Happy New Year!

 Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and productive New Year!

Sunday Supper - Bodacious Broccoli Salad

Every year, come December 26th, all I want to eat is broccoli and fresh vegetables.  By the time Christmas day rolls around, I am SO over sugar, butter and carbs in general.

 

So, I bring you Bodacious Broccoli Salad from allrecipes.com.  It tastes much better than it looks in the photo.  I tend to eat nothing but this broccoli salad from Christmas to New Year's.  It really helps with the diabetic coma hangover.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

 Wishing you all a very

Merry

Christmas!

Happy Winter!

 Yes, I am definitely dialing it in but...

Happy First day of Winter!

Sunday Supper - Peanut Butter Fudge

My mother-in-law always made peanut butter fudge for Christmas and my husand LOVED it.  Absolutely LOVED it!  And since she's no longer able to cook, I thought I'd give it a try this year.  

I'll be using this recipe from Casserole Crissy.  I've never made any kind of fudge before so wish me luck.  The recipe looks easy enough.  I should be able to handle it.

Happy baking!

Christmas is how many days away?

 I feel like I'm totally failing Chrismtas this year and I'm not sure why.  I think that it's more like I'm not really enjoying it.  Normally the rush and the hassles and the days and days of pure panic mode get me in the Christmas spirit.  I seem to enjoy the frantic pre-Christmas life.  

But this year, because of the Winterfest booth, I've had to be a little more organized and I've had to get things done in advance instead of doing Every Single Thing on December 23rd.  Yes, normally, I find ways to busilly procrastinate until at least 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve Eve and then PURE TOTAL PANIC kicks in, along with a little Christmas magic and I get it all done.  Yes, I have hemmed, cross stitched and blocked hats and gloves on the car radiator vents on the way to the recipeints' house, but I've always gotten it all done.  And I kinda love that Christmas stress. 

But this year, with the exception of Christmas Eve and Day, I will be working at the Winterfest booth every single night starting tonight and going through January 2nd.  Every. Single. Night.  And by night, I mean I leave home around 1 p.m. every day and get home around midnight.

And because I am NOT a morning person and I have enough trouble leaving the house at 1:00 p.m. every day, I don't accomplish much in the mornings. So, I've had to prepare a little bit in advance this year.

So...

The gifts are bought.  And wrapped.  I've even taken them off the wrapping table and put them under the tree!

The hand-made gifts are made and finished. Gasp!

I've taken the annual tacky Christmas lights tour with Sarah.

The Winterfest booth is stocked.  Maybe not as well stocked as it was on opening weekend, but it's stocked with a decent selection of items.

The cookie dough is made and in the freezer in little balls just waiting to be baked next week.  (Thank you Sarah!)

The rum balls have been made and the kitchen cleaned up.  It never fails to amaze me just how far powdered sugar can fly!

I have either watched or pre-recorded my favorite Christmas movies so I can watch them while I'm having coffee and waking up in the mornings.

And Amazon delivered the last of the packages yesterday. 

Hmm, maybe I'm not done making gifts after all.  Yikes!

And, because I promised myself I wasn't going to kill myself worrying about getting last minute stuff done while dealing with Winterfest every day, there's a very good chance this will be my last post for 2021.  Well, that's not true.  I've written a couple of Sunday Supper posts in advance.  But other than that, this is probably my last post.  So,...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Gift knitting

 So, the gift knitting continues.

Can't show anything more than the pile of  yarn on my desk because these items are pretty obvious what they are once they have a few more rounds.  Even in black and white, it's obvious so ...

Meanwhile,

My friend, Monica, demonstrated her spinning talents at our booth this past weekend.  It was a slow weekend because it rained Friday night, POURED down RAINING Saturday and Sunday was Freezing cold.  I don't know how Monica sat there all night not even wearing a sweater, much less a coat.  As you can see, even the men were bundled up in their hats and heavy coats.  I even had to scrape ice off my windshield when I got out to my car.  Brrr!

But hey - I'm not complaining about the cold.  Well, maybe I am a little.  But it's nice that the weather feels like Christmas time.  😊

Hope your gift knitting is going well and on schedule!

Sunday Supper - Lemon Squares

Yum... Lemon Squares.... 

My cousin's wife always made lemon squares for Christmas and while they may not be a typical Christmas cookie, they scream Christmas to me.

And being somewhat light, or at least not as heavy/rich as say, triple chocolate brownies, lemon squares are easy to scarf down in quantity so make sure you double, or triple, the recipe.

This particular recipe comes from Betty Crocker.  It's simple, easy and delicious!  Yum!

Happy baking!

Getting There

 Do you have your Christmas Eve Cast On project planned and/or ready yet?

I had to run by the yarn shop to pick up a longer cabled needle for the Winterfest sweater and well... a tiny bit of yarn jumped into my arms.

The yarn is Bamboo Bloom from Universal Yarn and the photo doesn't do it justice.  I'm not normally a fan of thick and thin yarn but this stuff....  The shop has a sample cowl knit from it and, Wow!  It's such a simple project with such gorgeous results.  Simply knit the thin bits and purl the thick.  And this colorway ends up looking like snow covered mountains or ocean waves, depending on the season and your mindset.

I'm hoping this will be my Christmas Eve cast on project.  That's not to say I am not dying to cast it on right this very minute.  Absolutely dying! But, remember how my new, updated Christmas plan/schedule has absolutely no room for any disruptions?  Well, so far it's working.  I'm only behind by one to-do item.  That is far better than expected!  I might actually get everything done this year! 

Famous last words. 

I probably just karma'ed myself into disaster.  Yikes!

Oh, check out those adorable mitten stitchmarkers.  I just love how Yarniverse always puts little surprise thank you gifts in your bag.  Thank you Yarniverse!

Christmas Gift Knitting

The Christmas gift knitting continues so no knitting photos today.  Not even black and white ones.

We had a visit from Jack Frost during Winterfest this past weekend.  Everyone in our booth loves it when the various Christmas charecters stop by for a photo op and to say Merry Christmas.

But back to talking about knitting...

Boy!  I am so far behind on the knitting schedule.  So very, very far behind.  But, I've revamped my calendar, made a detailed plan, and if I don't have a single interruption and I can manage to focus on the knitting rather than the Hallmark Christmas movies, I think I can get it all done.  All it will take is zero interruptions and a small Christmas miracle.

And, since I'm so far behind on gift knitting, I'm even further behind on the Winterfest sweater project.  I'm actually now two full, gallon Zip-lock bags of yarn behind.  Two very, very full gallon bags.  Luckily, that sweater doesn't have a deadline.  Well, actually I guess it does now.  A little boy stopped by the booth this past weekend was quite concerned about when it would be finished.  He wouldn't settle for "a long time from now."  So, I now have the deadline of March, 2022.  And a six year old boss.  😁

Sunday Supper Holiday Edition

It's that time of year.  Cookie baking time.  So, I thought this month's Sunday Supper posts would be Christmas cookie related.

And because everyone who tastes one asks for the recipe, I thought I'd re-share my rum ball recipe.

I'm starting off the month with this recipe because they really should be made a week or so ahead of time.  Not that I know if they are really any better if allowed to sit for a week.  My husband tends to eat them as fast as I can make them.  He tends to eat the ones that are set aside for gifts too.  I pretty much have to make them and deliver them within 24 hours if I want anything to actually deliver.  They really are that good!

Happy rum balling!

On the needles

Besides that Winterfest sweater, I have a few other things on the needles.

There's the Merry Xmas Tree shawl.  The yarn is actually called Merry Xmas Tree and I love the way it is knitting up.  I bought the skein at a fiber festival several years ago and am excited to finally be knitting with it.  The yarn has just a bit of sparkle in it as well as tiny dots of color.  There's no pattern, it's just a heart shaped/triangular shawl with a few eyelet rows thrown in for interest.  I can't wait for it to be finished.  I'm dying to wear it to Winterfest.

And there's a little bit of gift knitting happening.

Can you guess what it is?  I hope the recipient can't.

And so that I'm not closing with a black and white photo...

I'm sorry for the blurr.  It was dark outside and the car was rolling through the line...  

But, have you ever noticed that the stop signs at Chick Fil A have a different font than normal stop signs?  I'd never noticed it before.  Apparently it's a thing.

I hope your Christmas knitting and/or crafting is going smoothly.