December 20, 2009

I’ve been around the house a lot for the last 4 weekends; busy with all my bake sale baking, and Christmas stuff. I like to have movies on in the background when I’m home, and these are my Christmas favorites that I’ve been watching over and over and over.

• It’s a Wonderful Life

• Elf

• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

• A Christmas Story

• Planes, Trains and Automobiles

• The Santa Clause

I’ve also been watching “Dirty Dancing” and “Liar Liar”, just cause they make me happy, not because they’re Christmasy.

So, did I miss any of your favorite must-watch Christmas movies?

~BigSis

December 19, 2009

Today, I’m sharing with you one of my favorite TomTom Santa photos. I did publish this one last year, but just in case you missed it, here it is again. Doesn’t he look festive?

BigSis still hasn’t been able to convince her two little furkids to pose in their new Christmas outfit she bought for them this year.  Since there’s only one December ‘Caturday’ left this month, I thought it might be fun to invite our readers to share any Christmas photos of their kitties dressed up for the holidays.

If you have a photo that you’d like to share and would love to see posted on our final December ‘Caturday’ next Saturday, just send it to me as an attachment in an email to lilsis at bigsislilsis dot com. Make sure the photo is already resized to no larger than 450 x 340. I know this isn’t much notice, but if I have the photos by Wednesday, December 23rd, I’ll promise to have them up on Saturday the 26th!

Come on…it’ll be fun. Don’t tell me that BigSis and I are the only ones who dress up their furkids in Santa Hats and Reindeer Antlers! 🙂

~LilSis

December 18, 2009

You know what freaks me out? Don’t laugh…but, the baking isle at the grocery store really, really freaks me out.

I know that sounds weird, especially on the ‘tail end’ of BigSis talking about her huge Bake Sale success! Once again, proving the point that we are as different as we are alike.

BigSis probably gets excited when she shops for baking supplies.

Me; I’m on the verge of an anxiety attack.

AND, I’M NOT KIDDING!

I’m not even exaggerating.

I shouldn’t even admit to this.

I’m completely intimidated.

I don’t know where anything is.

I’m nervous as a cat.

I feel like a total moron!

Every. Single. Time.

Yesterday, on my list of things to do was to buy the ingredients for the goodies I was going to make for our neighbors. I was going to make the Peppermint Bark recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and the Almond Toffee recipe from Anna of Cookie Madness.

Both of these recipes did NOT require very many ingredients. You’d think it would be simple. I usually have better results with candy making versus baking, so I was feeling pretty good about my choices until I read over the recipes a little more closely. I got a little nervous when I realized that I needed to temper the chocolate for the Peppermint bark, so I had to email BigSis a question about that. Then, I read where Anna even admitted that she sometimes screws up her toffee after having made it for over 20 years! Yikes! I’m thinking I’m in over my head, again.

Yet, I was determined to make these two candies so I made a special trip to the store and I was in a hurry, as usual. I quickly picked up the candy canes and the parchment paper, which was luckily on an end cap, then I head down the baking isle. First of all, there are way too many different types of chocolate to choose from and they’re all expensive! I needed 14 ounces for the bark so I did my best to pick the right bittersweet chocolate and grabbed four of the 4 ounce bars.  Last on my list for the bark was the white chocolate. Where the heck is the white chocolate? Why isn’t it right with the regular chocolate? Did regular grocery stores not carry it? Did I need to make another trip to find Michaels for the special kind of chocolate that melts? I dunno.

Now, I’m irritated. I started to call BigSis, like I do 90% of the time I find myself on the baking isle, but I realized she was still at work and it would be really dumb to bug her with such a stupid question. So, I put the candy canes and the bittersweet chocolate back and scratched the bark off my list! I already had pecans at home, so I grabbed baking soda and two bars of semi-sweet chocolate for the toffee and checked out.

So, when I finally got home from the store, I started some chicken and veggies for homemade soup and got out some garlic, rosemary, olive oil, and Camembert cheese to make an an appetizer version of a Jamie Oliver recipe I found in Food Network Magazine.

Ahhh…back in my comfort zone.

The Baked Camembert turned out so good that SirHoney and I single handily devoured the entire thing before dinner! Hopefully I got a few decent photos that I can share with you later!

I have to make the toffee today when I’m not rushed and don’t have two hungry guys hovering over me acting like they haven’t eaten in weeks.

If you don’t see a post about the toffee in the next few days, you’ll know that I screwed it up and my neighbors will probably be getting fudge for Christmas. (I don’t think I’ve ever messed that up.) But, then again, that would require another trip to the baking isle and I don’t think I’m up for that!

~LilSis

December 17, 2009

We still have donations coming in following Monday’s SPCA of Texas Bake Sale, so I’m not telling you yet how much money we were blessed to collect!  Maybe by the weekend I can let the cat out of the bag.  Not that I would ever put a cat in a bag; that wouldn’t be very humane.  Unless I had to do that to get the cat out of a dangerous situation and couldn’t do it any other way.  ^..^  Do I have a touch of rambling Christmas delirium?  Think so.

I also have some recipes that you have to make if you’re trying to figure out what to bake for Christmas!  These were my favorite things to make for the bake sale, but it occurred to me that they are also awesome things to make for Christmas gifts.  I’m not burned out on baking yet – weird, I know – so I may make more of these before we hit the new year since we had nothing left after Monday’s sale!  I would feel comfortable mailing all of these except for the Snowballs.  They’re a little fragile so keep them at home.

• Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Brownies: plain, with mint Oreos, or with chocolate chips and walnuts.  I know I talk about these ALL of the time, but they’re my favorite brownies and I love them.  We sell the HECK out of them at bake sales.  Not because of my baking prowess, but because it’s an awesome recipe!

• Vegan Pumpkin Bread: no one believes there are no eggs or dairy in this bread.  It’s moist and flavorful, and absolutely one of my favorites.  I have to add walnuts.  Have to.

• Fudge: chocolate, cinnamon and peanut butter.  Just use the regular fudge recipe on the marshmallow cream jar, and substitute cinnamon chips and peanut butter chips for the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I like to pour the fudge into little silicone molds with Christmas shapes.  When they’re cool and set, you can easily unmold them, sprinkle with sparkling sugar (brown on gingerbread boys, green on Christmas trees, and red on stockings).  For a final touch, add some royal icing accents here and there.  For the sale, I packaged them two different shapes to a treat bag: one chocolate and one cinnamon or PB.

• Pecan Pie Bars with Chocolate and Bourbon from the Pastry Queen: these got a little oozy, but they were fudgey and boozy, so who the heck cared?  Nobody!  I love the original flavor of these, and was shocked that I loved this over-the-top variation even more.  Wicked!

• Chocolate Mint Snowballs: based on RecipeGirl’s Snowballs. I used mint chips and pecans instead of peanut butter chips and peanuts.  Roll these in green sugar and powdered sugar, and pack in a cute treat bag with a ribbon, or a box with a window so you can peek at them.

Happy baking, little kitchen elves!

~BigSis

December 16, 2009

I love lists! I’ve discovered over the years that it really motivates me to have an ongoing “To Do” list, not only on my Outlook, but also specific tasks and phone calls written down in my planner each day. Not only do I check it off of my Outlook task list when it’s done but I also mark it off my written list with a big fat red Sharpie. I don’t know why I enjoy this so much, but I do.

Luckily, I finally made some progress on my Christmas “To Do” List. Yes, it is now officially crunch time! Only eight days and some odd hours til Christmas!! How are you doing on your list?  I’m still a bit overwhelmed with all there is left to do before we leave on Monday, but I’m making progress.

I’m doin’ a little happy dance today since I FINALLY got all my Christmas cards in the mail and finished up the shopping on gifts that need to be shipped out of state. I know, I know, for all the early birds out there, this probably seems late to be doing this, but I’m just so glad that it’s finally done.

This morning is now designated for wrapping, and packaging the gifts that need to be shipped. I’m sure I’ll still be standing in line at the post office as you read this. 🙂

I don’t mind though. I’m actually going to take my iPod with me to the post office to listen to some Christmas music while I’m in line. I may even wear a Santa Hat today! I’m so thankful that I finally got some Christmas spirit. I had almost decided not to decorate this year since we’d be out of town, but then I decided that wouldn’t be fair to HayHay. (Christmastime is still really hard on our family since we don’t have our Dad with us so we all have to make a real effort to not be down in the dumps.)

So, that being said, I’m just happy that it’s starting to feel a bit like Christmas around here! Once we decided to go ahead and decorate, we had to get in gear! In the past two days, we’ve got the decorations out of storage, put up all the lights and outdoor decorations, decorated the inside of the house, put up and decorated a small tree, addressed and mailed all the cards, bought wrapping supplies and containers for neighbor gifts, and finished up the shopping for out of town gifts.

Once the packages are shipped this morning, I think this is all that’s left on my list to do before we leave on Monday.

• Finish shopping for gifts we’re taking with us on plane.
• Wrap gifts and pack in suitcase. (Pray it doesn’t get lost.)
• Make list of ingredients needed for neighbor gifts.
• Make, package and deliver neighbor gifts.
• Buy boots and scarf for trip.
• Pack laptop, camera, iPod, video camera, and chargers.
• Dig through closet for warm clothes to pack.

At least by Sunday night, I’ll have everything marked off my list and we’ll be able to enjoy Christmas with the family without any last minute rushing around.

I am not at all prepared for the below freezing temperatures in Chicago, but HayHay is going to be thrilled if we have a White Christmas this year.

~LilSis

December 15, 2009

The 2009 SPCA Bake Sale is now history.  We started setting up at 6 am, opened the doors at 8 am, and left the building at 6 pm.  It was a long day, but it was incredible fun.

Our goal was to beat last year’s donation of $3055.  Our little team started baking 3 or 4 weeks ago, and we pulled out every trick in the hat to try to make our goodies irrestible to buyers. We emailed everyone we know, we sent out press releases, we lined up the most irresistible sample girls you could ever meet, and we talked about nothing but the SPCA and cookies for the last month.  We decorated, packaged and labeled until we were loopy.

How did we do?  I’m too fried to remember how to get pictures off my camera today, and we don’t have a final total yet because donations are still coming in online.  I’ll just leave you with one little teaser for now.  We are humbled and amazed and incredibly grateful.  How much money do you think that 5 baking girls could raise in one day if their bake sale sold out?  What if God showed up in a big way to answer their prayers?  What could happen?

I’ll come back later to tell you.  If I come down off Cloud Nine long enough to type again.

~BigSis

December 14, 2009

It’s finally here; the day we’ve been working toward and looking forward to since last year’s sale that resulted in a $3,055 donation to the SPCA of Texas!

The baking and packaging is all done, and now all we can do is sell these goodies!  Our goal is another $3000 for our favorite charity, and we pray pray pray that we make it!  Our secret fantasy – not so secret now – is that we sell everything we’ve made!  How incredible would that be!

If you’re in the Dallas area, email me for directions at bigsis at bigsislilsis dot com.  We’d love to see you!

If you’re not in the area and you’d like to help these little furkids, you can donate at http://www.spca.org/goto/bakesale.  If you use this url, the SPCA can see that your contribution came through our event, and we can send you a thank you!

Thanks for your support, your well wishes, and your prayers for a successful event today!

~BigSis

December 13, 2009

I know everyone has probably seen these before, but there’s still something about dancing little elves that makes me laugh every time! Take one minute to watch…I hope it’ll make ya laugh, too! 🙂

Wanna make your friends and family laugh? Then take just a couple of minutes to Elf Yourself and put them in the dance with you. You can include up to five people.

This year the site makes it really simple to upload to Facebook and Twitter!  I’m going to have to make one with SisMama doin’ some Hip Hop with BigSis & LilSis. Silly, I know, but hopefully it’ll make her laugh! 🙂

~LilSis

December 12, 2009

My little 20 pound Warren Bitey…what a funny cat he was.  Lots of people thought he was mean, but he really wasn’t.  He was actually very sweet, but insecure and fearful, which he sometimes showed as aggression in scary situations.  When he was a kitten, he was really a biter but we worked through that with the Tellington T-Touch.

He’s been gone for a year and a half now, but I think about him a lot.  We were buddies for almost 17 years, and I miss him.  One of my favorite memories of Warrie was the Christmas when he was my Christmas card cover boy.  No kitty could wear a Santa hat like Warrie.  I need a kleenex now.

~BigSis

December 10, 2009

If you LOVE, LOVE, LOVE MAC products like we do, you’ve probably already visited the nearest MAC store or gone online to check out their 2009 Holiday Collection. MAC never disappoints! Once again, they have some beautiful products that are only available for a limited time.

If you still have someone on your Christmas list that you’d love to surprise with a sparkly, shiny gift from MAC, you’ll want to hurry to take advantage of this deal!

MAC Cosmetics is offering free standard shipping on any purchase AND free gift wrap until 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, December 13th.  To take advantage of the free gift wrap, use code GIFTABLE09 at checkout.

Happy Shopping! 🙂

~LilSis