Our Christmas

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and holiday.

We had a nice Christmas over here. After opening presents and watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, we had dinner with Rob’s parents and his brother and wife. Good food and way too many cookies! 

Rob in his lazy suit (which he got from work) and Faith sitting on the little quilt I made her.

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Me wearing the pj pants I made and my santa slippers.

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Here are some of the goodies I got. Rob went with a whole baking theme and got me a few baking stuffs, I got a Johnny Cupcake shirt, a couple of magazine subscriptions and a Companion Cube sticker for my car. Rob’s parent’s got me a quilt kit and a quilting book. And of course, I got my awesome cowboy boots from my parents. Lovely gifts!

The cookies were a success! Everyone loved them and it made my parent’s proud that I made my mom’s cookies: )

Rob’s dad grew a beard a couple months ago and we now have our very own Santa!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with lots of good food, good people and good times!

Christmas Cookies!

This is the first year I baked Christmas cookies, something I always wanted to do. My mom can’t bake this year due to a hand surgery, so I thought I’d bake some of her cookies and some of my own for our family.

This was the first time I ever baked my mom’s cookies. She still bakes her cookies european style, weighing it in grams and such. I had to get myself a food scale. It’s interesting baking like that. It’s so wonderful to bake something and have it taste like home and childhood. Love it!

Here’s what I baked for Christmas:

1. Whole Wheat Chocolate Brown Sugar Cookies found on Joy the Baker.  These are simple tasting chocolate cookies that remind me of Oreos or a brownie.

2. Sparkling Coffee Snowflake a finalist from last year’s Cook’s Country Christmas cookie contest. I omitted drizzling chocolate on these and sprinkles Trader’s Joes sugar, coco, coffee grinder instead. These cookies are fantastic! So rich and full of flavor. Someone posted the recipe here.

3. My mom’s famous star cookies filled with fig butter. A sugar cookie with some lemon juice that compliments the fruit middle. My mom usually uses rosehip jam, which is just the best.

4. My mom’s round cookies with a cherry on top. Almost like the star cookies, but with lemon zest instead. Next time I might add a chocolate wafer on top in place of the cherry.

5. Earl Grey Tea cookies found on shutterbean. The Earl Grey Tea adds such a different flavor! These are just lovely.

I hope our families enjoy the cookies I baked. I had a blast! It’s so much fun baking for other people.

Christmas Decorations at Suzy’s

I just love decorating for Christmas! The best is when I buy a bunch of things after Christmas that’s on sale and I forget about it. So when I pull out the boxes, hurray new decorations! Also, I love getting the dollar store and drug store decorations, the cheesier the better. Next year I might get the Santa kneeling next to the baby Jesus, heh.

The mantel is always the most fun. A great focal point when you come into the house. I have foil snowflakes on the ceiling, ornaments on the branches, glitter twigs in vases, a glitter house that I painted, the stockings and their holders (that is a cowboy santa with a cactus). I just love all the shiny colors.

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Here’s our dinning table. A bit more simple, keeping with mostly red, green and white.

Hope you enjoyed a peak at my house!

A Holly Hair Clip Tutorial!

I made this simple and easy hair clip to wear during the holidays. I thought I’d share how I made it, so you all can make one too!

Step 1: Gather your supplies. You’ll need a hair clip of some sorts, some green felt, 3 red buttons, some red and green embroidery thread, scissors, needle and scrap paper.

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Step 2: With some paper cut out a holly leaf. (you can skip this and directly cut out your felt if you’re that good^_~)

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Step 3: Use your mini leaf pattern and cut two leaves out.

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Step 4: Stitch a line down the middle, this will also give it some stability. 

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Step 5: Sew 3 red buttons on the bottom for the berries.

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Step 6: Sew the leaves onto your hair clip. You can also use glue if your hair clip doesn’t bend.

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It’s done!

Now go and make one! And since they are so easy, make a bunch for your family, friends, dogs….boyfriends, cats, grandpa and his beard; )

Happy holidays!