…and I hope and pray your holiday turned out to be a time of worship, joy, family, peace, and love.

I am taking a bloggy vacation.  Will see you in the New Year.

We are making, making, making fun things for each other and cousins and sisters and brothers, etc.   Today it is going to be some “pretties” for a certain little cousin’s gorgeous mane *wink*, and those linen napkins I was planning on printing for Christmas dinner.  And tomorrow it will be something else,  maybe I will finally finish that little skirt for a tiny friend.

Yesterday was our first annual Schrock Cookie Extravaganza.  We had two other families over and there were eight adults and seven kiddos making all manner of Christmas fabulousness.   And purple, lime green, pink, and yellow frosting.  I would have taken pictures, but I was having too much fun and forgot.  Sorry.

Anyway, it was a blast…thanks friends.

And a very important note for my gluten free friends:  I tried Gluten Free Girl’s Sugar Cookie recipe and it was absolutely great. Very easy to make, bake, and frost.  Highly, highly recommend it.  I might post some pictures of the kids pastry artistry later.  You would have never known they were gluten free except for their slightly dense texture. Just remember to sift your gluten free flours before measuring.  I found it was easy to have too much flour.  I have read on Shauna’s blog that she is going to start writing her recipes more with weight than with cups, etc. because it seems to be more accurate.  I will fiddle with the recipe today and will pass on a slightly revised version with the flours weights to see if I can achieve a more consistent dough product.

Needless to say…I_was_in_heaven.  There is nothing like saying goodbye to something you think you will never see again, only to turn around and have it say “hello!”

Hope you are truly, not figuratively, having a wonderful season.

See you tomorrow.

Hmmm.  What can I make from these old men’s shirts?   We were all working on a very fun, very kid-friendly project today.  I will post pictures in a few days.

The studio in a bit of a rumple from the renewed buzz of  holiday activity.

A pot of simple stew for dinner.

Followed by one of the best things on God’s green earth.  Pomegranates.  Oh, heavens-to-Betsy.  We so dearly love pomegranates.  It’s a bit of a yearly tradition, you see.  Always must go out and pick out five of the nicest we can find.  And then we systematically eat them, of course.

What are some of your little, homey, yearly holiday traditions?  Do share.

The top photo is actually the “doorbell” to the kids’ climbing tree.  It has been hanging there a good part of the late summer and fall.  It just looked so fun and holiday-ish, hanging there on a leaf-less tree.

The lights went on our inside tree today…nothing else.  I am determined to not turn into mom-zilla about getting everything done all at once.  Who knows?  Maybe we’ll be super-duper, old timey traditional and wait to put ornaments on until Christmas Eve while the kids are sleeping.

Now, there’s an idea.