The Eve is getting closer and I now am making a list of what is left to do. 

The milk jugs have hung in the basement waiting to become the luminaries that will line our driveway on Christmas Eve.

An hour or so in the garage this morning and I have 96 of them set up for this year.  I’ll place them outside on the 24th in the morning and light them just before dusk.  The votive candles will burn into the night .

When I went in to make my bed before I went to the garage to work I encountered an obstruction so I decided to to wait until later in the day to finish it. After completing some of the chores on my list it was back to the bedroom. This is what I found!

Oh well I guess not everyone in the household is concerned with the Christmas preparations!!

The angels were one of the easier parts of the project but the hair wasn’t really as neat as I would have hope.

  The last three figures finish the set.  I added arms to the baby Jesus because it looked like a cocoon before that. 

Will I do it again.  Don’t know!  Would I try the larger size with yarn?  Maybe but not right away. 

Looking around the place at the decorations I have a tendency to wander back in time to other Christmases.  Then when Silver Fox mentioned Kresges and Woolworth a memory came flooding back.  Roughly 54 years ago I went to work after school for Neisner’s Dime Store in Royal Oak, Mi. to make some extra money for Christmas. I never thought at the time that my poor Mother had to drive me 27 miles twice a day to do this. I started out at the candy counter which was a lesson in how to develop a taste for only the best candy. I must confess that one time when my folks came in I was somewhat sloppy about how I weighed the candy ( a perk for working there).

As it got closer to Christmas I was put at the toy counter. It was stock the counter, straighten out the displays, stock the counter, and straighten again. In the meantime you tell the children not to play with the toys, call the stockroom for the merchandise that I had gone up to pull, wait on the customers, put the toys back that the kids left on the floor, stock the counter, and straighten the counter again. At the end of my shift I was worn out, my face hurt from smiling, and I was lucky I knew my name.

But I remember two things after all these years. One was that I bought my brothers cowboy gun and holster sets. The other was that right at Christmas I received a gift from the stock man . He was a black man who was always there with the containers of merchandise as soon as I needed them. He handed me this gift and I thank him but said I couldn’t take it. He insisted saying that during that whole rush, no matter how busy I was I always had a kind word and a smile for him. I thank him again and took my gift home to open on Christmas day. It was a set of costume jewelry.

Of course I worked inventory right after Christmas and returned to being just a high school student after that much to my Mother’s relief. It is amazing what Mom’s do for their kids then and now!

In hunting through several boxes for a picture of my brothers in younger days I came across this article in the Ogemaw County Herald dated Thursday, December 22, 1994.

The letter appeared in Notes To The North Pole and reads as follows:

Dear Ho Ho,
  Hope you’re feeling fine and all rested up.  We’ve been very good, most of the time.
  I want you to please make a castle for me.  I also want a flower with Tinkerbell in it, a sleepy Barbie doll and some Barbie stuff.  That would be enough for me.
  Could you bring my baby brother Dakota some stuff to open too?  He can play with my castle with me.
                Love you
                Jasmine

It takes a discovery like this to remind you that time flys as you age. 

All set up ready to make Mrs. DoF Oatmeal Cookies this morning.  I have opted for raisins in them because that is Jay’s favorite.  I followed each step and the results are here:

As you promised delicious!  Thank you for the recipe.

Next out of the oven was Peanut Butter White Chips cookies .  Made with a white cake mix and easy to do.

This is another tasty combination.

Cookie number three today was the Angel Food Cake mix cookies. The recipe called for water or diet pop. I chose Diet Rite Black Cherry because Jay had it here and it containsSplenda. 

The cookies had the texture of cotton candy when you first put it in your mouth. They were difficult to take off the pan and generally look a little messy.

Batch number four was the Butterscotch Bars.  This also was made with a white cake mix. 

The flavor is great but when cut it is more like a cake than a bar or a cookie.

Our last project of the day was the Easy Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies made with a German chocolate cake mix. 

A good flavor but Jay said the Chocolate Cookie made with the devil’s food mix that I baked yesterday had the better flavor. After all this I can’t even smell them let-alone taste them.

So ends the cookie making for this year.  They will be frozen until time to give them away guaranteeing their survival.

More of crocheting in thread!

My attempt at the animals was somewhat feeble as you can see.  The black donkey need more stuffing to firm him up.  My poor cow was in the same condition and the bell didn’t make it any easier for ‘old Bossie’ to hold up her head. ( I don’t even know if they put bells on cows back then.) Now the camel the first year stood up on his own but this last year he has to leanagainst the wall.  I need to find something to use for skeletal stability for them. 

When it came to the shepherd I had the Styrofoam base and ball to cover. Of the two sheep one came out like a tangle of kite string with legs . The other did however almost resemble a sheep. At that point of the project I was ready to quit but I had bought all the supplies and wouldn’t throw the money away so I blundered on. Stay tuned for adventures in thread!

This morning Sweet Thing came the roughly 50 miles to take me into Davison to pick up our truck.  She followed me back to the house where I picked up the loner, took it into Otisville to gas it up, and went 14 miles north to just south of Vasser, MI to return it .  On the way back in home we stopped in Millington and I did a little grocery shopping. I’m ready to continue on the cookie adventure now. I had to tell you this little tale because one of my Christmas Elves turned into a guardian angel today. That’s my Cindy she will be whatever you need when you need it.

A comment from the previous post asked for a recipe and I’m happy to oblige.  I think originally Pam sent seven cake mix cookie recipes.  I hope to make at least six of them. 

So here is the Cherry Chip Cake Mix Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes Bake time: 8- 10 minutes Recipe yield: 5 dozen
1 ( 8 oz) pkg.cream cheese, softened
1/4 C butter, softened
1 pkg. Duncan Hines cherry chip cake mix ( I had Betty Crocker on hand).
1 egg
1/4 tsp. vanilla
!/2 C nuts chopped ( if desired)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.
Mix in about 1/2 of cake mix(dry), egg, and vanilla until smooth.
Stir in the remaining cake mix and nuts. 
Bake on un-greased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes. ( I baked mine an extra 2 minutes)  Cool
( I formed small balls because there was on instructions on balls or drop style treatment).

Yes they were good!

What to do on a snowy day.  The flakes came down all day long.  I wasn’t up to driving anywhere so I made cookies.

I started with Millie’s Rum Balls.  The recipe is on My Mother’s Blog with the post dated December 2nd.
A top of the stove recipe with no baking involved.

The next batch was Cherry Chip Cake Mix cookies.  My first venture into this type of cookie. 

After scouring the cupboards I found the fixings for one more batch of cookies.  Chocolate cookies made with devil’s food cake mix.

Alas I only have one type of oatmeal so Mrs DoF’s recipe will have to wait until I get to the store.
But the cookies I made smelled so good I decided to freeze them before we ate them all!

Crochet with thread—I can’t do that.  Big hooks and yarn had always been my preference.  But a couple of years ago I found a pattern book for nativity set.  It was so interesting that I had to at least try it but size 10 and size 3 hooks were a challenge to this lobster claw hands of mine.  These are the three kings with assorted gold buttons for their gifts. 

After completing the set I bought larger foam forms and attempted the same pattern in yarn with bigger hooks.

The results were satisfactory and I hope someday to replicate the of the set in yarn. 

Yet to come are the shepherd with sheep, the cow, horse, and camel.  The angels and Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.  Some turned out fairly well and others were pretty pitiful.  But that is how we learn new things.

This afternoon Sweet Thing and David came up to visit. She needed some new jeans shortened and an old pair patched. So while I worked on that two Christmas elves worked on decorating my tree.

Cindy worked on the middle of the tree.  She concentrated on her job with that little tongue peeking out.

David worked on the top area of the tree because I’m built to close to the ground. He brought the boxes with the ceramic buildings down from upstairs to be placed around the base of the tree.

So their help while I sewed resulted in this beautiful tree.  Thank you Gokey’s I love it!