Turkey Day

It is nearly Thanksgiving and for many, if not all of us, the holiday will be different this year. Our usual large group is about 13 or 16 is breaking into 3 smaller groups. Such is the pandemic 2020 Thanksgiving. It will be different and I could be sad if I thought about it. However, I am just focusing on all of us being here to do it the traditional way next year. No one in the hospital. No one on a ventilator. That is the goal. We will video chat with each other and I am sure there will be shenanigans!

If you have a way of celebrating pandemic style please drop it in the comments. I want to see how everyone is doing it.

Recipe

The one recipe I am sharing is a cut out cookie recipe I have had for 45 years. A friend of mine when we lived in Dover, Delaware gave me the recipe and told me it came from a Tupperware party she had. It has served me well for all these years and I hope you will try it. If you do, please let me know what you think. I always triple the batch for our crowd and I have frosted them in many ways. You can use your preferred method for that.

Sugar Cookies

1 -1/2 cups sifted confection’s (powdered) sugar

1 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 -1/2 cups of flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. almond flavoring

1 tsp. baking soda.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream sugar and butter. Add the egg and flavorings and mix thoroughly. Sift dry ingredients together and slowly add to the sugar mixture until all is blended nicely.

Divide the dough in half and roll out on a lightly floured board to your desired thickness (about 1/4 inch). Place on lightly greased baking sheet or parchment paper. Bake for 7-8 minutes. Check at 5-6 minutes to see progress. Cool on a cooling rack. These may be frozen and then iced later when you need them or you can ice when cool and store in a sealed container.

Enjoy!

Hacks

I have been picking up my groceries (and various sundries) at Walmart. They are no longer using plastic bags and have to bag my groceries with my own bags as they load them in the trunk. I always feel bad about them doing all that but due to Covid they don’t want you out of your car helping. I have decided to try a new method. I bought 3 economical laundry baskets for my trunk. That way all they have to do is put the items right in the baskets and I can bring them in more easily as well. I am going to ask them to distribute the weight if possible.

I always have a problem with cords for different electric devices. I have 3 methods to keep them separated and untangled. Which method I use depends on the size of the cord when wound up. How do you store your cords?

Do you throw change in one of your cupholders in the car so that you have it right there when you need it? Many people do but it can be a pain to get the last few coins out or to get them out to clean. A simple solution is to put a silicone baking cup in the cupholder. That way all you have to do is lift it out. Genius, right?! The set of 18 below can be purchased from Amazon for $6,99.

Have you ever driven someone else’s car or gotten a new car and needed to buy gas? That moment when you realize that you don’t know which side to pull up to the pump hits you. I learned recently, thanks to HuffPost how to instantly tell. There is a gas pump image on your gas gauge and an arrow by it that points to which side your tank is on. Easy, right? I guess at least I know now.

Now here’s one that you will thank me for! When bringing home take out food turn on your heated seat to keep your food toasty until you get home.

Craftiness

I am crafting more than I am doing anything else, it appears. I do hear my house calling me to clean.

Gnomes seem to be all the think this year! I attempted to make a couple. The one above I used a marshmallow fluff container with some marbles in for weight as the base. I then covered that with a sock I bought at Dollar Tree. I had a mop head in the basement and I tore it apart so that I had individual strands. I used hot glue to glue the strands all the way around the container. Then I placed a hat on him that I had from a visit to Punxsutawney and added a wooden ball for his nose. I think he turned out fine and he will be part of my Winter decor since he is not specifically Christmas.

My next effort was a gnome tree topper. I have a pink Christmas tree and I think this gnome angel will be just the ticket. I started out with a soup can and padded it with felted wool I had in my craft closet. After I hot glued that around the outside of the can I covered it all with a white sock from Dollar Tree. The opening of the sock was tucked into the open end of the can. When placed on the tree I may need some padding on the inside to hold him properly on top. I then used another mop head which I purchased at Dollar Tree and took a part. I hot glued the strands around the can and made them a little thicker in front. I found a white infant’s had and placed it jauntily on the top. I painted the wooden bead pink in this case to tie it into the color of the tree. For the wings I used craft foam cut in the shape of wings. I glue them to the back of the gnome and then glued white feathers I purchased from Amazon onto the wings. Viola!! I kind of like him!

I got together this past week with two friends for visiting, lunching and crafting. It was an excellent experience! We each made a snowman from splatter screens purchased at, you guessed it, Dollar Tree. We each painted our splatter screens white ahead of time. Using floral wire I overlapped and attached two screens together. I did this at the top and the bottom. I then put the third screen on for the face of the snowman using floral wire, again, and overlapping slightly. I attached the screen at the left and right bottom. My friend had, thoughtfully, spray painted some straw hats black. It seemed like for mine that a half hat would do the trick so it was easy enough to cut. The hat was decorated with ribbon and a floral pick and then glued onto the snowman’s head. For the eyes I used buttons and for the nose I cut one out of a rusty orange piece of felt. I have been making t-shirt yarn and I had some red so that was glued on to make a mouth. Now, for the body. I glued 3 buttons down the front and used a piece of an old scarf for the neck. I embellished the scarf with a snowflake and a poinsettia. In my yard sticks abound and were put into action as the arms. He’s pretty cute. I haven’t decided if I will hang him or put him on a stand.

Have a wonderful holiday! I will post again before Christmas. Hope something was useful for you.