Baking Christmas Cookies 101

Every year, Sweetie asks me to bake a bunch of cookies to give to our customers. It's something that the previous owner of our company did and, well, I guess it's tradition.

So yesterday I braved the Walmart and got all the basics. And today, I woke up early, pulled on my big stretchy black sweat pants, added a red top, slipped on my Easy Spirit tennies and donned my Christmas apron. It's all about the outfit.

It helps that it's totally freezin' outside and rainy. I started the oven to heatin' and turned on the stereo for some Bing, Frank, and Martin to serenade me some Christmas tunes.

I hadd 2 cups of coffee to get me through the first two batches, then I move onto the hard stuff, a glass of milk. I always start to feel sick at about the half-way point and start intensely drowning myself in water. My theory is that if you drink a bunch of water while you're eating...er...I mean samplin' cookies, then the calories won't stick to your butt. Don't look at my butt as an example, I'm not the best test case scenario.


Recipes stacked up, ready to choose and follow. Some new, some old.


You'll need all your baking tubs out with the basics within easy reach.


You'll HAVE to have one of these babies, this one was my grandmother's....it's wanting to quit on me, but I won't let it. Just this morning I had Calvin take it out to the garage and make some tweeks on it, it's working perfectly now, thank you very much.


You'll want to fill your sink with hot sudsy water. Makes for easy clean up.


Make your stations; one for cookie sheet loading.


And one for cookie sheet cooling.

You'll need plenty of taste testers, I just happen to have three willing victims, that are brutally honest. Sorry I have no pictures of them, as they were sneaky about their testing and I couldn't catch them until all that was left was crumbs on their chins.

And then you'll have to have a Sweetie that loves you to bring you some good food for lunch, so you won't just eat sweets all day.

Somewhere between the 7th and 8th batch, you'll need to go collapse in bed for awhile and hold some smelling salts over your nose. That's me today, sometime before lunch everything kinda went south and I ended up in bed for the remainder of the day. Nice.

But in the end, it will all be worth it. I don't make anything too difficult or fancy, just scrumptious. I'll have to work hard this year so there will be something left for Santa and his reindeer, last year he got stale wheat thins and some very questionable egg nog. Ugh, don't even say 'egg nog' right now, my gut can't take it.

Here, Let Me Take Your Coat

Welcome,


come on in.

Here, let me take your coat.











I'll put on a pot of water to boil in the kettle and we can sit ourselves down for a chat over some tea.


Go pick yourself out a tea bag while I grab the mugs.


I think I'll have a chai tea with a splash of milk.


Please, find yourself a comfy chair and put your feet up.



"Boy it sure is chilly out there.

I hope the weather holds for tomorrow.

I do love a cold Thanksgiving Day, perfect crisp air to have the turkey roasting in the oven and play a good game of football in the backyard."



Speaking of football in the backyard, my guys just came in from a romping game and this is my baby. Big Lug gave him a knee to the nose. Nice. (Big Lug = Calvin)

Well, time to get dinner in the oven. Thanks so much for stopping by, do come again, anytime.

Welcome to Our Home

Yes, we got the country house. I mean how could we resist. The boys fell in love with the yard, all three of them. And I fell in love with the front porch and sunroom.





Many helped us move in. My sister flew in that night and the remainder of her visit was spent having fun unpacking and getting things done.



Then my parents flew in for more helpful days and fun.



It is slowly becoming home.



God has been good to us. And we could not have done this without the love of faithful friends and wonderful family. We love you guys!

I'm Busy Right Now, Please Leave a Message After the Beep

I can't blog right now, I'm too busy organizing the hall closet. Must run to staples and get more label tape.

Will be back this week, I promise. With pictures. Try to control your excitement.

Neighbors

So we recently moved. We now live in a neighborhood. We were a little nervous about living in a neighborhood.

On our second day we were driving out of the driveway when three ladies walked up and wanted to meet us. They brought us goodies and a map. A map that had all the houses around us with the neighbors names and their phone numbers. Precious.

Two days after that we got another package on the porch, goodies and a homemade card with a welcoming message from another neighbor and their phone number as well.

We think we're gonna like this neighborhood thing.

Then two days ago, a neighbor got a little overly friendly by taking up camp on our front porch. This is getting a little ridiculous.



Would you like another picture? Here you go.



There is something seriously wrong with this. If I wasn't so dog-gone tired, I'd demand that we move.

But at least he decorated for Christmas.

One Last Time

As we locked the door today one last time, I had the boys sit on the steps so I could take one last picture of them on these steps. These precious steps.

On the Third Day of Birthday He Got a Little Smackdown

Since I can't think of anything clever to write on this third day of Sweetie's birthday I'll share with you one of Sweetie's very loving birthday greetings. Our small group at church is all about the love. This is from Julie, for those that know her, yes it was after 10pm.

so the johnson's totally forgot you were all in your newly aquired olderness today and did not say how we are thankful to have such elderly wisdom among our little group, nor how ashamed we are for not buying you one of those canes with a bicycle horn and rear view mirror, and we forgot to buy you some depends and centrum silver vitamins too. sorry you would have felt so loved:) well, we love you oldlie but goldie and if you break any hips we will come visit you:)
here's an old joke in honor of your great age, we truly are amazed you've even made it this far! :)
with timeless love,
the johnson's

‘Sixty is the worst age to be,’ said the 60-year-old man. ‘You always
feel like you have to pee and most of the time you stand there and nothing comes out.’
‘Ah, that’s nothin,’ said the 70-year-old. ‘When you’re seventy, you don’t have a bowel movement any more. You take laxatives, eat bran, sit on the toilet all day and nothin’ comes out!’
‘Actually,’ said the 80-year -old, ‘Eighty is the worst age of all.’
‘Do you have trouble peeing, too?’ asked the 60-year old.
‘No, I pee every morning at 6:00. I pee like a racehorse on a flat rock; no problem at all.’
‘So, do you have a problem with your bowel movement?’
‘No, I have one every morning at 6:30.’
Exasperated, the 60-year-old said, ‘You pee every morning at 6:00 and crap every morning at 6:30. So what’s so bad about being 80?’
‘I don’t wake up until 7:00.’

Classic. Julie you are like a bright shining star that makes us all happy.