The Demise of the Gingerman House

This is a layout I did over Christmas, and one I'm quite fond of! Just documenting Ellie's destruction of our gingerbread house, or the "gingerman" house, as she called it.

From Scrapbook Pages

Christmas Eve

We're spending Christmas Eve day with Leif's family in Roundup. The Christmas festivities have officially begun!! Really, though, the gift giving started earlier this week, with the delivery of homebaked goodies (like the cookies you've been seeing all week!) to our friends. Here's what the finished packages looked like:

The cookies and tags were tied to the handle of the takeout boxes, so when you carry them, they look like this:

The stamps, of course, are PaperTrey Ink stamps. I love them! I think this is the third year I've used them, and I probably will next year, too. They are beautiful! For the labels I used another PaperTrey Ink set and I got to use my newest Martha Stewart border punch. Isn't it glorious? I'm very excited about it, and this is it's debut in my crafting!

The boxes are stuffed with sugar cookies, peppernuts, and hard candies shaped like gingerbread men (and flavored like English Toffee). I had so much fun putting them together! I hope the recipients enjoy them, too!

Happy Christmas Eve to you all!!

Ooh! Pretty Sparkly Snowflakes!

These are what we're using as tags on our gifts this year. Fun!

O, Tannenbaum!

I have to say, I really liked decorating the trees. Didn't think I would, but these are fun!

Ornament Cookies

Though you can't see it very well in the pictures, these cookies have color flow frosting and royal frosting, AND some edible glitter and sparkle dust! They are VERY fun!!

"Gingerbread" Men (and Women)

Well, they're not technically made of gingerbread, but they are in the shape of gingerbread people! I went over to Erika's on Friday and we baked sugar cookies. Then I came home and decorated them that night! It was my first REAL foray into color flow frosting, and I had fun experimenting. I hope to get a lot better - but I thought these guys were pretty cute!

I decorated lots of cookies, so be on the lookout for more cookie posts!!

Daily December Album

Over the weekend I finally made my Daily December album for this year. I love the papers, and I'm really excited about how it turned out! I had several chipboard albums that I wasn't using, so I decided to mix them up and put them together to create one larger album for my Daily December. I love it! Some paper and some paint were all I needed to make them cute as can be and ready for my pictures, which I am still faithfully taking each day. Tonight is Grinch-fest. Woohoo!

Today I get to go and pick up my pictures from Costco so I can finish last year's Daily December (because I feel this need to actually finish it, even if it is a year late!) and get started on this year's! I'm so excited! It's almost enough to make me forget that it's 10 below zero out there right now...!

Daily December List

What's on your Daily December activity list? So far this month we have...

1. Made cookies (though there will be more of that, for sure!)
2. Wrapped gifts (and more of that, for sure!)
3. Made Christmas gifts
4. Devoured the gingerbread house we made
5. Gone to the Christmas Stroll
6. Given to the Salvation Army

Still to do on my list...

1. Make Peppernuts
2. Look at Christmas lights
3. Take family Christmas picture
4. Take pictures of our decorations
5. Watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"
6. Drink some eggnog
7. Read some Christmas books by the Christmas tree
8. Open "12 Days of Christmas" gifts
9. Sing Christmas carols
10. RNT Holiday party (next Friday night!)
11. Build a snowman
12. Finish and send out Christmas cards
13. Open Christmas gifts
14. Have early Christmas with the Wicklands
15. Make salt dough Christmas ornaments

I'm sure there are other things I have on the list to do, but this will at least give me ideas as we think through what to do each day!

When 20 below is a beautiful thing....

Temperatures at 20 below zero are rarely a beautiful thing. Good for freezing all the bugs and keeping them at bay during the summer, yes, but good for getting out and playing in? No.

Unless you're making peppernuts.

Every year I make peppernut cookies for the holidays. My grandmother always did and I'm happy to carry on the tradition. Our recipe makes a ton of cookies, and if you're going to run the oven for half the day making them, it's best to do it on a cold day when you can enjoy the warmth.

But that's not why 20 below is beautiful on peppernut day. This is:

You see, you have to freeze the ropes of dough after you've formed them so they are solid enough to cut into cookies. I'm usually fighting to find enough space in my freezer for a few cookie sheets full of dough and it takes a long time for them to freeze. When it's 20 below out, though, you can just pop them outside in the snow and they freeze pretty quickly! It's sort of like flash freezing, I'd guess. It's great!

And then it occurred to me (well, actually it occurred to my brother, but he was nice enough to share this thought with me...) that the good German peppernut tradition probably predates the electric freezer. So I'm guessing putting the dough outside in the cold to chill is not something I am the first to do. Perhaps that's why they're winter cookies after all.

Holiday Ornament Making

This year Eliana got into the holiday spirit with hand crafted gifts, too! She and her little friends made some salt dough ornaments and painted them to give as gifts to the grandparents. Nothing like seeing your little girl get excited about crafting to make a mama's heart proud! =D

Ellie and J flattening out the salt dough.

Painting the ornaments at home the next day... Eliana painted them all by herself!

I think they turned out very nicely for ornaments made and hand painted by a 2 year old! I hope they were appreciated by the grandparents. I kept a couple for her to have as keepsakes, too.

Peppernuts!

Christmas is just not the same without peppernuts. They're little German spice cookies my grandmother always used to make. They're perfect for dunking in coffee and great by the handful. And Christmas is just not the same without them. So... today is Peppernut Day! I started making them yesterday, let them freeze overnight, and baked them this morning. Well, I baked half of them. The other half will have to wait until later because I have plans in a little over an hour and I don't want to pull out the other pan of frozen dough. There are dozens of recipes for peppernuts, and it seems that every Mennonite family has their own version. I've tried a couple other varieties, but nothing beats what *I* know to be peppernuts: 1 C. shortening 1 C. white sugar 1 C. butter 1 C. evaporated milk 2 C. brown sugar 1 egg Mix ingredients together. Add in: 1 tsp each: salt black pepper cinnamon nutmeg ginger baking powder baking soda 1/2 tsp each: allspice cloves anise oil 6-7 C. flour The dough will be thick, kind of like gingerbread. Refrigerate dough until chilled through. Roll chilled dough into long 3/4 inch diameter ropes. Freeze. Cut ropes into 1/4 inch cookies and place on baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Makes a few hundred cookies... That are perfect for gift giving!! Wrap them up in the cutest way you can think of and hand out to everyone you know!!

Christmas Card Tutorial

These are our Christmas cards this year, and as an added bit of Christmas cheer, I thought I'd share instructions on how to make them! The instructions and supplies below will make 12 cards. Merry Christmas!!


What you need:

• 2 sheets Hambly Frosty Snowflakes overlay
• 3 sheets snowflake patterned paper (I used a spotted plaid) 12x12 (any)
• 6 black and white 4x6 photographs
• 2 yards medium width ribbon
• 12 of each small letter needed to spell "snow" (any letter types - brads, stickers, die cut will do)
• 3 sheets (or more as needed) printer paper

What you do:

• Cut each overlay into 6 panels measuring 4x6 inches.
• Cut each sheet of patterned paper into 4 panels measuring 4x8 inches. (hint: cut a 4 inch swath across the bottom of the paper and trim it to 8 inches, then cut the remaining paper into thirds.)
• Print your letter or greeting in a text box measuring 4x5.5 inches. (You should be able to fit four on a sheet of printer paper and cut them apart.)
• Glue your letter to the patterned paper panel approximately 1/2 inch from the top.
  

• Layer your photo and overlay panel on top of the letter, also 1/2 inch from the top of the card.
  

• Punch two holes in the top of the layers, approximately 1 inch apart.
• Thread 6 inches of ribbon through the holes as desired. Trim ends on the diagonal.
  
• Adhere letters "SNOW" to the bottom of the card

These instructions make 12 cards and can easily be doubled or tripled for more! Cards fit into a business size (No. 10) envelope for mailing and do not require extra postage unless you used dimensional letters. As with all handmade cards, if you are unsure of the need for extra postage, ask your post office. I had mine hand canceled (which costs a little extra) to ensure they wouldn't get torn up in the mail and they arrived beautifully!

When the cards are all said and done, you will be left with 3 4x4 squares of snowflake paper. Use them to make a few gift tags or enclosures to spruce up your gifts this year!

Holiday Self Portrait

A Christmas Gift

My grandparents live in a nursing home in Kansas. I haven't seen them in a year. The last time I saw them, they met my daughter (who was then 5 months old) for the first time. She is their first and only great grandchild. I won't be seeing them this year for Christmas and I know they are sad that they will not be seeing Ellie. So my Christmas gift to them is a DVD with pictures and videos of Ellie. I spent practically the whole day at Taylor's house making it and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I hope they enjoy it.

While we were waiting for the DVD to finish burning, I had the thought that maybe the disc was just the right size to put in the back pocket of one of my paper bag albums. I got home and tried it, and sure enough it was. A few stamps and photos later I came up with this! A DVD holder, mini album, and card in one!! The front stamps are a Rhonna Farrer flourish and Christine Adolph image (December 25). The sentiment on the pull out card comes from the Snowflake Serenade set by PaperTrey Ink. This is the first time I've used it and it did not disappoint! So, without further ado, here is the gift for my grandparents (please excuse the Christmas light glare on the photos):