Linking up for Blogmas 2014…25 Days of Christmas. Because I LOVE Christmastime…still waiting for snow!! 🙂

I live in a small town on Lake Michigan, it is definitely winter here, but not a wonderland yet, that only happens when it snows, so I am going to share some pics of past Winter Wonderlands.  I have always loved snow, and ice skating.  When I was younger my dad would flood our back yard, so that we would have an ice skating rink.  It was some work, but the cold never bothered him.  Once we had a good solid rink, he would go out every couple of nights, and just spray it down with the garden hose to fill in any wholes and make it smooth again.  A Zamboni would have been sooo much easier.  My dad didn’t seem to mind the work because we enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.  As we got older, there were always rinks in the different parks in our town.

The one park on the lake has one large hill and we used to go sledding there.  I thought of this picture immediately, it is one of my favorites.  My brother and I went down the hill together, and we some how tipped over.  I always laugh at it, because my brother is completely laid out, like he’s unconscious or something, but I distinctively remember him landing on me first.

I always love a good blizzard.  Just preparing for it, and anticipating it, and knowing that things will slow down for awhile once it hits.  Being that I love snow, and have a snowman collection, one Christmas my kids bought me this snowman, and he has been our winter weather guy ever since, we named him Frostbite.  This was the year we really didn’t have any snow until January, and Frostbite was ready for it.

We also had a little help that year from a couple of Clone Troopers with shoveling snow.  I like to get out there with the kids and shovel snow, especially when it is still lightly falling, and it’s the first snow of the season.  After that, I just consider it my workout for the day, lol.

Last year was a bit ridiculous with the snow, we had 80 inches total for the winter.  The 3rd snowiest winter for our area.  After awhile we were like, yea….another snow storm 😐 (add sarcasm).   But again, Frostbite loved it, and was enjoying his new home.

When it snows and it gets cold, we can easily find ourselves caught up in a winter wonderland here.  This is a pic that my dad had taken some years ago.  This is from the waves crashing against the shore.

This is a beautiful sunset over the lake, taken by my daughter.

So yes…I am looking forward to the snow.  I always enjoy a white Christmas, but it isn’t always guaranteed.

Linking up for Blogmas 2014…25 Days of Christmas. Because I LOVE Christmastime…still waiting for snow!! 🙂

Usually I do a repeat of Thanksgiving Dinner.  If we decide to visit family on Christmas day, I’ll do it on another day.  My family starts talking about Thanksgiving dinner starting in September, lol.  So they suggested that I do it all over again at Christmas, so I have been doing that for a couple of years now.  This past Thanksgiving my oldest son (19), came up to me after we ate and just hugged me and in a voice like he was crying said, “Mommy, dinner was so good…it was beautiful…what do you need me to do?….I’ll do what ever you ask me to do.” #goofball.

Since my husband’s parents are from the south, I had to learn how to make some of the southern dishes he grew up with.  A couple of years ago, I added home made Mac n Cheese to the menu.  When I first heard that Mac n Cheese was included in Thanksgiving dinner, I was a like what? I was picturing the blue box from Kraft, lol.  This is the all time favorite of the kids.  But here is what I cook, I don’t have pics to include, but I think we are all recovering from our sugar coma from reading about all the delicious cookies from yesterday’s posts, lol.

Turkey – not stuffed.  I cook mine in an electric roaster, takes a little longer, but it’s worth it.  If I do use the oven, I will use a cooking bag, can’t go wrong with a bag.

Ham – with pineapples and brown sugar glaze.  This I do the day before then I re-heat it in the crock pot with the glaze that it was cooked in.  Also my kids’ favorite.  I also do this in the electric roaster, and I pour Ginger Ale over the ham, attach the pineapple slices with toothpicks all over it.  Then I mix the pineapple juice with the brown sugar and pour it over the ham to cook, such a good flavor!!

Dressing – not stuffing.  This is what my husband is used to.  It is baked in the oven in a square pan.  The ingredients are, green pepper, celery, green onion, corn meal, bread cubes, hard boiled eggs (diced), chicken broth, seasoned with poultry seasoning.  The green pepper, onion and celery are boiled in the chicken broth until soft, then you add all the other ingredients and mix together, then put in a pan and put in the oven until lightly browned.  Served with cranberry sauce.

Two Veggies – Corn and Green Beans with Bacon.

Real Mashed Potatoes – One of my favorites.

Home Made Mac N Cheese – This actually has 3 kinds of cheese in it, including Velveeta (not sure if that’s real cheese or not, lol), Cheddar and Mozzarella.  I make one big pan, and it’s the first to go 🙂

Brown and Serve Dinner Rolls, and Hawiian Sweet Dinner Rolls.

I cannot believe how much work goes into such a big dinner, and to think years ago, people cooked most of their meals like this, with home made dishes.  I am not by any means a good cook, not my thing.  I have to have a recipe, I wish I could just throw things together and it turn out to be something, but I’m not that girl.  But what I have learned over the years makes my family happy, and I enjoy seeing the smiles on their faces, and notice they move a little slower when going for seconds. 🙂 Not to mention my middle son (13) saying, “This is the BEST meal ever.” Lol.

Linking up for Blogmas 2014…25 Days of Christmas. Because I LOVE Christmastime…still waiting for snow!! 🙂

I really do enjoy baking for the holidays, and my family looks forward to eating all of our favorites.  The kids do help with decorating them, and my youngest is the official taste tester, or as he calls himself the test taster.  Special thanks to my daughter, who took all these pictures.  She was getting into it after awhile wanting to capture the details and textures of the cookies.

Green Trees – Using a Mirro Cookie press.  Which is a silver gun like contraption that you fill with dough, and there is a tree stencil at the bottom, and you press out cookies from it.  This was my mom’s and we used it when we were little, the cookies are delicious.

Sugar Cookies – rolled out dough, and we use cookie cutters for the various shapes, and decorate them with sugars.  These can also be frosted.

Chocolate Filled Snowballs – A Hershey kiss covered in a flaky nut filled cookie, covered in powdered sugar.  These are by far my favorite.

Roshky – A polish cookie that is light and flaky and is filled with nut filling,  apricot or plum butter filling.  These take some time to make.  Also considered a Slovak cookie and also called Kolaczki.  I was only able to make the nut and apricot ones this year since I could not find the plum butter filling, which are my favorite.  I was questioning my ethnicity as I was making these, because the first couple of batches did not turn out like that should have.  You have to pinch the two corners together in the middle, and a lot of mine were popping open in the oven, UGH!!  They are edible, just not pretty to look at, lol.  But my Polish eventually kicked in, and the later batches were much better.

Peanut Butter Blossoms – peanut butter cookie with a chocolate star in the middle.  Usually this recipe uses Hershey kisses, but this year I thought the chocolate stars might be better, and I think they are.

Seven Layer Bars – Seven layers of sweet goodness:  butter, graham cracker crumbs, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, walnuts and sweetened condensed milk.

This is what I baked this past weekend, and now I am all set for the holidays.  Every day my kids ask to eat just one, but I know how quickly one turns into two and so forth. But I admit to sneaking some for myself when they aren’t looking, lol.  I will probably let them have a few before the holidays, but they are mainly for cookie trays that we like to put out when we have family or friends over during the holiday season.

Linking up for Blogmas 2014…25 Days of Christmas. Because I LOVE Christmastime…still waiting for snow!! 🙂

Being that I live right off of Lake Michigan, winters can be very cold…even in the house, lol.  Last year when it was really cold, I had to go somewhere and I saw that my oldest son was not wearing his fur lined hoodie, so I put it on.  It was the warmest thing I ever wore, slightly big, but warm nonetheless.  I thought to myself I have to get me one of these!!  So this fall, as the temperatures slowly began to fall, I began searching for one for myself, and I found the perfect Sherpa lined hoodie.  I actually purchased two, the cream one and one in gray.  I almost didn’t get both of them, but I was taking advantage of a 40% off sale PLUS free shipping…you can’t beat that with a stick!!  Yes…I’m an avid online shopper, if I can avoid shopping in stores, I do by all means.

I am so glad that I bought both.  These are more sweater than sweatshirt, so that is another reason why I like them so much.  So basically this is something I cannot live without from now on, since I just bought them this year. 🙂

Linking up for Blogmas 2014…25 Days of Christmas. Because I LOVE Christmastime…still waiting for snow!! 🙂

Kindle Paperwhite

When these first came out, I didn’t think I would ever get on board, said it wasn’t the same as holding a book in your hands.  I am such a book lover, but I have found that I really just love to read.  So, yes, I now want one of these.

Prize Candle

I found this online.  It’s a candle that has a ring buried in the wax.  As you burn the candle the ring is revealed (wrapped up of course to protect it).  Once you dig out your ring you go to the site and enter in the code that is included, and then they let you know what the ring is worth.  It could be from $10 up to $5000.  I’m sure most of them are $10, but hey….it’s a candle and jewelry all in one…strange but yet clever, lol.