Roundup of Christmas Cookie Recipes

I have been a buys little baker lately. I have a few favorites recipes that I make every year around the holidays, but I try to add in a few news one here and there to see if they could become favorites. Every year I make shortbread cookies from an old family recipe, and oatmeal craisin cookies from a Southern Living at Home book that I have. Last year I added Candy Cane Kiss sugar cookies (pictured above) from Recipe Girl to my annual baking.

This year I decided to try these:

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Peppermint Frosting. I used the whoopie pie recipe posted on bakerella.com, but I bought Betty Crocker Peoppermint Frosting to pipe between the cookies. I used a Silpat liner instead of parchment paper and it worked like a dream!  I haven't tried these yet, but I rolled the edges in red and green sprinkles so they look very festive!

Butter Toffee Cookies from recipegirl.com. Instead of sprinkling bright white sugar on top, I dipped half the cookie in milk chocolate. They look fancy!

Peanut Brittle from recipegirl.com. This was my first attempt at peanut brittle. I bought a new candy thermometer, just for this recipe. It turned out awesome!

Peanut Butter Blossoms from allrecipes.com. These are fantastic! The recipe made about 7 dozen cookies too!

Holiday Baking Spread 2011

(ETA: I also made chewy coconut cookies and eggnog pound cake. Both were awesome!)

For breakfast I'm going to make these to go with our traditional cinnamon rolls:

 Blueberry Danish Puff from Chef in Training

The Puff I made at Thanksgiving

and Mini Maple Pancake Muffins from Bakerella.

These are so great when you have a crowd for breakfast!

I'm looking forward to eating all of these yummy treats, but I'm not looking forward to the diet I'm going to be on in January!

Merry Christmas!!! 

Getting Through the Holidays

Our last Vermont Thanksgiving

For me, the holidays have always been a joyful time of year. Time to be with family, be grateful for what we have, make some good memories. This year is the first year that we are celebrating without either of my parents, and it is hard. Really hard.

Growing up, we spent Thanksgiving with my mother’s side of the family. Everyone would get together at my grandparents’ house and we would share in all of the responsibilities that go along with feeding and entertaining 20-30 children and adults.  It was the day that Christmas card photos were taken and memories were made. We sang, we played games, we ate and we laughed. I have so many memories of that time spent with my family, and I am so grateful for each and every one of them. I want that for my kids. I hope that they will one day cherish their memories of the holidays as I do mine.

I managed to get through Thanksgiving pretty well, mostly because I was busy spending time with my husband’s family, and trying to make the holiday special for the kids. Now it’s December, and all eyes are on Christmas, but I’m having a hard time feeling the joy of Christmas that is usually radiating from me this time of year.

                                         

It’s December, the “Season of Giving,” and I have only bought a few small things at Five Below. I’ve only made half a batch of cookies, and my wish list is only 2 items long. I just can’t seem to get into it this year. Of course, because I have kids, I am faking it the best way I know how - by sticking with tradition.  I made shortbread cookies and we all decorated the tree together while listening to Christmas music. I hung our stockings and put up the rest of the decorations. The hard part came when the boys went to bed, and it was just my husband and I in the living room, looking at the tree and listening to the music. Sitting there in the dim light from the Christmas tree, all I could think about was what I was missing: my Mom and her exuberant laugh, and my Dad with his warm smile and generous spirit. Looking at their stockings hung above the fireplace made me realize that for the first time, neither of them would be filled Christmas morning. There would be no extra presents under the tree. I haven’t sat in the living room since.

My father died two weeks after Christmas, almost 5 years ago, and the pain has lessened, but it’s not gone. My mother died almost 4 months ago, and the pain from her passing has only been pushed aside by sheer willpower on my part to keep it out. My resolve is crumbling though, and it’s getting harder every day to keep my feelings at bay. I want to feel the spirit of Christmas. I want to sing Christmas songs with my kids, and get excited with them for Christmas morning. Instead I am dreading the whole thing. I wish I could put my head under my pillow until it all blows over…but I’m not going to do that. I’m going to find a way to make this holiday just as special as those in the past, for me and my family!  I may shed a few tears along the way, but I guess that is to be expected. I still have 3 beautiful, healthy children and a husband who adores me. I have a sister in France, and a brother in California who will be here to share the holidays with us, and we will make plenty of new memories together. I owe it to my kids. I owe it to my parents.

ETA: This post was written a few weeks ago and was scheduled to post, but didn't. Last week I made 4 batches of cookies and today I finally went Christmas shopping. I've also spent some time alone in the living room, and it's not as haunting as it was at first. I'm getting there! :)

PTA Moms: Grown-up Mean Girls?

I have 2 kids in elementary school and the last thing that I want to do is join the PTA. It's super time consuming and let's face it - being a PTA mom has a certain stigma attached to it. It's not that I don't want to be involved, or that I don't want the best for our kids. It's the thought of being one of "those moms." To be honest, I don't know who our PTA president is, or any of the other board members for that matter. I'm sure they're perfectly nice women, who get along great...at least with each other. I'm just not sure that they would get along with me. Me, who works full time, who can't volunteer to be room mom every year, and who would rather stick a fork in my eye than sit through a PTA meeting every month. I'm sure many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.  I just don't feel the need to have a group of women look down their noses at me and then ask me to do their grunt work. Maybe my PTA isn't like that. Maybe it is. I haven't dared to find out.

Case in point, I read Cliquishness and Bullying Among Parents  by Allena Tapia, on The Huffington Post the other day. She confirmed what I had long suspected...there are cliques (or "mean girls") in every PTA, and it is probably worse than I could have imagined. As the self proclaimed Lindsay Lohan of the over-30 crowd, I thought that she was going to apologize for her behavior and ask forgiveness, promising to change. And then she didn't. Instead, she justified her behavior by saying that it's because they worked so hard, balancing the budget and coming up with an All Star calendar of events, that they were so close and so cliquish. Then she admonished women like me to not use that as an excuse to stay away.

Seriously? She admits to disrupting a joint meeting with gossiping and giggles about other moms, steering the votes in their favor because of her group's sheer numbers. She admits to talking about people behind their backs and posting about it on Facebook. Then she says she can reach out to and work with the "others" because it's the only way for the group to move forward, as long as she doesn't have to give up her seat at the popular table. If my choice is to try to be part of a group like hers, or support the PTA with an annual donation of money, I'm going to choose the latter every time. 

What bothers me the most is that these women are responsible for more than planning events and liaising between the parents and teachers. They are responsible for raising young people and teaching them the difference between right and wrong. And we wonder why bullying is a growing problem?! 

What do you think? Do you experience this sort of thing in your PTA? Are you one of the Plastics?  

As you can imagine, there was a lot of backlash to this post, with over 400 comments.  Many readers scorned her  for her "mean girl" ways. There were a few who felt her post was a lame attempt to get (blog) attention, and a few people who supported her. My favorite comment came from a reader with the username TMW430. S/he said, "The truly popular woman is one who can move effortlessly through any group with a genuine liking, interest and respect for all..."  And, I would add: one who has also earned that same liking and respect from others. That is the type of behavior that we should be modeling for our children!




P.S. If you would rather read a tongue in cheek article about why you should become the PTA President, check out Nerdy Apple Bottom's first NickMom post.