Santa was here!!

Santa was here!  I wasn't home or I would have offered him a cookie, but he left my package from Jenny Morris in Australia just the same.  Good ol' guy that he is.

 Aren't these the cutest faces?  I love these little ornaments.  They are hanging on the tree getting acquainted with the rest of their new tree-mates.

 This is my package.  I can't open it till Christmas but nobody said anything about not squeezing.

 These are amazing little snow globe looking ornaments.  They are in my kitchen, in the window so they really look shiny.  Very, very cool!

And how did Jenny know I love birds AND make them?  She sent this birds of Australia calendar!

Gosh, thank you, Jenny!!!  What treats!  What fun to open on a cold, cold Michigan winter day!!!

 This is our tree this year.  See the red ropy garland I was working on?   I finished two balls of yarn making it and it fits perfectly.  I love that it looks so deeply red.  We don't custom decorate our trees.  They look a little like kid trees,  the branches hold dangly found objects.  There's an orphan mitten in there,  spoons, forks, little tea cups, candy canes, silver drinking cups, lids, old hand carved wooden bottle stoppers, homemade ornaments.  It looks like a crow decorated it.  Crows like sparkle and bright colors and will bring found objects to their nests and as something catches my eye I put a ribbon around it and hang it on the tree.

 I tuck pictures of the grandkids in the branches.  Most are from the past year, but their Santa visit pictures are there,  the photo Christmas cards are there, birthday party invitations,  etc.  I love seeing their little faces in the lights.

 This is a project. A messy chocolate project. They are peanut butter pillows.  I got a sort of recipe from the chef at our retreat house.  She is generous about sharing if I ask about a dish.  This one was part of a conversation that started with my peppermint patties.

 This is truly what I had to go on for a recipe.  I scribbled as she talked.  But I cook this way anyway so it wasn't a problem.

 You mix crushed dry roasted peanuts with enough peanut butter to make a thick paste that will sit on a Wheat Thins cracker.  Melt chocolate...some dark, some semi-sweet, some milk chocolate all combined. If you can see the recipe you will see there's no sugar.  Just peanuts, peanut butter on a cracker dipped in chocolate.  Dive the piece in, dig it out, make a mess, put it on a parchment covered cookie sheet, I stick it in the freeze to set them quickly then into a tin to live on the cold back porch with the peppermint patty tin.  Chef Sharon said I needed a gadget to dunk them with but I didn't.  I don't like cluttering with gadgets I never use after they come home.  I just settled them into the chocolate on a fork and brought them back up.  It worked.

If you like chocolate and peanut butter and crunch you'll love these.  Oh, yeah.