Gifts of Christmas

"You can give a great and wonderful Christmas if you remember the gifts God has given you and, as best you can, offer them to others as He would have."~Henry B. Eyring



     I found a cute little panel with a simple doll to make for my grand daughter.  I just know she'll love it.  I even used the instruction part of the panel to make a drawstring bag so she can keep all the parts together when she's not playing with it.

 

     

     This is the gift that I made for my friend.  I hope she'll find it helpful when we go to quilt classes.  The pattern is called Classmate by Atkinson Designs.  I love all the little compartments to put sewing notions.

     December 6th brought our annual Quilt Guild Christmas Party.  The theme this year was "Preserving Memories".  We had Emily as our guest speaker to tell us all about her company called Pattern Jam.

     A nice Christmas cookie to take to neighbors for the holidays would be this one called Mint Chocolate Delights from verybestbaking.com.

 

Mint Chocolate Delights

2 cups flour

2/3 cup cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

 2 eggs

1 2/3 cups mint chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.  Beat butter, sugars and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until creamy.  Add eggs and beat well.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in mint chocolate chips.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet covered in parchment paper.  Bake for 11-13 minutes or until cookies are puffed and centers are set.  Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes and then put on cooling racks to cool completely.  Makes about 48 cookies.

     The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans was a nice relaxing holiday romance novel.

Christmas In My Heart

"For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself." ~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

    

 

 

 

 

 

      This is my red and white quilt that was a block of the month.  I finished several of the blocks and then made them into a quilt pattern of my own.  I was happy with how it turned out.


     Here's a fun recipe to use for that special Christmas Brunch or a way to use up the rest of the eggnog in the carton (if there is any).

 

  

Eggnog Pancakes

(From Crème De La Crumb)

1 ½ cups flour

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

2 eggs

1 ¼ cups eggnog

½ tsp. vanilla

3 Tbsp. oil

Maple syrup and powdered sugar

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.  In another bowl beat eggs.  Whisk in the milk, vanilla and butter.

Lightly grease a large nonstick skillet or griddle.  Pour ¼ cup of batter onto the skillet.  Cook for 2-3 minutes until bubbles form in the batter and edges start to look “dry”.  Flip and allow to cook 1-2 more minutes until golden.  Repeat with remaining batter.  Serve pancakes warm with maple syrup and powdered sugar.  Makes 4 servings.

 

 

Instead of reading a book, this time I listened to one on cd.  I sure enjoyed listening to Jim Dale perform all the voices in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".  And thanks to my friend, Linda, for loaning me her cd for a few days.