Snickerdoodles

In spirit of the holidays (albeit a bit on the late side) I'm posting a recipe from my mother-in-law for Snickerdoodles.  I'd never eaten a snickerdoodle before, let alone baked one. Now, I have a new favorite cookie! Hope you enjoy! (Thanks Cyndi H.!)

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

3 C. Flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 C soft butter (2 sticks) at room temp.
1 1/2 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten first before adding
1/4 C milk
Cinnamon-Sugar mixture (for coating)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° Sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl and set aside.
Put butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream well.
Stir in vanilla and eggs and cream well again.
Add the milk, stir.
Add dry ingredients to mixture, mix well, then cream all together well.
Roll one teaspoon of dough in a cinnamon-sugar mixture to fully coat and place on greased cookie sheet (use a sheet with little or no lip) and bake for 10-11 minutes. (time may vary from oven to oven)

Makes approx. 36 cookies.

High altitudes: increase flour by 1/4 Cup and oven temp to 380°

Tip: If you don't have soft, room temperature butter, but need it for a recipe and don't have time to wait for it to soften up, grate it with your cheese grater. Works wonders and it creams up in your recipe well. I did it with this recipe as well as others and it worked great!

Some Goodies for my readers

Hello and Merry Christmas!

I've been trying to get some goodies for you and I finally have a moment to upload them...

First a Christmas Wallpaper... What do you think?

Free Christmas Wallpaper
Enjoy!

And here are some more Alphabet pages that I've made.

I'd love to know what you think of them.  Let me know!  Enjoy and check back for more!

A Poem about the Holidays

Writing prompt by Mama Kat

The prompt I chose was to write a post in twelve lines, 

so I chose a poem and this is what came of it.

Holiday Overload

1. One, two, buckle my shoe
2. Three, four, there’s a knock at the door
3. Five, six, time for treats and tricks
4. Seven, eight, I've put on more weight
5. Nine, ten,  I see a ghost, a witch, and a Barbie and Ken
6. Eleven, twelve, too many decorations to put up and then shelve
7. Thirteen, fourteen, too many thoughts in my bean
8. Fifteen, sixteen, a whole house to clean
9. Seventeen, eighteen, where’s my caffeine?
10. Nineteen, twenty, next is Thanksgiving with food a-plenty
11. Twenty-one, twenty-two, then Christmas and Santa and reindeer too
12. Twenty-three, twenty-four, I can’t take any more

Merry Ho Ho & Happy Humbug!

I love Christmas, I really do.  But every year I say I’m going to do better next year, get the house decorated earlier (or in some cases, get it decorated at all,) get cards mailed out earlier, clean up the house better, bake a lot, buy gifts throughout the year, so I’m not rushed, etc. etc. etc.  And every year, it seems I get later and later and less and less and…….  *sigh*

And this year, on top of all that, I seem to be feeling a bit strange.  I'm starting to see that Christmas really is too commercialized.  What happened to the true “Spirit of Christmas”??  Don’t get me wrong, I love Santa (I'm looking forward to having my little boy sit on Santa's lap again this year) and giving and receiving gifts, and who doesn't enjoy a Peanut's Christmas or Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?!

But why do I need to have this particular day to ask for something I want and why do I need this particular day to give someone, whom I care about, a gift?  Why can’t we just give gifts throughout the year… when we see that "special thing” that just cries out someone’s name and we think of that person, why then, can’t we just buy it and give it to them right then and there?  Why can’t we show them that we really care and think about them all the time and not just once a year?  And therefore, in that sense, if we’ve been showing that sentiment all year, why can’t we then spend the Christmas season focusing on the one who gave us the holiday in the first place?  Jesus Christ.  You can’t have CHRISTmas without CHRIST.  At Christmas, we could then just have everyone get together for dinners and focus on what the season truly means to us.

I suppose that would put Santa and a whole lot of elves out of work at that point, and then having all those little people out of work would flood the job market, making it even harder for anyone to get a job, but that’s already impossible at this point in our economy anyway so…..  Couldn’t we have a “Santamas” in July or maybe some other month that doesn’t have a major holiday in it?  A different time of year for Santa to do his thing so everyone who’s stuck on using the “Naughty vs. Nice list to keep kids in line” trick to still have. 

I’m totally torn on the subject, though.  I love decorating (in a very tacky way, I must admit) for Christmas and I’ve been quite enjoying all the Christmas movies on tv and the songs on the radio.  But I’ve really been seeing how we’re losing the meaning of this time of year.  I know, I know, there are other holidays around this time as well and I haven’t mentioned them… well, I really don’t know much about them, I’m sorry to say.  But with all the commercialism, they seem to be getting lost in the hustle and bustle as well.  When was the last time you saw a Kwanza sale or a Hanukkah sale?  But then again, there are the atheists who would miss out on all the hullabaloo if Christmas was moved.  And of course, there's the day after Thanksgiving.  We wouldn’t want to take the tradition of Black Friday away from anyone and what would the purpose of Black Friday be without Christmas?! 

Another thing that disturbs me is the fact that so many are taking away "Merry Christmas" and replacing it with "Happy Holidays."  But then again, that's the Christian in me coming out and probably should be in a totally different post. 

So, where does that leave me and my blog post?  Well, I still say Christmas is way too commercialized and we all need to step back and take a moment, perhaps at Christmas dinner or wherever you feel comfortable in doing so, and reflect on the origin of the season.  There is really way more to this holiday season than most people realize.  Go ahead, look it up.  I’ll wait….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

http://www.history.com/topics/christmas

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm

http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm

http://mormon.org/jesus-christ/?gclid=CKGk66LjkK0CFUOQ7QodI2TFoA

http://mormon.org/searchResults?theme=blue&query=christmas  (Scroll down to where it says "The Christmas Spirit - Video - 3:57")  I think this last link, the video, says everything that I’ve been trying to get across.  We should focus on the “Spirit of Christ” rather than just “Christmas”

So, in the Spirit of both, God Bless and Merry Christmas!

 As an aside:

American Psychological Association (APA):

hullabaloo. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved December 20, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hullabaloo

      Origin:
1750–60;  apparently variant of haloobaloo,  rhyming compound based on Scots baloo  lullaby

Back from hiatus...

Well, Christmas came and went rather quickly... so did the new year. (Happy New Year, by the way) Things got really busy around here and I didn't even get the tree out of the box, let alone the rest of the house decorated!  Ah well... there's always this year!  (which is what I say every year)

So, I need to get back to posting and here we are.  I didn't realize that I'd slacked off for so long. 

Hiatus: A gap or interruption in space, time, or continuity; a break.

Anyway......

I've got some crafty things planned that I need to do/make for Cub Scouts (Pine Wood Derby is coming up at the end of this month!) so I'll be posting some stuff in that area. 

To be continued....

Systematizing Saturday...

Systematize?  What the...?  Well, I've been catching up today... working on all the emails and projects and stuff that has accumulated over the past... well, quite a long time... and I've come across some really cute ideas.  I'd like to share them with you.  I will be posting later, to share my attempts.

With Christmas coming up, I was looking for crafts to suggest for my Cub Scouts to work on and I found these at DisneyFamily.com under the Video section.  I love the Winter Wonderland Ornament.  My Mom used to make these when I was little.  She had different clear plastic containers that were in the shape of a gelcap, but about the size of these cups shown in this video.  She used the same little figurines, though.  I'll have to post a picture when I dig out the Christmas decorations this year.

Later.....................

Well, I'd started this blog for Saturday in the morning, believe it or not, and ended up getting majorly distracted with numerous tasks... laundry, kitchen, etc.  I just now, at 5:55am on Sunday, realized that I never finished my Saturday post! 

Ironically, I'm watching one of my recorded Nate Berkus Shows about organizing.  There are five different "Clutter Personalities" and it looks like I fall under THREE of the personalities.

1. Easily Distracted (I'd say this is my most dominate "Clutterer" trait)
2. Sentimental Saver (Definitely ME)
3. Bagain Shopper (nah... I get tempted, but this isn't an issue for me except for groceries BOGO deals)
4. Procrastinator (Oh yeah!  I'd much rather be doing... something, anything, else!)
5. Perfectionist (Not with my organizing LOL)

So, I'm not sure what you do with three different Clutter Personalities, but it looks like they have a good game plan for getting organized, or, in my case, at least getting started.

So, I've made my corn casserole for church and I'm now ready to finish up my Saturday blog post.  It's now the wee hours of the morning, the news isn't even on yet (I've got an hour before the early morning news comes on) and I'm tired, but think I'd end up sleeping in if I go to bed now.

Besides, I keep getting distracted and I've ordered a really cool tote on Rachel Roy. I'd never heard of her until she was on The Nate Berkus Show, but I love totes/purses/bags and since this is for such a good cause through UNICEF, I just had to buy one.  It's only $20. 

So, there's my Saturday.  Enjoy your Sunday!  It's time for me to get ready for church.

~Oddyssey