Christmas 2009

We're growing!

Six original Denholms, 3 siblings in-law, and 2 new babies provides for one blessed Christmas 2009! This year, instead of celebrating at my parent's house, was our first year celebrating in Virginia at Kelly and Scott's and also our first year with babies! It was crazy, it was short, but boy was it fun.

Highlights of the holiday
(in no particular order):

 1.) Sledding on Christmas Eve with my 26-year-old brother and 31-year-old brother-in-law (except we didn't have sleds, so we had to scrounge up anything and everything sled-able.)

2.) A REAL winter jacket (with down stuffing and all!); warmest thing I've ever put on my body.

3.) ECPLIPSE

4.) This one:

5.) A white christmas thanks to the below-freezing temperatures that kept the snow from melting from 5 days prior.

6.) My 7-lb. nephew dressed up as Santa Claus :)

7.) Happy new families:

8.) Healthy family, all in one place.

9.) Vegan Vacay that allowed me to eat Christmas Eve hors d'ouvres.

10.) Rest.

11.) Cooking class in Philly with a well-known Vegan Chef...so excited.

12.) Spice Rack, complete with over 20 organic spices (Call me silly, but spices are expensive!)

13.) Witnessing my brother-in-law soothe his crying, 4-week-old son by singing Rick Astley.

To say this was a great Christmas would be an understatement. 

Praise God for making that the case.

Cookies with a side of Blizzard 2009

Every Christmas since as far as I can remember, and home videos tell me this was the case even before I can remember, my mom makes a huge platter of Christmas Cookies. Not just boring, everyday cookies; special recipes saved strictly for Christmas.


Some of my favorites in the Momma Denholm Christmas collection: Venetians, Mint Chocolates, Jam Thumbprints, Peanut Butter Kisses


This year, despite our travel to Virginia for the holidays and short (-er than usual) time together, would be no different. Me and mom let traditional Christmas cookies skip a year? You're crazy.


Two loves I inherited from my mother: Baking and Cookies :) 


And so began Cookie Baking Extravaganza 2009:

Ingredients are out and we're ready to bake!

Master Baker

One of the seven final batches -- Jam Thumbprints!

And to top-off our day of cookies, coffee, christmas music and green snowflake flannels......SNOW! 


And lots of it. 


Blizzard 2009; FINALLY!

The backyard, covered in 16 inches

My poor Texas car, she must be so cold...

 Sweet pups and their cute little jackets!

SNOW SNOW SNOW

Weathermen predict it to start tonight and continue ALL weekend!

**FINALLY**

Come on snow, bring it. And maybe a couple snow days next week?

Thanks.

Is this cheating? (Cookie 2 of 3)

As an aspiring baker, is this cheating?

They were just so easy and came out so pretty...See?

That is a lie, not all of them came out pretty. I laughed when these came out and had to document the square of Snickerdoodle...

It took all that I have to convice myself that it was OK to use Break 'N Bake cookies in place of homemade. What constitutes homemade, anyways? I mean, I made them at home...

Just so tired. Didn't have it in me or the time to make another 2 homemade batches of cookies. Plus, girl's gotta save her energy for Saturday's day of Christmas baking with the mom. Christmas music, candles, fresh coffee, green christmas lounge pants, and the lady that taught me everything I know; That's where the good stuff is made! 

Next up: cookie installment 3 of 3.

Popular Demand

from The Joy of Vegan Baking Cookbook - I highly recommend this for everyone.

Now don't be scared. Yes, this is a vegan cookie recipe, but no, it's not disgusting and weird (Kyle).

Everytime I make this cookie, I get requests (from non-vegans, thank you very much! :) ) for the recipe. It's one of the best cookie recipes I've come across thus far and I love it because it doesn't use obscure ingredients like many others do.

So here you are. You should be able to click on the cute recipe card and print it from your browser (I hope).

The original recipe is for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, so feel free to substitute raisins for chocolate. They're delicious either way. And if you're not familiar with them, the Earth Balance butter, vegan chocolate chips, and flaxseed meal can be found at most grocery stores that have a 'specialty section' or Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

Disclaimer: Don't be fooled, just because it's vegan, doesn't mean it's half the calories of it's animal-filled counterpart; after all, it is still a cookie. BUT for those of you that are like me and enjoy the cookie dough even more so than the finished product, it does make pre-oven munching much safer. And I'm sure Rudolph will appreciate you saving his furry friends and convice Santa to bring you a few extra surprises... 

Cookies (1 of 3)

Over the next 4 days I will be making well over 6 batches of cookies, that's a good 18+ dozen.

Tonight, in preparation for our first annual Ception Cookie Exchange at work tomorrow, Germie and I teamed up to bake our cookies. Little did we know it would take us over 4 hours to bake two batches each, but we finished.

6 dozen down; 12 more to go. 

Proper Christmas Cookie accessories: Holiday bowls, Christmas music, Pjs

(Note: this is well into our baking and past both of our bedtimes, please excuse our looks.)

G's cookies before...

...and after!

I made some Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (delicious!), but forgot to take pictures of them. Germie's sugar cookies were prettier anyways.

Installment 2 of 3 coming thursday... 

A Ception Christmas

My company may be small, but we can party like the big guys! 

This year, probably more than ever before, I'm so thankful for employment. And being able to celebrate the holidays with my company like this is just an awesome extra bonus. 

Co-worker, Dale, and his wife enjoy the indian food. 

I model food; it just comes naturally.

Sweet coworkers Donna and Germie.

Present time!

This is what happens when you're the youngest at your company by a god 10 years...you eat by yourself, dateless, and people take pictures of the single girl. :) I don't hate it.

Left to right: CEO Steve, Janet's BF, Jeffrey's wife (see 2 below), Co-worker Janet.

One of my bosses, Carolyn, and her soon-to-be hubby.

Purple People Eaters! (me and Jeffrey...aka Papa Ception)

The happenin' party; Not too bad for a tiny Pharmaceutical company!

Drinks, sushi bar, thai noodle soup bar, indian main course, dessert, and presents for all! Somehow I won a 19" flat-screen/flat-panel/HD/all that good stuff TV...crazy.  

(Funny side story re: tv - A couple weeks ago I decided to re-arrange my room to bring my hand-me-down mini fridge into my room to put my hand-me-down tv on so I could get it off the floor and actually watch it. Being the stubborn independent that I am, I was determined to move everything by myself. My determination got the best of me when I pulled my lower back trying to lift the billion-pound, old-school tv from the floor to the top of the mini fridge. I just remember specifically thinking, 'man, I really need one of those new flat tvs so I can be stubborn without injuring myself.' And the Lord answers even our silliest, most trivial thought-prayers.)

We were put here with a plan and a purpose

"...Remember, we didn’t just happenstance appear on this planet. We were put here with a plan and purpose. We were given the responsibility to govern the earth as humans.

I totally agree that we need to use caution and judgment and treat what we have been given with dignity and respect.

But this is God’s land. He created it. He understands it. He is in charge.

I am somewhat disgusted when we seem to take the glory for anything this earth has to offer. We are just lucky to be on it."

 

Excerpt taken from NieNie, on 12.2.09

 

So simple, so true.

She inspires me; the way she loves life, loves her family, loves God.

And her blog makes me giggle.

Me and hockey, who knew?

This city is making me quite the sports fan. I even surprise myself sometimes. I've watched more Phillies baseball this season than I think I have in my entire life and a few Sundays ago, I found myself willingly watching Eagles football.

Now one more to add to my list: First Flyers hockey game...in person! Against my sister and brother-in-law's favorite team, the Washington Capitals.

Hockey games are definitely much more exciting in person than on tv, but the fans are brutal! We had a lovely woman behind us that thought she knew how to play hockey better than the players themselves and proceeded to yell it at them, thinking they'd actually be able to hear her from the top section.

Other than that and the fact that we lost 2-8, the game was GREAT! Two awesome knock-outs: one of our players popped a Capital in the side of the head 6 minutes into the game; then in the last period, one of the Refs making horrible calls against the Flyers got hit in the head with the puck and fell flat to the ice. The entire crowd cheered, and I admit I giggled; kind of sad...don't worry, he lived :)

Lil' Kimmel on the way!

These two crazies are havin' a baby and I'm so freakin' excited!

Lauren, the best friend from college, and her husband, Cody, are expecting their first baby! Lauren is one of the most encouraging, patient, uplifiting and faithful women I know; partnered with Cody's sense of humor and strength in the Lord, they are going to make wonderful parents. And that little bun in the oven is going to be one blessed baby.

Congratulation Cody and Lauren, I can't wait to meet the little one!