These are a few of my favourite things -about Christmas

These are a few of my favourite things about Christmas!


I love the Christmas Cactus Blooming with the vivid colour. I have this Cactus from my Nana Jean.She was a good gardener and knitter extraordinaire.

I love the Ameryllis blooming. Each year it is exciting to plant the bulb and see it grow wonderign will it bloom by Christmas. This year I planted the one from last year and it grew but did not bloom so I bought another one and now it is blooming . Even though it wasn't ready for Christmas it is still a tradition from the family I like to continue. Seeing the beauty of this flower reminds me of family especially my mom and nana and all the christmases we shared together.

I love making Christmas Cookies.It is so much fun. This year Pearl taught us how to make traditional shortbread. We had a wonderful day with Christmas music on and our christmas aprons too.

Odelia and I made the Nanaimo bars a tradition from my mom, ginger cookiers and sugar cookies we decorated with Dave.

I love decorating Christmas Cookies. This year we decorated them after Chrstimas due to all of us being sick, but what fun we had with the colourful icing and fun decorations on top.

I love decorating the Christmas tree. This year we did not put all the decorating up. We chose the red and white ones. It looked pretty and we could see the decorations better.

I love decorating the house. This is a grass Christmas tree Odelia grew and decorated. I found it at VV with Jen. We got them for the girls to try. It did work and was a cute fun activity.



I love Christmas Eve with all the anticipation and warm feelings. This year we tried something new. We made Rosette Cookies. My mom and I made them a few times when I was very young. I still have all the tools and thought it would be fun to try with Odelia and Dave. So Christmas Eve, we got our the Rosette iron tools and I found a recipe and we did it.




I did not know much about these cookies but found out through the internet.
A rosette is a thin, cookie-like deep-fried pastry of Scandinavian (Swedish and Norwegian) origin. Rosettes are traditionally made during Christmas time. They are made using intricately designed irons. The iron is heated to a very high temperature in oil, dipped into the batter, then re-immersed in the hot oil to create a crisp shell around the metal. The iron is immediately removed and the rosette is separated from the iron. Usually, the edges of the rosette are dipped into frosting or sugar.

Now, we are not Scandinavian but some how my mom found out about these cookies and wanted to make them so we did. It is alot of work as we found out so now I  realize why they were not an annual tradition. I think the last time we made them with mom was when I was in high school. My mom did like to try new things so I guess this was one of her projects.

Dave, Odelia and I had a tough time making these as the oil frying process was important and new to us. Then the shapes are very detailed and not easy to remove. We tried and well did get a few good ones and then we just  tried to make something from the dough. The biggest negative was that the house filled with the smell of oil. Not a hit with Odelia. So imagine me trying to get rid of the smell with incense and smelly spraying. We might try again next year as we have all the tools and it was fun even though tedious. However we need to perfect our technique. In the end, we enjoyed the flavour much like a whale tale with cinnamon and sugar. However,the next day they were not as tasty so Cooper got a special treat.

Here is the recipe if you are interested. You need to get the kit as well.

Rossette cookies Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Combine eggs, sugar and salt; beat well. Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.
2. Heat a rosette iron in deep, hot oil (375 degrees) for 2 minutes.
3. Drain excess oil from iron. Dip in batter to 1/4 inch from the top of the iron, then dip iron immediately into hot oil (375 degrees).
4. Fry rosette until golden, about 30 seconds. Lift out; tip upside down to drain. With fork, push rosette off iron onto a rack placed over paper towels.
5. Reheat iron 1 minute; make next rosette.
6. Sprinkle rosettes with confectioners' sugar or sugar and cinnamon or chocolate drissled on top

This is what the kit looks like. We have Christmas shapes- a bell, tree, dove,etc.





I love Christmas day when we open the gifts and get all the hugs for giving and receiving. Boy did we spoil each other!

I love the Christmas dinner especially being with family. The turkey, the mashed potatoes, the yams, the stuffing and gravy -yum yum.

 This year we had a wonderful Christmas despite being sick. We were very lazy and rested lots. I am excited about the New Year and all the new adventures ahead and Christmas for 2012.