Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Is It Christmas Yet? Part VI - Party Etiquette

Happy (just past) Tuesday everyone, and Merry Christmas! You're going to a party! Or invited others to your party. ;) The more I began thinking about Christmas parties, the more I began wondering... Should I bring a white elephant gift? Food? Cookies? How to dress? Furthermore, what sort of activities to expect? Should I eat before the party? Accck! Before you know it, your in the car with a half wrapped hammer, a plate of stale apple slices, a green shirt, and a coat.
....Okay, deep breath! Christmas parties are meant to be fun, not overwhelming! First, we'll deal with going to someone else's party, then tackle the host part.

Christmas Party number 1!!!!
As the Bunnies pointed out, often more than one Christmas party happens over the holidays. I have created a quick check-list to go over before leaving the house. Ideally, check this list about 1 day prior to the party.
1. Who will be there? Is this family, estranged relatives, or a work party?
2. Will they be serving dinner, hors devours, snacks?
3. Politely ask the host (or invitee) if they would like you to bring anything. They may say no, but they will appreciate the gesture.
4. Check for any expected group activity like a gift exchange or Caroling. Be thoughtful, but don't go overboard on a white elephant gift. Most of the time, this can be something laying around the house. Just don't pull a Humphry the Elephant). If Caroling is on the menu, bring a warm jacket.
5. Dress appropriately. Is this a family gathering? Black tie formal work party? In most cases, a comfortable pair of jeans and nice shirt will suffice just fine. :) You're "artfully" ripped jeans (or Tripp Pants) in the bottom drawer may not be quite up to par though.
6. Think about a small easy-to-learn game you may want to bring with you. If I think ahead, I usually bring some dice or a deck of cards. This way I can play easy quick group games if the party lags (or if there are bored kids there). Some of these games can include:
Cards:
War (2 player)
13, or Liar Liar
Poker (2-8 player, usually needs chips though)
Go Fish (2-5 player)
Dice:
10,000 (2-8 player) (my personal favorite)
Low man
Yahtzee
Zombie Dice (you actually have to buy this one, but it's great, fun and easy to learn! about 12$ at target).
**Feel free to ask about rules for any of the above, and I can write up a quick rule sheet!!

Christmas Party number 2!!!!
Okay, you've survived your trip to your Aunt's, or relatives. Uh oh! Now they are all coming to your place! What to do? Don't panic. :)
a. Is this a dinner party, or just a games party? Either one is fun and enjoyable, but make sure your guests know ahead of time so they can plan accordingly.
1. Feel free to ask each guest to bring a side (potluck style) or dessert or drink to your party. By making this a request not a demand, guests can feel free to just bring themselves, or bring along something. Even if only half your guests bring things, it can save you quite a lot of time and effort.
2. Decide on your main course, and any side dishes you may want to have out for guests. Plan around a meal that is not too messy, easy to cook and clean, and easy to make more in case extra guests arrive. Common ideas include Ham, (or main dish of meat) hot dogs and hamburgers, spaghetti, etc.
3. Clean up before hand if possible. Empty all your trash cans, wash all your dishes, have an empty dishwasher available for guests to rinse and stack their plates.*
4. Have some decorations, and maybe some calm instrumental background music for guests to enjoy.
5. Pick up plastic cups for larger groups. Have a sharpie handy for guests to label their cups. Otherwise, I often have around 10-20 glasses all over the house because people (including me) forget which glass is mine, and just grab a new one.
6. Have some game/movie/activity planned. Around the holidays I recommend white elephant, or a Christmas movie, or games, or light looking/walking.

*My guests are usually family and close friends, so I have no problem asking them to "bus" their own dishes. However, if you'd rather not worry about that, just have them place them in the sink, and move them to the dishwasher later.

Christmas Party number ...!!!!!
You never know how many parties there may be! I've stashed some of my holiday baking away to take to a party here or there, and generally try to stay caught up with household chores that way I can be ready for the un-expected. ;)

Enjoy!
-Sheepdog-

Only 2-3 posts until Christmas. :) Feel free to leave any thoughts for topic ideas!!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Is It Christmas Yet? Part V

Merry Christmas eve^16 Everybody! What with the wet Pacific weather, our holiday celebrating has moved indoors. The lights are twinkling, presents are being wrapped, and lists are being finished. There's just one thing missing. The bunnies brought me a signed petition stating they would go on strike if I didn't start making Holiday treats. :P Here's a copy of their petition:

We Want Treats!
Also titled:
Our blood sugar is getting low, and we demand holiday treats of every shape, smell and kind!

We, the undersigned bunnies of apartment 7 do hereby petition Sheepdog to allow us into the kitchen and begin holiday baking. There are insufficient snack-ables to tide us over until Christmas* and we propose at least 3 batches of holiday treats. We have enclosed a list of our preference of treats, along with a list of acceptable alternatives.

We demand at least one baked batch by midnight tonight, and a minimum of 2 batches by the weekend. If these demands are not met, or a suitable compromise not reached, we propose to go on strike for 2-5 days. A bunny strike includes but is not limited to: 1) we will no longer throw crazy dance parties, 2) we will refuse to babysit Gizmo and the mice, 3) we will no longer “fetch” the remote for Pegasus, 4) we will stop making coffee in the morning, and 5) we will stop jumping on the bed in the morning to wake you up for your morning walk.

List of preferable Treats:
Fudge
Candy Cane Cookies
Peanut Butter Balls
Russian Teacakes

List of Acceptable Treats:
Snickerdoodles
Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
Fudge (with walnuts)
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pie

Signatures:
Blue Bunny     Blue Bunny
Gray Bunny      Gray Bunny
Brown Bunny  Brown Bunny

Hmm, well their demands seem quite *snicker* umm, *chortle* serious indeed! We shall have to get baking this evening! I know I have all the ingredients for fudge, and I believe we can make the Russian Teacakes as well. What's that? Recipes? Ah, great question! Baking treats is actually quite fun, and petition aside, I am excited! Of course my fur gets a little sticky making the fudge, but it's still fun! So straight to it! I shall list 3 recipes, Candy Cane cookies, Peanut butter balls, and Russian Teacakes. The fudge recipe I usually use is printed on the back of those jars of marshmallow cream. You can thank Otter for these. :D

Candy Cane Cookies
½ c. soft butter
½ c. shortening
1 c. powdered sugar
1 egg
½ tsp. red food coloring
1 ½ tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla
2 ½ c. flour
1 tsp. salt
Directions
Mix butter, shortening, sugar, egg and flavorings. Blend in flour and salt. Divide dough in half, blend food coloring into one half. Shape 1 tsp. dough from each half into a 4” rope, one rope of each color. Hold side by side and twist. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, curve top of cookie down to form candy cane. Bake at 375 for 9 min. until set and very light brown.

Peanut Bon Bons
2 cups peanut butter
½ cup butter
4 ½ cup powdered sugar (1 #)
3 cups crisp rice cereal
12 oz. chocolate chips
12 oz. butterscotch chips
Directions
In saucepan, melt peanut butter and butter. In bowl, combine powdered sugar and cereal, pour peanut butter mixture over cereal. Blend together with hands. Form into 1/2” balls and chill until firm. Melt chips. Dip half the candies in each type of melted chips. Place on wax paper lined baking sheet. Chill. Makes 100. (really!) I tend to cut the whole recipe in half, and only use 1 bag (either chocolate or butterscotch to make things easier). 

Russian Teacakes
Hmm, the recipe seems to have gone missing, I will update this when I can find it. *sheepish grin*


Well, that's all for now! Enjoy cooking! 

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Is It Christmas Yet? Part IV - Christmas Activities

Good Evening All,
*Looks Around* Well, things around here are starting to to feel very Christmasy! We have the decorations up, put up our Christmas Tree, have a small pile of presents from shopping and crafting! Is it Christmas yet? No. Hmm, well it's time for all those activities that there never seems to be time for. :D This is why I wanted to start early, so the season didn't feel as rushed. We have a special guest today to list all of her favorite Christmas Activities. Give a hearty paw-clap to Scurry the Mouse!

Thank you, Sheepdog. Well, as I am normally an anti-social creature, I like to do as much of my Chirstmasing from my humble hole in the wall as possible. This year, however, my many relatives have decided that going out in the throng of other animal-kind would be fun! Most of my presents this year have been purchased. I am always in favor of creating my own presents though. Two such presents will be paintings, though I will not mention which family members they are for, since they may be reading.
I have had very few Christmases that haven't had some sort of party. Normally we like to have white elephant exchanges, which is quite amusing when you are a mouse, because elephants are always white when they see you! Why is it called a white elephant anyway, Sheepdog?

Ah, yes, harumph! The tradition began with an old white elephant with the name of Humphrey. He was a clutter collector, he collected it from anyplace he could get his trunk into. Humorously enough, most of the places he collected these items from were from car trunks. Most of it was useless but often had one redeeming feature, it might be useful to someone with hands. He was invited to the king of Siam's palace for a lavish Christmas party one year. It is a custom to present the king with a gift, unfortunately he had forgotten to bring a gift, so he went to the lot and rummaged through the trunks of the guests automobiles. Finally he retrieved a porcelain elephant and a bike horn. The king passed these gifts off to his wife, who had them stolen from her by her visiting nephew. The king and his guests were so amused by this, that they decided that it must become a tradition from that point on.

Oh... Well, thank you for that enlightening explanation. So, yes, we have gift exchanges, and have some sort of delicious dessert. I love desserts! We have things like candy cane cookies, pies...

Excuse me, Scurry, but I will be featuring a baking post sometime in the future, so no need to go into detail.

Sorry. One year we had a gingerbread house contest! Which, if you think about it, is both a Christmas craft, and dessert. I lived in mine until I ate it. When I was a young mouse I gathered with the church mice and we sang carols for the mice who could no longer poke their noses out of their holes. After we would have hot drinks to warm ourselves: hot apple cider, hot cocoa, and some even had eggnog, which is actually a cold drink. Ah, to be a young mouse again... curling up in the Christmas tree on Christmas night with my siblings and cousins, with the lights twinkling around us! Nibbling holes in the boxes to find out what the humans had gotten each other. Ice skating with the church mice and my family! I can't wait for Christmas! I must scurry off and do some of these things Hurry, hurry Sheepdog! Let's go find some crafts to do! Oh, Alvin and the Chipmunks!



Thank you Scurry! Well, there you have it! Feel free to add your own favorite Christmas Activity below. I for one, would love to visit the Zoo lights this year. Last year, I made a pilgrimage to the Grotto, a catholic church estate filled with Christmas decorations, and lit up with over 10,000 lights! Until next time!

Always,
-Sheepdog-

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Is It Christmas Yet? Part III - Holiday Decorating

Holiday Decorating
I love decorating. There is no way around it. Every year, the bunnies and I end up decorating our modest apartment, and typically at least 1 other dwelling (Otter's cabin). Last night we pulled the boxes out of our storage shed and began setting things up. I like to think about decorating in 3 stages: the inside, the outside, and of course, the Christmas Tree. Here are some notes I've made on each of these:

The Inside:
Decorations can be anything really. Wrapped boxes, picture frames, pot-holders, tablecloth, Christmas blankets, you get the idea. Our first tree in college was decorated with pipe cleaner ornaments and candy canes with 1 strand of lights adorning it. We even tried to make popcorn strings but found that was much harder than it looks! I've kept an eye out for small decorations, and lights at garage sales over the years. We now have a few tins, more strands of lights, some Christmas books, and a wreath. Aside from garage sales, I like to peruse thrift stores, Goodwill, and the dollar tree. Or, try asking any relatives for Christmas decorations.
This year we tried something new, a snow scene. We used a piece of snow cloth, and added some fake trees and a few stuffed animals to create a Narnia-like snowscape. We even added a lamppost to the center! On our desk, we set out a checkered red and green cloth (Old tablecloth I think) and set up a clock, a nutcracker and some wrapped boxes. Tada! instant Nutcracker scene. Some well-placed garland from the dollar tree went up above the kitchen, along with a strand of lights and a few tins.

The Outside:
I was lucky enough one year to come across an entire box of lights at a garage sale for a quarter. Often people buy new lights each year and don't want to fix/store their old ones. Pick these up, spend some time fixing the lights and bobs your uncle! You also don't need enough lights for the martians to see  your house (unless your Calvin that is). Decorate the front porch, or a railing, and hook your lights up to the porch light with a doohickey. http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-1403-Outlet-Socket-Adapter/dp/B001F71O70/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449015735&sr=8-1&keywords=light+socket+to+plug+adapter
This way, you can turn on your porch light to light up the outside! Remember, in general you only want 4 or so sets of Christmas lights daisy-chained together before breaking out another extension cord.
*Pro-tip: Anytime I see an extension cord, either 2-prong or 3-prong at a garage sale for a couple dollars I pick it up. You can never really have too many extension cords.

The Tree:
One tradition I really like is picking up a couple of new ornaments each year to add to the tree. This way there is a nice blend of older and newer ornaments. Some folks prefer a tree to have a theme (all gold ornaments or only globes). This is fine, but for some reason I like having all sorts of ornaments on the tree. It's also easier to pick up or make new ornaments as I don't have a theme I have to match. Quilling and oragami ornaments can be really beautiful! As for lights, I typically run one strand of white lights up and down the trunk, and 2-3 strands around the tree. The trunk lights help illuminate the ornaments, and give the tree more depth. Oh! And we have an angel adorning the tip top. :)
Tree's can be expensive. If you live out in the woods, or close to tree farms, see if there is a grower nearby where you can pick out your tree directly. They are usually cheaper this way, and you get a much nicer selection. It can also be worth asking a tree lot or tree farm for a "charlie brown tree". You know the one, the sad little tree who just didn't hit his growth spurt or has some missing branches on one side. They may just drop the price on it or give it away free!
*Pro-tip: Bring a long a pocket knife and some gloves. Often times tree places have plenty of twine, but not enough knives to go around. Having your own can be a huge help!

Well, that's all for now. See you all later, and enjoy your decorating!
Woof,
Sheepdog