Holly Basket Cookies and Let's PaRTay

 Christmas is happening.  My woes from the last post have been solved, it's wrapped and under the tree.  It's time to celebrate and boy howdy I have been celebrating!

Girls' Night happened and was so great.  We started our evening at Shelly's.  She went crazy making delicious appetizers and a great drink.  Christmas balls in the drinks were a big hit.

 As always we all talk at once and laugh throughout the whole evening.

 We had dinner at Keenans in Bellingham.  Delicious as always.  We sent our compliments to the chef.  He came to our table for a visit and then sent out his chocolates.  They were crazy good.

I've been wrapping and baking in between parties.

 I baked sugar cookies and I'm frosting as needed.  I cut out trees and used green and white to decorate.  I had seen it on pinterest.  Not that my cookies look like the ones on pinterest.  They were eaten yesterday before I got the shot.

Sheryl and I have been baking our Holly Basket Cookies for twenty plus years.  She bakes with her girls now.  Originally I saw them in a magazine and rest is history.  They are our specialty. I'd consider them top secret but anyone could look at them and figure it out. lol  I'm sharing today with my tips.

Holly Basket Cookies

Whip together:

1 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. shortening

Add sugars and mix.

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

Add 2 eggs and mix.

Add 2 c. flour and 2 tsp. soda.

Bake at 325 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Bake until they start to crinkle.

Unwrap Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and cut them in half.

It's a good idea to have them all unwrapped and ready before you start baking.  Cuz you are going to get really busy. They need to go on the hot cookies and you'll be rolling cookies and rolling in sugar, adding baskets and moving those cookie sheets in and out of the oven quickly.

I use my smallest scoop to make sure they are uniform in size.  Scoop and then roll the dough into balls, then roll in a bowl of sugar before baking.

 After they come out of the oven, press a "basket" into the hot cookie.  Then take off the tray to cool on the counter.

 Let cool for a few hours, as the chocolate basket melts and need to firm up.

You'll need a tube of green and a tube of red decorating icing, and the tips.  Sheryl and I tried to make the frosting one year.  Don't do it!  It's too difficult to get the icing stiff enough or red enough or green enough.  Unless you're a professional baker just buy the grocery store icing.  

 Max found the last green in Lynden on Saturday.  So good luck with that.  If you use Wilton from Micheals make sure you have their tips as the grocery store tips do not fit Wilton's.

Decorate with two holly leaves and two or three berries.

Warning:  That frosting is stiff and by the time you get finished your hand will hurt. A lot.

Aren't they just the cutest cookies ever?

Enjoy!

 On Saturday Max's friend Travis came to our house for dinner.  I made them the grilled cheese guy burgers.  There's bacon too!

 After church on Sunday we had our annual Dykstra Christmas party. This is my Mom's family and it is sometimes hard to believe that we all still get this extend family together.  It's a fun day of getting caught up and delicious food.

My computer won't let me edit the pics I took yesterday so they are what they are.

 The gym pictures aren't good quality photos but there was some quality FuN going on with the bigs and the littles.  Love that so much!

 Christina and I always get a shot of #bigmaxlilmax. 

 After the party I went home, plopped on the sofa and watched the Seahawks game.  What a great game!  Isn't winning fun?  The Beast had a tummy ache but wow did he have the run of his career or what?

Today is Costco and Haggens. Hoping I can hang on to my sanity.  

When Things Go Badly Bake Something Delicious

Just a random shot of bleached and glittered trees, cuz I have time for stuff like that right now.

{insert sarcasm}

Someday I'm going to laugh about it.  But right now, I am not laughing.

My best intentions to make Christmas special for my family have gone strangely awry.

Last night I was dreaming, I was in the basement of an antique store with a steer.  The whole "bull in a china shop" was playing in living color all night long in my mind.

I am not sleeping well.

At all.  

After Christmas I shall share a very ugly story on the blog.  I keep trying to FIX this nightmare so it must remain a Christmas secret for now.  I am not certain if this makes me very, very stupid or just really, really determined to finish what I have started.

{insert deep breath}

It's fine, don't worry about me, it's all good.  I'm just a little stressed, tired, and disappointed.  

First world problems and all that...

Let's bake instead of dwelling on my angst.  I mentioned this recipe last month and several readers requested it.  It is fairly easy.  I don't think you'll have nightmares about bulls in china shops from baking for your family and everything going horribly wrong.  This recipe is easy and delicious.  Really.

Pumpkin White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bars 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Premier White Morsels, divided
• 2/3 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan.
COMBINE flour, cinnamon, cloves and baking soda in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract until blended; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in 1 1/2 cup morsels and nuts. Spread into prepared jelly-roll pan.

BAKE for 18 to 22 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

PLACE remaining morsels in heavy-duty plastic bag. ***Alert!  They aren't kidding about using a good quality bag, do not use a flimsy little sandwich bag! Microwave on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 45 seconds; knead. Microwave at additional 10- to 15-second intervals, kneading until smooth. Cut tiny corner from bag; squeeze to drizzle over bars.

 The last photo is from the Nestle site because I didn't take a picture of the finished bars I just started eating them and forgot all about getting the shot.

I am not being paid by Libby or Nestle now or ever.  Amen.

Enjoy!

Best Birthday Ever

On Friday Hubby and I went to Seattle, checked into the Mayflower Park Hotel and the good times began.

After shopping in the afternoon, we changed into our evening attire.  First stop was downstairs at Oliver's.  It's our favorite spot to sip a Silver Bell and watch the world go by in Seattle.

 The hotel was decked out for Christmas with beautiful Christmas trees and fresh flowers throughout the building.  The Mayflower was built at the same time as our house so we feel at home when we're there.

 Then we took a cab to McCaw Hall in the Seattle Center.  Hubby gave me tickets to see Nutcracker Suite for my birthday.  It's the last year for the Maurice Sendak version of the Nutcracker in Seattle.  It was fun to see all of the children so excited and dressed up in their holiday dresses and suits.  There was a group of design students with amazing gowns.  One student had lights in the hem of her ball gown.

My favorite scene is the Snowflake Dance.  The picture is from PNB.  The best moment for me was after the Waltz of the Flowers, the little girl sitting in front of me spontaneously jumped to her feet and started applauding.  She was so caught up on the moment.  Then she looked around, realized she was the only one standing and sat down, but continued to cheer.

We took the monorail back to our hotel, where after sharing a fruit and cheese tray and cocktails; I had sweet dreams of sugarplum fairies.

 Saturday was my birthday and we began our day with breakfast at Andaluca's.  I had the French toast stuffed with almond cream cheese and orange butter.  Best birthday breakfast and a wonderful start to our day in downtown.

 We did some Christmas shopping and then walked to Pike Street Market.  I got fitted for new running shoes at Sound Sports.  We browsed through Watson Kennedy, Sur la Table and the antique mall.  We ran into a snow machine making the streets even more festive.  There were many Seahawk fans and a some 40whiner fans too.  Some Sea Hawks chanting going on was making it all a lot of fun.

 Now I know what to do with the rusty Tonka trucks in our back yard.

We went home Saturday evening.  It was a fun time in the city and a wonderful birthday.

 I continued to celebrate on Sunday with the children's program at our church, soup lunch at my folk's place, and a BiG Seahawk win.  In the evening, a special birthday dinner at Mark and Karen's place.

Since my birthday is in December it is usually rather hit and miss but this year was amazing.  It was 12/13/14 and I celebrated on the 12th and 13th and the 14th.  I'm feeling very spoiled and blessed.

I'm Still Kickin' and Screamin'... a little

 A quick update is in order today.  MIA in November, honestly I do not even know what happened to November.  Retail, I work in retail.  That's what happened.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  So many blessings to be grateful for this year and always.  We had a wonderful day including a nice Thanksgiving Day church service, where we did not sing We Gather Together.  It's okay, no big deal, I'll wait another year.  It's fine.  No biggie.  I know, I know, it can't always be all about me and my favorite Thanksgiving song.  Seriously, I love my church and I am so thankful for it.  And by it, I mean the people.  I'm looking forward to the Advent Season.

I made the cranberry fluff for Thanksgiving and gave thanks for my Kitchen Aid mixer and my Cuisinart.

 I made pumpkin bars which I intended to share the recipe before Thanksgiving.  It's a pumpkin bar recipe I found in Country Living in the 80's.  It had been years since I made this recipe but it's a good one.  Next year I'll share it in a timely manner.  Pumpkin, white chocolate and macadamia nuts are a delicious combination.

 I didn't take a single photo of our Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house so I stole a few from my sister that is a Snapsister.  Aren't we blessed?  That's a lot of family, food, and fun, right there.

After dinner we went home to watch the Seahawks win.  Sam and Angela came over with the Bumpus hounds and a good time was had by all.

I didn't shop on Black Friday, except online.  Friday night we went to Kulshan Brewery for Coconut Kenny's pizza with Max and Kassie, Sam and Angela, and Karen.  Blake stopped by to say hello.  It lightly snowed and I love snow so that was a bonus.

 I've done some decorating and in true crazy town fashion I started with the areas that are low priority, the guest room, the laundry room, the master bedroom and the sitting room.  I hope to get our living area done this weekend.  Well, I hope to get it started...

 On Saturday I went to Jon and Cait's wedding reception.  Everything was beautiful, the brunch was delicious but the highlight for me was seeing Caitlin in her gorgeous dress.

 There were cupcakes so I guess it's the real deal.  No one is officially married without cake.  The MOB, Leslie is a good friend and it was so great to see her hard work come together so beautifully.  Leslie made all of the bunting, she gathered vintage tablecloths, and it came together so pretty.  Speaking of pretty, Leslie had a very pretty dress and vintage jewelry.

 Let's just revisit Cait's dress, shall we?  I loved it so much.  Maybe because I there when she bought her dress so I felt sentimental about it.  Or maybe because it was fabulous.

 On Monday I went to Seattle with my sissies, Kathi, Jodi and Melinda.  We are there to Christmas shop but we do a few little things for ourselves too.  I had my eye makeup done at Nordstroms, Jodi had her hair done, Melinda got her boots polished.  I'm thinking next year we should go overnight and book a spa day.  We shopped and lunched and then shopped some more and then ended our day at the Train Wreck for dinner.  Obviously, we were successful! 

 Isn't my little band of angels sweet.  A vintage find, still in their original box, still intact and made in British Hong Kong.

I am still working on projects and have enjoyed some success.  I've also weather some serious #project fail, #Christmasfail and some #howdoesthatevenhappen.  Post Christmas I will share the projects with tutorials so y'all know what NoT to do.

Don't forget to go to Grandiflora to buy your Bethany Home Tour tickets.  The tour is Saturday.  On Thursday Shelly and I get to help our friend Holly with a small detail in her and Brian's home.  They are on the tour and you do not want to miss their Christmas home.  See you there!

That's all and that's enough!