Our Traditional Christmas Baking 2012

The three Christmas bakers in our home

As soon as November looms in the air, my husband would be counting the days for the traditional Christmas baking in the family.

He would be prodding me to make sure that the recipes of his famous traditional Christmas goodies are ready. The recipes include three biscuits/cookies: Kulleraugen (Saucer Eye Cookies), Spritzgebackenes (German version of Shortbread cookies), and Buttergebackenes.

The last two, are what we miss coming from Oma's kitchen; while the Saucer Eye Cookies we simply added because we just love them.

November Harvest

Our November harvest, mini carrots and young onions

I never really thought our backyard garden is still thriving.

After all, the tomatoes that were still hanging outside and the spice corner located near the kitchen have already been damaged by the frost that came early October. I guess, we were a bit slow in harvesting them this time.

And I was hoping I'd get to dry more tomatoes and I was not yet done drying those herbs, too. Next time, I must move faster than the frost.

I have skipped visiting the backyard garden for a few weeks now. It is just too cold and too slippery and what ever, I have so many excuses.

The real reason is, I really thought there's nothing more to harvest. But my husband proved me wrong.

This weekend, he bravely faced the cold to make our garden winter-ready. I didn't help because I was out with the girls, I drove them to their vaulting class ( a legit excuse this time!).

Actually, I did help in the garden after the girls' lesson.

What can I do, my husband was yelling at me saying, 'come and get the harvest!'

I was surprised to know that there's still edible things growing in the garden. Our mini carrots and young onions are waiting, our November harvest. There's a basketful of carrots and a handful of young onions.

And I also got a glimpse of some spinach and feldsalat (lamb's lettuce) which are real favorites of the girls. Oh wow, I guess I really do need to go and check our backyard garden despite the cold, huh.

Now, our dog got the very minis of the mini carrots, Rikki loves carrots in her meals, too! And the girls munched on them while watching TV, the rest came into my husband's dinner surprise that same night.

The mini carrots for dinner

Yes, despite working hard in the garden, my husband took time to cook dinner for us, too. Isn't he a love?

Of course, I did promise him that I would be going down, regularly, into our backyard garden to watch out for the spinach and lamb's lettuce.

This is our first time to grow lamb's lettuce, I hope they'd thrive, too.

DIY: From an Old Jeans into Dog Treat Bags

Remember those jeans that I turned into shoulder bags?

Well, I wanted to use the scraps from the jeans and those scraps became dog treat bags. Very simple and real easy to do.

Most importantly, we also save because then we don't have to buy new dog treat bags. I noticed, those bags, no matter if they are bought cheap or we paid a bit more, don't really have long lives with us.

Now I could just sew a new one whenever needed :-)

A dog treat shoulder bag, since there's no pocket for the plastic bag, I just tie it around the strap.

I usually use this dog treat shoulder bag because, well, I just have to hang it over my shoulder.

A dog treat belt bag, I added a small pocket for the plastic bag.

My husband prefers this dog treat belt bag because it stays in place, belted.

Dining Out with Kids, Version 2

The first version of Dining Out with Kids was written when my girls were 3 and 5 years old. It was initially posted in a mom e-zine and which I reposted in 2011.

In that post, I was exploring way on how to keep my girls busy during dining out; while we are waiting to be served, waiting for food, waiting for to be seated even.

Now for this latest version of dining out with kids, I am showing you images instead of my now 8 and 10 year old girls...

IC brought a book and got involved with it immediately after selecting her dinner

MC got busy with her book, too.

This is our first time in this restaurant. We wanted to try it because IC's first communion is scheduled next year and we are planning for her celebration and part of the excitement is food tasting :-)

Starting a new family Halloween tradition this 2012

Our Halloween party treats created by the girls

Our neighbors, two elderly couple, has been preparing for Halloween. They have been asking us since we put up all our Halloween decors 'when is Halloween?'

Since we live way, way up near the woods, our area is not a common path for trick or treaters but that has changed since we moved a few years ago. Our neighbors, who doesn't want to be surprised with nothing special to give, now cannot wait for the girls to ring their bell :-)

In fact, from the big bags of sweets that the girls received just from them, they could have stayed home and stuffed themselves for weeks!

Oh, our Halloween decors are still coming mostly from the garden. We have even more variety of ornamental pumpkin because we have planted them all over our garden!