Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Eve,cooking mice,and still no spell check




The Christmas tree is looking rather bare this morning.  The packages have been opened and gone to their respective homes, the turkey carcass is ready to go in the stock pot, the pies have been eaten and the Christmas dishes are in the dishwasher, clean and ready to be put away for another year.  What a lovely time with family and friends.  We had a big crowd on Christmas Eve and a small one on Christmas Day.  The only things missing were the snow birds down in the sunny south safe from the ice, snow and windchills that we have here.

I'm going to back up a bit.  There was a lot of cooking going on here the day before Christmas.  I love to cook and I usually have a little helper here assisting me.  Thanks to Miss Pea over at Pea's Corner we were making the little mice that she made a couple of weeks ago.


Dipping the cherries in chocolate.


Adding the Hersey Kiss to the front and putting the slivered almonds on for the ears.



Adding the eyes.  We didn't have a small tip for the frosting so our eyes were a bit iffy.



The finished project!  Notice the dab of frosting on Miss T's lip!!! Hummmmmmmm.........


We had everyone eat one when they came in before they could open a present.  We told them that they were real mice dipped in chocolate.  :o)  This is Ana our first mouse eater!



I love to bake for the holidays.  Especially yeast rolls.  They are so easy and my family raves about them which makes me feel good!



It's always good to have a glass of eggnog to sip on while baking.



My heavy duty mixer does most of the kneading for me.




I always like to do some though,  it's just a good down home feeling to be kneading dough.



The finished product!  Yum!





Christmas Eve the whole family arrived about 5 pm.  I had hot cider simmering ready for them to partake.  DIL's Mom makes the best frosted brownies and I would show you a picture but they are all gone!  DIL makes her famous hot chicken dip that is to die for and others bring other goodies too.  Peanut butter balls, cookies, pies etc.  We have the stange tradition of getting several big buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken, mashed potato, gravy and coleslaw too.





After we eat the little ones open their stockings first and then I play Santa and the fun begins.


Grampie and Mr. D.



Matching Nascar jackets for D and K!


A snowboard for Cousin K!



A new nighty for Miss T!



Guess I should finish this up as your eyes are probably glazed over by now.  Will continue next post.  I had a wonderful surprise Christmas morning.  I got an e-mail saying that I had won Donna's give away of an AUTOGRAPHED copy of Pioneer Woman's cookbook!!!!!!! As you know I had bought a copy but of course it wasn't autographed so this was so exciting!!!  Thank you Donna for having such a nice give away, I love it!  Now I'm trying to decide if I should have a give away for the one I already had.......what do you think?  It's been used a few times but I don't think there are any stains on it.  Let me know what you think, is it correct to give away one that I have used??????  It's a GREAT cookbook with lots of wonderful pictures in it and as Donna said there are cowboys so we will take a moment of silence just to think about that! :o)

14 comments:

Needled Mom said...

It looks like it was a wonderful time at your place. I know what a thrill it is to all be together as a family. Sorry that your folks could not be there, but I certainly understand the complications of it all. They were there in spirit.

Your mice are adorable. I wanted to give those a try too after seeing Peas. They were so darn cute. Hope they tasted as good as they looked.

Absolutely....you should do a giveaway or something with the book. It is so "hot" out there in the cookbook world right now and anyone would love to have it. Then again, it could be a PIF gift after the start of the year.

Enjoy your weekend as we march towards the end of 2009. Hugs and xxxxx, my friend.

Susan said...

Oh I enjoyed every big of this newsy post. Definitely I think it's alright about giving away the slightly used book. I gave away a pile of material remnants I had some time back. The mice are adorable and I'm sure she loved helping you make them. Your tree is beautiful. I could go on and on. We live in Oklahoma and we are still snowed in. Some are getting out but not us. We just got notice that the Church is canceling services tomorrow. We have a steep incline on the parking lot getting in and out. VERY rare for Pastor to ever cancel church.
Susan

Renie Burghardt said...

Love your tree and the rest of the pictures. Looks like you had a wonderful Christmas Eve at your house. Those mice are so cute, as is Miss T!

Since I just came home from the hospital, I didn't cook this year. Well, I wasn't allowed to cook. Greg and Angie (his girl friend of 7 years} pre-ordered a smoked turkey and all the trimmings and set it up for us Christmas Day. Christmas Eve, we had a Bavarian ham and lots of sides. I did manage to bake some butter cookies and ginger snaps. Pies were brought by guests. It was a rainy Christmas Eve here, but we had a dusting of snow, Christmas morning. Of course, it didn't stick around too long, but for a few hours we had a white Christmas!

I read all your posts on the page and enjoyed them. Sorry I have been so lax about visiting and even posting on my blog. I am more active on Facebook, but I did have a health issue that landed me in the hospital.

Greg is still here, and we'll be his guests for lunch tomorrow in a larger town's nice restaurant.

Have a great rest of the weekend.

Belated Christmas Hugs,

Renie xoxoxo

Linda said...

Merry Christmas....it looks like an extremely fun time at your house!!!

Rising Rainbow said...

A Pioneer Woman cookbook for free.....how cool would that be. Who cares if you used it a couple of time.

Sounds like you and yours had a great holiday. Here's hoping you have a great New Year as well!!!

Val said...

Your Christmas looks like so much fun. I want to make those little mice. I may do that next week with my grands. It looked easy and fun. As far as the cookbook.....YES, YES, YES!!! Give it away..........To me!!!!

Train Wreck said...

IS THAT A RED KITCHEN AIDE!? Love it!! I have the older white model. One day I would like to upgrade. Your rolls look delicious!!

bj said...

G'morning, Midlife....I love this beautiful post. Your Christmas sounds so much like ours. I had grands making candy one night, cookies the next. We had such fun.

Love your little Choc. mice..if I can remember them next year, we will give them a try.

I giggled when I saw your EggNog. A buttermilk goblet of it !! haaahhaa...I love it, too. We never put the "nog" in it anymore...we used to. Now with so many grands liking it, I just leave it plain with sprinkles of nutmeg on top.

OMG, YES on the PW cookbook! GIVE IT AWAY ......and I hope I win. I just go to her site and use the recipes there. Never have tried even one that didn't turn out soooo good. I actually think I might order one as I got a tad bit of $'s for Christmas...'cause I've been GOOD !!! :o)
XO bj

Train Wreck said...

OoOOOoOoOooO! yes I love it!! I really want one. Mine does ok, but you are right! It is the Bread doubling that I need the larger one for!! Actually I would love to have one from a bakery! The great big floor model! lol I could market my buns...he he

Margaret Cloud said...

I am glad you had a fun time with your family, I enjoyed every one of your pictures. Have a Happy New Year.

palmtreefanatic said...

oh yes! I wanna win That cookbook! sounds so exciting! I love Pioneer woman! So giveaway---TO ME:)

I could feel the intenseness in making those mice! such concentration and wow! they look AMAZING! T is gonna be just like you!

Christmas eve looked like a blast at your place! and KFC? yummm! what a neat tradition!

you are so awesome!many Blessings as we end the year...xoxoxox

Marlene Depler said...

I just discovered your blog through Colors of the Garden. Fun blog. Looks like we have lots in common.

We had our whole clan---fifteen of us plus my sister---for Christmas Dad. What a blessed time together! Our seven grandkids range from 18 months to 14-years-old. No one of them are the same age.

We broke with tradition and had creamy enchilladas at the request of my two oldest grandchildren. At least it was something I could assemble the day before. After choppin 16 cups of freshly cooked chicken, and adding it to 2 chopped large onions, four cans of green chillies, four packages for cream cheese---and and and, I ended up with a whole refrigerator full on pans of enchilladas ready to bake the next day.

The photo of your yeast rolls makes me want to come right over an indulge in a couple! I use a recipe for yeast rolls that was my mother-in-law's.

palmtreefanatic said...

BTW
that is a gorgeous tree!!!:)

Susan said...

Looks like you had a nice Christmas.Every thing looks so good.The little mice are so cute.We had a nice Christmas also with family.I hate to put everything away,I love the peace and joy of Christmas.I love to look at the lights at night with Christmas music playing.It is truly like the song Silent Night.God Bless.