Skip to main content

From Thanksgiving to Now

Stuart came down with a cold the day before Thanksgiving that knocked him out for two or three days.  This is how he he spent all of Thanksgiving Day.  He's a handsome devil.
The rest of us were undaunted.  With Stuart's blessing, we pressed forward with our Thanksgiving preparations.  The girls made sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole and fruit cup (with the bitters).  And all that I needed to do was assemble the stuffing and cook the birds. 
We were alone for Thanksgiving.  I really hate that we are so far from family and friends because I would love for my house to be full of company. I suppose it was for the best on this particular holiday. Our guests would have gone home incubating plague germs!  Anyway, it was just the seven of us so I decided to serve Cornish game hens instead of the traditional (enormous) turkey.  The kids were delighted with the size of these tiny birds and christened them ptarmigan.  Perhaps we were the only family in America that celebrated this Thanksgiving with ptarmigan.
It wasn't enough to celebrate just one holiday on Thanksgiving.  We hauled out the Christmas tree and had it set up before our feast came out of the oven.  (More to come on that later.)
A few days after Thanksgiving, Stuart was on the road to recovery but the children were dropping like flies.  They've been drinking plaudamentum by the pint.  (John stole the name from The Lamplighter and applied it to the gallons of lemon water they've been making for themselves.)  They seem to be on the mend so, today we started our next Christmas project.  Cookies. This one was much easier than last weeks candy canes.  (The candy canes, by the way, went wrong.  Something happened and after we got them on the tree, they began dripping and warping.  They look like a Salvadore Dali creation! They're still tasty so it was not a complete disaster.) 
We made rich butter cookies from The Joy of Cooking.  Here the kids are spreading them with the first layer of confectioner's frosting.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how frosty are your branches. Charlie put about a pound of frosting on this cookie.  He can't wait to eat it! This was definitely a good project for him.  He had a great time helping to mix up the cookies and the frosting.  He frosted about five or six cookies before he got distracted and began to taste the frosting and nibble on the broken cookies.
Lauren used a little more finesse and a lot less frosting and created some beautiful cookies.  The girls really got into this project.  I was impressed with their creativity and focus. 

Here are a few of the finished results ready for a Christmas party in the near future.

Comments

Sarah said…
The cookies are beautiful, Kate. Makes me want to try something like that here. I'll show your post to the kids before I do though. I hope everyone recovers from their colds soon.

sem
tammi said…
Firstly, I'm glad to hear your family is finally on the mend! Good to get it all over with before Christmas! ;)

Secondly, WOW, those cookies look FANTASTIC!! Your kids are so talented!! What did you use to apply the icing ~ just toothpicks? How did they make the fine lines and swirls?

I dream of one day sitting down for a whole afternoon or evening and making cookies beautiful, but so far, have been a little intimidated by the whole process!
Kate said…
Tammi,

Yes. We just used toothpicks. Step one: We spread the first layer of frosting with a knife. Step two: We thinned the frosting out just a tiny bit with a few drops of water to make it the right consistancy for decorating with the toothpicks.

Kate
Anonymous said…
Those are gorgeous! I know ours will not look anything like that when we get around to the holiday cookie decorating... :)
*snort* Just the seven of us. That really made me laugh!

John keeps me laughing with all of the names he comes up with. You have the most creative, imaginative children...

Maybe you should have stuck with the Salvadore Dali theme for the tree...that would have made for some interesting pictures!

Xandra
Jennifer Jo said…
What gorgeous cookies and what creative kids! And what a patient, clever mama. You inspire me.

-JJ
Faith said…
Sorry about the sickness, but wow what beautiful cookies! You all are inspiring me to make some. :) (And I love The Joy of Cooking. :))
Thanks for your comment on my blog and for your prayers!
ocean mommy said…
I sure hope you are all well!!

The cookies look great!!!!
Anonymous said…
Pretty! My mom is visiting this week, and she is planning on doing this with my kids, too.
Anonymous said…
The cookies look fabulous! Great job girls! I'm sorry about all your sickness. Love the picture of your hubby though...the toilet paper on the bed...that's keepin' it real, right there! :)
Unknown said…
The cookies look so good. Mayu looked at them and said "I want to eat them!" so we did pretend eating.
Can't wait to start baking with her again.
tammi said…
Thanks for answering my question! They really are beautiful.

Popular posts from this blog

The Child's Story Bible

I have recommended the following book so frequently that I think a post is in order so that I may recommend it to the world. In the early nineteen hundreds, when my grandparents were growing from children to adults, when they were meeting and marrying and making ends meet during the Depression, Catherine F. Vos was at work. She had been out shopping, looking for the perfect children’s story bible. The Christian bookstores of the day must have had the same unsatisfactory fare for young children that they carry today. Her standards were high as she was the wife of a professor of theology and she could not find what she was looking for. So she started to write. The results of her writing, The Child’s Story Bible was first published in stages between the years of 1934-1936. It’s been republished in every decade since that time. My grandparents had my parents and they met and married and had me and somewhere along the way I acquired a Bible. I read from the book of Proverbs from time to t

Entomology Artwork

Predacious Diving Larva and Beetle by John Lots and Lots of Ladybugs by Claire Mrs. Mosquito by Faith Atlas Fritillary by Lauren

A Sure Foundation

The kids and I have been nibbling our way through the book of Isaiah for months. It's our first venture as a family into the prophets. We wrestle with the message. It's a book for our times. Isaiah wrote to his people, the people of Judah, at the dawn of a long season of international turmoil. Assyria ran rough shod over the Middle East, followed in quick succession by Babylon, Persia and Greece. According to Isaiah, each empire was brought down because of they were quick to gloat over their achievements but failed to give God the time of day. The sin of haughty eyes he calls it. I brown the meat and simmer the stew and slice a crusty loaf of Italian bread but do not bow my head before I eat. It's the little red hen complex. I ground the wheat and kneaded the dough and sliced the carrots. I don't take into account that I didn't make the carrots or the wheat grow. I forget to be thankful that there are groceries in the pantry and healthy children around the table.