Christmas with the Kasch Family

We like to make our own ornaments and always have. The first year we were married we painted ceramic ornaments and cross-stitched little patterns that we hung on our tree. It was meager as far as ornaments go but we used those ornaments for years. And, we still like to make our own decorations.

This year we wanted to have a simple tree.

It's a beautiful noble we got from my husband's brother's Christmas tree lot. So, it hardly needs any ornamentation.

My husband took a simple snowflake and made it into our Christmas Tree Star by wrapping a little copper wire around it. I think it's beautiful.


How 'bout you? Do you make any of your own ornaments?

The 12 Days of Christmas

Why all the birds?

After all this song has: a partridge, turtle doves, french hens, calling birds, geese, and even swans a-swimming. What does fowl have to do with Christmas...well, except for the turkey we're planning on inviting to dinner ;)

I've always wondered what the heck that song meant.

I'd heard that each gift was supposed to represent something from the Christian faith so I thought I'd look into it.

The song outlines gifts given for each of the 12 days of Christmas and some people say these gifts are only symbols:

1 partridge in a pear tree = Christ
2 turtle doves = The Old and New testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity
4 Calling Birds=the Four Gospels
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, “Pentateuch”
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming= the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the sacraments
8 Maids A-Milking=the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing=the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping=the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming=the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s creed

But snopes says nope.

Still, I think it's a fun song. What do you think?

The 7th Day of Christmas

Today is the 7th Day of Christmas. And I know how the gift-giving goes. But, I wouldn't have wanted a partridge to begin with. And, this is the day when my true love gave to me:

seven swans a swimming...

Now, where the heck would I put seven swans a-swimming? In my bathtub? I think NOT.

That present would be completely foul and totally for the birds because that is one, no, seven things I don't have room for. So, this gift would be a total fowl-fail.

I definitely don't want anything I'd need to clean up after. After all, I already have three "kids" and my hubby to follow around after.

What I really want is a kindle or a new laptop. Santa . . . are you listening? "Do you hear what I hear"?

But, if you'd like to get an embroidered version of that seven swans a-swimming, you can find this patch on-line, check it out here.

A Little Angel Story

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves couldn't keep up. They weren't producing toys as fast as the regular elves. Sadly, Santa started to feel the
pressure of the season.

And, when Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, he really
stressed more.

Then when he went to harness the reindeer and found three of them ready to give birth he was beside himself but then he noticed two others had jumped the fence and were out on the town. Only Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked,
the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot
of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk
all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally
dropped the cider jug. It broke into hundreds of little glass pieces
all over the kitchen floor so he went to get the broom before Mrs. Claus found out. But, he found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang. An irritated Santa marched to the door and
yanked it open. There stood a little angel with a great big
Christmas tree.

The cheerful angel said, "Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a
lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to
stick it?"

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas
tree.

Only a few people know this part of the story ;)

Tour of Holiday Homes

I love to decorate. . . but, it's difficult with dogs in the house.

I spray painted some pine cones and nuts and put them in pretty glass bowls. Then I set them out around the house. The problem: Sasha didn't understand that spray paint meant "NO EATING".

I came home to find chewed up pine cones littering the floor. She'd actually cracked the nuts and eaten the insides out.

"Spray paint," Sasha says, "NO PROBLEM!"

Not for those giant teeth of hers.

But when I saw that she'd eaten the glass Christmas balls, I was worried - for a second. Sasha must be part goat. That glass didn't even hurt her at all. Still, she knew better and quickly crawled underneath the coffee table to hide. She just didn't think to hide the evidence - empty nutshells were right beside her head.
Still, I decorate. But now I don't put tempting treats (like glass balls) so low to the ground. No need to tempt those teeth of hers.

I pulled out some of my pretty Christmas plates and did a test run on the table - higher up.
And, some of the pretty plates, I even hang on the walls - way out of reach from Sasha.
Plus, I've got stockings hung by the . . . stairs with care. Well, not so much care but I still think they're pretty.


How 'bout you? How do you decorate and do you have any challenges - like Sasha?

And, if you want to check out more blogs, hop over here.

Just Me and the Girls

I know we may not have Kit much longer, after all she's 17 and that's 119 in people years. But, she's still going for walks with me. And, I want to remember (especially at this time of year) the things I'm thankful for. Pets are such a blessing.

Recrafted Gift - a Seatbelt Buckle Belt

I love this idea. Take an old seatbelt, add some cool fabric stripping and WAH-LAH the best ever repurposed piece of clothing you'll ever wear.

Have you done anything like this? I would love to know. Share your sustainable secrets, and gift-giving ideas in the comments - please.

What a JERK

Or maybe He Isn't much of a character at all. Think about it. That might be the problem in your story. Your characters need to jump off the page and become living, breathing people--at least while we're reading your story or we won't care about them at all. Then, we'll put the book down to go do laundry, dishes, or...

Have you ever noticed why you love a good story? It's because you get involved in the journey the characters are taking, at least emotionally.

I can't put a book down when I care about the characters and what happens to them. But, to care about the characters, we have to get to know them really well.

It doesn't even matter if we love or hate the people in the stories we read. We simply have to feel so strongly about them that we can't wait to find out what's going to happen to them.

As writers, that's what we have to do to make our stories come alive: make the reader love or hate (and maybe both) our characters. To do that, the characters have to be multi-dimensional.

The best way to achieve that goal is to give your characters many facets to their personalities. We have to work hard, as writers, to chip and shape our characters into full-bodied individuals. Before you know it, those boring lumps will turn from mere words into brilliant diamonds.

One way to work on this goal is to use a Character wheel, which is similar to a color wheel. We want to make our characters so vivid they'll stand out in the crowd.

Worksheet:

Start by drawing a circle on a piece of blank paper for each of the main characters in your manuscript.



Now slice the circle into sections - like a pie



Put your character's name in the center of the page, above the blank circle or "character wheel" so you can come back and refer to your wheel time and time-again.

Character's Name

Label each section of your pie with one of the following topics and fill that piece of the pie in with character specific information:

1) Personality: Shy, timid, selfish, sneaky, conceited, impatient, sly, determined, impatient, cheap, etc.
2) Likes: Video games, tennis, running, t.v., reading
3) Dislikes: homework, dancing, playing the piano
4) Physical Appearance: Hair color, height, weight
5) Hobbies: rock collecting, ballet, soccer
6) Impressions: How others see your character

My critique group used this worksheet to develop character wheels last Saturday during our bi-monthly session. We all worked on one writer's main characters during that session, next time we will work on another member's characters.

We simply started throwing out characteristics that we thought fit the "people" we had read about during our critique sessions.

It was a lot of fun and we all came away knowing the characters much better.

If you have fun with this exercise, you can adapt the character wheel to make a story wheel. Simply label the pieces of the pie with:

1) Story setting,
2) genre,
3) major problems,
4) conflict,
5) action,
6) resolution

Now start filling in the pieces. Before you know it, you're going to have a multi-layered, rich pie ;)

Magical City Lights

Thanksgiving Memories

Can you believe half of December is nearly gone? It seemed like just yesterday it was Thanksgiving. That was a wonderful holiday weekend filled with friends and family and--yes--lots of food. But that was already weeks ago.

Jake looked a little grumpy when we all sat down to eat, maybe it was being woken up to eat an early dinner or maybe it was driving up to the zoo - at the break of dawn to pick us up from the turkey trot that morning - when we'd already hopped on MAX and headed home. Oops! Poor communication on my part.

A 23,000 calorie SALAD...?

So, I had a "salad" my husband made me for lunch. Of course there was no lettuce in this salad, not even little itty-bitty shreds that you had to scan through the ingredients to find. There was, however, about one pound of hamburger, sour cream, cheddar cheese, guacamole, salsa and some other random tidbits.

I don't want to complain because he packed my lunch for me to take to work, which was really nice--I think.

I only ate about 1/4 of what he sent with me and I still have some left in the refrigerator...waiting.

But, it was so full of grease, I got an upset stomach. I didn't want to tell him because this was one of very few lunches he's made for me over the years. Usually, I get up and make us breakfast, then I'm the one who packs our lunches...but this salad felt like a 23,000 calorie salad and it sat with me all week. Now, I'm wondering if just maybe he likes me chubby--after all I have been working hard to drop some extra poundage.

I don't know what do you think?

Anyway, my husband's salad reminded me of this commercial:

Waisalling

This is my homemade Wassail recipe

I take a big jug of red wine and put it on low heat adding in one container of frozen orange juice and two cans of frozen apple juice. I chop up a couple of apples, oranges and throw in a stick or two of cinnamon. You can add cloves and nuts - but I usually don't. The aroma is wonderful and the sweet taste is divine.

I add a candy cane to stir the drink and it's festive, pretty and perfect for any party, even a party of two
My husband likes to drink his on the couch while reading a good book.

Homemade Caramel Popcorn

It's so EZ anyone can do it - oh but the sugar is HOT - so maybe not little kids unless they are very careful and working with supervision

All it takes is sugar, butter and popcorn

I airpop a big bowl of popcorn

Then I sprinkle it with salt...yes, salt and caramel are tasty together like peanut butter and jelly, or coffee and cream or...well, you get the idea.

Just melt a couple cups of sugar over low heat.

And then CAREFULLY add in a stick of chopped up butter. When your caramel is golden and the sugar is dissolved (175 to 180 degrees-measured with a candy thermometer-but I just eyeball it) pour it over the popcorn and mix it up with a wooden or metal spoon (don't use plastic-it will melt). YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMilicious!!!

This can make a perfect present with plenty of Taste. Simply put your caramel corn in a big bowl, cover it with foil and deliver it to neighbors, coworkers, friends or family for a foodtastic gift. This is an inexpensive way to "treat" your loved ones at the holidays.

Play with Your Food - Yes, I said PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD

Don't you wish we could create our own perfect Little Men?

Well here's the real secret to PMS---Perfect Men Snacking.

And, these guys are always wonderfully delicious. Still, baking can take time, energy and crafting skills that some of us just don't have. But not to worry. With a few of my handy-dandy tips and tricks, I guarantee you, you'll be on your way to Homemaking Heaven.

I've figured out some EZ-smeazy ways to make yummilicious goodies without all the expense of buying fancy food gadgets and gizmos galore.

I've always liked playing with my food and I never really grew up so I simply used a little bit of that kid-like resourcefulness and pulled out my kid's Playdoh craft center.

Yep! You heard me...um, read me, right. Playdoh Play Center.

It was over the Thanksgiving weekend that I had my eating epiphany.

My daughter, me and one of her friends spent a few hours eating and playing with our food. We made lots of cookies and ate more than we should. But, sugar cookies are always fun at Christmas. . .right?

It's not like I don't have any tools for cutting and cooking "special" occasion cookies and cakes but they are EXPENSIVE and I only have a few. So instead of running out and buying more of those things, we simply used our old playdoh tools (of course I washed them really well first), utensils and cutters to make fancy shapes and strange little tidbits. It was like being a kid again. We squeezed and squished out our aggressions and even shaped some strange cookies for our eating-time pleasure.

It was a lot of fun and OH-SO foodtastic! And, if you look close, I bet you'll see the ice cream container on the side. Sugar Cookies and Ice Cream...what could be better? So, don't just play with your food, eat it too ;) And, if you want to look for some more great blogs, hop over here.

No wonder I need to run!

EZ Smeazy Decorating on a Budget

I love decorating for the holidays - all of them - but I don't have a lot of money to blow in my budget. So, I look for simple ways to decorate without spending much (or any) money.

This is one way to make centerpieces without spending any money at all.

I walk around the neighborhood picking up pinecones and interesting pods and pieces that I can spraypaint.

Then I arrange them in a clear bowl with some beads and ornaments I have laying around the house.

It's so pretty, simple and (best of all) it doesn't cost a penny.

Sew-EZ Stockings to Hang by the Chimney With Care

I love stockings filled with candy and fruit. Nowadays we add little nick-knacks and goodies galore. I've made lots of them over the years. This is the one I made for Lars our first year together - because in the Danish tradition - he never had one.


Then when we had our first child, I wanted something for him. I always loved Mary Engelbriet's patterns, "sew" I made a stocking for Jacob.

side two:

I took each of the kids to the fabric store and let them pick out fabric to make pillow cases for each other. And, Luke always loved animals 'sew' this is the fabric Jake picked for his brother and I decided to make a stocking too - since there was left over material.


Kara wanted a store-bought stocking (not pictured here because it would put my handiwork to shame) - but I made a couple more just in case she ever changed her mind:




It was my Mom who taught me to make stockings (and she never used a pattern-sew way should I?). It was a year (and there were probably lots of them) when she didn't have much money to buy presents (9 kids-no surprise they didn't have much money to spend on gifts) 'sew' she decided to make them. She pulled out the felt, and sequins and started sewing. She was up until three in the morning putting little handcrafted cutouts on the socks. If you look close you'll see the blue jingle bell hanging on the toe.

I still have that stocking she made for me, more than forty years ago. And I hang it up every year (using a little more of that care than with these newby socks that I've made).

I didn't always find much inside that stocking, sometimes only a piece of fruit and hard candy (but there was always a candy cane). By today's standards, our Christmas presents were meager but I've always loved that stocking and especially the memories it brings back every year.


(If you want to make a stocking, just sketch out the look of what you want on newspaper, cut it out and use it as your "pattern" - it's sew EZ.)

Lowfat Yogurt and Granola - Yummy..licious

Just layer granola and lowfat yogurt like a parfait into a clear bowl - set it on a cake stand and Whoo-Hoo fancy food and low calorie too! It tastes so much better when it's pretty.

I served peach yogurt. My husband likes his yogurt plain, but not me--I'm a fancy food fiend.

Plus, I could have pulled out my pastry bags to pipe the yogurt into the bowl but I just used a ziploc baggy and cut off the tip - EZ, cheap, and food fast.

This is a fun way to serve food on a weekend when you have guests - like during the holidays. I had this on Thanksgiving weekend.

Christmas Tabletoppers and Show Stoppers

It's "sew" EZ to go to a fabric store, pick out some pretty fabric and make your own green-velvet or red cotton tablecloth. Then take a few ornaments put them in a clear-glass bowl and string some garland around the table: WAH-LAH a Happily Homemade Christmas

Plus, I'm lucky to have a couple holly trees in my yard and a cedar too. So all it takes is a walk around the house, to gather the goods for my centerpiece. But you could gather other items and probably come up with something more creative than me. Just take a walk around your house and see what you come up with.

And for another angle:

Edible Snowmen-EAT Without the Fear of Yellow Snow

Yumilicious Little Men Made from Meringue

Okay maybe they look more like ghosts than snowmen but it was my first attempt - so at least I have a fancy food idea for next Halloween.

All it takes is three egg whites and 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar. You heat the sugar and egg whites over low heat until the sugar dissolves.

And then you whip it until it forms little peaks (about 3-5 minutes).

Then you plop dollops onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

And bake at 175 for one hour and thirty minutes. WAH-LAH! Little snowmen you can stack together and decorate with cranraisins - if you want red little ghosty eyes, or chocolate chips if you want snowmen. I also added a little almond extract to my mixture - for some added flavoring, but you could add lemon, orange or peppermint-whatever suits you.

If you want to find more fun reading, hop over here.

A Very Danish Christmas - Advent and All

Just starting to load up the calendars with the 24 days of Christmas...presents!





You can find some more crafty ideas here

IT HAS BEGUN

Just getting started