More on our Christmas preparations

Hi everyone, it's Bellamine and Wendy again. We're going to show you a couple of photos of our decorations that didn't get in to our last post and to tell you what we've been doing to get ready for Christmas.

Mom painted some paper mache gift boxes to put under our little tree. Although they are empty now we're hoping that on Christmas morning they will be filled with little pressies for us. Perhaps some candies or toys will be in them when we open the lids and look inside.

There's a snowman box almost like the one our mom has and a cute ginger boy and a Christmas tree that's next to the star. Thanks Mom.

In our last post we really didn't show much of our tree because we didn't have it finished. Now it is and we're really happy with the way it turned out this year. Our mom has been collecting the ornamnets for this little tree for almost 30 years so we guess it's her tree as much as it is ours. Doesn't it look like it has snow on it? Mom said we could choose a Santa to sit next to it so we picked this one cause we like the pressies in his arms.

Mom is always rearranging things. If you look at the last post the three little Chrsitmas bears were on the other side of the everygreens and those BEE-U-TEE-FULL hand painted wine glasses weren't there. The wine glasses were a gift from our mom's friend Miss Crystal from Crystal Clear. Mom has already tried them out and says she thinks they make the wine taste even better. We asked for a sip to see if she was right and thought the wine still tasted YUCKY!!

There's a new ornie on the big tree that came in the mail the day after the wine glasses. Do you see it? It's a BEE-U-TEE-FULL beaded ornie with beads that spell Maddy Rose that our dear friend Karen Anne from Ireland Brady made. Mom just loves it and she and our grown up sister want to learn how to make some so we can have even more on our tree next year. We would make some for our little tree but it's really hard to work with beads when you have paws.

Today we're putting on aprons and giving our mom some much need help with the Christmas baking. We're hoping that we're going to be making gingerbread boys because one of the ingredients is mole-you-know-whats. Heheheheheheheheh Get it? Mole-asses. We know it's not really said like that but it's funnier when you do say it that way. It always makes the boys laugh.

Well that's it for us today. We're going to check the blog list really quick to see if we missed any posts and then we're off to help with cookies. Mom always lets us eat the ones that get broken and we feel a case of oopsies coming on.

Hugs,

Bellamine & Wendy

BAKING COOKIES

This might be a very long post because we had a very long afternoon yesterday and took lots of pictures.

We've been wanting to try our new cookie cutters for the longest time but Mom keeps saying the kitchen isn't a safe place for bears or it's too small for all of us to fit in at the same time and a whole bunch of other dumb excuses. We told her if she didn't help us bake cookies we were going to ask Mrs. Claus if she would help us. That's all it took to get Mom to agree to bake cookies with us. She'd hate to have Mrs. Claus think she couldn't manage to teach two very grown up and responsible bears such as we two to bake cookies. It's not like it's really hard to do or anything, right?

We got the recipe box out of the drawer and found the cards for the cookies we wanted to make.

We're going to be making gingerbread boys using Mrs. Claus' recipe and sugar cookies using Mom's recipe. Mom said we had to assemble the ingredients first. So While we read from the cards Mom started taking things from the pantry and cupboard.

After everything was out on the table and Mom was getting out the cookie sheets and bowls we double checked to see if we had everything we needed.

Shortening?
     Check.
Butter?
     Check.
Vanilla?
     Check.
Allspice?
     Check.
Ginger?
     Check.
Cinnamon?
     Check.
Cloves?
     Check. 
Dark molasses? 

Bellamine, I asked if we have dark molasses.

"Hey Mom, the gingerbread boys recipe says we need something called dark mole asses and I don't see any. Did you forget to get out the dark mole asses? What are dark mole asses anyway?"

"I know the recipe calls for dark molasses but I substitute honey and brown sugar, that's why I sat the honey out."

"Good, cause we don't like any mole asses in our cookies. Do we Wendy?"

"Bellamine, it's molasses not mole asses."

"That's what I said. Mole asses."

 

Here are our cookie cutters. We're going to use the little gingerbread boy cookie cutter not the big one. We just put the big one out so you could see the difference. The big one is the one Mom uses when she makes gingerbread boys at Christmas. The other cookie cutter we're going to be using is the shamrock. It's the one Mom got for us when we told her we wanted a shamrock cookie cutter and we forgot to tell her it we wanted a small one. Now we know to be more precise when we ask her for something.

The recipe for the gingerbread boys calls for 7 cups of flour and Mom says we're going to make a half batch cause we're making sugar cookies too.

We decided to make the sugar cookies first. We measured the ingredients with special cups and spoons. We wore our aprons to keep from getting flour and stuff all over ourselves. We hardly spilled any of the ingredients on the floor. The butter doesn't count cause it wasn't our fault. It was Mom who left it too close to the edge of the counter and the egg was just an accident and not Bellamine's fault.

"Eggs are hard to hold on to cause they're so smooth and round and really big and slippery. I should have let Mom do the egg. Next time I'm staying away from the eggs."

We decided to decorate the shamrocks two different ways for those who like frosting and some with green sugar sprinkle for those who don't like frosting. We got tired of making shamrocks and Mom said she'd finish the rest of them up tomorrow. We really wanted to get started on the gingerbread boys.

There we were again, measuring and then mixing.  The dough had to go in the fridge to chill so Mom said it was a good time to start cleaning up our mess and washing the cookie sheets and bowls. We told her we would let her do that part but she said it was all part of baking and we had to learn that part too. We told her she is always saying the kitchen is too small for all of us and she said we'd have to manage cause we were all going to do the clean up.

Bellamine didn't mean to drop the bowl, it was just an accident. 

"Bowls are hard to hold on to cause they're smooth and round and really big and slippery. Maybe next time Mom will wash and dry the bowl."

We worked on the gingerbread boys for a beary long time and then we got to share a plate full of cookies with glasses of nice cold milk while Mom cleaned up the kitchen. She said we'd done enough for one day. These are the best cookies we ever had and we made them all by ourselves with only a little help from Mom. We all ate more cookies while we watched our movie. Every bear said we really make good cookies and that maybe next time we bake we can maybe bake some honey muffins or cakes. Sounds like a good idea to us.

Now we're going to have a few of our cookies and some cocoa while we go see what our friends blogged about for Funny Friday.

If any of our friends want the recipes we used for the cookies just let us know and we'll have Mom send you the recipes. We're sure she won't mind.

Hugs,
Bellamine & Wendy

More Christmas Decorations

I've been busy decorating in the dining room and living room and have taken a few pictures to share with you. I've cut back a bit on the decorating this year as some of the boxes didn't make it down from the attic when my helpers were here and I'm unable to get them down on my own. That would require me to climb a ladder and this old broad doesn't do ladders. I'm too clumsy for that. Anyway I've decided that less is best right about now. I've been driving myself and everyone around me nuts trying to do too many things and now I'm all for trying to enjoy the rest of the time between now and Christmas morning. I've gifts to finish making and buying. Then there's baking for here and for gifts to be given to friends and neighbors. I also have my special fudge to make. Plenty of things left to do so I'll go ahead and show you some photos of some of my decorating.

Starting in the dining room here is the buffet with my very first Belsnickle.

There is an everyday Christmas print table cloth on the table which will be replace with a dressier one on Christmas day.

This is the tree with the handmade ornaments and the tree skirt is a patchwork one that I made about 25 years ago. I made matching Christmas stockings for each family member including the grandchildren. There are only two of the stockings still here at the house and will be hung on the mantel on Christmas eve.

As you can see, I didn't need to be worried about the tree being skimpy on ornaments. The only ornaments that aren't handmade are some little red apples that I added to give it some more red. Usually I use a lot of red in my Christmas decorating.

On the mantel there are some handmade NQR hearts from Oma Linda and a snowman and Santa from my sister Maggie. There is also an angel shelf sitter and a couple of snowman stocking holders nestled in there among the holly leaves and berries.


On the hearth there are some of my little snow kiddies and the stuffed snow couple were made by Maggie and given to me a few years ago. I have a much larger snowman collection but they're still in the attic.

This is one of my two treadle sewing machines that are in the living room. I've covered the top with a small Christmas quilt and have the patchwork Santa standing guard.

The only other Santa that I have sitting out is the one on the coffee table. I chose the two that are my Avatar. This one and the one on the buffet. They are the second and third Santa figures that I sculpted when I first started working with paper mache clay and are part of my personal collection. You can see a bit of my other antique sewing machine off to the side of the sofa.

Okay, that's about all of the decorations I took photos of before my camera battery died. I'm not sure when I'll be doing another post as I need to finish up on my things to do list but I'll try to get around to as many of your blogs as I can.

I sure hope all of you are enjoying you week and have just about all of those things that needed doing done.

As always, thanks for stopping by.