Monday Morning Musings

Monday Morning Musings #9

December 16, 2013 /

How was your weekend? Did you do anything spectacular? As for me this weekend held a lot of excitement and fun.  Friday, we ventured to the mountains. Our destination, Dillsboro, North Carolina.

Every year, this little Smoky Mountain foothills community really deck the halls. The store fronts are beautifully decorated with lights, ribbons, and evergreen boughs. What makes it especially nice is, they place hundreds of white bags (weighted with sand) each with a candle along the streets and at dusk with the flicker of each little light transforms Dillsboro into a magical place.

 

Dillsboro hosts their annual luminaries extravaganza the first two weekends (Friday & Saturday nights only) in December. ~image captured with iPhone5s~

 

Saturday we celebrated my 52nd birthday. A few days earlier, we picked up some take-out from Chuy’s Mexican Grill. We watched “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye while we feasted on big-as-your-mouth burritos (ground beef version) topped with creamy jalapeño sauce with green chile rice and a side of charro beans. To cap off the fabulous meal, we had two scoops of Blue Bell ice cream: Peppermint and Rocky Mountain Road. 

Sunday, DH and I made from scratch gingerbread cookies. I did all the mixing of the batter, cut out about three cookies, and the rest I let DH do. This is something he didn’t get to do much of while all the kids were at home. He really enjoyed doing this and was actually quite good at it, too. Decorating the cookies got a bit messy, so DH left that job for me to do, which was okay because I love the creative aspect of cookie making.

image captured with iPhone5s. Look for Gingerbread Cookie recipe at the bottom of post

Please join my NO-RULE Monday Morning Musings link up party below…
Now, it’s time to join a few other bloggers in their weekly kickoff blog hops. First stop leads me to Stasha from The Good Life for Monday Listicles.

 

This week’s prompt is…LIST OF TEN CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
 
  1. Watching Frosty the Snowman on my grandparents’ TV
  2. My parents’ totally retro silver Christmas tree
  3. Heavy snowfalls in the hills of southern West Virginia
  4. Treat bags from my Sunday School teacher
  5. Drawing names in school to exchange Christmas presents
  6. Santa visiting my brother and me in the mid-60s in our house
  7. Eating orange slices and cream drops with my daddy
  8. Smelling the tasty fragrances of Christmas turkey cooking in the wee hours
  9. My brother and I climbing into bed with my parents on a cold Christmas morning
  10. Getting engaged on Christmas Eve 1978

 

Next up, I would like to take you by Heather’s place. She and her husband, Wayne, put together each week FOUR QUESTIONS to borrow and answer on your blog post, and then they give you the option to add a fifth question of your own for your blog visitors to answer in the comment section, along with commenting on the four questions you answered, if they want. If you decide to play along, then don’t forget to grab the MQAM badge for your blog/post from Acting Balanced and be sure to link up for the blog hop fun!

1. What song represents your last week? Joy to the World. This season fills me with unspeakable happiness. First off because Jesus came to this earth to be the ultimate gift to all mankind and secondly the undeniable joyous sense that’s present during the holiday season, which is felt by every person regardless of religious (spiritual) or non-religious affiliations.

2. Have you made your list and checked it twice? Yep, I’ve checked it once and I’ve checked it twice and few other dozen times. Everyone is now checked off!

3. December 16th (Tuesday) is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day… what is your favorite thing to eat covered in chocolate? Oooo, I didn’t know! This gives me a grand excuse to indulge in some chocolate covered cherries. I think I’ll make a batch today!

4. Speaking of songs, what Christmas Carol is following you around this year? That’s an easy one. All I Want for Christmas is You keeps playing over and over in my head!

My question to you this week is…what is your favorite Christmas cookie to make or have each year? 

 

To complete my Monday morning ramblings, I want to skip over to Carissa’s  last installment of:

lowercase letters
 

The heavenly scents from one’s kitchen produces memories for years to come and nothing better than gingerbread is one of the loveliest holiday aromatics. My MIL passed this recipe to me.

Dorothy’s Gingerbread Cookies
¾ c. butter
¾ c. brown sugar
2 ½ -tsp. cinnamon
1 ¼ – tsp. ginger
3 c. flour
1-tsp. salt
3-tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
1 c. molasses
Add just enough buttermilk to hold dough together approx. 2 TBSP
Cream butter, sugar, & molasses together. Incorporate one egg at a time into sugary-butter mix. Add  spices and flour gradually working into mix thoroughly. Turn onto lightly floured surface, kneading a little extra flour into dough, then roll out and cut into desired shapes.
Bake 350° (slightly under) till a little brown (approx.. 12-minutes). Allow cookies to cool completely, and then decorate with the simple cookie icing (see below).
*Omit salt & baking powder, if you use self-rising flour.           
Simple Cookie Icing
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. If desired, divide icing into separate bowls, and add food coloring to each. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush or use cake-decorating bag to create designs on cookies.

Do you like music? Would you like a fun, loving group of loyal bloggers to visit you week after week after week? If you’re nodding your head yes like I think you are, then you’re gonna wanna check out my Monday’s Music Moves Me post and be a part of the dance floor shakin’!

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9 Comments

  • Rory Bore

    December 17, 2013 at 4:53 pm

    We always drive around one night to look at the Christmas lights. The kids are bundled in pjs and blankets and sipping hot cocoa. It’s a nice tradition.

    I have watched White Christmas twice already. love that movie.

    My grandmother always wanted a box of chocolate covered cherries for Christmas. Since we all loved her dearly – she got about 20. LOL But I always think of her, and how happy such a simple thing made her, when I eat them.
    Got the gingerbread cookie recipe!

  • Lisa A

    December 17, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    I love “All I Want For Christmas Is You”! That is such a great song. My favorite cookie to make is walnut/chocolate chip cookies.

  • Suzanne McClendon

    December 17, 2013 at 4:12 am

    I hope that it was a wonderful birthday, Cathy. Your dinner sounded pretty yummy to me. 🙂

    I am glad that you and your hubby had fun making the cookies. David and I have also had fun together in the kitchen. We’ve made a couple of batches of custard together, the first for the banana pudding and the second just because he loves custard so much.

    Have a great week!

  • Cyndi Calhoun

    December 17, 2013 at 3:07 am

    I think it’s absolutely fabulous that you’re not so far away from where I lurk. 😀 And you make me want to put out luminaries even though we’re not going to be here (at our house) for Christmas. 🙂

  • yourfriendrobin

    December 16, 2013 at 9:39 pm

    Wow! I can’t imagine the joy of engagement adding to the already magical Christmas season! Thanks for visiting my listicle. I didn’t mention frosty, but it was one of our yearly classics, too.

  • Kathy McB

    December 16, 2013 at 4:15 pm

    Visiting from Listicles. Boy oh boy…when I was a kid I ALWAYS wanted one of those silver trees. My neighbors had a white one, and before it on the floor sat at multi-colored rotating disc that spun and changed the tree colors. I thought it was magical 🙂

  • Lynn Blaylock

    December 16, 2013 at 3:37 pm

    Happy Birthday! (belated) It sound like a very nice time. I would love to check out Dillsboro, NC. I’ve never heard of it and I’m from North Carolina. Have you ever been to Christmas Town in NC? I enjoy Gatlinburg this time of year and I’m still wanting to bet to the Biltmore Estate for Christmas tours.

    Have a Happy Monday!

    • Curious as a Cathy

      December 16, 2013 at 4:02 pm

      Christmas Town, NC? Nope, I have not heard of this place. I’m gonna check it out pronto. Oh, you gotta go to Biltmore Estates for Christmas – it’s breathtakingly beautiful! We did that one year long, long ago and I would like to do it again. Maybe now that the kids are all out of the house, we can. Thanks for the birthday wishes & for stopping by!

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