A Little Snow When It Doesn't Snow

In my area (greater Seattle), we have a 5 to 6% chance of a white Christmas on average. This year, they say our chances of measurable snow on Christmas Day are between 15 and 20%. Every morning when I open the curtains I feel hopeful that there will be a fine dusting. But no such luck.

To get a "feeling" of snow, I use canned snow on the large glass panel in the kitchen door. I've had the same can of snow for about 10 years, using just a touch each year to get that wintry feeling. 

For those neat, rounded corners, I cut a template from an empty cereal box, hold the template against the window loosely, then spray lightly on the glass corners of the panel. I've found that a lighter application of  snow looks most realistic. One of my daughters says she loves, loves, loves the snow on the door.

Another 5-minute decorating project that I made this week went next to the side door that we use most and where packages are left by couriers. I cut boughs and branches of cedar, holly, and other evergreens and pop them into a pot of dirt. I added a bow and reused floral pick. I happened to be out adding "snow" to some pinecones, so I also gave a light dusting of "snow" to my greenery pot. Easy-peasy done.

As you can see, I like projects that give results quickly and without difficulty. These two projects met those objectives handily.

The Menu for Our Tree Decorating Party

Growing up, my mother would decorate the Christmas tree while my siblings and I were at school. We'd  walk into the house one afternoon, surprised to see a fully-decorated tree in the family room.

This may be part my own laziness, but also wanting to share the fun with my family -- we all decorate the tree together. In fact, we make something of a party out of it, complete with party foods and beverages. Like many families, mine likes its "special" foods to be a mix what of what we've had every year and a couple of new items.

This year, I set out cheese and crackers, pot stickers and egg rolls, carrot (our garden carrots) and celery sticks plus dip, homemade peppermint bark, homemade gingerbread men, cocktail sausages, Chex mix, mixed nuts and tangerines. Not pictured -- we enjoy generic cola served in saved (from many, many years ago) glass Coca-cola bottles.

The items I bought specifically for this party were the frozen pot stickers, frozen egg rolls, store-brand lil' smokies, Chex mix, and cola. I had the other foods on hand. Earlier in the day, I made the peppermint bark and gingerbread men. 

Peppermint bark is easy to make. I microwave 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon of Crisco-type shortening in short bursts (20 seconds to start, reducing to 10-15 seconds for final bursts), stirring in between bursts until smooth. I, then spread this thickly on a sheet of waxed paper. Next, I melt about 1/2 cup of vanilla baking chips with 1-2 teaspoons of shortening and 5 or 6 drops of peppermint oil (found in cake and candy supply areas of craft stores), again in short bursts in the microwave, stirring in between bursts. White chocolate is high in sugar and scorches easily, so I uses even shorter bursts for this step. Once white chocolate is melted, I spread this on top of the still soft semi-sweet chocolate. I "decorated" the top of the bark with 2 Starlight peppermint disk hard candies that I had crushed with a hammer between sheets of waxed paper. Once the sheet of bark is made, I chill it in the fridge for an hour, cut into squares and chill for several more hours.

Making the Yule-tide gay; for the time being, our troubles are far away.