"Love talked about can be easily pushed aside, but love demonstrated is irresistable"-W Stanley Mooneyham

Monday, December 6, 2010

Spreading a little Christmas cheer...and a new painting!

This weekend Blake was sweet enough to let me drag him here to get in the Christmas spirit...



He only had one request...I wasn't allowed to pick out our stockings because he said I would try to pick out something fancy. He wanted something fun...



We went home, got ready and headed to watch the beat down of a game here...



On Sunday I decided to make this recipe I found on allrecipes.com to give out to our precious neighbors (I just added 1 tsp of ground cloves to make them a bit spicier). Everyone around us is between the ages of 40 and 92...yes, 92!! They are always so sweet, and they are constantly giving to us so I wanted to be able to give a little something this year.

I decided to make ginger snap cookies, and here was what I used...



All measured out...(Britt, I LOVE these prep bowls you gave me! :))



After a lot of mixing...



And beating...



I finally made the dough...



And got ready to roll...



After a million of these I was happy to put them in the oven :)



And hot out of the oven...



If you wanted to get super creative you could make a christmasy (that cannot be a word) stencil...I decided to grab the closest thing to it and give it a try...



Using my powdered sugar shaker, I went to town...



And voila! A not so pretty Christmasy shape :) Because I was putting mine in bags I decided against the powdered sugar, but if you were just going to serve them at a party, it would be a fun touch!



For the kiddos in our neighborhood I decided to make candy cane suckers inspired by Darby. You put two together to make a "heart" shape, and bake on 245 degrees for 2-5 minutes (mine were perfect at 2 mins 30 seconds...be careful because if you do them too long they'll just become a gooey glob of a mess)...



As soon as you pull them out of the oven stick a lollipop stick in the middle and pinch the two ends together so they'll stick. Let stand for about 3 minutes before you take them off of the pan (If you're not using a non-stick pan make sure to use parchment paper so the candy doesn't stick)



The finished product...



They were SUPER easy and so much fun to make!



Finally I made the tags to attach to the bag. If I would have thought ahead I would have made much cuter, typed out ones :)



Lots of goodies...



And the finished product!



Because I went to town on the suckers I decided to stick one in each bag. For the families who had kids I just put as many suckers as there were kids in their bags.



It was honestly so much fun!



Later, I decided to continue in the spirit and decorate our mantle while watching Elf. It was quite sad...I needed my mom and sister to help-they are much better decorators!! Maybe next year...



And our little Christmas tree we put on a table in the window so that it would look like a big one! :)



I even got some wrapping done!



And where was Blake this whole time?? Well, he wouldn't let me come in his office for 8 hours, and it was totally worth it because this was the surprise!



I was SO excited!! I absolutely LOVE it!



He is such a great artist, and I absolutely love when he gives me a new painting. Here are a few he has given me the past three years...

The very first one was this...a tree with our initials "carved" into it



They are all my favorite, but I especially love this one...I told him one day I was missing New York and I left the house for about an hour and a half and came back to this...



A picture of Jesus...



This one is so much better in person. The detail is so beautiful...



And this one I LOVE...he surprised me and painted my wedding dress :)



I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! 19 days until Christmas!!

8 comments:

  1. Your house looks so pretty!!! I love the stockings blake picked out!! And so fun that you made all those cookies and suckers;) You are such a sweet neighbor and SO creative!! That picture that Blake painted is AMAZING!!!! LOVE IT!!!!! I think the new one and the wedding dress are my two favorites now!!

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  2. OK !!!! I AM SO IMPRESSED I CAN'T STAND IT! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HOW MARK J-R... TOPS YOUR COOKING FOR THE NEIGHBORS. HONEY, SERIOUSLY! YOU LOOK LIKE YOU ARE DOING A CLASS FOR MARTHA STEWART. BOTH OF MY GIRLS HAVE ABSOLUTELY EXCELLED THEIR MOM IN THE KITCHEN AND BEING CREATIVE. THE TWO OF YOU NEED TO HAVE YOUR OWN BUSINESS. PLUS!!! BLAKE'S PICTURE IS BEAUTIFUL. I WANT YOU TO KNOW I SAW AN REALLY EXPENSIVE PAINTING THE OTHER DAY OF A WEDDING DRESS THAT WAS SO SIMILAR TO BLAKE'S. YOU BOTH LOVE TO BE CREATIVE AND SHARE WITH OTHERS. I LOVE THAT ABOUT THE TWO OF YOU.

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  3. Oooooh Meg he is so talented! Its nice that you don't have to buy expensive art for the walls in your house because you have your own personal artist!

    And your sweet treats look amazing!

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  4. Megan - You will be seeing those suckers at Christi's shower and Festivus! Those are so cute I just can't stand it! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful idea! YAY :) Can't wait to see you! Those paintings are AMAZING! Love them!

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  5. Your goodies for the neighbors are so adorable! What a good neighbor you are. And your husband is so talented! I love the NYC painting. It is one of my most favorite places! (I'm going there this weekend!)

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  6. hey megan, its lindsey smith. i dont know if you remember me from FRESHMAN year of college, but i love your blog! i read it all the time! but i just had to comment and tell you that your husband is fantastic!!!!!!! my favorites are the NYC and wedding dress paintings. what a special gift and what sweet memories he has made! that is so amazing to be able to enjoy that for years and to know how much he loves you.. omg i am getting emotional!

    anyway, thanks for the blog, i love it!

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  7. So glad you blogged! :) made this freezing cold Monday a bit sweeter! :)
    I am still jealous of your wedding dress painting! SO awesome!
    Love your decor and your treats! SO sweet!

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  8. ps- i have the same wrapping paper :)

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