Ds2's quilt for Christmas is finished!  Overlook the missing baseboard on my walls (have I mentioned we're on the ten year remodeling plan? LOL) and the wrinkles in the quilt (I had it folded up and didn't press it before taking the picture).  It's also a rag quilt (you can see the one I made for ds1 here).  This quilt for ds2 was also very inexpensive to make.  The blue fabric (it has moons and stars on it - ds2 loves the moon) was purchased 5 or so years ago for $1.99/yard (this took less than 2 yards) and the solid color material was purchased at a thrift store for $.50/yard (also used less than 2 yards).  For the batting I used a couple of dh's old pima cotton polo-type shirts he no longer wore.  I did the squares as large 15-inch squares so the moon and stars print is really visible for ds2.  The overall result was a nice, lightweight quilt for a child that really does not like being covered up.

Ds1 wanted me to share our dining room table decoration.  I've done this in the past and was inspired to use the idea again this year.  The pinecones are from our yard and I simply used a paint brush to dab on a bit of glue all over each and followed that with a generous sprinkling of glitter.  The basket was rescued years ago from atop a neighbor's trash (the basket was in pristine condition).

We've also been stuffing ourselves silly with ginger cookies all week.  Ds1 and I made a double batch on Sunday and they will be gone before today is over!  I shared the recipe here.

I've been tagged by Vicki!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?  Wrapping paper, but I'd love to get to the point that we use cloth gift bags year after year.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial

3. When do you put up the tree?  Normally the weekend after Thanksgiving, however, my little guy is a wee bit too curious and rambunctious so we're waiting ... I have no idea when the tree will actually go up (it could be Christmas Eve!).

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually Jan. 1st, but this year it will probably be Christmas Day (see #3).

5. Do you like eggnog? No.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?  Barbies.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? No.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Hubby.

9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Mints and chocolate covered cherries from dh's mother.  I don't like either.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail.  It's not a huge list.

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love Tim Allen's Santa Clause movies and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? All year long.

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  I don't think so.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  Homemade cookies.

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear.

16. Favorite Christmas song? What Child Is This?, O Holy Night, Carol Of The Bells.

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home?  Stay home!

18. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? No.  We don't "do" Santa at our house.

 19. Angel on the tree top or a star? A paper plate angel ds1 made when he was 3.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Crowded stores, cranky people, too much commercialism and materialism.

22. Best thing about this time of year? Music, decorations, reading great children's Christmas books, food, and Jesus!

I'm tagging Angela and Amanda.

I cannot believe it's December! 

Our Christmas baking got started this past weekend.  Ds1 is my "assistant" and has a blast.  On Sunday we made no-bake cookies and snickerdoodles.  We made an additional batch of snickerdoodles last night to take to a Christmas party tonight.

Snickerdoodles

1 1/2 cups organic evaporated cane juice crystals

1/2 cup organic butter, softened

1 tsp. organic vanilla extract

2 organic eggs

2 3/4 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. sea salt

3 T. organic evaporated cane juice crystals

1 tsp. organic ground cinnamon

Cream the butter and cane juice crystals until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and eggs; blend well.  Combine the next 4 ingredients and add to the wet mixture; blend well.  Combine the remaining cane juice crystals and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.  Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the cane juice and cinnamon mixture.  Place about 2-inches apart on a baking stone.  Bake at 400* for 8-10 minutes or until light golden.  Immediately remove from the baking stone and cool completely.

I have ds2's quilt underway.  I decided, due to time constraints, to do the blocks differently than I originally planned.  I had intended to do 6x12 blocks, but am doing 15-inch blocks instead.  I have 4 completed.  I would have been further along, but I took a break from the quilt and have instead been working on a cross stitch snowman ornament that will be ds2's (not a gift).  I found the complete kit (brand new, never opened) at a thrift store for 10 cents.  This is the first time I've ever done a cross stitch ornament and quite honestly I am not enjoying the process.  It's so tiny and I find working on it difficult (the blue fabric makes it difficult to see what I'm doing as well).  I would much rather work on a huge piece any day!

Our tree is still not up and we have no idea when it will be.  We don't really have anywhere we can put it that it would be safe from ds2.  We truly fear he would just pull the whole thing over on top of himself or pull off all the ornaments, throw, and break them.  If we can't get an alternative plan figured out soon, it may be Christmas Eve before the tree goes up and it will come right back down Christmas Day. 

Let me shout it from the rooftops - ds1's quilt for Christmas is finally finished!  If you've been following along with my Christmas update posts, I know you're thinking "Well, it's about time already!" 

A wonderful tutorial for making a ragged quilt can be found here.  One of the nice things about a quilt like this is that you don't have to "play by the rules"...and I didn't.  I did use 6-inch squares, but I didn't quilt them using the "X" as shown in the tutorial.  Instead, I free-handed a square and then meandered inside each square (no two blocks are alike on my quilt).  An example of one of mine.......

I also threw in some surprises.  It will be fun to see how long it takes ds1 to find them all.  Here are a couple of examples.......

Also spread throughout the quilt are 4 blocks with pockets.  I thought that would be a fun way for him to tuck away treasures, I'll just have to be sure to check them before washing!

I only used a 1/4-inch seam allowance so it's not as "ragged" as the prior quilt I made for him in this same fashion.  I'm pleased with how this one turned out, but I do like the look that a bigger seam allowance gives.  This quilt was made entirely of old clothing or articles of clothing I found at yard sales, thrift stores, etc.  For the batting I used some of dh's old t-shirts.  It took me much longer to complete this project than I anticipated, but I did go a bit above and beyond in how I chose to quilt the squares.  I wouldn't have done it differently though.  Each one was made with extra helpings of love.  There were also some bumps in the road that affected how long and often I was able to work, plus I don't have a sewing machine so the entire quilt was done by hand. 

Now I'm ready to start cutting the fabric for ds2's ragged quilt.  The fabric has been washed and is drying as I'm typing this.  I had more fabric than I realized so I can make him a larger quilt than I expected.  That also means it will take me longer to complete the project so I have to really stay focused and remain diligent.  After that, I still have two pillowcases I intend to make for my two sweeties.

I'm also happy to report that my Christmas shopping is officially finished!  Hooray!  I love to have it completed before Thanksgiving so I was feeling a bit stressed that I didn't reach that goal this year.  However, do not underestimate the zoo gift shop!  I've been in some really terrible gift shops in places you would expect much better.  The zoo we visited recently had an awesome gift shop and I was able to knock out the last tiny bit of my shopping.  I feel like such a weight has been lifted from me.  I really do not care for crowds or traffic so I try to stay out of the stores from Thanksgiving until January if at all possible (with the exception of buying groceries).  It just makes for such a relaxed Christmas season and I can really enjoy the time with my family baking, watching Christmas movies and television specials, laughing, admiring beautiful decorations, etc.  

The other thing on my agenda is to come up with a Christmas Day menu.  I don't want to have the same dishes that we have year after year on both Thanksgiving and Christmas (the only thing that differs is that we maybe have a turkey for one and a ham for the other).  I think dh is on board with me with the exception that he is really wanting a ham.  They are $5.29/lb. at our local health food store (Beeler's all-natural ham)...can you say OUCH?  I would love to have some sort of nice seafood dish.  We'll see who wins    what happens.  I'm perusing a variety of magazines from the library and all of our cookbooks for ideas and having a wonderful time doing so (I love to browse through recipes)!

As promised, I'm sharing another recipe today.  You can find my recipe for pear bread here.  This is not something that I make exclusively during the Christmas season, but I do tend to make more then than any other time of the year.  It's one of dh's favorites.

I feel like I've been in drive-by mode this week as far as blogland is concerned.  I owe visits to so many of you!

I had intended to go full speed ahead with homeschooling this week, but when Monday rolled around I just didn't have it in me.  I think it's a combination of needing a bit of a break, being excited about Thanksgiving tomorrow, and grieving for our precious dog, Chloe, that we had to put down at the end of August (tomorrow would have been her 10th birthday - yes, we celebrate furbaby birthdays at our house).  We have done a bit of schooling this week, however.  Ds1 has been struggling with BJU Math 3 as of late.  I really thought he had mastered 4-digit subtraction, but I was wrong!  We've spent the week reviewing and taking our time with all the problems step-by-step.  He did one lesson in ABeka Language 3 for good measure and the rest of our "school" time has been spent voraciously reading The Silver Chair.  Reading The Chronicles of Narnia aloud with ds1 is my first exposure to all these books as well.  I cannot believe I never read them before!  Ds1 loves them as much as me and begs for more long after my voice has given out.  He is capable of reading them on his own, but this series we chose to place on our read-aloud list.  For art this week, ds1 and ds2 will create a birthday card to give to dh on Friday and our planned family fun event on Friday is to finish building the lasagna garden bed we started a couple of weekends ago (accomplishing a task that needs to be done and educational at the same time!).

As for my weekly Christmas update now ... I'm progressing along with ds1's ragged quilt.  I have 3 more rows to attach and then I need to stitch around all the edging, make the cuts, and wash so the cuts will fray.  I also had the brilliant (hah!) idea that we would go as a family and completely finish our Christmas shopping this past weekend.  We needed to make a trip to a SuperTarget for groceries (they have a pretty decent selection of organics) so I figured since we'd be there anyway....... 

We have very limited funds for gifts for dh and myself this year so the plan was for each of us to select several things throughout the store that we'd like for gifts from the boys and stocking stuffers and then we'd each, along with ds1, make purchases and be done with it.  You know what - neither of us could really find anything we wanted!  Oh sure, there are things we'd like to have, but price was a factor.  We are also trying our best to avoid purchasing products made in China (as I know many of you are also doing) and SuperTarget (or any other big box retailer) wasn't the best place to attempt that.  Nonetheless, we accomplished a bit of shopping, but didn't finish.

Ds1, ds2, and I did do a bit of shopping yesterday.  We finished up buying for dh and I am almost finished with ds2 (just one more stocking stuffer to go for him).  It's always great when they're young toddlers -  you can get away with buying things when they're along on the trip and then hide those items when you get home!  I still have one small item to get for ds1 and one stocking stuffer.  Of course, I still have three more homemade gifts to go ... a pillowcase for each of my boys and a ragged quilt for ds2.  (Note to self: Make a decision on homemade gifts early in the year next year and get started on them then!)

As promised, here is another goodie I'll be making for my family during the Christmas season.  Actually, I'll be making this a few times (the finished product freezes well) as it is our favorite cookie and batches disappear quickly.

Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp. organic ground ginger

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. organic ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. organic ground cloves

1/4 tsp. sea salt

3/4 cup organic butter, softened

1 cup organic evaporated cane juice crystals

1 organic egg

1/4 cup organic molasses (not blackstrap)

Additional organic evaporated cane juice crystals

Cream butter and evaporated cane juice crystals until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and molasses; beat well.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and sea salt.  Add half this mixture to the creamed ingredients; mix until combined.  Stir in the remaining flour mixture.  Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll each lightly in additional evaporated cane juice crystals.  Bake at 350* for about 10 minutes or until light brown and puffy.  Let cool for a couple of minutes on baking stone before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Geez, another week has whizzed by and I'm really no closer to being prepared for Christmas.  I don't know why, but I have a serious case of the blahs this year.  I don't get it.  I adore Christmas, but this year I am losing steam fast and am just not excited about it at all anymore.  Very odd for me.

I did get the last row of ds1's quilt put together and guess what ... the MIA quilted block (remember last week when I mentioned that I only had 99 instead of 100?) showed back up!  This was of course after I went to the trouble of making a new quilted block to take its place.  I have the new block set aside and suppose I should look at it as one step in the direction of a new quilt, but I am just completely weirded out over the whole thing.  I mean, how in the world did a block disappear and then reappear?  Anyway, I got all the rows laid out and after much rearranging, I finally decided on the order.  Now I need to snap to it and get them all attached!

We did receive the replacement piece for ds2's toy that arrived broken so all is well on that front. 

As promised, here is another recipe I plan on making during the Christmas season in my home...

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

1 cup plus 2 T. organic white whole wheat flour

1/4 cup organic evaporated cane juice crystals (or organic sugar)

1/2 cup organic unsalted butter

1/3 cup organic semisweet chocolate chips

Mix flour and eavaporated cane juice crystals together in a bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in the semisweet chocolate chips and form a dough with your hands.  Gently form dough into an 8-inch circle on a baking stone.  Score the dough with a knife (cut just about halfway through) into 8 wedges.  Prick each wedge two to three times with a fork.  Bake at 325* for about 25 minutes or until the shortbread looks golden at the edges and dry on top.  Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Silly me!  I completely forgot about posting my weekly Christmas update yesterday.  Can I blame it on both my boys being under the weather and my mind being elsewhere?

I'm ashamed to admit that I only completed one more row for ds1's quilt.  Call it lazy, call it needing a break ... either way, I should have been finished with all the rows and attaching them together by now. 

I did get a "mom day" this past Saturday and did a bit of shopping for ds1 (gifts and stocking).  I'm proud to report that ds2's gifts and birthday gifts are completed.  One item was broken (one small part), but we should hopefully receive the replacement piece soon.  Dh still has not given the boys a wish list so they can buy him a little something and I have failed to give them one for myself as well.  I pride myself on usually being completely finished with Christmas shopping by this time each year ... I really hate to go out to the stores any time after Thanksgiving ... but I just can't get myself in gear this year and am having a really hard time finding just the right things for ds1 (even though he's provided me with quite a lengthy list).

As promised, here's another recipe I'll be making for my family during the Christmas season.  I only make fudge once a year, at some point between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Any more than that and it always goes to waste, although that seems hard to believe in this house full of chocoholics.

Easy Fudge

(2) 9oz. bags organic semisweet chocolate chips

14oz. can organic sweetened condensed milk

Dash of sea salt

1 1/2 tsp. organic vanilla

Melt the semisweet chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and sea salt in a saucepan over low heat.  Stir in the vanilla.  Spread mixture evenly into an 8-inch square baking dish that has been lined with natural waxed paper.  Chill in the refrigerator about 3 hours or until firm.  To cut into squares, turn out onto a cutting board and remove waxed paper.  Store in the refrigerator.

Check out the Handmade Holidays at Sew, Mama, Sew!  Each day of November will showcase a different theme.  Here's what you'll find .......

November 1 ~ Aprons
November 2 ~ Pincushions & Pins
November 3 ~ For the House
November 4 ~ Lunch Bags
November 5 ~ Tote Bags
November 6 ~ Blankets for Baby
November 7 ~ For your Purse or Pocket
November 8 ~ Whimsy
November 9 ~ Fabric Ornaments
November 10 ~ Ties and Belts
November 11 ~ Reading & Writing
November 12 ~ For the Table
November 13 ~ Placemats
November 14 ~ Kids’ Clothes
November 15 ~ Warm those Toes
November 16 ~ Gifts for the Crafter
November 17 ~ Purses
November 18 ~ For Baby
November 19 ~ Tech Gifts
November 20 ~ Gifts for Organization
November 21 ~ Pillows
November 22 ~ Fun for Hair
November 23 ~ Soft Toys & Games
November 24 ~ Sachets
November 25 ~ For the Kitchen
November 26 ~ Embellishments
November 27 ~ Gifts for Warmth
November 28 ~ Drawstring Bags
November 29 ~ Fabric Boxes
November 30 ~ Gift Compilations

I've been diligently working on getting the rows sewn together for ds1's ragged quilt and have made great progress.  Eight rows are completed!  However, I made a discovery yesterday while arranging the layout of the last two rows ... I am one quilted square short!  I counted and counted and counted all the quilted squares and came up with one hundred each time, but either I miscounted or one has disappeared into thin air because there are only ninety-nine.  Thankfully I have some other material that I don't think will look too out of place in the quilt and it will only be one square so hopefully it won't be noticeable. 

I've also made progress on ds2's gifts in the respect that dh and I took some time last night to look at the wooden toys I have picked out for him.  We've decided on one item from Haba, two items from Bajo, and several items from Holztiger, but my list is way too long as far as the latter is concerned so I have some trimming to do before I can place the order.  Christmas and birthday will be taken care of all at once.

As promised, here is another recipe that's on my list to make for my family this Christmas season.  It's a simple no-bake cookie ... can you believe I've never made no-bake cookies?  I think ds1 will have a lot of fun making this with me.

No-Bake Cookies

2 cups Rapadura

1/4 cup organic baking cocoa

1/2 cup organic butter

1/2 cup organic milk

1/2 tsp. organic vanilla extract

1/2 cup organic creamy peanut butter

3 cups organic quick-cooking oats

Combine the first five ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan.  Cook over low heat until the butter melts; stir occasionally.  Increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil; boil for one minute.  Remove from the heat and quickly stir in the peanut butter (stir until smooth), then stir in the oats.  Working quickly, drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper.  Let cool completely before removing from waxed paper.  Store in an airtight container.

I've finally started putting together the first row of ds1's ragged quilt.  These are all the quilted blocks that will form the quilt.

I also picked up a box of Cascadian Farm multi grain squares on sale and have them tucked away for making crockpot chex mix during the Christmas season.  It's a favorite of dh's and both our boys usually give him a run for the money on who can eat it the fastest.  I basically follow the basic chex mix recipe, but use just the multi grain squares instead of the Chex cereals and leave out the bagel chips.  I just dump everything in the crockpot and make sure I stir it often. 

Life has a way of interrupting the best laid plans, doesn't it?  Our washing machine is literally living out its last moments which has resulted in lots of our time over the last week being spent reading about various machines online, a trip to Sears to attempt to look at machines (mostly thwarted by an overzelaous salesperson bound and determined to sell us the machine she thought we should have),  and dealing with laundry woes that have cropped up.  So, my quilting efforts have suffered greatly over the last week and I'm not finished getting all the 6-inch squares quilted together for ds1's quilt.  I'm almost there, but not quite. 

As promised, here's another recipe that will be prepared in our home this year during the Christmas season.  There's nothing Christmas-y about it, but it's simple, fun, and will be a yummy and alternative treat to cookies, cakes, and candies.

Churros

4 T. organic butter

6 organic flour tortillas

2 T. organic evaporated cane juice crystals

1/4 tsp. organic ground cinnamon

Melt butter in a large baking dish in a 450 degree oven.  Place the tortillas in the baking dish (will overlap slightly), turning each one time to coat both sides evenly with the melted butter.  Combine the cane juice crystals and cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over the tortillas.  Place the baking dish back in the oven and bake until tortillas are puffed and golden (6-7 minutes).

Ds1's quilt is coming along.  I'm up to 88 6-inch squares completed.  I was hoping to have enough fabric for a minimum of 100 squares.  I finished cutting all the fabric I had accumulated over the weekend and guess what ... I had enough for 100 6-inch squares exactly!  Thank you Lord!  I hope to get the remaining 12 quilted over the next couple of days and then I'll start sorting everything out and putting the rows together.

I also remembered a pillow I saw at a store back in August.  It's a cheetah print accent pillow (a nice-sized square one).  This was at a discount store of sorts (kind of like TJMaxx).  I had considered getting it for him at the time, but didn't.  It came back to my thoughts last week and I felt an urge to buy it for him.  We had to drive right by the store on our way home from errands this past Saturday so I told dh to stop and let me run in quickly.  Thankfully they still had the pillow and better yet, it was an additional 30% off!  What a blessing.  That sure stretched my Christmas dollars a bit more.  I think ds1 will be very surprised.  He's been hinting at having something like that for his bed for when he's hanging out reading a book.

As I mentioned in my post last week, I'll be sharing a recipe each week now that I plan to make this Christmas season for my family.  This is another that I've never tried, but it sounds yummy...

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup organic sour cream

1/2 cup organic butter

2 T. organic ground flaxseed meal + 6 T. water (or you can just use 2 eggs)

1 1/2 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder

1 1/2 cups organic white whole wheat flour

1 cup Rapadura

1 tsp. organic vanilla

Topping:

1/ cup organic brown sugar

1 1/2 T. organic ground cinnamon

Stir the baking soda into the sour cream and set aside.  Cream the butter and Rapadura.  Add the flaxseed meal (or eggs) and vanilla and mix well.  Add the flour and baking powder and combine thoroughly.  Stir in the sour cream and baking soda mixture.  Pour half of the batter into a greased 8-inch square baking pan.  Sprinkle the batter with half of the topping mixture.  Repeat with the remaining batter and topping.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

This week I'm going to start sharing a recipe each week of the goodies I have planned to make this Christmas season.  This is one I haven't made in a few years so it'll be a nice surprise for my family.

Chocolate Cookies

1 1/4 cups organic butter

2 cups Rapadura

2 T. organic faxseed meal + 6 T. water (or you can use 2 eggs)

2 tsp. organic vanilla extract

2 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup organic baking cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. sea salt

2 cups organic semisweet chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar.  Add the flaxseed meal and water (if using eggs, add one at a time and beat well after each addition).  Combine the dry ingredients and add a little at a time to the creamed mixture.  Stir in the vanilla and chocolate chips.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a baking stone.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 to 10 minutes (be sure not to overbake).  Remove from oven and let cool for a minute before transferring to wire racks. 

The ragged quilt I'm working on for ds1 is continuing to come along.  I am up to 76 6-inch quilted squares finished thusfar and will start cutting more fabric today.  I was able to only get a couple of more stamps for his collection at yesterday's stamp club meeting.  I had hoped to find more, but ds2 was into everything (the kids just leave their stamps and albums lying around everywhere and I was in constant pursuit to keep him from tearing anything up).

I've fallen a bit behind schedule on ds1's quilt.  I have 59 squares completed at this point, but had hoped to have 64.  At least I'm not terribly far behind my goal.  A good chunk of time was spent cutting apart more shirts, pressing the fabric, and then cutting 6-inch squares.  I really need to remember that when setting my weekly goals now (since I am at the point that I will be having to cut more fabric each week). 

I also bought some goodies for our stockings.   Ds1, ds2, and dh will all be getting one of these    and I will be getting one of these .  Yes, I bought something for my own stocking.  If I didn't, dh would not buy what I wanted (he is a last minute shopper and just buys whatever he happens upon).  The health food store we shop generally puts these on sale this time of year so I go ahead and buy to take advantage of the savings ($1.26 per bar) and keep them in the freezer until Christmas.  If you've never tried any of the Green & Black's chocolates, don't deny yourself any longer - they are simply divine!