Where were we?

Oh, yes. We were baking lots of cookies, filling tins and holiday plates, wrapping gifts, cooking and cleaning for Christmas, and making origami and planning a Christmas game.

Crack, sometimes called Christmas Crack

Cookies

I baked 10 batches of cookies, made 2 batches of spiced nuts, dipped 1 batch of dried apricots into melted dark chocolate, and made a batch of instant cocoa cones to give to my family members. The 10 batches were as follows: 2 batches of shortbread, 1 batch of chocolate-vanilla ribbon cookies, 1 batch of peppermint swirl cookies, 1 batch of peanut bars, 1 batch of mixed nut bars, 1 batch of chocolate-chocolate chip meringues, 1 batch of gingerbread men and women, 1 batch of speculaas, and 1 batch of double chocolate-peppermint drop cookies. My daughters baked 3 batches of cookies (their own speculaas using a different recipe, the star cookies from the magazine, and a batch of oatmeal toffee bars from an ad for Quaker Oats in a 1980s magazine) and made 2 batches of crack (a cross between English toffee and cookies). We gave away at least 2/3 of all of the treats. And I still have some in the freezer. Baking lots of different Christmas cookies is a favorite December thing for me. And giving them away is the joy of all of the baking.

Filling tins

On the 23rd, I got out the tins and holiday paper plates (bought at Dollar Tree) and about 2/3 to 3/4 of the treats out of the freezer. We packed the tins and plates heaping full of goodies and then delivered many to our neighbors. 

I also packed the tower of tins for our son and daughter-in-law. I packed so many cookies, dipped dried fruit, spiced nuts, and commercial candy into our son and daughter-in-law's tins that the cocoa cones had to be placed on top of the tower under the ribbon instead of inside one of the tins. 

The treat tower turned out nice. I loved seeing the smiles of appreciation as they opened each tin.

Wrapping

The gift wrapping was a bit chaotic this year. We've accumulated so many nice gift bags and have multiple partial rolls of gift wrap (some picked up at yard sales in summer), it's to the point that not all of the gift bags and wrapping paper fit into the same storage container. I've been using one of the under-the-bed gift wrap plastic bins (thrifted) to store both bags and wrap. I use plastic salad clamshells for bows and ribbons. As good luck would have it, one of my daughters had bought a similar under-the-bed storage bin at a yard sale that she was now going to give away (didn't fit under her bed). I told her that I could definitely use it. The day after Christmas, my two daughters and I organized all of the gift wrap, gift bags, bows, ribbons, and gift tags neatly into the two large under-the-bed bins and a few plastic clamshells. Going forward, I think we'll be able to keep our supplies tidier and find what we need more quickly.

Cooking and cleaning

I had a lot of help from all of my family in this area. On the 24th we went to an early Christmas Eve service then came home to make Chinese food for dinner. We watched It's a Wonderful Life as we dined on our home-cooked Chinese. Christmas Day meals turned out well. My daughters did an egg bake, adding shredded beet greens, halved cherry tomatoes, and shredded cheese to the eggs, then baked in a 9 X 12 Pyrex casserole. I skipped the parchment paper and simply greased the baking dish extra well. I decided to make a last-minute half-batch of eggnog for brunch and dinner. I didn't taste it, as it had dairy, but it must've been tasty as it was finished off by the end of dinner. The yogurt bar was a hit. I added sliced almonds, pepita seeds, frozen raspberries, frozen blueberries, dried apricots, dried cranberries, honey, and maple syrup to the toppings bar. I didn't bake the sausages, but did those in a skillet. They turned out fine and didn't take much extra time. For fruit we had tangerines and orange juice. While the three of us were cooking, my husband took over the cleaning chores. The bathroom was left spotless and freshened with pine scent (thank you Mrs. Meyer's cleaning spray). That man washed more dishes on Christmas Day than I think he washes in a month. 

Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole

For dinner, you know I said we would be roasting a whole chicken with an orange glaze? Do you also remember the problem with the small freezer where we store all of our meat? Well, one of the meats in the freezer that I pulled out (not because it thawed, but because I think it was keeping the door from closing tightly) was a whole chicken. Anyway, I roasted that chicken that very week, then cut off the breast and thigh portions, wrapped and froze. As our main dish on Christmas I made a Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole. I assume other people make this. I just made up my version as I went. It was delicious! I'll give you more details how I did this later this week. I took photos as I went. 

To go with the dinner, I used the rest of the refrigerator dinner roll dough from making the almond filled bread (had with Christmas brunch) to make 16 crescent dinner rolls. My daughters each made a vegetable side dish (roasted Brussel sprouts and garlic green beans) while I made gingered pears (using Asian pears I had chopped and frozen in early fall). For dessert, I baked a cherry pie the day before. I think it all turned out pretty good. Christmas dinner is always a more difficult meal for me to cook, as we always have guests in the house during the hours I need to cook. I am easily distracted, so carrying on a conversation while I'm cooking is often disastrous for the meal. To counter this, I prepared much of Christmas dinner in advance. The casserole was assembled on the 24th, then refrigerated until baking on the 25th. The dinner rolls were baked a few days in advance and stored in the freezer until the morning of the 25th. I toasted them wrapped in foil in the oven shortly before dinner. The pie was ready and waiting for us. And the gingered pears are a no-brainer side dish. My daughters completely handled the green vegetables, so I didn't need to even think about those. I think for people like me who can't carry on a conversation while measuring and mixing ingredients, preparing as much as possible in advance is key.

Christmas origami and the game

One of the more challenging activities I did during the days leading up to Christmas was making dollar bill origami in holiday shapes. I used a mix of $1s and $5s. Some were easier than others. I gave up in frustration on a couple of designs. In the end I had 2 different versions of Christmas trees, 1 angel, 1 Santa hat, and 1 star. The most satisfying of all were the star and the more elaborate of the Christmas trees. The money origami were some of the prizes in a game we played after dinner. A couple of years ago I told you about the cup game we played after Christmas dinner, where I placed small prizes under upturned Solo cups on the table. Everyone took turns choosing a cup and finding different prizes. In this year's version, we added a layer of fun to the game. We combined the cup game with Nativity trivia. Before choosing a cup to win a prize, each family member had to correctly answer a trivia question about the Nativity, its prophecy, and the various people, places, songs, and things involved. For each question, the player got 3 guesses, and they could get assistance if they didn't know. They could "phone" a friend (ask someone else if they knew the answer) or have 3 minutes on their phone to find the answer. Like I said, everyone had 3 guesses, so each person was able to correctly answer their trivia questions. We had 40 prizes in total, with items like travel-size toiletries, small games, bath items, wrapped candies, interesting pieces of fruit, baggies of nuts, tea bags, air fresheners, hand warmers, a potholder, interesting small jars of food, spice mixes, and more -- all from the grocery store. To these prizes I added the 5 money origami shapes, because everyone likes to win money, right?

Our son and daughter-in-law left late Christmas night. I did a little cleaning up, then hit the hay around midnight. Such a busy couple of days. But such wonderful days they were.

I have so much more to say, but I need to get myself some sleep. I'll be back tomorrow.

How was your Christmas Eve and Christmas? Did everything go as planned? What were your special meals? Did you play any games on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Please share. 

Be back tomorrow!