Whaddaya Mean One Week?!?!

I promised I'd let you know how far behind on Christmas I am, and so here goes.

I'm very behind, but I am catching up (I hope).

Normally, I start planning in October. Nothing too intensive, but I enjoy daydreaming in October about cookie recipes and handmade gifts. This year, I got as far as buying my usual baking magazine about November sometime, gave it a brief flip-through, and got back to work.

Usually in November, I have a spreadsheet put together so that I don't forget which people I am buying/making what thing(s) for.

I threw something together in the way of a spreadsheet in early December.

This week, I started gift knitting, which is definitely something I usually start in November or earlier. Now, I only have two items to knit, and they should be quick (I love Worsted weight yarn for this), but I'm only mostly through the first one so far.

Now, I did start one thing early, in September, but I won't be able to tell you about that one just yet (if no-one else pops by the blog on a given day, my Mom sure will, and I'm keeping your present a complete secret Mom, so you can keep on visiting. I even have cute pictures of grandkids today).

So what can I tell you about what I have been doing?

Well, we kicked off Christmas plans at our house by pulling out the advent box so that the kids could set out all manner of stuffed toys, books, videos, and odds and ends. We baked with Grandma, and then ate leftover icing.

For the St. Nicholas Day weekend, we met up at my Mother and Father-in-law's place for a party with friends of the family. I made Olliebollen for the first time. It's a traditional Dutch doughnut that is eaten on New Year's. Grandma had chocolate initials for everyone, which is another Dutch tradition (this is all very sweet, because I was the only one there of Dutch heritage, and, well, what can I say but it's lovely of my Mother-in-Law to make it a special day like that. She's quite good at Christmas, and I'm pretty sure not nearly as behind on things as I am).

This past weekend, we finally started the baking that is usually underway by early December with a batch of gingerbread (we should really get the rest of them iced tonight), and, on my eldest's insistence, a fruit cake.

Now, my daughter loved the idea of trying fruit cake, and we couldn't just buy some (nut allergy), so we modified a recipe to use apple juice instead of brandy (though I should have tripled the juice I think), raisins, apricots, mixed peel, and lots of coconut. (My husband abhors candy cherries. I'm not sure we're supposed to admit they exist, let alone bake with them).

The resulting cake, not meant to keep long like a traditional fruit cake, is not quite so moist as might be desired, (hence my note to add more juice), but not half bad either, is very lemony and was topped with cream cheese icing last night.

Now, as for gifts, the other day I told my husband I worked all day, but had nothing to show for it, because I worked on one of his presents, and so couldn't show him. However, I have exacted from him a no-peeking-at-the-blog promise, so I can show you:

I don't normally do much embroidery, and this is my first go at cross-stitch in particular. The pattern is from World of Geekcraft, which has several amusing projects. While the pipe in the pattern is meant be brown to more closely resemble the painting, I enjoyed the Mario green version. It was very fun, but took a bit longer than I thought it would, so I'm behind on my sewing plans (which I will tell you about soon).

More Preparations

Cookie baking and candy making are in full swing here! On today's schedule: Put the icing on the brownie bites and finish making the Peppermint Patties. We ran out of chocolate for the patties, so a grocery trip also is on the schedule. Oh yes, and buy a tree! We always go with a real tree, so we wouldn't want it up much earlier than this anyhow, but the kids are champing at the bit and ready to finish decorating.

Actually, there's a lot more on the schedule, but why get further behind by stopping to list it all? Nothing like heading to the kids' Christmas Concerts to remind us to enjoy all the hustle-and-bustle along with the lovely moments where you get to be still and just savour what is happening! The Christmas Concerts Were a first for both, as it's a small gymnasium, so they usually split the grades into Christmas concert and Spring Concert. Tthis year they did three nights in a row of Christmas concerts, so we attended two of those. They both did a lovely job, and are both doing great with their French! Vive le Vent d'Hiver!



The other night, in between rounds of snow shovelling (lots and lots this year! Will have to take photos for the next post!) we enjoyed painting gingerbread cookies together. This has become one of our traditions, though I prefer the sugar cookies to gingerbread (but there is always next year) and the fun is the same either way. The kids wanted to use the ninjabread cutters as well, so we did, and now have Ninja-Santas. Also the Grinch, Tobias Fünke in his Blue Man getup, ginger-elves, and Bonhomme. 

I found a new recipe for the Peppermint Patties, and it is way easier to work with than the last one I tried. Of course, last time I made these, I did also have a new baby, so that does colour the memory slightly! Still, I know these are a lot easier, because rather than rolling and cutting the filling, in this version the filling can be shaped into balls and flattened by hand, which is way, way speedier, if less uniform.

Also, I used chop-sticks instead of fondue forks for dipping the filling, and it worked great! For some reason, I had the idea to use my new mesh rack for the patties to cool on, but it was a very  bad idea. Stick with wax paper. To remove the patties from the mesh rack, we inverted it and set a warm cookie sheet onto it. My husband figured out that if we propped up the rack with chop-sticks above the pan that they'd be able to drop freely, and most were none the worse for wear, with the others being delicious and eaten.

The kids enjoyed crushing peppermints for decorating the patties, and did a great job as Candy-Sprinklers. My eldest also is enjoying taking photos, so she gets photo credit on several of these!












Sewing and knitting continue. I am almost finished the tuque. I was finished earlier in the week, only it was too short. Sigh. Had to unravel the lining part-way, unravel the tuque itself partway, and then add to both before getting to the decreases. It looks to be a better fit now, but I was hoping to be done and on to finishing the mittens by now! Ah well, better it takes longer and fits right in the end!

Today: More Catching Up

Today I get to catch up a bit on last post, thanks to my helpful sister-in-law who kindly sent some photos to share of the apron of which I hadn't remembered to take a photo, and of the penguin hat in action, which is of course, infinitely cuter than a penguin hat without a cute baby in it.














So, here is my extremely adorable nephew (about 6 months) with his winning smile (such a cutie!):

and with his proud Dad, providing confirmation that despite the hat's colours coincidentally being an exact match for another hockey team, this kid is definitely an Oilers fan (but of course!):















Here is his mom, who looks lovely in her new apron:

 


I'm glad to show the apron off here, especially as I was so pleased to find the fabric. It struck me as being stylish without being too elaborate or fussy and of course being in blue, which is among her favourite colours, also made it a good match.













And here are the gorgeous-looking Linzer cookies that my lovely sister-in-law made with the cutter set I had tucked into the apron pocket. I'm sure are quite tasty too, as she makes excellent desserts.










To continue to catch up a wee bit more, here is a hat I whipped up for a new baby who lives far away (it's fun knitting hats for babies, it hardly seems to take any time at all if it goes well, and this one did):

I designed this hat after a bit of swatching and sorting through the yarn stash, finding some nice soft Swish DK from Knit Picks in Squirrel Heather. I think it went rather well, and am pleased with how I managed to fit the decreases neatly into the cable pattern despite starting without knowing how I would end it (though I did stop to chart it out just before ending to make sure it would work).

Now this next item is definitely about catching up, as I started these socks about a year and a half ago when I was in Vancouver for a football tournament. By the time I arrived at home, the first of the pair was not quite finished. A few months ago, I fished them out of the bottom of one of my knitting bags, finished the first, and started the second. Sometime last week, I decided to just finish them up already, and so here they are:

These are the Sunday Swing Socks by Kristel Nyberg, worked in Patons Stretch Socks in Licorice. When I had started these in Vancouver, I found it an enormous effort to keep track of the (really quite simple) lace pattern, but when I picked them up again, I found them extremely easy to work with only occasional reference to the pattern. It only goes to show that a bit of practice with a newer skill (in this case lace) goes a long way when it comes to the facility of reading your knitting. I'm glad I picked these back up, if only for learning how far I had improved in a year or so.

In Which Cookies are Baked and Knitting is Accomplished

We've been busy baking and visiting, and cleaning, and preparing. We were playing around with a recipe for checkerboard cookies (from a Canadian Living magazine, I think from 2006), and instead of checkerboards, we tried all sorts of fun combinations of the two-toned dough. You could use any pinwheel or other fancy two-toned cookie dough to do the same.

I was particularly proud of the ones I made to look like those round peppermint candies, so I thought I'd include a little how-to.

After mixing your dough (ideally with peppermint extract added in not inconsiderable quantity) and freezing it in blocks, cut into rectangular logs.

Next, cut those logs in half from corner to corner (my cuts were rather sloppy, but the results were still pretty nice, I think, so it needn't be perfect).

Arrange the wedges into a wheel (I had five of each colour in this wheel). If you like, brush a little egg-white onto them first to help them to stick together. I didn't bother with that step myself.

Sorry so blurry; the camera chose to focus on the Elvis shot-glass instead.

Next, gently squeeze and roll the dough to stick the wedges together as neatly as possible.

If desired, chill again for awhile, but I just plunged right in and started slicing little peppermint candies. I have some holes in the centres, but I'm sure that if you can slice neater wedges than I did, and possibly with use of the egg white, the holes could be avoided.

My girls played around with the dough and made intriguing logs for me to slice, sandwiches (resulting in cookies that look like bacon; I'll have to keep these in mind for April Fool's day), and snowmen.

Keeping my promise to show you some knitting projects, I have these little socks that I made up for Christmas ornaments to give to the kids' teachers for gifts.

It's a great use for leftover sock yarn, and the teachers will have a little something to keep after they're finished with the little treats that the socks will decorate. Other than using moss stitch on the white cuff to make it look fluffier, I just made ordinary socks, only much smaller. Easy-peasy.

Also, I finished (some time ago, but can only just post these now) a pair of the Innsbruck Mittens from Vintage Modern Knits: Contemporary Designs Using Classic Techniques, which I made for my wonderful Mother-in-Law for her birthday. I had offered a sneak-peek of these back around Halloween, but here they are now entire:

 As my Mother-in-Law has a wool allergy, these are Estelle 100% silk, finished with cotton embroidery. These were knit and embroidered as directed, so there's not much more to say other than that they're a lovely design.

Ninjabreadmen!

The Ninjabreadmen attempt to subdue a ChuckNorrisbreadman

We made cookies yesterday! I had found a set of Ninja cookie cutters last week, and intended to give them to my husband for Christmas, only he saw them before they could be hidden, so we decided to just jump into action and create these stealthy characters here, iced with deadly accuracy (or something like that). Luckily, we had a few star-shaped sprinkles on hand that could stand-in for throwing stars.

We used the recipe from the box (the dough ends up a bit soft, but if you work it for awhile, it should improve). For icing, I whipped 1 Tbsp. Meringue powder with 1/4 cup water for two minutes, then whipped it for four more minutes with 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar. I reserved a bit of white icing, then added a dab of black Wilton's icing colour. Probably a bit too much, in fact. it takes a fair bit to get a decent black, but I think I went overboard. In future, I'll add it in gradual stages to be sure. Great stuff, and it makes for great ninjas, but it was a bit of work at cleanup time. I recommend smocks and something to cover the table, which are both things that I didn't think of this time around! (Though baking soda works pretty well to get rid of the traces of purple-pink that stick around after you clean off the black icing, so no lasting harm seems to have been done).

The ninjas have been declared tasty, and are currently in the process of disappearing, much as ninjas tend to do.