Let the Christmas Season Begin!!!! :-D

I hope everyone had a wonderfully happy Thanksgiving!!! :-D

Anyone who read my last post will be happy to know that I defeated the CLEANING monster (that I battle regularly!), and got it all done on Wednesday -- vacuuming, some dusting, cleaning the (horrid, plastic) white kitchen floor (which will soon be covered! YAY!!), and picking up my STUFF from all the corners of our living space!!  It actually didn't take me that long, and just like Amy (Bumble Bee Designs) said in her comment -- I was SO happy when I was finished! (thanks Amy!! :-D)

Our meal came out deliciously - all our favorites: my Yankee Nana's stuffing, TWO yummy turkeys, stuffed yellow peppers that I froze from my garden this year, homemade cranberry sauce that I canned myself (everyone loved it!), my personal favorite of mashed butternut squash (YUM!!), mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, hot rolls, and applesauce that I made a couple of weeks ago!  For dessert, I made pumpkin pie squares......

.....and I made Swedish apple pie (in honor of my great, great grandmother, Ida Ojerholm, who married my great, great grandfather, Sten in 1883 when she was 17 -- she was born in Sweden and came to America to work as a servant in her teens, until she was married!)
ANYWAY....the Swedish apple pie is so easy and yummy, it's one of my favorite apple desserts! :-)

I fill a buttered (or sprayed) 9x13 pan with peeled and cored apple slices......

I sprinkle them generously with sugar and cinnamon, and then mix up the batter.....

2 sticks of melted butter, 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of flour, and 2 eggs.....
Pour it over the apples.....

And bake it for 40 minutes at 375.
YUMMY!!!......

I served both of them with homemade whipped cream (it's cheaper!)......SOOOO good!!! :-D
Now the apple recipe is actually doubled, because I want a 9x13 size, so if you want to make one smaller, go for it!  And if anyone wants the recipe for the pumpkin pie squares, just let me know! :-)

Phew!  I was tired after the meal, I had spent the whole day on my feet in the kitchen (I loved it, though!), and I was so happy to put on my favorite Christmas music disc, and sit and relax and sew the "pennies" for my mom's rug together!  I'm almost done, and I spread them all out to see how it would look.....

I like it!  It's not really "drab" enough for ME, but my mom's tastes are different -- she's more like Farmhouse-lite!  She has a great flair for decorating, I've always loved her slightly cluttered way of displaying her favorite things, my parents' home always feels so warm and welcoming!  I hope that that's the kind of feeling my kids will have when they grow up and come back to visit me - cozy and homey!! :-)
As you can see from the picture, all that's left for me to do with the pennies is to sew a few on the outer edge together, and then I can sew them to the bottom.  Then I'll work on MY penny rug!

So now the Christmas season of 2012 is officially upon us.....WOW!  Where did all that time go??
This year will be leaner than last year, which I didn't think was possible!  But I have a few ideas for the kids that I think they will like, and won't cost too much.  I'm so glad that they are older and can understand about not getting much - they don't even mind, they say.  But I mind, I want to be able to do more, give more, that's where the joy is for me.......so it's going to be a little struggle within myself.

I haven't pulled out any of the Christmas decorations yet, maybe tomorrow or Sunday -- I CAN'T WAIT!!! :-D  I love all my Christmas treasures, some I just love being able to LOOK at again!!

I did work on something fun today......

My gingerbread sleigh!!!!  I used cans to prop up the sides and hot glued them together.  I went around in my mind about the best way to attach the pieces, and I decided to try the glue gun first, because it cools quickly (so sticks faster) and it isn't messy.  Plus there were some gaps in the edges (of course, being cookies and not wood!), and hot glue could fill those in better than drippy white glue, or gorilla glue. 
I did go over each seam several times, on either side, and it did work great!  I love how it looks!! :-D
And as usual, since it's a project of mine, I ran into (another) snag.......

See the white piece of paper?  That is the pattern piece for the runner supports, and the pieces next to it are the actual supports that I cut and baked......what the heck happened???  How did I miss an INCH of batter?  I think what happened is that after I rolled out the dough and cut the piece, it tightened back a little when I moved it to the cookie sheet.  Whatever -- obviously I have to make MORE dough....again! :-P
So I didn't get to finish this, of course....I tried to make it work, but just putting them together I could tell just by looking at it that the runners were way too narrow to support the sleigh.  SOOOO.....I will make a whole batch of dough for two tiny pieces 1 inch larger! :-P
Since I didn't get to finish it, I added something just for fun.....

The gingerbreads want to take a ride!! :-D  Don't they look cute in there? LOL  I'll be fixing the runner problem this weekend, then we'll see if they get to stay in there....! ^-^