My Christmas (Jan 7) baking is done!!!

Above is the recipe for the 'coon bars' with my additions that I made yesterday.

From a Church Cookbook in MI (that I thought my sister gave me but now it 

looks like my cousin A. gave it to me in 2005; I had 2 stickers in it from

that Christmas with my name on both, :) )... 

Made the Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Cookies! (the non-vegan regular recipe) 

I burnt one tray of them, note to self, have that darkest tray on top only... 

this rarely happens...thankfully... 

The parchment paper really helped me have less to clean up between batches...

I also made a double batch of orange snowball cookies! Now that was hard to

not just eat all at once, LOL!

Christmas is coming though and I saved a small bag for our Christmas...

in a lovely Dutch tin that my Mom gave my Husband for Christmas,

with a cute ornament (Rocky and Bullwinkle! was so sweet of my Mom to do so

as our main gifts were already delivered here as both my and my Husband's gift

had glass involved and better to just ship directly to NJ! She finds the 

neatest stuff at the GR thrift stores :) )...

It was my Husband's first day back on the job after our Christmas MI holidays

and he worked late as he lost track of time... but that was fine... I made myself pasta...

and ate half a box of this vermicelli pasta... I had not had much for lunch so I was 

extra hungry! I had grocery delivered today but they did not come until 9:30 tonight

so the spinach salad will have to wait until tomorrow! 

(The delivery as between 8 and 10 PM so not a problem)...

I had to realize / tell myself that today I am DONE baking.

Tomorrow cleanup day, wrap the remaining presents, get the house in order

and prepare the tea gifts (not much this year as I did not have time)...

Friday is prepare all food gifts. 

Saturday we will already be doing vigil for the eve of Christmas EVE!

CHRISTMAS is coming!!!

(this coming Monday for us, Jan 7th)...

I could do a happy dance, I am so EXCITED... 

I am tired though, LOL... I woke up about 5 AM this morning... not intentional...

but I made it work... ambient morning light, beautiful icons in light... reading...

early breakfast...cleaning a bit... seeing Mr Husband off... and then...

well... I went back for a nap! Yep. Then I got up again later (9 AM-ish) and had

a second breakfast and got to baking...

Given how much we did over MI Christmas holidays,

it is no surprise that I am a bit tired... but trying to be careful to not have sugar

(ironic as I am baking with LOTS of sugar) and doing my best to not get sick...

So I *Will* rest soon! I think I will have next week Wednesday off (thank God)...

there was a possibility I would go to NYC but I think that's not a go, which is just fine....

***

For some rest I did, however, write some letters with my 'new' VNA stationary...

so fun... now I just have to get them ready for mailing...we will see when I can do that...

I am so happy to have more presents to wrap but also that the 'end is in sight' 

and soon all shall be ready, God willing of course. 

I redid my fridge this AM and took this picture of my Godson SG's drawing...

funny, esp as it was to 'thank me' for my gifts... 6 year old boys! Go figure :) 

***

So I ordered a book of Miss Read stories (short stories I think) today

and a vintage William-Sonoma cookbook and a book that I saw on 

Mat Emily's book list from last year,

The Family with Two Front Doors 

as the title intrigued me as well as the blurb via amazon.

(and I got it for free with a 5 $ credit that I had!)

I do love books... always have, since I was a child...

btw, the Letters of JRR Tolkien that I am reading to my Husband

out loud at night (just began year 1945 in it!) is this one.

We are just loving it and they are really fun to read out loud, also! 

Speaking of books, DE Stevenson's books ... there are 5 more that are being 

republished, pre-pub buying on amazon now

(see here, the Mrs Tim books are being republished!!! They can be 

quite pricey for the vintage copies so this is quite exciting!

Amazon says they are to be released on Christmas Jan 7th (that is!)

so if you order them before Jan 7th, you will get the pre-publication price

(which is often cheaper but not always any cheaper).

But they will come DV during the 12 days of Christmas and I am quite

looking forward to some rest time to just read...

I have not had a real 'rest' day in a few months... and know that this is needed...

so I will have a lot of books to look forward to ...

and various Christmas plans (including 2 dinners in January) are already on the books,

and I also want to have 2 local quilt friends over for lunch... 

I really like having all of these plans, helps me not worry about that which

does nothing to worry about... just trusting God everyday with our

unbloggable... and being thankful... 

***

Well, I am thankful now for the baking I was able to do 

and that I have hopes for another day tomorrow to prepare for Christmas...

praying that I make it to Christmas still in good health...

***

God bless, protect and save us all!

Coon Bars and other baking

Our power was out for 50 minutes this morning, early!

(I was up already! 6 AM...!)... thank God it went back on! 

I had baking to do!

I baked mint brownies! 

After this, my beloved Husband came in singing happy birthday to me 

and had a bag with these gifts for me! I have the best Husband! 

(Since my birthday was last Saturday and we were still in Michigan, 

we waited until now to have gifts. .!)

Annual VNA garage opening of cans that were in storage to be sure of no bugs! 

A batch of various stationary paper, a cute basket and a lovely journal

 that I think I will use as a daily thanksgiving journal like I have done in past years!

I also got some cookbooks and Christmas kid books! 

 I had fun rearranging my cookbooks! 

I am realizing how much I love pasta and pizzas during fast seasons... 

So was excited to see that my W-S book on Italian food had a lot of 

vegan options for fasts... 

Cleo I think was more undecided in the topic :)

This was a rainbow up high in the sky that I saw a few times 

when we were flying back home to NJ yesterday! 

I've had a 30$$ gift card for Williams-Sonoma for 4 years.... 

saw these two things on sale, 

with the gift card I only had to pay 12.62 more for the 2 pans! 

Future Christmas baking awaits, God willing!

I wrote this earlier about the lemon bars I made:

On Friday my Grandma told me of my +Aunt Karen's creamy lemon bars (my Mom said she called them Coon Bars as the Raccoons liked them! and I remember my Aunt Karen talking about Coon Bars) ... so... when I realized that I did not have either the cake mix with pudding (don't know if that is made anymore...) for an orange cake that sounded good, I was going to make a cinnamon cake instead, with yellow cake mix that I had (time is of essence right now) but no instant pudding in house or at corner stores when my Valiant Husband went to look. So then I thought of my Church spiral bound cookbook section (I have two narrow bookshelves with cookbooks) and sure enough, a cookbook I got years ago from my Sister and brother-in-law had the 'lemon gooey bar' (as it was called there) recipe. Then I called my Mom and she corrected me on some points (the recipe said 1 cup of powdered sugar but I was sure my Grandma said 1 LB of it and I was right in that my Grandma DID say so) and then I double checked a similar recipe online and added 5+tbs of lemon juice to the cream cheese topping as it was not a lemon cake mix and I really wanted the LEMON taste in it! So now a double batch is in the oven. I say that this is a very much a family group recipe and event even though I was alone making it... yet my +Aunt Karen, my Grandma, my Sister and my Mom were all involved and that makes me very happy!!!

I also baked one batch of brownies that I melted half a box of Andes chocolate mints on top of (once they were out of the oven), which was an idea stolen from the chocolate mint cookies that my cousin M. makes. So all in all, my baking had many family MI connections! Even the cookbook my sister gave me was from a church in Michigan...

***

Tonight I read more of Tolkien's letters to Mr. Husband.

So lovely!

I did at least 2 loads of dishes in the dishwasher today! 

It was a very busy day with baking, making meals for us to eat

and getting the VNA things out, etc.

But it was a good day.

I also did paperwork (20 minutes of work) for Mr Husband.

We still have some unbloggable stuff to face in the coming months and weeks

and ask your prayers.

Tomorrow I hope to bake cookies and have enough to have a baked gift for everyone...

It's tricky to know when one has enough, esp as our church is growing.

I really want to do the tea gift too but that may have to wait till next week, 

we will see.  I have not checked the vanilla I am making either...

Well, one thing at a time, right? 

I have a bit more wrapping to do as well, plus I want this house clean and ready to go...

so a lot to do but praying that God continues to give me the strength and that

we don't get sick, as we have in years past between now and summer!

***

I keep hoping that one of the 12 days of Christmas will be a 'veg out' day for me

and that I can have rest.

Next week is already seeming very full, start to finish, but we will see.

But the week after seems to have some wide open spaces so hopefully

I will be able to do some resting then!

***

May God bless each of you and help us in all we are facing and doing!