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So, I kinda dropped the ball on yesterday's scheduled post, which was supposed to be on the best Christmas movies. I fell asleep really early, unintentionally. You know how sometimes you have a really busy day, and you change into your Flux Capacitor t-shirt and cozy up in bed for a "nap" but then your bed holds you captive and you fall asleep for the night? Yeah. So I'll have to reschedule that post! In case you like structure in your life, here is this weeks schedule of posts!

Monday (later today): Christmas Past
Tuesday: Christmas Present
Wednesday: Wednesday Thoughts
Thursday: Christmas Future
Friday: End of the World
Saturday: Left-overs
Sunday: Best Christmas movies

Check back later today for a Christmas Past post!

How to Dance

If you need something to lift your spirits tonight, have I got the thing for you. The other night, after the cookie exchange, I was hanging out with my nieces and nephew for a bit. At one point we were doing silly dances and my niece, never one to hold back an opinion, told me she did not like my dance. I asked her if she could teach me to dance, and this is what she did (Katherine added the music later):



I've watched it about a hundred times. Please note the mismatched socks. Could she be any cuter?

It's Cookie Time!

Do you guys remember that movie from the 80's, "Troop Beverly Hills"? I have the DVD if you want to borrow it. It's 80's gold. Shelly Long, a rich Beverly Hills socialite, becomes her daughter's girl scout leader. Antics ensue, to say the least. One of the gems from the movie is this song:



And now that it's almost Christmas, it really is cookie time. Last night we had a family cookie exchange. I probably consumed about a thousand calories, but I don't even care. Those were some YUMMY treats! I thought I'd share with you some recipes I've been loving this season! One of them is in an actual paper cook book, so I can't link to it. I'll share it here. They smell like grandma's house. My grandma never made these cookies, but they smell like the grandmas houses in the movies. I assume.

Molasses Crinkles

Mix:

1/2 cup soft shortening
1 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses

Sift together and stir in:

2 1/4 cups white flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger

Chill dough. Roll into balls the size of large walnuts. Dip tops in sugar. Place, sugar-side up, 3" apart on greased baking sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with 2 or 3 drops of water to produce a crackled surface. bake until just set but not hard.

Temperature: 375 degrees
Time: 10-12 minutes
Amount: About 4 dozen 2 1/2 inch cookies

They are really good - chewy and flavorful! I sometimes drizzle some white chocolate on them, or dip half of the cookie in white chocolate. It's not necessary, but it is pretty delicious.

The other recipes I've been making this season are (click on the names for the links):

Chocolate chunk peppermint pudding cookies - People keep requesting I make these, and asking me how they're so chewy! The secret is the pudding. Nomnomnom! They're divine.

Brownie batter truffles - Dang you guys, these are amazing. Everyone has been asking me for the recipe lately. My nephew thought the inside looked like poop, but he scarfed it down right after he said that, so... Yeah. They're good.

White chocolate cherry shortbread cookies - These cookies won the cookie exchange competition tonight, so they are GOOD! Try them! They'll surprise you. I'm usually a "chocolate or bust" kinda gal, but these have stolen my heart.

Brigadeiros - People go LOCO for these treats. They have such a unique flavor and are really easy to make. They're always a hit!

Those are just a few of the recipes I've been making so far this season. No wonder it's so hard to keep holiday weight off! But without holiday weight, New Year's Resolutions would have never been born. So I guess it's not such a bad thing.

Here are some pictures from our cookie exchange:

Some of the spread!

Red and green tortilla chips, and Dana and Heather!

Christmas apron!

The kids working on some Christmas crafts

My nephew photobombing my niece, repeatedly. I was laughing so hard.

If you have a fabulous recipe you like to make, please share it!

Back to the Future: A Love Story

If you want to watch an adult squirm, ask them what their favorite movie is. You can almost see the wheels turning in their head:

* Should I say an impressive, intelligent movie?
* Should I admit my actual favorite movie is Sister Act?
* Does everyone agree that Jeniffer Lopez is a good actress?
* What movie do I watch the most?
* Is my answer binding?
* Once I answer, can I change my mind?
* Is this going on my permanent record?

Seriously, just chill people. It's not that big of a deal. It just says everything about who you are and what is important to you. 

That having been said, I think I've made it clear here what my favorite movie is: Back to the Future 3. I made this decision based on the fact that I can watch it over and over again, and that I love it. The first (original) Back to the Future is really good too. The second is "meh." It's kind of a bummer one. But the first and third? Oscar worthy. Ok, maybe not really. But definitely watchable and wonderful. Here is evidence of my love of the movies - I have two BTTF t-shirts!

Nerd alert, I know. Anyway, as promised in the "Menu" I made for the week, today I'll tell you why I think the Back to the Future trilogy is the best.

1. Doc's facial expressions.

2. These movies established the time travel laws that we expect all movies and tv shows to follow. Remember on the tv show Lost when they started dabbling in time travel? Everyone was yelling at the tv, "you don't mess with the time space continuum! Did you learn nothing from Doc Brown!?" Eventually even on the show itself, one of the characters started talking about Back to the Future in reference to how they should handle the laws of time travel.

3. Lines like:

"You're not thinking 4th dimentionally!"
"You are my density.... I mean.... my destiny."
"Great Scott!"
"1.21 gigawatts!!"
"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."

4. It's nostalgic - I mean, unless you're 20 years old and weren't born when the movies were out. But if you're around my age or older, then these movies bring back a lot of memories. I remember seeing at least one of them in the theater when I was a kid. Here are some pictures to bring back some memories:

5. The friendship between Doc and Marty. Why are these two best friends!? One is a teenager, the other is an old scientist. Is it their mutual love of science? Is Marty Doc's dog sitter? Is Doc Marty's mentor? Are they related?? There's no way of knowing!

In conclusion - I love the Back to the Future trilogy. Why? Because it's fun. The end.

Now it's your turn! What's your favorite movie, and why?

Wednesday Thoughts

I got to see my adorable little niece yesterday. She gives the world's best hugs, seriously. It pretty much made my day to see her and be the recipient of several of those monkey hugs. She's 4 years old, and she told me yesterday that her favorite singer is Alvin and the Chipmunks. When I was a kid I loved Alvin and the Chipmunks too. Those were the days of Saturday morning cartoons. I could be wrong, but I don't think Saturday morning cartoons are a thing anymore - parents, help me out here.

My favorite Saturday morning shows were Alvin & the Chipmunks (as previously stated), The Smurfs, the animated Punky Brewster, and around 11:00am Saved the Bell and the Casey Kasem top 10 countdown came on. That was where I first found out that Rick Astley was white. A fact that blew. My. Young. Mind. I'll never forget that day.

My mom told me that when she was a kid, she loved Alvin and the Chipmunks too. You guys, those chipmunks have really stood the test of time.

This week is a baking week for me! I made some cookie plates on Monday for some friends, and will be making many more as the week goes on. If you are in special need of a sugar fix, let me know.

Last night I helped my grandma get her Christmas cards ready to mail. She's almost 93 now and doesn't really like writing because her sight isn't what it used to be, but she wrote short notes in some of the cards. This one made me smile. She signed it "F" - her first initial.

My grandma makes me smile. I'm so lucky to be able to spend so much time with her. She's a spunky, fun, kind, intelligent woman. I hope I still have my wits about me like she does when I'm that age!

Well, I can't end Wednesday Thoughts on a sappy note, so I'll share one more thought: I don't know what the Elf on the Shelf is. And I'd kinda like to keep it that way. When did this whole thing start anyway!? Is the Elf supposed to be good or evil? How many of you do the Elf on the Shelf for your kids?

Happy Wednesday!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

The other day I posted some pictures of some trees I sold at a craft show. I got a few responses from people asking me how I made them - so I thought I'd post a tutorial for one of them! I don't think I've ever posted a tutorial before, so I hope I don't miss a step. It's a little nerve wracking, to be honest. I think my fear of writing instructions goes back a long way.

When I was in third grade, our teacher did an exercise with us where we had to write instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The next day, she brought peanut butter, jelly, bread, and a knife and used our directions to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Suffice it to say, most of the instructions we'd written were complete bunk. Very few pb&j's were made correctly. I can't remember if my instructions were good or bad, but I do remember being embarrassed by how bad some of the others were.

That having been said, let's begin!

Here's what you need: 

* A Styrofoam cone (any size)

* Two feet of felt (any color)

* Hot glue gun and glue sticks

* Scissors

* Spray paint

The first thing I did was spray paint my white cone red so that the uncovered parts of the cone wouldn't be as obvious. I used Krylon "red pepper" spray paint, though of course you may use any color you'd like.

While the paint dries, cut out about 70 3.5 inch circles from the felt. I used a cup to trace a circle, and I don't stress about the circles being perfect. Life's too short.

Once you're done with that, go ahead and take a break. Stretch your back a bit, get a drink of water, text your crush, and take a trip to the bathroom.

Ready to start back in? Ok, now that you have all those circles, you follow these steps! Put some hot glue about half way across the circle, and fold it over. Then put more hot glue in the center of the taco shape and fold it over again! As seen below:

Do that for a long time and try really hard not to burn your fingers. I bought some hot glue finger pads (as pictured) and they're pretty great. Not fool proof (gloves would be better), but they help.When you're done, you are ready to start gluing them on your cone!

Start at the bottom and work your way up, staggering to cover as much as possible. It's ok if it doesn't cover every last bit though - that's why we sprayed the tree form in the first  place. This part goes pretty quickly, and when you're done, you have this beautiful tree! I made a little cone and placed it over the top of the tree to top it off.

Pretty magical, if I do say so myself! And it can easily be done in a couple hours while you're watching a Christmas movie. Happy crafting!

I've made a huge mistake

.... I decided to engage in a Facebook debate.

As far as I can tell, the rules of a Facebook arguement are thus:

1. It's ok to be rude to people you don't know
2. YOU ARE ALWAYS RIGHT - NEVER FORGET THIS
3. Similar to number 2, people who disagree with you are uninformed/dumb.
4. See number 2.
5. Rinse.
6. Repeat.

Please remind me to never engage in these debates again!