Crafty Christmas

A couple years ago my husbands family started this gift exchange where you had to make your recipient a gift.  I hated it.  We did it twice and I hated it.  We drew names at Thanksgiving and the time between then and Christmas is so short and so busy that I felt too much pressure trying to come up with something to make.   This year they let us opt in or out of the gift exchange and it didn't have to be made.  But we opted out.   I was done with the gift exchange thing.  

But then it turns out that my husband and I got our craft on.  

First it started in November when I decided I was making every girl in our families some vanilla extract.

First you buy a LOT of vanilla beans (I had to order more).  And you slice them (but not completely) to open them up.

We bought 2 big bottles of vodka from Sam's and I wanted to make it in two big batches, but we didn't really have big containers.  So we decided to put the beans straight into the vodka bottles.   We lost some vodka that way, but it was the easiest and we were pushing a deadline of it being done in time for Christmas. 

We sat the bottle in the sink and dropped the beans into the bottle letting it overflow as necessary. 

This is a bottle full of beans!

This is after we shook it up.  

The bottles sat in a room we don't really use, covered up.  It said a cool/dark place.  We shook the bottles twice a week to agitate the beans.

On Christmas Eve we got the bottles out. . .  look how dark they were!  You couldn't even see the beans.

We tried straining the vanilla through a coffee filter. It didn't work all that well.  Some people say you want the bean floaties cause that's where the flavor is.  We met in the middle and did some straining, but it wasn't that well done.  I'm ok with the bean floaties though.  I want that vanilla flavor.

We started bottling them up. . . 8 oz in a bottle.  I was worried I wouldn't have enough and I did really cut it close.  I actually put a few pieces of beans in the bottles.  Just to increase the flavor a bit.  As long as the beans stay covered in vodka they are good.  So I put pieces instead of a bean standing up in the bottle.

Then they got labels and cutesy ribbon.

I will admit that I tasted it.  I will also say that I never tasted vanilla plain and not in a baked item before.  Lol.  I also tasted the store bought vanilla in my cabinet.  I didn't like either.  I liked mine better but barely.  Lol!   So. . . . it smelled wonderful and I hope it's good when it's put in a cookie.  But I won't be drinking it any time soon.

I ordered my beans here.   If you wanted to try this on a smaller scale you could order this kit.

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Then last week my husband decided to get crafty. . . he made his family members these little snowmen. Each family got one.

We did the same for my family - giving them to the girls.  We did a slightly bigger version for my family.  I just wanted my mom to have one and her house is big so a bigger version would look good standing in her house. . .  but he made three so everyone got one.

This is my mom's.   Might be hard to tell the size difference in photos but this one is about twice the size of the ones in the above photo. 

I was joking with my husband and I said clearly when the pressure is on we suck at being creative.  But when we aren't being forced we rock it!!!  Next year we'll go back to being boring and uncreative :) 

Merry Christmas Eve!

It's Chrismas Eve and I feel like I'm about to lose my mind! I over committed to too many things.  I'm tired. Legit tired.  I wake in the AM and I feel like I'm melted into my bed and I can't move.  I think it's just stress and too many commitments.  

Our PTO cut off was the 18th.  So I was off last week, but I'm working this week.  The PTO policy at my work is such a pain in that way.  And I don't want to use 2016 PTO while it's still 2015! So here I am at work this morning - for 4 hours. We have an amazing owner that often gives us "early shoves" when there are holidays.  Today we get 4 hours off.  So I came in at 6 Am so I can leave at 10 AM.  Why?  Because we have to drive to Columbia MO to get Eli from the Mizzou vet clinic.  Last week Tuesday (when I was off) we took him to the vet for further evaluation and we couldn't find anything.  So the next step was a bone scan.  But they didn't have any appointments till Monday.  So we brought him home and took him back on Sunday.  Ugh - just what I wanted to do my last day off work and just what I wanted to do today on Christmas Eve.  But the bottom line is that I will do anything for my pets.  I just didn't "plan" this and so I have to fit it in.  What it really means for me is no relaxation.  I have every minute planned from now till 11 AM tomorrow when we have to be at my mother in law's house for Christmas.   That being said - the bone scan for Eli revealed neck and back arthritis and he got both injected.  That's all we can do.  If that doesn't help him he will be on a daily anti inflammatory to keep him comfortable. 

In the meantime I've been trying to finish Christmas shopping and wrapping and baking.  I *love* wrapping gifts.  I have most of them wrapped.  I also love baking and I hate that Christmas is a Friday this year.  With working all week I've been baking at night.  I felt like last weekend was just too early to bake it all and keep it fresh. 


Last week Friday I made this cake for the barn where I board Eli.  It's a Tie Dye Christmas Wreath Cake that I make every year for the barn.  I love it!  It's fun to make and I add some almond extract.  It was yummy this year and it's gone in the blink of an eye. 

I made these cookies.  They are called Almond Balls, but I need a new name.  They are like a sugar cookie with almond extract.  I got the recipe from a previous coworker.  I hate calling them almond balls because people seem to think they are full of nuts and they aren't.   Have I mentioned I love almond extract. I could drink the whole bottle!  As it is I double (at least) the amount in every recipe.  I count like this: 1 tsp . . . 2 tsp . . . whole bottle.  Ha ha! :)  That stuff is the bomb!

Then I made my Grandma's thumbprint cookies.  She made these every single Christmas when I was a kid.  They bring back such memories and now I will carry on the tradition.  

And last night I made these cream cheese rollups.  They are made with white bread if you can believe that.  I don't have a nice fancy photo of them cause I was cranky as heck last night and snapped a pic when they came out of the oven. I could have used some help from my husband last night make these, but he sat in the recliner surfing facebook on the iPad.   I got this recipe a *long* time ago from my Aunt. She passed away 12 years ago when she was 36.  So this recipe has been around a long time. They remind me of her and while they aren't hard to make and take very little ingredients,  making them alone sucks. 

So the clock is ticking and I have 3 hours till I can leave work and go pick up my baby!  I promised him he'd be home for Christmas.   

Merry Christmas everyone!  Hope it's an enjoyable time with the ones you love. 

SNOW!!!

This was a crazy weekend!  OMG.

First we had another Christmas on Saturday.  So Friday night we made more sugar cookies!  YAY. I had got some really tiny cutters from Target after Christmas and I just couldn't wait a whole year to use them.  I really really love decorating cookies.  I think my goal this year is to learn how to get better at it.  It's so relaxing and therapeutic for me.  This time I felt like Roger rushed a bit more than the last time, so his didn't look quite as good.

So Christmas on Saturday. . . my Dad's family is a HOT mess.  They are never on time.  But apparently they are also not very clear on plans.  We were told Christmas at 3:00.  I figured we would eat by 4.  Around 4:30 I found out that eating was a 6:00pm.  And some people knew that and other did not.  I would *never* have been there at 3:10 if I had known.  My poor dad. . . . he had been out delivering gas that day and rushed. . . he was "late" (for the 3:00 time) but was not thrilled to sit there wasting time when he could have not rushed and also finished some chores at home (feeding animals) before coming to Christmas.  Ugh.  I literally grazed on crap food for 3 hours!!!   Not good.  Not good at all.

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The weathermen kept saying it was going to snow Saturday night through Sunday.  I'm not sure I really believed the predictions (10-ish inches).   When it wasn't snowing Sat night I thought maybe we wouldn't get it at all.  Umm . . . no we got it.  Whew.  It snowed ALL day Sunday.  And it was windy as could be.  Snow was blowing sideways.  Since we don't live in town it was hard to get a feel for how much snow we got cause the wind caused 4 ft drifts and left some places bare.   I enjoyed spending the day inside watching it snow.    I did go outside to take photos and I'm not sure why.  I was miserable.  I couldn't see the LCD of my camera very well.  I just trusted I knew what I was doing.  I got some good pics though.  And here you will see my poor little snowman all buried in snow. I  imagine he loves the snow but probably hoped it didn't cover his eyes!

My office was closed yesterday and again I enjoyed the day at home.  I was lucky my dentist remained open and I got my tooth fixed without taking time off work.  We watched The Host last night.  I loved that book and I enjoyed the movie.  I thought it was well done.

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I know why I put my heart rate monitor for my Garmin on upside down all the time!  I didn't run this weekend.  However, on my last run I noticed about 30 secs into the run that it was upside down and was able to correct it.

It's the exact opposite orientation from my Polar HR monitor.  I always put my Polar on with the rounded side up.  I didn't matter with the Polar though. It would work no matter what.  With the Garmin, the little runner dude has to be right side up in order for the running dynamics to work.  The heart rate will still be recorded, but not the running dynamics.   And it appears I still want to put it on with the rounded side up - which makes the runner dude upside down!  My husband said "I can paint a mark on it so that you will know which way is up".  I said "honey there is a mark on it, there's a little runner dude!  But apparently I still can't follow directions!"

Christmas!!!

I hope you all had a great Christmas! :)   I have to admit that I kind of get depressed at the end of the year.  It seems like every year goes by quicker than the last.  And I still haven't accomplished the one goal I have in life.   So as New Year's approaches, I get in a crabby little funk.  I despise New Year's more than any other holiday.  All these new resolutions and happiness just make me want to gag.

But enough of the depressing talk.  We celebrated one Christmas so far.  Normally on Christmas Eve we go to my Granny's house and celebrate with my Dad's side of the family.  Since my Granny passed away in Sept things were kind of unclear.  About a week ago my Aunt Jane decided to have it.  However, she had a death on her other side of the family (sort of - not quite family) on Sunday.  So it was postponed indefinitely.  And honestly, knowing that family, I wonder if they will get it in gear and actually choose another date.

So we had nothing to do on Christmas Eve.  Ok that's a lie.  Roger's sister had called us a week or so ago to see what we were doing.  They were doing a white elephant gift exchange.  But we thought we had plans.   And when we found out we didn't, I did *not* want to go out to get more gifts.  And honestly I'm about sick of gifts that I don't want/need/have space for/collect dust etc.  Plus since we were spending Christmas day with that side of the family I figured we could do Tuesday night ourselves.  So we did. I wanted to try something that I saw on Pinterest - upside down Gingerbread men make reindeer.  So much to my husband's dismay we made more cookies.  However I discovered he has a hidden decorating talent.  OMG.  He was rocking the gingerbread men.  We didn't make as many reindeer.  I did maybe one deer and 4 or 5 gingerbread men.  But I did all the candy canes and I loved them.  I will do them again next year!

Then we made a pizza that we had got (uncooked) from a local bar.  Best pizza around and it's better made at home on the pizza stone than it is there.   We watched a hallmark movie and opened one gift. 

Christmas morning came and we opened our gifts first thing.  The cats enjoyed the boxes!

Then I went for a 3 mile run.  My massage therapist found a really messed up spot above my knee on my inner thigh.  She says this is why my knee is hurting.  I had the massage on Monday.  I will say that my knee was better on this run than my previous 3 mile run, but still not perfect.  However, I'm going to roll that spot on the foam roller and massage it myself.  I did discover that I have to really contort myself to manage to roll that spot.  Geesh.   I'm employing positive thinking that this is going to help and I can sign up for the half.   

When I got home we ate hole in one eggs and started making the corn casserole that we were bringing to Roger's sister's house.  That was a bit of stressful thing, but we managed to get it done and it tasted pretty good.   

I have to admit that I find it stressful being an in-law.  I felt very welcome in Roger's family when we were dating.  His parents and my parents live less than 2 miles apart.  So our families knew each other.  But somewhere things changed and I think they like me less now.  That causes me to feel uncomfortable and to withdraw and not really socialize.   Roger's mom finally figured out that I like snowmen and got me this great rug: 

It's so funny to me but I really don't think his side of the family knows me that well.  I think I'm pretty easy to shop for, but Roger disagrees.  *shrug*

I do have the cutest great-nephew in the world!!  And the best part, unlike my nephews, I don't have to bribe him to pose with me for a photo.  I hope that never changes.

 I think the camera on my new phone sucks big time.  After we opened gifts we played Pokeno which is like bingo but with a deck of cards rather than numbers.  There is a table of gifts and we play each round till everyone gets "Pokeno!".  This year we all had to bring a gift for the game.  In previous years Roger's mom supplied all the gifts.  I thought that was unfair and I told Roger that from the very first year.  I said everyone should bring some gifts.   He never listened to me.  I'm not sure how it came about this year, but I think it was more fair.  Though the table wasn't as full and quite honestly I'm not sure everyone brought a gift.  Nonetheless it was fun.

After we got home, I snuggled with the kitties.  Roger got me a Cardinals blanket and I think Mr Blue is in love with it!  He never ever sits on my lap in the evenings.  He is always in Roger's lap.  But he seemed very attracted to my new blanket.

We watched Hunger Games last night.  It was that or Smurfs 2.  Not sure how Roger agreed to Hunger Games.  But it was good and we are thinking of going to see Catching Fire in the theater.  I haven't heard much about it though.  I thought the first movie was very good so I hope the 2nd is done just as well. 

The other day I got an email that the photos were up from my 15K.   Well the thing is that I wore my number on my shirt.  In the beginning of the race I had a jacket on.  By the end my number was crumpled.  I know a photographer got a photo of me just prior to the finish and at the finish.  Other than that I didn't really see any photographers.  But since they couldn't read my number I had to search the lost and found photos.  I did manage to find 5 of me.  The ones taken just prior to the end were disappointing.  I was looking at the photographer.  He told me he got me, but honestly they suck and he had plenty of time to get a good one.  I do like the one at the finish where you can see the clock.  Even though that time is wrong because I was in the 2nd start wave. 

I have a confession to make.  This stems from something I noticed when shopping.  Roger and I were at Cabela's recently and I tried on 2 jackets.  There weren't any mirrors other than the dressing rooms.  So I had him snap a photo of me so I could see.  The first jacket was a hot mess.  But the second one I liked (he ended up getting it for me for Christmas).   However, I hated the photo of me.  I swear my boobs are low.  Am I crazy?  I looked horrible in that photo.  I actually took the jacket to the dressing room and thought it looked ok.  My parents were with us and I tried it on for my mom.  She liked it. Then I showed her the photo and pointed out my low hanging boobs.  She agreed the photo wasn't flattering.  And so I see the SAME thing in this photo.  I have a sports bra on.  So of course I'm smashed from side to side. But gosh sometimes I feel like my boobs are closer to my belly button than my armpits!   I'm only 35 for crying out loud.  And they are tiny so the gravity excuse does NOT work. :(

We celebrate Christmas with my family on Sat so that my nephew can be there.  This weekend is my brother's weekend.  And even though this year was his turn to have him on Christmas, we just don't get together that day since everyone has so many other obligations.  It turns out my brother was so sick he didn't get Hayden.  So it works out well.  One more Christmas and one more day of stuffing my face. I think I'll be running on Sat morning too.  I feel better about doing something before I eat.  Even though I still eat more than I burned off! :)

Baking Frenzy

I went on a little baking frenzy this weekend.  I'm not sure what possessed me.  Maybe it's the fact that I finally had time.  I didn't have to edit photos.  Wow what a relief that was.  Of course I have a to-do list that's still a mile long, but I ignored it.  

First I made my Grandma's thumbprint cookies.  As a child these were my favorite.  As an adult what a pain in the butt they are to make!  Wow.  

Then I made my current favorite cookie.  I got this recipe from a coworker at my previous job.  They are called "Almond Balls" but I think that's misleading cause there aren't any nuts in them.  I suspect most people would think there are based on the name.  But instead there is yummy delicious almond extract.  I have a huge bottle because I almost always add more than the recipe calls for.  I'm not going to lie, I thought about drinking the bottle.  Ha!  

Then I got this stupid idea that these packages of cookie decorations at Walmart would be fun. I'd seen them a while back but didn't get any.  Finally I caved this weekend.  What the hell was I thinking?   First up were these cute little penguins. The instructions didn't say what size circle to make.   So the white parts were way to big and had to be cut down.   I had to provide my own icing and it appeared it needed to be black.  What food coloring combo makes black?  I didn't know you could buy black food coloring.  That's what I did.  I'm sure I'll get full use of that bottle. ;)   We made boys and girls and putting them together was pretty easy.  You iced the cookie, sprinkled black sugar sprinkles on (why I don't know), but the white part on and then the decorations.   

I also bought a santa kit.   These were easier as I didn't have to cut anything down.  But how do you make a skin colored icing?  Well I looked at the box and saw peach.  I thought that might work.  One drop of red and 2 drops of yellow.  Well it looks like Santa hit the spray tan booth!  He's a tad orange. Ooops! I knew this before we iced them but gosh I just didn't feel like messing with the color and making it even worse. 

I brought cookies to work yesterday and I decided to try the santa as there was one left.  Yikes!  The red hat is cinnamon.  That didn't go so well with the almond extract flavoring in the icing.  Oh well.    

I should say those penguins and Santas were made from Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix.  Cause who makes that from scratch?   I was surprised it didn't have me refrigerate it.  I happened to have 2 bags of the mix and liked how well it worked that I made more cookies. 

And I got bored with sprinkles.  I played with my icing and I now realize how far I have to go to make those really nice professional looking cookies.  Yikes. 

I also made oatmeal raisin cookies but didn't take a photo of those.  They are boring! :) 

I used to put together a Gingerbread house every year.  And every year I said never again.  I don't think I did one last year.  But recovering from hip surgery made it hard to do anything but watch the Hallmark Channel.   For my birthday last month my mom got me a Gingerbread Barn! OMG! How cool right? There was even this gummi horse that stuck out of the window.  Oh dear!  The concept was great but the execution not so great.  The icing sucked.  It was thick and didn't want to stick to the cookie that much.  The cookies for the roof were cut in way that didn't piece together well.   The whole thing was not very stable! lol 

They gave you two piping bags.  That's great but when you need to get the tip out for the other color that doesn't work so well.   So I put the white on with a knife and tried to water down the icing to make it spreadable.  Didn't work so well. 

The horse was SO cute, but he was too heavy for the icing and kept falling off. 

You can see how the roof just didn't want to stay together. 

I think the size ratio for the horse head was slightly off but he sure was cute!

I loved the gummi decorations that came with it.  That made it super easy to decorate.   But literally right after I snapped these photos the wall with horse caved in.  I gave up and threw the thing in the trash.  In previous years I kept the house set out for a few weeks in my living room. But this one just wasn't going to make it.  If the horse wouldn't stay on that took all the joy out of it for me.  lol 

Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!! I wish I could say I enjoyed the holiday season, but I really don't.  Maybe if I was a happier person I would, but instead I just hear the clock of life ticking and think off all the things I didn't accomplish this year.  But that's a story for another day.   Enjoy your holiday!