Dreaming of a White Christmas...

It rarely snows in our corner of Coffeeland.
Maybe once or twice in late Jan./Feb.
We shouldn't have been startled after last May's surprise snow but the kids were delighted by our first pre-Christmas snow in 10 yrs.
The first flurries only stuck for a few hours- just enough for a tiny snowman.
But the temp dropped and we may have snow for a week!
Happy kids but the black ice is terrible and we are glad daddy is not working for the next few days.

Gluten Free Lucia Pepparkakor and Lussekatter

Gluten Free Pepparkakor
This recipe as always is a work in progress.

1/3 cup shortening (I use ½ regular butter & ½ Spectrum palm oil shortening)
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar ( I use a Sugar /Xylitol blend)
1 egg
1/3 cup molasses
1/3 cup orange juice mixed with 2 Tbs. orange marmalade.

1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 cup tapioca flour

½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda

In a heavy mixer, cream together shortening and sugars. Beat in egg, molasses, and juice mixture.
Add in spices then baking soda then flours.
Mix thoroughly scraping down sides/ bottom of bowl.
Dough will be moist and soft, but will not be drippy.
Spoon onto parchment paper and using wet hands form a log.
Wrap the paper tightly around the dough. Refrigerate at least overnight 1-2 days is better.
Do not try work dough until it is cold and very stiff- It will be too sticky.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Use only a portion of the dough at a time keeping the rest cold.
Pinch off a ½ Tb. sized piece and roll into a ball. Dip it in sugar and press with a glass or oiled cookie stamp.
You can also roll out and use cutters on floured parchment paper- about ¼ inch thick are best.
Place cookies on lightly greased parchment paper on cookie sheet and bake 8 minutes.
Enjoy.

Gluten Free Lussekatter

I fell back on my stand by of Pamela's Bread Mix for this recipe.

1 bag Pamela's Wheat-Free Bread Mix
1 yeast packet (included in mix)
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
3 eggs
3/4 cup warm water
1/3 cup orange marmalade or 2 tsp saffron (in my family 2 like it one way-one the other, only mommy likes both!)
currents (or raisins)

Pour all liquids into a heavy mixer, add bread mix, sugar and yeast and beat for three minutes on high.
On low mix in Marmalade until swirled through (if using saffron add with liquids).

Scoop dough into a pastry bag or into a heavy zip lock bag with the corner cut off.
Pipe into your favorite shapes onto a lightly greased parchment lined cookie sheet.
(Or just scoop balls of dough into greased muffin tins)
Add currents to buns and let rise 1 hour.
Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

You can use and egg wash before baking or brush with melted butter after as well.

Btw the book peeking in the corner of the photo is "Lucia Morning in Sweden" by Ewa Rydåker.
It is one of our favorites.

Sankta Lucia Day!

Happy Lucia day! Here our some quick snapshots of our morning:


Hearts hanging from our wreath...

A little attendant and star boys to accompany St. Lucia...

Clothes laid out and waiting...

our song waiting on the chalkboard...

I will try and get our gluten free Pepparkakor and Lussekatter recipes posted when Blue Eyes naps!

Immaculate Conception/Christ Candle

I have been eyeing all the lovely Christ/Marian candles the last few Advents.
Unfortunately my experiences with decorating and carving pillars have left me with lots of band-aids and ruined candles.

We found this votive holder on sale at our local craft store. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, we choose the smallest.

I filled the beaker with some inexpensive blue and white freshwater pearl beads from the sale rack and added a white votive.
The beaker slips out to put the Mary figure from our paper doll Nativity set.
Some white and blue ribbon and finished with nary a paper cut!

I will place it on our family Atrium/Altar on the 8th for the feast of the Immaculate Conception to light during our family rosaries the rest of Advent.

Come Christmas I will swap out the blue for Gold and add the Christ Child.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

St. Nick visited us last night.
We received a lovely assortment of tiny clementines, chocolates, and honey sticks (crosiers) and the obligatory warning onion.
We quite enjoyed the gluten free chocolate Bishop he managed to find.
And the dc liked their new book The Gift from Saint Nicholas by Lachner.



Even though we couldn't find our candle holder we like having a hanging wreath to much to skip it.
St. Nick took full advantage of it with tasty candy canes.

The table was set with a real tablecloth for breakfast!


And he dug our stockings out of storage so we could collect manger straw the next 3 weeks.

St Barbara's Day.

We begged a few cherry twigs from the neighbor's tree.
We will see if they bloom by Christmas

They are covered with buds so we are hopeful.

Waiting Nativity.

We went for a nature walk and gathered things to set up our waiting Nativity scene.
The neighbors love the dc because they keep the moss stripped from the steps and sidewalk all winter long.

December chalkboards...

December Garden

I have been feeling well enough to clean off all the fall decorations from the porch.
No more drooping mums and squisy goards.
We cut back all the mums and herbs to the ground to grow back next year and set most of them on the back porch..
And went on several nature walks to collect pinecones to fill up our pots.
The cones will stay until spring replanting and we raided the cedar for a quiet wreath that we will perk up on Christmas eve.

December Shelves

Another idea from the 4 real boards. We wrapped up our Advent/Christmas books and the kids open one a day.
The ones for special days are wrapped in purple cellophane with a silver star label- i.e. our new St. Nick book has a star that says to open on the 6th. The others are just wrapped in purple tissue.

Blue Eyes shelf got mucked out and now is simply filled with a basket of bells, one of bows and a soft Nativity set.
A big relief from the Indian corn that got chewed and scattered all through November.

It is begining to look a lot like Advent...

After sitting on my desk for almost a year our brass advent candle ring has gone missing.
We borrowed a toy basket for a last minute candle holder.

Here is our word to think about for the first week of Advent.
Several moms gave me some great ideas for "advent phrases"on the 4real board.



The kids usually create some kind of giant Advent wreath for the front windows to offset the glaring twinkly displays that have been on our street since before Thanksgiving.
This year dd used some tissue paper and the mini laminator.