A Thrill Of Hope

My favorite hymn sums up the hope of the birth of Jesus Christ:


O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt it's worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, O hear the angels voices.
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!


May you have a blessed Christmas celebrating our Savior's birth!

Cookie Goodness

I recently found this GF, EF, CF roll-out cookie recipe through "Living Without". For us, this is huge because there aren't too many holiday type cookies that the kids can enjoy. So, a few days ago we decided to give these a whirl. Above are the cookies the kids decorated... and they didn't taste too darn bad!

Here are my little helpers!

....and enjoying the final result. Mmmmm!
For anyone interested (cause I know finding GF, EG, CF recipes can be a bear) here is the recipe:


Holiday Cut-Out Cookies
Makes 16 Cookies

¼ cup butter, canola oil spread or oleo,
at room temperature (We used Earth Balance Buttery Sticks)
2 tablespoons honey
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
¾ cup brown rice flour
½ cup white rice flour
3 tablespoons potato starch
2 tablespoons tapioca flour/starch
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons water or more (we used 4 Tbsp rice milk. Hemp milk would work well too!)

In a food processor, combine the butter, honey, sugar, vanilla and lemon peel and process for one minute. Add the flours, potato starch, tapioca flour/starch, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder and baking soda, blending until mixture forms large clumps. Scrape down sides of the bowl with a spatula and blend until the mixture forms into a ball. (If needed, add more water, a tablespoon at a time.) Remove dough and shape it into a ball. Cover and refrigerate for one hour. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with baking spray or line it with parchment paper or non-stick baking liners. Using half the dough at a time, roll dough out to ¼-inch thickness between sheets of floured waxed paper or plastic wrap. Keep remaining dough chilled until ready to use. Cut rolled dough into desired shapes and place cookies on prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake cookies in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are set. Switch pan position half-way through baking for even heat distribution. Remove cookies from oven and wait two minutes before transferring to rack to cool. When cool, decorate cookies with your favorite gluten-free icing and colored sprinkles.

Variation

For Spice Cookies, add ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon and ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves. Bake as directed.

This recipe by Carol Fenster, Ph.D., was featured in the Fall 1998 issue of Living Without magazine.

Frosty Trees

(hmm... can't get the photo to line up right...)

Aren't these beautiful?! I would love to collect a small forest of these! Head on over to Wisteria to see more beautiful decorations.

Updated Pictures

Here are a few updated pictures of Lucas. Somehow there are no new ones of Lydia. Sorry sweetie!


Lucas is showing me a slug he found on a leaf and below is a picture of the cute little thing. I tried to research "slugs" on the internet so we could learn about them together, but Lucas lasted all of three minutes. They must not be that interesting after all.
Lucas is holding an apple turkey he made at school. It was so cute. Look closely and you can see they stuck toothpicks into the turkey and slipped on Fruit Loops. The kept the cereal in place with marshmallows. And you can see they used a marshmallow and candy corn for the head. It was super cute!

The above and below picture are hats that Lucas made in school to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Neglected

This poor neglected blog! I've been wanting to post, but I've been busy creating! I will post the things I have been working on some day soon.

It doesn't feel much like Christmas this year. My in-laws have their tree up, but since we aren't in our own home it just feels different. I haven't really stuck to our traditions, so I think that makes a big difference. But at least we have a place to lay our head. And as a friend of mine pointed out, it doesn't matter where we celebrate Christmas. What matters is that we are all together. So true. I am so thankful for our little ones and for my wonderful husband.

My sweet, dear husband asked me if it would be okay if he swept out a little place in our basement for us to celebrate Christmas morning together- just the four of us. Would it be okay? Of course! He was afraid I would think it was corny. I couldn't think of anything sweeter.

The house is still coming along. We have almost every room painted and waiting for trim to go up and then spray painted. Then the last coat of paint can go on. The tile is starting to go down and I LOVE my kitchen tile..... so excited to see the final result! Then the bathrooms and kitchen can be installed. I have big hopes to be in by the end of January. Oh please, please, please!!!!

I have to share a few funny things Lucas has done recently (at least it made me laugh). Last week he meant to say "Oh shoot!" and "Oh dear!" at the same time, but it came out "Oh Smear!" So now that is the new family word! If I can catch him on video I will post it because the way he says it is hilarious. And then tonight, I was getting ready to tuck him into bed when he smacked me on the rump and proclaimed, "You have a big butt and it made a loud noise!" Children!