Yum . . . Christmas Baking!

'Tis the season for baking Christmas treats to bring as gifts to friends and neighbors, to share with visitors and coworkers, and to fatten our own bellies before resolving to be healthier when the new year begins. Susan and the girls have been baking fiends this weekend. I am to bring to work tomorrow enough dessert items to feed around 150 people at an end-of-semester "open house" that our unit is hosting for campus faculty and staff. Thanks to my lovely ladies, it's all ready. Here's what they have baked--some of which I will take to work tomorrow, and some of which will become gifts for others throughout the holiday season:

1. monster cookies
2. Special K bars
3. holiday snaps
4. Scandinavian almond bars
5. caramel crispies
6. Scandinavian almond bread
7. peanut butter temptations
8. double-chocolate brownies
9. fudge
10. Almond Joy bars
11. molasses cookies
12. butterscotch cookies
13. butter/vanilla sugar cookies
14. reindeer eyes (made entirely by our daughters)
15. hockey pucks (made entirely by our daughters)

My contribution? Supervising the frosting of the sugar cookies. Susan made several colors of powdered sugar frosting, set up frosting stations at the dining room table, and set the girls and me to work. Once I had convinced the girls how little frosting is actually needed per cookie (generally less frosting than cookie, contrary to their initial efforts), we all set to work frosting them and shaking decorative sprinkles upon them. Twelve dozen sugar cookies later, we were done, and the frosting was gone. Very fun!

(Yes, twelve dozen . . . of only one of the fifteen kinds of baking Susan did. Imagine the quantity of bars and cookies overall! Please come and help us eat them!)

It's so nice to have a baker's rack on our veranda. As Susan finishes and packages a particular batch of baked goods, she adds the container to the growing collection on the baker's rack, just a few convenient steps out the patio door off our dining room. The cookies, bars, and breads stay cold outdoors but are readily accessible when needed and don't take up room in our fridge or freezers. (If you have a sweet tooth, you now know where to find a Christmas treat when we're not home to offer you one!)

Party with the President

(not the actual buffet)

Dickinson State University President Vickers and his wife hosted a "holiday social buffet" last Wednesday night, and Susan and I attended. It was at the Elks lodge (very nicely decorated for Christmas, by the way), and it was very fun. Mrs. Vickers greeted us at the door, and President Vickers greeted us once we stepped into the ballroom. We were told how great it is to have us in Dickinson and at DSU (the President mentioned specific things I have done for DSU!), and we were invited to enter, get food, and socialize. The place was packed with DSU faculty, staff, and their spouses or guests. We had wondered in advance whether it would be uncomfortable to search there for someone I knew for us to sit with, but I was surprised to know the vast majority of people there because of having worked with so many different departments and units on campus this semester.

One table had punch, cider, and flavored coffees. One table had sandwiches, fruit, and a hot fruit dip with Brie cheese and nuts in it. One table had vegetables, deviled eggs, three varieties of herb-encrusted smoked salmon, and garlic toast rounds. One table had hot hors d'oeuvre: meatballs in barbecue sauce, mini tomales, mini quiches, etc. One table had every variety of dessert and holiday sweet imaginable. And the bar was available for people wishing to purchase alcoholic beverages. It was quite the delicious spread.

We went from table to table, visiting people I (or Susan, in a couple cases) knew and meeting others whom we didn't. We sat at a table that, as people came and went, ended up populated with most of the faculty from the nursing department. At the end of the evening, the Vickerses drew names for door prizes: they gave away the elaborate centerpieces on several of the tables (no winners here, though).

It was another opportunity for Susan and me to go out together, an opportunity for her to meet several of the people whom I work with, and a chance to socialize with people whom I otherwise know in only a limited fashion--through our workplace interactions. What a great event!

Look! It's Christmas!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, the girls and I put together a gingerbread train, hauling candy to all the good little girls and boys. We had spent the weekend putting Christmas decorations up around the house and were in the mood for a holiday project, so Susan helped us make the royal icing and let us make a royal mess in the kitchen. Here are some highlights:

Just the other night on my way home from work, I saw a Christmas yard light display that was so pretty, I just had to show my family. So I pulled into the garage, stepped into the house, grabbed each child and carried her uncloaked and unshod into the warm vehicle, had Susan grab the camera, and drove them all to the house with these lights (below) to enjoy the sight/site: