Sharing a little Christmas with our soldiers

Procrastination is my middle name.  Ugh.....   I have lots of good intentions for getting projects completely on my time line but ..... not happening over the past few weeks.  One good thing I did accomplish is finishing packing the boxes for our men and women serving overseas.  It is just a small thing that I am able to do for the brave men and women serving our country who are away from their families during the holidays.


Sooooo..... I went to anysoldier.com to get ideas of what the service men and women would need, hit the stores and here's what I got for each box I am sending out. 

Each box has a variety of items for 3 soldiers.  Some essentials, reading material/magazines, gum, candy, a Christmas stocking, and hot chocolate. 

Can't have Christmas without some hot chocolate!

The stockings have some hersheys' kisses - candy cane and mint truffle.  Yum-O.  I love both of these holiday flavors.  A small box of Mrs. Fields candies, and a pack of gum.

Here it is all packed up and almost ready to go.  Just have to write out some Christmas cards to the soldiers.  Then off to the Post Office with my 4 boxes.  Thank goodness for Flate Rate Postage.

God Bless all our soldiers who put their lives on the line for us each and everyday.  Thank you all.

They call them Gobs

So.... don't know what I was thinking but I decided to try out a new cookie recipe for the annual cookie exchange my friend hosts every year.  This year I decided to make Peppermint Whoopie Pies.  They looked wonderful in the recipe and I was inspired to pay homage to my husband's Pennsylvania roots.  Although they call them "Gobs" in Western PA.

It was going great until the cookies went into the oven.  Epic Fail... The first batch came out as one big chocolate blob - not that the teenagers minded since they got to eat the blob.  So the second batch, I made the cookie with a rounded teaspoon (not rounded Tablespoon).  Still a fail, but on a much smaller scale.

top cookie baked on a stone - bottom cookie baked on metal pan.  Not a pretty site.

 

So since these were supposed to be smaller sized whoopie pies, I drastically cut down the amount of dough used for each cookie half and finally got a good sized cookie.  Unfortunately, the cookies seemed to spread out too much while baking.

 

Once the cookies were baked, the fun began.  Got the teenager to smash the mints cause who doesn't like taking a hammer and pulverizing the mints to dust. 

We made some peppermint buttercream frosting (at least that went well) and tinted it red.  Ok - it only came out as dark pink, but still a nice color.  We sandwiched the frosting between two cookies and then rolled in crushed starlight mints. 

Of course, I now had the hubs and the other teenager circling the kitchen and eyeing up those Peppermint Gobs.  They each got one since I needed 4 dozen for the cookie exchange. 

Not the best cookie I have made, but not the worst.  They sure were tasty.

Sorry for the fuzzy photo - camera is on the fritz.

Holidays and Family

Wow - whirlwind trip up to PA to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with family.  It was great to see my parents, sister, brother in law, nieces and nephews.  We all ate too much food (as usual) and enjoyed every bite!  My brother in law, aka Mr. Hospitality,  always surprises us with new recipes - the green beans with dried cherries vinegrette was very tasty.  The potatoe gratin with mushrooms had mixed reviews - portabellos were good, shitake mushrooms.... not so much.  I think the new family joke will be the $60 mac & cheese.  Great idea, but think it would have tasted just as good with less expensive cheese. 

Lots of memories were made this weekend - both happy and sad.  We all shed tears over my sister's dog who passed away.  We came home from dinner out to find the dog very unresponsive and rushed her to the animal hospital.  Unfortunately, the poor dog had internal bleeding from stomach tumors.  It was too late to save her.  Rest In Peace, sweet Kate.

Happy Feet!

I love these new shoes I bought - Nike Free XT! 

Even my cat seems to love them.  Or he just loves mugging for the camera.

I have been desperately needing new workout shoes... well at least that's my excuse for not hitting the gym more often.  So my workout buddy, Amber, has similar shoes and raved about them.  I was thrilled to be able to wear them all day with out any problems.  Sometimes my new shoes will cause a prickly sensation kinda like when your feet go to sleep....  well I get that feeling sometimes in my pinky toes with new shoes.  Not good.  With the Nike Free XT - none, nada.  My tootsies felt great at the end of the day. 

I will give these beauties another few days and if no issues, then I am back to the store for another pair.... maybe the ones with the hot pink soles.  We'll see.

Running Late to the Party

A big Hello to all the talented people who have so inspired me these past few months. 

See, I have been stalking several decorating blogs for a few months now.  Oh those ladies are amazing!  I am filled with such awe and inspiration that I am about to explode.  The Hubs keeps wondering whats up and how long it will last.  LOL! Several changes have been happening around our little home, the Cottage on Manchester, lately.  So I hope you and I can connect and inspire each other. 

Stay tuned for my 1st post on how I made over my office chair.  I guess I will need to ask the kids how to build and personalize my new blog.  Gotta love having teenagers!