Christmas Baking

Martin, being English, thinks that Christmas has only arrived when he gets his fruitcake. Which is usually from Mom and in his stocking. I found a fruitcake bar recipe in a cookie magazine and it included nice sounding fruits, so I decided to make it for him. He kept wanting to get in the kitchen and help, but I was trying to do something FOR HIM and wouldn't really let him.


His face doesn't actually show delight, but he was loving these! They were moist and quite tasty and even I enjoyed eating them! (And I HATE fruitcake) I made these for our Christmas Eve buffet at Mom's. (The green bits you see in the next photo were a few extra candied cherries I had leftover, and we added them in)

Golden Fruitcake Bars (’08 for Martin)
1 cup golden raisins

1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/2 cup pistachios, chopped
1 cup Brandy or orange juice

1 16 oz. box pound cake mix
1 cup powdered sugar

*Combine the dried fruit in a bowl and pour the orange juice over it. Let stand for 1 hour or overnight. Drain fruit; reserving brandy or OJ. (May not be any left)
*Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 15x10x1 baking pan; set aside.
*Mix the pound cake according to pkg. directions, except add 1 additional egg. Fold the drained fruit and pistachios into the batter. Spread batter into prepared pan.
*Bake for 25-30 minutes until cake is golden or toothpick comes out clean. Let bars cool in pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack.
*Meanwhile, mix 1 cup sugar with 2 tbs. reserved juice/brandy. Stir in additional juice if needed, to make frosting a drizzling consistency. Drizzle partially cooled cake with icing. Let cool completely. Use a serrated knife to cut into small bars. Makes 42.

I also made a cheesecake for Christmas day, as well. Lots of baking going on on the 24th. I usually make a cheesecake for dessert and the last 2 years it has been a Peppermint Cheesecake. This year I was ready for a change and went looking back through previous recipes... and found Fudge Truffle Cheesecake. I remember it being so incredibly rich. I made it in 1994 and hadn't repeated it since. Well, it turned out perfecto. No crack on the top, which made me happy! I've tried all of the tricks that people tell you will keep it from cracking and so far none of them are fail proof. Well, Grandma loved it and, of all people, my Mom did too! I couldn't believe it, as I figured it would be too rich! She ended up keeping a few pcs. to take to work and the nurse she worked with didn't eat any, so she ate a pc. both nights she worked! Guess it really was yummy! The photos of cheesecake always have the fancy cream piped on the top, but if you really do that it gets soft and melty and makes the rest of the cake look icky. So, we add it to each serving instead.

Fudge Truffle Cheesecake (Christmas ’94 & ‘08)

Chocolate Crumb Crust:
1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup Hersheys cocoa

1/3 cups melted butter
*Combine ingredients and press firmly on the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan.

Cheesecake:
2 cups (12 oz) Semi sweet chocolate chips

3 8 oz pkg. cream cheese, softened
14 oz can Sweetened Condensed milk

4 eggs
2 tbs vanilla extract

*Heat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare chocolate crust. Set aside.

*In heavy saucepan, over very low heat, melt chips, stirring constantly. In large mixing bowl, beat cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Add melted chips and remaining ingredients; mix well. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour and 5 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely. Chill several hours. Refrigerate leftovers

Visit with Stephanie's Family-12/19 & 20/'08

On a Friday morning, we drove just under 2 hours to Steph's house. We spent Friday and most of Sat. with them. We mostly just hung out and had fun. This picture shows some of Steph's living room and their tree. You can also see their 2 Jack Russels. Gretchen is spotted and Q-Tip is by Robert.

Emma loved their tree, as it had twinkling lights AND they were colored! At home we have white and they are stationary-no twinkles. Next year, we'll see what we can do about that!

Posing by the tree. At home it is hard to get good pictures by our tree, as it is by the big front window. You have so much light and the blinds showing in the photos. Next year we will also remedy that! No tree by the window!

When we arrived, the dogs immediately started barking and growling at"strangers' and it scared Emma TO DEATH! She cried and cried! But, as you can see she made friends with Gretchen, at least. We got a really gross picture of that too! Gretchen had just been licking Emma's face (even though I tried to prevent that) and there is a long string of slobber from Emma to Gretchen! ICKY!

Halie by the tree. We were trying to get her to smell the white snowflake, as it is scented and was from Nana. She did 1 time and it was too quick and we got no picture!

Two sisters and their daughters. We had such fun just talking, laughing, playing games and hanging out. Oh, we did make pretzels. Two kinds. Chocolate molded pretzels and the kind you dip and roll. We dipped in caramel and chocolate and rolled them in coconut, peppermint bits, sprinkles, peanuts, etc... We gave the guys some in their stockings, sent some to Kansas with Dad for the other Grandkids and are saving the rest for the New Year's Eve party.

A few family ones before we left.

Martin rode out in the pasture with Robert and took some pictures of cows, a bull and even some deer. We got to see the horses that stay right in the paddock next to their house, as well. Martin also took his kite bag with us and got to fly kites for a while on Sat. morning.

Update to the Sewing Blog

Here are photos of 2 of the pillows that I told about in a previous blog. This one is one of the 2 that had the 9 patch pieced together back. They had no trim or ruffle. Just plain.

This one is mine. Both sides are red plaid and it has a puffy, stuffed ruffly type edging. I had the ruffle stuff and most of the fabric in my stash for the past upteen years. Time to use it or lose it!

Sewing on this trim was easy enough, but working with the cording that I put on Gramma's was a huge pain in the you-know-what!

Sewing Day

I got out the sewing machine to make Photo Pillows for the women in our family. I already had most of the fabric needed and realized that the cover from my current scrapbook was vinyl and I was just throwing that away. So, I cut it up into 4 1/2 by 6 1/2 inch pieces and zigzagged that onto my fabric pillow tops on 3 sides. Thus, you can slip a 4x6 photo into the 4th side. I made them with holiday fabrics, to be used during the Christmas season. I have a pillow like this that is monogrammed 2005, which is where i got the idea. I made some with a puffy ruffle on the edges, one with cording (ugh! what a pain in the patookus that was) and several were plain. I did cut out and piece together a 9 patch for the back of 2 of the pillows, as Stephanie and Cyndi like more country/rustic decor.

Well, I was in the midst of sewing, when Martin decides that he was inspired to make his Corn Hole bags -now that I had the machine out! So, he cut and measure and plotted and figured out how to get enough bags made and have enough fabric left to make a carry bag for them. Which was great for him to get them done, but a pain in my behind because he kept taking over the machine anytime I left it!

He is actually a good seamstress and has made several precision kites in the past.

Here you can see 2 of my pillows on the far left side of the photo. I, being a good wife, took pictures of him sewing. But, somehow one of me never got taken. Or of my work! Just dreaming here, but someday i would like to have one of the machines that has the pre-programmed stitches and does monogramming and all of that other fancy stitchery!

2nd Christmas Dress

Here is our dress for the 2nd Sunday. Again, one of the after Christmas sale dresses from Sears last year.

She has so many different facial expressions. I take a bazillion photos and capture so many varied expressions each time!

My little Christmas dollbaby! She is such a sweet baby girl!

Emma meets the Christmas tree

Once all the presents were wrapped and placed around the tree we decided that it would be a good opportunity for Emma to start checking out those boxes and start trying to work out what was inside each. Emma was so fascinated to look at all the pretty bows on the packages and watch Daddy's christmas train going around the base of the tree that she forgot to play the pick-up, shake and poke game with the gifts. Oh well, she will just have to wait for Christmas day now to find out what surprises wait inside.

Here is some video of Emma scoping out the gifts.

And then the photo shoot afterwards:

Another Christmas outing...

We went to a local church's Christmas production. Imagine Christmas was a modern mix of drama, dance, music along with the traditional nativity. A really nice afternoon! Emma was totally enthralled with it all!

Wearing another one of Cousin Cyndi's holiday dresses. It had lil' silver snowflakes embroidered all over it. Wearing one of Mommy's foofy headbands.

Mommy & Emma. Finding different places to take pictures is a bit tricky. She found the bells hanging on the pillar right behind us and...

Liked how they looked. So she reached for them and then actually heard them! Wow! New toys! Uhmmm... Mommy said NOT!

I will definitely have my work cut out for me when it comes time to scrapbook the 2008 pictures! I have taken so many because of events and just how many different outfits she has to wear this month!! Whew!!

Scrapbook Day

Sat., December 6th was supposed to be our Family Scrapbook Day. Well, Cyndi was sick with a stomach bug and Aunt Becky had a horrid cold and congestion. So, Mom, Steph and I scrapped at Mom's house, rather than at Cyndi's, as was the previous plan.

Miss Emma joined us after her nap. She has on black velvet Christmas pants for the Christmas Crop! We each brought Christmas photos and the supplies needed to work only on Christmas pages. Mom had Christmas trivia questions that she asked every so often. At the end of that game, she had a prize. She also had small prizes for us as we completed our pages!

Uhmmm... Mom, glue is not for eating or sniffing! It is for attaching stuff to other stuff! Silly, girl!

Mom's first completed page. Halie and Santa from 2007.

Martin hung out with Dad, and they were conveniently around when it was time for a chinese lunch!

Look at all the stuff spread out on the table!! Mom was set up at one end, I was at this end, Steph was on the left side and we had Christmas stamps and supplies set up on the right side.

One of my completed layouts. From our 2005 trip to Carrabas for our Family Dinner out. I ended up completing 8 pages that day. Think I am behind? I am still trying to complete 2005 Christmas pages and I have 16 done!!! I guess that's what happens when it is the first Christmas as a married couple. It is all important and you end up with a ton of pictures!

Christmas Projects

Here are some of my Christmas projects: I made wooden frames for our nieces and nephews, both here in the US and in the UK. (I'll add the pics. of the others later, as some nosey people might see them before Christmas!)

Hayden and Brandon are Martin's nephews.

I painted the frame and added scrapbook papers. Embellished with a wooden cutout or two, and usually some stickers. They turned out quite cute!

Micah, Starla & Sierra are my brother, Rob's kids. There is also Venice, but goofy me forgot to take a photo of his frame when it was complete!

I also made a larger one for my in-laws, with a Christmas theme. As well as Martin's sister, Sarah-Jayne. I hope they make it thru the post ok.

These frames are easy to do and quite enjoyable to make. Michael's sells several different frame for $1 each. I already had the papers and paint. So, it was just a matter of choosing the embellishments.

Sitting Up

Emma has been trying to sit up by herself lately. She could do it prior to this for about 1 or 2 minutes max. But, Friday the 12th, she was just doing it! Sitting on her own for longer times. My little baby is growing up on me!!

She's dressed for lunch out w/ Daddy. The outfit came with the scarf, but I had to take a few pictures before leaving, because there was no way that it was going to stay on her head. I found that one also on clearance before she was born. At Sears I think, for less than $2. (Can't wait for the clearance sales this year!!) I bought one for Emma and one for Halie.



On Sat. the 13th, it was quite chilly out and she needed warmer clothes for going shopping. Not sure where we got this one, but it has daisy pants w/ a matching hoody. Lucky for me, I found a color co-ordinated onesie in the next size up clothes stash! I had it out sorting thru it to see what we had and, if anything, what we needed. After Christmas we are moving up to 6-9 months. We could move now, but she has 2 more outfits that we need to wear at least once!!! As well as 2 more Christmas dresses.


And look! She is sitting on her own, on the wood floor, for an extended time. I took about 10 pictures and she sat right there!

Sat the camera on the floor and took this one. You can't see the cute little tennies (tennis shoes for those who don't talk baby) w/ a crocheted flower on the strap, but they were handed down from Halie. Looked perfect with this outfit! Now we just need another cool day so we can wear it again!

Going To See Santa

Mid-week, we got dressed up and went to see Santa. I was hoping that she would not cry! Right now, she is a major Mommy's girl and doesn't usually respond to strangers getting close to her so well. So, Martin & I also dressed up just in case she was fussy, so we could take a family picture w/ the big guy as a back-up plan.

She makes some silly faces when we try to get her to look at the camera!

This is another one of the holiday outfits from my cousin Cyndi. It was a straight skirt on that jumper and being a size 3-6, it just barely went on her and then didn't want to stay down to cover her diaper! Oh well, we got to wear it once.

She actually loved Santa! She was quiet and still at first, but there were not many kids waiting, so we got to take our time. He was quiet and gentle with her and she just hammed it up!

She loved the fur on his sleeves. She has the Touch & Feel books that have fur on the dog and the cat and it must have reminded her of that. She kept touching it and pulling at it.

This Santa makes me think of our Uncle Martin (Mom's brother). He also has a beard, but this guys face is very similar as well. Well, we asked Santa (& Nana and Papaw) for "big girl" toys. She loves her toys and is ready for some different things. Only 10 more days to wait...

Christmas Playtime

We had unpacked the holiday decorations and the silly hats were on the dining room table. We had finished dinner and Emma was ready to get out of her Bumbo seat and do something different. I picked up the reindeer headband and plopped it on her and...it fit! Daddy said "You put on the Santa hat and I'll get the camera.'

Well, I had one hand to hold Emma and one to put on the silly hat. Wasn't working so well and Martin had to help.

Look at her expression. She is so silly! A few weeks ago I got her up from nap and still had my hair wrapped in a towel and she looked and looked at me. She looked at my face and then would just stare at my head, confused. Mommy's voice and Mommy's face but WHAT is that thing on her head???

Another day we put on the child size Santa hat and it also fit ok. Makes a cute picture!

I want to do some photos like Sears shows in their Photo studio ad, with the mostly naked baby laying on their tummy, w/ a Santa hat and a big red bow on their back. Don't know if she'll cooperate for that or not... We'll see!

Sunday, Dec. 7th

Stephanie & Halie had come to Hobe Sound for the weekend and since the girls had on their cute outfits, we needed photos!

But, as you can see we did not get any portrait quality photos, but rather several that offer a glimpse into that day. They were both tired, hungry and...

SICK OF ALL OF THIS PICTURE TAKING!! I WANT DOWN, MOMMY!!! So, we had to stop and move on to diaper changing, clothes changing and getting them some food.

Unplanned prior to this, Steph & I both had black & white clothes planned for church that day. Mom wore a black shirt so we could take mother & daughter photos too. I look REALLY tall next to them shorties! (might help that Martin was sitting down when he took this)

Mom's first Christmas themed table of the season. Garland, red berries, red candles and cloth napkins that were 1/2 red and 1/2 green. Very pretty. And the meal, of course was yummy-Roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, biscuits.... I made dessert that day. Banana Cream Cheesecake. Found the recipe in Kraft Foods Magazine and it was kind of a cross between cheesecake and banana cream pie. Quite good! It is made in a 9x13 pan and when 3 of us took a piece home for later, there was none left! I'm trying hard to maintainmy weight loss during these holidays!! So far so good...

Our First Christmas Dress-w/ More to Follow...

Somehow, this doesn't download the pictures in the order that I put them... They are actually backwards. What's up with that??? Guess I'll figure that out at some point. Amy got any help?

Anyway, this is the first of many Christmas dresses that Emma has this year! One really dressy one for each Sunday of the month, as well several other outfits for other holiday events. We have so many because I bought 2 last year, after Christmas was over for 2 or $3 a piece and saved them, Steph gave us this one and Nana bought her one.

I believe Papaw was making her laugh for this picture. She is undecided about Papaw right now. One Sunday she cries if he gets near and the next she is laughing her head off at him.

This one was taken before we left home. She was posing on the couch and got distracted by her shoes. It is an adorable photo that I immediately enlarged for a frame! Mommy also has a shoe thing!

Ready to leave for church.

Posing with Daddy. I made the foofy headband. Bought stretchy ones at

Walmart and added the ribbon bows.

She also has on Cousin Halie's shiny shoes from last year. She looked so stinkin' cute!