Feather in One’s Tree

We spent this Christmas with my family in Maryland (more on that later). My mom came up with an amazing idea for an outdoor Christmas tree—one that was fun for Alex to help create, and drew a variety of wildlife to the backyard for him to watch.

Birdseed ornaments

My mom started by using cookie cutters to cut out shapes from slices of bread. She let the bread go stale by letting it sit out for several days.

Once the bread was stale, we punched a hole through each shape and strung it with red, gold or silver string.

Afterwards, we spread a thin layer of peanut butter on the ornaments and then dipped them in a bucket of birdseed (this is where Alex helped out). My mom also dipped several ornaments in a bag of worms, which are supposed to attract more exotic birds. We set aside both types to hang on the outdoor tree.

Pine cone ornaments

For the pine cones, we made sure each pine cone had a hook attached to the top, then rolled them in peanut butter and dipped them in the bucket of birdseed.

Finished pine cone ornaments. 

Garland

We made garland for the tree by stringing peanuts (in their shells), popcorn and cranberries.  

My mom with her finished garland. 

Birdseed icicles

My mom found some bird seed that looked like icicles. She attached wire to the top of these and we hung on the tree.   

The finished product!

My sister, my mom and I trimmed the tree with the finished ornaments. Although Alex helped, he was more interested in the dog next door. My mom covered the table where the tree sat with a plastic tablecloth to protect against any bird residue.

Cookies for Santa

As we always do, we made sugar cookies for Santa. We used a variety of shapes and decorated them on Christmas Eve. Santa clearly loved them, as they were gone the next day.

  

The sugar cookie recipe I use makes quite a bit of dough, so I divide into three parts, wrap each portion in saran wrap, and keep in the refrigerator until I am ready to use. I make cookies in batches over the course of a week using the dough (otherwise, it is too many for me to decorate at one time).

Alex helped decorate (in between eating the frosting). 

INGREDIENTS

 1 1/2 cups of butter, softened

 2 1/4 cups of white sugar

 4 eggs

3 teaspoons of vanilla extract

 5 cups of all-purpose flour

 2 teaspoons of baking powder

 1 teaspoon of salt

Original recipe makes 5 dozen

DIRECTIONS

• In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake five to eight minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely before decorating.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I went to visit a friend of mine who recently had surgery. I wanted to bring something that was comforting, so decided on cinnamon coffee cake. I often use shortcuts when strapped for time, and this recipe is perfect for that, as you use packaged cake mix.

INGREDIENTS

1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix

 4 eggs

 1 cup water

 1 cup vegetable oil

 1 cup packed brown sugar

 5 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

Original recipe makes one cake

Directions

·         Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

·         In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, and butterscotch pudding mix. Add the eggs, oil and water, mix until well blended. In another bowl, stir together the brown sugar and cinnamon. Pour half of the batter into the pan, spread evenly with half of the cinnamon mixture. Cover with the rest of the batter, and sprinkle with the rest of the cinnamon mixture.

·         Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn the oven down to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.

For the presentation, I cut the coffee cake up, packaged in a white box and tied it with a red bow.  

Elf on the Potty

We have begun the Elf on the Shelf tradition and, even though I think it is a little bit over Alex’s head, he still loves looking for his elf in the morning. This year, we have had a lot of potty themed elf shenanigans, considering that we are in the midst of potty training Alex.

My mom actually sent me this idea and I decided that, in honor of Alex using the potty for the first time that day, we would embrace his excitement over his accomplishment and let him celebrate the elf doing the same.

For the peanut blossoms, I actually used one of the peanut butter cookie bags you can find in any grocery store (sometimes, I just don’t have time for made-from-scratch, so I settle for semi-homemade). I did not put any chocolate kiss on two of the peanut butter cookies. 

Alex helped to make the dough. 

  

Then, the elf did his work during the night. Alex loved that the elf was doing what he was learning to do in the potty. Our elf has been an excellent way to make potty training more fun!

Other mischievous nighttime endeavors our elf has gotten up to: 

He went fishing in honor of a visit from Alex's Papa (who is an avid fisherman).

He built a recliner and lamp from several sets of blocks.

He was reading orange and blue books in honor of a visit an aunt, who attends Syracuse University. 

He decorated his own little Christmas tree.

He roasted marshmallows one night. 

In honor of our first snowfall, he made a snow angel
(the snow was made from a mixture of flour, sugar and white sprinkles). 

We burned a few sugar cookies and the elf blamed these on Alex.
His hat and apron were made out of two paper towels--it took me about five minutes to make!

The elf also blamed Alex for his drawings on the mirror. 

We are loving this tradition and hope that Alex loves it more with each year.

All Aboard

To say Alex is a fan of trains may be an understatement. Every subway station we pass in the city, he points to it, jumps up and down and says “choo-choo” repeatedly. I know he is not alone in his love.

As the holidays were approaching, a friend of mine suggested we make gingerbread trains for our sons’ class (her son loves the subway/trains too) and then the kids could decorate them. I loved the idea, and we split up the tasks—I was in charge of baking the train and she was in charge of decorations. She found a train gingerbread kit that I used as a template for the cars.

The engine and the caboose. 

The finished cars--one for each child and the teachers. 

I used my standard gingerbread recipe, but amended it slightly to match the color of the engine (I just added more ginger till it was the same color).  Since I had to transport  14 cars and an engine through the city, icing alone was not going to hold the train together. So, I hot glued them (thus, the train is actually not edible). The decorations, however, were entirely edible and the kids had a great time both eating them and adding them to their cars. The final train in all its glory is above. 

Getting ready to decorate. 

For every candy he put on the car, he put two in his mouth. 

The Season of Giving

This year, for Alex’s teachers’ gifts, I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies. My mom used to bake gifts for my teachers and it is a tradition I would like to continue. I have been using this recipe for years. It is my go-to recipe when I am in need of a crowd pleaser. In fact, I baked over 250 to go into the welcome bags at Andy’s and my wedding, and was asked for the recipe countless times at the wedding. 

Finished product. 

I picked up these boxes at Michael's, and lined them with white paper towels.
Afterwards, I added this crinkle to the bottom to make them more festive.

Each box fit about two dozen cookies. 

I wrapped them in cream paper and tied them with green, red and cream ribbons. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS

2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup of granulated sugar

1 cup of packed brown sugar

3 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 package of Vanilla or French Vanilla pudding mix

1 package of chocolate chips (I usually use milk chocolate)

Makes about three dozen.

DIRECTIONS

• Pre-heat oven to 350° F.
• Mix butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Gradually beat in flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in pudding mixture.
• Stir in morsels.
• Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.
• Cool on baking sheets for two minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

As a blast of freezing weather has hit New York City, I struggle to find things to do inside our small apartment with a rambunctious almost two-year old. So, I decided it would be fun to invite some of his friends (and, maybe more importantly, my friends) over for cookies, hot chocolate and cupcake decorating.

We made gingerbread cookies, drop sugar cookies and vanilla cupcakes with white frosting pre-play date; to decorate the cupcakes, the kids used plenty of sprinkles (red, green and white), and red and green M&Ms. They had a blast and we all stayed warm. It was a fun and easy way to get into the spirit. 

Rolling out the gingerbread dough.

Alex loved cutting out the dough. 

These cookies are the perfect size for little hands and mouths! 

Cookies ready to be eaten; mugs ready for hot chocolate. 

The cupcakes are ready for frosting (in the mugs) and decorations.

Introducing his friends to his favorite ornaments (mostly, a train ornament from his Busza).

Enjoying the fruits of his labor. 

The gingerbread recipe I use is so easy to make and the dough is fairly easy to roll out.

Gingerbread recipe

Ingredients

2 or 3 packages cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix

 1 cup of butter

 1 cup of packed brown sugar

 1 egg

 3 cups of all-purpose flour

 1 teaspoon of baking soda

4 tablespoons of ground ginger

 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

Original recipe makes 3 dozen

DIRECTIONS

·         In a medium bowl, cream together the butterscotch pudding mix, butter, and brown sugar until smooth. (Note: I usually melt the butter in the microwave first.) Stir in the egg. Stir in the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon. Cover and chill dough until firm, about 1 hour.

·         Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease baking sheets. On a floured board, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into shapes using a cookie cutter. Place cookies 1.5 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

·         Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are golden at the edges. Cool on wire racks.

Let’s Have a Parade

For the past five years, my husband, Andy, and I have participated in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The first year we participated, we were balloon handlers, but asked if we could be clowns the next year. After being clowns, which we absolutely adore because you get to interact with the crowd and make so many kids happy, we decided we wanted to make this a family tradition.

In celebration of our fifth year, we were also able to get my mom, sister and aunt in the parade to0. We were all assigned the birthday party clown group and anxiously awaited to see what our costumes were going to be. We were not disappointed the morning of when we saw them for the first time. A few photos from this spectacular, but rather cold, Thanksgiving morning.

We were able to meet up with Alex and my dad (the babysitter) and got Alex close to the floats.
He loved the train float!

Future parade participant; just practicing his walk. 

The whole gang. 

Alex looks thrilled here; I think he wishes he was back at the train. 

My mom, me and my sister. The cake I am wearing is serving as a table for our confetti. 

The start of the parade: my sister is getting ready to throw some confetti.
I love her face here, as it is pure joy. 

I hope you had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as us, and spent it surrounded by family and laughter.