Mid to late December is slower for us with phone calls and emails compared to other parts of the year so I in particular took advantage of #TompkinsPalooza2018 in being purposeful with activities and spending time with friends and family. I make it a goal to make as many cookies and pumpkin rolls as possible as I like to take a tray of cookies to events, plates of cookies to neighbors, and ship boxes of cookies to Phil's family. Although I'm a bit behind in my baking according to what I prefer, cookies still were shipped early this week as Christmas gifts for Phil's family! *whew*
In the last week or so, I had the pleasure of teaching a mother / daughter duo how to make ladylocks / clothes pin cookies. They are a popular cookie known in Western Pennsylvania but originated from Poland and Germany. The dough is mixed a day ahead of time with the secret ingredient of cottage cheese! (Ew, right?) The next day, the dough is rolled, cut into strips, wrapped onto foiled straight clothespins, baked, removed from clothespins then filled with a delightful filling that has more confection sugar than any recipe I've ever made before! So DELISH! My mom passed the recipe to me from my Aunt Evon who passed in 2011 after a long, long fight of cancer. Usually I only eat the rejects but my friend Debby let us eat even the pretty ones! A double recipe makes about 18-20 dozen. They are so easy to eat though so a few dozen go quickly in a crowd!
I also had the pleasure of teaching a former chicken renter turned friend how to make Pumpkin Rolls! Golly and I didn't even snap a photo of the process or of us making all TEN Pumpkin Rolls! He's next in line on how to make the ladylocks though! He took five home and left me with five as the five niece Mykala and I made before Thanksgiving are long gone! I hope five is enough as I've been sending a half of a Pumpkin Roll out the door like they are going out of style! I doubt I will make any more in the next five days though so they will have to be enough! He was real concerned with some cracking in the roll part so I was sure to send only uncracked ones home with him. All tastes the same to us! Here's a photo from yester-year to show off a representation of what we pulled off in 3.5 hours :)
On Saturday of last week, Homestead Phil had to be at our church for THREE events! I only had to attend one :) First thing in the morning, he had play practice for the Christmas program. He was the lead wise guy... I mean wise man! He came home, rested then we headed back in sporting our superhero garb for a super hero birthday party for our friend Chris!
It was there that I realized I could steal two of the girls in Girls' Ministry to help roll, cut, and frost the sugar cookie dough I had chilling in the fridge! Homestead Phil likes to one up me and this time he said to both girls and their families "Why not just spend the night?!" YAY!!!! Homestead Phil and I took the girls home and then he headed back to church for the Men's Ministry Christmas Party. The girls were so fun! (messy but fun!) We watched youtube for some decorating ideas. It was my first time attempting to use royal icing. In hindsight, maybe trying a new liquidy icing with two 10 year olds wasn't a great choice! hahahaha Eventually we switched to my tried and true frosting recipe and finished the task. Not before they asked for dinner though! They said "How about Taco Bell?" uh... we live in the middle of nowhere. I asked if they saw a Taco Bell in the neighborhood! :) They didn't so I made tacos and it was a win-win! They stayed up giggling far too late when Homestead Phil was in charge of making sure they went to bed while I wrapped some gifts (see below!). They each took a number of cookies home to share with their families!
I've grown pretty attached to a number of the girl kiddos in the Girls' Ministry at our church (including the two who came over for the cookie project!). I self titled my role as "Director of Crafts of Girls' Ministry". As Director, I felt the need to hand craft a little something for each of the girls (seven in total!) for Christmas. When I saw a crocheted pattern for ear warmers in the form of crowns, I knew they'd be perfect for these "daughters of the King"! At first they didn't know what they were and they are ages 6-10 and didn't realize that I hand made each of them! I gave them before service last week which was the same day of the Christmas program! So they opened them before their big performance and it warmed my heart after the service to see so many of them wearing them to go home! I later learned that one slept in hers and another wears it every time she goes outside AND another one wore it to Girls' Ministry on Wednesday. *FULL HEART*
As if those weren't enough events to fill my heart... there's more! Around Thanksgiving when Homestead Phil was traveling, we agreed that after a year, we would reach out to Our Little Guy's (Our first foster care placement) Mom to see if we could give him a few Christmas presents. (When he moved, he moved to his dad's and his dad was not open to being in touch with us.) She one upped me! She offered for us to video chat with us and then invited us to their home to bring his Christmas gifts including a new bicycle! Wow! Talk about FULL HEARTS! He turned 8 recently and remembers so much of his 11 months with us! It was two years ago yesterday that we first met him. Here we are with "Our Little Guy" Gabriel!
I challenge you to create your own "Palooza" to be more purposeful with your time, experiences available to you, and being with friends & family that you haven't seen in far too long. We thought we were good about those things before but we realized how much more we planned once we made it a thing. We still have some #TompkinsPalooza2018 left but we are looking forward to #TompkinsPalooza2019 - whatever that has in store for us! It's time for some more cookie baking now that I've finished my blog post for the week and we managed to publish and mail our year in review newsletter. Yes, we are *those* people!
With a FULL heart,
Homestead Jenn
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