Christmas Wookies! wait, no, Christmas COOKIES!!

Today's Merry Monday post has probably caused me to gain about five more pounds of holiday weight, however, it was worrrth it. 

I'm never quite sure what possesses me to go into a cookie-baking frenzy, but it happens rarely, and usually after about the second batch of cookies I'm remembering why. I had taken a personal day from work on Friday so that I could have a long weekend to get myself together before the next few weeks of absolute mayhem. Thus, I decided to break the cookie-baking extravaganza into three days.


Day One: Making the doughs. I won't be posting recipes this time around, since everyone already seems to have their own favorites, and most of these cookies were made from a variation of a regular sugar cookie dough. Nothing fancy. 

That's right. SIX sticks of butter. Paula Deen would be so proud.

However, I did decide to try a new trick that I read about: measuring out the dry ingredients into gallon size ziplock bags so that you only have to measure once.

However, I learned a pretty valuable lesson. Always read your recipe first. In my little organizational high, I forgot that in almost all cookie recipes, you leave the sugar separate so that you can cream the butter.


...oops. A couple wasted cups of flour later, I pretty much got the idea. Also a handy note, make a mark on your recipes so that you remember which ingredients you've already added.


As a whole, unless you're intensely focused on the task at hand (and not dancing like a fool to Jingle Bell Rock), it's probably a wise idea to just suck it up and wash your measuring cups a few times. Or better yet, buy five different sets of of measuring cups.


Anyways, the doughs. By the end of the day, my refrigerator looked like this:

 I labeled and wrote the time on each dough, since each has to chill
a minimum length of time.

Oh wait, did I mention I made "dough" for chocolate truffles too?

...yup, exactly. I agree with you. Don't worry, it did survive to actually
turn into truffles.

So, on to Day Two: BAKING. (and baking, and baking...and BAKING)

My dough was a little...poofy. But I hadn't planned on including
the sugar cookies in any of my gifting, because I carry a
curse when it comes to Christmas Cookie-Cutter cookies. It's true.

 I won't bore you with the details of baking day, except here are a few tips that I'll share:

• Chilling your dough is CRUCIAL. I tend to always skip the dough-chilling step because I'm impatient, but when it comes to cut-out cookies or a dough that you slice...it's essential that you keep the dough chilled through the entire process.
• The dough is high maintenance. You have about a five-minute window of opportunity between when the dough is hard as a rock from the refrigerator and when you're about to throw the whole mess out the window because it's too soft and sticky. You have to work fast.
• One word: flour. And lots of it. Flour is your frrriiieeend.
• Oven mitts are also your friend. I managed not to burn myself this time. Woohoo!

And finally, the most exciting day of all:

Day Three: Decorating Day!!

Here are the photos of the final products, and my helpers with the process.

Blackberry Jam Thumbprint cookies! (Although these were done
on baking day, since the jelly is baked too.)

Lemon cookies. Don't be fooled. Each one is about the size of
a quarter.

Chocolate Truffles!

My handsome elves.

We have to make manly cookies, right?
This is Scott's man-cookie.

Full credit to for this cookie goes to my wonderful old college roommate Grace.
She's a fabulous and well-known baker and suggested I try out these
"Melting Snowmen" cookies. Basically just any sort of regular cookie bottom, sugar
cookie or Snickerdoodle dough, with a Marshmallow as the head. SO CUTE. Thanks Grace!

Sad snowman and happy snowman.

What is THAT, you say? Why...that's a wookie!

THE CHRISTMAS WOOKIE COOKIE!! Amazing art skills are credited to Scott's
best friend Christian. 

Are you sensing my sugar coma right about now? 

Holy moly. FINALLY DONE! Sugar cookies, lemon cookies,
Blackberry Thumbprint cookies, gingerbread men, and truffles.

And that, my friends, is the end of the baking marathon. If you want any of the recipes, I'd love to share. Well, all except the Classic Decorated Christmas Cookies. That's my "Mom" Elliott's recipe, and not mine to share. ;) But anything else you can have! So just ask. In the meantime, I'll be eating a pound of lettuce and raw carrots.

Merry Monday!

Merry Monday Holiday House Tour!

You asked for it, and it's here!


I finally got our apartment decorated for Christmas. Since many of my family members and close friends live far away and have never seen our apartment, I made another sad attempt at an iMovie. Please note: I'm not a videographer, and I don't exactly have a high quality video camera.

I've been having trouble with my video player, so click here to watch it on YouTube.


For those of you who don't feel like watching a 5 minute video...here are some of the highlights!


Merry Monday everyone!!

Merry Monday Thoughts

I had planned on featuring our Christmas decorations this week, but as they weren't completely finished before the unfortunate camera spill, I'm making you wait until next week. Sorry my friends!


After spending Black Friday somewhere between Walmart, Kohls, and the MALL (why oh why?!), I've decided to do a little discussion on Christmas presents today. 

We really didn't buy that much, except for some much-needed clothes for Scott and some of those bargain DVD's, and in wandering around, I found myself beginning to wonder.


I saw so many people completely piled up to their ears like in cartoons, arms full of this year's latest toy, the latest iPod (excuse me...iPHONE...or is it iPad?? ack.) model on sale, and lines wrapped around stores three times over all for 40% off clothes that were too expensive to begin with. 


Through certain circumstances this year, we're a little tight on money for Christmas gifts, and I know we're not alone. So it continues to baffle me why I see all my fellow strugglers loading up with gifts and stretching credit limits when the mortgage payment continues to fall behind.


Now don't get me wrong. I know that many people do it the right way - they save up money, and spend it at retailers which in turn stimulates the economy. Or I guess that's what they say. I could probably go on another tangent entirely about how Black Friday deals really aren't that great except on few token items. 


My point is that it frustrates me to see parents still buying boxes and boxes of the latest toys that will get played with for 15 minutes and then thrown in a closet, all to create the illusion of a lush and wealthy Christmas for their children, when things really aren't okay.


When I was growing up, both my parents worked at our family business. We sold boats, boat parts, and performed maintenance and service. And as anyone in the boat business knows, winter is a time when the dollar has to be stretched in order to make it back to the summer. So needless to say, we didn't always have wealthy Christmases. My parents always made sure there were plenty of gifts, and I'm sure sometimes at the expense of bills getting paid, but we were never under the illusion that we were getting all the latest things just because it was Christmas. 


When I look back on Christmases in our family, I don't remember all the gifts we received, but really just the memories. I remember my parents sprinkling red glitter on the front porch and telling me it was dust from Rudolph's nose. I remember mornings of leaping on my parents' bed with my brother, begging for them to get up. I remember services at church, bellowing Handel's Messiah loudly with my dad while playing relentless games of Scrabble. I remember baking bread and watching Charlie Brown's Christmas with my mom. I remember the way our house smelled and looked, full of warm food and twinkling lights.


And to me, those were the best Christmas gifts. We learned to make do, to be creative, and to be appreciative of the gifts we did receive and what we had because it was still more than many other hungry families around the world had.


It's so easy to get caught up in the materialism of the season. Brother needs this and this. Co-worker needs that. Might as well go ahead and buy this because it's so marked down. Heaven knows I'm guilty of it. 


But I hope that during this period of economic downturn that we remember to spend a little less time shopping and a little more time making memories with our families. Because what are your children going to remember - that you bought them the latest video game? Or that you took time out of your day to do an art project, watch a movie, bake, or play a game with them.


Throughout the month I'll be posting ideas of homemade Christmas gifts and recipes, but what I hope you really remember on this Merry Monday (or Tuesday, as life may have it), is to enjoy your family and friends. Throw parties. Go caroling. Play games. Enjoy each other's company. And take time to remember the reason for this season.


Have a merry day!

Merry Monday.... on hold.

So, I have been M.I.A. for a few days due to some great holiday merriment which included a lot of delicious food and gluttony, getting up and meeting some precious friends at 6am to go shopping ALL DAY on Friday, and some good family time. I hope your holiday was wonderful too!

Thanksgiving Meal 2010. Wonder how much wine I've had at this point?

Today's Merry Monday post is temporarily on hold, as my camera (which was actually Scott's to begin with, but his had an image stabilizing feature which helped me with my obsessive no-flash-macro photos), has met with an untimely death. 


I rarely spill things, and when I do - it's catastrophic. 


Incident #1: I spilled water all over my laptop in college, which resulted in a loud sizzle, and the replacement of 90% of the parts in the computer (under warranty, thankfully). 


Incident #2 was Saturday...when my camera and a cup of coffee managed to both spill off a table, and the majority of the coffee landed on the camera. We had hope that it might live at first, as it seemed to be functioning normally after I cleaned it up...but alas, the camera has passed on to the great wild yonder.


So...after I shed quite a few tears last night, Scott and I have agreed that the camera is "just a thing", and we have moved on to continuing to build the nest-egg that already was the "Upgrade Megan's Camera Fund". 


Never fear though - I do still have my old camera, which works just fine and takes great photos - so I'll be up and running again soon! 


In the meantime, I highly recommend going to check out my best friend Kate's blog, where she is doing an Advent feature EVERY DAY until Christmas. Someone's been a busy little girl! 


She is a fabulous writer, so click here to follow along with her story.

Kate and I in college, doing what we do. Which is apparently a little odd.

Soundtrack for the Season!

Merry Monday!

My Christmas decorations have rolled in and are about to be unloaded this week! As the next few days are going to be action-packed and full of cooking, eating, and other merriment, I'm keeping today's Merry Monday post fairly simple. Christmas soundtrack, anyone?


Here is a list of a few* of my favorite Christmas songs which will hopefully add a little extra bounce to your holiday bustle this week!


*Few = necessity, unless you want a blog entry that's 12 pages long!

• Born in Bethlehem - Third Day
• O Come O Come Emmanuel - Sugarland
• (Medley) Sing We Now of Christmas - Michael W. Smith
• Run Rudolph Run - Chuck Berry
• Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives
• Rockin Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
• Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms
• Winter Song -Ingrid Michaelson & Sara Bareilles
• Peace - Norah Jones
• Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reinder - Jack Johnson
• Carol of the Bells - The Bird & The Bee
• It Don't Have to Change - John Legend ft The Stephens Family
• I Pray on Christmas - Dave Barnes
• Cool Yule - Louis Armstrong
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Coldplay

It's still Merry Monday...so here's a little addition! 

I highly recommend going to check out Apartment Therapy, where they did a feature of Seasonal Stationary. Some of the funniest, most unique holiday cards I've seen in a while!

Thanks to my wonderful friend Laur who pointed out this feature to me! :)

Considering they have a segment called "Cheeky Christmas Cards"...I'm a big fan.

Enjoy!

The Return of Goodie Bags

Merry Monday! As the holidays approach and the days get darker, personal calendars start to fill up with dinner parties and other gatherings. This year, why not add a little treat at the end of one of your planned get-togethers?


As far as I'm concerned, the days of goodie bags being just for kids birthday parties are over! Weddings and other events today have hyped up adult "favors" as these expensive, useless little trinkets. When I Google'd "wedding favors", these are some of the first things that came up:

Who DOESN'T need
bride and groom
ruuber duckies?

...or cowboy boot-shaped
bubble blowers?

Just in case you weren't convinced
on the duckies, they have
the WHOLE BRIDAL PARTY.

...but I digress. This wasn't a post about wedding favors, but just about the return of cheap, easy, and thoughtful goodie bags. I still get a little bit mystified when I see those "mystery prizes" stapled in a brown paper bag. What could possibly be in it?? Gold? Diamonds? CHOCOLATE?!


In honor of bringing this childhood tradition back, I decided to put a couple quick and easy bags together when we had a bunch of friends over to our apartment a few weeks ago. 


"Ingredients":

• brown paper lunch bags (less than $3 for about 100)
• some of the dollar spools of ribbon from Michaels...or yarn...or any leftover ribbon you might have laying around the house
• Goodies! This time of year is good for clearanced Halloween Candy, hot cocoa packets marked down, and of course...candy canes! Get creative. Of course you can do non-food items if you want, but I'm a firm believer in food being the way to everyone's heart.

"Directions":

Simple!

Fill however many bags you need with your goodies, and fold the tops down about 3 - 4 inches.

You can even sing the chorus to the song 1901
by Phoenix as you do this part... "Fold It! Fold It! Fold It!"
(I just KNEW that song would come in handy some day!)

Next! Take a regular hole-punch and punch two holes near the center of the folded portion of the bag.

This part is optional. If you happen to have a pair of craft scissors with designs in them, make the folded edge of the bag pretty. I have a collection of these that I found in the dollar bin at Michaels over time. I just love that place. If you don't have pretty scissors, fear not - remember, you're still giving out goodie bags, which in traditional child-fashion will be ripped to shreds the minute they hit the car.

Final step! Take your ribbon or yarn and cut a 10-14 inch piece. The length will vary on exactly how you want the ribbon to look. Remember, if you're doing a simple bow, this will take more ribbon/yarn. Start on the front side (side with the folded edge as in the picture above) and thread your ribbon through, loop around the back and then thread through the front. Congratulations! You just completed Sewing 101! Tie your ribbon or yarn into a simple knot or a bow, whatever you choose. Just make sure not to pull the central knot too tight or your bag will crinkle up and rip.

Voila! Beautiful goodie bags will all the mystery that a brown bag entails.

Aren't you dying to know what's inside?

Now, I know you're all thinking, who has the time to do this? But seriously my friends, this took me between 15 and 20 minutes, tops. Which is precisely how long you've probably been sitting in front of your computer reading this post. 

If time still isn't on your side, you could very easily apply this project to Christmas gifts for neighbors and office acquaintances.

Other thoughts on "fillings" for the goodie bags / Christmas gifts:

• Baked goods, snack mixes, etc.
• An assortment of teas, gourmet (or regular) hot cocoa packets, and coffee singles
• Assortment of hard candies
• The Dollar Tree has a great toy aisle...let your inner child out and explore for goodie-options
• If you work in an office and want to deliver these in the morning, breakfast options are always good. Mini-muffins, granola bars, breakfast coupons to McDonalds, etc.

I hope this post has left you feeling inspired! Please comment and share ideas for great, inexpensive goodie-bag/Christmas fillers. Merry Monday everyone!

Merry Mondays!

It's November 1st ... know what that means? The holiday season is almost here!


This probably makes a large portion of you groan, but for the other small portion of the population like me, this just means we're just a few weeks away from being able to listen to Christmas music on regular speakers and instead of our headphones.


In hopes of getting the Grinches in the holiday spirit, I'm going to start what will hopefully become an annual tradition: Merry Mondays! If you're looking for a little bright spot as the days get darker and darker, I hope you'll stop by for some great baking, inexpensive decorating tips, and an exchange of our favorite holiday memories.


To get things started, here is one of my personal favorite Thanksgiving traditions:

As far back as I can remember, the Macy's Day Parade has been an essential part of my family's Thanksgiving tradition. Mom and I turn up the TV in the kitchen and dance with a raw turkey (shh, don't tell) to the tune of drumming marching bands. Nothing like a giant weiner dog floating down the street to lift your spirit!


We also spend a lot of time griping about how there are too many commercials, too many cut-aways to promotions  for the latest Broadway shows, and not nearly enough parade and giant balloons. Please tell me someone else remembers when they used to report on the Thanksgiving Day parade in Hawaii?? 


I'll be away from my Mom this year at Thanksgiving but I'm fairly certain there will be at least one phone call to exchange snarky remarks about the parade reporters and to discuss how the food preparations are going.


What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions?