Sugar and Spice.

I have been baking today. I love baking. I was baking cookies. I LOVE cookies. I was baking sugar and spice cookies filled with good things like molasses, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Our house smells divine.

My sistah, Lisa, throws a cookie swap every year. It is larger than life. Last year, I realized that the date she had picked for the cookie swap we were supposed to be at Disney World. And honest-to-goodness, I changed our flight. We did Disney in a half day, because I didn't want to miss the cookie swap. When I realized this conflict, there were tears followed by a very confused husband, "so what you're trying to say is that you would rather go to Lisa's cookie thing, more than Disney World?!!" "yes, Rory, (sniff sniff) I am saying exactly that..."

My first year at the cookie swap I brought peanut butter buckeyes, sort of cheating because they are a no bake, and being that everyone must bring TWELVE DOZEN cookies, I ended up feeling badly that I didn't actually bake like everyone else. However, when year two rolled around, I again took the easy way out and made my mom's apricot-coconut balls. Another no bake. I love these babies, but they're hit or miss, depending on if others like apricot, coconut and dark chocolate. (if you like those three things though, you'll flip over these things...)

Last year I made oatmeal cranberry cookies and this year, I made these sugar-ginger deals. They smell and taste fantastic. And the best part? The dough isn't actually that delicious, so this is like the first time in my life that I made cookies and don't have a tummy ache from eating so much dough. It seriously is a perk! But the cookies, once they are baked, are my absolute favorite. A classic, Christmas cookie.

So here's the recipe. The cookie swap isn't until next Monday, so the cookies are safe in freezer bags for a week until I get them out to package them up beautifully for an event that tops Disney World. And I LOVE Disney World.

Sugar and Spice Cookies
3/4 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. molasses
(beat above together)
Dry Ingredients (mix together and add to butter mixture)
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp cloves
3/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat over to 350. Form into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place two inces apart on baking sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes for a chewy cookie. Makes four dozen. Enjoy!

Christmas Craft Night

We had a fantastic turn out for our first Christmas Craft Night on Friday night. The hope of this evening was for women to come and make classy gifts to give to teachers, babysitters or coworkers. We had 30 ladies come, and had a really great time. I had the room set up with six different stations and the ladies moved around the room as they pleased. We had great food, great childcare and Bing Crosby singing us into the season.

Our craft stations included: Christmas Cocoa cones, Fabric covered magnets and tacks, Scrabble Tile Necklaces, Gift Tags and pretty gift wrapping, and Bath bomb cupcakes. Click on any of those titles for the link to the tutorials, where I found all of these fabulous ideas!

I hired a few camp counselors and co-worker's kids to be our babysitters for the evening. They were awesome. When I went to check on them I found the crew having a snack in their fort. Love that.

The evening was not without a few glitches, however. I was in charge of welcoming ladies, helping with the bath bombs and helping with the cupcake frosting. And honestly, I probably should have delegated the frosting or bath bombs. One batch of frosting was so thin it ran off the cupcakes entirely. Another batch of frosting misfired, when all of their ingredients were added together at the same time. Turns out, this is how you make marzipan! The putty was incredible and we actually played with it for a while because it was just that cool. At that point, I realized I needed to hang out at the frosting table and made sure everything was put in exactly as the directions specified. And then it turned out great every time.

We had a Healthy Breakfast Potluck at our last staff meeting. This actually was sort of a tricky challenge...bacon and waffles and egg bake don't really fit in at a "healthy" breakfast. So I thought for a while and remembered this recipe I had written down somewhere while we were on our road trip last year. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

My review: they didn't turn out anything like the actual Starbucks granola bars that I love. But they turned into their own special granola bars and I will make them again and again. I think part of the difference between the kind they sell and the kind I made was that I used smart balance peanut butter (trying to make them extra healthy for our Healthy Breakfast) and it changed the flavor a bit, but they were FABULOUS and Rory loved them and so did the Carol Joy Holling staff. Enjoy!

Makes 48 servings (for real!)
Chewy, nutty good to go bars.

Ingredients
2/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup walnuts
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup almonds
2/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup flax seed
2 cups oatmeal
2 cups peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:
Combine dry goods.
Melt butter, corn syrup and sugar over medium heat till near boiling.
Combine everything including peanut butter.
Set oven 350. Spray pan. Spread in pan.
Bake for 30 minutes (mine were done after 15-20 minutes) or till outside begins to brown.

Aunt Annie

I have a 10 year journal that I have been HORRIBLE at keeping up with, but I'm trying to do it again (just jot down a sentence each day of something memorable.) So I just looked through it and on November 12th I have written under 2006: "Shepherd of the Valley's 25th anniversary celebration at Eastview Highschool. Family went out for pizza after. AUNT ANNIE HAS BEEN HEALED!!! Amazing story we got to hear over pizza. Praise God!"

This is why you keep a 10 year journal. I loved remembering that moment of hearing my Aunt Annie's healing story. My Aunt Annie had chronic fatigue syndrome for over a decade. Much of the time she was unable to be out of bed for more than an hour or two at a time. And then she went to a prayer retreat to pray for missionary work all over the world. And in one of the services, she went forward for prayer and was healed. Absolutely, in that moment, healed.

I wrote an email to Annie after reading this blurb in my journal. I wrote, "Made me so happy to think of that moment of hearing you share that miracle. I remember talking to Rory at length that afternoon about how I need to pray like I believe something will happen. You know how you forget that sometimes? Like prayer is just routine, but without the belief in God's power behind it? I just did a Bible study all about not just believing in God, but absolutely believing God can do what he says he can do. Love that. I think I'll be learning this lesson my whole life long."

And then I just got this email back. Breathe deep as you read this. Aunt Annie is gentle, thoughtful and wise. You'll want to savor every word.

Thanks Becca for the reminder of that amazing time of worship and the quiet, overwhelming knowing that God was reaching out to touch me and heal me. He is such an awesome God and totally faithful to His promises and His people. Good health is a wonderful gift and blessing, best treasured by those who had lost it and now have received it back. Love and Joy, Aunt Annie

My font in print

I have a great friend from seminary, Jen, who just posted this advent picture on her blog. It's a promo poster for a series of Sunday family service projects she is leading at the church where she is a pastor. I don't know if it gets more exciting than this, but THAT IS MY FONT!!! She downloaded it, and is using it, and at a church somewhere in Tacoma, Washington, my handwriting is posted all over the bulletin boards. I remember making handmade posters all the time in high school for our student council dances, and always thinking it was funny to see my handwriting all over the school, knowing that it was mine, but knowing no one else knew that (or cared!) Basically, seeing Jen's poster is that feeling times ten. People, if you have handwriting that is legible, you've got to try making a font out of it. Just go to http://www.fontcapture.com/ for the step-by-step.