The Way of Love...

¹ If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. ^3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

^8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

¹¹When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

¹²We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

~I Corinthians 13, The Message~

Heart shaped cut-out cookies for Valentine's Day

The big day isn't quite here yet, but our cookies have all but disappeared already. Why? Because I have the best recipe for cut-outs and frosting. I would love to share it with you. I actually published this recipe before on this blog but here it is again for any newcomers.

My granddaughter stayed overnight the other night so we could have time to make a batch of these. The size of the heart shaped cookie cutter that we used allowed us to make 5 dozen cookies. She took about 15 of them to her pre-school for their little party. We wrapped each one in a little cellophane bag with a tie, then put them in a pretty red box for easy carrying.

Then she got to keep a dozen that she personally decorated, and her mom took some to work, and...can you tell I'm trying desperately to account for the 60 cookies???

Grandma's Sugar Cookies

Cream together:

2 sticks butter (1 cup)

2 cups sugar

Beat in two medium eggs with mixer.

Sift together and add to the first mixture:

1 tsp. salt

4 tsp. baking powder

4 cups sifted flour

Blend into mixture 1 tsp. vanilla

Bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees F. Time depends on size of cookie. Start checking at 6 minutes. They are "perfect" when you see just a faint browned edge. Take cookie sheet out and set on wire rack till they cool off.

Note: This is a large recipe. It will make about 100 small to medium sized cut outs, or about 50 large cut outs. It can easily be cut in half.

Butter Cream Frosting

2 sticks butter, softened (1 cup)

8 cups powdered sugar

4 tsp. vanilla

milk

Cream together first three ingredients with beaters. Gradually add milk by the tablespoon to desired consistency. Note: this is a large recipe. It will frost about 100 small to medium sized cut outs, or about 50 large ones. The recipe can easily be cut in half.

I got a new car for my birthday!

I had so much fun playing with the new toys the grandkids got for Christmas that my hubby decided I needed a new toy for myself. So he bought me a new car!

I think he's lost his marbles, but then again, this thing is actually pretty impressive. It has a remote control, and can not only go backwards or forwards, but can turn corners too. And it goes really fast! My eye-hand coordination isn't what it used to be, but I'm getting the hang of it! So never let it be said this old granny is just wastin' away in her rockin' chair!

My birthday happened to be a babysitting day, and when Elylah arrived, she started pulling balloons out of the drawer and trying to blow them up. She just assumed we were having the only kind of birthday she knows about...with a lot of fanfare. I told her I was too old for that, but what I really wanted was for her to make me a cake! She happily obliged!

She is using the electric hand mixer for the first time. She's always been afraid of the noise before.

We used a Betty Crocker yellow cake mix. It called for a whole stick of butter which made it very yummy! I just love yellow cake with chocolate frosting...but I don't care for prepared frostings. This is the recipe I like to use, which is very simple and the taste is well worth the extra time.

Fudge Frosting

2 cups sugar

1/2 c. shortening

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2/3 c. milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix all ingredients except vanilla in saucepan. Heat to rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Boil one minute without stirring. Place saucepan in bowl of ice and water. Beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency; stir in vanilla. About 2 1/2 c. frosting.

from Betty Crocker’s Everything Chocolate Cookbook (1993)

...they each got to lick a beater of course!

Elylah found four candles in the drawer, since she is four...and that was fine with me! So we sang the birthday song and blew out the candles...and I got what I really wanted for my birthday: another precious memory!

January 27, 2010

snow ice cream and dirt pudding make for a fun party!

Last Saturday, we had a birthday party for my South Carolina grandson, Owen, who turned two this week. The chances of him being in Ohio for his birthday are rare, so we were so excited to do this. We rounded up some little people and some big people too, and my daughter-in-law Ellie and I threw together a great theme party. It didn't hurt that our good friend, Jennifer, had a whole grocery bag full of "free" dump truck themed birthday stuff that she donated to the cause.

As the children were arriving, we sat them down at the table where they colored a picture of a dump truck that Ellie found on line and had made copies of. This kept them occupied for a few minutes.

But Ellie and I had decided the main "entertainment" would be making snow ice cream, since we had a very plentiful amount of clean, fresh snow right outside the kitchen slider window.

The kids loved it!

Instead of traditional birthday cake, we decided to make dirt pudding, and we served it from a large dump truck, filled with gummy worms of course!

Here's the birthday boy the night before they had to leave, trying out the shaving set we got him. Does it get any cuter than this?

SNOW ICE CREAM

1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream (or half & half)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix until dissolved.

Mix in 4-6 cups packed snow.

Serve immediately.

DIRT PUDDING

2 cups cold milk

1 package chocolate instant pudding mix (4 serving size)

1 - 8 oz. tub Cool Whip

1 - 16 oz. package oreos, crushed as in a food processor

gummy worms

Pour milk into large bowl. Add pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk until well blended, 1-2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in Cool Whip and half of crushed cookies. Place into bowl (or dump truck!) and "hide" gummy worms in pudding, with a few sticking out of pudding. Cover with remaining crushed cookies.

Memory-making in progress...

What a busy and fun month it has been...and will continue to be! Hope you will enjoy these pictures of what's been going on around here!

Here's a picture of my niece, Sarah. In early December she borrowed my house to have a jewelry party with items she either designed and made, or items she repurposed. Sarah is a 3rd year student at nearby Kent State University. She is a sweetheart. It was a fun way to kick off the holiday season and made me hustle to get decorated!

The same day as the jewelry party, in the evening, our small group had our Christmas get-together. Here is a photo of me and Bob that was taken there. Oh and in the morning of that same day was the funeral of Mary Talbot, who I wrote about earlier. (Story here.) So December started off being really busy!

Princess Elylah turns four on Christmas Eve, and she has had a month long celebration already! Her parents gave her a "children's party" (at our house) earlier in the month...

Here she is with her Uncle Jonah, who is 7.

This past Saturday, her Papa and I took her to a children's play at a theater in a nearby town. She got to wear her Christmas dress. Isn't she beautiful? When her cousins get here from SC on New Years Day, along with her little brother Ethan, we will get a picture of all four of them in their matching outfits. (I reserve my right to be an obnoxious grandma!)

After the play, which we attended with friends, we all went to Dairy Queen for ice cream.

Jonathan (5) and Benjamin (3) celebrated with us!

I think this shot is priceless!

Jonathan's and Benjamin's parents, our dear friends, Ken & Jen.

The following day, Elylah had yet another party at our house, this time we were invited! In attendance also were her other grandma (Lola), her great-grandma's (GG and Amma), her great aunt, her mom's cousin and fiance, and her uncle Jonah, her mommy and daddy and little brother, Ethan. Joanna made her princess cake (again!). It was absolutely amazing!

If all this activity wasn't enough, we had a birthday party for JESUS on Monday!

The kids made these darling foam nativity sets from kits I bought at Michael's on sale for only $3.19 each!

They also made these pretty Christmas trees, using ice cream cones, frosting, and decorations.

(Had to sneak in a cute shot of Ethan and Curious George)

The children took turns telling parts of the Christmas story, using the Fisher-Price nativity set. One by one, the pieces were put into place, and we were amazed at how much these little people, ages 5 and under, know already and can tell with such excitement. Please notice the three kings that are placed face down. Without any prompting, Jonathan did that, explaining that they bowed down to worship baby Jesus!

The kids each got to choose a gift from my basket, as we explained why we give gifts on Christmas.

When they come back on Christmas Eve, they will be able to take home one of these rolls filled with candy. (See this previous post for these ideas.)

Tomorrow will be a busy day too. My favorite Santa will be making a surprise visit to some children. Humm...wonder when I will bake, wrap our gifts, finish my newsletters and mail them, finish some gift projects I'm working on, and well, FORGET about shopping for a new Christmas sweater! Also, I'm still trying to decide who to gift with my Christmas Jar (see this post for explanation.)

My journal says that last year on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23 I stayed up till 3:00 am to get everything done. That's not going to happen this year...and so I say, Merry Christmas to all, and to all GOODNIGHT!

Christmas Wassail

I have a recipe for wassail that I have used for 30 years, but this year I decided to simplify it. Really, I can't tell the difference. So my "new, improved" recipe is this:

Take a gallon of apple cider (or you can use apple juice). Add a quart (or a large can) of pineapple juice. To that, add about 1/2 cup of lemon juice and 1/4 cup of honey. Then I throw in two large cinnamon sticks, a sliced orange, and sprinkle in a little ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg.

We always have this on Christmas Eve, and at any other time we have guests over during the holidays. Everyone loves it, and with all the winter sniffles, it just tastes good and it's healthy too.

You don't want to boil the wassail. Bring it just to the boiling point, then turn the heat down and keep it simmering on the stove. Or put it in a crockpot. Don't put it in punch bowl because it won't stay hot, and it might break the bowl!

If you want to get fancy, you can stud a couple oranges with whole cloves and after baking them with water for about a 1/2 hour, you can float them in the pan instead of the slices. But I decided that it hurts my fingers too much to do that and takes too much time.

This is a family favorite as has been one of our Christmas traditions for years. I hope you will try it! (Any leftovers, just refrigerate and then reheat in cups in the microwave.)