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Monday, December 20, 2010

Be Jolly By Golly Blogfest

Stockings all hung in a row!

What a fun way to celebrate!  Thanks to Jen at Unedited and Melissa at Through the Looking Glass for this Christmas Cheer Blogfest.  I have collected a number of wonderful recipes already and the day is only beginning! Stop over at Jen's and Melissa's and catch a glimpse of bloggers beautiful Christmas decorations and discover new holiday recipes.

Husband's Snow Village
Child Number 3 is placing the angel on the "Ring Tree."  This tree travelled with us from Ring, Co Waterford, Ireland.  It has its own special ornaments some of which also travelled from Ring. 
It bears the Children's school and homemade decorations.    

Ring Tree
Firstborn is putting the finishing touches to our second tree.  In previous years this tree took pride of place in the dining room......but our family is expanding so it has been designated to the family room.  I have to say it is looking very much at home in its new corner.
Family Room Tree

Onto food.......
We have a number of traditional Christmas foods. But the fare with rituals or stories attached (some of which will be revealed in next post) are the Christmas Pudding, Trifle and Snowball Cookies.  Snowball cookies were a family affair.  Children donned aprons in the futile attempt to reduce the mess. A large bowl of icing sugar was placed in front of each child to toss and coat the delicate butterballs. These powdered sugar treats were brought out during tree decorating, the exchange of Christmas presents on Christmas Eve and  were the treats left out for Santa.  This recipe is my Mom's given to her by her best friend from our time in Chicago eons ago.  That's as much as I am going to say about that except thank you Mom and Betty Issac for giving us and our children this wonderful fun tradition.
Snowball Cookies
Cream 8 ounces of butter and 1 ounce of icing sugar
Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 Tablespoon of water
8 ounces of sifted flour and mix well
add 2 ounces of nuts (optional)
Form small balls and place in fridge until firm
Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet  in a slow oven.  300*F/150*C for 20 minutes or until golden brown
While hot roll in icing sugar.  Makes 3 dozen.

When dinner is finished and my work is done, I love to sit curled up in front of the fire and sip a creamy topped Irish Coffee.

Irish Coffee
1 tsp of sugar
Powers Irish Whiskey
2/3 cup of coffee

Heavy cream, lightly whipped

Preheat the glass with hot water. Dump the water out and add the hot coffee with the teaspoon of sugar and stir. Add the Power's or any other Irish whiskey you might have, and top with the whipping cream. Pour the cream over the back of a spoon so it doesn't sink.  Dark coffee's are best for this recipe.
Enjoy!!!!

51 comments:

Nicole Zoltack said...

Those cookies sound delicious! This blogfest is going to make me gain so much weight!

Ellie Garratt said...

Happy Christmas to you and your family! I love how they are helping with the decorations.

Snowball cookies? I could make them to go with my favourite festive drink, Snowballs. Thank you!

Be Jolly By Golly

Melissa Sarno said...

Since enjoying the blogfest I have learned that many people have multiple trees. How gorgeous! Your snowball cookies sound delicious :-)

Roxy said...

I love that your husband has a Christmas village. The trees are beautiful! Enjoy the celebration.

Old Kitty said...

Irish coffee!! Oh yum, yum, yum!! Thank you for the recipe!!!

And look at your gorgeous trees and children!! Oh but I do like your husband's snow village!! The first one I've seen in this blogfest!! yay!! Take care
x

Summer Ross said...

beautiful pictures, two trees! thats wonderful!

LTM said...

I love your little snow village! And the stockings and tree look lovely... what a warm, cozy room! Yay, Christmas~ :o)

Merry Christmas to you!

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Oh,my gosh! I'm totally jealous of your ring tree. And those recipes are fabulous!!! :-)

Carol Riggs said...

Gorgeous trees, and how cool that the Ring Tree came from Ireland! Merry Christmas!

Sondrae Bennett said...

Mmm... coffee and alcohol. My two favorite things to drink! Love the decorations! Have a great Christmas!

Candyland said...

Oh I would LOVE to visit Ireland! Beautiful pics and the drink is going on my *get tipsy* list :)

Kimberly Franklin said...

Love your trees! And the little village is so cute. Merry Christmas!

Val B said...

I'm definitely having an Irish Coffee!Snow returns ,airports closed,trucks jack-knifing,
-17 degrees.........remind me again is this really Ireland????????????Enjoy all the happy times the Season brings Ann to you and your family.

Bess Weatherby said...

Going to make some Irish coffee tonight. It sounds wonderful! Merry Christmas!

~ Bess

Golden Eagle said...

I love your decorations! The trees look amazing!

Merry Christmas!

Talei said...

What a lovely tree and I love the sounds of that coffee - yes please!! Have a wonderful Christmas! xx

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

Beautiful trees but my favorite is the snow village. WOW!

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Laura S. said...

These look delightful! Have a very merry Christmas!!!

N. R. Williams said...

I have a snow village too...but it's in boxes since I have no place in our condo at the moment. Love the trees and cookies too.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author

RaShelle Workman said...

Love your hearth! The snowball cookies sound yummy.

Tara said...

I make a version of snowball cookies too, only I flatten them then dip in melted chocolate and roll in crushed candy cane.

Happy Holidays.

Colene Murphy said...

More than one tree is awesome! Especially with them being special! I like it! Very beautiful!! You have some handsome sons too. Look like good guys.

Merry Christmas!!

Christine Danek said...

Wonderful recipes and fabulous traditions. Loved reading about it. Thanks for sharing. Have a wonderful holiday!

Unknown said...

I'm so glad Melissa and I sought this through or I'd be missing some pretty awesome christmas decor! Thanks for the awesome treat ideas!

Denise Covey said...

It is so great to see the different traditions. The recipes are awesome. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Avalon Cat Cartoon said...

I'm from Europe too, so I'm familiar with Irish coffee. Don't you have this drink in Wisconsin?

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Snowball cookies! YUM!!!!

Merry Christmas,
Lyn
W.I.P. It: A Writer's Journey

Shannon said...

Stopping by for the blogfest...

Your mantle looks great and the cookies sound delicious!

-Shannon

DL Hammons said...

You know how to do Christmas right!!! Love it!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :)

The Words Crafter said...

I think I may want to begin a snow village. We have a mantel for the first time and that's a place my little kitty doesn't go....

Love the two trees :)

Renae said...

What great decorations and the recipes sound wonderful!

Kelley said...

Both trees are lovely :) and that village is spectacular. Happy holidays!
~Kelley

Jemi Fraser said...

Love your pics and I have to make those snowball cookies!! :)

Anonymous said...

Your trees are beautiful! Those cookies are yummy! Now I need to get some of them made.

Natasha said...

I just have to try those snowball cookies. They look good enough to eat!

And both your trees are gorgeous.

Merry Christmas, Ann.

Brenda Drake said...

What lovely trees and boys you have. The village is so cute. The Irish coffee brought memories of my Irish grandmother-she loved it so. Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas! :D

Donea Lee said...

Hello Ann! I love that you have a travelling tree! I'd so love to go to Ireland someday (soon, preferably!) Your snowball cookie recipe sounds a little different than mine - I'll have to try it out and taste test! :) Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Jennie Bailey said...

I feel really ashamed that I don't even have ONE tree when you have TWO! That's so amazing. I love the Snow Village as well. I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Brigid O'Connor said...

Lovely, Ann, I am very impressed by the Snow Village, does it have a miniature snow blower?
I love your recipes, I am going to print off the snowball cookies one and let the kids try it. Your trees are fab and even better, glad to see all your kids coming home for Christmas. Have a wonderful one. Bx

Jayne said...

Oh I love those stockings hung up on the mantlepiece! And two trees - I am very impressed (also with the lovely snow village!)

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Ann said...

I made the mistake of informing Husband of all the lovely comments about his Snow Village! A monster has been unleashed. Plans are being made for a bigger more improved Village. Bloggie friends you have a lot to answer for! LOL!!!

Lisa Potts said...

Mmmm, both of your recipes look wonderful and festive. It is nice when the kids are tall enough to help with those decorations at the top of the tree, isn't it?

Theresa Milstein said...

What interests me most about this blogfest is how many people have more than one tree, even if the other ones are small.

I like that you included a recipe for Irish coffee.

Unknown said...

The picture of the Irish coffee has my taste buds working overtime. The trees, including one inspired by your time in Ireland, are very beautiful.
Merry Christmas to you.

Michael Di Gesu said...

What a fantastic heirloom tree. All the way from Ireland, that's incredible. It will be in the family for generations.

So cool to have a second tree. I live in a condo and only have room for one. Hopefully someday I'll have a house to be able to have room for a second.

Irish coffee is THE BEST!

Happy Christmas to you and your family.

Michael

Meredith said...

The cookies and Irish coffee sound amazing! I can't wait to try them :)

alexia said...

Great pics and heck yeah to some Irish whiskey! Merry Christmas!

Tracy said...

Hi Ann, making the rounds still this week to check out my fellow Blogfesterers. I'm glad I made it to yours, because I'm definitely going to have to try some of that Irish coffee! ;o)

Merry Christmas to you and your brood!

Susannah said...

Ann, I have just made your snowball cookies and they are delicious!

Thanks for sharing the recipe!

Ann said...

Yay! Susannah! Glad you liked them. Hope you and yours had as much making them as mine always did!!!!!!

Melissa said...

Your decorations look great! The village is my favorite. I have a thing for little villages.

Thank you so much for participating in our blog fest!

Merry Christmas!