My new Auntie Diane quilt

My Auntie Diane has been making us quilts for a good 6 or 7 years now for Christmas...this is my new one I got last night:

It's really cool, and there's a cool little sign on one of the houses on top that says "Auntie's Quilt Shop".

I love the face...

Just not the straw!

I took this the other day

I didn't like it at the time, but I really do now!

Christmas 2004

I didn't take any pictures today, so here's an oldie from Christmas of 2004. My Christmas tree has always looked like this, although this year it has changed (if slightly)

I can't pick just one!

I like all three of these, so I'll use them all!

Happy Winter! :-)

This is totally me....

Two other cool pictures I took today

Through the glass of wine

Setting sun

Boys will be Boys

I went to the Valassis "holiday" Christmas party tonight. It was at a fondue restaurant called the Melting Pot. There were a good 40 people in the room, and with the steam of the boiling pots, condensation naturally fogged the windows. By the end of the night, all three windows in the room we were in were drawn on. I feel bad for the window washers...

Thank God for the sun

One photo a day

The new flower buds on my plant, Josephine (her name keeps changing, so it's Josephine today)

Cookies

The other night I decided to try attempt #2. This time it was gingerbread. The cookie dough came out a lot smoother, but a LOT stickier. I'm not sure if I added the wrong kind of molasses, or I don't have the correct rolling pin:

(I love the fact, however, that it has "Rolling Pin" right on it, in case you weren't quite sure what it was) Anyway, the rolling pin is ceramic, so that might be why things are sticking to it (...I got it for free though, so I can't complain). But I digress. So I mixed all the ingredients together and poured it out onto saran wrap and put it in the freezer to chill. I tried rolling it out last night after it "chilling" for an hour 1/2 ish. Nope, still WAY too sticky. So I waited 'til the morning.

The fact that it was still sticky after being in the freezer for a good 12 hours, did not look that promising. But I let it sit out for a bit and tried it again. This time I was able to at least roll it out (sorry, don't have a picture of that, I was too excited about it actually working!) I tried cutting the cookies in the shape of a tin soldier (the only one that I could get the cookies out of) and put them in the oven....... Yeah, they kind of spread and I burnt them, but they tasted wonderful!

They don't really look like tin soldiers anymore. While they were cooking, I wrapped up the leftover dough and put it back in the freezer for attempt #2. While the remaining dough was chilling, I made fudge:
I had bought this cool icing in a tube (it looked like a glue bottle) that I could draw and write with. I decided to go furthur with the labeling :-) After I was done with the fudge I attempted to make angel cookes this time:

Again, they spread, but tasted good.

Experimentation

My first attempt at making cookies. They were dry, but they held their shape. Clockwise from top left: reindeer, mitten, Santa's profile and a star.