Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Online Advent Calendar

 
Dasher by Mirabilia

Welcome, welcome! For those of you that have never been here before, I'm glad to have you! And for my regular readers, in case you don't know what's going on, I'm participating in Jo's annual Advent calendar blog hop. Click on that link and you can enjoy previous days and wait around for days to come!

Now stop dashing around for just a little while (see what I did there?) and let's hang out and talk about...COOKIES!!

Jo asked us to talk about festive foods we enjoy. Well, for me, Christmas means cookies. Ever since college, I have made at least six or seven varieties each year. It all started with one Christmas cookies cookbook (from Better Homes and Gardens) that came as a freebie with some other book my mom ordered. I confiscated it and started out trying new cookies each year. As time went on, though, my family started DEMANDING barring the door if I showed up without requesting certain cookies, so now there are three favorites that get made every year: Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread cookies (recipe here...they're the bottom right cookies in the picture above), Eggnog Thumbprints (above the gingerbread...this recipe is close, and you can substitute milk + rum extract for the rum), and Buried Cherry cookies (here, which my family continually amuses me by pronouncing "burrrried churrries"). Yeah...these:
NOM.

I really do enjoy trying new cookies, though. This was a fun one...
 
A Dutch Stroopwafel, filled with caramel. You set it on top of your teacup (or coffee mug, if you're into that sort of thing) to melt the caramel before munching and dunking away!

Each year I give away some cookies to a select few who really appreciate them.
 
One year I gave some to a friend and never heard a thing from him. I finally asked, "Did you enjoy the cookies?" His response was, "Oh, yeah, they were good." He was off the list!

This year I joined the Cookie A Sock Club, and in addition to two beautiful patterns and an oh-so-squishable skein of sock yarn every two months, I also get two cookie recipes.
 
I've tried a lot of new things this year thanks to the club, and I've baked a lot more, so maybe in the future it won't seem so onerous to "only" try three or four new cookies at Christmas.

If you have read this far (whether or not you had to get up and take a cookie break), CONGRATULATIONS!! You're entitled to a giveaway! I went a little nuts on Black Friday ordering Kindle books, and I ended up getting a few special offers as a result. Since I'd already gotten a lot of new books, I wasn't that interested in getting more, so I thought I'd share with you guys! Even if you don't have a Kindle, you can use the free Kindle app on almost any device, or you can read online. So if you'd like one of these books, leave a comment on this post (you don't need to tell me which book you'd like now). Here's the list:
Fiction books
Mystery books
Science Fiction books
Young Adult books

I'll pick some winners on Boxing Day (the 26th). I *think* I can gift the books even if you're not in the US, but if that turns out not to be true, I'll substitute something else. =) If you win, you'll need to get your email address to me before the 31st.

Thanks for joining me, and I hope you all have a blessed Christmas filled with fun, friends and family...and COOKIES!

15 comments:

gracie said...

Dasher is beautiful and those cookies....yum!

Anonymous said...

Hello Heather,
I love your Dasher by Mirabilia finish! So colorful and they beads give it lots of bling!

OH My! look at all those delicious cookies..ummm who would be like "oh yeah they were good?" They would be off my list too! :)

They all look sooo good! Please put my name in the draw for a kindle book..My husband purchased me a kindle fire for Christmas! Love it!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

p.s. I am new to your blog and adding you to my reading list!

Anonymous said...

oops...forgot to leave my email address...

canbnyes@gmail.com

Brenda said...

Ohh your cookies look sooo yummy!!!!!

I love your Dasher finish too. Just simply beautiful!!!

I've added you to my blog list as well since I'm a new follower!

Please enter me into your contest.

Marsha said...

I did actually take a cookie break, he, he. Yours look scrumptious.

Val said...

I had a total sniffle moment reading this post. And at work too. My parents moved to another province this year, a 10 hour drive away. This is the first year I haven't had thumbprint cookies. She was less on the eggnog, and more on the rum.

Astrids dragon said...

Dasher is awesome, great job!

I just made some thumbprint cookies, but might just have to give yours a try. Thanks for sharing!

♥ Nia said...

Dasher looks gorgeous!! :D

Shebafudge said...

Oh yeah, they were good? I wouldn't be talking to them let alone sending cookies. Send them this way I will appreciate them!! Dasher is absolutely gorgeous!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Thanks for taking part. I love Dasher the reindeer and cookies are always good!

But only for appreciative people like me :-)

EvalinaMaria said...

Dasher is awesome! I do not know what I admire more: the ornament or cookies? Love them all.
Is Cookie A Sock Club an on-line club? May I have a link?

Melanie said...

I just happen to be munching on Walker's shortbread cookies while reading this. Which is good because if I hadn't been doing it I would have had to go GET some to munch on after seeing all this cookie goodness. NOM.

p.s. Just love love Dasher!

Maggee said...

I haven't made cookies yet, so this blogpost is very timely! Thanks for the recipes! The Dasher ornament is so pretty--the beads just make it pop! So typical of her pieces! Great post! Thanks for sharing! Merry Christmas!

Gillie said...

Just want to say *I* would have appreciated the cookies and thanked you prettily too...... Thank you for the recipes and would love a chance at the fiction drawing! Happy Christmas, Heather!

Basia said...

I found Dasher :) Looks great on lighter linen :) Are you planning to stitch all of them?

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