting together glasses filled with candy tied with a pretty bow.  This year I was a little more proactive so I was able to make some really cute and useful gifts.


The office ladies will each be receiving one of these,

I used an awesome free printable from Erin Vale Design and made a small to do list pad for each of them.  It was fairly easy and all I needed was some padding compound, which I got from here, to make six useful handmade gifts.  (Padding compound is the clear stuff on top of notepads that holds all the sheets together)


I made Chris' fellow assistant principal a completely adorable and super cool 2011 owl calendar available from My Owl Barn.

This application is really neat.  There are 30 different owl images to choose from and all you have to do is pick which image you want with which month and then you can download your personal calendar.  I printed it out on card stock and used the same padding compound to make a little desk calendar.  I also added a magnet strip on the back so she could put it on her filing cabinet or fridge.  Add this to a tin of the cookies I made and you have another great and inexpensive gift.

As for Chris' principal, I took the easy road and got him a gift card to Tractor Supply.  I know what you're thinking but he's a guy and we live in the South.  Trust me, he will love it.

Tonight we have the school party.  I'm super excited because low country boil is on the menu.  Yum!

One hundred and One Cookies

My husband is an educator.  This is the last week of school before Christmas break.  This effects me because this is the week of parties and gifts.  This effects you because I'm going to share my secret recipe for thumb print cookies that are guaranteed to make everyone your best friend.

In all honesty, it's not my recipe, it's my mother-in-law's, but our cookies taste nothing alike so I feel like I can call it mine.

The Dough... 

Combine 3 sticks of softened butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/8 tsp salt and 3 egg yolks in a large bowl.  Add 4 cups of flour sifted (I mix in one cup at a time, it's easier that way).

Cover and refigerate for 1 hour.


While I was making cookie dough, Claire was doing this...

She and I have had runny noses this week and we ran out of  kleenex today so she decided to fill the empty box with an entire roll of toilet paper.  She's a problem solver for sure.


Back to Cookies...

After refigerating the dough, pre-heat the oven to 350 and then pull out every cookie sheet you own and get to work rolling the dough into small balls.  Place each ball on the cookie sheet and put your thumb print in the middle (hence the name).
 

Bake for 8-12 minutes until golden brown on the bottom.  When you are done you will have a counter full of these...

I put them on wax paper because it makes the next step easier to clean up.  Make sure they are completly cool before adding the icing or else you will have more icing on your counter than on your cookies.

The Icing...

The icing is a combination of confectioners sugar, water, vanilla extract and food color.  I don't have exact quantities but use a lot of the sugar, a smidge of extract and add the water a little at a time.  You want it to have a thicker consistency so that it stays in the little bowls made by your thumb.  I use a baby spoon to put the icing on the cookies because it can really get away from you and a super tiny spoon doesn't hold that much so it can't get too far.  When you are done you should have something that looks like this,

I wanted to do some that were a little fancy so I tried multi-colored.  I think they are fun.

I let the icing set overnight to make sure it dries.  Nothing worse than icing everywhere except where it's suposed to be.  This recipe makes a boat load of cookies so it is great to take to parties and a very inexpensive gift for co-workers.  The number depends on how big or small you make your balls but this time I made 101 cookies.

Tonight we have the (football) coaches party.  I'm not sure if I have to bring a dessert or not but I'm prepared nonetheless.