December highlights

Merry Christmas!
Clockwise from top left - Terry, Sue, Eric, Duke, Justin and me

Justin made chocolate covered pretzels which are destined
to be a new regular addition to our annual cookie tray.

Such a busy month for us! As you know from my previous post, I went to Austin and had a blast with my sisters. I also had my annual cookie exchange which was a lot of fun as usual. I made Brown Eyed Baker's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars for the exchange and I got some awesome cookies in return too. Terry loved the peanut butter
ones so I made a second batch just for us using my beautiful new Kitchenaid Stand Mixer that Santa brought me! My Christmas baking also included my traditional rum cake, cake balls (red velvet with blue coating to match my color scheme), chocolate covered pretzels by Justin and some other goodies.

Red Velvet Cake Balls

We enjoyed our usual Costco prime rib roast on Christmas Day, but must make a mental note for future years to get it earlier and freeze it. We made the mistake of buying it late in the afternoon when all the smaller ones were gone - so ours was a whopping 11 lbs! Even though there were just the five of us this year, I don't mind the size (though it took seven hours to roast) but the price was considerably higher. Needless to say we enjoyed prime rib sandwiches for a few days and I even stuck some in the freezer.

My beautiful and functional Christmas gift!

Decorating cookies on Christmas Eve

Christmas can be exhausting.

"Noel" glass block decoration

I got my "craft" on this month by making some lighted glass block holiday decorations - mostly for gifts but I did make one for myself too. I was pretty happy with how they came out - I made one in blue for my Mom like the one you see here, and also a red one and a green one for a couple of friends. I'm considering making one that is Valentine's Day themed, but not sure where I would find the white-string lights at this time of year - they were hard enough to find during the Christmas season.

Eric is still dealing with bureaucracy from the Navy. He is hoping it gets cleared up by early January so he can formulate his plan for the service. He's still working part-time in retail but he really wants to get his life in gear - the waiting is hard on all of us but we are trying to be patient.

Justin was busy with lacrosse - he attended a 2-hour clinic at Arizona State University early in the month. Even more valuable was the ASU clinic he attended at a nearby High School that spanned over 3 half-days - he got some great tips and learned techniques from the college coaches and players. Now he has to go practice those things with the lacrosse goal Santa brought him.

New Year's Eve was pretty low key - we went to a friend's house for a small party but were home by about 12:45. For New Year's Day (today!) we are having 'fun food' for dinner while we watch the Giants (hopefully) kick some Cowboy butt. On the menu is sushi, cheese fondue (with bread, steak and broccoli), homemade pizza (reference Austin post below) with homemade dough (made with "old blue" and baked on my pizza stone) and for dessert we have strawberries dipped in mascarpone and brown sugar and cannolis.

Best wishes to all for a very happy and healthy 2012!