It Must Be Getting Close To Christmas ~

The Christmas Village is up, and when evening sets in the lights of the village make it appear to be a living miniature town. Magical ! Must be getting close to Christmas.

Baking seems to occupy every bit of spare time, but the cold and rainy days outside cause the kitchen to call out to us.."come bake, be warm, and eat"! Must be getting close to Christmas .

My husband makes his traditional Berry Butternuts, something his father did, and still does, but with the many, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren my dear Father-in-Law has, he cannot possibly bake these yummy cookies for everyone anymore, so it is a good thing his grown children continue this tradition. A yummy good thing~ Must be getting close to Christmas. I have already made several batches of lefse for two different occasions. For all my married life, 37 years and then some, I have made lefse for Christmas. Lefse is our traditional Christmas morning breakfast. I make it the night before , so all my Christmas Eves are spent making it, then cleaning the kitchen and setting the table , making sure there is butter to spread on the lefse, and also making sure there is a mixture of cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle on it. Then the lefse is rolled up like a jelly roll and eaten. Hot coffee, rosettes, ( another Scandinavian treat ) and some cheese and fruit are all that is needed to complete this breakfast usually eaten after we open gifts and before we prepare for whatever else we will be doing Christmas Day. The lefse griddle is still out,ready for more use ~ as are the rolling pin and lefse turner...must be getting close to Christmas. "While lutefisk requires some getting used to, most people take an immediate liking to lefse, Norway's unleavened soft bread. Somewhat thinner than a commercially prepared tortilla, lefse rounds are also much larger and softer than the Mexican bread....While a great variety of lefse types exist in Norway, potato lefse dominates almost exclusively in the United States. Like lutefisk, lefse now serves as a badge of Norwegian ethnicity..." 'Keeping Christmas, Yuletide Traditions in Norway And The New Land' by Kathleen Stokker ~~~~ My Grandmother taught me how to make lefse many years ago, when I was a young girl and I am very thankful. I had no idea then of how precious this gift of teaching me how to make lefse was, but I know I need to teach this to my Grandchildren, just as I need to know and teach the real reason I celebrate Christmas. "For unto you is born this day in the city of David......" It must be getting close to Christmas!

Santa, and the Last of the 2008 Christmas Posts

~One of my small village scenes. The farm with the poultry yard. I don't see any stalking,murderous coyotes in this scene. Maybe I should look into some little porcelain coyotes and fake blood for a dose of reality here. Maybe not, I like to think the whole world conspires to goodness and bliss this time of year. Will someone please inform the coyotes they are not following the plan?Somebody, somewhere ,seems to think we'll all just get along and there will be peace on earth if we just play nice. ~We DID play nice and have peace here on Cedar Pond the 23rd of December. It has become a tradition to have any grandchildren who live close enough, to come over and bake Christmas cookies, play games and spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's. Here #5 Granddaughter rolls out the sugar cookie dough and cuts it into Christmas shapes.

~#2 Granddaughter also takes her turn at her own batch of sugar cookies.~

~#1 Grandson plays with MY Rudolph toys while awaiting his turn to roll out and cut his sugar cookie dough. I think he preferred to play with my toys instead of baking . He played with my toys the whole time he was here. How can you resist Rudolph and his reindeer friends anyway? ~The grandchildren and I took the time to glitter up a cardboard village that was the only Christmas village we had when our daughter, their mother was growing up. Since I now have a porcelain Christmas Village, I thought the grandchildren would appreciate taking home the little village that adorned their mother's Christmas memories.

~#2 granddaughter decorates her cookies. We made the cookies dairy-free so their mom can eat them.~

~Poppa also likes to help out, he and #5 granddaughter also do taste tests of the cookies and the frosting. ~The grandchildren have all had visits from Santa in December. For some reason I find them all whispering and giggling as they tell me they are sure Santa is their very own Poppa! I just cannot understand how they would think Santa and Poppa are one and the same.....just because they SOUND alike, and they both wear the same glasses, and they both have the same moustache, and just because Poppa and Santa are never together in the same room at the same time , even though everyone else is present, why would they think Poppa is Santa? Look at the picture above, and then compare it to the picture of Santa (below) , what do you think? Oh, doesn't our dog Hawk look pleased to be posing with Santa? We think it was so nice of Santa to stop by and give Hawk some attention.....

~For more pictures of Santa check out our daughters blog,A.Joy At Home.~

Spot on Family Recipe, Berry Butternuts!

~The little vignette above is displayed in my father-in-laws' home. His home is Christmas Town, pretty much all year round. He missed his true calling as Santa Claus, but I think my Hubby is following that jolly siren song. Anyway, my father-in-law really just goes nuts at Christmas. He bakes special desserts, and I mean DESSERTS! Hubby's family believes dessert to be the main course and everything else except the gravy and butter are just filler you have to get out of the way before dessert. My father-in-law used to be a baker, and never quit baking. When Hubby and I were first married I did not have to compete with his Mother's cooking, but the line " Well, my Father makes it better, or my Father makes the best..." and although Hubby learned very, very soon NOT to say those lines, he was right. His father is a great baker and cook. (Hubby is too but don't tell him I said so). ~Hubby's father (above) is into his 8th decade of life and doing quite well. He still makes great peanut brittle and Berry Butternuts. Hubby is carrying on the tradition of baking the cookies, and he writes, "This is a recipe my father conceived in 1949 while working at Federal Bakery in Tacoma, Washington. He took Scottish shortbread and jazzed it up a bit. He entered the recipe once in Better Homes and Gardens and received Honorable Mention. Our father made these cookies every Christmas and they are one of our favorite Christmas cookies."

~Berry Butternut Cookies~

1 pound unsalted, room temperature butter 1 cup sugar 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 large egg 4 to 5 cups flour raspberry or lingonberry jam finely chopped walnuts, about 2 cups ~~~Cream together butter, sugar and salt.Mix in egg and vanilla. Add 4 cups flour, mixing in 1 cup at a time, then as much of the 5th cup until the dough can rolled into a ball without sticking.

~Take a fist size ball of dough and roll it into a 1 inch thick log and then roll that into the walnuts, coating the dough; it should be about 3/4 inch thick now. Cut the dough into 3/4 inch pieces and place onto a baking sheet. ~Using the unsharpened end of a pencil, make an indentation in the center of the cookie, about 1/2 inch deep and fill with jam.

~Here Hubby is using a gadget that makes the filling easy.~

~Bake the cookies in a 325 degree pre-heated oven for 12 to 15 minutes.~

~These are some of the very best cookies. There are never any left over cookies and we know it is Christmas when the Berry Butternuts are being baked. These cookies are best if stored in a sealed container(we use glass gallon mayonnaise jars ) for a day or two before eating. But hey, who waits. You have to have at least a half dozen with a good cup of coffee before you put the jar of cookies away . ~These cookies are a family tradition. My husband and his brother and 4 sisters grew up with these as a Christmas memory they continue to this day. My father-in-law is still baking them and delivering them too! See Knock, Knock! the 12/16/2008 post on our daughter's blog to read more about this tradition.

Cookies and Another Santa

~This is a Santa I made about 20 years ago. I drew out the pattern on paper, and my Hubby cut him out of wood. I then painted him, added toys and hid a music box in his sack. I bring him out every year. I made 2 more and gave them away as gifts. Funny thing is, his face so looks like someone we know and I couldn't help thinking the little guy kind of took on a bit of life ( not in a spooky way ) as he stared at me while I worked on him.~Here is a plate of sugar cookies I baked up tonight using the recipe from yesterdays' post. The grandchildren are not here and I did not want to take the time to roll out and cut the dough, I am busy finishing up things for the bazaar this weekend. So I simply pulled a roll of the dough out of the fridge, sliced it like one would a loaf of bread, baked the sliced bits of cookie dough, cooled the cookies, and decorated with the powdered sugar icing and sprinkles. Voila ! Freshly baked Christmas cookies and hot coffee . ( The larger snowman in the picture was made by my Hubby's youngest sister and her husband who live next door. ) ~And just what would Christmas be like around Cedar Pond without a decorated Labrador Retriever or two or three or four ? Here is Beatrix, putting up with bows and picture taking. "You have never been properly welcomed and given holiday greetings until you have been welcomed by a quartet of Labs. Retrievers to the core they will greet you with something in the mouth- a boot, mitten, child's toy, anything that is in reach and retrievable." Jo Northrup

~"Christmas! Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial fire of charity in the heart." Washington Irving