Gifts from the Kitchen and the Heart

 

Home baked goods have always been part of my family's Christmas festivities.

Cookies are the most frequently made gifts.

Hundreds have been made throughout the decades and every kind imagineable.

While there are traditional kinds of cookies, made yearly,  occasional new recipes are added to the mix.

This year peanut butter fudge has been made for the first time. 

It's being packed in little tins purchased from Goodwill and will provide a delicious treat for recipients.

Oh yes, and there have been many pumpkin breads made, as well, which are delicious plain or with frosting or creamed cheese.

Baked goods make great gifts for just about anyone who still consumes sugar.

DO YOU EVER GIVE FOOD GIFTS FOR CHRISTMAS?

Winter Solstice and the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Today marks the fourth Sunday of Advent for Christians.

We can now burn all four candles on the advent wreath.

Christmas is just days away, including today.  

The birth of the Baby Jesus gives us hope for our world which, at times, seems more chaotic and unjust as ever.

But the little Baby Jesus brings peacen and incredible love. 

Yes, that's what He personifies, deep love for all of His earthly children.

That is so amazing and comforting.

Winter Solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year, therefore more darkness.

But, fear not!  After tonight we will encounter the beginning of more light daily. Thank goodness for that!

May today you feel His deep peace and love in your life. 

Glimpses Into Christmas Dollhouse

Christmas dollhouse has been a part of the holiday season around here for a long, long time.

Ever since teenage years, dollhouses and miniatures have tugged at my heart.

This fall, a 1970s dollhouse came to light at an estate sale.

My daughter loved it, wanted me to have it, and bought it. 

It became a birthday gift to me from my three local grands. 

The beautiful but definitely falling apart pink Victorian dollhouse got moved out and sold!

Out came the miniature Christmas decorations a couple of weeks ago.

Each grand decorated one bedroom and helped deck the rest of the house, too.

They did a truly awesome job, filled with creativity and artistic prowess.

Today, we give you a glimpse into some of the rooms!  If interested, enjoy!

Merry (Big) Christmas and Merry (Little) Christmas, too!

Gingerbread Smiles

 

As the days until Christmas get shorter, and the things that need doing get longer, it's sometimes hard to keep up the momentum.

It would be great to have the ability to remain as cheerful and carefree as the little gingerbread figurines in this post.

They are adorable.

Sometimes the rush and chaos of the holiday season can weigh heavily on one's heart.

Today is a good day to stop. Slow down.  Think of a baby in a manger. 

Then, concentrate on that baby being a king who would save mankind.

That's reason to smile!

All of these thoughts came as a result of  seeing replicas of a gingerbread boy and girl.

A Christmas Tradition

 

Families everywhere have holiday traditions that enrich the lives of their children.

One tradition in my own family is decorating homemade gingerbread houses.

We have done this for many decades.

                                                                                                                                                               Some years there was hardly any money for candies to put onto the house but we somehow managed to scrape enough together to do it.

The dollar stores have always been  good places to find small bags of candy that would enable us to have a good variety.

If candies are left from Halloween, we use those, too.

Last year, there was not enough time to make the houses from scratch so we bought a gingerbread kit in a box. 

It turned out to be a real disaster and made the local grands yearn for the homemade variety.

This year, when my newly teenage granddaughter said, "Grandma, can we decorate a gingerbread house this year?,"  my heart said "Yes, yes, yes."

So dough for two houses was mixed, spread, baked, and cut into shapes of roofs, sides, fronts and backs of houses.

The kids had a blast decorating the gingerbread creations. 

Once I'm gone from this earth, the kids will surely remember decorating gingerbread houses with Grammie!