Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas

I recently suggested that amaryllis bulbs and hand print ornaments might be nice Christmas gifts if you're looking for some ideas.  It reminded me that over the years I've posted about a number of different crafts that could also make really nice Christmas gifts.  Here they are in case you're needing some homemade Christmas gift ideas right about now.

Recycled Ski and Pallet Sled  The sleds are very cheap to make but they go fast.  Gift them to older kids or pull your little ones around on it.  For them, you could even add a back and sides.

Quilt Potholders Love to quilt and need a little project that can be finished quickly?  These might be just what you need and they're a great way to use smaller bits of fabric that you love.  I gave these as gifts to siblings and a few friends last year.  They were so fun to make.

Homemade Fire Starters  Need a gift idea for a man (or woman) who loves burning wood?  Make them some fire starters using small Christmas cookie cutters and package them up in a brown sandwich bag (or a jar) with some red ribbon.

Marshmallow Shooter  Do you need a gift for someone who enjoys target practice and has a sweet tooth? You could even enlist your own kids to help make them.

Fabric Bulletin Board  Help decorate a room and give your loved one a place to keep their special pictures and cards.

Keepsake Name Sign  Craft stores have everything you need to put these name signs together and they're very sweet, don't you think?

Simple Knotted Fleece Blankets  My sister gave our kids these blankets for Christmas a few years ago. I couldn't believe how easy the instructions sound.  Our kids still use these nightly during the colder weather, often bringing them downstairs with them in the mornings.

Homemade Stilts  Jamey made these for our kids many years ago.  They still use them and he's raised the foot holds as they grow and are able to maneuver higher off the ground.

Pumpkin Streusel Bread  I couldn't put this post together without mentioning a baked gift, could I? This is my most-often baked gift and I hope to make some mini loaves of it this year for gifts and to have on hand to take to potlucks and get-togethers.

Do you have any homemade gift ideas for this year?  I have another one but if I share it won't be a surprise so you'll just have to wait :-).

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Our Favorite Christmas Treats

Originally posted November 20, 2013.

Just because we're waiting until the week before Christmas to bake, doesn't mean you are.  You all are much more disciplined about not sneaking them from the freezer or gobbling up half a dozen while they're still warm, right?  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Of course.

In the event you're already baking or will be baking soon, I wanted to offer up our favorites.  If you've been around here for awhile, you'll see that our list hasn't changed much.  That's because these are the cream of the crop, in my opinion, and improving on the list would be tough.  That said, I'd love to hear what your favorite Christmas cookie is.  Would you tell me?  Please, please, please?

Almost all of these recipes below can also be found here.

First off- Lemon Bars. Oh, how I love them.  My infatuation began in our college cafeteria where I ate them for the first time.  Imagine how I now enjoy these in contrast with the albeit tasty cafeteria version (they actually baked them there, I believe).

Next, we have my mother-in-law's Caramel Popcorn.  Hers is the best I've ever had- well-coated, not grainy, just melt-in-your-mouth heavenly.

These Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies are my favorite cookie in the world and I'm not exaggerating.  I could eat them every day at every meal.  Boldly spiced and chocolaty, they are divine.

Ahhhh.  These are my mother's Chocolate Mint Brownies.  You can add green food coloring to the mint layer to make them more festive, but I like leaving them pure white so your unsuspecting company is wowed by the flavor punch.

Such a classic- Peanut Blossoms.  These were my favorite growing up.  I'd always eat the peanut butter cookie around the kiss, saving the chocolate for my last bite.  Hmm.  Come to think of it, that's exactly what I still do:-).

This Gingerbread Cookie recipe came from my mom.  She use to pipe white icing on her gingerbread men, giving them faces and little pants, shirts and shoes.  Several years ago, I decided to decorate them by dipping them in melted chocolate and then let the kids decorate with sprinkles.  As you may have noticed above, I love the chocolate-gingerbread combination, so these are my second favorite cookie.  And I can still give the illusion of little pants, shoes and hats.

Do you know about Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies?  Well, I am happy to introduce you.  The bark can totally stand alone as a treat (or sweet gift wrapped in a cellophane bag), but add them to chocolate cookies?  Be still my beating heart.

In the back of Beth Morre's Bible study book on Esther comes this recipe for Haman's Ears.  Soft, sweet cookie is wrapped around your choice of filling- we use apple butter and different flavors of jam.  Not only are they delicious, but they remind our family of the way God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Lastly, Homemade Marshmallows.  If you've never tried these, you really must.  They are surprising easy to make and taste so much better than the store bought variety.  And!  Your kids will love dropping one big giant marshmallow into their hot chocolate instead of those of itty-bitty ones.

Happy baking, loves!

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Preparing for Advent & Some Gift Ideas

In years past, I've "prepared" for Advent during Advent.  Not the best way to really ready my heart when "preparing" means Christmas shopping, decorating, baking, sending Christmas cards, and stressing about all the above.

I'm not the only one who's decided to change when this kind of "preparing" occurs.  Many others have started altering their ways and some of you have known the secret all along.  The secret being to have most of the Christmas preparations done by the beginning of Advent.  This leaves space for centering our focus on what Christmas is about- the most important way to prepare.

This is a perfect year to start shifting how things are done because Thanksgiving came so early.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, would you like to see what my plate looked like?

Do you recognize any of your favorites? Glory be, what a meal that was!  Thanks, again, Mom (and Dad) :-).

Okay, back to Advent.  This year, we have a whole week (going on now!) between Thanksgiving and the start of December.  If you can, get a big jump on things this week so that once Advent starts, you can rest, focus and anticipate.  And help your family to do the same.

Here is my list of what I want to accomplish by the start of Advent.  Mind you, I've already been working on this list and have much of it completed.  Hear ye, hear ye!  If you are a mom of toddlers and/or babies or if you work outside the home, do not, do not, do not stress about this list!!!  My kids entertain themselves for the most part and I'm home full time.  Make these your goals for next Christmas and start in, like, August, okay?  I don't ever want to make anyone feel discouraged!  If I do that (even) unintentionally, stop reading me.  Please?  I mean it (with lots of love).  My list:

1) Finish the Christmas shopping.  It is still a tradition on both sides of our family to exchange gifts.  Some of you have moved away from this and enjoy the way it simplifies Christmas preparations immensely.  We continue to hope to move in this direction one day.  Advent Conspiracy is an excellent site to get you inspired to simply your Christmas season.  And, thank you to reader Liz, I was keeping my eye out for the book Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case For A More Joyful Christmas and picked it up at a thrift store for $1.50.  It's fascinating.

2) Decorate.  At our house this means: the Christmas tree (artificial, if you're wondering), the nativity scene, stocking hangers on the (fake) mantel, and lights hung (in the school room, kitchen, on mantel, and in each of the kids' rooms).  Hanging the stockings and cutting out snowflakes for the windows comes closer to Christmas.

3) Get out our Advent book and ornaments.  For the past few years, we've used The Advent Jesse Tree: Devotions for Children and Adults to Prepare for the Coming of the Christ Child at Christmas by Dean Lambert.  We had tried other Advent devotionals and like this one best. It has devotions perfect for elementary school age children and a separate devotion for adults for each day.  We have ornaments that correspond with the each day's theme that we hang on a branch that sits on our table.  The ornaments came from another Jesse Tree devotional we weren't very impressed with.  Do a quick google search for "Jesse tree ornament printables" and you can make your own.

4) Wash the windows.  I love clean windows and somehow letting in the sun light makes me think of clean hearts and The Light that came into this world on the first Christmas.  Please don't picture me out on a ladder with bucket and squeegee.  Washing windows, to me, means washing the downstairs windows that tilt in- that's it.

5) Send out Christmas cards.  Oh, please forgive me.  In the age of facebook, I still hang on to my Christmas-card-sending.  I just can't let it go...probably because I love getting Christmas cards so much.

Baking cookies comes the week before Christmas because I have ZERO self-control when it comes to sweets, frozen or otherwise.  Waiting until closer to the time and baking only a handful of kinds makes it something the kids and I look forward to once our Christmas break starts, doesn't become overwhelming, and keeps my goody-indulgences in check.

Okay, back to shopping for gifts.  I have just a few suggestions of gifts that are thoughtful and reasonable (especially price-wise) in case you're still working down your lists or still need to give gift suggestions to family members.

1) In the age of ridiculously expensive dolls, these are delightful.  Our girls have had all three for over a year.  They are well-made and so very sweet.  The outer clothes come off, but the shoes are sewed on (thank heavens!).

2) I Never Forget A Face Memory Game exposes your kids (or grand kids) to what children look like all over the world.  We love it.

3) Mavis introduced our kids to Smencils last Christmas.  They are a great way to motivate kids to work on homework/schoolwork and they're just plain fun.

4) Lastly, I would like to {humbly} mention the cookbook.  For those of you who live outside the U.S., please order this week if you'd like one by Christmas (email your order to thyhand123@gmail.com).  We've already sent multiple copies to Canada and Australia and we blew through our first printing in one week and have the second printing in hand so we're ready for future orders.

5) Stay tuned- in a couple days I'm going to show you a handmade gift that I bet you've never thought to make before.  It costs close to nothing (literally) and takes 15 minutes to make, tops.

However you prepare for Advent this year, I pray that it's with a light heart.  And I hope that at least once each day, you can calm your mind and heart and with sincere joy pray, "Come, Lord Jesus, Come!"

Love,
Jane Pin It

Easter at Home

As I think I've mentioned, we were home (at our house) for Easter this year. Traveling while being this pregnant did not sound appealing to me. At this point, I'll only travel if a little brother of mine is getting married (which he is, in a few weeks).

This was our very first holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) spent in our house in the 11 years we have been married. Yes, the first. It was nice to stay put. To invite people to our house. To make holiday memories here.


My sister and her family joined us, as did our neighbors- a couple next door. For the special occasion of Easter, my sister and I prepared ham and gravy, pineapple stuffing, green bean casserole, pickled Easter eggs, mandarin orange jello salad, blueberry muffins and jam, grape pie, sour cherry pie, vanilla ice cream and an outdoor Easter egg hunt.

Grandma's Pickled Easter Eggs

It was nice to be together, to eat too much, to watch the kids get excited about Easter eggs and to remember the reason why we celebrate Easter. Having Easter at our house may just become a new tradition.

Grape and Sour Cherry Pies

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Grandma's Pickled Easter Eggs

Some of my most vivid childhood memories of Easter are not my Easter basket, chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks. They are of the vibrant colored eggs in the center of my Grandma's table at Easter dinner.

I loved eggs even then- deviled, pickled red beet, hard-boiled, scrambled, you name it. Unfortunately, I had a mild egg allergy when I was a child. If I ate one, my inner elbows and the backs of my knees would break out into a spotty red rash. It was lovely. Thankfully, I have completely grown out of this.

For me to risk rash, the egg I was about to eat had to be special. And these Easter eggs were. Grandma displayed them in a large glass vase-like bowl that, now that I think about it was probably some kind of liquor decanter (although, to my knowledge, neither my Grandma or Grandpa drank liquor). Anyway, they were so pretty and it was so hard for me to wait for them to be passed around the table. They were tart, tangy and perfect.

This year, we are staying home for Easter. My sister and her family are joining us, as are some neighbors. Guess what is going to be in the center of my table?

Grandma's Pickled Easter Eggs
(make several days in advance)

10 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and rinsed
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
food coloring (at least three colors)

Combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Divide vinegar mixture between at least three jars with lids, reserving a cup. Add food coloring (6 or 7 drops per color) to jars. Add shelled hard-boiled eggs- several to each jar. Fill jars with reserved vinegar mixture. Cover and refrigerate for several days before serving. Grandma says they will keep for several months. Mine are not going to last several days.

Eggs, ready to serve Easter Sunday

Our chickens are giving us 10-12 eggs a day now. We supply another family with eggs, but even after that, we tend to build up a surplus now and again. When this happens, Jamey hard-boils eggs so he can take one in his lunch each day or I make deviled (Sam calls them "doubled"- I like this much better) eggs.


You'd think that after all the hard-boiling we do I would have figured out how to shell the eggs without them tearing apart. After a lot of trial and error, I have learned that what works best for me is 1) to keep them in a gentle boil for 20 minutes (less time gives me a softer egg that tears easier), 2) to rinse them in cold water as soon as they are done, then cover them with more cold water and two trays of ice cubes, and 3) wait patiently for at least 10 minutes before cracking them and ever so gently peeling them.

Even this doesn't always work. So, I have two questions for you. First, if you are successful in shelling your hard-boiled eggs, would you share your secret with me? Secondly, the egg recipe above calls for food coloring- do you have any natural dye substitution ideas that I could use in this recipe?

For your kind advice, I give you flowers.

Grape Hyacinths at our back door

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Valentine's Day Observed

Jamey makes me samosas for special occasions. Samosas are hands-down my favorite food. This is very ironic because in general, I hate fried foods. Except for samosas and homemade donuts, that is.

The other day, I hinted to Jamey that it had been a long time since he had made me samosas. He hinted back that Valentine's Day was coming up. I hinted back to him that on Valentine's Day we would have a house full of family here to celebrate birthdays. Hmmm.

Next thing I knew, I found "Valentine's Day Observed" written on our calendar in this past Friday's little square. My mouth started watering instantly.

When he makes samosas, we almost always feed the kids and put them to bed early so we can enjoy dinner without them. I pitched in this time so we could eat sooner- I need food when I need food these days. Here's what you do.


First, you mix up and saute this wonderful blend of spices, peas, diced potatoes, garlic and venison (you can replace the venison with beef or additional potatoes and peas).


At the same time, you combine 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 3 tbsp. brown sugar, 1-2 garlic cloves (minced or peeled and scored) and 1 tsp. salt in a small saucepan. Heat it up and stir to dissolve the sugar. Let it cool and set it aside. We use Moosewood Cookbook's recipe for Samosa Dipping Sauce.

Then, you mix up the dough and roll it out into ovals on the counter.

Fill half of the oval with about a tablespoon of the sauted filling.

Dampen the edge with water (using your finger), fold the other side over and crimp the edges with a fork to make a tight seal.

Then, gulp, fry them up.

The hardest thing about this recipe is waiting for the samosas to cool. Several times I have burned my mouth biting into these beauties. Thanks, dear. I love special occasions:-).

Samosas (recipe from Extending the Table, Kenya)

Pastry:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup water
1 tbsp. oil
Aim for slightly moist dough. Knead until smooth, 3-5 minutes. Cover with damp cloth until ready to roll out.

Filling:
2 onions, finely chopped
1 lb. lean beef (or venison)
Saute onions and beef in a little oil until beef is cooked. Then, add:
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. curry powder
1 medium potato, finely chopped or grated
1 cup water
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom (optional)
2 tbsp. raisins (optional)
ground red pepper or chopped chili peppers to taste (optional)

Simmer about 10 minutes until vegetables are cooked through and flavors blended. Drain thoroughly.

Once samosas are assembled (see above), heat about two inches of oil in a heavy saucepan to about 360 degrees F (185 C). Fry samosas a few at a time until golden brown and crisp on each side, about 3-4 minutes, turning 2-3 times. Drain on a paper towel. Makes about 28 samosas. Serve with dipping sauce.

We often have filling leftover, so we freeze it. Next time we want samosas, all we have to do is thaw the filling and mix up the pastry and dipping sauce. Pin It

C is for Cookie

Yep, we're still watching Sesame Street. I am still dealing with nausea daily. Killer headaches, weekly. A bright spot in all of this is that my sister and her sweet baby girl came and stayed with us for three days this week. The purpose of the visit (other than having our hearts melt over this baby girl) was to make Christmas cookies. (The timing was perfect, since Jamey has been studying and taking final exams all week.)

My mother is queen of Christmas cookies. While we were growing up, we couldn't afford to buy gifts for everyone we wanted to, so mom spent (what seemed like countless) hours making Christmas cookies. The variety was incredible- at least a dozen different kinds (including several different pressed cookies) as well as fudge and mini pumpkin breads. All were arranged on plates and given as gifts to all our school teachers, bus drivers, Sunday school teachers, piano and violin teachers and others I must be forgetting. And there were five of us kids! All this to say, both my sisters and I have cookie baking in our blood.

Thanks to our wonderful neighbors, I don't feel obliged to make the variety my mom did (and still does). For the past several years, they host a "Cookie Party" at their house. Sam was really disappointed the first year. After all the talk about this cookie party, there were no cookies to be found on the table. Instead, they provide the most wonderful spread of a supper for all of us neighbors. The cookies come into play this way...if there are 10 families attending the party, each family is to bring a dozen cookies for each family (bagged with the recipe and their name). This way, each family takes a lot of one kind of cookie, but comes home with 10 different varieties (totaling 10 dozen cookies). There's my variety.

So, what did my sister and I bake?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip (using our pumpkin)

Peanut Blossoms

Cranberry Oatmeal with White Chocolate (Gourmet magazine)

My Cookie Party cookie was a new recipe (for me) this year. They're called Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies. When I initially read the recipe, I didn't think I'd bother with it since it called for peppermint bark- something I didn't want to buy and had never made before. But, the recipe for the bark looked simple enough, so I put on the list. They turned out great.

Peppermint Bark

Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies

I loved having my sister and her babe here and so did Sam and Sadie. The highlight of the visit had to be while my sister was packing up to go. NOT because she was leaving, but because while she was loading her car, I was holding my three-month old niece while Sam and Sadie were entertaining her. They started jumping from the couch to a couch cushion on the floor to the floor, saying, "Jump, jump, jump!" All of a sudden, this babe on my lap started belly-laughing every time they did it. And continued laughing at them for a good five minutes. This, of course encouraged my kids to keep going, and soon everyone was laughing.

Oh, the baby belly laugh...better than all the Christmas cookies in the world.

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Christmas Crafts

I am not a real crafty mom in general. When it comes to Christmas time, though, making paper snowflakes is irresistible to me. Sam and Sadie are really enjoying making these this year. I still think I enjoy it more. Here are two Sam made and the one bottom left is Miss. Sadie's. She just makes little snips around the edge. Very pretty, no?

Sam tried a new Christmas craft this year. It's something I never would have thought of and maybe your kids would like to try. First, you stand on a chair to reach the craft cabinet key that you are not allowed to use without permission. Remove from the cabinet some gold glitter glue. Squeeze some of the glue out onto the carpet in a place your mom won't notice for a good while. Then, go to the fridge and get an egg. Yep, a raw egg. Place the egg in the glitter glue and let dry. Doesn't that sound lovely?

The egg doesn't break until it is removed from the glue by the parent. A Christmas craft booby trap of sorts. Reactions from the parents and punishments may vary. Be creative!

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Thanksgiving

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! Sorry I'm a bit late in my well-wishing. I'm still a bit off- nauseous (although slightly less) and headache-prone. But, I have so much to be thankful for... including that Thanksgiving Day I felt almost normal and was headache-free. Just for that one day. What a gift!

We traveled north and divided our time between our two families. I was afraid of traveling and getting sick in the car, but there was no way I was going to miss Thanksgiving at my mom and dad's and deprive the rest of my family of it. I think Jamey would have gone without me. He really likes Thanksgiving at my house.

Here's what we had spread before us...

turkey (two of them, an 18-pounder and a 14-pounder)
stuffing (two kinds- one baked in the birds and the other baked separate)
gravy
mashed potatoes
sweet potato casseroles (two kinds- one topped with pecans and the other with homemade marshmallows)
cheesy carrots
green bean casserole
baked corn
cranberry jello salad
white and oatmeal rolls

grape pie
pumpkin pie (two)
ground cherry pie
chocolate cake
fruit salad

Did I forget anything?? My mom didn't do it all, just the turkeys, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls and ground cherry pie. And I say "just". Ha. Everyone contributed. Including Sam. For the past several years, Sam has made the place cards for Thanksgiving dinner. It's great writing practice. This year, he made fingerprint turkeys on the cards.

Only about 4 out of the 23 were graced with smiley faces beside their names.
I didn't get one. Hmmm.

It's all over so fast. I wish I could go back and eat again.

I love hearing what others have for their holiday meals.
So, tell me. What did you eat for Thanksgiving?

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