Merry Christmas!

Image from CrossCards.com

Mr. T and I would like to wish a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy 2015 to each and every one of our friends!

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."

(Luke 2:11)

A lovely Christmas quote

Small vintage card from my collection

Last year, when my granddaughter and I made these sweet simple Christmas card banners , we used some of the inside verses from the cards as well as the fronts of the cards.

One of our banners

This wonderful quote was the verse from one of the cards, and we both loved it:

"Let us have a little warmth
in the midst of winter ...
Let us have a little peace
amid the rush of daily life ...
Let us have a little comfort, 
a little beauty, a little wonder ...
Let us celebrate Christmas."

These are the words of Ellen Brenneman.  Aren't they beautiful?  Just what I need this Christmas ... what about you?

A few of my favorite Christmas books

Well, I have sort of fallen by the wayside with posting every day.  Too busy doing, rather than writing, I guess!  Today I thought I would share just a few of my favorite Christmas books, mostly ones with crafts, recipes, and just fun inspiration for this blessed season.  I'll just give some simple captions as explanation.

Gooseberry Patch Christmas book 12 -- I found this used, on Amazon, in like-new condition for an amazing price.  Even better, it is filled with fantastic ideas for gifts and treats!

Loads of yummy-sounding cookie recipes in this small soft-cover -- and I love the cover art

Gooseberry Book 6 -- I've made lots of projects from this one.

The Christmas Kitchen -- worth getting out every year.  I love this one!

More Gooseberry favorites.  Simple Joys of Christmas is out of print, but you might be able to find a copy somewhere.  I have a recipe in there!

These are some of the earlier Gooseberry books and any of them would be worth getting.  Homespun Christmas is particularly full of great ideas, but all of them are wonderful.

My mother owned a copy of this same book, and I get mine (found at a book sale)  out every year for inspiration.

All of the Gooseberry Patch numbered Christmas books (by Leisure Arts) are wonderful.  They put one out every year.

Not a book, but a magazine.  I subscribed to this for a couple of years.  If you can find copies of these, you would enjoy the crafts and recipes.  The emphasis is on preparing for Christmas all year round.

Full of great ideas you can do ahead!

I've owned the older edition of this book for years.  Love it!

Holly Pond Hill Christmas Treasury -- I found this years ago in a discount bookstore.  Bought several of them for gifts.  If you enjoy Susan Wheeler's art, you need to find one of these.

I saved my very favorite for last.  Given me by my daughter Joanna years ago, The Happiest Season of All is another Holly Pond Hill Christmas book and is so much fun to read.

You would likely be able to find many of these on Amazon-- I have found some wonderful buys there on used Gooseberry Patch books, in particular.  [And if, perchance, you search using the Amazon search box feature here at my kitchen table, a teensy percentage goes to me.  Every little bit helps, right?]  You may well have your own favorite sources for used books, so by all means check those.  Some thrift stores or consignment shops have an actual Christmas section.

Hope you have enjoyed this look at a few of my favorite books!  Any of them would give you great inspiration for Christmas 2015!

A few of my favorite vintage Christmas cards

This 1970s card reminded me of my daughters!  I made a dough ornament inspired by this one.

 As I've mentioned before, I have a nice little collection of vintage Christmas cards, mostly because I once taught art (on a volunteer and amateur basis) at a small Christian school.  People knew that I often made projects with the kids involving used greeting cards, and, when I put out a call at church and school that I could use them, I received bags of old cards.  Many of them were fabulous vintage Christmas cards!

Of course, I couldn't and wouldn't cut those up.  Instead, I display them on a ribbon board and under a glass topped desk.  I also scanned most of them so that I would be able to use the images over and over.  Today I'm going to share a few of my favorites with you.

Love the sleeping village encircled by a white holly wreath

This was the inspiration for my Christmas blog, Mrs. T's Christmas Kitchen

Love this -- a more innocent, secure time for sure

Cosy firelit room

Bringing home the tree

Tiny square card from my childhood

This is the inside of a card.  I love the green fireplace

Sheet music with holly

A welcoming open door on a snowy night

Pretty and simple

This was the outside of a photo card

Reminds me of farms of my childhood

My daughter gave me this card one year

Skating scene

Ski jump -- a favorite card

Cute childrens' card

Hope you have enjoyed this peek at some of my favorite vintage cards!

Recipe with a history! My mother's famous maple fudge

 Yankee magazine has had for years a feature called "Recipe With a History", and I am borrowing their title for this post.  This truly is a family recipe with a history.

I shared this post on my Christmas blog some time ago, but I realize that not all of my readers visit both blogs, so I share it again here for those who may have missed it or who may be new.

Today I thought I'd share a family heirloom recipe.  However, it's a recipe I can't exactly recommend that you try -- unless you are the sort who loves a challenge and doesn't mind wasting some very expensive ingredients.

My mother was locally famous for this creamy maple fudge. All during my growing-up years, she made batch after batch of it at Christmas time. When she first perfected the recipe, she often made pounds of this fudge for the Methodist church's Christmas fair, where it was in great demand.   In later years the fudge production was for the benefit of family and friends, some of whom expected to receive maple fudge every year and would have been cruelly disappointed not to receive it.  It has a true maple flavor and a creamy texture and should be cut in tiny pieces around an inch square because it is very rich. 

My mother had been given the recipe by a neighbor lady.  Years ago I scanned the recipe to include in a Christmas memory book for my kids, so I have it in my mother's printing, right out of her Christmas notebook.
 
Over the years, many people asked my mother for the recipe, and she happily shared it. However, it was a very tricky recipe and no matter how good a cook she gave the recipe to, the fudge would seldom come out right. Boiling, candy thermometers, cooling to the exact right point and then what seemed to be hours of beating were all involved in the proper preparation of this delicacy. Yes, it was delicious, and it certainly was a triumph to be able to produce something so difficult that no other living woman (other than the neighbor lady who gave her the recipe) had been able to do. But it always looked like a lot of trouble to me! My siblings and I used to enjoy scraping the fudge kettle, but none of us had much interest in learning to make the candy ourselves.

My mother has passed on now, and the secret of the maple fudge has gone with her. Even though I have the recipe, I can't imagine going to that much trouble. I will share it here, just for old time's sake. But I make no guarantees!

MAPLE FUDGE

2 cups dark maple syrup
5 cups white sugar
2 cups cream

Mix together in heavy pan. Cook (keeping a steady boil) to 238º on candy thermometer. Cool to lukewarm. Beat until mixture loses gloss. Add (coarsely chopped) walnuts and pour quickly into a buttered roasting pan (13x9-inch pan works fine). Cut immediately into small squares.

If you try this fudge and it comes out well, pat yourself on the back. You've achieved something very few cooks have been able to do. If you try it and it doesn't work, don't blame me -- I did warn you! (Incidentally, failed fudge may work well as a sauce over ice cream.)

(The illustration at top is a vintage Christmas card from my collection.)

A little tradition in the making

 ... and a few other Christmasy preparations.

Last Saturday we took three of our grandchildren out for brunch and some shopping for their parents and baby sister.  We started this little tradition a few years back when we took them to a favorite shop on an evening before Christmas for ice cream sundaes.

from the first year, I think

Flags top off the sundaes

 We then went to a local McDonalds for supper -- yes, that was getting it a little backwards, but the shop with the ice cream closed early so we had to do supper and dessert in reverse order.

After that, we took them to a favorite shopping place where Mr. T and I enjoy going at Christmas time.

 
A walk over to see the waterfall is essential.  And then we took them to a local dollar store where they bought gifts that they later wrapped and smuggled under the Christmas tree to surprise their parents.

Last year we did the same outing, only we were able to switch things around and have supper first.

This year, because of our time constraints (we had a party to attend at supper time) we decided to take them out for brunch at a favorite diner, rather than the McDonalds/ice cream sundae route.  Then we visited the waterfall and a couple of shops prior to the shopping trip.  I am really not sure which they liked better -- fast food/ice cream sundaes, or the diner, where they chose lunch and Mr. T and I enjoyed omelets.  We will have to confer with them and their parents, but I suspect we may have messed with tradition and that it may be back to ice cream next year!

While at the dollar store, I found some great jars to package hot chocolate mix in -- nicer than these,

which are from a previous year.

I was also able to find some other components for a gift I wanted to make.

When we got home, Mr. T and another grandchild made some peppermint bark and also set up our lighted houses under the Christmas tree.

Peppermint bark is in the center of this cookie tray.  The chocolate cookies at the upper right are Sacher Torte cookies, which I baked some of this week.

The lighted houses in years gone by

That night I was able to finish a crocheted Christmas stocking I was making and also to start one of these Christmas star dishcloths:

And of course we have been continuing to bake.  Sacher Torte cookies, which I refer to above and which I baked yesterday and filled today, may be found at this link:
Fun and Festive Cookies.

Those are some of the Christmasy happenings in our world!

My "Christmas Cookie Exchange" Pinterest board

Photo from Taste of Home -- I am hoping to try these cookies today!

Today I would like to invite you all to visit my Christmas Cookie Exchange!.  Just a virtual cookie exchange, it's my Christmas Cookie Exchange Pinterest board.

Tomorrow I will post about a few more of my cookie pins over on my Christmas blog.  For today, I will just share a few of them here.

Jocelyn, over at Inside BruCrew Life, is one of the top bloggers of sweet recipes, in my opinion.  She is always baking up something new and different, and often has fun stories to share about her family or about how a particular recipe came to be.  Two of my cookie pins I'm sharing are from her blog:

Hot Cocoa 3 Musketeers Brownie Bites

Photo by Inside BruCrew Life

and

Cinnamon Caramel Cookies.

Photo from Inside BruCrew Life

If you like oatmeal cookies but they seem a bit plain for Christmas, go over to Kleinworth & Co. and check out Gina's Eggnog Oatmeal Cookies.  A delectable-sounding chewy oatmeal cookie with a glaze made from real eggnog -- they sound wonderful!

Just one more for today -- Peppermint Chocolate Shortbread Bites from Jenn at Clean & Scentsible.  This is one recipe I'm definitely going to try!

Photo from Clean & Scentsible

Have you tried any new cookie recipes this season? Which ones would you like to try from my Cookie Exchange board?  Please share in the comments!