Post-Holiday Posting

My entire house is a chaotic mess. Guests are arriving tonight. I am oddly calm and fatalistic about it.

Just thought you should know.

Home for the Holiday

I missed Susie's cookie exchange this year, but I posted my favorite Christmas cookie recipe last year, so for those of you who missed it, here ya go.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Cookies: 1 C sugar; 1/2 C butter (or butter-flavor Crisco), softened; 1 tsp. vanilla; 1 egg; 2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted & cooled; 1 C flour; 1/2 tsp. salt. (Yes, I know there's no baking powder or soda... it's not a typo, TRUST me on this.)

Peppermint Frosting: 2&1/2 C confectioner's powedered sugar; 3 Tbls. milk; 1/4 C butter; 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract.

Fudge Drizzle: 1/4 C Butter; 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips; 2 Tbls. corn syrup.

Directions: Heat oven to 375F degrees; mix sugar, butter, vanilla, egg and chocolate. Stir in flour and salt. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonful on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each slightly with the bottom of a greased glass dipped in sugar. Bake 6-8 minutes -- DO NOT OVER-BAKE! Cool completely before spreading peppermint frosting evenly over each one. Heat ingredients for fudge drizzle gently over stovetop until melted and mixed smooth. Drizzle holly leaves, trees, stars or other design, or randomly, over each cookie. Let the fudge drizzle set and cool completely before covering or wrapping the cookies.

Yield: about 3 dozen.




And new for this year, I give you my recipe for the Blueberry Muffins I bake every single Christmas morning, in keeping with the childhood tradition of Mr. Eclectic's family:

1/2 C butter, softened
1 and 1/2 C sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 and 2/3 C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 C sour cream
2 C fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. Beat the butter and sugar in a medium bowl until they're light and fluffy, then beat in eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, soda and salt. Alternately fold the sour cream and the flour mixture by large spoonfuls into the batter. Fold in the blueberries, and distribute into muffin tins lined with paper muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Yield: 24 perfect muffins, preferred by Santas everywhere:





Our tree this year looked like this:





In fact, our house is so bright and shiny that even the cat is lit up:




And there you have it, home with us for the holiday. Wishing you all a very merry, very love-, laughter-, and peace-filled Christmas.

Nothing says "Celebrate" like an intoxicated penguin.

Beginning in 2005, he has inhabited our home with the rest of the holiday decorations. Created by our then-9-year-old son, the penguin is about 2.5 - 3 feet tall and laminated. Last year we hung him on the door in the kitchen, but this year he's out by the fireplace on the wall:




I'd offer you a drink, but clearly the penguin has emptied the house. Maybe I could interest you in a cookie instead?

Didja see it? Didja? Huh??

My Broncos won!! They really did! 37 - 20 over the Cardinals. It makes me happy, and I realize what a sad commentary that is on how simple are my joys, but it truly makes me happy and I'll not apologize for it.


Also, I'm happy to report that I was finally able to download pictures from September on my camera, and succeeded in taking and downloading one for our greeting cards, too.

Here are the boys, in a moment of sibling comraderie where they chose to wear matching shirts for the day and just generally get along. If not for the photo, I would have forgotten all about this sweet day:





Here I am with my good friend who didn't want his name published, on the set of an old-time radio show we performed around Labor Day:





And here is the greeting card photo, though I'll never be confused with SoozieQ or Shawkey for my photography skills:




Cross your fingers -- my camera may be back in business! I certainly hope so.

This Blog is NOT a Crime Scene

OK, Bloggy has threatened to draw the chalkline because of how long it's been since the last post.

While I'm sympathetic to his frustration, I'm too pathetic to actually write. And now that I think about it, I'm apathetic as well.

But today I finally have an excuse: we had a winter storm that dumped 8-10 inches of wet, HEAVY snow last night, which was followed by winds gusting up to 60 mph, knocking over trees and power lines, causing power outages, closing schools, and icing over the roads, and everything. Ergo, I couldn't post because there was no electricity.*

So, there's my "Get out of Jail Free" card, and now I want my 200 bucks, please.





*The power's back on now, for those of you who can't take the suspense.

Psssst...

Sssshhhhhhhh.... I need to talk to you. It's a secret. OK, here goes:



I love the Denver Broncos. With all my heart. And they can't play a game to win even if you paid them. Oh right... we do, and they still can't win.



I need help.

Happy freakin' Holidays

I don't know how all of y'all are finding time at this 'festive season' to post regularly with witty, insightful, interesting, touching, or otherwise great stuff, but it's intimidating me. However, I demand that you continue because heaven knows I'm too low on time (read "disorganized") to write anything, so I'm depending on you.

Thank you for being there in this, my time of panic.

Recipe for a Boy

Two parts motion, one part noise.
One part tears, three parts joys.

Who in heaven thought to make
Little boys who stay awake, through
Rest times, nap times, car rides too.
Then fall asleep while at the zoo!

One part stubborn, four parts grace.
Two parts kisses on his face.

Mix it all together and
Always offer him your hand, for
Growing up is all too fast.
These sacred moments* never last.




Happy Birthday, Carter!!




*With special thanks to Nina and Susie.