Cookie Time at the Terrys!! (and update on baby Dalton)

Oh....I think I finally feel like I'm back in the game of life :) Although I still can't find my address book (arghhhh), it seems things have slowed down a bit around our home and my brain seems to be finding it's way back "home", ha!

We may not have lights up outside the house this year, but our tree is finally decorated and our stockings are hung! I love our stockings, they were patterned after the ones my mom made for us growing up...red felt w/sequins and beads. I, ofcourse, being the rebel I am, went a bit outside the boundaries and added some felt accents to ours to make them just a little different. We even have sent most of our Christmas cards out...BEFORE CHRISTMAS!! I know...crazy and you might even find it unbelievable, but it's true! Now, ok, not all of them have been sent, b/c I still need some addresses, but I would say 88% of them are in the mail :) We do have 3 outdoor decorations up, one of which is my Pawpaw's old chalkboard that I "swiped" before my aunt rented out his house again (with her permission!). I have such great memories of that chalkboard, leaving notes on it for pawpaw and just playing on it w/my cousins growing up. Now it is heralding the days until Santa arrives and it hangs by our most used door (front door) as it hung by his most used door (garage door) for so many years.

Today, J & I are enjoying the company of Indiana D and Ebird while their parents are hard at work!! Ebird & I have been baking cookies for quite awhile...we've made Jamborees, Peanut Butter Blossoms and of course, the ever popular Gingerbread cookies (that is the ONE of 2 Martha Stewart recipes I actually use, even w/it's 20 ingredients, ha!). J made about...um...3, but IndD and Ebird stuck it out w/me to cut out a lot more. J is much more into eating cookies than making them.

giving the thumbs up on the gingerbread cookie :)

Last week, along with subbing and finishing some online work, I think I must have made 6 batches of hot chocolate to give out as gifts to teachers, T's coworkers and friends :) (recipe below!!) We love this hot chocolate, it came to us from mom through a friend of hers years ago and given with a mug and even some cookies, it's a gift to be enjoyed. J even likes it in the summer!



If you have received a Christmas letter from us, you will have read this already, but it bears repeating here I think. As we decorated the Christmas tree this year, I was reminded of both our past and our future as 3 individuals and as a family. When hanging the plastic beaded-chains that once hung on my Damma’s tree, beads that mean nothing to anyone but me, I am reminded of just how important family is to me. The smell those beads still have, the same smell they had when I used to help Damma decorate her tree, just takes my mind back through the years of my childhood with my parents, grandparents...even my stinky brother. I laugh as T tells me about his Christmas holidays in different locations with his brother. When hanging J’s birthday ornaments, one for every year, we smile almost teary-eyed smiles as we hang up Blues Clues (2 years), Toy Story (4 years), Tom & Jerry (6 years), Coyote & Roadrunner (8 years) and the more current Spiderman. These take my mind back through his first 10 years of life and how far we have all come as a family. God has blessed us and brought us through many firsts, lasts, joyful moments, not so joyful moments, triumphs and heartaches. While there are more to come in 2009, we will continue to trust that God is God and He will take care of all of these times in our lives.


Dad still hasn't received any results from the PET scan but I will update on that as I find out. He does still have the "bag" on to help w/his bathroom troubles, which he is not thrilled with...and until he gets results from the urinologist on that...he might have it on for awhile. He will start his radiation on the 29th and while this is like a big cloud looming above us, it seems God has granted us all a peaceful umbrella right now, to protect us from the storm that could overtake this holiday season...but' isnt :). For that, I am most grateful and feel amazingly blessed.



Please also be praying diligently for my friend Heidi and her family... I just received an e-mail that Baby Dalton has pneumonia but is not in the hospital b/c of the germs he could catch there. Lori has researched Krabbe's a little and has found that many of these babies do end up dying from pneumonia so this is devastating news for them right now, this is changing their holiday even more than expected. Please lift them up.



Now for a recipe or two :)



Holiday Hot Chocolate (this makes a LOT, I usually cut it in 1/2 for storage convenience)

8 quarts powdered milk
2 - 16oz hot chocolate mix (Wally World brand works just fine)
20 oz coffee mate (you can get flavored if you wanna get crazy!)
6 Tbs baking cocoa
1 1/2 lb. powdered sugar

Mix all together in a clean trash bag (or if you do 1/2 the recipe, you can shake it all together in a really big tupperware bowl w/a lid on it)

Jamborees

Jamborees (some of my favorite Christmas cookies that mom makes)

3 c flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbs vanilla
2 kinds of jam (we like strawberry, apricot, plum)

Sift flour and salt together, set aside. Cream butter & sugar, add eggs & vanilla and blend. Combine dry mixture w/butter mixture. Stir until well blended. Take a teaspoonful of dough and roll into a ball. Place the ball onto a cookie sheet and, using your finger, make an indentation in the center of the ball. Into this indentation put 1/4 tsp or so of jam or jelly. Bake for 10-12 min. (makes approx. 7doz).